cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Generating Channel Ids in Virtual World Operating Systems (Transcript of Discussion)

This is Michael Roe’s work, but Mike has kindly asked me to present it so that I can be here today, and so that he can also present some different work tomorrow. You can ask questions, and check how well I understand the discussions we’ve mostly had by the coffee machine over the last years.
A Comprehensive Orbit Reconstruction for the Galileo Prime Mission in the J2000 System

The Galileo spacecraft arrived at Jupiter in December of 1995 to begin an orbital tour of the Jovian system. The objective of the tour was up close study of the planet, its satellites, and its magnetosphere. The spacecraft completed its 11 orbit prime mission in November of 1997 having had 16 successful close encounters with the Galilean satellites (including two prior to Jupiter orbit insertion). Galileo continues to operate and will have made an additional 10 orbits of Jupiter by the date of this Conference. Earlier papers discuss the determination of the spacecraft orbit in support of mission operations from arrival at Jupiter through the first 9 orbits. In this paper we re-examine those earlier orbits and extend the analysis through orbit 12, the first orbit of the Galileo Europa Mission (GEM). The objective of our work is the reconstruction of the spacecraft trajectory together with the development of a consistent set of ephemerides for the Galilean satellites. As a necessary byproduct of the reconstruction we determine improved values for the Jovian system gravitational parameters and for the Jupiter pole orientation angles. Our preliminary analyses have already led to many of the results reported in the scientific literature. Unlike the Galileo Navigation Team which operates in the EME-1950 coordinate system, we elected to work in the (J2000) International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF), the reference frame of the current JPL planetary and satellite ephemerides as well as the standard frame of the international astronomical and planetary science community. Use of this frame permits more precise modelling of the spacecraft and satellite observations. Moreover, it is the frame of choice for all other operational JPL missions and will probably be the frame for future missions for some time. Consequently, our adoption of the ICRF will facilitate the combination of our results with any obtained from future missions (e.g. the proposed Europa Orbiter mission). In addition, our results may be used by the science community, without need of a reference frame conversion.
Nontoxic antimicrobials that evade drug resistance

Drugs that act more promiscuously provide fewer routes for the emergence of resistant mutants. This benefit, however, often comes at the cost of serious off-target and dose-limiting toxicities. The classic example is the antifungal amphotericin B (AmB), which has evaded resistance for more than half a century. We report markedly less toxic amphotericins that nevertheless evade resistance. They are scalably accessed in just three steps from the natural product, and they bind their target (the fungal sterol ergosterol) with far greater selectivity than AmB. Hence, they are less toxic and far more effective in a mouse model of systemic candidiasis. To our surprise, exhaustive efforts to select for mutants resistant to these more selective compounds revealed that they are just as impervious to resistance as AmB. Thus, highly selective cytocidal action and the evasion of resistance are not mutually exclusive, suggesting practical routes to the discovery of less toxic, resistance-evasive therapies.
Highly scalable algorithms for robust string barcoding

String barcoding is a recently introduced technique for genomic-based identification of microorganisms. In this paper we describe the engineering of highly scalable algorithms for robust string barcoding. Our methods enable distinguisher selection based on whole genomic sequences of hundreds of microorganisms of up to bacterial size on a well-equipped workstation, and can be easily parallelized to further extend the applicability range to thousands of bacterial size genomes. Experimental results on both randomly generated and NCBI genomic data show that whole-genome based selection results in a number of distinguishers nearly matching the information theoretic lower bounds for the problem.
Bohatei: flexible and elastic DDoS defense

DDoS defense today relies on expensive and proprietary hardware appliances deployed at fixed locations. This introduces key limitations with respect to flexibility (e.g., complex routing to get traffic to these "chokepoints") and elasticity in handling changing attack patterns. We observe an opportunity to address these limitations using new networking paradigms such as software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV). Based on this observation, we design and implement Bohatei, a flexible and elastic DDoS defense system. In designing Bohatei, we address key challenges with respect to scalability, responsiveness, and adversary-resilience. We have implemented defenses for several DDoS attacks using Bohatei. Our evaluations show that Bohatei is scalable (handling 500 Gbps attacks), responsive (mitigating attacks within one minute), and resilient to dynamic adversaries.
Detecting profile injection attacks in collaborative filtering: a classification-based approach

Collaborative recommender systems have been shown to be vulnerable to profile injection attacks. By injecting a large number of biased profiles into a system, attackers can manipulate the predictions of targeted items. To decrease this risk, researchers have begun to study mechanisms for detecting and preventing profile injection attacks. In prior work, we proposed several attributes for attack detection and have shown that a classifier built with them can be highly successful at identifying attack profiles. In this paper, we extend our work through a more detailed analysis of the information gain associated with these attributes across the dimensions of attack type and profile size. We then evaluate their combined effectiveness at improving the robustness of user based recommender systems.
Bounds on contention management in radio networks

The local broadcast problem assumes that processes in a wireless network are provided messages, one by one, that must be delivered to their neighbors. In this paper, we prove tight bounds for this problem in two well-studied wireless network models: the classical model, in which links are reliable and collisions consistent, and the more recent dual graph model, which introduces unreliable edges. Our results prove that the Decay strategy, commonly used for local broadcast in the classical setting, is optimal. They also establish a separation between the two models, proving that the dual graph setting is strictly harder than the classical setting, with respect to this primitive.
Long-Run Risks and Financial Markets

The recently developed long-run risks asset pricing model shows that concerns about long-run expected growth and time-varying uncertainty (i.e., volatility) about future economic prospects drive asset prices. These two channels of economic risks can account for the risk premia and asset price fluctuations. In addition, the model can empirically account for the cross-sectional differences in asset returns. Hence, the long-run risks model provides a coherent and systematic framework for analyzing financial markets.
The Clause-Diffusion Theorem Prover Peers-mcd (System Description)

Peers-mcd is a distributed theorem prover for equational logic with associativity and commutativity built-in. It is based on the Clause-Diffusion methodology for distributed deduction and the Argonne prover EQP. New features include ancestor-graph oriented criteria to subdivide the search among the parallel processes. Peers-mcd shows superlinear speed-up in a case study in Robbins algebra.
3D Object Retrieval by Shape Similarity

We introduce a method for shape similarity based retrieval in 3D object model database. The proposed method leads us to achieve effectiveness and robustness in similar 3D object search supporting both query by 3D model and query by 2D image. Our feature extraction mechanism is based on observation of human behavior in recognizing objects. Our process of extracting spatial arrangement of a 3D object by surface point distribution can be considered as using human tactile sensation without visual information. On the other hand, the process of extracting 2D features from multiple views can be considered as examining an object by moving viewpoints(camera positions). We propose shape signatures for 3D object model by measuring features of surface point and the shape distance distribution from multiple views of 3D model. Our method can be directly applied to industrial part retrieval and inspection system where different geometric representations are used.
A Test of the Signaling Value of IPO Underpricing with REIT IPO-SEO Pairs

The asymmetric information hypothesis states that IPO underpricing signals superior firm value. During the post-IPO period, the market learns the firm's true worth such that good quality firms issue seasoned equity at favorable prices and recoup the loss sustained at IPO. Since REITs have no special incentive to issue debt because of their tax-exempt status, and since they must pay out 95 percent of net income as dividends, REIT managers are hard pressed to raise capital through seasoned equity. Consequently, the signaling link between IPOs and SEOs is critical for REITs. Consistent with the signaling model, we find strong evidence that (1) REITs that underprice IPOs more are likely to sell seasoned equity sooner, (2) higher IPO underpricing results in larger joint amount of capital raised through an IPO-SEO pair, and (3) firms that underprice IPOs underprice SEOs as well. IPO underpricing does not mitigate the valuation loss associated with seasoned offerings, however.
15. Zone Plates

Publisher Summary The chapter discusses zone plates. Imaging in a projection or a probe (scanning) mode requires a focusing element. A lens is used for this purpose in visible and near-ultraviolet (W) light. In this case, the curvature of the surface and the effective diameter of the lens will be of the order of several microns. Because of the fact that only a few Fresnel zones are utilized, the resolution is of the order of the lens diameter, which makes this lens hardly more useful than a pinhole. To reduce the thickness of the lens (and improve transmission), the material can be removed while maintaining proper optical path differences, thus creating a Fresnel lens, such as is used in lighthouses, searchlights, and overhead projectors. In a final state, the thickness variation within every Fresnel zone of the lens provides a phase shift from 0 to 360o. The similarity of a zone plate and a lens is not limited by the lens formula. The radial resolution of a zone plate is very close to that of a lens. The intensity of light focused by a zone plate is calculated by integrating the amplitude of a diffracted wave over a pair of adjacent zones and summation of the contributions of all zone pairs. The resulting intensity normalized to the incident flux is the efficiency of the zone plate.
Producer Willingness to Supply Biomass: the Effects of Price and Producer Characteristics

This paper presents research results based on data from two biomass producer surveys collected from mid Missouri and southern Illinois. Specific topics of interest include the effect of price and producer characteristics on willingness to supply, assets producers currently own and services they may be willing to provide if bioenergy industries develop. A series of censored tobit regressions are utilized to analyze willingness to supply results under three price scenarios. Marginal effects of a one dollar change in the biomass price are shown to increase the willingness to supply by 0.5 to 2 percent.
Reconstructing Pompeian households

A database of objects discovered in houses in the Roman city of Pompeii provides a unique view of ordinary life in an ancient city. Experts have used this collection to study the structure of Roman households, exploring the distribution and variability of tasks in architectural spaces, but such approaches are necessarily affected by modern cultural assumptions. In this study we present a data-driven approach to household archeology, treating it as an unsupervised labeling problem. This approach scales to large data sets and provides a more objective complement to human interpretation.
Independent Component Analysis via Distance Covariance

ABSTRACTThis article introduces a novel statistical framework for independent component analysis (ICA) of multivariate data. We propose methodology for estimating mutually independent components, and a versatile resampling-based procedure for inference, including misspecification testing. Independent components are estimated by combining a nonparametric probability integral transformation with a generalized nonparametric whitening method based on distance covariance that simultaneously minimizes all forms of dependence among the components. We prove the consistency of our estimator under minimal regularity conditions and detail conditions for consistency under model misspecification, all while placing assumptions on the observations directly, not on the latent components. U statistics of certain Euclidean distances between sample elements are combined to construct a test statistic for mutually independent components. The proposed measures and tests are based on both necessary and sufficient conditions for...
Economic Impacts of Red Tide Events on Restaurant Sales

The economic impact of red tide events were examined for three Southwest Florida waterfront restaurants. Daily gross sales from January 1996 through September were analyzed using a multiple regression time series model to examine whether the presence of a red tide, as measured within three and six miles of the beach, reduced sales revenues. Preliminary results indicate that red tide blooms closer to shore had a significantly large negative influence on sales revenues across restaurant locations.
On a dual control approach to the pricing policies of a trading specialist

We consider a market in which there is a specific economic agent or authority who sets the price, and trading takes place out of equilibrium. We call him a marketeer following Clower [8]. A trading specialist is one example of a marketeer whose pricing policies are the main concern of this papem. We assume further that he does not know the exact demand and supply condition that he faces in the market, i.e., he has only imperfect knowledge of the market response to a price he sets. He does have some subjective estimate of the market response as a function of the price he sets. See Arrow [2] for a related topic. Denote by f(p;8) his subjective estimate of the market response (for example, excess demand for the co~ty), where 8 is an element of a known set e . In other ~rds, in the opinion of the marketeer {f(p;@), 8 ~ @} represents a family of possible responses to his setting p . By specifying 8, a specific response is chosen as his estimate. Assume that the true response (unknown to him) corresponds to f(p;8*) + ~ , 8* g 8 ~ where ~ is a random vamiable to be fully specified later. We take 0 to be time-invariant. Therefore~ the actual response may deviate from f(p;8) by: (i) the agent's estimate of the parameter e, being different from the true parameter 8*; and by (ii) the random variable ~ which may be used to represent the effects being Lm]q%own to be systematic to the agent. Various anticipated or systematic trends % such as price expectation on the part of the buyers could be modeled. The probability distribution of is assumed to be known to the agent. The type of consideration to be presented below can be easily extended to the case where the distribution is known imperfectly; for example, up to certain paran~tem values specifying the distributions uniquely. This added generality is not included in the paper, since it represents a straightfor~4ard extension of this paper.
Energy Flow in The Universe

A brief but broad survey is presented of the flows, forms and large-scale transformations of mass-energy in the universe, spanning a range of about twenty orders of magnitude (≈ m Planck /m proton ) in space, time and mass. Forms of energy considered include electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, cosmic rays, gravitational energy and gravitational radiation, baryonic matter, dark matter and vacuum energy, and neutrinos; sources considered include vacuum energy and cosmic expansion, fluctuations and gravitational collapse, AGN and quasars, stars, supernovae and gamma ray bursts.
The Effects of Incorporating System Level Variability Into the Reliability Analysis for Ceramic Components

Probabilistic failure analyses evaluate the effects of strength variability in brittle materials on the design of ceramic components. However, strength is not the only stochastic parameter in ceramic components and making such an assumption can result in failed designs. Other variable parameters such as geometry, fabrication, materials, and service load histories should also be considered when evaluating the total probability of failure for the component. Slight variations in these variables can alter the stress distribution within the ceramic, and change the probabilities of failure for the system. This effort demonstrates an approach for incorporating the statistical scatter in material properties and system conditions, as well as the Weibull properties of the ceramic in the probability of failure calculations. The evaluated system is an internally pressurized ceramic tube with a steel sheath that imparts a pre-stress through a shrink-fit operation. Two analyses have been performed where the initial analysis is deterministic in nature, in that there is no variability in the inputs to the Weibull analysis. The first analysis calculates the optimal geometry and pre-stress levels for the lowest probability of failure. The second analysis was performed using ANSYS PDS (Probabilistic Design System) and CARES/Life software to evaluate the total probability of failure for a more realistic system with variability in the different material properties, Weibull parameters, pre-stress levels, pressure loading, and geometric inputs. The results of the PDS analysis illustrate that the probability of failure is not a single value, as defined by the first analysis, but a range spanning several orders of magnitude.
A Portrait of the Internet as a Young Man

In brief, the core theory of Jonathan Zittrain's1 2008 book The Future of the InternetAnd How to Stop It is this: good laws, norms, and code are needed to regulate the Internet, to prevent bad laws, norms, and code from compromising its creative capabilities and fettering its fecund flexibility. A far snarkier if less alliterative summary would be "We have to regulate the Internet to preserve its open, unregulated nature." Zittrain posits that either a substantive series of unfortunate Internet events or one catastrophic one will motivate governments to try to regulate cyberspace in a way that promotes maximum stability, which will inhibit or possibly even preclude future technological innovations that rely on open access to the tools and systems that comprise the Internet.2 To head this off, he calls for a "transition to a networking infrastructure that is more secure yet roughly as dynamic as the current one," which will be achieved by collaborative efforts, "a 21st century international Manhattan Project which brings together people of good faith in government, academia, and the private sector for the purpose of shoring up the miraculous information technology grid that is too easy to take for granted and whose seeming selfmaintenance has led us into an undue complacence."3 Zittrain uses brief, informal accounts of past events to build two main theories that dominate the book. First, he claims that open access, which he calls generativity, is under threat by a trend toward closure, which he refers to as tetheredness, which is counterproductively favored by proprietary entities. Though consumers prefer openness and the autonomy it confers, few
Children's work and schooling - does gender matter? : evidence from the Peru LSMS panel data

Using panel data from Peru, the author investigates the determinants of the allocation of boys' and girls' time to schooling, housework, and income-generating activities. Specifically, she explores whether sickness, female headship, access to infrastructure, and employment of women in the household have different impacts on the time use of boys and girls. Girls mostly engage in housework, and boys mostly work outside the home. As a work activity, housework responds to economic incentives and constraints. The author's econometric findings suggest that changes in household welfare affect girls' work and schooling more than boys'. Even though boys' and girls' educational attainment rates are the same, girls' education responds more to changes in household welfare than does boys'. Similarly, girls are more likely than boys to adjust their home time in response to changes in adult female employment and to sickness of household members. Lack of access to energy infrastructure lowers the educational attainment of both boys and girls but has little affect on their labor. The traditional approach to the determinants of child labor and education excludes housework and may understate children's time use, particularly that of girls. It may therefore also overlook an important gender dimension of education policy. Safety nets that protect household incomes from employment shocks and sickness, and childcare programs that allow women to work, would reduce the likelihood of girls being pulled out of school.
Association of HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18 DNA detection and serological response in unvaccinated adolescent women

Antibodies directed against the HPV L1 protein are detected in approximately 70% of individuals with HPV infections. The factors associated with a serological response are not well characterized. Adolescent women (n=117), ages 15–17 at enrollment were followed for a mean of 6.2 years. Quarterly vaginal swabs (mean 22 per participant) were used to identify HPV 6, 11, 16, or 18 DNA using the Roche PCR/Linear Array. Sera collected at a mean of 4.7 years from enrollment were tested by cLIA. Chi-square tests were used to test the associations of HPV DNA and seropositivity for any of HPV types 6, 11, 16, or 18, and each of the four specific types separately. Regression models were fit to assess associations between strength of HPV DNA signal (as represented by mean and cumulative strength of signal), duration of HPV detection, seropositivity, and serotiter. Detection of HPV DNA was associated with seropositivity for four types combined and for HPV types 6, 16, and 18. A significant association of mean or cumulative strength of HPV DNA signal with seropositivity, and with serotiter was found for low-risk (LR) types (HPV 6 and 11), but not for high-risk (HR) types (HPV 16 and 18). Duration of infection had no association with serologic response for either LR or HR types. Therefore, there may be important differences in the way that anti-L1 antibodies are elicited to LR and HR-HPV types.
Oxygen trapped by rare earth tetrahedral clusters in Nd4FeOS6: Crystal structure, electronic structure, and magnetic properties

Single crystals of Nd{sub 4}FeOS{sub 6} were grown from an Fe–S eutectic solution. Single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis revealed a Nd{sub 4}MnOSe{sub 6}-type structure (P6{sub 3}mc, a=9.2693(1) A, c=6.6650(1)A, V=495.94(1) A{sup 3}, Z=2), featuring parallel chains of face-sharing [FeS{sub 6×1/2}]{sup 4−} trigonal antiprisms and interlinked [Nd{sub 4}OS{sub 3}]{sup 4+} cubane-like clusters. Oxygen atoms were found to be trapped by Nd{sub 4} clusters in the [Nd{sub 4}OS{sub 3}]{sup 4{sub +}} chains. Structural differences among Nd{sub 4}MnOSe{sub 6}-type Nd{sub 4}FeOS{sub 6} and the related La{sub 3}CuSiS{sub 7}− and Pr{sub 8}CoGa{sub 3}-type structures have been described. Magnetic susceptibility measurements on Nd{sub 4}FeOS{sub 6} suggested the dominance of antiferromagnetic interactions at low temperature, but no magnetic ordering down to 2 K was observed. Spin-polarized electronic structure calculations revealed magnetic frustration with dominant antiferromagnetic interactions. - Graphical abstract: Trapping of oxygen in Nd{sub 4} tetrahedral clusters results in the formation of the Nd{sub 4}MnOSe{sub 6}-type Nd{sub 4}FeOS{sub 6}, in contrast to the La{sub 3}CuSiS{sub 7}-type oxygen-free Nd{sub 4}FeS{sub 7} and related Pr{sub 8}CoGa{sub 3}-type structures. Complex magnetic frustration inhibits magnetic ordering at low temperature. - Highlights: • Single crystals of Nd{sub 4}FeOS{sub 6} were grown using self-flux method. • Oxygen was found trapped by Nd{submore » 4} tetrahedral clusters. • Comparison with two closely related structural types were discussed. • Magnetic measurements revealed antiferromagnetic (AFM) interaction. • VASP calculations confirmed strong magnetic frustration in AFM model.« less
Keeler's Theorem and products of distinct transpositions

AbstractAn episode of the television series Futurama features a two-body mind-switching machine, which will not work more than once on the same pair of bodies. After the Futurama community engages in a mind-switching spree, the question is asked, “Can the switching be undone so as to restore all minds to their original bodies?” Ken Keeler found an algorithm that undoes any mind-scrambling permutation with the aid of two “outsiders.” We refine Keeler's result by providing a more efficient algorithm that uses the smallest possible number of switches. We also present best possible algorithms for undoing two natural sequences of switches, each sequence effecting a cyclic mind-scrambling permutation in the symmetric group Sn. Finally, we give necessary and sufficient conditions on m and n for the identity permutation to be expressible as a product of m distinct transpositions in Sn.
Elliptic Curves x 3 + y 3 = k of High Rank

We use rational parametrizations of certain cubic surfaces and an explicit formula for descent via 3-isogeny to construct the first examples of elliptic curves E k : x 3 + y 3 = k of ranks 8, 9, 10, and 11 over ℚ. As a corollary we produce examples of elliptic curves over ℚ with a rational 3-torsion point and rank as high as 11. We also discuss the problem of finding the minimal curve E k of a given rank, in the sense of both |k| and the conductor of E k , and we give some new results in this direction. We include descriptions of the relevant algorithms and heuristics, as well as numerical data.
K-Knuth Equivalence for Increasing Tableaux

A $K$-theoretic analogue of RSK insertion and the Knuth equivalence relations were introduced by Buch, Kresch, Shimozono, Tamvakis, and Yong (2006) and Buch and Samuel (2013), respectively. The resulting $K$-Knuth equivalence relations on words and increasing tableaux on $[n]$ has prompted investigation into the equivalence classes of tableaux arising from these relations. Of particular interest are the tableaux that are unique in their class, which we refer to as unique rectification targets (URTs). In this paper, we give several new families of URTs and a bound on the length of intermediate words connecting two $K$-Knuth equivalent words. In addition, we describe an algorithm to determine if two words are $K$-Knuth equivalent and to compute all $K$-Knuth equivalence classes of tableaux on $[n]$.
Upper Limits on the Continuum Emission from Geminga at 74 and 326 MHz

We report a search for radio continuum emission from the gamma-ray pulsar Geminga. We have used the VLA to image the location of the optical counterpart of Geminga at 74 and 326 MHz. We detect no radio counterpart. We derive upper limits to the pulse-averaged flux density of Geminga, taking diffractive scintillation into account. We find that diffractive scintillation is probably quenched at 74 MHz and does not influence our upper limit, S < 56 mJy (2 σ), but that a 95% confidence level at 326 MHz is S < 5 mJy. Owing to uncertainties on the other low-frequency detections and the possibility of intrinsic variability or extrinsic variability (refractive interstellar scintillation) or both, our nondetections are nominally consistent with these previous detections.
A simple model for the complex lag structure of microquasars

The phase lag structure between the hard and soft X-ray photons observed in GRS 1915+105 and XTE J1550−564 has been said to be "complex" because the phase of the Quasi-Periodic Oscillation fundamental Fourier mode changes with time and because the even and odd harmonics signs behave differently. From simultaneous X-ray and radio observations this seems to be related to the presence of a jet (level of radio emission). We propose a simple idea where a partial absorption of the signal can shift the phases of the Fourier modes and account for the phase lag reversal. We also briefly discuss a possible physical mechanism that could lead to such an absorption of the quasi-periodic oscillation modulation.
The Channels of Mars

The geomorphology of Mars is discussed, focusing on the Martian channels. The great flood channels of Mars, the processes of channel erosion, and dendritic channel networks, are examined. The topography of the Channeled Scabland region of the northwestern U.S. is described and compared to the Martian channels. The importance of water in the evolution of the channel systems is considered.
Late-Cenozoic Magnetostratigraphy: Comparisons with Bio-, Climato-, and Lithozones

Abstract A workshop conference entitled “Late Cenozoic Magnetostratigraphy: Comparisons with Bio-, Climato-, and Lithozones” took place in Tokyo and Otsu, Japan, between October 28 and November 1, 1974. It was organized by G. J. Kukla and H. Nakagawa as an outcome of the PA-70-17 Project of the International Geological Correlation Programme, launched in 1970 by the International Union of Geological Sciences. The workshop was supported by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, by IGCP, and the National Science Foundation (of the United States). Out of 70 participating geophysicists, geologists, and paleontologists, 37 attended in person, while the remaining 33 contributed by mail. 1 Prior to the conference a questionnaire was distributed in order to collect opinions on several issues. The workshop's objective was to tackle problems in the recognition of depositional polarity and to review the relationship of magneto-stratigraphic units with radiometric data and with regional bio-, litho-, and climatostratigraphic systems of the Pliocene and Pleistocene. The principal conclusions of the conference were summarized as follows: 1. (1) The only practical (though not infallible) way of demonstrating the validity of interpreted depositional polarity and magnetostratigraphic zonation is to reproduce the results in parallel, widely separated sections with different lithology and sedimentation rates. 2. (2) The hazard of unrecognized postdepositional normal overprints must be recognized and considered in all attempted correlations. Multiple sampling of parallel sections and consistency checks of magnetic data are a prerequisite for correct results. 3. (3) Continuous sequences with high sedimentation rates, such as those which originated in subsiding basins, are viewed as prospective candidates for international stratotypes of the Pliocene and Pleistocene. The investigation of such deposits should be accelerated. 4. (4) Magnetostratigraphy must follow basic stratigraphic principles. Magnetic zones should be clearly defined and locally labeled, whether or not their correlation with paleomagnetic chronology appears possible. 5. (5) Improved data on absolute age of reversals are needed. For that purpose, multiple K Ar and fission-track analyses of key volcanic layers should be performed on a continuing basis.
Globular Cluster Systems

Preface 1. Introduction 2. Properties of globular clusters 3. The galactic globular cluster system 4. Globular cluster systems in nearby galaxies 5. Properties of extragalactic globular cluster systems 6. Globular clusters and galaxy formation 7. The formation of globular clusters 8. Future prospects Bibliography Index.
Colliding beam fusion reactor

In this paper aspects of conceptual reactor designs are investigated that are based on the FRC configuration for D-T, D-He/sup 3/, and p-B/sup 11/ reactions. The fuel ions are of sufficient energy that the orbit size is large enough so that classical transport should prevail in the absence of long wavelength instabilities. We begin by reviewing briefly some evidence for classical confinement in such a system. Next we address the key issue of current maintenance by injecting beams of neutral atoms into an FRC. Although there are many theoretical papers on this subject, there are no experiments. Our investigation of this issue starts with a discussion of FRC experiments, the current carried by ions and the decay of current due to Coulomb interactions of electrons and ions. We then consider periodic pulses of injected neutrals in order to maintain a steady state ion current in the FRC. The injected neutrals constitute a source of ions and electrons and for a steady state there must be a sink. For a burning plasma the dominant sink is the fusion reactions.
TBE: Trigger-By-Example

TBE (Trigger-By-Example) is proposed to assist users in writing trigger rules. TBE is a graphical trigger rule specification language and system to help users understand and specify active database triggers. Since TBE borrowed its basic idea from QBE, it retained many benefits of QBE while extending the features to support triggers. Hence, TBE is a useful tool for novice users to create simple trigger rules easily. Further, since TBE is designed to insulate the details of underlying trigger systems from users, it can be used as a universal trigger interface for rule formation.
Reducing vortex density in superconductors using the ‘ratchet effect’

A serious obstacle impeding the application of low- and high-temperature superconductor devices is the presence of trapped magnetic flux1,2: flux lines or vortices can be induced by fields as small as the Earth's magnetic field. Once present, vortices dissipate energy and generate internal noise, limiting the operation of numerous superconducting devices2,3. Methods used to overcome this difficulty include the pinning of vortices by the incorporation of impurities and defects4, the construction of flux ‘dams’5, slots and holes6, and magnetic shields2,3 which block the penetration of new flux lines in the bulk of the superconductor or reduce the magnetic field in the immediate vicinity of the superconducting device. The most desirable method would be to remove the vortices from the bulk of the superconductor, but there was hitherto no known phenomenon that could form the basis for such a process. Here we show that the application of analternating current to a superconductor patterned with an asymmetric pinning potential can induce vortex motion whose direction is determined only by the asymmetry of the pattern. The mechanism responsible for this phenomenon is the so-called ‘ratchet effect’7,8,9,10, and its working principle applies to both low- and high-temperature superconductors. We demonstrate theoretically that, with an appropriate choice of pinning potential, the ratchet effect can be used to remove vortices from low-temperature superconductors in the parameter range required for various applications.
The Rational Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm

The past few years have seen considerable progress in algorithmic development for the generation of gauge fields including the effects of dynamical fermions. The Rational Hybrid Monte Carlo (RHMC) algorithm, where Hybrid Monte Carlo is performed using a rational approximation in place the usual inverse quark matrix kernel is one of these developments. This algorithm has been found to be extremely beneficial in many areas of lattice QCD ( chiral fermions, finite temperature, Wilson fermions etc.). We review the algorithm and some of these benefits, and we compare against other recent algorithm developements. We conclude with an update of the Berlin wall plot comparing costs of all popular fermion formulations.
RHIC survey and alignment

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider consists of two interlaced plane rings, a pair of mirror-symmetric beam injection arcs, a spatially curved beam transfer line from the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron, and a collection of precisely positioned and aligned magnets, on appropriately positioned support stands, threaded on those arcs. RHIC geometry is defined by six beam crossing points exactly in a plane, lying precisely at the vertices of a regular hexagon of specified size position and orientation of this hexagon are defined geodetically. Survey control and alignment procedures, currently in use to construct RHIC, are described. >
Correspondences between classical, intuitionistic and uniform provability

Based on an analysis of the inference rules used, we provide a characterization of the situations in which classical provability entails intuitionistic provability. We then examine the relationship of these derivability notions to uniform provability, a restriction of intuitionistic provability that embodies a special form of goal-directedness. We determine, first, the circumstances in which the former relations imply the latter. Using this result, we identify the richest versions of the so-called abstract logic programming languages in classical and intuitionistic logic. We then study the reduction of classical and, derivatively, intuitionistic provability to uniform provability via the addition to the assumption set of the negation of the formula to be proved. Our focus here is on understanding the situations in which this reduction is achieved. However, our discussions indicate the structure of a proof procedure based on the reduction, a matter also considered explicitly elsewhere.
Micro Efficiency and Macro Growth

This paper is about micro foundations of productivity and growth. There are several studies on productivity for advanced economies but relatively few for developing countries. Using data from the investment climate surveys of the World Bank, estimation results from 45 developing countries, complemented by extended analysis at firm and industry levels for Brazil and India for the period 2002-05, indicate the following: (i) confirmation of the importance of total factor productivity at firm, industry and national levels, but total factor productivity progressively tapers off at each level of aggregation implying that there is a less than one-to-one relationship between micro-efficiency, sector growth, and macro growth; (ii) capital accumulation is more important at the macro level than the micro level; (iii) productivity at the micro level is driven by research and development, the capacity utilization rate, and adoption of foreign technology (all of which involve management decisions), and is negatively related to corruption and instability, tax, and financial regulations; and (iii) confirmation of the lower contribution of total factor productivity to output growth in developing countries than in developed economies. Management decisions are involved in a lot of day-to-day operations at the firm level and therefore management is an unmeasured input. In developing countries, at the firm level, there is a need to understand the contribution of quality of inputs (management quality, education and labor quality, training, experience of workers, use of computers at work) and also the role of external agglomeration (for example, location in a booming city, competitive pressures from new firms, trade competition, and regulations).
On the iterative decoding of sparse quantum codes

We address the problem of decoding sparse quantum error correction codes. For Pauli channels, this task can be accomplished by a version of the belief propagation algorithm used for decoding sparse classical codes. Quantum codes pose two new challenges however. Firstly, their Tanner graph unavoidably contain small loops which typically undermines the performance of belief propagation. Secondly, sparse quantum codes are by definition highly degenerate. The standard belief propagation algorithm does not exploit this feature, but rather it is impaired by it. We propose heuristic methods to improve belief propagation decoding, specifically targeted at these two problems. While our results exhibit a clear improvement due to the proposed heuristic methods, they also indicate that the main source of errors in the quantum coding scheme remains in the decoding.
Long, Multicenter Bonding—A New Concept for Supramolecular Materials

A new concept for constructing supramolecular architectures is discussed. In addition to van der Waals and hydrogen-bonding intermolecular interactions that primarily account for supramolecular structures for all materials lacking extended 3D network structures, directional, long, multicenter bonding that can occur for anionic, cationic, neutral, and zwitterionic radicals and can direct intermolecular recognition through π interactions and form extended network supramolecular structural motifs.
Effectively Searching Maps in Web Documents

Maps are an important source of information in archaeology and other sciences. Users want to search for historical maps to determine recorded history of the political geography of regions at different eras, to find out where exactly archaeological artifacts were discovered, etc. Currently, they have to use a generic search engine and add the term map along with other keywords to search for maps. This crude method will generate a significant number of false positives that the user will need to cull through to get the desired results. To reduce their manual effort, we propose an automatic map identification, indexing, and retrieval system that enables users to search and retrieve maps appearing in a large corpus of digital documents using simple keyword queries. We identify features that can help in distinguishing maps from other figures in digital documents and show how a Support-Vector-Machine-based classifier can be used to identify maps. We propose map-level-metadata e.g., captions, references to the maps in text, etc. and document-level metadata, e.g., title, abstract, citations, how recent the publication is, etc. and show how they can be automatically extracted and indexed. Our novel ranking algorithm weights different metadata fields differently and also uses the document-level metadata to help rank retrieved maps. Empirical evaluations show which features should be selected and which metadata fields should be weighted more. We also demonstrate improved retrieval results in comparison to adaptations of existing methods for map retrieval. Our map search engine has been deployed in an online map-search system that is part of the Blind-Review digital library system.
Efficient public sector downsizing

Most downsizing operations show high financial returns, but their economic returns depend crucially on their design. After comparing public sector employment across countries, the author analyzes the optimal design of downsizing operations from a microeconomic perspective. The author discusses how to identify redundant workers when individual productivity is observable, as is often the case in state enterprises. Comparisons of productivity and labor costs are misleading because overstaffing is only one among several distortions. The author proposes using a shadow cost of labor, much the same as in standard investment projects. The author then discusses how to identify redundancies when individual productivity cannot be observed, as in government administration. Voluntary separations in exchange for severance pay create an adverse selection problem, whereby the best workers leave the public sector and the worst workers stay. The author discusses other self-selection methods more likely to create an incentive for the best workers to stay rather than quit. Most offers of severance pay tend to overcompensate workers. The author analyzes how labor data can be used to predict the loss replaced workers will experience and to tailor compensation to their individual characteristics. Finally, the author discusses the appropriate sequence of downsizing and privatization, the consequences of early retirement programs, and the usefulness of training programs and other active labor policies.
Health spending and public pension: evidence from panel data

ABSTRACTThis article empirically investigates the determinants of aggregate health expenditure in a panel of OECD countries from 1980 to 2005. We differ from most existing studies by testing some new determinants motivated by recent theoretical advances in the literature. We find that a one percentage increase in public pension payments per elderly person leads to approximately a one third percentage increase in aggregate health spending, and this effect is significant and robust across a variety of model specifications. A back of the envelope calculation based on this estimate suggests that the expansion of the public pension programme on average accounts for approximately over one fifth of the rise in aggregate health expenditure as a share of GDP in the set of OECD countries during 1980–2005. In addition, we find that the estimated effect of GDP per capita in our model ranges from 0.66 to 0.80, which is consistent with the results from some recent studies, and thus further reinforces the finding in the...
Coarse dimensions and partitions of unity

Gromov [11] and Dranishnikov [2] introduced asymptotic and coarse dimensions of proper metric spaces via quite different ways. We define coarse and asymptotic dimension of all metric spaces in a unified manner and we investigate relationships between them generalizing results of Dranishnikov [2] and Dranishnikov-Keesling-Uspienskij [5].
Affirmative action in higher education in India: targeting, catch up, and mismatch

Using detailed data on the 2008 graduating class from an elite engineering institution in India, we evaluate the impact of affirmative action policies in higher education focusing on three issues: targeting, catch up, and mismatch. We find that admission preferences effectively target minority students who are poorer than average displaced nonminority students. Moreover, we find that minority students, especially those in more selective majors, fall behind their same-major peers in terms of grades as they progress through college. We also identify evidence in favor of the mismatch hypothesis: Once we control for selection into majors, minority students in more selective majors end up earning less than they would have had if they had chosen a less selective major.
Ecosystem Services and Green Growth

"Ecosystem services" has become a catch-phrase for the complex connections between the natural environment and human well-being. This paper considers the impact of changes in the supply of ecosystem services, and programs to increase their supply, on near-term growth of gross domestic product. It focuses on the relationship between locally generated versus transboundary services and growth in developing countries, where the highest rates of ecosystem degradation tend to be found. There is a common perception that there is a tradeoff between environmental protection and economic growth, especially in the near term. This perception can make policymakers reluctant to support environmental protection. Where the environment is a source of economically important services, then environmental protection may stimulate growth of gross domestic product instead of reducing it. The paper considers evidence on the economic value of regulating services; the degree to which ecosystems actually supply some of the services they are commonly assumed to supply; and the near-term growth implications of restoring ecosystems, and reducing their loss. This leads to a discussion on the effectiveness of programs intended to reduce ecosystem loss, with a focus on protected areas and payments for ecosystem services, and the effects of these programs on poverty alleviation.