cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Utility regulation : a critical path for revising price controls

The United Kingdom has pioneered the use of price control regulation. The periodic review of these controls lies at the core of the mechanism, and the UK experience shows that this review is complex and time-consuming and can be controversial. Based on the UK experience the author proposes a sequence of tasks that regulators in other countries could use when revising price controls. He argues that regulators should start to reset controls at least two years before new controls are due to come into effect. Much information will be required, and it will all have to be checked and processed before the regulator can propose new controls. In addition, most regulatory systems include an appeals mechanism to protect companies against overly zealous regulators, so regulators must make their proposals early enough to allow for a possible appeal. These considerations imply that regulators should make their proposals at least nine months before new controls are due to take effect, to allow six months for an appeal and time to implement the eventual decision.
A factorization criterion for acyclic directed mixed graphs

Acyclic directed mixed graphs, also known as semi-Markov models represent the conditional independence structure induced on an observed margin by a DAG model with latent variables. In this paper we present a factorization criterion for these models that is equivalent to the global Markov property given by (the natural extension of) dseparation.
The World Bank: Why It Is Still Needed and Why It Still Disappoints

Poor people find it harder to save, so poor countries can find it difficult to finance needed investments from domestic savings alone. In an ideal world, this would not be a problem; capital would flow from high-income capital-rich countries to low-income capital-poor countries, because the marginal return should be higher in countries where capital is relatively scarce. But that was not what people saw happening in the world 70 years ago. In the years just after World War II, global capital markets were thin and not trusted as a source of finance. It seemed that new institutions were needed. In response, delegates from 44 countries met in 1944 at a hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and agreed to create the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The latter is a core component of what came to be known as the World Bank Group, or more often the World Bank. The IMF was charged with managing imbalances of payments to avoid destabilizing currency devaluations, while the World Bank was to be the channel for longer-term development finance. Much has changed since then. There have been prominent calls for radically reforming the World Bank, or even closing it. Two main concerns have been raised by the Bank’s critics. The first is that the Bank’s efforts are largely wasted because poor countries face nonfinancial constraints that limit their development. The second is
Mechanistic Aspects of Transition-Metal-Catalyzed Alcohol Carbonylations

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the nature of the transformations at the metal center, especially with regard to oxidation state and formation of the initial alkyl-, alkoxy-, or carboalkoxy-metal bond from saturated precursors, and discusses the mechanistic aspects of transition-metal-catalyzed alcohol carbonylations. Prerequisite to any catalytic activity is the ability of the metal center to interact effectively with alcohols or alcohol-derived precursors. There are several ways in which this can occur, and most of these are observed or postulated in at least one catalytic scheme. In order to understand the specific reactivities, though, the reader should be familiar with some fundamental aspects of organo-transition-metal chemistry. Homologation reactions, which are believed to usually proceed by way of aldehyde intermediates, are also discussed in the chapter but only as they pertain to the incorporation of the CO into the metal-carbon bonds. A frequent theme in alcohol carbonylations by transition metals is the use of a halide or pseudo-halide promoters or cocatalysts. Despite major problems of corrosion associated with its use, iodide is almost always found to be most effective in this capacity. This is because the halide serves several purposes, for each of which iodide is ideally suited.
Eventual quasi-linearity of the Minkowski length

The Minkowski length of a lattice polytope P is a natural generalization of the lattice diameter of P . It can be defined as the largest number of lattice segments whose Minkowski sum is contained in P . The famous Ehrhart theorem states that the number of lattice points in the positive integer dilates t P of a lattice polytope P behaves polynomially in t ź N . In this paper we prove that for any lattice polytope P , the Minkowski length of t P for t ź N is eventually a quasi-polynomial with linear constituents. We also give a formula for the Minkowski length of coordinates boxes, degree one polytopes, and dilates of unimodular simplices. In addition, we give a new bound for the Minkowski length of lattice polygons and show that the Minkowski length of a lattice triangle coincides with its lattice diameter.
A two-stage video coding framework with both self-adaptive redundant dictionary and adaptively orthonormalized DCT basis

In this work, we propose a two-stage video coding framework, as an extension of our previous one-stage framework in [1]. The two-stage frameworks consists two different dictionaries. Specifically, the first stage directly finds the sparse representation of a block with a self-adaptive dictionary consisting of all possible inter-prediction candidates by solving an L0-norm minimization problem using orthogonal least squares (OLS), and the second stage codes the residual using altered DCT dictionary orthonormalized to the subspace spanned by the first stage atoms. The transition of the first stage and the second stage is adaptively determined based on the estimated residual reduction per bit. We further propose a complete context adaptive entropy coder to efficiently code the locations and the coefficients of chosen first stage atoms. Simulation results show that the proposed coder significantly improves the RD performance over our previous one-stage coder. More importantly, the two-stage coder, using a fixed block size and inter-prediction only, outperforms the H.264 coder (x264) and is competitive with the HEVC reference coder (HM) over a large rate range.
SPATIALLY RESOLVED SPECTROSCOPY OF EMISSION-LINE GAS IN QSO HOST GALAXIES

We present off-nuclear spectra of 3 radio loud QSO’s, 3C249. 1, 3C273 and 3C323. 1, taken with the echellette spectrograph and imager (ESI) at Keck observatory. From these spectra we have extracted the spatial profile along the slit of the [OIII]λ5007Aline. Fitted Gaussian distributions to each of these profiles show emission-line gas out to several tens of kiloparsecs from the galaxy nucleus. Most observations show several gas components at distinct velocities and velocity dispersions, much of which is above the escape velocity for any resonable mass galaxy. In addition, we show slitless spectroscopy images for one other object, 3C48. From the slitless spectroscopy images we can extract 2-dimensional spatial as well as velocity information on the emission line gas.
DECO: data replication and execution CO-scheduling for utility grids

Vendor strategies to standardize grid computing as the IT backbone for service-oriented architectures have created business opportunities to offer grid as a utility service for compute and data–intensive applications. With this shift in focus, there is an emerging need to incorporate agreements that represent the QoS expectations (e.g. response time) of customer applications and the prices they are willing to pay. We consider a utility model where each grid application (job) is associated with a function, that captures the revenue accrued by the provider on servicing it within a specified deadline. The function also specifies the penalty incurred on failing to meet the deadline. Scheduled execution of jobs on appropriate sites, along with timely transfer of data closer to compute sites, collectively work towards meeting these deadlines. To this end, we present DECO, a grid meta-scheduler that tightly integrates the compute and data transfer times of each job. A unique feature of DECO is that it enables differentiated QoS – by assigning profitable jobs to more powerful sites and transferring the datasets associated with them at a higher priority. Further, it employs replication of popular datasets to save on transfer times. Experimental studies demonstrate that DECO earns significantly better revenue for the grid provider, when compared to alternative scheduling methodologies.
Property Condition Disclosure Law: Why Did States Mandate 'Seller Tell All'?

Thirty-four US states have already enacted some form of seller’s Property Condition Disclosure Law. At a time when there is a movement in this direction nationally, this paper attempts to ascertain the factors that lead states to adopt disclosure law. Motivation for the study stems from the fact that not all states have yet adopted the law, and states that have enacted the law have done so in different years. The analytical structure employs hazard models, using a unique set of economic and institutional attributes for a panel of 50 US States spanning 21 years, from 1984 to 2004. The proportional hazard analysis of law adoption reveals that greater number of disciplinary actions tends to favor passage of the law. Greater broker supervision, implying generally higher awareness among real estate agents, seems to have a negative impact on the likelihood of a state adopting a Property Condition Disclosure Law.
Almost Perfect Tracking for Linear Systems

Two reference-input tracking problems that involve arbitrarily-small tracking error for time-varying inputs, and asymptotically-zero tracking error for constant inputs, are formulated for square, invertible linear plants. Conditions for solvability (via high-gain feedback) are given in terms of plant transmission zeros. Simplifications in the geometry of almost invariant subspaces for plants that satisfy the conditions are exploited to obtain explicit control law constructions.
Black-White Appreciation of Owner-Occupied Homes in Upper Income Suburban Integrated Communities: The Cases of Maplewood and Montclair, New Jersey

This paper examines black-white differences in housing appreciation in northern New Jersey, with particular emphasis on the communities of Montclair and Maplewood in the 1970 to 2000 period. The fi...
Intrusion confinement by isolation in information systems

System protection mechanisms such as access controls can be fooled by authorized but malicious users, masqueraders, and misfeasors. Intrusion detection techniques are therefore used to supplement them. However, damage could have occurred before an intrusion is detected. In many computing systems the requirement for a high degree of soundness of intrusion reporting can yield poor performance in detecting intrusions and cause long detection latency. As a result, serious damage can be caused either because many intrusions are never detected or the average detection latency is too long. The process of bounding the damage caused by intrusions during intrusion detection is referred to as intrusion confinement. We justify the necessity for intrusion confinement during detection by using a probabilistic analysis model, and propose a general solution to achieve intrusion confinement. The key idea of the solution is to isolate likely suspicious actions before a definite determination of intrusion is reported. We also present two concrete isolation protocols in the database and file system contexts, respectively, to evaluate the feasibility of the general solution, which can be applied to many types of information systems.
Comments on tone calibration in time varying fading

The validity of the slow fading assumption used in previous analyses of tone calibration techniques (TCT) is examined. TCT systems previously proposed will produce an error floor, albeit a very low one. The requirements for the elimination of the error floor are examined, and the error floor produced in a typical TCT system is studied. Monte Carlo integration techniques are used to evaluate integrals containing the isotropic fading spectrum. >
Utility elicitation as a classification problem

We investigate the application of classification techniques to utility elicitation. In a decision problem, two sets of parameters must generally be elicited: the probabilities and the utilities. While the prior and conditional probabilities in the model do not change from user to user, the utility models do. Thus it is necessary to elicit a utility model separately for each new user. Elicitation is long and tedious, particularly if the outcome space is large and not decomposable. There are two common approaches to utility function elicitation. The first is to base the determination of the user's utility function solely on elicitation of qualitative preferences. The second makes assumptions about the form and decomposability of the utility function. Here we take a different approach: we attempt to identify the new user's utility function based on classification relative to a database of previously collected utility functions. We do this by identifying clusters of utility functions that minimize an appropriate distance measure. Having identified the clusters, we develop a classification scheme that requires many fewer and simpler assessments than full utility elicitation and is more robust than utility elicitation based solely on preferences. We have tested our algorithm on a small database of utility functions in a prenatal diagnosis domain and the results are quite promising.
Self‐Repair of Glass and Polymers

Service life of glass composites is determined by fracture and corrosion. Delaminations and cracking are the major cause of structural failure. Development of fractures and catastrophic failure can occur on macroscopic and microscopic levels at one time, or in sequence. Safety glass as a composite is composed of two materials: the glass and the reinforcing fibers. One of the main common failures occurs at the interface between the matrix and the fibers. To prevent interlaminar failure and fatigue, good bonding between the matrix and the fibers is needed. Internal damage is also common in glass, especially corrosion damage. Repair of damage is important so that failures do not progress to the ultimate catastrophic failure of breakage. But corrosion damage is hard to detect unless it has developed to macroscopic scale flaws. Nondestructive evaluation techniques have limited our ability to detect corrosion damage. In order to be self-repairing, a healing chemical is stored in hollow fiber vessels embedded in the matrix or between layers. When the glass is damaged, the corrosion or damage progresses, opening the repair fiber and releasing the repair chemical. The healing chemical flows into the damaged area and repair takes place. This research concerns the repair of damage by the release of chemicals from fibers into matrix corrosion and microdamage sites so that development of further damage can be prevented. The repair fibers can also release chemicals between delaminating layers or rebond fibers to the matrix. Two different repair mechanisms for self-repair have been investigated, and experiments assessed the ability to both rebond fibers and repair cracks using fiber pullout, impact, and bending tests with promising results Impact tests on polymer specimens have revealed repair in less than 10 s. An Epon epoxy impact sample containing two-part epoxy in glass pipettes was subjected to impact in a Dynatup machine. The results were dramatic. Within seconds the two-part adhesives had filled all contiguous cracks even though no fibers had been directly hit, and the adhesives raced around and filled the circular crack, an artifact of testing caused by the edge of the impact machine itself Adhesive flow, setup, and repair was accomplished in less than 10 s.
Autonomous programmable biomolecular devices using self-assembled DNA nanostructures

The particular molecular-scale devices that are the topic of this article are known as DNA nanostructures. As will be explained, DNA nanostructures have some unique advantages among nanostructures: they are relatively easy to design, fairly predictable in their geometric structures, and have been experimentally implemented in a growing number of labs around the world. They are constructed primarily of synthetic DNA. A key principle in the study of DNA nanostructures is the use of self-assembly processes to actuate the molecular assembly. Since self-assembly operates naturally at the molecular scale, it does not suffer from the limitation in scale reduction that so restricts lithography or other more conventional top-down manufacturing techniques.
Citizen support for the welfare state: determinants of preferences for income redistribution

This paper explores the determinants of individual level support for income redistribution by the government. It argues that there are two sources of preference formation when it comes to redistribution. People are either in favor of income redistribution because they are disadvantaged, or they favor redistribution as a means to insure against income shocks. The paper explores both logics, but focuses on the latter. Four risk factors are hypothesizes to influence an individual's preferences over income redistribution: a) structural change; b) exposure to international competition; c) specificity of skills; and d) occupational unemployment. Some of these measures are novel. The paper relies on the European Social Survey 2002/2003 in order to test the formulated hypotheses. The results show that a) skill specificity and occupational unemployment are important determinants of individual preferences over redistribution whereas b) structural change and exposure to international competition are not.
Subnational fiscal sustainability analysis : what can we learn from Tamil Nadu ?

In the late 1990s the Indian state of Tamil Nadu experienced an unprecedented fiscal deterioration, which was part of the widespread fiscal deterioration in Indian states. This deterioration was troubling because current expenditure outgrew total revenue, leaving little fiscal space for infrastructure spending. The paper presents a framework for subnational fiscal sustainability analysis and applies it to Tamil Nadu where subsequent fiscal adjustment has been ambitious and politically challenging, but has promised to put state finance on a sustainable path and create fiscal space for infrastructure investment. The paper emphasizes the differences between fiscal sustainability analysis at the national and subnational levels, attempts to take into account uncertainty, and discusses the key components of the state's fiscal accounts and how they respond to reforms and shocks. Risks to Tamil Nadu's fiscal outlook include interest rate shocks, pressures on the primary balance, and contingent liabilities. Though the state's efforts to remove constraints to economic growth, minimize recurrent expenditures and maximize its revenue potential will be critical for fiscal sustainability, national policies feature prominently in subnational fiscal adjustment. Tamil Nadu's quest for fiscal sustainability is relevant for other countries. Decentralization has given subnational governments in developing countries significant spending and taxation responsibilities, and the capacity to incur debt. The fiscal stress of the Indian states echoed the fiscal crises of subnational governments in several other major emerging economies.
Internet Child Pornography, U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and the Role of Internet Service Providers

The following review will provide a historical recap of the United States response to child pornography as it relates to the ever-evolving technological world. Specifically, a review of the child pornography laws, at the federal level, as well as the sentencing guidelines will reveal the delicate balance between criminalizing child pornography and upholding the United States’ constitution. In addition, discussing the role of Internet Service Providers will expose a trend toward using the same technology, which has proliferated the child pornography industry, to identify and censor the illegal content on the Internet. Finally, the strengths and weaknesses of the current laws and regulation tactics, as well as, the suggested amendments will be discussed.
Reforming Redistricting: Why Popular Initiatives to Establish Redistricting Commissions Succeed or Fail

Abstract: There are several ways in which redistricting reform could in theory be achieved. State legislatures could voluntarily cede control over district-drawing, courts could invalidate especially egregious gerrymanders, or popular initiatives could be launched to create redistricting commissions. However, thanks to the selfinterest of legislators as well as the Supreme Court’s unfortunate recent decisions in Vieth v. Jubelirer and LULAC v. Perry, the redistricting initiative is now the only realistic way to curb political gerrymandering.
Bioinformatics on embedded systems: a case study of computational biology applications on VLIW architecture

Bioinformatics applications represent the increasingly important workloads. Their characteristics and implications on the underlying hardware design, however, are largely unknown. Currently, biological data processing ubiquitously relies on the high-end systems equipped with expensive, general-purpose processors. The future generation of bioinformatics requires the more flexible and cost-effective computing platforms to meet its rapidly growing market. The programmable, application-specific embedded systems appear to be an attractive solution in terms of easy of programming, design cost, power, portability and time-to-market. The first step towards such systems is to characterize bioinformatics applications on the target architecture. Such studies can help in understanding the design issues and the trade-offs in specializing hardware and software systems to meet the needs of bioinformatics market. This paper evaluates several representative bioinformatics tools on the VLIW based embedded systems. We investigate the basic characteristics of the benchmarks, impact of function units, the efficiency of VLIW execution, cache behavior and the impact of compiler optimizations. The architectural implications observed from this study can be applied to the design optimizations. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first such studies that have ever been attempted.
Ionization cross sections for ion-atom collisions in high energy ion beams

Knowledge of ion-atom ionization cross sections is of great importance for many accelerator applications. When experimental data and theoretical calculations are not available, approximate formulas are frequently used. Based on experimental data and theoretical predictions, a new fit for ionization cross sections by fully stripped ions is proposed. The Born approximation and classical trajectory calculations are frequently used to estimate the cross sections. Neither approximation is expected to be valid over the entire range of projectile ions and target atoms. Aspects of both models must be included in order to address the short-comings in the underlying assumptions. A large difference in cross section, up to a factor of six, calculated in quantum mechanics and classical mechanics, has been obtained for 3.2 GeV I/sup -/ and Cs/sup +/ ions. Because at such high velocities the Born approximation is well validated, the classical trajectory approach fails to correctly predict the stripping cross section at high energies for electron orbitals with low ionization potential.
Scheduling abstractions for local search

Comet is an object-oriented language supporting a constraint-based architecture for local search. This paper presents a collection of abstractions, inspired by constraint-based schedulers, to simplify scheduling algorithms by local search in Comet. The main innovation is the computational model underlying the abstractions. Its core is a precedence graph which incrementally maintains a candidate schedule at every computation step. Organized around this precedence graph are differentiable objects, e.g., resources and objective functions, which support queries to define and evaluate local moves. The abstractions enable Comet programs to feature declarative components strikingly similar to those of constraint-based schedulers and search components expressed with high-level modeling objects and control structures. Their benefits and performance are illustrated on two applications: minimizing total weighted tardiness in a job-shop and cumulative scheduling.
Consumer Demand for Ahi Poke (Raw Tuna Salad) in Hawaii

Ahi poke (raw tuna salad) has significant role in Hawaii culture and economy. A consumer survey in Hawaii was used to examine consumers’ purchasing intentions of ahi poke. A censored analysis was conducted to analyze the demand and tie with various consumer characteristics. Results show that many consumer eat ahi poke frequently and different consumer profiles will lead to large differences in their demand. Information obtained in study may help producers and retailers to better target their marketing strategies and increase sales.
Models of Morality in Law and Economics: Self-Control and Self-Improvement for the "Bad Man" of Holmes

Holmes commended scholars to analyze law from the viewpoint of a bad man. If Holmes had in mind everyday wrongdoing, and not a lofty evil, then he prescribed the research strategy of law and economics. The virtuous prefer good, villains prefer bad, and rational actors in economics prefer themselves. Instead of obeying or disobeying the law for its own sake, the rational actor in economics treats law as an obstacle or an instrument, not a value. The success of the economic analysis of law proves the fruitfulness of this research strategy. Instead of praise, however, this paper offers critique and extension. As the social complexity that law regulates increases, economists typically prescribe decentralization. Decentralized law works best when spontaneous obedience and private enforcement supplement state coercion. Internalized morality prompts spontaneous obedience and perfects private enforcement. Thus minimizing state coercion maximizes reliance upon internalized morality. Developing a theory of morality to anchor decentralized law requires extending models beyond the bad man. This paper develops two fundamental ideas of morality: self-control and self-improvement. I will explain how law harnesses and strengthens self-control, and also how the law changes people by creating opportunities for self-improvement.
The momentum of posthumous conception: a model act.

This Article addresses the scenario of when, through advanced medical technology, a procedure is performed resulting in the birth of a child more than three hundred days-a time suggested by some statutes-after the death of the gamete provider. The embryo may result from in vitro fertilization or from a woman being artificially inseminated with the sperm of a deceased male gamete provider. And of course the woman could have predeceased too and left a viable ova, that was then fertilized with the sperm of a living or a deceased male to create an embryo, which was then placed into a surrogate, a gestational carrier. The essential element is that the act, which results in a future birth, occurs after the death of one or both of the gamete providers. This is the essence of posthumous conception. That is, once the egg and sperm are brought together through assisted reproductive technology to form an embryo, both or either of the persons who donated the sperm and egg or embryo are dead, perhaps for a long time. If this is the point of conception, then the issue arises as to whether the resulting posthumously conceived infant should qualify under the law for paternity, inheritance and benefits. How long should the law wait for conception before terminating status? The law strives for certainty and medical technology has made certainty an elusive prey.
Two Wrongs Do Not Make a Right: Flaws in Alternatives to Fee-for-Service Payment Plans Do Not Mean Fee-for-Service Is a Good Solution to Rising Prices; Comment on “Fee-for-Service Payment - An Evil Practice That Must Be Stamped Out?”

Professor Naoki Ikegami’s “Fee-for-service payment – an evil practice that must be stamped out” summarizes many of the failings of alternatives to fee-for-service (FFS) payment systems. His article also offers several suggestions for improving FFS systems. However, even powerful arguments against many of the alternatives to FFS, does not make a convincing argument for FFS systems. In addition, there are significant misunderstandings in Professor Ikegami’s presentation of and use of United States payment methods, the role of private vs. public insurance systems, and the increasing role of “accountable care organizations.”
On the gap between ess(f) and cnf_size(f)

Given a Boolean function f, the quantity ess(f) denotes the largest set of assignments that falsify f, no two of which falsify a common implicate of f. Although ess(f) is clearly a lower bound on cnf_size(f) (the minimum number of clauses in a CNF formula for f), C@?epek et al. showed it is not, in general, a tight lower bound [6]. They gave examples of functions f for which there is a small gap between ess(f) and cnf_size(f). We demonstrate significantly larger gaps. We show that the gap can be exponential in n for arbitrary Boolean functions, and @Q(n) for Horn functions, where n is the number of variables of f. We also introduce a natural extension of the quantity ess(f), which we call ess"k(f), which is the largest set of assignments, no k of which falsify a common implicate of f.
Using landscape theory to measure learning difficulty for adaptive agents

In many real-world settings, particularly economic settings, an adaptive agent is interested in maximizing its cumulative reward. This may require a choice between different problems to learn, where the agent must trade optimal reward against learning difficulty. A landscape is one way of representing a learning problem, where highly rugged landscapes represent difficult problems. However, ruggedness is not directly measurable. Instead, a proxy is needed. We compare the usefulness of three different metrics for estimating ruggedness on learning problems in an information economy domain. We empirically evaluate the ability of each metric to predict ruggedness and use these metrics to explain past results showing that problems that yield equal reward when completely learned yield different profits to an adaptive learning agent.
Network Externalities and Indirect Tax Preferences for Electronic Commerce

Although most arguments supporting preferential tax treatment of electronic commerce are suspect, the existence of network externalities provides one potentially defensible rationale. This paper considers (1) direct network externalities, which arise in communications networks like the Internet, (2) indirect network externalities, which arise in computer hardware/software systems in imperfectly competitive markets, and (3) learning network externalities, which arise when existing network participants assist new users. It concludes the case for preferential treatment is weak, and that proposed blanket sales tax exemptions of remote (or all) e-commerce are especially inappropriate. Finally, the paper comments briefly on US sales tax reform efforts.
THE STRUCTURE, PERFORMANCE, AND SUSTAINABILITY OF AGRICULTURE IN THE MOUNTAIN REGION

Farmers in the Mountain Region-in both metro and nonmetro areas-face growth in population and nonfarm employment that affects land use and how farmers operate their businesses. Even in remote locations, people moving to amenity areas may result in farmers changing their operations. Sustainable agriculture, already practiced by Mountain Region farmers to some extent, may help farming to continue. Nonfarm people also have an interest in the continuation of agriculture and the adaptation of sustainable practices, in order to help preserve the amenities that make the region attractive to migrants. Growth in the region does provide some benefits to farmers, however. Growth can help keep the value of farmland up through nonfarm demand for land. In addition, the greater availability of jobs means that off-farm work is available to households operating farms. Off-farm work is particularly important, given the concentrated distribution of farm income.
Search Theory and Unemployment: An Introduction

The first part of this introductory chapter offers a brief historical survey of job search theory. The goals are to give the reader a sense of how search theory arrived at its current state, to point out some of the roadblocks that search theory has encountered, and to suggest how search theoretic models have evolved so as to overcome those roadblocks. The second part of the chapter offers a brief description of each chapter in the book. Eight chapters follow the introduction, with three devoted to job search theory itself, three to estimating job search models, and two to applying job search theory to public policy.
Gamblers’ Love for Variety and Substitution among Lotto Games

This paper considers the whether offering multiple lotto games within a state by joining a multi-state lottery increases total ticket sales compared to offering a single state game. The question is considered from two different perspectives, which both lead to the conclusion that states do tend to benefit from increased ticket sales overall by joining a multi-state lottery association. There is, however, a noted difference in the magnitude of that effect depending on the size of the average jackpots of the previously existing state games.
Magnetic Dipole Moment of Neutrino

We recalculate the magnetic moment of neutrinos in a hot and dense medium. The magnetic dipole moment of neutrinos is modified at high temperature and chemical potential. We show that the magnetic dipole moment of electron neutrino does not get a significant contribution from thermal background to meet the cosmological bound. However, chemical potential contribution to the magnetic moment is non-ignorable even when chemical potential is an order of magnitude greater than the electron mass. It is demonstrated that this effect is more significant in the models with an extended Higgs sector through neutrino mixing.
Dark Energy Stars and the Cosmic Microwave Background

Cosmological models with a large cosmological constant are unstable due to quantum critical fluctuations at the de Sitter horizon. Due to this instability the space-time in these models will quickly evolve into a Friedmann-like expanding universe containing dark energy stars and radiation. In this paper it is pointed out that this provides a simple explanation for both the observed radiation entropy per gram of dark matter and the level of temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background. A novel prediction is that large dark energy stars provide the seeds for the formation of galaxies.
Cytokine and Chemokine Regulation of Sensory Neuron Function

Pain normally subserves a vital role in the survival of the organism, prompting the avoidance of situations associated with tissue damage. However, the sensation of pain can become dissociated from its normal physiological role. In conditions of neuropathic pain, spontaneous or hypersensitive pain behavior occurs in the absence of the appropriate stimuli. Our incomplete understanding of the mechanisms underlying chronic pain hypersensitivity accounts for the general ineffectiveness of currently available options for the treatment of chronic pain syndromes. Despite its complex pathophysiological nature, it is clear that neuropathic pain is associated with short- and long-term changes in the excitability of sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) as well as their central connections. Recent evidence suggests that the upregulated expression of inflammatory cytokines in association with tissue damage or infection triggers the observed hyperexcitability of pain sensory neurons. The actions of inflammatory cytokines synthesized by DRG neurons and associated glial cells, as well as by astrocytes and microglia in the spinal cord, can produce changes in the excitability of nociceptive sensory neurons. These changes include rapid alterations in the properties of ion channels expressed by these neurons, as well as longer-term changes resulting from new gene transcription. In this chapter we review the diverse changes produced by inflammatory cytokines in the behavior of sensory neurons in the context of chronic pain syndromes.
The need for multiple types of information to inform climate change assessment

Information on ecosystem characteristics as well as economic statistics is needed to more fully inform decision makers on the impacts of climate change on human well-being. Climate change risks involve potentially large and irreversible as well as highly uncertain impacts that need to be evaluated with information that complements cost-benefit analysis. Information on the irreversibility of impacts also is relevant for evaluating implications for intergenerational equity. In addition, climate change is subject to a large degree of Knightian uncertainty, making it useful to understand how individuals perceive and evaluate climate change risks.
Wave Heating in Chromospheric Bright Points

Wave heating in the interior of supergranulation cells is reviewed and it is suggested that the bright points may be heated by pulses and by oscillations in their wakes with periods near 3 min, the acoustic cutoff period in the upper photosphere. Such waves create propagation channels by the amplification of vertically travelling waves and by focussing for wave periods near the cutoff period. The middle chromosphere is heated by shock dissipation, but the low chromosphere may partly be heated also by radiative energy transport down from the higher layers.
Volcanism on Io

Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. Spacecraft images showed a surface dotted with volcanoes, volcanic plumes rising hundreds of kilometers above the surface, and colorful sulfurous deposits from the plumes. Unlike Earth, Io has no plate tectonics and its volcanic activity is driven by tidal heating resulting from orbital interactions between Jupiter, Io, and the other Galilean satellites. The surface of Io has sulfur and sulfur dioxide deposits, it is now known that most, if not all, volcanism is silicate, but the composition of the lavas is still unknown, with temperatures indicating either basalts or ultramafic lavas. The major volcanic landform is a patera, a caldera-like depression, and several contain lava lakes. Several volcanoes produce long lava flows, including the longest known active flow in the solar system. Interaction between hot lava flows and sulfur dioxide, probably from the substrate, results in plumes that move location as the flow advances. Io has tall mountains but they are not volcanoes, although many are found adjacent to paterae. Material escaping Io interacts with Jupiter's magnetic field, creating phenomena so far unique in the solar system.
Principles of Plasma Diagnostics

Preface to first edition Preface to second edition 1. Plasma diagnostics 2. Magnetic diagnostics 3. Plasma particle flux 4. Refractive-index measurements 5. Electromagnetic emission by free electrons 6. Electromagnetic radiation from bound electrons 7. Scattering of electromagnetic radiation 8. Neutral atom diagnostics 9. Fast ions and fusion products Appendices Glossary.
Generating Bayesian networks from probability logic knowledge bases

We present a method for dynamically generating Bayesian networks from knowledge bases consisting of first-order probability logic sentences. We present a subset of probability logic sufficient for representing the class of Bayesian networks with discrete-valued nodes. We impose constraints on the form of the sentences that guarantee that the knowledge base contains all the probabilistic information necessary to generate a network. We define the concept of d-separation for knowledge bases and prove that a knowledge base with independence conditions defined by d-separation is a complete specification of a probability distribution. We present a network generation algorithm that, given an inference problem in the form of a query Q and a set of evidence E, generates a network to compute P(Q|E). We prove the algorithm to be correct.
UV curable urethane encapsulant for ceramic chip carriers

A new acrylated methane encapsulant has been formulated for use on ceramic chip carriers. This encapsulant has been implemented on pin grid array (PGA) ceramic carriers and on peripheral leaded surface mount (SMT) ceramic carriers for IBM's C4 chips. The encapsulant is a UV curable material and is used to cover the thin-film circuitry on the ceramic carrier. The encapsulant offers a low-cost alternative to the metal caps that were used on the pin grid array ceramic carriers or to the ceramic cap that was used on the peripheral leaded surface mount carrier. UV curing was chosen as the preferred curing process in order to improve the manufacturing process flow. The packages used with this encapsulant all employ IBM's C4 chips. The C4 joints to the ceramic carrier are strengthened with a silica-filled epoxy encapsulant. The new UV curable urethane encapsulant is used to protect the remaining exposed circuitry from mechanical and environmental damage. The urethane encapsulant covers everything from the chip edge to the outer edge of the package. The backside of the chip is intentionally left uncovered. When thermal enhancement is needed the heatsink is bonded directly to the chip. Significant improvement in internal thermal resistance is realized with this design. >
Towards linear time overlapping community detection in social networks

Membership diversity is a characteristic aspect of social networks in which a person may belong to more than one social group. For this reason, discovering overlapping structures is necessary for realistic social analysis. In this paper, we present a fast algorithm, called SLPA, for overlapping community detection in large-scale networks. SLPA spreads labels according to dynamic interaction rules. It can be applied to both unipartite and bipartite networks. It is also able to uncover overlapping nested hierarchy . The time complexity of SLPA scales linearly with the number of edges in the network. Experiments in both synthetic and real-world networks show that SLPA has an excellent performance in identifying both node and community level overlapping structures.
Random algebraic construction of extremal graphs

We present a motivated construction of large graphs not containing a given complete bipartite subgraph. The key insight is that the algebraic constructions yield very non-smooth probability distributions. MSC classes: 05C35, 05D99
Finding patterns in a knowledge base using keywords to compose table answers

We aim to provide table answers to keyword queries using a knowledge base. For queries referring to multiple entities, like "Washington cities population" and "Mel Gibson movies", it is better to represent each relevant answer as a table which aggregates a set of entities or joins of entities within the same table scheme or pattern. In this paper, we study how to find highly relevant patterns in a knowledge base for user-given keyword queries to compose table answers. A knowledge base is modeled as a directed graph called knowledge graph, where nodes represent its entities and edges represent the relationships among them. Each node/edge is labeled with type and text. A pattern is an aggregation of subtrees which contain all keywords in the texts and have the same structure and types on node/edges. We propose efficient algorithms to find patterns that are relevant to the query for a class of scoring functions. We show the hardness of the problem in theory, and propose path-based indexes that are affordable in memory. Two query-processing algorithms are proposed: one is fast in practice for small queries (with small numbers of patterns as answers) by utilizing the indexes; and the other one is better in theory, with running time linear in the sizes of indexes and answers, which can handle large queries better. We also conduct extensive experimental study to compare our approaches with a naive adaption of known techniques.
Doping of BiScO3–PbTiO3 Ceramics for Enhanced Properties

Compositional modification of ferroelectric BiScO3–PbTiO3 (BS–PT) ceramics was investigated by ZrSc• doping as a function of temperature and electric field. Zr doping decreased the Curie temperature; yet depoling temperature was higher as determined from the weak field measurements. Weight change measurements explain the difference in sintering behavior, emphasizing the effects of sacrificial powder on the defect structure. Possible mechanisms are discussed in collaboration with the crystal structure analysis. Pb′Bi replacement was shown as a possible charge balance mechanism. Pb′Bi is supported by the weight loss data, crystal structure analysis and the weak-field electrical and electromechanical measurements. However, high field measurements contradicted the postulated Pb′Bi mechanism. Unipolar and bipolar high field polarization, strain and dielectric constant measurements indicated that the donor doping creates A-site vacancies; a similar observation to Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT)-based ceramics. At higher temperatures, the property dependence on the composition decreased suggesting that thermally assisted domain motion eliminated the dependence of the domain wall mobility on the extrinsic contributions (i.e., defect structure induced by doping). Effect of ZrSc• doping on electrical and electromechanical properties are reported and discussed as a function of temperature.
Transverse Top Quark Polarization and the ttbar Forward-Backward Asymmetry

The forward-backward asymmetry in top pair production at the Tevatron has long been in tension with the Standard Model prediction. One of the only viable new physics scenarios capable of explaining this anomaly is an s-channel axigluon-like resonance, with the quantum numbers of the gluon but with significant axial couplings to quarks. While such a resonance can lead to a clear bump or excess in the $ t\overline{t} $ or dijet mass spectra, it may also simply be too broad to cleanly observe. Here, we point out that broad $ t\overline{t} $ resonances generally lead to net top and antitop polarizations transverse to the production plane. This polarization is consistent with all discrete spacetime symmetries, and, analogous to the forward-backward asymmetry itself, is absent in QCD at leading order. Within the parameter space consistent with the asymmetry measurements, the induced polarization can be sizable, and might be observable at the Tevatron or the LHC.
Approximate Quantum Error Correction

The errors that arise in a quantum channel can be corrected perfectly if and only if the channel does not decrease the coherent information of the input state. We show that, if the loss of coherent information is small, then approximate quantum error correction is possible. PACS: 03.67.H, 03.65.U
The emergent vinifera wine industry in North Carolina: A descriptive overview

The North Carolina wine industry has grown rapidly over the past decade and is expected to continue growing as the worldwide wine consumption and export of wines rises. Over this same period, rural families and economies in North Carolina have been adversely affected by the steep decline in tobacco production. Several reports indicate that wine grapes are a cash crop with returns comparable to tobacco and can substitute for the loss in tobacco. This qualitative study provides an overview of the structure of the vinifera wine grape industry in North Carolina and identifies the needs and challenges facing the viability of the industry.