cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Catalytic enantioselective difluoroalkylation of aldehydes.

Copper-catalyzed bond scission of pentafluorobutane-1,3-diones generates difluoroenolates that react with aldehydes to give a wide range of chiral α,α-difluoro-β-hydroxy ketones within a few hours in up to 99 % yield and 92 % ee. The synthetic utility of this reaction is demonstrated with the stereoselective synthesis of a chiral anti-1,3-diol exhibiting a central difluoromethylene unit and efficient conversion to a 2,2-difluoro-3-hydroxy carboxylic acid.
Strategies for large scale structural problems on high‐performance computers

Novel computational strategies are presented for the analysis of large and complex structures. The strategies are based on generating the response of the complex structure using large perturbations from that of a simpler model, associated with a simpler structure (or a simpler mathematical/discrete model of the original structure). Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the strategies developed.
Fuelwood Consumption and Participation in Community Forestry in India

Decentralized forest management is an important policy issue in India and elsewhere. Yet there are few careful studies of the impacts of community forestry. The authors try to fill this gap by analyzing National Sample Survey data from 524 villages in five states in India. Their analysis seeks to answer two key questions: (1) Who participates in community forestry and what are the determinants of participation? (2) What is the impact of participation on household fuelwood consumption? The authors find that proximity to forests, leadership, and fuelwood dependence are significant factors in explaining village participation in community forestry. Household participation is strongly correlated with scarcity, a result that has implications for a recent policy to expand community forestry from degraded to less degraded forests. The authors' most important findings are that fuelwood consumption and participation are linked, and household participation has a significant positive impact on consumption. However, the presence of a village level forestry institution does not have a direct effect.
International climate regime beyond 2012 Are quota allocation rules robust to uncertainty

Bringing the United States and major developing countries to control their greenhouse gas emissions will be the key challenge for the international climate regime beyond the Kyoto Protocol. But in the current quantity-based coordination, large uncertainties surrounding future emissions and future abatement opportunities make the costs of any commitment very difficult to assess ex ante, hence a strong risk that the negotiation will be stalled. The authors use a partial equilibrium model of the international allowance market to quantify the economic consequences of the main post-Kyoto quota allocation rules proposed in the literature and to assess how robust these consequences are to uncertainty on future population, economic, and emissions growth. They confirm that, regardless of the rule selected, the prices of allowances and the net costs of climate mitigation for all parties are very sensitive to uncertainty, and in some scenarios very large. This constitutes a strong barrier against adopting any of these schemes if no additional mechanism is introduced to limit the uncertainty on costs. On the other hand, parties' preferred (least-cost) rules are essentially robust to uncertainty. And although these preferences differ across countries, the authors' analysis suggest some bargaining is possible if developing countries make a commitment and join the allowance market earlier in exchange for tighter quotas in the North. This underscores the importance of the rules governing the entry of new parties into the coordination. But the magnitude of the win-win potential strongly depends on how different abatement costs are assumed to be between industrial and developing countries, and on how long that gap is assumed to persist.
An electrostatic image tube with plane windows at input and output

Most modern image converters with electrostatic focus are based on the electron of concentric spheres, which was analyzed by Schagen et al, in 1952. Tubes of this type yield sharp images of good brightness with a very simple point-symmetric diode structure. One disadvantage of this type of optics is its need for an input surface of spherically-convex shape. This feature complicates the adaptation of image tubes to optical systems and may also require the use of separate lenses for field flattening.
Rheologic and structural controls on the deformation of Okmok volcano, Alaska: FEMs, InSAR, and ambient noise tomography

[1] Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data indicate that the caldera of Okmok volcano, Alaska, subsided more than a meter during its eruption in 1997. The large deformation suggests a relatively shallow magma reservoir beneath Okmok. Seismic tomography using ambient ocean noise reveals two low-velocity zones (LVZs). The shallow LVZ corresponds to a region of weak, fluid-saturated materials within the caldera and extends from the caldera surface to a depth of 2 km. The deep LVZ clearly indicates the presence of the magma reservoir beneath Okmok that is significantly deeper (>4 km depth) compared to previous geodetic-based estimates (3 km depth). The deep LVZ associated with the magma reservoir suggests magma remains in a molten state between eruptions. We construct finite element models (FEMs) to simulate deformation caused by mass extraction from a magma reservoir that is surrounded by a viscoelastic rind of country rock embedded in an elastic domain that is partitioned to account for the weak caldera materials observed with tomography. This configuration allows us to reduce the estimated magma reservoir depressurization to within lithostatic constraints, while simultaneously maintaining the magnitude of deformation required to predict the InSAR data. More precisely, the InSAR data are best predicted by an FEM simulating a rind viscosity of 7.5 × 1016 Pa s and a mass flux of −4.2 × 109 kg/d from the magma reservoir. The shallow weak layer within the caldera provides a coeruption stress regime and neutral buoyancy horizon that support lateral magma propagation from the central magma reservoir to extrusion near the rim of the caldera.
Highly connected manifolds with positive Ricci curvature

We prove the existence of Sasakian metrics with positive Ricci curvature on certain highly connected odd dimensional manifolds. In particular, we show that manifolds homeomorphic to the 2k–fold connected sum of S 1 S admit Sasakian metrics with positive Ricci curvature for all k. Furthermore, a formula for computing the diffeomorphism types is given and tables are presented for dimensions 7 and 11.
Financial policy, internal control, and performance Sealed Air Corporation's leveraged special dividend

Abstract This paper examines the role of financial policy as a catalyst for organizational change. The subject is Sealed Air Corporation, a company with substantial free cash flow that undertakes a leveraged special dividend. While the stock price response to announcement is typical, Sealed Air exhibits dramatic, sustained, post-dividend performance improvement. Evidence indicates this performance results from managers' conscious and successful use of financial leverage as a tool to disrupt the status quo and promote internal change, including establishing a new objective, changing compensation systems, and reorganizing manufacturing and capital budgeting processes.
Pool of Basic Patents and Follow-up Innovations

Basic innovations are often fundamental to the development of applications that may be developed by other innovators. In this setting, we investigate whether patent pools can rectify the lack of incentives for developers to invest in applications. Following Green and Scotchmer (1995), we also wonder whether broad basic patents are necessary to provide enough incentives for basic innovators. We show that patent pools are more likely to be formed with patents of very different breadth, or patents of similarly wide breadth. Further, even though patent pools rectify the problem of developers’ incentives, they may reduce the incentive for doing basic research.
Rate constants for the gas‐phase reactions of the OH radical with a series of aromatic hydrocarbons at 296 ± 2 K

Using a relative rate method, rate constants have been determined at 296 ± 2 K for the gas-phase reactions of the OH radical with toluene, the xylenes, and the trimethylbenzenes. Using the recommended literature rate constant for the reaction of OH radicals with propene of (2.66 ± 0.40) × 10−11 cm3 molecule−1 s−1, the following rate constants (in units of 10−12 cm3 molecule−1 s−1) were obtained: toluene, 5.48 ± 0.84; o-xylene, 12.2 ± 1.9; m-xylene, 23.0 ± 3.5; p-xylene, 13.0 ± 2.0; 1,2,3-trimethylbenzene, 32.7 ± 5.3; 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, 32.5 ± 5.0; and 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene, 57.5 ± 9.2. These data are compared with the literature values.
Returns to Lying? Identifying the Effects of Misreporting When the Truth Is Unobserved

Consider an observed binary regressor D and an unobserved binary variable D � , both of which affect some other variable Y. This paper considers nonparametric identication and estimation of the effect of D on Y, conditioning on DD 0. For example, suppose Y is a person's wage, the unobserved D � indicates if the person has been to college, and the observed D indicates whether the individual claims to have been to college. This paper then identies and estimates the difference in average wages between those who falsely claim college experience versus those who tell the truth about not having college. We estimate this average effect of lying to be about 6% to 20%. Nonparametric identication without observing Dis obtained either by observing a variable V that is roughly analogous to an instrument for
Integrated in-Flight Fault Detection and Accommodation: A Model-Based Study

In-flight fault accommodation of safety-critical faults requires rapid detection and remediation. Indeed, for a class of safety-critical faults, detection within a millisecond range is imperative to allow accommodation in time to avert undesired engine behavior. We address these issues with an integrated detection and accommodation scheme. This scheme comprises model-based detection, a bank of binary classifiers, and an accommodation module. The latter biases control signals with pre-defined adjustments to regain operability while staying within established safety limits. The adjustments were developed using evolutionary algorithms to identify optimal biases off-line for multiple faults and points within the flight envelope. These biases are interpolated online for the current flight conditions. High-fidelity simulation results are presented showing accommodation applied to a high-pressure compressor fault on a commercial, high-bypass, twin-spool, turbofan engine throughout the flight envelope.
Adaptive control of induction motor systems despite rotor resistance uncertainty

We present an adaptive, partial-state feedback, position tracking controller for the full-order, nonlinear dynamic model representing an induction motor actuating a mechanical subsystem. The proposed controller compensates for uncertainty in the form of the rotor resistance parameter and all of the mechanical subsystem parameters, while yielding asymptotic rotor position tracking. The proposed controller does not require measurement of rotor flux or rotor current; however, it does exhibit a singularity when the magnitude of the estimated rotor flux is zero. Simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the approach. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.
Construction of β-Haloenamides via Direct Copper-Promoted Coupling of Lactams with 2-Chloro and 2-Bromo Vinyliodides

Cu(I)-catalyzed coupling of lactams with (E)-2-chlorovinyliodides or (E)-2-bromovinyliodides produces the corresponding β-haloenamides in moderate to excellent yields.
Molybdenum Phosphosulfide: An Active, Acid‐Stable, Earth‐Abundant Catalyst for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Introducing sulfur into the surface of molybdenum phosphide (MoP) produces a molybdenum phosphosulfide (MoP|S) catalyst with superb activity and stability for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acidic environments. The MoP|S catalyst reported herein exhibits one of the highest HER activities of any non-noble-metal electrocatalyst investigated in strong acid, while remaining perfectly stable in accelerated durability testing. Whereas mixed-metal alloy catalysts are well-known, MoP|S represents a more uncommon mixed-anion catalyst where synergistic effects between sulfur and phosphorus produce a high-surface-area electrode that is more active than those based on either the pure sulfide or the pure phosphide. The extraordinarily high activity and stability of this catalyst open up avenues to replace platinum in technologies relevant to renewable energies, such as proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers and solar photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting cells.
The Informative Power of Treaty Commitment: Using the Spatial Model to Address Selection Effects

The effects of international institutions on state behavior make up a key research agenda in international-relations scholarship. Because states self-select into treaties, we cannot infer that these commitments have causal effects unless we address this selection effect. I explain the significant limitations of the methods used thus far to overcome this problem and argue that a more effective approach must take into account states' treaty preferences. I describe a novel combination of ideal-point estimation and propensity-score matching that can estimate the probabilities of treaty commitment and use them to test hypotheses. I use this procedure to test the effects of three key international human-rights treaties. My results provide significant new findings regarding the effects of these important agreements. I show that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women has significantly improved respect for women's rights, but that the Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights have not had significant effects on human rights.
The Stability of Matter and Quantum Electrodynamics

Heisenberg was undoubtedly one of the most important physicists of the 20th century, especially concerning the creation of quantum mechanics. It was, therefore, a great honor and privilege for me to be asked to speak at this symposium since quantum mechanics is central to my own interests and forms the basis of my talk, which is about the quantum theory of matter in the large and its interaction with the quantized radiation field discovered earlier by Planck.
Glass Processing in a Microgravity Environment

The scientific and technological aspects of processing glasses in a microgravity environment offer considerable challenge and potential. Activities directed to obtaining information relevant to processing materials on earth and eventually processing materials in space for use in space will be considered. The features on the space environment—reduced gravitational forces, vacuum of large capacity, unique radiation conditions, and unlimited dimensions of space—will be discussed, with emphasis directed to the first. The implications of reduced gravitational forces for containerless processing, freedom from deformation, the study and control of weak forces, and the absence of convection and density segregation will be explored. On-going programs concerned with glass processing in space will be reviewed, and additional areas which merit investigation will be considered.
Synthesis of nitriles via palladium-catalyzed water shuffling from amides to acetonitrile

Palladium-catalyzed synthesis of nitriles from amides has been described. Two similar, but complementary reaction conditions have been identified to convert various amides including α,β,γ,δ-unsaturated amides, cinnamides, aromatic amides and alkyl amides to the corresponding nitriles in good to excellent yield.
The Luminosity Function of Fermi-Detected Flat-Spectrum Radio Quasars

Fermi has provided the largest sample of γ-ray-selected blazars to date. In this work we use a complete sample of flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) detected during the first year of operation to determine the luminosity function (LF) and its evolution with cosmic time. The number density of FSRQs grows dramatically up to redshift ~0.5-2.0 and declines thereafter. The redshift of the peak in the density is luminosity dependent, with more luminous sources peaking at earlier times; thus the LF of γ-ray FSRQs follows a luminosity-dependent density evolution similar to that of radio-quiet active galactic nuclei. Also, using data from the Swift Burst Alert Telescope we derive the average spectral energy distribution (SED) of FSRQs in the 10 keV-300 GeV band and show that there is no correlation between the luminosity at the peak of the γ-ray emission component and its peak frequency. Using this luminosity-independent SED with the derived LF allows us to predict that the contribution of FSRQs to the Fermi isotropic γ-ray background is 9.3^(+1.6)_(–1.0%)(±3% systematic uncertainty) in the 0.1-100 GeV band. Finally we determine the LF of unbeamed FSRQs, finding that FSRQs have an average Lorentz factor of γ = 11.7^(+3.3)_(– 2.2), that most are seen within 5° of the jet axis, and that they represent only ~0.1% of the parent population.
Why Comply? The Domestic Constituency Mechanism

Why do countries comply with international agreements? While scholars have done rigorous work to address compliance and enforcement in an international game, less analytical attention has been paid to domestic mechanisms of compliance. However, because international agreements have domestic distributional consequences, there exist domestic sources of enforcement. In this article, I develop an analytical framework of domestic accountability, where I identify specific channels of influence through which domestic constituencies can influence national compliance. Using a game theoretic model, I show that a government's compliance decision reflects the electoral leverage and the informational status of domestic constituencies. This framework further provides a theoretical rationale for why and how international institutions may influence states' compliance through domestic mechanisms. The European acid rain regime offers an empirical illustration of the domestic constituency argument.I have benefited from the generous help of many colleagues and friends in the course of this research. I would particularly like to thank the editor-in-chief of IO, anonymous reviewers of this article, as well as William Bernhard, Paul Diehl, Daniel Drezner, James Fearon, Robert Keohane, Charles Lipson, Ronald Mitchell, Robert Pahre, Duncan Snidal, Detlef Sprinz, Milan Svolik, and Pieter van Houten. Nazli Avdan provided valuable research assistance. MacArthur Foundation, the U.S. Institute of Peace, Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and the Research Board at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign sponsored various phases of this research.
High Reactivity of Strained Seven‐Membered‐Ring trans‐Alkenes

trans-Oxasilacycloheptenes are highly reactive strained alkenes. Competition reactions showed that these seven-membered ring trans-alkenes underwent [4+2] cycloaddition reactions faster than a trans-cyclooctene. They also reacted with quinones and dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate to form adducts with high diastereoselectivity. Kinetic studies showed that ring strain increases nucleophilicity by approximately 10(9).
Deep Compositional Captioning: Describing Novel Object Categories without Paired Training Data

While recent deep neural network models have achieved promising results on the image captioning task, they rely largely on the availability of corpora with paired image and sentence captions to describe objects in context. In this work, we propose the Deep Compositional Captioner (DCC) to address the task of generating descriptions of novel objects which are not present in paired imagesentence datasets. Our method achieves this by leveraging large object recognition datasets and external text corpora and by transferring knowledge between semantically similar concepts. Current deep caption models can only describe objects contained in paired image-sentence corpora, despite the fact that they are pre-trained with large object recognition datasets, namely ImageNet. In contrast, our model can compose sentences that describe novel objects and their interactions with other objects. We demonstrate our model's ability to describe novel concepts by empirically evaluating its performance on MSCOCO and show qualitative results on ImageNet images of objects for which no paired image-sentence data exist. Further, we extend our approach to generate descriptions of objects in video clips. Our results show that DCC has distinct advantages over existing image and video captioning approaches for generating descriptions of new objects in context.
Cluster–Robust Variance Estimation for Dyadic Data

Dyadic data are common in the social sciences, although inference for such settings involves accounting for a complex clustering structure. Many analyses in the social sciences fail to account for the fact that multiple dyads share a member, and that errors are thus likely correlated across these dyads. We propose a non-parametric, sandwich-type robust variance estimator for linear regression to account for such clustering in dyadic data. We enumerate conditions for estimator consistency. We also extend our results to repeated and weighted observations, including directed dyads and longitudinal data, and provide an implementation for generalized linear models such as logistic regression. We examine empirical performance with simulations and an application to interstate disputes.
Feedback Capacity of Stationary Gaussian Channels

The feedback capacity of additive stationary Gaussian noise channels is characterized as the solution to a variational problem in the noise power spectral density. When specialized to the first-order autoregressive moving-average noise spectrum, this variational characterization yields a closed-form expression for the feedback capacity. In particular, this result shows that the celebrated Schalkwijk-Kailath coding achieves the feedback capacity for the first-order autoregressive moving-average Gaussian channel, positively answering a long-standing open problem studied by Butman, Tiernan-Schalkwijk, Wolfowitz, Ozarow, Ordentlich, Yang-Kavc?ic?-Tatikonda, and others. More generally, it is shown that a k-dimensional generalization of the Schalkwijk-Kailath coding achieves the feedback capacity for any autoregressive moving-average noise spectrum of order k. Simply put, the optimal transmitter iteratively refines the receiver's knowledge of the intended message. This development reveals intriguing connections between estimation, control, and feedback communication.
Molecular beam epitaxy of beryllium-doped GaN buffer layers for AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

We report on a study of buffer layer leakage currents in AlGaN/GaN HEMT structures with AlN buffer layers grown on 6H-SiC substrates by RF-plasma molecular beam epitaxy. We find that the use of a thin Be:GaN layer dramatically reduces the leakage currents in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. Four structures were grown under the same conditions, except for the Be concentration, using quarters of the same n + SiC substrate. Device isolation is improved by a factor of 10 3 and the transistor pinch-off characteristics are improved. Details of the growth conditions and measurements are presented.
Mutual Fund Tournaments: Do Mid-Year Winners Still Compete?

No consensus has emerged from previous studies on the risk-taking behavior of mutual fund managers in response to their relative performance. However, a number of authors commonly view the mutual fund industry as having a yearly tournament. Some managers have ranking objectives: they tend to tweak their risk levels in the second part of the year according to their performance at mid-year. If there is tournament behavior among mutual fund managers, the best way to see it should be to look at those funds that have a chance of winning. Using U.S. domestic equity fund data from 1999 through 2009, the authors find that managers with the best performance at mid-year indeed have this behavior. Furthermore, the results imply that larger mid-year risk shifting is related to higher cumulative return in the second part of the year. There is not enough evidence, however, on whether risk shifting helps improve fund cumulative return over the entire year.
6′-Methylpyrido[3,4- b ]norhomotropane: synthesis and outstanding potency in relation to the α4β2 nicotinic receptor pharmacophore model

Abstract 6′-Methylpyrido[3,4-b]norhomotropane [synthesis as the racemate reported here] is more potent at the α4β2 nicotinic receptor than any previous bridged nicotinoid. The two nitrogens and 6′-methyl substituent are superimposable on the two nitrogens and 6-chloro substituent of epibatidine, with the best fit on comparing the chair conformer of the (1R)-pyridonorhomotropane with natural (1R)-epibatidine. In this pharmacophore model, the 6′-methyl substituent may be equivalent to the acetyl methyl of acetylcholine.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY FOR GLYCOSYLATION WITH SIALIC ACID

Sialic acids are a class of nine-carbon monosaccharides found at the termini of oligosaccharides in many mammalian cellular systems [1]. This class is represented by the prototypical congener N-acetylneuraminic acid (NeuAc, 1, Scheme 1). These unique sugars are ubiquitous, and they are present as components of both glycolipids and glycoproteins. Some examples of sialic acid containing oligosaccharides are shown in Scheme 2. Sialic acids are found in variety of glycosidic linkages, some more common of which are α-2,3or α-2,6-linkages to galactose residues. Additionally, they frequently exist as α-2,8-linked oligomers or polymers. The lack of efficient technology to accomplish glycosylations with sialic acid is one of the long-standing deficiencies in carbohydrate chemistry [2]. Owing to the central role of sialic acids in carbohydrate recognition events, the development of high-yielding and operable methods to synthesize sialic acid glycosides has been the subject of considerable research. The development of such methods allows the construction of complex sialic acid containing glycoconjugates for the investigation of their roles in biochemical and cellular processes. Most classical methods for synthesizing sialic acid glycosides are based on the reaction of an activated sialic acid such as 2 with an oligosaccharide glycosyl acceptor bearing a hydroxyl group nucleophile (Scheme 3) [2]. The leaving group is typically a halogen, such as a chloride or bromide, and the activator is typically a heavy metal salt [3,4]. A regioselective union of the two reacting partners of course relies on appropriate protecting group patterns for both the glycosyl donor and acceptor components. Many of the early methods are generally plagued with side reactions, low yields, and poor stereoselectivity. There are several reasons for
Fixed-Wheel Gates for Penstock Intakes

Application of gates, valves and control mechanisms for hydroelectric installations; use and relative merits of various types of gates; lack of published information on actual overall design of high head flat structural steel fixed wheel gates for emergency closure of penstock or other conduit intakes; major design problems and present design treatment by Bureau of Reclamation.
Learning from Comparison in Algebra

Abstract Mastery of algebra is an important yet difficult milestone for students, suggesting the need for more effective teaching strategies in the algebra classroom. Learning by comparing worked-out examples of algebra problems may be one such strategy. Comparison is a powerful learning tool from cognitive science that has shown promising results in prior small-scale studies in mathematics classrooms. This study reports on a yearlong randomized controlled trial testing the effect of an Algebra I supplemental comparison curriculum on students’ mathematical knowledge. 141 Algebra I teachers were randomly assigned to either implement the comparison curriculum as a supplement to their regular curriculum or to be a ‘business as usual’ control. Use of the supplemental curriculum was much less frequent than requested for many teachers, and there was no main effect of condition on student achievement. However, greater use of the supplemental curriculum was associated with greater procedural student knowledge. These findings suggest a role for comparison in the algebra classroom but also the challenges of supporting teacher integration of new materials into the curriculum.
Simultaneous or Sequential Orthogonal Gradient Formation in a 3D Cell Culture Microfluidic Platform

Biochemical gradients are ubiquitous in biology. At the tissue level, they dictate differentiation patterning or cell migration. Recapitulating in vitro the complexity of such concentration profiles with great spatial and dynamic control is crucial in order to understand the underlying mechanisms of biological phenomena. Here, a microfluidic design capable of generating diffusion-driven, simultaneous or sequential, orthogonal linear concentration gradients in a 3D cell-embedded scaffold is described. Formation and stability of the orthogonal gradients are demonstrated by computational and fluorescent dextran-based characterizations. Then, system utility is explored in two biological systems. First, stem cells are subjected to orthogonal gradients of morphogens in order to mimic the localized differentiation of motor neurons in the neural tube. Similarly to in vivo, motor neurons preferentially differentiate in regions of high concentration of retinoic acid and smoothened agonist (acting as sonic hedgehog), in a concentration-dependent fashion. Then, a rotating gradient is applied to HT1080 cancer cells and the change in migration direction is investigated as the cells adapt to a new chemical environment. The response time of ≈4 h is reported. These two examples demonstrate the versatility of this new design that can also prove useful in many applications including tissue engineering and drug screening.
General Systems Theory and Structural Analysis of Correctional Institution Social Systems

In this article, general systems theory and structural analysis are utilized as a conceptual framework for investigating the effects of norms, roles, and status positions on the daily operations of the correctional institution community. Structural variables which influence the daily operations of the correctional institutions are discussed (for example, allocation, space, central mechanisms, scope, personality, consensus spheres, and structural distance). In addition to the above variables, twenty-one structural variables are identified for the analysis of the correctional institution and its subsystems. 1972). The most basic structural units of social organization are norms, roles, and status-positions. This article's analysis of the inmate system will be based on these most basic structural units.
Quantum gravity of Kerr-Schild spacetimes and the logarithmic correction to Schwarzschild black hole entropy

In the context of effective field theory, we consider quantum gravity with minimally coupled massless particles. Fixing the background geometry to be of the Kerr-Schild type, we fully determine the one-loop effective action of the theory whose finite non-local part is induced by the long-distance portion of quantum loops. This is accomplished using the non-local expansion of the heat kernel in addition to a non-linear completion technique through which the effective action is expanded in gravitational curvatures. Via Euclidean methods, we identify a logarithmic correction to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of Schwarzschild black hole. Using dimensional transmutation the result is shown to exhibit an interesting interplay between the UV and IR properties of quantum gravity.
Solving distributed constraint optimization problems using logic programming

This paper explores the use of answer set programming (ASP) in solving distributed constraint optimization problems (DCOPs). It makes the following contributions: (i) It shows how one can formulate DCOPs as logic programs; (ii) It introduces ASP-DPOP, the first DCOP algorithm that is based on logic programming; (iii) It experimentally shows that ASP-DPOP can be up to two orders of magnitude faster than DPOP (its imperative-programming counterpart) as well as solve some problems that DPOP fails to solve due to memory limitations; and (iv) It demonstrates the applicability of ASP in the wide array of multi-agent problems currently modeled as DCOPs.
Is there a place for sympathy in negotiation? Finding strength in weakness ☆

Abstract Across five studies, we investigate the use of appeals to the moral emotion of sympathy in negotiations. We find that negotiators who actively appeal to the sympathy of their counterparts achieve improved outcomes, both in terms of distributive value claiming as well as integrative value creation. We also compare the effects of sympathy appeals to appeals based on rationality and fairness, and find that sympathy appeals are generally the most effective. These results, then, suggest that negotiators with certain sources of weakness may actually benefit from revealing their weakness, if doing so elicits sympathy in their counterparts. We also explore negotiator power as a possible boundary condition to sympathy appeals. Relative to low power negotiators, we find that high power negotiators’ sympathy appeals are seen as more inappropriate and manipulative, and may damage the negotiators’ relationship going forward.
Information, flexibility, and value added

Abstract Information technologies used in production activities facilitate the acquisition of more detailed and more timely information concerning the state of the production environment. While the effects of distribution shifts on decisions under uncertainty have been much studied, less is known about the effects of information acquisition on revenue generation and choice. In this article we consider the firm level impacts of information acquisition on revenue, on input use, and on profitability. A choice made under uncertainty depends upon the distribution of a random parameter but not upon its realization, while the choice depends only on the realization when this realization is known. Impacts are determined by interactions between second and third cross derivatives of the primal revenue function.
U.S. Coastal Flood Insurance, Risk Perception, and Sea-Level Rise: A Perspective

This article uses coastal flood insurance policy in the United States to discuss the influence of historical and existing policy frameworks on the development of new policy directions in coastal management within a context of risk perception. It is presumed that under conditions of current and future sea-level rise, coastal planning will have to develop forward-looking policy instruments focused on managing human expectations, particularly the expectations of those living along the coast. Planning will be supported, in large part, by evolving scientific evidence on sea-level rise and the attendant hazards that accompany this phenomenon. It is likely that policy proposals for future coastal management will deviate to some degree from previous management practices. The role of previous management practices in supporting a perception of risk that deviates from actual risks is explored using historical and current coastal flood insurance policy in the United States as an example. The goal of this analysis is ...
Inhibition of RPE65 Retinol Isomerase Activity by Inhibitors of Lipid Metabolism

RPE65 is the isomerase catalyzing conversion of all-trans-retinyl ester (atRE) into 11-cis-retinol in the retinal visual cycle. Crystal structures of RPE65 and site-directed mutagenesis reveal aspects of its catalytic mechanism, especially retinyl moiety isomerization, but other aspects remain to be determined. To investigate potential interactions between RPE65 and lipid metabolism enzymes, HEK293-F cells were transfected with expression vectors for visual cycle proteins and co-transfected with either fatty acyl:CoA ligases (ACSLs) 1, 3, or 6 or the SLC27A family fatty acyl-CoA synthase FATP2/SLCA27A2 to test their effect on isomerase activity. These experiments showed that RPE65 activity was reduced by co-expression of ACSLs or FATP2. Surprisingly, however, in attempting to relieve the ACSL-mediated inhibition, we discovered that triacsin C, an inhibitor of ACSLs, also potently inhibited RPE65 isomerase activity in cellulo. We found triacsin C to be a competitive inhibitor of RPE65 (IC50 = 500 nm). We confirmed that triacsin C competes directly with atRE by incubating membranes prepared from chicken RPE65-transfected cells with liposomes containing 0-1 μM atRE. Other inhibitors of ACSLs had modest inhibitory effects compared with triascin C. In conclusion, we have identified an inhibitor of ACSLs as a potent inhibitor of RPE65 that competes with the atRE substrate of RPE65 for binding. Triacsin C, with an alkenyl chain resembling but not identical to either acyl or retinyl chains, may compete with binding of the acyl moiety of atRE via the alkenyl moiety. Its inhibitory effect, however, may reside in its nitrosohydrazone/triazene moiety.
Storia: Summarizing Social Media Content based on Narrative Theory using Crowdsourcing

People from all over the world use social media to share thoughts and opinions about events, and understanding what people say through these channels has been of increasing interest to researchers, journalists, and marketers alike. However, while automatically generated summaries enable people to consume large amounts of data efficiently, they do not provide the context needed for a viewer to fully understand an event. Narrative structure can provide templates for the order and manner in which this data is presented to create stories that are oriented around narrative elements rather than summaries made up of facts. In this paper, we use narrative theory as a framework for identifying the links between social media content. To do this, we designed crowdsourcing tasks to generate summaries of events based on commonly used narrative templates. In a controlled study, for certain types of events, people were more emotionally engaged with stories created with narrative structure and were also more likely to recommend them to others compared to summaries created without narrative structure.
Use of Digital Signage in a Distressed Community: An Example of Community Informatics

Community informatics is emerging as the framework for systematically approaching information systems from a “community” perspective. We discuss how a particular form of information technology, digital signage, was used to solve some of the problems faced by a city and a non-profit association in a distressed community. An analysis of this implementation shows that a community informatics perspective is essential to designing and implementing information and communication technologies systems for communities.
Abstraction mechanisms in CLU

CLU is a new programming language designed to support the use of abstractions in program construction. Work in programming methodology has led to the realization that three kinds of abstractions, procedural, control, and especially data abstractions, are useful in the programming process. Of these, only the procedural abstraction is supported well by conventional languages, through the procedure or subroutine. CLU provides, in addition to procedures, novel linguistic mechanisms that support the use of data and control abstractions.This paper provides an introduction to the abstraction mechanisms in CLU. By means of programming examples, we illustrate the utility of the three kinds of abstractions in program construction and show how CLU programs may be written to use and implement abstractions. We also discuss the CLU library, which permits incremental program development with complete type-checking performed at compile-time.
LR Parsers For Natural Languages

MLR, an extended LR parser, is introduced, and its application to natural language parsing is discussed. An LR parser is a shift-reduce parser which is deterministically guided by a parsing table. A parsing table can be obtained automatically from a context-free phrase structure grammar. LR parsers cannot manage ambiguous grammars such as natural language grammars, because their parsing tables would have multiply-defined entries, which precludes deterministic parsing. MLR, however, can handle multiply-defined entries, using a dynamic programming method. When an input sentence is ambiguous, the MLR parser produces all possible parse trees without parsing any part of the input sentence more than once in the same way, despite the fact that the parser does not maintain a chart as in chart parsing. Our method also provides an elegant solution to the problem of multi-part-of-speech words such as "that". The MLR parser and its parsing table generator have been implemented at Carnegie-Mellon University.
The impact of the World Health Organization 8-steps in wheelchair service provision in wheelchair users in a less resourced setting: a cohort study in Indonesia

For people who have a mobility impairment, access to an appropriate wheelchair is an important step towards social inclusion and participation. The World Health Organization Guidelines for the Provision of Manual Wheelchairs in Less Resourced Settings emphasize the eight critical steps for appropriate wheelchair services, which include: referral, assessment, prescription, funding and ordering, product preparation,fitting and adjusting, user training, and follow-up and maintenance/repairs. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the provision of wheelchairs according to the World Health Organization’s service provision process by United Cerebral Palsy Wheels for Humanity in Indonesia affects wheelchair recipients compared to wait-listed controls.
Congregational Aid: North American Protestant Engagement in International Relief and Development

AbstractA review of large North American Protestant congregations (n = 423) engaging in global relief and development, or ‘holistic mission’ (HM), suggests that half engage in HM activities per year, with the majority of those activities focused on human and physical sectors. Most activities are led by religious NGOs or missionaries and about half are short-term. A mix of proximity, poverty, population, and policy variables direct short- and long-term aid. Findings provide a benchmark for enhancing learning and partnerships among churches, NGOs, and development scholars, ultimately enhancing the efficacy of Protestant aid.
Gender Specific Effects of Mood on Alcohol Seeking Behaviors: Preliminary Findings Using Intravenous Alcohol Self-Administration

Background Although negative mood has long been implicated in differences in alcohol seeking by men and women, little research has used precise, well-controlled laboratory experiments to examine how negative mood affects alcohol-seeking behaviors. Methods A total of 34 (19 women) community-dwelling, alcohol-using adults aged 21 to 32 (mean age = 24.86, SD = 3.40, 74.3% Caucasian; Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test [AUDIT] = 10.1, SD = 3.4) completed 2 counterbalanced intravenous alcohol self-administration sessions: one under negative mood and one under neutral mood. Fourteen individuals (9 women; mean age = 25.00, SD = 2.77) participated in an alcohol “liking” experiment (i.e., free access [FA] drinking) and 20 individuals (10 women; mean age = 24.77, SD = 3.73) participated in an alcohol “wanting” experiment, in which gaining access to alcohol required progressively effortful work. There was no significant difference between men and women on the AUDIT, t(32) = −0.38, p = 0.71. Results Priming with negative mood induction caused a significant decrease in self-reported mood (mean change = −1.85, t(32) = −6.81, p < 0.001), as intended. In FA, negative mood was associated with a significantly increased peak breath alcohol concentration (BrAC; F = 9.41, p = 0.01), with a trend toward a greater effect in men than in women (F = 2.67, p = 0.13). Negative mood also had a significant effect on peak BrAC achieved in the progressive work paradigm (F = 5.28, p = 0.04), with a significantly stronger effect in men (F = 5.35, p = 0.03) than women; men also trended toward more consistent work for alcohol across both neutral and negative sessions. Conclusions These preliminary findings demonstrate a gender-specific response on how mood affects alcohol seeking and suggest gender-specific interventions to prevent mood-based alcohol consumption.
Use of polysomnography to assess safe decannulation in children.

Summary Background Tracheostomy is a lifesaving procedure to secure the airway and provide respiratory support. The decision to decannulate has classically been an individual physician decision without consensus among experts. The objective of this retrospective study was to assess the safety and efficacy of a standard institutional protocol that utilizes the sleep laboratory to assist in the decannulation process. Methods Between 2006 and 2013, patients were identified using a clinical database of decannulation studies. A protocol, finalized in 2005, was implemented for each decannulation attempt. In brief, all patients eligible for decannulation based on physician's assessment undergoes bronchoscopy. Once bronchoscopy findings reveal that the patient's airway is free of significant obstruction, decannulation is conducted in the sleep laboratory. The stoma is covered by an occlusive dressing and respiratory parameters are measured awake and asleep during the day and overnight by polysomnogram (PSG). The patient undergoes re-cannulation if the study shows significant obstruction, hypoventilation, or prolonged desaturation. Results A total of 210 decannulation attempts were performed on 189 patients (16 patients had multiple attempts). One hundred sixty-seven (79.5%) decannulation attempts were successful. Of those successfully decannulated, four (2.4%) were recannulated within 6 months. PSG parameters, specifically the apnea-hypopnea index, percent of total sleep time with oxygen saturation levels less than 90%, and lowest oxygen saturation levels were significantly associated with successful decannulation. No deaths occurred. Conclusions We present a safe and successful decannulation protocol that includes bronchoscopy coupled with PSG evaluation of the patient with the stoma decannulated and covered by an occlusive dressing. Pediatr Pulmonol. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Shopbot economics

Shopbots are Internet agents that automatically search for information pertaining to the price and quality of goods and services. As the prevalence and usage of shopbots continues to increase, one might expect the resultant reduction in search costs to alter market behavior significantly. We explore the potential impact of shopbots upon market dynamics by proposing, analyzing, and simulating a model that is similar in form to some that have been studied by economists investigating the phenomenon of price dispersion. However, the underlying assumptions and methodology of our approach are different, since our ultimate goal is not to explain human economic behavior, but rather to design economic software agents and study their behavior. We study markets consisting of shopbots and other agents representing buyers and sellers in which (i) search costs are nonlinear, (ii) some portion of the buyer population makes no use of search mechanisms, and (iii) shopbots are economically motivated, strategically pricing their information services so as to maximize their own profits. Under these conditions, we find that the market can exhibit a variety of hitherto unobserved dynamical behaviors, including complex limit cycles and the co-existence of several buyer search strategies. We also demonstrate that a shopbot that charges buyers for price information can manipulate markets to its own advantage, sometimes inadvertently benefitting buyers and sellers.