cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Energy-efficient, collision-free medium access control for wireless sensor networks

The traffic-adaptive medium access protocol (TRAMA) is introduced for energy-efficient collision-free channel access in wireless sensor networks. TRAMA reduces energy consumption by ensuring that unicast and broadcast transmissions incur no collisions, and by allowing nodes to assume a low-power, idle state whenever they are not transmitting or receiving. TRAMA assumes that time is slotted and uses a distributed election scheme based on information about traffic at each node to determine which node can transmit at a particular time slot. Using traffic information, TRAMA avoids assigning time slots to nodes with no traffic to send, and also allows nodes to determine when they can switch off to idle mode and not listen to the channel. TRAMA is shown to be fair and correct, in that no idle node is an intended receiver and no receiver suffers collisions. An analytical model to quantify the performance of TRAMA is presented and the results are verified by simulation. The performance of TRAMA is evaluated through extensive simulations using both synthetic-as well as sensor-network scenarios. The results indicate that TRAMA outperforms contention-based protocols (CSMA, 802.11 and S-MAC) and also static scheduled-access protocols (NAMA) with significant energy savings.
Mutual Fund Manager Forecasting Behavior

I examine publicly released annual earnings forecasts issued in conjunction with stock recommendations by mutual fund managers of actively managed open-end mutual funds. I find that mutual fund manager annual earnings forecasts systematically overestimate the earnings number later disclosed at the annual earnings announcement. In further analyses, I attempt to distinguish between two explanations for this forecast bias: an untruthful reporting bias (market manipulation) and a truthful cognitive bias (optimism). These explanations generate different predictions about the timing of changes in fundholdings of forecasted securities between the forecast release and annual earnings announcement dates. I interpret my findings as more consistent with an optimism explanation for mutual fund manager annual forecast bias and less consistent with a market manipulation explanation for this bias. I am, however, unable to eliminate an unobservable selection bias either in the decision of the mutual fund manager to report a forecast publicly or in the media’s decision to publish that forecast as an explanation for my finding that mutual fund manager forecasts are biased.
Empirical analysis of corporate savings in Egypt

This paper presents empirical analysis of corporate savings in Egypt using two datasets: a survey of small and medium enterprises and data from accounting statements for the largest publicly traded firms. There are two main findings. First, larger firms invest more (they have more physical saving) and have greater access to finance than smaller firms. Second, despite the financial deepening, the use of credit products has been declining during the past decade. The study reaffirms the importance of improving access to financial services in Egypt and points out the need for more research. In addition, policies aimed at reducing macroeconomic volatility are likely to result in increased investment and growth in Egypt.
Probe initial parton density and formation time via jet quenching

Medium modification of jet fragmentation function due to multiple scattering and induced gluon radiation leads directly to jet quenching or suppression of leading particle distribution from jet fragmentation. One can extract an effective total parton energy loss which can be related to the total transverse momentum broadening. For an expanding medium, both are shown to be sensitive to the initial parton density and formation time. Therefore, one can extract the initial parton density and formation time from simultaneous measurements of parton energy loss and transverse momentum broadening. Implication of the recent experimental data on effects of detailed balance in parton energy loss is also discussed.
Truancy: a look at definitions in the USA and other territories

There is no shortage of definitions for truancy. One state may house many different definitions and there are a variety of challenges arising from this fact. One of the most important to researchers, policy-makers and educators alike, is that because of the lack of uniformity and consistency, it is difficult to compile and ascertain the totality of the phenomenon. The lack of a consistent definition influences a wide range of outcomes including policy matters, financial resources and definitive responses and intervention strategies. This manuscript attempts to synthesise the literature through the examination of operational definitions of truancy in the USA and in other territories. In addition to these operational definitions, expert opinions from focus groups proposed an enhanced definition of truancy. The study is qualitative and uses focus groups and synthesis of the literature to frame the work. Findings are presented. The goal is to synthesise the literature, not in its entirety, but in an attempt t...
El auge del consumo en México: una interpretación Pos Keynesiana

This paper considers the Mexican "consumer boom" of the late 1980s and early 990s in the theoretical context of the Post Keynesian literature on endogenous money. The consumer boom poses an apparent paradox: on the one hand the rapid expansion of consumer lending during this period can be described by some of the more powerful arguments in the endogenous money literature. On the other hand, the Mexican state played a large role in creating the conditions that provoked this expansion. In closing we point to an older variety of Post Keynesian literature, exemplified by Juan Noyola, which allows us to make the necessary political economy distinctions that more recent Post Keynesian writings overlook.
Asymmetric hydrogenation of aromatic olefins catalyzed by iridium complexes of proline derived phosphine–oxazoline ligands

Abstract The synthesis of a series of phosphine–oxazoline ligands is reported. This ligands are synthesized by reaction of a phosphine chloride with the secondary nitrogen of proline. Upon coordination to iridium the resulting complexes can be used in the asymmetric hydrogenation of simple olefins. The effect of different counter ions and substitution at the oxazoline and the phosphine is reported.
Approximate Reduction of Dynamical Systems

The reduction of dynamical systems has a rich history, with many important applications related to stability, control and verification. Reduction is typically performed in an "exact" manner - as is the case with mechanical systems with symmetry - which, unfortunately, limits the type of systems to which it can be applied. The goal of this paper is to consider a more general form of reduction, termed approximate reduction, in order to extend the class of systems that can be reduced. Using notions related to incremental stability, we give conditions on when a dynamical system can be projected to a lower dimensional space while providing hard bounds on the induced errors, i.e., when it is behaviorally similar to a dynamical system on a lower dimensional space. These concepts are illustrated on a series of examples
Limit groups are CAT(0)

We prove that every limit group acts geometrically on a CAT(0) space with the isolated flats property.
Informed and Uninformed Investment in Housing: The Downside of Diversification

Mortgage lenders that concentrate in a few markets invest more in information collection than diversified lenders. Concentrated lenders focus on the information-intensive jumbo market and on high-risk borrowers. They are better positioned to price risks and, thus, ration credit less. Adverse selection, however, leads to higher retention of mortgages relative to diversified lenders. Finally, concentrated lenders have higher profits than diversified lenders, their profits vary less systematically, and their stock prices fell less during the 2007--2008 credit crisis. The results imply that geographic diversification led to a decline in screening by lenders, which likely played a role in the 2007--2008 crisis. The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com., Oxford University Press.
How Long Have I Had My Cancer, Doctor?

“How long have I had this cancer, Doctor?” This is a question that patients frequently ask their oncologist.
The Role of Feedback in Two-Way Secure Communications

Most practical communication links are bidirectional. In these models, since the source node also receives signals, its encoder has the option of computing its output based on the signals it received in the past. On the other hand, from a practical point of view, it would also be desirable to identify the cases where such an encoder design may not improve communication rates. This question is particularly interesting for the case where the transmitted messages and the feedback signals are subject to eavesdropping. In this paper, we investigate the question of how much impact the feedback has on the secrecy capacity by studying two fundamental models. First, we consider the Gaussian two-way wiretap channel and derive an outer bound for its secrecy capacity region. We show that the secrecy rate loss can be unbounded when feedback signals are not utilized except for a special case we identify, and thus conclude that utilizing feedback can be highly beneficial in general. Second, we consider a half-duplex Gaussian two-way relay channel where the relay node is also an eavesdropper, and find that the impact of feedback is less pronounced compared to the previous scenario. Specifically, the loss in secrecy rate, when ignoring the feedback, is quantified to be less than 0.5 bit per channel use when the relay power goes to infinity. This achievable rate region is obtained with simple time sharing along with cooperative jamming, which, with its simplicity and near optimum performance, is a viable alternative to an encoder that utilizes feedback signals.
Markov chains for testing redundant software

A preliminary design for a validation experiment has been developed that addresses several problems unique to assuring the extremely high quality of multiple-version programs in process-control software. The procedure uses Markov chains to model the error states of the multiple version programs. The programs are observed during simulation process-control testing, and estimates are obtained for the transition probabilities between the states of the Markov chain. The Markov chain model is then expanded into a reliability model that takes into account the inertia of the system being controlled. The reliability of the multiple version software is computed from this reliability model at a given confidence level using confidence intervals obtained for the transition probabilities during the experiment. An example demonstrating the method is provided. >
Trust and Betrayal in the Medical Marketplace

INTRODUCTION 919 I. TRUST, BETRAYAL, AND CONTRACT IN THE HEALTH SPHERE 920 A. The Contractarian Challenge to Trust-Supporting Legal Rules......... 922 B. Selfishness-Suppressing Norms and the Case Against Contract ........ 925 C. Ex Ante Choices and "Later Selves " 927 D. Opportunism and the "Trust Problem " 930 II. CAN THE CASE FOR CONTRACT BE SAVED? 932 A. Is There a Crisis of Trust? 933 B. The Relationship Between Health Care Law and Trust 934 1. Treating trust as a problem 935 2. Treating trust as a virtue 939 3. Regulation as distrust. 947 CONCLUSION: MARKETS FOR TRUST AND BETRAYAL . 949
Learning about Predictability: The Effects of Parameter Uncertainty on Dynamic Asset Allocation

This paper examines the effects of uncertainty about the stock return predictability on optimal dynamic portfolio choice in a continuous time setting for a longhorizon investor. Uncertainty about the predictive relation affects the optimal portfolio choice through dynamic learning, and leads to a state-dependent relation between the optimal portfolio choice and the investment horizon. There is substantial market timing in the optimal hedge demands, which is caused by stochastic covariance between stock return and dynamic learning. The opportunity cost of ignoring predictability or learning is found to be quite substantial. How MUCH SHOULD A "long-horizon" investor allocate to equity? The conventional wisdom says that a long-horizon investor should invest more in equity because, over long horizons, above-average returns tend to offset belowaverage returns. This is the notion of "time diversification." Samuelson (1989, 1990), among others, has argued that the notion of time diversification is spurious: when stock returns are i.i.d., for example, the optimal portfolio is independent of the horizon for an investor with an isoelastic utility function. When stock returns are predictable, however, the optimal stock allocation does depend on the investment horizon, even if the investor has an isoelastic utility. In this setting, the investment opportunity set is stochastic and the intertemporal hedge demand introduced by Merton (1971) becomes central to the dynamics of asset allocation. In this paper, we study how learning about stock return predictability affects the intertemporal hedge demand and the optimal dynamic portfolio rules, and re-examine the validity of the prediction of time diversification in the context of uncertain predictability. Although there is a growing body of evidence that stock returns are predictable, the existence of predictability is still subject to considerable debate. On the one hand, many studies have identified variables that predict future
CESR-C: A wiggler-dominated collider

CESR-c operates with twelve 2.1 tesla wigglers that account for 90% of the synchrotron radiation with beam energy in the range of 1.8 to 2.1 GeV. The wigglers reduce the radiation damping time from 0.5 seconds to 50 milliseconds. The carefully designed wigglers restrict neither physical nor dynamic aperture of the storage ring though both quadrupole and sextupole distributions must be tailored to compensate the primary optics effects of the wigglers. Colliding beam performance limits are determined by the numerous parasitic beam-beam interactions in the single ring. Several approaches taken to mitigate these limiting effects are described herein. The CESR-c wigglers are an excellent match to the requirements for future damping rings. Flexible optics, extensive infrastructure, and resource expertise, form an effective test bed for assessment and solution of damping ring issues such as electron cloud and ion effects, and exploring ultra-low emittance beams.
Preliminary in vitro studies on two potent, water-soluble trimethoprim analogues with exceptional species selectivity against dihydrofolate reductase from Pneumocystis carinii and Mycobacterium avium.

Abstract 2,4-Diamino-5-[3′,4′-dimethoxy-5′-(5-carboxy-1-pentynyl)]benzylpyrimidine (6) and 2,4-diamino-5-[3′,4′-dimethoxy-5′-(4-carboxyphenylethynyl)benzylpyrimidine (7) were synthesized from 2,4-diamino-5-(5′-iodo-3′,4′-dimethoxybenzyl)pyrimidine (9) via a Sonogashira reaction with appropriate acetylenic esters followed by saponification, and were tested as inhibitors of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) from Pneumocystis carinii (Pc), Toxoplasma gondii (Tg), Mycobacterium avium (Ma), and rat in comparison with the widely used antibacterial agent 2,4-diamino-5-(3′,4′,5′-trimethoxybenzyl)pyrimidine (trimethoprim, TMP). The selectivity index (SI) for each compound was calculated by dividing its 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) against rat DHFR by its IC50 against Pc, Tg, or Ma DHFR. The IC50 of 6 against Pc DHFR was 1.0 nM, with an SI of 5000. Compound 7 had an IC50 of 8.2 nM against Ma DHFR, with an SI of 11000. By comparison, the IC50 of TMP was 12000 nM against Pc, 300 nM against Ma, and 180000 against rat DHFR. The potency and selectivity values of 6 and 7 were not as high against Tg as they were against Pc or Ma DHFR, but nonetheless exceeded those of TMP. Because of the outstanding selectivity of 6 against Pc and of 7 against Ma DHFR, these novel analogues may be viewed as promising leads for further structure–activity optimization.
Sampling design of multiwave studies with an application to the Massachusetts health care panel study

A technique is presented which provides guidance on the spacing of follow-up waves in a multiwave study. Only information from the baseline wave is needed, as well as rough parameter estimates for the survival distribution. The computations use the expected Fisher information; a new method for its calculation is given. An analysis of the effects of simplifying assumptions, such as presuming that a distributional parameter is known, shows that gross discrepancies may result. Data from the Massachusetts Health Care Panel Study (MHCPS) are used for a demonstration. The MHCPS example shows that this technique can prevent large inefficiencies in multiwave experimental design.
Search for 1st-Generation Leptoquarks Using the ATLAS Detector

A search for the pair-production of scalar leptoquarks in 1 fb−1 of 7 TeV ATLAS data recorded at the LHC is presented. Leptoquarks are hypothetical color-triplet bosons which carry both quark and lepton flavor, and thus decay to a quark and a lepton, unlike any of the Standard Model particles. Leptoquarks arise from many beyond the Standard Model theories. The channels examined in this analysis require at least one leptoquark decay to an electron, which includes the final states eejj and eνjj. No excess of events is observed, thus limits on allowed leptoquark masses are determined. We exclude at 95% confidence level the production of first-generation scalar leptoquarks with mass m LQ < 660 (607) GeV when assuming a branching fraction of leptoquark decay to an electron of 1.0 (0.5).
Multiple-access algorithms for a system with mixed traffic: high and low priority

The author considers a system where a single channel is shared by both high- and low-priority data. He assumes packet transmissions from both data categories and slotted channel. In addition, he assumes binary (collision versus noncollision) feedback per slot, and limited feedback sensing capabilities for all users in the system. He assumes that the high-priority data are generated by a well-defined finite-number user population, while he adopts the limit Poisson user model (infinitely many independent Bernoulli users) for the low-priority traffic. For this system, he proposes and analyzes a transmission algorithm which is a mixture of a deterministic tree search for the high-priority users, and a random-access algorithm for the low-priority traffic. The algorithm is stable for both traffic classes, it guarantees a strict upper bound on the delays of the high-priority packets, and induces good throughput-delay characteristics for the low-priority data. >
Evaluation of an achievable rate region for the broadcast channel

Tbe problem of transmission of separate messages to each of two receivers over a general binary-input broadcast channel is investigated. A new approach to a class of information-theoretic problems is developed and applied to obtain bounds on the cardinalities of auxiliary random variables. These bounds permit the calculation of two different regions of achievable rate pairs which are derived from the Cover-van der Meulen region {\cal R} of achievable rate triples. Numerical evaluation of these regions of rate pairs for two examples demonstrates that the region {\cal R} can be enlarged. This enlargement is accomplished by making {\cal R} internally consistent, as the true capacity region must be. The results display complex interactions between common and separate information in broadcast problems.
Improving DRAM performance by parallelizing refreshes with accesses

Modern DRAM cells are periodically refreshed to prevent data loss due to leakage. Commodity DDR (double data rate) DRAM refreshes cells at the rank level. This degrades performance significantly because it prevents an entire DRAM rank from serving memory requests while being refreshed. DRAM designed for mobile platforms, LPDDR (low power DDR) DRAM, supports an enhanced mode, called per-bank refresh, that refreshes cells at the bank level. This enables a bank to be accessed while another in the same rank is being refreshed, alleviating part of the negative performance impact of refreshes. Unfortunately, there are two shortcomings of per-bank refresh employed in today's systems. First, we observe that the perbank refresh scheduling scheme does not exploit the full potential of overlapping refreshes with accesses across banks because it restricts the banks to be refreshed in a sequential round-robin order. Second, accesses to a bank that is being refreshed have to wait. To mitigate the negative performance impact of DRAM refresh, we propose two complementary mechanisms, DARP (Dynamic Access Refresh Parallelization) and SARP (Subarray Access Refresh Parallelization). The goal is to address the drawbacks of per-bank refresh by building more efficient techniques to parallelize refreshes and accesses within DRAM. First, instead of issuing per-bank refreshes in a round-robin order, as it is done today, DARP issues per-bank refreshes to idle banks in an out-of-order manner. Furthermore, DARP proactively schedules refreshes during intervals when a batch of writes are draining to DRAM. Second, SARP exploits the existence of mostly-independent subarrays within a bank. With minor modifications to DRAM organization, it allows a bank to serve memory accesses to an idle subarray while another subarray is being refreshed. Extensive evaluations on a wide variety of workloads and systems show that our mechanisms improve system performance (and energy efficiency) compared to three state-of-the-art refresh policies and the performance benefit increases as DRAM density increases.
Asymmetric Catalytic [4+3] Cycloaddition Reactions

Although the [4+3] cycloaddition reaction has seen considerable attention over the past 10–15 years, only a few investigations have been dedicated to the development of a catalytic, asymmetric process. This short review covers some of the advances made in the area of absolute stereocontrol in this higher order cycloaddition and will hopefully serve as an inspiration towards the development of asymmetric, catalytic versions of the reaction.
Projective invariants of CR-hypersurfaces

We study the equivalence problem under projective transformation for CR-hypersurfaces of complex projective space. A complete set of projective differential invariants for analytic hypersurfaces is given. The self-dual strongly ℂ-linearly convex hypersurfaces are characterized.
Filial Dependency and Recantation of Child Sexual Abuse Allegations

ABSTRACT Objective Controversy abounds regarding the process by which child sexual abuse victims disclose their experiences, particularly the extent to which and the reasons why some children, once having disclosed abuse, later recant their allegations. This study examined the prevalence and predictors of recantation among 2- to 17-year-old child sexual abuse victims. Method Case files ( n = 257) were randomly selected from all substantiated cases resulting in a dependency court filing in a large urban county between 1999 and 2000. Recantation (i.e., denial of abuse postdisclosure) was scored across formal and informal interviews. Cases were also coded for characteristics of the child, family, and abuse. Results A 23.1% recantation rate was observed. Multivariate analyses supported a filial dependency model of recantation, whereby abuse victims who were more vulnerable to familial adult influences (i.e., younger children, those abused by a parent figure and who lacked support from the nonoffending caregiver) were more likely to recant. An alternative hypothesis, that recantations resulted from potential inclusion of cases involving false allegations, was not supported. Conclusions Results provide new insight into the process by which children reveal interpersonal trauma and have implications for debates concerning the credibility of child sexual abuse allegations and treatment in dependency samples. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry , 2007;46(2):162-170.
State and Local Finance: Increasing Focus on Fiscal Sustainability

Researchers in state and local finance have placed increasing focus in recent years on "fiscal sustainability," the ability of governments to meet existing spending commitments with existing resources. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), which establishes accounting and financial reporting standards for states and local governments, is considering setting standards in this area. This article analyzes recent history of states' expenditures and revenues as context for potential trends. It examines descriptions of fiscal sustainability that have been offered in previous literature and suggests a need for clear definition. The article discusses potential implications of action by GASB in this area, as well as developments in the economy and potential action at the federal level that may influence state and local budgets in the years ahead. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.
P-COMPLETE GEOMETRIC PROBLEMS

In this paper we show that it is impossible to solve a number of “natural” two-dimensional geometric problems in polylog time with a polynomial number of processors (unless P=NC). Thus, we disprove a popular belief that there are no natural P-complete geometric problems in the plane. The problems we address include instances of polygon triangulation, planar partitioning, and geometric layering. Our results are based on non-trivial reductions from the monotone circuit value and planar circuit value problems.
The Scientific Life of John Bahcall

This article follows the scientific life of John Norris Bahcall, including his tenacious pursuit of the solar neutrino problem, his contributions to our understanding of galaxies, quasars, and their emissions, and his leadership of and advocacy for astronomy and astrophysics.
Periodic binary sequences with the "trinomial property"

Periodic binary sequences with the "trinomial property" are considered. Some necessary and sufficient conditions for "trinomial pairs" of a nonlinear sequence of period 2/sup n/-1 as well as classifications for trinomial pairs are derived. Complete searches for trinomial pairs of sequences have been completed for 3/spl les/n/spl les/17. We list them here for n/spl les/12.
A Reinforcement Learning - Adaptive Control Architecture for Morphing

Thispaperdevelopsacontrolmethodologyformorphing,whichcombinesMachineLearning and Adaptive Dynamic Inversion Control. The morphing control function, which uses Reinforcement Learning, is integrated with the trajectory tracking function, which uses StructuredAdaptiveModelInversionControl.Optimalityisaddressedbycostfunctionsrepresenting optimal shapes corresponding to specified operating conditions, and an episodic Reinforcement Learning simulation is developed to learn the optimal shape change policy. The methodology is demonstrated by a numerical example of a 3-D morphing air vehicle, which simultaneously tracks a specified trajectory and autonomously morphs over a set of shapes corresponding toflight conditions along the trajectory. Results presented in the paper show that this methodology is capable of learning the required shape and morphing into it, and accurately tracking the reference trajectory in the presence of parametric uncertainties and initial error conditions.
Synthesis of Cytotoxic Palmerolides

The chemical synthesis of the palmerolides is the subject of this review. The palmerolides are a family of Antarctic marine natural products, many of which display potent and selective cytotoxicity against melanoma cells. The confluence of promising bioactivities, limited natural supplies, and complex structures makes the palmerolides exciting targets for chemical synthesis. To date, several approaches have been reported, and a consensus strategy based on convergent fragment assembly has emerged. Collective wisdom from myriad approaches reviewed here may enable hybrid strategies capable of delivering larger amounts of synthetic palmerolides to support continued biological studies. Considering the relative lack of options for melanoma chemotherapy and the intriguing activity profile of the palmerolides, efforts aimed at developing an efficient, gram-scale synthesis of palmerolide A and congeneric structures should be given a high priority.
Where the sidewalk ends: jets and missing energy search strategies for the 7 TeV LHC

This work explores the potential reach of the 7 TeV LHC to new colored states in the context of simplified models and addresses the issue of which search regions are necessary to cover an extensive set of event topologies and kinematic regimes. This article demonstrates that if searches are designed to focus on specific regions of phase space, then new physics may be missed if it lies in unexpected corners. Simple multiregion search strategies can be designed to cover all of kinematic possibilities. A set of benchmark models are created that cover the qualitatively different signatures and a benchmark multiregion search strategy is presented that covers these models.
The first successful organ transplants in man

lthough renal transplantation had been performed poradically during the first half of the 1900s, planned rograms for human organ transplantation started only n the late 1940s. At that time, clinicians in Paris, Lonon, Edinburgh, and Boston began renal transplantaion in unmodified human recipients in spite of the arnings and pessimistic predictions of many scientists nd experienced clinicians. Many bioscientists had difficulty understanding the etermined optimism of clinicians willing to evaluate ny type of terminally ill uremic patients, most of whom ere young and otherwise healthy. Tantalizing reports of unctioning human renal transplants had surfaced from ime to time, these hints of success were additional ncouragement. The full story of successful organ transplantation in man eaves together three separate pathways: the study of renal isease, skin grafting in twins, and surgical determination. leitmotif permeates each of these pathways, ie, a single vent or report was critical for medical progress.
A Model on Knowledge and Endogenous Growth

The authors present a model of endogenous growth in which the main engine of economic development is knowledge. Using a two-sector closed economy model that comprises of a conventional goods-producing sector and a research and development sector, their model incorporates two key aspects of knowledge: technology and human capital. Steady-state equilibrium conditions show that the growth rate of per capita income hinges on the growth rate of human capital. While the growth rate of human capital has been previously shown to affect the growth of the economy in transition between steady states or balanced growth paths, the authors are the first to link the growth rate of human capital to the steady-state growth rate of productivity and output per worker. Furthermore, this result does not exhibit scale effects or policy invariance, both of which have been longstanding concerns with the predictions of endogenous growth models developed in the 1990s.
Carbon dioxide and the early Eocene climate of western North America

We present results from an early Eocene (ca. 50–56 Ma ago) regional modeling sensitivity experiment that examines the role of atmospheric CO 2 in determining the regional climate of western North America. This is the first paleoclimate modeling study to investigate the possible role of increased CO 2 in influencing the early Eocene climate on a regional scale. We take a regional modeling approach with the goal of using higher spatial resolution to elucidate the role of specific climate forcing mechanisms (here, CO 2 ) upon a region with relatively dense paleoclimate proxy data coverage. The spatial resolution of global climate models does not permit the close comparison of model results to proxy climate data in a way that helps to distinguish between regional and global climate forcings, which is a goal of this study. While our results suggest that CO 2 was most likely at least as high as 2240 ppm, this high concentration does not yield a regional climate that matches regional proxy data in all aspects. Therefore, in combination with high atmospheric CO 2 , other forcing factors must have played significant roles in defining the nature of early Eocene climate.
Minimum Wages, Market Inflexibilities, and Female Employment in Select OECD Countries

Using international and intertemporal variations in minimum wages, employment protection laws, minimum wage regulations and female work behavior within the OECD, empirical analysis provide evidence that higher minimum wages are associated with lower female labor force participation and employment. This association is more significant in countries with more stringent employment protection laws, lower female tertiary educational enrollment and higher fertility. In addition to the extensive margin analysis, it is shown that minimum wage levels are positively correlated with the ratio of part-time workers. That is, minimum wages are associated with not only lower participation and employment rates among women but also with higher marginalization of female work. This association is stronger in countries with more inflexible labor markets and less active labor market policies. Moreover, existence of a subminimum wage for youths implies further reduction of employment while increasing part-time job incidence for females, when the minimum wage increases.
X-Radiography of Cargo Containers

The problem of detecting a nuclear weapon smuggled in an ocean-going cargo container has not been solved, and the detonation of such a device in a large city could produce casualties and property damage exceeding those of September 11, 2001 by orders of magnitude. Any means of detecting such threats must be fast and cheap enough to screen the millions of containers shipped each year, and must be capable of distinguishing a threatening quantity of fissionable material from the complex loading of masses of innocent material found in many containers. Here we show that radiography with energetic X-rays produced by a 10 MeV electron accelerator, taking advantage of the high density and specific atomic properties of fissionable material, may be a practical solution.
Lessons for Public Pensions from Utah's Move to Pension Choice

We explore what happened when the state of Utah moved away from its traditional defined benefit pension. In its place, it offered new hires a choice between a conventional defined contribution plan and a hybrid plan option, where the latter has both a guaranteed benefit component and a defined contribution plan where employees bear investment risk. We show that around 60% of new hires failed to make any active choice and, as a result, were automatically defaulted into the hybrid plan. Slightly more than half of those who made an active choice elected the hybrid plan. Post-reform, employees who failed to actively elect a primary retirement plan were also far less likely to enroll in a supplemental retirement account, compared with new hires who actively selected a plan. We also find that employees hired following the reform were more likely to leave public employment, resulting in higher separation rates. This could reflect a reduction in the desirability of public employment under the new pension design and an improving economic climate in the state. Our results imply that public pension reformers must consider employee responses in addition to potential cost savings, when developing and enacting major pension plan changes.
THE BEST AND THE REST: REVISITING THE NORM OF NORMALITY OF INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

We revisit a long-held assumption in human resource management, organizational behavior, and industrial and organizational psychology that individual performance follows a Gaussian (normal) distribution. We conducted 5 studies involving 198 samples including 633,263 researchers, entertainers, politicians, and amateur and professional athletes. Results are remarkably consistent across industries, types of jobs, types of performance measures, and time frames and indicate that individual performance is not normally distributed—instead, it follows a Paretian (power law) distribution. Assuming normality of individual performance can lead to misspecified theories and misleading practices. Thus, our results have implications for all theories and applications that directly or indirectly address the performance of individual workers including performance measurement and management, utility analysis in preemployment testing and training and development, personnel selection, leadership, and the prediction of performance, among others.
Learning and loss functions: comparing optimal and operational monetary policy rules

Modern Bayesian tools aided by MCMC techniques allow researchers to estimate models with increasingly intricate dynamics. This paper highlights the application of these tools with an empirical assessment of optimal versus operational monetary policy rules within a standard new Keynesian macroeconomic model with adaptive learning. The question of interest is which of the two policy rules – contemporaneous data or expectations of current variables – better describes the policy undertaken by the US central bank. Results for the data period 1954:III to 2007:I indicate that the data strongly favours contemporaneous expectations over real time data.
Surface segregation effects in electrocatalysis: kinetics of oxygen reduction reaction on polycrystalline Pt3Ni alloy surfaces

Effects of surface segregation on the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) have been studied on a polycrystalline Pt3Ni alloy in acid electrolyte using ultra high vacuum (UHV) surface sensitive probes and the rotating ring disk electrode (RRDE) method. Preparation, modification and characterization of alloy surfaces were done in ultra high vacuum (UHV). Depending on the preparation method, two different surface compositions of the Pt3Ni alloy are produced: a sputtered surface with 75 % Pt and an annealed surface (950 K ) with 100 % Pt. The latter surface is designated as the 'Pt-skin' structure, and is a consequence of surface segregation, i.e., replacement of Ni with Pt atoms in the first few atomic layers. Definitive surface compositions were established by low energy ion scattering spectroscopy (LEISS). The cyclic voltammetry of the 'Pt-skin' surface as well as the pseudocapacitance in the hydrogen adsorption/desorption potential region is similar to a polycrystalline Pt electrode. Activities of ORR on Pt3Ni alloy surfaces were compared to polycrystalline Pt in 0.1M HClO4 electrolyte for the observed temperature range of 293 Pt3Ni (75% Pt) > Pt with the maximum catalytic enhancement obtained formore » the 'Pt-skin' being 4 times that for pure Pt. Catalytic improvement of the ORR on Pt3Ni and 'Pt-skin' surfaces was assigned to the inhibition of Pt-OHad formation (on Pt sites) versus polycrystalline Pt. Production of H2O2 on both surfaces were similar compared to the pure Pt. Kinetic analyses of RRDE data confirmed that kinetic parameters for the ORR on the Pt3Ni and 'Pt-skin' surfaces are the same as on pure Pt: reaction order, m=1, two identical Tafel slopes, activation energy, {approx} 21-25 kJ/mol. Therefore the reaction mechanism on both Pt3Ni and 'Pt-skin' surfaces is the same as one proposed for pure Pt i.e. 4e{sup -} reduction pathway.« less
Transport Dynamics of Single Ions in Segmented Microstructured Paul Trap Arrays

Recently it was proposed 1 2 that small groups of ions as qubit carriers in miniaturized, two-dimensional electrode arrays might be a scalable approach for large-scale quantum computation. By this method processing of quantum information is achieved by shuttling ions to and from separate memory and qubit manipulation zones enabling quantum computation via principles of quantum communication. The transport of ion groups in this scheme plays a major role and requires precise experimental control and fast shuttling times. We discuss theoretically the transport performance and limitations associated with shuttling ions in typical miniaturized Paul trap arrays by modelling the process by a dragged, parametrically driven harmonic oscillator. In particular we discuss the relationship between the classical and quantum description for these transport processes, and present a theoretical framework to minimize the energy transfer to the oscillatory motion caused by the transport. We also suggest a numerical scheme for finding waveforms for optimum switching of the control potentials utilizing a regularization approach. Based on our results, we finally estimate the needed resources for a well-controlled regime and find a practical design rule for configurations of realistic trap arrays.
The fan observatory bench optical spectrograph (FOBOS)

ABSTRACT The Fan Observatory Bench Optical Spectrograph (FOBOS) is intended for single‐object optical spectroscopy at moderate resolution ( \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} \normalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape $R\sim 1500{\mbox{--}} 3000$ \end{document} ) using a fiber‐fed, bench‐mounted design to maintain stability. Whenever possible, the instrument uses off‐the‐shelf components to maintain a modest cost. FOBOS supports Galactic astronomy projects that require consistently well‐measured (∼5 km s−1) radial velocities for large numbers of broadly distr...
Restoration of Quaking Aspen Woodlands Invaded by Western Juniper

Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis spp. occidentalis Hook.) woodlands are rapidly replacing lower elevation (, 2 100 m) quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) stands throughout the northern Great Basin. Aspen restoration is important because these communities provide critical habitat for many wildlife species and contain a high diversity of understory shrubs and herbaceous species. We studied two juniper removal treatments to restore aspen woodlands. Treatments included cutting one-third of the juniper trees followed by early fall burning (FALL) or early spring burning (SPRING). Selective cutting of juniper was performed to increase cured surface (0–2 m) fuel levels to carry fire through the woodlands. We tested treatment effectiveness at removing juniper from seedlings to mature trees, measured aspen sucker recruitment, and evaluated the response to treatment of shrub and herbaceous cover and diversity. In the FALL treatment, burning eliminated all remaining juniper trees and seedlings, stimulated a 6-fold increase in aspen suckering (10 000 ha � 1 ), but initially resulted in a significant reduction in herbaceous cover. Spring burning removed 80% of the mature juniper trees that remained after cutting. However, 50% of juniper juveniles survived the SPRING treatment, which will permit juniper to redominate these stands in less than 80 years. Aspen suckering in the SPRING increased only 2.5-fold to 5 300 stems ha � 1 by the third year after fire. In the SPRING, herbaceous cover increased 330% and the number of species observed doubled by the third year after fire. If the management objective is to eliminate western juniper with minimal cutting and stimulate greater aspen suckering, we recommend that woodlands be burned in the fall. If the objective is to maintain shrub and herbaceous cover and moderately increase aspen suckering, spring burning is recommended. With spring burning it appears follow-up management will be necessary to remove juniper that are missed in initial treatments.
Error-pruning in interface automata☆

Abstract De Alfaro and Henzinger introduced interface automata to model and study behavioural types. These come with alternating simulation as refinement and with a specific parallel composition: if one component receives an unexpected input, this is regarded as an error and the resp. error states are removed with a special pruning operation. In this paper, we return to the foundations of interface automata and study how refinement and parallel composition should be defined best. We take as basic requirement that an implementation must be error-free, if the specification is. For three variants of error-free, we consider the coarsest precongruence for parallel composition respecting the basic requirement. We find that pruning proves to be relevant in all cases and point out an important subtlety for systems that are not input-deterministic.
Influence of the 4,6-O-benzylidene, 4,6-O-phenylboronate, and 4,6-O-polystyrylboronate protecting groups on the stereochemical outcome of thioglycoside-based glycosylations mediated by 1-benzenesulfinyl piperidine/triflic anhydride and N-iodosuccinimide/trimethylsilyl triflate.

The effect of 4,6-O-benzylidene acetals, 4,6-O-phenylboronate esters, and 4,6-O-polystyrylboronate esters on the stereoselectivity of couplings to galacto-, gluco-, and mannopyranosyl thioglycosides, otherwise protected with benzyl ethers, has been investigated by the benzenesulfinyl piperidine/trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride (BSP), diphenyl sulfoxide/trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride (Ph2SO), and N-iodosuccinimide/trimethylsilyl trifluoromethanesulfonate (NIS/TMSOTf) methods. The BSP and Ph2SO methods give comparable results in all three systems whereas the NIS method affords significantly different stereoselectivities in both the gluco and manno, but not the galacto series. The benzylidene acetal and boronate esters influence the stereochemistry in a similar manner in the β-selective manno series and the α-selective galacto series but show significant differences with the glucose donors. The differences between the glucose, galactose, and mannose series reflect the established differences in reactiv...
Synthesis of Novel Chiral Benzophospholanes and Their Application in Asymmetric Hydrogenation

A new class of chiral ligands bearing one or two benzophospholanes was developed for the purpose of Ru-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation. Although results of the Ru catalysis remain insufficient so far, 1,2-bis(2-isopropyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-phosphindol-1-yl)benzene (iPr-BeePHOS: 2b) has been found to provide high enantioselectivity in the Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of an enamide.
Synthesis of novel tricyclic oxazolidinones by a tandem SN2 and SNAr reaction: SAR studies on conformationally constrained analogues of Linezolid.

A series of conformationally constrained analogues of Linezolid were synthesised by employing a tandem SN2 and SNAr reaction as the key step and tested for antibacterial activity. While the hexahydroazolo-quinoxaline compounds were inactive, the tetrahydroazolo-benzothiazine compounds exhibited interesting antibacterial activity. The introduction of fluorine in the aromatic ring further made the compounds more potent in acetamide compounds resulting in an interesting analogue 32. However, the introduction of fluorine (analogue 34) on the already potent non-fluorine thiocarbamate 21 did not have any influence on the activity.