cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Fair Stateless Aggregate Traffic Marking Using Active Queue Management Techniques

The differentiated services architecture promises to provide QoS guarantees through scalable service differentiation among multimedia and best-effort flows in the Internet. Traffic marking is an important component of this Diffserv framework. In this paper, we propose two new stateless, scalable and fair aggregate markers for TCP aggregates and UDP multimedia aggregates. We leverage stateless Active Queue Management (AQM) algorithms to design markers that ensure fair and efficient token distribution among individual flows of an aggregate. We present the Probabilistic Aggregate Marker (PAM), that uses the token bucket burst size to probabilistically mark incoming packets to achieve TCP-friendly and fair marking, and the Stateless Aggregate Fair Marker (F-SAM) that approximates fair queueing techniques to isolate flows while marking packets of the aggregate. Our simulation results show that our marking strategies show upto 30% improvement over other commonly used markers while marking flow aggregates. When applied to aggregate TCP flows consisting of long-lived flows(elephants) and short lived web flows(mice), our F-SAM marker prevents any bias against short flows and helps the mice to win the war against elephants.
Which clustering do you want? inducing your ideal clustering with minimal feedback

While traditional research on text clustering has largely focused on grouping documents by topic, it is conceivable that a user may want to cluster documents along other dimensions, such as the author's mood, gender, age, or sentiment. Without knowing the user's intention, a clustering algorithm will only group documents along the most prominent dimension, which may not be the one the user desires. To address the problem of clustering documents along the user-desired dimension, previous work has focused on learning a similarity metric from data manually annotated with the user's intention or having a human construct a feature space in an interactive manner during the clustering process. With the goal of reducing reliance on human knowledge for fine-tuning the similarity function or selecting the relevant features required by these approaches, we propose a novel active clustering algorithm, which allows a user to easily select the dimension along which she wants to cluster the documents by inspecting only a small number of words. We demonstrate the viability of our algorithm on a variety of commonly-used sentiment datasets.
Feeding and the Equilibrium Feeder Animal Price-Weight Schedule

Feeder animal prices depend on fed animal prices, the biological growth technology, and feed costs. In addition, daily maintenance costs can be avoided through accelerated feeding. These observations allow us to model optimal feeding under equilibrium feeder animal pricing. Our model enables a better understanding of regulation in feedstuff markets. The feeder animal price-weight schedule is likely decreasing and convex in weight. Prices for animals with better growth potential should be less sensitive to feed and fed animal prices. Prices for lighter animals should be more sensitive to these prices. Regression analyses on Southern Great Plains cattle prices provide support for this model.
Tax Incidence: Do Institutions Matter? An Experimental Study

According to economic theory, the incidence of a unit tax is independent of the statutory assignment of the liability to pay the tax. However, the theory is silent on the possible effects of market...
Planning for Change: Industrial Policy and Japanese Economic Development, 1945-1990

What has been the role of government industrial policy in Japan's extraordinary post-war development? How has the role changed in successive phases of growth? What "lessons" can be learnt from this experience by other nations, be they in the West, or developing countries or economies in transition attempting to introduce competitive market structures? These are some of the main questions addressed in this absorbing and thorough study. Dividing the period into three main phases, the author shows that policy played a crucial role in the initial period of post-war recovery. It did so not by "picking winners" but by creating a stable base from which development could occur by spreading the cost of introducing market competition over time. In the succeeding high growth period, and more recently, Japan's industrial policy attempts only to promote the development of new technology, and smoothe the decline of sectors that are no longer globally competitive. That Japan itself no longer practices industrial policy on a wide scale is an irony little appreciated by those advocating the adoption of a "Japan-style" industrial policy elswhere.
Cluster Density and the IMF

Observed variations in the IMF are reviewed with an emphasis on environmental density. The remote field IMF studied in the LMC by several authors is clearly steeper than most cluster IMFs, which have slopes close to the Salpeter value. Local field regions of star formation, like Taurus, may have relatively steep IMFs too. Very dense and massive clusters, like super star clusters, could have flatter IMFs, or inner-truncated IMFs. We propose that these variations are the result of three distinct processes during star formation that affect the mass function in different ways depending on mass range. At solar to intermediate stellar masses, gas processes involving thermal pressure and supersonic turbulence determine the basic scale for stellar mass, starting with the observed pre-stellar condensations, and they define the mass function from several tenths to several solar masses. Brown dwarfs require extraordinarily high pressures for fragmentation from the gas, and presumably form inside the pre-stellar condensations during mutual collisions, secondary fragmentations, or in disks. High mass stars form in excess of the numbers expected from pure turbulent fragmentation as pre-stellar condensations coalesce and accrete with an enhanced gravitational cross section. Variations in the interaction rate, interaction strength, and accretion rate among the primary fragments formed by turbulence lead to variations in the relative proportions of brown dwarfs, solar to intermediate mass stars, and high mass stars.
GPDs and DVCS with Positrons

The beam charge asymmetry helps to isolate the real part of the deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) amplitude. It is discussed what information can be gained both from the real and imaginary part of the DVCS amplitude.
Meteor process on {\mathbb Z}^d

The meteor process is a model for mass redistribution on a graph. The case of finite graphs was analyzed in Billey et al. (On meteors, earthworms and WIMPs. Ann Appl Probab, 2014). This paper is devoted to the meteor process on $${\mathbb {Z}}^d$$ . The process is constructed and a stationary distribution is found. Convergence to this stationary distribution is proved for a large family of initial distributions. The first two moments of the mass distribution at a vertex are computed for the stationary distribution. For the one-dimensional lattice $${\mathbb {Z}}$$ , the net flow of mass between adjacent vertices is shown to have bounded variance as time goes to infinity. An alternative representation of the process on $${\mathbb {Z}}$$ as a collection of non-crossing paths is presented. The distributions of a “tracer particle” in this system of non-crossing paths are shown to be tight as time goes to infinity.
On Being a Mentor: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty.

Contents: Preface. Part I: On Mentoring. Why Mentoring Matters. The Contours of Mentoring. Mentoring in Academe: A Glimpse Inside. Part II: On Being a Mentor. What Mentors Do: Mentoring Functions. Who Mentors Are: Mentorship-Facilitating Characteristics and Qualities. Designing a Mentorship. The Seasons of Mentorship: Common Relationship Phases. The Ethical Mentor: Doing No Harm. Part III: On Mentoring Specific Groups. Mentoring Undergraduates. Mentoring Graduate Students. Mentoring Junior Faculty. Mentoring Across Sex. Mentoring Across Race. Part IV: Managing Mentorships. Diagnosis and Treatment of Mentorship Dysfunction. Assessing Mentoring Outcomes. Recommendations for Department Chairs and Deans.
Dating the Homeric Hymn to Selene : Evidence and Implications

Probable references to the hymn by Aristophanes and Empedocles point to an archaic date instead of Hellenistic or later; its focus on beauty rather than divine intercession gives the hymn more an aesthetic than a hymnic force.
Super-resolution photoacoustic imaging through a scattering wall

The use of wavefront shaping to compensate for scattering has brought a renewed interest as a potential solution to imaging through scattering walls. A key to the practicality of any imaging through scattering technique is the capability to focus light without direct access behind the scattering wall. Here we address this problem using photoacoustic feedback for wavefront optimization. By combining the spatially non-uniform sensitivity of the ultrasound transducer to the generated photoacoustic waves with an evolutionary competition among optical modes, the speckle field develops a single, high intensity focus significantly smaller than the acoustic focus used for feedback. Notably, this method is not limited by the size of the absorber to form a sub-acoustic optical focus. We demonstrate imaging behind a scattering medium using two different imaging modalities with up to ten times improvement in signal-to-noise ratio and five to six times sub-acoustic resolution.
Histone-DNA contacts in structure/function relationships of nucleosomes as revealed by crosslinking.

We describe studies of histone-DNA contacts in the nucleosome using the method of covalent zero length protein-DNA crosslinking. These studies show that in intact nuclei isolated from different sources the linear sequential arrangement of histone-DNA contacts in the nucleosomal core is essentially the same. However, the relative strength of certain contacts varies and correlates with the level of chromatin activity and condensation. These altered contacts are located in the sharply bent regions of the nucleosomal DNA and are supposed to be sensetive to the structural changes which may occur during nucleosome functions. Studies of the mechanism of these alterations revealed that the difference in strength of these contacts is attributed to the different conformational state of the nucleosomal core and is caused by the stretching of the nucleosomal DNA upon chromatin decondensation during its activation. Histone terminal domains may be involved in this process through posttranslational modifications affecting chromatin condensation. The described localization of the histone H2A C-terminal domain in the nucleosome by crosslinking demonstrates the ability of this methodology to determine the location of histone terminal domains and thereby elucidate their role in nucleosome function. The results of the described experiments suggest that chromatin decondensation may alter the nucleosomal DNA conformation and affect the histone-DNA contacts resulting in a structural transition that may play a role in rendering the nucleosome competent for transcription and/or replication
Respondent-Driven sampling in online social networks

Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) is a commonly used method for acquiring data on hidden communities, i.e., those that lack unbiased sampling frames or face social stigmas that make their members unwilling to identify themselves. Obtaining accurate statistical data about such communities is important because, for instance, they often have different health burdens from the greater population, and without good statistics it is hard and expensive to effectively reach them for prevention or treatment interventions. Online social networks (OSN) have the potential to transform RDS for the better. We present a new RDS recruitment protocol for (OSNs) and show via simulation that it outperforms the standard RDS protocol in terms of sampling accuracy and approaches the accuracy of Markov chain Monte Carlo random walks.
THE REACTIONS BETWEEN SODIUM HYDROGEN TELLURIDE AND AR3CX, AR2CHX, ARCH2X

Abstract Tertiary, secondary and primary benzylic halides give dehalogenated, coupling and oxidized product after reacted with sodium hydrogen telluride in DMF. The yields are 87%, 48% and 40%–56%, respectively.
Spectrum allocation in two-tier networks

Two-tier networks, comprising a conventional cellular network overlaid with shorter range hotspots (e.g. femtocells, distributed antennas, or wired relays), offer an economically viable way to improve cellular system capacity. The capacity-limiting factor in such networks is interference. The cross-tier interference between macrocells and femtocells can suffocate the capacity due to the near-far problem, so in practice hotspots should use a different frequency channel than the potentially nearby high-power macrocell users. Centralized or coordinated frequency planning, which is difficult and inefficient even in conventional cellular networks, is all but impossible in a two-tier network. This paper proposes and analyzes an optimum decentralized spectrum allocation policy for two-tier networks that employ frequency division multiple access (including OFDMA). The proposed allocation is optimal in terms of area spectral efficiency (ASE), and is subjected to a sensible quality of service (QoS) requirement, which guarantees that both macrocell and femtocell users attain at least a prescribed data rate. Results show the dependence of this allocation on the QoS requirement, hotspot density and the co-channel interference from the macrocell and surrounding femtocells. Design interpretations are provided.
The internal plasma state of the high speed solar wind at 1 AU

The character of particle velocity distributions in the high speed solar wind is described. It is found that electron distribution shapes differ from simple bi-Maxwellians in that a hot strongly beamed high energy electron component is always present, and is observed to move relative to a distinct low energy electron component along the magnetic field direction away from the sun. The velocity difference between hot and cold electron components appears, at times, to be strongly correlated with the local Alfven speed. Proton velocity distributions are also best represented by two relatively convecting unresolved components. Evidence is presented which supports the idea that the two-component proton structure observed in high speed regions is intimately related to fine scale velocity variations at 1 AU, and probably to prominent spatial and/or temporal structures present throughout that part of the corona from which the solar wind evolves.
The jet-space of a Frobenius manifold and higher-genus Gromov-Witten invariants

The theory of genus zero Gromov-Witten invariants associates to a compact symplectic manifold X a Frobenius manifold H (also known as the small phase space of X) whose underlying flat manifold is the cohomology space H*(X, ℂ). Higher genus Gromov-Witten invariants give rise to a sequence of generating functions F g X , one for each genus g > 0; these are functions on the large phase space $${H_{\infty }} = {H^{*}}\left( {X \times \mathbb{C}{mathbb{P}^{\infty }},\mathbb{C}} \right)$$ The manifold H∞ has a rich geometric structure: it is the jet space of curves in the Frobenius manifold H. (This identification is implicit in Dubrovin [9].)
Plasmon resonant gold-coated liposomes for spectrally controlled content release

We recently demonstrated that liposome-supported plasmon resonant gold nanoshells are degradable into components of a size compatible with renal clearance, potentially enabling their use as multifunctional agents in applications in nanomedicine, including imaging, diagnostics, therapy, and drug delivery (Troutman et al., Adv. Mater. 2008, 20, 2604-2608). When illuminated with laser light at the wavelength matching their plasmon resonance band, gold-coated liposomes rapidly release their encapsulated substances, which can include therapeutic and diagnostic agents. The present research demonstrates that release of encapsulated agents from gold-coated liposomes can be spectrally controlled by varying the location of the plasmon resonance band; this spectral tuning is accomplished by varying the concentration of gold deposited on the surface of liposomes. Furthermore, the amount of laser energy required for release is qualitatively explained using the concept of thermal confinement (Jacques, Appl. Opt. 1993, 32(3), 2447-2454). Overlapping thermal confinement zones can be avoided by minimizing the laser pulse width, resulting in lower energy requirements for liposomal content release and less global heating of the sample. Control of heating is especially important in drug delivery applications, where it enables spatial and spectral control of delivery and prevents thermal damage to tissue.
Empirical Analysis of Water-Main Failure Consequences

Abstract Modern urban societies depend greatly on critical lifeline systems such as drinking water supply. Water supply systems in the United States comprise about one million mile length of interconnected pipelines that transport water from sources to consumption points with the support of treatment plants, pumping stations, storage tanks and valves. While depleting freshwater sources in some regions is an alarming concern, supply infrastructure woes exacerbate the problem of meeting supply reliability targets. Evidenced by the “D” or lower grade it has been receiving over the past few ASCE infrastructure report cards, the quality of water supply infrastructure has degraded to an extent where 240,000 water mains fail annually in the U.S. A majority of these failures result in significant economic, environmental and societal consequences. Pro-active rehabilitation of deteriorated infrastructure will avoid these unwarranted failure consequences. This paper employs empirical analysis of the economic, environmental and societal consequences of large-diameter water main failures to estimate their overall impact cost. Data on the impacts of 11 large-diameter water main failures has been gathered and synthesized. The results of this paper will aid in predicting the future water main failure consequences to enable risk-based, long-term capital improvement planning of water supply systems.
Groupstrategyproofness of the Egalitarian Mechanism for Constrained Rationing Problems

Abstract Motivated by applications in many economic environments, Bochet et al. (2010) generalize the classic rationing model (Sprumont 1991) as follows: there is a moneyless market, in which a non-storable, homogeneous commodity is reallocated between agents with single-peaked preferences. Agents are either suppliers or demanders. Transfers between a supplier and a demander are feasible only if they are linked, and the links form an arbitrary bipartite graph. Information about individual preferences is private, and so is information about feasible links: an agent may unilaterally close one of her links if it is in her interest to do so. For this problem they propose the egalitarian transfer solution, which equalizes the net transfers of rationed agents as much as permitted by the bilateral constraints. Furthermore, they show that the egalitarian mechanism elicits a truthful report of both preferences and links. In the variant where demanders are not strategic but demands need to be exactly met Bochet et al. (2013), they propose a similar mechanism for which truthfully reporting the peaks is a dominant strategy, but truthful reporting of links is not. The key contribution of the paper is a comprehensive study of the egalitarian mechanism with respect to manipulation by a coalition of agents. Our main result is that the egalitarian mechanism is group strategyproof : no coalition of agents can (weakly) benefit from jointly misreporting their peaks. Furthermore, we show that the egalitarian mechanism cannot be manipulated – by misreporting links or by misreporting peaks – by any coalition of suppliers (or any coalition of demanders) in the model where both the suppliers and demanders are agents. Our proofs shed light on the structure of the two models and simplify some of the earlier proofs of strategyproofness. An implication of our results is that the well known algorithm of Megiddo (1977) to compute a lexicographically optimal flow in a network is group strategyproof with respect to the source capacities and sink capacities.
LASER-DRIVEN PLANAR IMPACT OF MINIATURE SPECIMENS OF HY-100 STEEL

The deformation and fracture behavior of HY‐100, a high‐strength steel, under high strain‐rate planar‐impact conditions, has been studied with the Laser‐Driven Miniflyer apparatus. Cold‐rolled copper flyers 3 mm in diameter and either 50 or 100 microns thick have been laser‐launched against HY‐100 targets, 200 microns thick and nominally 10 mm square. The target specimens were sectioned from the 25‐mm‐thick HY‐100 plate in three mutually perpendicular orientations, either parallel or perpendicular to the plate rolling direction. The back‐surface response of the HY‐100 targets was monitored with dual VISARs. The flyer velocity was varied to produce a range of behavior, from deformation at low velocities, to damage formation at intermediate velocities, and finally to complete spall failure at the highest velocities. The target specimens were sectioned after testing to examine the microstructure and failure processes of the deformed material. Spall strengths were calculated from the VISAR signals. The VISAR traces showed well‐defined elastic precursors, which were similar for all orientations of the specimens. The spall strengths, as estimated from the magnitude of the pullback signal, were also similar for all three orientations. The spall strength increased as the flyer impact velocity increased, to values of about 4.6 GPa. Metallographic examination revealed that damage occurred at lower impact velocities in specimens loaded in the through‐thickness direction of the plate, as compared to specimens oriented parallel to the plate thickness, but this difference was not reflected in the pull‐back signal or the spall strengths.
Indivisibility of Electron Bubbles in Helium

A recent proposal by Maris,1 that single electron bubbles in helium might fission into separate, particle-like entities, does not properly take into account the failure of the adiabatic approximation when, due to tunneling, there is a long electronic time scale. The point along the fission pathway of a photoexcited p-state bubble, where the adiabatic approximation first breaks down, occurs well before the bubble waist has pinched down forming two cavities. In the connected two-lobed geometry, the p- and s-states are strongly mixed by an antisymmetric vibrational mode, and the excitation decays by the mechanism where one lobe collapses while the other expands into the spherical s-state geometry. The extreme pressure jump in a photoexcited bubble leads to shock formation that may halt the elongation even before adiabaticity is compromised. In this case, the photoexcited bubble decays radiatively from the relaxed p-state geometry.
The demand for base money and the sustainability of public debt

Key (related) factors in an analysis of debt sustainability should include: the demand for base money (or high powered money); projected fiscal balance; the real interest rate; and the rate of income growth. The author emphasizes the demand for base money, a variable that has received scant attention in the literature of fiscal debt sustainability. Given a constant base multiplier, the demand for real base money goes hand-in-hand with the demand for money. In fact, if we adjust the stock of money for changes in the base multiplier, shifts in the monetary base have to mirror changes in the money stock; and anything that changes the demand for money will also change the demand for base money. Consequently, a change in the expected cost of holding money, a change in permanent income, or an change in regime - which would no doubt affect the demand for real money- would also affect the real stock of base money. Naturally, base multipliers are not constant and more research on the relative stability of base money in debt ridden countries is warranted. Real interest rates are also important. Many Latin American countries have issued domestic bonds to sterilize the effect of capital inflows on the real exchange rate and, consequently, have significantly increased their real interest rate burden affecting their debt sustainability. Permanently increasing the fiscal surplus would improve debt sustainability if other variables remain unchanged. Furthermore, the author claims that a permanent increase in the fiscal primary surplus through expenditure reduction would have and important effect on debt sustainability because it would reduce real interest rates (less crowding out), increase income growth (allocation effect), and increase demand for monetary base (reduced inflation expectations and higher expected income growth).
High‒degree gravity models from GRAIL primary mission data

We have analyzed Ka‒band range rate (KBRR) and Deep Space Network (DSN) data from the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) primary mission (1 March to 29 May 2012) to derive gravity models of the Moon to degree 420, 540, and 660 in spherical harmonics. For these models, GRGM420A, GRGM540A, and GRGM660PRIM, a Kaula constraint was applied only beyond degree 330. Variance‒component estimation (VCE) was used to adjust the a priori weights and obtain a calibrated error covariance. The global root‒mean‒square error in the gravity anomalies computed from the error covariance to 320×320 is 0.77 mGal, compared to 29.0 mGal with the pre‒GRAIL model derived with the SELENE mission data, SGM150J, only to 140×140. The global correlations with the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter‒derived topography are larger than 0.985 between l = 120 and 330. The free‒air gravity anomalies, especially over the lunar farside, display a dramatic increase in detail compared to the pre‒GRAIL models (SGM150J and LP150Q) and, through degree 320, are free of the orbit‒track‒related artifacts present in the earlier models. For GRAIL, we obtain an a posteriori fit to the S‒band DSN data of 0.13 mm/s. The a posteriori fits to the KBRR data range from 0.08 to 1.5 micrometers/s for GRGM420A and from 0.03 to 0.06 micrometers/s for GRGM660PRIM. Using the GRAIL data, we obtain solutions for the degree 2 Love numbers, k20=0.024615+/-0.0000914, k21=0.023915+/-0.0000132, and k22=0.024852+/-0.0000167, and a preliminary solution for the k30 Love number of k30=0.00734+/-0.0015, where the Love number error sigmas are those obtained with VCE.
Vacuum scattering technique for wakefield electron beam diagnostic and conditioning measurements

We report the theoretical prediction and experimental verification of polarization independence of direct laser scattering of free electrons in vacuum. Simulations show multi-MeV electron scattering is possible. The focal volume requirement for independence is derived.
The Effect of Opportunity Cost and Pacifism on Protests in Occupied Regions

This paper examines how the opportunity costs of the leaders of a national protest movement, and the intrinsic hawkishness or pacifism of the occupier, affect the nature of the movement against occupation. A two-stage game is modeled, in which a protest leader and an external occupier fight over the control of the population of an occupied region. The protest leader can actively convert the populace to protest. On the other hand, the occupier chooses how much to punish the protest leader and other protestors for their actions. The findings of this paper indicate that under certain circumstances leaders who have a greater opportunity cost of leading protests may be more active, compared to leaders with lower opportunity costs. Further, the former may be able to lead a movement with more mass support. This paper also characterizes equilibria, among others, where a more hawkish occupier can actually de-escalate the conflict with the protestors. The characteristics of the population residing in the occupied region, the nature of punishment that is being meted out to the protestors, and the structure of enforcement costs that lead to these outcomes, are discussed in the paper.
On Kostant's theorem for the Lie superalgebra $Q(n)$

Abstract In this paper we study finite W-algebras for basic superalgebras and Q ( n ) associated with the regular even nilpotent coadjoint orbits. We prove that this algebra satisfies the Amitsur–Levitzki identity and therefore all its irreducible representations are finite-dimensional. In the case of Q ( n ) we give an explicit description of the W-algebra in terms of generators and relations and realize it as a quotient of the super-Yangian of Q ( 1 ) .
Estimation of snow fraction using AVIRIS simulated ASTER image data

Seasonally snow covered areas of the Earth's mountain ranges are important components in the global hydrologic cycle. The objective of this study is to develop an automatic snow mapping algorithm at sub-pixel resolution for Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission And Reflection (ASTER). It is an EOS-A facility instrument to be launched in this year. The authors have collected a huge amount of AVIRIS image data, from which ASTER spectral measurements can be simulated. The high resolution color infrared photo (1-4m) taken simultaneously as AVIRIS image data can be used to access the snow covered area as the ground truth. By evaluation of the current techniques on selecting spectral endmembers and the effects of terrain on linear unmixing process, an unsupervised snow mapping algorithm has been developed by taking advantages of each technique in selecting spectral endmembers.
Long-Term Services and Supports for Older Adults: A Review of Home and Community-Based Services Versus Institutional Care

Despite a shift from institutional services toward more home and community-based services (HCBS) for older adults who need long-term services and supports (LTSS), the effects of HCBS have yet to be adequately synthesized in the literature. This review of literature from 1995 to 2012 compares the outcome trajectories of older adults served through HCBS (including assisted living [AL]) and in nursing homes (NHs) for physical function, cognition, mental health, mortality, use of acute care, and associated harms (e.g., accidents, abuse, and neglect) and costs. NH and AL residents did not differ in physical function, cognition, mental health, and mortality outcomes. The differences in harms between HCBS recipients and NH residents were mixed. Evidence was insufficient for cost comparisons. More and better research is needed to draw robust conclusions about how the service setting influences the outcomes and costs of LTSS for older adults. Future research should address the numerous methodological challenges present in this field of research and should emphasize studies evaluating the effectiveness of HCBS.
Extremely anisotropic boundary conditions and their optical applications

[1] Following the idea of realizing an extremely anisotropic scatterer by combining positive and negative permittivity materials in a composite sphere, we discuss here some of the features and potential applications of extreme boundary conditions in optics. We analyze the scattering features and surface boundaries of an isolated sphere composed of two hemispheres with oppositely signed real parts of permittivity, whose local surface impedance can vary homogeneously from zero to infinity upon a simple 90 degree rotation of the impinging electric polarization, and we theoretically explore how combinations of these particles and other related geometries may tailor and boost the optical radiation of localized sources, e.g., quantum dots and molecular emitters.
A defect in Dempster-Shafer theory

By analyzing the relationships among chance, weight of evidence and degree of belief, we show that the assertion "probability functions are special cases of belief functions" and the assertion "Dempster's rule can be used to combine belief functions based on distinct bodies of evidence" together lead to an inconsistency in Dempster-Shafer theory. To solve this problem, we must reject some fundamental postulates of the theory. We introduce a new approach for uncertainty management that shares many intuitive ideas with D-S theory, while avoiding this problem.
Games without Frontiers: Investigating Video Games as a Covert Channel

The Internet has become a critical communication infrastructure for citizens toorganize protests and express dissatisfaction with their governments. This facthas not gone unnoticed, with governments clamping down on this medium viacensorship, and circumvention researchers working to stay one stepahead. In this paper, we explore video games as a new avenue for covert channels. Two features make video games attractive for use as a cover protocol incensorship circumvention tools: First, games within a genre share many commonfeatures. Second, there are many different games, each with their own protocolsand server infrastructures. These features allow circumvention tool developersto build a single framework that can be adapted to work with many differentgames within a genre, therefore allowing quick response to censor createdblockades. In addition, censored users can diversify their covertcommunications across many different games, making it difficult for a censor torespond by simply blocking a single covert channel. We demonstrate the feasibility of this approach by implementing ourcircumvention scheme over three real-time strategy games (including two best-sellingclosed-source games). We evaluate the security of our system prototype, Castle, by quantifying its resilience to a censor-adversary, similarity to real game traffic, and ability to avoid commonpitfalls in covert channel design. We use our prototype todemonstrate that our approach can provide the throughput necessary forbootstrapping higher bandwidth channels and also the transfer of textualdata, such as web articles, e-mail, SMS messages, and tweets, which arecommonly used to organize political actions.
Designing nanomaterials to maximize performance and minimize undesirable implications guided by the Principles of Green Chemistry

The Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry were first published in 1998 and provide a framework that has been adopted not only by chemists, but also by design practitioners and decision-makers (e.g., materials scientists and regulators). The development of the Principles was initially motivated by the need to address decades of unintended environmental pollution and human health impacts from the production and use of hazardous chemicals. Yet, for over a decade now, the Principles have been applied to the synthesis and production of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) and the products they enable. While the combined efforts of the global scientific community have led to promising advances in the field of nanotechnology, there remain significant research gaps and the opportunity to leverage the potential global economic, societal and environmental benefits of ENMs safely and sustainably. As such, this tutorial review benchmarks the successes to date and identifies critical research gaps to be considered as future opportunities for the community to address. A sustainable material design framework is proposed that emphasizes the importance of establishing structure–property–function (SPF) and structure–property–hazard (SPH) relationships to guide the rational design of ENMs. The goal is to achieve or exceed the functional performance of current materials and the technologies they enable, while minimizing inherent hazard to avoid risk to human health and the environment at all stages of the life cycle.
Scalable Methods for Adaptively Seeding a Social Network

In recent years, social networking platforms have developed into extraordinary channels for spreading and consuming information. Along with the rise of such infrastructure, there is continuous progress on techniques for spreading information effectively through influential users. In many applications, one is restricted to select influencers from a set of users who engaged with the topic being promoted, and due to the structure of social networks, these users often rank low in terms of their influence potential. An alternative approach one can consider is an adaptive method which selects users in a manner which targets their influential neighbors. The advantage of such an approach is that it leverages the friendship paradox in social networks: while users are often not influential, they often know someone who is. Despite the various complexities in such optimization problems, we show that scalable adaptive seeding is achievable. In particular, we develop algorithms for linear influence models with provable approximation guarantees that can be gracefully parallelized. To show the effectiveness of our methods we collected data from various verticals social network users follow. For each vertical, we collected data on the users who responded to a certain post as well as their neighbors, and applied our methods on this data. Our experiments show that adaptive seeding is scalable, and importantly, that it obtains dramatic improvements over standard approaches of information dissemination.
Regional Financial Arrangements and the International Monetary Fund

The rise of regional monetary arrangements poses a challenge for the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s global surveillance efforts. This paper reviews how the IMF has responded to earlier regional initiatives, from the European Payments Union of the 1950s and the Gold Pool of the 1960s to the CFA franc zone and the European Monetary System. The penultimate section draws out the implications for monetary regionalism in East Asia.
Microcomputer software design: a checkpoint

The general availability of low cost microcomputers has revolutionized digital design and digital applications. Using LSI chip technology, microcomputers are no more than scaled-down central processing units with minicomputer capability, and are treated as component computers at the heart of a digital design. Thus, microcomputers find wide application in both dedicated and general purpose roles, ranging from simple controllers through smart terminals and test instruments to small business data processing systems.
The contribution of pneumolysin to the pathogenicity of Streptococcus pneumoniae.

The antiphagocytic polysaccharide capsule of Streptococcus pneumoniae has long been been considered the principal virulence determinant of this organism. However, there is growing evidence that the toxin pneumolysin plays an important role in the pathogenesis of pneumococcal disease and may thus be a significant additional target for vaccine development.
Total synthesis of (+)-spatol. A stereospecific construction of vicinal diepoxides from 2,3-epoxy-1,4-diols

Abstract A total synthesis of (+)-spatol (1) was achieved which depends upon a novel stereospecific transformation of trans-2,3-epoxy-1,4-diols to generate the sensitive allylic vicinal cis-diepoxide in 1.
4D Segmentation of Cardiac Data Using Active Surfaces with Spatiotemporal Shape Priors

We present a 4D spatiotemporal segmentation algorithm based on the Mumford-Shah functional coupled with shape priors. When used in a clinical setting, our algorithm could greatly alleviate the time that clinicians must spend working with the acquired data to manually retrieve diagnostically meaningful measurements. The advantage of the 4D algorithm is that segmentation occurs in both space and time simultaneously, improving accuracy and robustness over existing 2D and 3D methods. The segmentation contour or hyper-surface is a zero level set function in 4D space that exploits the coherence within continuous regions not only between spatial slices, but between consecutive time samples as well. Shape priors are incorporated into the segmentation to limit the result to a known shape. Variations in shape are computed using principal component analysis (PCA), of a signed distance representation of the training data derived from manual segmentation of 18 carefully selected data sets. The automatic segmentation occurs by manipulating the parameters of this signed distance representation to minimize a predetermined energy functional. Several tests are presented to show the consistency and accuracy of the novel automatic 4D segmentation process.
Stein’s Method and Characters of Compact Lie Groups

Stein’s method is used to study the trace of a random element from a compact Lie group or symmetric space. Central limit theorems are proved using very little information: character values on a single element and the decomposition of the square of the trace into irreducible components. This is illustrated for Lie groups of classical type and Dyson’s circular ensembles. The approach in this paper will be useful for the study of higher dimensional characters, where normal approximations need not hold.
An Empirical Pooling Approach for Estimating Marketing Mix Elasticities with PIMS Data

The PIMS Profit Impact of Marketing Strategies data entail sparse time-series observations for a large number of strategic business units SBUs, In order to estimate disaggregate marketing mix elasticities of demand, a natural solution is to pool different SBUs. The traditional, a priori approach is to pool together those SBUs which one believes in advance to be very similar with respect to their marketing mix elasticities. We propose an alternative maximum likelihood, latent-pooling method for simultaneously pooling, estimating, and testing linear regression models empirically. This method enables the determination of a "fuzzy" pooling scheme, while directly estimating a set of marketing mix elasticities and intertemporal covariances for each pool of SBUs. Our analyses reveal different magnitudes and patterns of marketing mix elasticities for the derived pools. Pool membership is influenced by demand characteristics, business scope, and order of market entry.
Colloid infusions reduce glomerular filtration in resuscitated burn victims

Objective : Colloids are used clinically to minimize edema yet may have detrimental consequences on glomerular filtration. The purpose of this study is to assess the renal and hormonal effects of colloid supplementation in the fluid resuscitation of burn victims. Design : Analytic cohort study. Material and Methods : Immediately following their 24 hour post-burn fluid resuscitation with Ringer's lactate, six burn patients (% total body surface area burn 30-57%) were given primed, continuous infusions of inulin and p-aminohippuric acid for 6 hours. Albumin (25% solution, 3 mL/kg/h) was given for the final 4 hours of study. Measurements and Main Results : Albumin infusion increased plasma volume by 37% ; however, glomerular filtration rate decreased by 32% (p < 0.05). There was no significant change in urine output, sodium excretion, or effective renal plasma flow. Plasma volume expansion with albumin normalized elevated basal levels of aldosterone and plasma renin activity. Conclusions : These findings illustrate that despite substantially increasing plasma volume, colloid infusions reduce glomerular filtration and may limit any associated diuresis. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that hormonal regulation of blood volume remains intact after moderate burn injury.
Use of 2-trimethylsilylethyl as a protecting group in phosphate monoester synthesis

Abstract A model study has demonstrated that phosphorylation of a highly hindered hydroxyl group can be achieved via sequential treatment with (1) 2-trimethylsilylethyl dichlorophosphite, (2) 2-trimethylsilylethyl alcohol, and (3) hydrogen peroxide. The resulting triester survives a variety of reaction conditions but may be cleaved with fluoride ion to afford the phosphate monoester.
Leadership Giving in Charitable Fund-Raising

Why do charities often begin new capital fund drives by announcing a large contribution by a single wealthy donor? This paper explores the possibility that such “leadership giving” provides a signal to all other givers that the charity is of high quality. The dilemma is that if the lead giver can deceive others to believe the charity is of higher quality than it truly is, then these followers will make larger contributions, which will benefi tt he leader. Hence, the leader must give an unusually large amount to convey a credible signal of the quality. This sets up a war-of-attrition game for who will pay the cost to signal the quality. Since the wealthy have the lowest opportunity cost of providing the signal, they, in equilibrium, move first to provide the signal of quality with exceptionally large gifts.
Effects of longer-range interactions on unconventional superconductivity

We analyze the effect of the nonvanishing range of electron-electron repulsion on the mechanism of unconventional superconductivity. We present asymptotically exact weak-coupling results for dilute electrons in the continuum and for the 2D extended Hubbard model, as well as density-matrix renormalization group results for the two-leg extended Hubbard model at intermediate couplings, and approximate results for the case of realistically screened Coulomb interactions. We show that ${T}_{c}$ is generally suppressed in some pairing channels as longer range interactions increase in strength, but superconductivity is not destroyed. Our results confirm that electron-electron interaction can lead to unconventional superconductivity under physically realistic circumstances.
Cognitive spaces: Expanding participation framework by looking at signed language interpreters’ discourse and conceptual blending

We know from previous research (Wadenjso, 1998; Metzger, 1999; Roy, 2000) that interpreters are active participants within the interpreting event. We know that interpreters interact with the participants, and discourse by negotiating turn-taking, and adjusting the interpretation to meet cultural expectations. According to participation framework, speakers align themselves with the different participants in the communication event, or shift between different types of footing (Goffman, 1981). This framework has also been used to analyze interpreters, (Wadensjo, 1982, 1998; Metzger, 1999; Roy, 2000) to show how interpreters are not neutral participants in the event, but are interacting with many of the demands of the job, one of which is the discourse. In this research, which was an investigation of a monologue-interpreted event, the interpreters align themselves or blend the mental space of the original message with their interpreted message. In other words, the interpreters hold, at the minimum, two frames of footing active, simultaneously, instead of switching between the frames of footing. Cognitive linguistics, more specifically, the conceptual blending theory of Fauconnier & Turner (1996) can help expand the discussion of footing by using the theory of mental spaces (Fauconnier, 1985, 1997; Fauconnier & Turner, 1998). The data come from the discourse of six signed language interpreters who simultaneously interpret a lecture from English to American Sign Language (ASL). The discourse of the six interpreters supports the notion that interpreters blend a space, Narrator Space, with the author of the message. In addition to this space, interpreters also use a newly identified space, Interpreter Space. Interpreter Space is a mental space where the interpreters demonstrate their processes of their interpretations through a variety of linguistic features such as producing constructed action and dialogue in ASL when it was not present in English. In addition to these spaces being identified in the data, all six interpreters seamlessly negotiated and blended several different mental spaces by using the same types of linguistic features that Deaf signers use (i.e. eye gaze, blinking, head tilting/shifting, and body shifting) (Dudis, 1997, Thumann, 2010). This study proposes the notion of using the conceptual blending process to expand the framework of analyzing and teaching interpreting.