cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Thermonuclear Runaway and the Classical Nova Outburst

Nova explosions occur on the white dwarf component of a Cataclysmic Variable binary stellar system that is accreting matter lost by its companion. When sufficient material has been accreted by the white dwarf, a thermonuclear runaway occurs and ejects material in what is observed as a Classical Nova explosion. We describe both the recent advances in our understanding of the progress of the outburst and outline some of the puzzles that are still outstanding. We report on the effects of improving both the nuclear reaction rate library and including a modern nuclear reaction network in our one-dimensional, fully implicit, hydrodynamic computer code. In addition, there has been progress in observational studies of Supernovae Ia with implications about the progenitors and we discuss that in this review.
The energy scale of inflation: is the hunt for the primordial B-mode a waste of time?

Abstract Recent theoretical results indicate that the detection of primordial gravity waves from inflation may be a hopeless task. First, foregrounds from lensing put a strict lower limit on the detectability of the B-mode polarization signal in the cosmic microwave background, the “smoking gun” for tensor (gravity wave) fluctuations. Meanwhile, widely accepted theoretical arguments indicate that the amplitude of gravity waves produced in inflation will be below this limit. I argue that failure is not inevitable, and that the effort to detect the primordial signal in the B-mode, whether it succeeds or fails, will yield crucial information about the nature of inflation.
Geometric decomposition of the conformation tensor in viscoelastic turbulence

This work introduces a mathematical approach to analysing the polymer dynamics in turbulent viscoelastic flows that uses a new geometric decomposition of the conformation tensor, along with associated scalar measures of the polymer fluctuations. The approach circumvents an inherent difficulty in traditional Reynolds decompositions of the conformation tensor: the fluctuating tensor fields are not positive definite and so do not retain the physical meaning of the tensor. The geometric decomposition of the conformation tensor yields both mean and fluctuating tensor fields that are positive definite. The fluctuating tensor in the present decomposition has a clear physical interpretation as a polymer deformation relative to the mean configuration. Scalar measures of this fluctuating conformation tensor are developed based on the non-Euclidean geometry of the set of positive definite tensors. Drag-reduced viscoelastic turbulent channel flow is then used an example case study. The conformation tensor field, obtained using direct numerical simulations, is analysed using the proposed framework.
Neighborhood variation in unsolved homicides: a retrospective cohort study in Indianapolis, Indiana, 2007–2017

Homicide is a widely acknowledged public health problem in the United States. The majority of homicides are committed with a firearm and have long-term health consequences for family members and entire communities. When left unsolved, violence may be perpetuated due to the retaliatory nature of homicides. Improving homicide clearance rates may help prevent future violence, however, we know little about the community-level social dynamics associated with unsolved homicides. This study examines the individual-and-community-level social processes associated with low homicide clearance rates in Indianapolis, Indiana between 2007 and 2017. Homicide clearance is the primary outcome, defined as if a perpetrator was arrested for that homicide case between 2007 and 2017. Individual-level variables include the victim’s race/ethnicity, sex, and age. Community-level (i.e., census tracts) variables include the number of resident complaints against the police, resident complains of community disorder, income inequality, number of police interactions, and proportion of African American residents. In Indianapolis over a 11-year period, the homicide clearance rate decreased to a low of 38% in 2017, compared to a national clearance rate of 60%. Homicide case clearance was less likely for minority (OR 0.566; 95% CI, 0.407–0.787; p < 0.01) and male (OR 0.576; 95% CI, 0.411–0.807; p < 0.01) victims. Resident complaints of community disorder were associated with a decreased odds of case clearance (OR 0.687; 95% CI, 0.485–0.973; p < .01)., African American victim’s cases were less likely to be cleared in 2014–2017 (OR 0.640; 95% CI, 0.437–0.938; p < 0.05), compared to 2007. Our study identified differences in neighborhood social processes associated with homicide clearance, indicating existing measures on these community factors are complex. Programs aimed at improving signs of community disorder and building community engagement may improve neighborhood clearance rates, lower violence, and improve the health of these communities.
APRICOT: A Dataset of Physical Adversarial Attacks on Object Detection.

Physical adversarial attacks threaten to fool object detection systems, but reproducible research on the real-world effectiveness of physical patches and how to defend against them requires a publicly available benchmark dataset. We present APRICOT, a collection of over 1,000 annotated photographs of printed adversarial patches in public locations. The patches target several object categories for three COCO-trained detection models, and the photos represent natural variation in position, distance, lighting conditions, and viewing angle. Our analysis suggests that maintaining adversarial robustness in uncontrolled settings is highly challenging but that it is still possible to produce targeted detections under white-box and sometimes black-box settings. We establish baselines for defending against adversarial patches via several methods, including using a detector supervised with synthetic data and using unsupervised methods such as kernel density estimation, Bayesian uncertainty, and reconstruction error. Our results suggest that adversarial patches can be effectively flagged, both in a high-knowledge, attack-specific scenario and in an unsupervised setting where patches are detected as anomalies in natural images. This dataset and the described experiments provide a benchmark for future research on the effectiveness of and defenses against physical adversarial objects in the wild. The APRICOT project page and dataset are available at apricot.mitre.org.
Preferential concentration in the particle-induced convective instability

Direct numerical simulations are used to study preferential concentration of heavy inertial particles in the particle-induced convective instability. This process and the resulting significant particle concentration enhancement are investigated using the two-fluid equations. Motivated by dominant balance arguments, the scaling of the particle concentration enhancement over the mean is found; the maximum scales as ${u}_{\text{rms}}^{2}\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}{\ensuremath{\tau}}_{p}/{\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{p}$, and the typical as $({u}_{\text{rms}}^{2}\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}{\ensuremath{\tau}}_{p}/{\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{p}{)}^{1/2}$, where ${u}_{\text{rms}}$ is the rms of the fluid velocity, ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{p}$ is the particle stopping time, and ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{p}$ is the assumed particle diffusivity.
Trunk control during gait: Walking with wide and narrow step widths present distinct challenges.

Abstract The active control of the trunk plays an important role in frontal plane gait stability. We characterized trunk control in response to different step widths using a novel feedback system and examined the different effects of wide and narrow step widths as they each present unique task demands. Twenty healthy young adults walked on a treadmill at 1.25 m/s at five prescribed step widths: 0.33, 1.67, 1, 1.33, 1.67 times preferred step width. Motion capture was used to record trunk kinematics, and surface electromyography was used to record longissimus muscle activation bilaterally. Vector coding was used to analyze coordination between pelvis and thorax segments of the trunk. Results showed that while center of mass only varied across step width in the mediolateral direction, trunk kinematics in all three planes were affected by changes in step width. Angular excursions of the trunk segments increased only with wider widths in the transverse plane. Thorax-pelvis kinematic coordination was affected more by wider widths in transverse plane and by narrower widths in the frontal plane. Peak longissimus activation and bilateral co-activation increased as step widths became narrower. As a control task, walking with varied step widths is not simply a continuum of adjustments from narrow to wide. Rather, narrowing step width and widening step width from the preferred width represent distinct control challenges that are managed in different ways. This study provides foundation for future investigations on the trunk during gait in different populations.
Recombinant Paraprobiotics as a New Paradigm for Treating Gastrointestinal Nematode Parasites of Humans.

Gastrointestinal nematodes (GINs) of humans, e.g., hookworms, negatively impact childhood growth, cognition, nutrition, educational attainment, income, productivity, and pregnancy. Hundreds of millions of people are targeted with mass drug administration (MDA) of donated benzimidazole anthelmintics. However, benzimidazole efficacy against GINs is suboptimal, and reduced/low efficacy has been seen. Developing an anthelmintic for human MDA is daunting: it must be safe, effective, inexpensive, stable without a cold chain, and massively scalable. Bacillus thuringiensis crystal protein 5B (Cry5B) has anthelmintic properties that could fill this void. Here, we developed an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) containing B. thuringiensis Cry5B compatible with MDA. We expressed Cry5B in asporogenous B. thuringiensis during vegetative phase, forming cytosolic crystals. These bacteria with cytosolic crystals (BaCC) were rendered inviable (inactivated BaCC [IBaCC]) with food-grade essential oils. IBaCC potency was validated in vitro against nematodes. IBaCC was also potent in vivo against human hookworm infections in hamsters. IBaCC production was successfully scaled to 350 liters at a contract manufacturing facility. A simple fit-for-purpose formulation to protect against stomach digestion and powdered IBaCC were successfully made and used against GINs in hamsters and mice. A pilot histopathology study and blood chemistry workup showed that five daily consecutive doses of 200 mg/kg body weight Cry5B IBaCC (the curative single dose is 40 mg/kg) was nontoxic to hamsters and completely safe. IBaCC is a safe, inexpensive, highly effective, easy-to-manufacture, and scalable anthelmintic that is practical for MDA and represents a new paradigm for treating human GINs.
Stochastic and deterministic SIS patch model

Here, we consider an SIS epidemic model where the individuals are distributed on several distinct patches. We construct a stochastic model and then prove that it converges to a deterministic model as the total population size tends to infinity. We next study the equilibria of the deterministic model. Our main contribution is a stability result of the endemic equilibrium in the case \begin{document}$ \mathcal{R}_0>1 $\end{document} . Finally we compare the equilibria with those of the homogeneous model, and with those of isolated patches.
Taming Convergence for Asynchronous Stochastic Gradient Descent with Unbounded Delay in Non-Convex Learning

Understanding the convergence performance of asynchronous stochastic gradient descent method (Async-SGD) has received increasing attention in recent years due to their foundational role in machine learning. To date, however, most of the existing works are restricted to either bounded gradient delays or convex settings. In this paper, we focus on Async-SGD and its variant Async-SGDI (which uses increasing batch size) for non-convex optimization problems with unbounded gradient delays. We prove $o\left( {1/\sqrt k } \right)$ convergence rate for Async-SGD and o(1/k) for Async-SGDI. Also, a unifying sufficient assumption for Async-SGD’s convergence is proposed, which includes two major gradient delay models in the literature as special cases.
Characterization of a Late Blight Resistance Gene Homologous to R2 in Potato Variety Payette Russet

Breeding for late blight resistance has traditionally relied on phenotypic selection, but as the number of characterized resistance (R) genes has grown, so have the possibilities for genotypic selection. One challenge for breeding russet varieties is the lack of information about the genetic basis of resistance in this germplasm group. Based on observations of strong resistance by ‘Payette Russet’ to genotype US-23 of the late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans in inoculated experiments, we deduced the variety must contain at least one major R gene. To identify the gene(s), 79 F1 progeny were screened using a detached leaf assay and classified resistant vs. susceptible. Linkage mapping using markers from the potato SNP array revealed a single resistant haplotype on the short arm of chromosome group 4, which coincides with the R2/Rpi-abpt/Rpi-blb3 locus. PCR amplification and sequencing of the gene in Payette revealed it is homologous to R2, and transient expression experiments in Nicotiana benthamiana confirmed its recognition of the Avr2 effector. Sequencing of a small diversity panel revealed a SNP unique to resistant haplotypes at the R2 locus, which was converted to a KASP marker that showed perfect prediction accuracy in the F1 population and diversity panel. Although many genotypes of P. infestans are virulent against R2, even when defeated this gene may be valuable as one component of a multi-genic approach to quantitative resistance.
How Does Gender Balance In Training Data Affect Face Recognition Accuracy

Deep learning methods have greatly increased the accuracy of face recognition, but an old problem still persists: accuracy is usually higher for men than women. It is often speculated that lower accuracy for women is caused by under-representation in the training data. This work investigates female under-representation in the training data is truly the cause of lower accuracy for females on test data. Using a state-of-the-art deep CNN, three different loss functions, and two training datasets, we train each on seven subsets with different male/female ratios, totaling forty two trainings, that are tested on three different datasets. Results show that (1) gender balance in the training data does not translate into gender balance in the test accuracy, (2) the “gender gap” in test accuracy is not minimized by a gender-balanced training set, but by a training set with more male images than female images, and (3) training to minimize the accuracy gap does not result in highest female, male or average accuracy.
Smooth and Strong PCPs

Probabilistically checkable proofs (PCPs) can be verified based only on a constant amount of random queries, such that any correct claim has a proof that is always accepted, and incorrect claims are rejected with high probability (regardless of the given alleged proof). We consider two possible features of PCPs: We prove that all sets in $$\mathcal{NP}$$ have PCPs that are both smooth andstrong, are of polynomial length and can be verified based on a constantnumber of queries. This is achieved by following the proof of thePCP theorem of Arora et al. (JACM 45(3):501–555, 1998), providing astronger analysis of the Hadamard and Reed–Muller based PCPs anda refined PCP composition theorem. In fact, we show that any set in $$\mathcal{NP}$$ has a smooth strong canonical PCP of Proximity (PCPP), meaningthat there is an efficiently computable bijection of $$\mathcal{NP}$$ witnesses to correct proofs. This improves on the recent construction of Dinur et al. (in: Blum (ed) 10th innovations in theoretical computer science conference, ITCS, San Diego, 2019) of PCPPs that are strong canonical but inherently non-smooth. Our result implies the hardness of approximating the satisfiability of “stable” 3CNF formulae with bounded variable occurrence, where stable means that the number of clauses violated by an assignment is proportional to its distance from a satisfying assignment (in the relative Hamming metric). This proves a hypothesis used in the work of Friggstad, Khodamoradi and Salavatipour (in: Chan (ed) Proceedings of the 30th annual ACM-SIAM symposium on discrete algorithms, SODA, San Diego, 2019), suggesting a connection between the hardness of these instances and other stable optimization problems.
Noise in Neurons and Synapses Enables Reliable Associative Memory Storage in Local Cortical Circuits.

Neural networks in the brain can function reliably despite various sources of errors and noise present at every step of signal transmission. These sources include errors in the presynaptic inputs to the neurons, noise in synaptic transmission, and fluctuations in the neurons’ postsynaptic potentials. Collectively they lead to errors in the neurons’ outputs which are, in turn, injected into the network. Does unreliable network activity hinder fundamental functions of the brain, such as learning and memory retrieval? To explore this question, this article examines the effects of errors and noise on the properties of model networks of inhibitory and excitatory neurons involved in associative sequence learning. The associative learning problem is solved analytically and numerically, and it is also shown how memory sequences can be loaded into the network with a biologically more plausible perceptron-type learning rule. Interestingly, the results reveal that errors and noise during learning increase the probability of memory recall. There is a tradeoff between the capacity and reliability of stored memories, and, noise during learning is required for optimal retrieval of stored information. What is more, networks loaded with associative memories to capacity display many structural and dynamical features observed in local cortical circuits in mammals. Based on the similarities between the associative and cortical networks, this article predicts that connections originating from more unreliable neurons or neuron classes in the cortex are more likely to be depressed or eliminated during learning, while connections onto noisier neurons or neuron classes have lower probabilities and higher weights. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Signal transmission in the brain is accompanied by many sources of errors and noise, and yet, neural networks can reliably store memories. This article argues that noise should not be viewed as a nuisance, but that it is an essential component of the reliable learning mechanism implemented by the brain. The article describes a network model of associative sequence learning, showing that for optimal retrieval of stored information learning must be carried out in the presence of noise. To validate the model, it is shown that associative memories can be loaded into the network with an online perceptron-type learning rule and that networks loaded to capacity develop many structural and dynamical properties observed in the brain.
Bootstrapping for HElib

Gentry’s bootstrapping technique is still the only known method of obtaining fully homomorphic encryption where the system’s parameters do not depend on the complexity of the evaluated functions. Bootstrapping involves a recryption procedure where the scheme’s decryption algorithm is evaluated homomorphically. So far, there have been precious few implementations of recryption, and fewer still that can handle “packed ciphertexts” that encrypt vectors of elements.
Voter Welfare: An Emerging Rule of Reason in Voting Rights Law

For the first time in at least a generation, the central focus of voting rights law has returned to the issue of eligibility to cast a ballot and the act of voting itself. Unlike in prior generations, the fights over voting are centrally part of a partisan battle for electoral supremacy, and are not organized around perpetuating the historic subordination of minority populations – whatever the localized impact on minorities that the new voting rules may trigger. In the partisan environment, courts face claims of exclusion that only imperfectly map onto constitutional prohibitions of discriminatory intent or statutory protections of minority voting opportunity. Although only some of these challenges arise in jurisdictions that were formerly covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Shelby County further compels a new legal approach to these cases.This article begins with the observation that, at least thus far, courts have been remarkably sympathetic to these new claims of voter exclusion, even without precise doctrinal categories for assessing them. Courts have fashioned parallel lines of case authority under the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act to shift evidentiary burdens to defendants to justify the need for election law overhaul shown to have an impact on the availability of the franchise. Voting rights law is moving form a rigid per se rule against certain established practices, to a contextual assessment of the reason for the challenged practices. The Article presents this evolution as analogous to the emergence of a rule of reason to provide nuance to the overly rigid antitrust laws under the Sherman Act. Any such contextual approach needs an animating principle to guide a flexible judicial standard. In the antitrust context, that was the idea of consumer welfare. The question in the voting rights context is whether a corresponding notion of voter welfare can emerge.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Federal Trust Obligation to American Indians

This article provides a brief history and a comprehensive analysis of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the oldest and most maligned Agency in the U.S. Government. The author describes in detail the ways in which the agency carries out its statutory mandates, citing the BIA''s regulatory code, highlighting current issues, analyzing selected litigation, noting conflicting federal policy priorities, and documenting the persistent shortage of resources to address unmet Indian needs. The article emphasizes the growing tension between tribal self government and enforcement of the Federal Trust Responsibility through the BIA and other Federal Agencies.
Influences of the Digest Classification System: What Can We Know?

Robert C. Berring has called West Publishing Company's American Digest System “the key aspect of the new form of legal literature” that West and other publishers developed in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Berring argued that West's digests provided practicing lawyers not only the means for locating precedential cases, but a “paradigm for thinking about the law itself” that influenced American lawyers until the development of online legal research systems in the 1970s. This article discusses questions raised by Berring's scholarship, and examines the late nineteenth and early twentieth century legal environment in which the West digests were created and became essential research tools for American lawyers.
Asymptotic properties of the Hahn–Hausman test for weak-instruments

Abstract This paper provides weak-instrument asymptotic representations of tests for instrument validity by Hahn and Hausman's (HH) [Hahn, J., Hausman, J., 2002. A new specification test for the validity of instrumental variables. Econometrica 70, 163–189.], and uses these representations to compute asymptotic power against weak or irrelevant instruments. The HH tests were proposed as pretests, and the asymptotic properties of post-test inferences, conditional on the tests failing to reject instrument validity, are also examined.
Lazy, not biased: Susceptibility to partisan fake news is better explained by lack of reasoning than by motivated reasoning.

Abstract Why do people believe blatantly inaccurate news headlines (“fake news”)? Do we use our reasoning abilities to convince ourselves that statements that align with our ideology are true, or does reasoning allow us to effectively differentiate fake from real regardless of political ideology? Here we test these competing accounts in two studies (total N = 3446 Mechanical Turk workers) by using the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) as a measure of the propensity to engage in analytical reasoning. We find that CRT performance is negatively correlated with the perceived accuracy of fake news, and positively correlated with the ability to discern fake news from real news – even for headlines that align with individuals’ political ideology. Moreover, overall discernment was actually better for ideologically aligned headlines than for misaligned headlines. Finally, a headline-level analysis finds that CRT is negatively correlated with perceived accuracy of relatively implausible (primarily fake) headlines, and positively correlated with perceived accuracy of relatively plausible (primarily real) headlines. In contrast, the correlation between CRT and perceived accuracy is unrelated to how closely the headline aligns with the participant’s ideology. Thus, we conclude that analytic thinking is used to assess the plausibility of headlines, regardless of whether the stories are consistent or inconsistent with one’s political ideology. Our findings therefore suggest that susceptibility to fake news is driven more by lazy thinking than it is by partisan bias per se – a finding that opens potential avenues for fighting fake news.
Debt Write-Downs and Debt-Equity Swaps in the Two Sector Model

Abstract ‘Debt overhang’ models have motivated the possibility of Pareto-improving market-based debt-reduction schemes through the assumption that creditors can seize debtor output under default. These models usually reach the conclusion that both debtor-financed debt repurchases and debt-equity swaps are not in the interest of debtor nations. This paper re-examines these conclusions for a debtor nation that also has a ‘safe sector’ which is unexposed to seizure. Debt overhangs are then shown to distort the composition of investment in the debtor nation. Nominal debt reductions mitigate these distortions, enhancing the potential for Pareto-improving debt-equity swaps.
Risk attitudes in large stake gambles: evidence from a game show

This article estimates the degree of risk aversion of contestants appearing on ‘Vas o No Vas’, the Mexican version of ‘Deal or No Deal’. We consider both dynamic agents, who fully backward induct and myopic agents that only look forward one period. Further, we vary the level of forecasting sophistication by the agents. We find substantial evidence of risk aversion, the degree of which is more modest than what is typically reported in the literature.
Stability and Rigidity: Politics and Design of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Procedure

The increased “legalization” embodied in the revised Dispute Settlement Procedure (DSP) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is shown to be an institutional innovation that increases the opportunities for states to temporarily suspend their obligations in periods of unexpected, but heightened, domestic political pressure for protection. This increased flexibility in the system reduces per-period cooperation among states but also reduces the possibility that the regime may break down entirely. There is shown to be a trade-off between rigidity and stability in international institutional design in the face of unforeseen, but occasionally intense, domestic political pressure. In a model with a WTO that serves both an informational and adjudicatory role, it is established that agreements with DSPs are self-enforcing, are more stable, and are more acceptable to a wider variety of countries than agreements without DSPs. Evidence drawn from data on preferential trading agreements supports the key hypotheses.
THE PRIVATE SOCIETY AND THE LIBERAL PUBLIC GOOD IN JOHN LOCKE'S THOUGHT

This essay interprets John Locke's teachings about private societies, or free private associations. The essay proceeds by interpreting Locke's mature writings on ethics, politics, and philosophy, and then by illustrating Locke's teachings as they apply to two contemporary problems in associational freedom. Although Locke wrote about private societies primarily in the course of arguing for religious toleration, throughout his mature corpus he develops an internally consistent general theory of associational freedom. At first glance, Locke seems to suggest that all citizens are entitled to associate for any end of their choosing, to control admission into and expulsion from their membership, and to enforce their own internal rules of governance. However, Locke qualifies this broad right to bar societies from organizing around ends inconsistent with the minimal moral and political conditions of liberalism. Ultimately, Locke suggests, citizens deserve a broad right of private society only to the extent that they are well enough formed by their regime and its private institutions to be capable of governing themselves in both private and public life.In contrast with contemporary practice, Locke's justification is broader in some respects and narrower in others. The essay illustrates the implications by considering how Locke's teachings justify limiting the scope of anti-discrimination laws and enlarging the scope of government efforts to dissolve seditious associations.
The World Commission on Dams' Contribution to the Broader Debate on Development Decision-Making

In this article, I argue that the protagonists in the sometimes bitter debate about dams that resulted in the establishment of the World Commission on Dams share common perceptions about development decision-making with the protagonists in the debates that have occurred at the local, national, and international level about such issues as natural resource and infrastructure projects, corporate relocations, globalization, and global governance. In this context, 'development decision-making' means the way in which individuals, groups and institutions decide to adopt and then implement policies, programs, and projects that affect the evolution of their own and/or other's social and physical environments. I contend that the views of these protagonists can be divided into two basic visions of development. I call these the traditional and the modern views of development decision-making. These views differ in their understanding of the relationship between the economic, social, political, cultural, and economic aspects of development and of the way in which decisions about development policies and programs should be made. The traditional view sees development as primarily an economic process whose outputs are discrete projects and policies that are designed to achieve the highest possible level of economic growth. The modern view, on the other hand, views development as a socially, economically, politically, culturally, and environmentally integrated process. The paper explores the implications that follow from these different views of development for decision-making about development. The Report of the World Commission of Dams is an important event in this debate over development decision-making because it is possibly the first systematic effort to develop an approach to decision-making that is explicitly based on international human rights and environmental principles, as enunciated in the key international human rights conventions and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. The paper describes the WCD's approach to decision-making and explores some of the issues that it raises. The paper ends with a discussion of some issues that are left unresolved but that are of great relevance to the debate over development decision-making.
What’s Under Construction Here? Social Action, Materiality, and Power in Constructivist Studies of Technology and Organizing

Over the past two decades, organizational scholars have increasingly argued that technology’s affects on organizations are socially constructed. Constructivists who study implementation generally hold that organizational change emerges from an ongoing stream of social action in which people respond to a technology’s constraints and affordances, as well as to each other. Although most students of technology and organizing generally agree on the ontology of constructivism, there are considerable differences in what scholars mean when they say that a technology’s affects are socially constructed. We show that research on the social construction of implementation clusters into five coherent perspectives, which we call perception , interpretation , appropriation ,
What Happens in the Cloud: Software as a Service and Copyrights

What happens in the cloud? Copyright owners are concerned. Users of cloud services upload, share, and download copies of software and other files without their owners’ permission and access copyrighted works beyond or in violation of access limitations. Also, copyright owners find it hard to keep up with initiatives of cloud service providers, which constantly introduce new technologies that make copyrighted works available in new formats and business models. What happens in the cloud stays in the cloud. In the cloud, software is no longer commercialized by distributing physical copies to users. Instead, users remotely access and use software copies that remain on the cloud provider’s servers. Software copies stay in the cloud. This raises questions as to if and how copyright law protects the interests of software copyright owners, users, and the public in the cloud. Answering such questions requires an understanding of exactly what happens in the cloud in terms of copying software. This is the focus of the Article. Although cloud offerings are often global and multi-jurisdictional, the copyright laws governing the services remain territorial and national. This Article examines primarily U.S. copyright law, which applies where companies have been most innovative and active in developing cloud offerings, but also briefly takes a look at copyright laws in the EU, the second most developed and active jurisdiction with respect to software copyrights. After Part I provides a general introduction to the topic, Part II gives a technological overview. Part III assesses in detail when and how the exclusive statutory rights under U.S. copyright law are implicated in a number of typical software-as-a-service scenarios. Part IV analyses the same scenarios under copyright laws in Europe for comparison purposes. Part V briefly looks at the complexities of cross-border scenarios and Part VI concludes with an outlook regarding potential legal and policy implications of what happens in the cloud to software copies. © 2014 Lothar Determann. † Lothar Determann teaches computer, Internet, and data privacy law at Freie Universitat Berlin, University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco and practices technology law as a partner with Baker & McKenzie LLP, admitted in California and Germany. The Author thanks Bruce Perens for contributions and explanations on technical details, his partner Ben Allgrove (Baker & McKenzie, London) for comments on EU and U.K. copyright law, and Helena Engfeldt for assistance with research and edits. As with all articles, opinions expressed are those of the Author only, not his firm’s, clients’, or others’. 1096 BERKELEY TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 29:1095
Intrinsically Worthless Objects as Media of Exchange: Experimental Evidence*

This article reports results from an experiment that examines whether an intrinsically worthless, ‘‘token'’ object serves as a medium of exchange in a laboratory implementation of Kiyotaki and Wright's search model of money. The theory admits Nash equilibria in which the token object is or is not used as a medium of exchange. We find that subjects nearly always offer to trade for the token object when such a trade lowers their storage costs. However, subjects frequently refuse to offer to trade the token object for more costly-to-store goods when the theory predicts they should make such trades.
Firm Characteristics and the Pricing of Foreign Earnings of US Multinational Firms

Prior research finds a positive relation between current changes in foreign earnings of USmultinational firms and future stock returns. The cause of this relation is either (1) investors' mispricing of securities by underestimating the persistence of foreign earnings or (2) research design misspecifications (e.g., the researcher failing to control for cross-sectional differences in risk). The purpose of this study is to determine which of these two competing explanations is more likely. If the anomalous results are due to market mispricing, then the anomalous results should be more pronounced for firms that are followed by fewer well-informed, sophisticated investors and for firms that have foreign earnings that are more persistent than domestic earnings. If the anomaly is related to research design misspecification, then the existence of the anomaly is not expected to vary across these firm characteristics. The results are more consistent with the market mispricing hypothesis. Predicting the existence of the foreign earnings anomaly based on these firm-specific characteristics increases our understanding of the true nature of the anomaly. In addition, relating the foreign earnings anomaly to firm-specific characteristics provides relevant information to investors for firm valuation and helps to promote future academic research in the market's valuation of multinational firms' operations.
Law, Market and Marketization

Marketization is a process occurring in many transitional economies as countries seek to adjust their legal systems to facilitate broader market participation while expanding global trade. This essay sets out one way of understanding this process by focusing on the relationship among, law, markets, and marketization. It identifies and explains basic legal requirements for marketization and links these to a need to transform legal thinking by integrating a greater understanding of economics into both law and public policy.
Modeling the Practical Effects of Applicant Reactions: Subgroup Differences in Test-Taking Motivation, Test Performance, and Selection Rates

Research suggests that Black–White differences in test-taking motivation may be related to subgroup test score differences, but this research has not shown the extent to which minimizing subgroup motivation differences will reduce subgroup differences in selection rates and adverse impact. This Monte Carlo study examined how enhancing Blacks' test-taking motivation for cognitive ability tests might reduce adverse impact across a range of (a) subgroup test differences, (b) selection ratios, (c) subgroup differences in test-taking motivation, and (d) relationships between motivation and test scores. The results suggest that although enhancing test-taking motivation will consistently reduce subgroup differences in test performance and adverse impact, the effect is often small and will not eliminate adverse impact for any condition we examine. However, under some conditions the reduction may be important, and the discussion considers conditions where even these minimal reductions may be practically helpful.
The Role of Hypothesis Testing in the Molding of Econometric Models

This paper addresses the role of specification tests in the selection of a statistically admissible model used to evaluate economic hypotheses. The issue is formulated in the context of recent philosophical accounts on the nature of models and related to some results in the literature on specification search. In contrast to enumerative induction and a priori theory, powerful search methodologies are often adequate substitutes for experimental methods. They underwrite and support, rather than distort, statistical hypothesis tests. Their success is grounded in a systematic effort to mold appropriate models to, and test them against, constraints of the data.
PRICING CURRENCY OPTIONS UNDER STOCHASTIC INTEREST RATES AND JUMP-DIFFUSION PROCESSES

We investigate the effects of stochastic interest rates and jumps in the spot exchange rate on the pricing of currency futures, forwards, and futures options. The proposed model extends Bates's model by allowing both the domestic and foreign interest rates to move around randomly, in a generalized Vasicek term-structure framework. Numerical examples show that the model prices of European currency futures options are similar to those given by Bates's and Black's models in the absence of jumps and when the volatilities of the domestic and foreign interest rates and futures price are negligible. Changes in these volatilities affect the futures options prices. Bates's and Black's models underprice the European currency futures options in both the presence and the absence of jumps. The mispricing increases with the volatilities of interest rates and futures prices. JEL classification: G13
Venture capitalist monitoring: Evidence from governance structures

Abstract We examine the impact of venture capitalist (VC) involvement, quality and exit on corporate governance structures at the time of and subsequent to an initial public offering (IPO). Venture capital backed firms utilize governance structures with greater levels of monitoring at the time of an IPO compared to non-backed firms, but this difference begins to dissipate over time. While short-lived, IPOs backed by high quality VCs have greater overall monitoring levels than those IPOs backed by low quality VCs. IPOs backed by high quality VCs use significantly more equity-based compensation than their low quality counterparts. Finally, the exit of a VC materially alters the governance structure of firms. Measures of governance decline following the departure of a venture capital firm. Overall, the presence of a venture capitalist affects governance structures of firms both at the IPO and through the early years as public firms.
Illusions in regression analysis

Soyer and Hogarth’s article, “The Illusion of Predictability,” shows that diagnostic statistics that are commonly provided with regression analysis lead to confusion, reduced accuracy, and overconfidence. Even highly competent researchers are subject to these problems. This overview examines the Soyer-Hogarth findings in light of prior research on illusions associated with regression analysis. It also summarizes solutions that have been proposed over the past century. These solutions would enhance the value of regression analysis.
High Velocity Human Factors: Human Factors of Mission Critical Domains in Nonequilibrium

Mission critical domains (MCDs), such as fire fighting, military combat, etc., experience periods of nonequilibrium. This typically occurs when extended periods of low grade activity are punctuated by intense, high stakes actions unfolding at high velocities (e.g., fighting a fire, engaging in combat, etc.). These periods of nonequilibrium are typically characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Human agents operating under these conditions experience a variety of reactions, such as emotional modulation of cognition, recognition primed decision making, among others. To study this phenomenon a construct named High Velocity Human Factors (HVHF) is defined and described. On the practical side, the HVHF framework will be used to analyze demands placed on personnel operating in MCDs and inform the design of systems and solutions.
The consequences of a policy of necessity: Bank regulatory forbearance, 1986–1989

While it is widely recognized that bank regulators choose the policy of forbearance because of an undercapitalized bank insurance fund, a key policy question centers on what were the effects of forbearance. This study uses a survival model to track capital deficient banks from December 1986 to December 1989, a period in which regulators explicitly used forbearance in managing troubled banks. Despite the contention that forbearance returns banks to safe-and-sound practices, this study concludes that forbearance did not enable troubled banks to return to viability. Furthermore, the evidence from the survival analysis provides negligible support, if any, for the interrelationship between forbearance and too-big-to-fail doctrine.
Executive Constraint, Political Stability, and Economic Growth:

Previous studies have argued that democracy diminishes the extent to which leadership contests depress economic growth, by reducing the violence and uncertainty attendant on such contests. We recon...
Professor Modigliani on price controls: the baleful influence of the perfectly competitive model

Professor Modigliani argues that, owing to considerations derived from the model of perfect competition, price controls in general enhance economic welfare and that this applies in particular to health care. Maintains the diametric opposite on both counts: that the perfectly competitive model is logically flawed and therefore cannot be applied to the real world of health care, and that price controls, there or anywhere else, have negative repercussions on economic welfare. Further, that the economics profession is well advised to reject the perfectly competitive model, and instead embrace one of rivalistic competition.
Nonlinear electron-phonon heat exchange

A calculation of the energy exchange between phonons and electrons is done for a metal at very low temperatures. We consider the energy exchange due to two-phonon processes. Second-order processes are expected to be important at temperatures less than 1 K. We include two different second-order processes: (i) the Compton-like scattering of phonons, and (ii) the electron-dual-phonon scattering from the second-order electron-phonon interaction. It is found that the Compton-like process contains a singular energy denominator. The singularity is removed by introducing quasiparticle damping. For pure metals we find that the energy exchange depends upon the lifetime of the electrons and it is proportional to the temperature of the lattice as T{sub L}{sup 8}. The same calculation is performed for the electron-dual-phonon scattering and it is found that the temperature dependence is T{sub L}{sup 9}. The results can be applied to quantum dot refrigerators. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}
Framing the Choice Between Cash and the Courthouse: Experiences With the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund

In this paper I report the results of a quantitative and qualitative empirical study of how those who were injured or lost a family member in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks evaluated the tradeoff between a cash payment‐‐available through the Victim Compensation Fund‐‐and the pursuit of litigation. Responses make it clear that potential plaintiffs saw much more at stake than monetary compensation and that the choice to forego litigation required the sacrifice of important non‐monetary, civic, values: obtaining and publicizing information about what happened, prompting public findings of accountability for those responsible, and participating in the process of ensuring that there would be responsive change to what was learned about how the attacks and deaths happened. The results shed light on the framing component of the transformation of disputes, and in particular on how potential litigants see the decision to sue, or not, as a decision as much or more about how they understand their relationship to their community and their responsibilities as a citizen as how they evaluate monetary considerations.