cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Investment Hangover and the Great Recession

We present a model of investment hangover motivated by the Great Recession. Overbuilding of durable capital such as housing requires a reallocation of productive resources to other sectors, which is facilitated by a reduction in the interest rate. When monetary policy is constrained, overbuilding induces a demand-driven recession with limited reallocation and low output. Investment in other capital initially declines due to low demand, but it later booms and induces an asymmetric recovery in which the overbuilt sector is left behind. Welfare can be improved by ex post policies that stimulate investment (including in overbuilt capital) and ex ante policies that restrict investment.
A THEORY OF THE POLITICALLY OPTIMAL COMMODITY TAX

A theory of the politically optimal tax is developed where tax rates are endogenous and determined by forces in the political market. The theory is used to explain the levels of alcoholic beverage taxes between states in the United States. It is shown that these rates are influenced by the ownership structure existing in the liquor industry, the consumption externalities associated with drinking, the minimum drinking age laws, the earmarking of tax revenues, the enforcement of regulations and real income.
Synthesis of thioether derivatives of ethidium bromide

Abstract 3,8-Dithiocyanato-5-ethyl-6-phenylphenanthridinium iodide was prepared via diazotization of ethidium bromide. Reduction with aqueous Na2S followed by alkylation gave cationic thioether derivatives.
Commodity Price Responses to Monetary Policy Surprises

Commodity prices are important both as a source of shocks and for the propagation of shocks originating elsewhere in the economy. Many vector autoregression (VAR) studies estimate a gradual response of commodity prices to monetary policy shocks. Exploiting information in high-frequency financial market data, and using the methods of Rigobon and Sack (2004) I find that a 10 basis point surprise change in interest rates causes commodity prices to fall immediately by about 0.5%. This is about two-thirds of the estimated response of the S&P500, and about five times larger than the response in a VAR 12 months after the shock. Metals prices tend to respond more than agricultural commodities. The point estimate for oil prices is similar to other commodities, but is estimated imprecisely.
QoS-Aware Base-Station Selections for Distributed MIMO Links in Broadband Wireless Networks

The distributed multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) techniques across multiple cooperative base stations (BS) can significantly enhance the capability of the broadband wireless networks in terms of quality-of-service (QoS) provisioning for wireless data transmissions. However, the computational complexity and the interfering range of the distributed MIMO systems also increase rapidly as the number of cooperative BS's increases. In this paper, we propose the QoS-aware BS-selection schemes for the distributed wireless MIMO links, which aim at minimizing the BS usages and reducing the interfering range, while satisfying diverse statistical delay-QoS constraints characterized by the delay-bound violation probability and the effective capacity technique. In particular, based on the channel state information (CSI) and QoS requirements, a subset of BS with variable cardinality for the distributed MIMO transmission is dynamically selected, where the selections are controlled by a central server. For the single-user scenario, we develop two optimization frameworks, respectively, to derive the efficient BS-selection schemes and the corresponding resource allocation algorithms. One framework uses the incremental BS-selection and time-sharing (IBS-TS) strategies, and the other employs the ordered-gain based BS-selection and probabilistic transmissions (OGBS-PT). The IBS-TS framework can yield better performance, while the scheme developed under the OGBS-PT framework is easier to implement. For the multi-user scenario, we propose the optimization framework applying the priority BS-selection, block-diagonalization precoding, and probabilistic transmission (PBS-BD-PT) techniques. We also propose the optimization framework applying the priority BS-selection, time-division-multiple-access, and probabilistic transmission (PBS-TDMA-PT) techniques. We derive the optimal transmission schemes for all the aforementioned frameworks, respectively. Also conducted is a set of simulation evaluations which compare our proposed schemes with several baseline schemes and show the impact of the delay-QoS requirements, transmit power, and traffic loads on the performances of BS selections for distributed MIMO systems.
Numerical Solution of Supersonic Laminar Flow Over an Inclined Body of Revolution

A mixed explicit-implicit scheme is used to solve the time-dependent thin-layer approximation of the Navier-Stokes equations for a supersonic laminar flow over an inclined body of revolution. Test cases for Mach 2.8 flow over a cylinder with 15-deg flare angle at angles of attack of 0,1, and 4 deg are calculated. Good agreement is obtained between the present computed results and experimental measurements of surface pressure. A pair of vortices on the leeward and a peak in the normal force distribution near the flared juncture are predicted; the role of circumferential communication is discussed.
Constraints on the role of synchrotron X-rays from jets of accreting black holes

We present an extension of the scale-invariance formalism by Heinz & Sunyaev which includes the effects of radiative cooling on the X-ray synchrotron emission from core-dominated jets and outflows. We derive the scaling relations between the radio luminosity L I , the synchrotron X-ray luminosity L x , the mass M, and the accretion rate m of an accreting black hole. We argue that the inclusion of synchrotron losses in the scaling relations is required by the data used in Merloni et al. to define the 'fundamental plane' correlation between L r , L x and M in active galactic nuclei and Galactic X-ray binaries. We then fit the new scaling relations to the 'fundamental plane' correlation. This allows us to derive statistical constraints on the contribution from jet synchrotron emission to the X-rays from black holes, or, alternatively, on the particle acceleration scheme at work in these jets. We find that, in order for jet synchrotron X-rays to be consistent with the observed L r -L x -M correlation, the global particle spectrum must be both steep, f(y) α γ -(3.4+0.6-0.5) , and unbroken down to energies well below the radio synchrotron regime. Such a steep particle distribution would imply steeper X-ray spectra than observed in most sources contributing to the correlation with available X-ray spectral index measurements. We suggest that, unless some assumptions of the scale-invariance hypothesis are broken, another emission mechanism (likely either disc radiation and/or inverse Compton scattering in the jet) contributes significantly to the X-rays of a sizeable fraction of the sources.
An Economic Explication of the Prohibition of Gharar in Classical Islamic Jurisprudence

The forbidden bay'u al-gharar can best be translated as "trading in risk". In the face of risk, any trade would involve some degree of trading in risk, and thus jurists disagree over whether a specific contract is forbidden or not based on their varying assessments of whether the amount of risk is substantial or small. Moreover, the prohibition is often overruled in cases where clear economic benefit can only be served by a contract which includes substantial trading in risk. We show that "trading in risk" is generally inefficient relative to other forms of risk sharing. Hence if a contract can attain its eco- nomic aim of increasing economic efficiency through either form of risk transfer, the prohibition of trading in risk should be applicable. Cases where such a prohibition is moot because the risk trading in- strument is not used do not affect this general conclusion. In cases where trading in risk is integral to the contract, but where the con- tract is important to meet economic needs (e.g. salam and 'istis . na'), the analysis is still useful in two regards: (i) we can consider whether or not there is a risk sharing mechanism which can reduce part of the inherent trading in risk (e.g. financial vs. mutual insurance), and (ii) we should consider such alternatives if secondary tools for managing the resulting risk are sought.
Oxycarbide Glasses in the Mg-Al-Si-O-C System

Oxycarbide glasses in the Mg-Al-Si-O-C system were produced at initial carbon levels of 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 wt%. Carbon was incorporated into the glass melts by means of SiC additions. The glasses were melted between 1750° and 1800°C under nitrogen atmospheres. The limit of carbon incorporation was reached at the 2.5% carbon level, as these glasses crystallized (predominantly cordierite, 2MgO˙2Al2O3˙5SiO2) upon gradual cooling from the meit. Glasses containing less than 2.5% carbon were amorphous according to standard X-ray diffraction methods. Further examination of these oxycarbide glasses by transmission electron microscopy indicated the lack of microcrystalline phases and the potential for producing clear inclusion-free glasses. The Mg-Al-Si-O-C glasses showed significant increases in density, Young's elastic modulus, shear modulus, Vickers hardness, and fracture toughness with increasing carbon content.
Update on unethical use of placebos in randomised trials

The most recent (Fifth) revision of the Declaration of Helsinki, adopted in October 2000 by the World Medical Association (WMA), reinforces the longstanding prohibition against offering placebo instead of effective therapy. The WMA left no doubt that if a beneficial treatment for a condition has already been recognised, it is unethical to offer placebo in place of such treatment to anyone in a study of the same condition. We have previously drawn attention to the discrepancy between the spirit of the Declaration and the common practice of using placebo controls in randomised trials even if effective treatment exists. Despite the mandates of the Declaration of Helsinki and concern from ethicists and scientists, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to demand and defend placebo-controlled evidence of efficacy and safety for the development of many new pharmaceuticals, even if effective therapy exists. We suggest that the FDA's arguments defending their practice are insufficient to justify medical research that violates the Declaration of Helsinki.
The long-term effects of military conscription on mortality: estimates from the Vietnam-era draft lottery.

Research on the effects of Vietnam military service suggests that Vietnam veterans experienced significantly higher mortality than the civilian population at large. These results, however, may be biased by nonrandom selection into the military if unobserved background differences between veterans and nonveterans affect mortality directly. To generate unbiased estimates of exposure to conscription on mortality, the present study compares the observed proportion of draft-eligible male decedents born 1950–1952 to the (1) expected proportion of draft-eligible male decedents given Vietnam draft-eligibility cutoffs; and (2) observed proportion of draft-eligible decedent women. The results demonstrate no effect of draft exposure on mortality, including for cause-specific death rates. When we examine population subgroups—including splits by race, educational attainment, nativity, and marital status—we find weak evidence for an interaction between education and draft eligibility. This interaction works in the opposite direction of putative education-enhancing, mortality-reducing effects of conscription that have, in the past, led to concern about a potential exclusion restriction violation in instrumental variable (IV) regression models. We suggest that previous research, which has shown that Vietnam-era veterans experienced significantly higher mortality than nonveterans, might be biased by nonrandom selection into the military and should be further investigated.
3-D Molecular Assembly of Function in Titania-Based Composite Material Systems

Various examples of composite titania-based nanostructured materials exhibiting cooperative functionalities between different active components are presented. The fabrication of these integrated composite materials is based on one-pot supramolecular templating techniques combined with acidic sol−gel chemistry. The defined 3-D nanoscale organization and integration of various functional components results in advanced optoelectronic and photonic applications such as visible light sensitization of mesoporous titania photocatalysts with cadmium sulfide nanocrystals acting as sensitizing integral part of the mesopore wall structure, narrow bandwidth emission from rare earth ion activated nanocrystalline mesoporous titania films, and mirrorless lasing in dye-doped hybrid organic/inorganic mesostructured titania waveguides.
Estimating Fitness Bias in Body Mass Index of Middle School Students

Since muscle is more dense than fat, athletes tend to have greater mass and BMI than similarly sized non-athletes. Comparing direct adiposity measures and BMI confirms that BMI is a biased proxy for adiposity for elite athletes. A similar bias should exist for non-elite athletes as well as fit individuals. This paper provides a methodology for indirectly estimating the size of the fitness bias in BMI using median physical activity performances. Approximately 30% of females and 33% of males are fit using this definition. Using data from 9 062 students, regressions suggest 3.1, 95% CI [0.9, 5.3], of a female’s BMI percentile of 85, and 3.6% of her weight, CI [1.6%, 5.6%], is due to being fit, but 5.6, CI [3.3, 7.9], of a male’s BMI percentile of 85, and 5.9% of his weight, CI [3.9%, 7.9%], is due to being fit. These increases in weight are smaller than, but consistent with, the bias of more than 20% for elite athletes. Strong performance on individual physical activities decreases BMI percentile and BMI, but doing well on multiple physical activities has the reverse effect. This provides evidence of a fitness bias. BMI report cards should include the caveat that BMI may overstate the adiposity status of fit children.
Efficient Snubbers for Voltage-Source GTO Inverters

The two gate turn-off thyristors in the phase leg of a voltage-source inverter are provided with a series center-tapped inductance snubber and shunt capacitor snubbers having a single discharge resistor and only two auxiliary diodes. This arrangement minimizes the number of components and allows reduction of capacitor size, thereby reducing the snubber losses. The resistor may be replaced by a transformer which conserves a substantial part of the energy trapped in both the series and shunt snubbers.
Palladium Oxidase Catalysis: Selective Oxidation of Organic Chemicals by Direct Dioxygen-Coupled Turnover

Selective aerobic oxidation of organic molecules is a fundamental and practical challenge in modern chemistry. Effective solutions to this problem must overcome the intrinsic reactivity and selectivity challenges posed by the chemistry of molecular oxygen, and they must find application in diverse classes of oxidation reactions. Palladium oxidase catalysis combines the versatility of Pd(II)-mediated oxidation of organic substrates with dioxygen-coupled oxidation of the reduced palladium catalyst to enable a broad range of selective aerobic oxidation reactions. Recent developments revealed that cocatalysts (e.g. Cu(II), polyoxometalates, and benzoquinone) are not essential for efficient oxidation of Pd(0) by molecular oxygen. Oxidatively stable ligands play an important role in these reactions by minimizing catalyst decomposition, promoting the direct reaction between palladium and dioxygen, modulating organic substrate reactivity and permitting asymmetric catalysis.
Syringe access, syringe sharing, and police encounters among people who inject drugs in New York City: a community-level perspective.

Background Injection drug user (IDU) experience and perceptions of police practices may alter syringe exchange program (SEP) use or influence risky behaviour. Previously, no community-level data had been collected to identify the prevalence or correlates of police encounters reported by IDUs in the United States.
Volume change under drilling

Given a hyperbolic 3{manifold M containing an embedded closed geodesic, we estimate the volume of a complete hyperbolic metric on the complement of the geodesic in terms of the geometry of M. As a corollary, we show that the smallest volume orientable hyperbolic 3{manifold has volume >: 32.
Reduced base model construction methods for stochastic activity networks

Reduced base model construction methods for stochastic activity networks are discussed. The basic definitions concerning stochastic networks are reviewed and the types of variables used in the construction process are defined. These variables can be used to estimate both transient and steady-state system characteristics. The construction operations used and theorems stating the validity of the method are presented. A procedure for generating the reduced base model stochastic process for a given stochastic activity network and performance variable is presented. Some examples which illustrate the method and demonstrate its effectiveness in reducing the size of a state space are presented. >
Constraints on the Formation of PSR J0737–3039: The Most Probable Isotropic Kick Magnitude

A strongly relativistic binary pulsar has recently been discovered with the 64 m Parkes telescope (Burgay et al.). Here we use the measured properties of this binary (masses and orbital characteristics as well as age estimates), and we derive the complete set of constraints imposed on the physical properties of the binary pulsar progenitor right before the second supernova explosion. We find that (1) according to our current understanding of neutron star formation, the helium-rich progenitor of the second neutron star is most likely overflowing its Roche lobe, and (2) the neutron star kick magnitude is constrained in the range 60-1560 km s-1, with the most probable value being equal to 150 km s-1. While the first conclusion is in agreement with Dewi & van den Heuvel, our upper limit on the kick magnitude is significantly larger than that derived by these authors. We find that the difference arises because Dewi & van den Heuvel inadvertently neglected to consider kicks directed out of the presupernova orbital plane.
More Jonsson Algebras

We prove that on many inaccessible cardinals there is a Jonsson algebra, so e.g. the first regular Jonsson cardinal λ is λ × ω-Mahlo. We give further restrictions on successor of singulars which are Jonsson cardinals. E.g. there is a Jonsson algebra of cardinality \(\). Lastly, we give further information on guessing of clubs.
Hardness results for approximate pure Horn CNF formulae minimization

We study the hardness of approximation of clause minimum and literal minimum representations of pure Horn functions in n Boolean variables. We show that unless P=NP, it is not possible to approximate in polynomial time the minimum number of clauses and the minimum number of literals of pure Horn CNF representations to within a factor of 2 log 1 ? o ( 1 ) n $2^{\log^{1-o(1)} n}$ . This is the case even when the inputs are restricted to pure Horn 3-CNFs with O(n 1+? ) clauses, for some small positive constant ?. Furthermore, we show that even allowing sub-exponential time computation, it is still not possible to obtain constant factor approximations for such problems unless the Exponential Time Hypothesis turns out to be false.
Large Vector Auto Regressions

One popular approach for nonstructural economic and nancial forecasting is to include a large number of economic and nancial variables, which has been shown to lead to signicant improvements for forecasting, for example, by the dynamic factor models. A challenging issue is to determine which variables and (their) lags are relevant, especially when there is a mixture of serial correlation (temporal dynamics), high dimensional (spatial) dependence structure and moderate sample size (relative to dimensionality and lags). To this end, an integrated solution that addresses these three challenges simultaneously is appealing. We study the large vector auto regressions here with three types of estimates. We treat each variable’s own lags dierent from other variables’ lags, distinguish various lags over time, and is able to select the variables and lags simultaneously. We rst show the consequences of using Lasso type estimate directly for time series without considering the temporal dependence. In contrast, our proposed method can
Reagent- and solvent-dependent stereoselectivity in organocopper addition to a bicyclic alkenone

Abstract The stereoselectivity of the conjugate addition of several types of isobutylcopper reagents to a bicyclo[4.2.0]oct-3-en-2-one derivative is highly sensitive to the specific reaction conditions that are employed. Isomer ratio is highly dependent upon reaction conditions.
The Missing View of the Cathedral: The Private Law Paradigm of European Legal Integration

The traditional partition between public and private law continues to reinforce the belief that public law is the only proper realm of political debate, where decisions having redistributional consequences are and should be taken. This allows for a seemingly minor role of private law in the debate on European integration. This article challenges such a traditional image by noticing the central role of private law in the several legal systems of the European Union, and by analysing a few instances of resistance to private law integration. The analysis suggests that, while fully engaged in debating the public law implications of integration, Member States strive to keep civil adjudication within their control and to protect the self–contained, autonomous structure of their codes (or sets of private law doctrines) from the disruptive impact of European legislation. Integrationist pressures compel national legal actors to make explicit the social and economic choices underlying private law rules. Against such pressures, States’ resistance may take the shape of formalist entrenchment.
Historical perspective and state of the art in robot force control

This paper combines histarical lineage, assessment of the state of the art, and discussion of unsolved problems in robot force control. The difference between continuous and logic branching strateg...
The ultra high vacuum system of the AGS Booster

The AGS Booster under construction at Brookhaven National Laboratory is a synchrotron for the acceleration of both protons and heavy ions. The design pressure of 3*10/sup -11/ torr is required to minimize beam loss of the partially stripped heavy ions. The design and processing of the ultrahigh vacuum system and the performance of the prototype vacuum half-cells are described. >
Effect of cooperativity on microbial growth

The classical Monod equation for the specific growth rate of a microbial population can be derived by assuming a single substrate enzyme-catalysed reaction (Michaelis-Menten kinetics) as the rate-limiting step in microbial growth. In some cases the enzyme which catalyses the rate-limiting step in microbial growth may have more than one substrate binding site and the binding of one substrate molecule to the enzyme facilitates the binding of the next substrate molecule (cooperativity). The presence of cooperativity changes the form of the Michaelis-Menten equation for enzyme-catalysed substrate reactions and also the Monod equation for microbial growth. The number of interacting active sites on an enzyme molecule is an additional parameter in this case. In this article, the cooperative growth model for n interacting sites on the enzyme is derived and compared with the classical Monod model.
Fixed-Parameter Approximation: Conceptual Framework and Approximability Results

The notion of fixed-parameter approximation is introduced to investigate the approximability of optimization problems within the framework of fixed-parameter computation. This work partially aims at enhancing the world of fixed-parameter computation in parallel with the conventional theory of computation that includes both exact and approximate computations. In particular, it is proved that fixed-parameter approximability is closely related to the approximation of small-cost solutions in polynomial time. It is also demonstrated that many fixed-parameter intractable problems are not fixed-parameter approximable. On the other hand, fixed-parameter approximation appears to be a viable approach to solving some inapproximable yet important optimization problems. For instance, all problems in the class MAX SNP admit fixed-parameter approximation schemes in time O(2O((1−e/O(1))k) p(n)) for any small e>0.
Group actions on topological graphs

We define the action of a locally compact group G on a topological graph E. This action induces a natural action of G on the C*-correspondence ℋ(E) and on the graph C*-algebra C*(E). If the action is free and proper, we prove that C*(E)⋊rG is strongly Morita equivalent to C*(E/G) . We define the skew product of a locally compact group G by a topological graph E via a cocycle c:E1 →G. The group acts freely and properly on this new topological graph E×cG. If G is abelian, there is a dual action on C* (E) such that . We also define the fundamental group and the universal covering of a topological graph.
The three‐point correlation function in cosmology

With the advent of high-quality surveys in cosmology, the full three-point correlation function (3PCF) will be a valuable statistic for describing structure formation models. It contains information on cosmological parameters and detailed halo properties that cannot be extracted from the two-point correlation function. We use the halo clustering model to calculate the three-point correlation function analytically for general cosmological fields. We present detailed results for the configuration dependence of the three-dimensional mass and galaxy distributions and the two-dimensional cosmic shear field. We work in real space, where higher order correlation functions on small scales are easier to measure and interpret, but halo model calculations become rapidly intractable. Hence we develop techniques that allow for the accurate evaluation of all the contributing terms to real-space correlations. We apply them to the 3PCF to show how its configuration and scale dependence change as one transits from the non-linear to the quasilinear regime, and how this depends on the relative contributions from the one-, two- and three-halo terms. The 3PCF violates the hierarchical Ansatz in both its scale and configuration dependence. We study the behaviour of the coefficient Q in the expansion: ζ(r 1 2 , r 2 3 , r 3 1 ) = Q[ξ(r 1 2 ) ξ(r 2 3 ) + ξ(r 1 2 )ξ(r 3 1 ) + ξ(r 2 3 )ξ(r 3 1 )] from large, quasilinear scales down to approximately 20 kpc. We find that the non-linear 3PCF is sensitive to the halo profile of massive haloes, especially its inner slope. We model the distribution of galaxies in haloes and show that the 3PCF of red galaxies has a weaker configuration and scale dependence than the mass, while for blue galaxies it is very sensitive to the parameters of the galaxy formation model. The 3PCF from weak lensing on the other hand shows different scalings arising from projection effects and a sensitivity to cosmological parameters. We discuss how our results can be applied to various analytical calculations: covariances of the two-point correlation function, the pairwise peculiar velocity dispersion, higher order shear correlations, and to extend the halo model by including the effects of halo triaxiality and substructure on statistical measures.
Limits of random oracles in secure computation

The seminal result of Impagliazzo and Rudich (STOC 1989) gave a black-box separation between one-way functions and public-key encryption: a public-key encryption scheme cannot be constructed using one-way functions in a black-box way. In addition, their result implied black-box separations between one-way functions and protocols for certain Secure Function Evaluation (SFE) functionalities (in particular, Oblivious Transfer). Surprisingly, however, since then there has been no further progress in separating one-way functions and SFE functionalities. In this work, we present the complete picture for finite deterministic 2-party SFE functionalities, vis a vis one-way functions. We show that in case of semi-honest adversaries, one-way functions are black-box separated from all such SFE functionalities, except the ones which have unconditionally secure protocols (and hence do not rely on any computational hardness). In the case of active adversaries, a black-box one-way function is indeed useful for SFE, but we show that it is useful only as much as access to an ideal commitment functionality is useful. Technically, our main result establishes the limitations of random oracles for secure computation. We show that a two-party deterministic functionality f has a secure protocol in the random oracle model that is (statistically) secure against semi-honest adversaries if and only if f has a protocol in the plain model that is (perfectly) secure against semi-honest adversaries. Further, in the case of active adversaries, a deterministic SFE functionality f has a (UC or standalone) statistically secure protocol in the random oracle model if and only if f has a (UC or standalone) statistically secure protocol in the commitment-hybrid model. Our proof is based on a "frontier analysis" of two-party protocols, combining it with (extensions of) the "independence learners" of Impagliazzo-Rudich/Barak-Mahmoody. We make essential use of a combinatorial property, originally discovered by Kushilevitz (FOCS 1989), of functions that have semi-honest secure protocols in the plain model (and hence our analysis applies only to functions of polynomial-sized domains, for which such a characterization is known). Our result could be seen as a first step towards proving a conjecture that we put forth in this work and call it the Many-Worlds Conjecture. For every 2-party SFE functionality f, one can consider a "world" where f can be semi-honest securely realized in the computational setting. Many-Worlds Conjecture states that there are infinitely many "distinct worlds" between minicrypt and cryptomania in the universe of Impagliazzo's Worlds.
Radiation Tolerance of Fully-Depleted P-Channel CCDs Designed for the SNAP Satellite

Thick, fully depleted p-channel charge-coupled devices (CCDs) have been developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). These CCDs have several advantages over conventional thin, n-channel CCDs, including enhanced quantum efficiency and reduced fringing at near-infrared wavelengths and improved radiation tolerance. Here we report results from the irradiation of CCDs with 12.5 and 55 MeV protons at the LBNL 88-Inch Cyclotron and with 0.1-1 MeV electrons at the LBNL 60Co source. These studies indicate that the LBNL CCDs perform well after irradiation, even in the parameters in which significant degradation is observed in other CCDs: charge transfer efficiency, dark current, and isolated hot pixels. Modeling the radiation exposure over a six-year mission lifetime with no annealing, we expect an increase in dark current of 20 e-/pixel/hr, and a degradation of charge transfer efficiency in the parallel direction of 3 times 10-6 and 1 times 10-6 in the serial direction. The dark current is observed to improve with an annealing cycle, while the parallel CTE is relatively unaffected and the serial CTE is somewhat degraded. As expected, the radiation tolerance of the p-channel LBNL CCDs is significantly improved over the conventional n-channel CCDs that are currently employed in space-based telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Foundations of Latino Voter Partisanship: Evidence from the 2000 Election

Studies of partisan identification in the U.S. have concentrated on Anglo Americans. We argue that by focusing only on the descendents of naturalized, mostly white, immigrants, that previous research may have been biased toward largely sociological accounts for the development of partisan attitudes. Here we study the partisan affiliations of Latino voters and argue that by examining their partisan attitudes we should find that their partisanship is more explicitly political than Anglos. We utilize a telephone survey of Latino likely voters in the 2000 presidential election and find that Latino voter partisanship is shaped by both political and social factors.
Medians and beyond: new aggregation techniques for sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks offer the potential to span and monitor large geographical areas inexpensively. Sensors, however, have significant power constraint (battery life), making communication very expensive. Another important issue in the context of sensor-based information systems is that individual sensor readings are inherently unreliable. In order to address these two aspects, sensor database systems like TinyDB and Cougar enable in-network data aggregation to reduce the communication cost and improve reliability. The existing data aggregation techniques, however, are limited to relatively simple types of queries such as SUM, COUNT, AVG, and MIN/MAX. In this paper we propose a data aggregation scheme that significantly extends the class of queries that can be answered using sensor networks. These queries include (approximate) quantiles, such as the median, the most frequent data values, such as the consensus value, a histogram of the data distribution, as well as range queries. In our scheme, each sensor aggregates the data it has received from other sensors into a fixed (user specified) size message. We provide strict theoretical guarantees on the approximation quality of the queries in terms of the message size. We evaluate the performance of our aggregation scheme by simulation and demonstrate its accuracy, scalability and low resource utilization for highly variable input data sets.
Ensuring trust in one time exchanges: solving the QoS problem

We describe a pricing structure for the provision of IT services that ensures trust without requiring repeated interactions between service providers and users. It does so by offering a pricing structure that elicits truthful reporting of QoS by providers while making them profitable. This mechanism also induces truth-telling on the part of users reserving the service.
Micro heat pipes in low temperature cofire ceramic (LTCC) substrates

With projected power densities above 100 W/cm/sup 2/ for devices, new methods for thermal management from the heat generation at the die to heat removal to the ambient must be addressed. By integrating micro heat pipes directly within the ceramic substrate, effective thermal conductivity for spreading heat in both radial and axial directions was achieved. New materials and processes were developed to fabricate the unique components required to handle high thermal loads. Enhanced thermal vias to minimize the thermal impedance through the ceramic in the evaporator and condenser sections were developed, increasing the effective thermal conductivity from 2.63 to near 250 W/m-/spl deg/C. The use of an organic insert fabricated into the desired complex shape using rapid prototyping methods, coupled with the viscoelastic flow of the low temperature cofire ceramic (LTCC) during lamination, allowed complex shapes to be developed while ensuring uniform green tape density during lamination prior to tape firing. Large cavities, three-dimensional fine structures and porous wicks for capillary 3-D flow have been utilized to fabricate the heat pipes. Heat pipes and spreaders, utilizing water as the working fluid, have been demonstrated operating with power densities in excess of 300 W/cm/sup 2/.
I'M OK IF YOU'RE OK: ON THE NOTION OF TRUSTING COMMUNICATION*

We consider the issue of what an agent or a processor needs to know in order to know that its messages are true. This may be viewed as a first step to a general theory of cooperative communication in distributed systems. An honest message is one that is known to be true when it is sent (or said). If every message that is sent is honest, then of course every message that is sent is true. Various weaker considerations than honesty are investigated with the property that provided every message sent satisfies the condition, then every message sent is true.
A perception- and PDE-based nonlinear transformation for processing spoken words

Speech signals are often produced or received in the presence of noise, which is known to degrade the performance of a speech recognition system. In this paper, a perception- and PDE-based nonlinear transformation was developed to process spoken words in noisy environment. Our goal is to distinguish essential speech features and suppress noise so that the processed words are better recognized by a computer software. The nonlinear transformation was made on the spectrogram (short-term Fourier spectra) of speech signals, which reveals the signal energy distribution in time and frequency. The transformation reduces noise through time adaptation (reducing temporally slowly varying portions of spectra) and enhances spectral peaks (formants) by evolving a focusing quadratic fourth-order PDE. Short-term spectra of speech signals were initially divided into three (low, mid and high) frequency bands based on the critical bandwidth of human audition. An algorithm was developed to trace the upper and lower intensity envelopes of signal in each band. The difference between the upper and lower envelopes reflects the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio of each band. Constant, low SNR signals in each band were adaptively decreased to reduce noise. Then evolution of the focusing PDE was used to enhance the spectral peaks, and further reduce noise interference. Numerical results on noisy spoken words indicated that the transformed spectral pattern of the spoken words was insensitive to noise for SNR ranging from 0 to 20 dB (decibel). The spectral distances between noisy words and original words decreased after the transformation. A numerical experiment was performed on 11 spoken words at SNR D 5 dB. A noisy word is recognized numerically by computing the closest L 2 spectral distance from the clean template. The experiment reached a recognition rate as high as 100%. Analyses on the properties of the transformation are provided. © 2001 Elsevier Science
The financialization of the American economy

This paper presents systematic empirical evidence for the financialization of the US economy in the post-1970s period. While numerous researchers have noted the increasing salience of finance, there have been few systematic attempts to consider what this shift means for the nature of the economy, considered broadly. In large part, this omission reflects the considerable methodological difficulties associated with using national economic data to assess the rise of finance as a macro-level phenomenon shaping patterns of accumulation in the US economy. The paper develops two discrete measures of financialization and applies these measures to postwar US economic data in order to determine if, and to what extent, the US economy is becoming financialized. The paper concludes by considering some of the implications of financialization for two areas of ongoing debate in the social sciences: (1) the question of who controls the modern corporation; and (2) the controversy surrounding the extent to which globalization has eroded the autonomy of the state.
Ultrasonics and progressive deafness.

The solution of the very important and difficult problems presented by progressive deafness due to otosclerosis—its cause, prevention, and cure—is to be found in the biological implications and applications of the newly acquired and as yet incompletely correlated data in the field of ultrasonics. As there are light waves which are beyond the physiological range of human visual perception, there are sound waves that are imperceptible to the human ear—the ultrasonics. The most silent centrifuge has an ultrasonic specter extending to 100 000 cy/sec. The telephone bell produces frequencies to 50 000 cy/sec, powerful, but silent, imperceptible to us. The traffic of everyday life, in the train, bus, car, next to the audible noise, hides a tremendous amount of silent sound which is frightfully dangerous to our hearing organ. A significant fact of modern research is that the intensities of ultrasonics are of not primary importance in influencing the chemical changes in human proteins. Sonics and ultrasonics are e...
Application of chemical and electrochemical micromachining in the electronics industry

This paper discusses the principal applications of chemical and electrochemical micromachining to fabrication of electronic components. Some of the recently investigated techniques for maskless micromachining are also presented. Chemical micromachining is widely used in the present day electronics industry for a variety of applications including fabrication of metallic parts, printed circuit boards, and semiconductor devices. Electrochemical micromachining, on the other hand, appears to be very promising as a future micromachining technique since in many areas of application it offers several advantages that include higher machining rate, better precision and control, and a wider range of materials that can be machined.
Unstrained C–C bond activation and directed fluorination through photocatalytically-generated radical cations

Expanding the repertoire of controlled radical fluorination techniques, we present a photosensitized unstrained C–C bond activation/directed monofluorination method using Selectfluor and 9-fluorenone. The reaction is amenable to the opening of multiple 1-acetal-2-aryl substituted rings to yield ω-fluoro carboxylic acids, esters, alcohols, and ketones with relative ease. Initial mechanistic insight suggests radical ion intermediates.
EXPLORING INFRARED PROPERTIES OF GIANT LOW SURFACE BRIGHTNESS GALAXIES

We present an analysis of Spitzer Space Telescope observations of the three low surface brightness (LSB) optical giant galaxies Malin 1, UGC 6614, and UGC 9024. Mid- and far-infrared morphology, spectral energy distributions, and integrated colors are used to derive the dust mass, dust-to-gas mass ratio, total infrared luminosity, and star formation rate (SFR). We also investigate UGC 6879, which is intermediate between high surface brightness (HSB) and LSB galaxies. The 8 μm images indicate that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules are present in the central regions of all three metal-poor LSB galaxies. The diffuse optical disks of Malin 1 and UGC 9024 remain undetected at mid- and far-infrared wavelengths. The dustiest of the three LSB galaxies, UGC 6614, has infrared morphology that varies significantly with wavelength; 160 μm (cool) dust emission is concentrated in two clumps on the northeast and northwest sides of a distinct ring seen in the 24 and 8 μm images (and a broken ring at 70 μm) at a radius of ~40" (18 kpc) from the galaxy center. The 8 and 24 μm emission is cospatial with Hα emission previously observed in the outer ring of UGC 6614. The estimated dust-to-gas ratios, from less than 10^(-3) to 10^(-2), support previous indications that the LSB galaxies are relatively dust-poor compared to the HSB galaxies. The total infrared luminosities are approximately 1/3 to 1/2 the blue-band luminosities, suggesting that old stellar populations are the primary source of dust heating in these LSB objects. The SFR estimated from the infrared data ranges ~0.01-0.88 M_⊙ yr^(-1), consistent with results from optical studies.
Classification of natural language messages using a coordination game

The role of natural language communication in economic exchange has been the focus of substantial experimental analysis. Recently, scholars have taken the important step of investigating whether certain types of communication (e.g., promises) might affect decisions differently than other types of communication. This requires classifying natural language messages. Unfortunately, no broadly-accepted method is available for this purpose. We here describe a coordination game for classification of natural language messages. The game is similar in spirit to the “ESP” game that has proven successful for the classification of tens of millions of internet images. We compare our approach to self-classification as well as to classifications based on a standard content analysis. We argue that our classification game has advantages over those alternative approaches, and that these advantages might stem from the salient rewards earned by our game’s participants.
Learning with continuous experts using drifting games

We consider the problem of learning to predict as well as the best in a group of experts making continuous predictions. We assume the learning algorithm has prior knowledge of the maximum number of mistakes of the best expert. We propose a new master strategy that achieves the best known performance for on-line learning with continuous experts in the mistake bounded model. Our ideas are based on drifting games, a generalization of boosting and on-line learning algorithms. We prove new lower bounds based on the drifting games framework which, though not as tight as previous bounds, have simpler proofs and do not require an enormous number of experts. We also extend previous lower bounds to show that our upper bounds are exactly tight for sufficiently many experts. A surprising consequence of our work is that continuous experts are only as powerful as experts making binary or no prediction in each round.
Transformations of X (C, O, N)–CN bonds: cases of selective X (C, O, N)–C activation

Activation of C–C, C–N, and C–O bonds has in recent decades been recognized as a valuable strategic objective. While considerable progress has been achieved, many of the more challenging issues, e.g., regioselective activation of specific C–X (C, O, N) bonds, chemoselective cleavage of C(sp3)–X bonds, enantioselective activation and even the successful application of solid catalysts in such transformations remain elusive. The research disclosed herein summarize recent advances in C–X bond cleavages, including regioselective processes, although the carbon is activated in the form of a cyano group. Activation and even the successful application of solid catalysts in such transformations remain elusive. The research disclosed herein summarize recent advances in C–X bond cleavages, including regioselective processes, although the carbon is activated in the form of a cyano group.
Non-Bayesian social learning

Abstract We develop a dynamic model of opinion formation in social networks when the information required for learning a parameter may not be at the disposal of any single agent. Individuals engage in communication with their neighbors in order to learn from their experiences. However, instead of incorporating the views of their neighbors in a fully Bayesian manner, agents use a simple updating rule which linearly combines their personal experience and the views of their neighbors. We show that, as long as individuals take their personal signals into account in a Bayesian way, repeated interactions lead them to successfully aggregate information and learn the true parameter. This result holds in spite of the apparent naivete of agentsʼ updating rule, the agentsʼ need for information from sources the existence of which they may not be aware of, worst prior views, and the assumption that no agent can tell whether her own views or those of her neighbors are more accurate.