cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
"It Hurts as If…": Pain-Associated Language, Visual Characterization, and Storytelling in Hmong Adults.

Objective Pain is challenging to diagnose and manage in primary care, especially when patients have limited English proficiency (LEP). Little is known about whether LEP patients can provide pain information that is consistent with the process and the content that providers expect in a clinical interaction. We explore how LEP Hmong patients communicate their pain to providers in primary care settings. Methods A qualitative study with 67 Hmong participants (63% female and x age = 53.7 years) were recruited from a Midwestern state. Semistructured interviews on pain communication were conducted, audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using directed content analysis. Results The Hmong participants described pain using stories that generally had the same dimensions of information that providers require for pain assessment. These included references to time, causality, associated symptoms or related experiences, intensity, and consequences of pain. However, the participants expressed some pain dimensions in language that was not shared by providers: visual metaphors that were generally in reference to pain quality and fewer words for pain location, intensity, and some qualities. Participants used two strategies to decide whether they should tell their pain story: assessing the provider and determining whether their story was appreciated. The perception that providers underappreciated their stories resulted in dissatisfaction and undertreatment of pain. Ultimately, this resulted in having less frequent contact with providers or changing providers. Conclusions Findings demonstrate a discordance in the expected process and content of the clinical interaction between LEP Hmong patients and providers, suggesting the need for culturally appropriate pain assessments in this population.
Assessing treatment efficacy by examining relationships between age groups of children with autism spectrum disorder and clinical anxiety symptoms: Prediction by correspondence analysis.

Abstract Introduction Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental in nature and are frequently accompanied by anxiety. To fully assess treatment efficacy, we examined rates of anxiety symptom change by age groups following either cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or treatment as usual (TAU). Methods One hundred sixty-three children with ASD and ASD-related anxiety symptoms were randomly assigned to either CBT or TAU. Utilizing prediction by correspondence analysis (CA), we evaluated the age effect (defined in three groups; ages 6–9, 10–12, and 13–16) and the changes in correlations between age and anxiety severity levels over the course of treatment. Results Significantly greater anxiety symptom reduction was associated with CBT compared with TAU across the three age groups. Of particular note, the children ages 10–12 who received CBT showed the greatest improvement compared to all other groups. Late childhood, prior to adolescence, showed the best response to CBT for anxiety in ASD. Discussion These findings suggest that treatment programs need to more closely address developmental factors within narrower bands of age groups. The present results are limited in their generalization to the CBT efficacy for a specific age band (ages 10–12). Longitudinal investigations are recommended to confirm whether the similar age group children who receive CBT experience the greatest benefit in reducing their ASD-related anxiety symptoms.
Study on Insulation Properties of UHVDC Dry Bushing Core Material

The UHVDC dry bushing is widely used in the GIS equipment, which is important part of electrical isolation between the central conductor and the grounding flange. The macroscopic dielectric and the thermal conductivity of the body material of the pot insulator are related to its micro-structure, and the electrical performance parameters of the pot determine its global electric field distribution under condition of current and voltage, and distribution of the electric field also provides the basis for the structural design and optimization of the bushing condenser. In this paper, the insulation performance of the material used in the dry bushing is analyzed. The heating curve of the dry bushing was obtained by using the theoretical model. The relationship between the hot-spot temperature and the current load was calculated. Research shows: the insulating properties of the bushing material have significant nonlinear relationship with the temperature. The eddy current field and harmonic field analysis method by finite element method (FEM) can effectively calculate the heat of the center conductor and the bushing condenser under 50Hz condition.
Sequential Monitoring for Corporate Events in Using Occupation Time Statistics

As many advocated to develop empirical tests for event studies in corporate finance, the theme is usually on the robust version on tests for structural differences either between for-event periods and off-event periods (of some preselected firms) or on the event-related firms versus nonevent-related firms. In most occasions, the tests (parametric or not) are based on various forms of cumulative abnormal returns. Unfortunately, as stated in Jeng (2015), these tests are rarely different from the tests for structural change(s) in financial time series.
Updating our Understanding of the Impact of Pre-College Computing Experiences on University Students

This WIP Research paper is a follow-up to a study conducted in 2013 by McGill, Decker, and Settle that investigated the effects of pre-college computing experiences on students’ decisions to study computer science at university. Their results indicated that the exposure to pre-college computing activities impacted students in different ways, particularly when looking at perceived impact by men and women participants [1], [2]. After six years and a myriad of changes to the K-12 computing landscape, it was time to see if impacts to current undergraduates were different than previously observed. This current study is a pilot qualitative study in which we interviewed seven undergraduate students about their experiences with computing prior to college. We were particularly interested in finding out about the nature of their computing experiences, whether they enjoyed them, and what they would change to make such experiences better for future participants. We used grounded theory and thematic coding to encode the interview transcripts, enabling us to look for common themes among the interview subjects. We are looking for elements in the interviews that could point to key differences in the pre-college computing landscape that have impacted student experiences that are different from those previously observed and thus impacting their experiences in university with computing. The goal of this preliminary study was to get a sense of what aspects of students’ exposure to pre-college computing experiences have changed since 2013 and what changes should be made when creating a follow-up to this initial study.
MORTALITY OF INFANTS <1500 G OR <32 WEEKS: RELATIONSHIPS WITH NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT ACTIVITY AND GEOGRAPHICAL AREA IN ITALY

Objective To investigate the relationships between mortality of very low birth weight infants or very low gestational age infants and volume of activity, staff workload and geographical area in Italian neonatal intensive care units (NICU). Methods NICU data were collected with a cross-sectional design with monthly repeated measures between May and December 2005. Data about the infants admitted from 1 January to 31 December 2005 were prospectively collected. The outcome of interest was mortality before discharge; its association with the NICU and subjects’ characteristics was studied by univariate and multivariate analysis. Results The participating NICU were 105, and the babies enrolled were 4811. The mean values of gestational age and birth weight were 29.2 weeks (range 21–39) and 1194 g (range 300–2840). The NICU median volume of activity was 39 (range 4–133) and the daily infant to staff ratio ranged from 0 to 3.33. The overall mortality rate was 16.5%. When comparing the first with the fourth quartile of the volume and infant to staff ratio distributions, mortality decreased from 17.8% to 15.2% and from 17.6% to 14.7%, respectively. Mortality in the northern, central and southern regions was 12.2%, 18.6% and 20.5%. In the multivariate logistic analysis the explanatory variables associated with mortality were gestational age, birth weight, gender, geographical area and infant to staff ratio. Conclusions In Italy perinatal and neonatal care are still largely ineffective, inefficient and characterised by profound geographical inequalities. The wide variation in the volume of activity suggests that a more appropriate and reliable national NICU certification system is required.
The End of Comparative Qualified Immunity

Critics have called qualified immunity an “unqualified disgrace,” an “abomination,” and “a scourge that closes courthouse doors to people whose constitutional rights have been violated.” One particularly troubling aspect of qualified immunity is what I’ll call comparative qualified immunity: the ability of a government official to avoid liability by claiming that his behavior wasn’t that much worse than conduct by a prior official that was deemed constitutional. In November 2020, the Supreme Court seemingly created a narrow exception to comparative qualified immunity in cases involving “particularly egregious facts.” In February 2021, however, the Supreme Court signaled that this was no mere narrow exception; instead, it was likely the end of comparative qualified immunity.
Role of Cardiac Transplant in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Complicated by Severe Heart Failure

Purpose Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a systemic disease and is commonly considered a contraindication for cardiac transplantation. Meanwhile, lupus myocarditis can present with severe left ventricular dysfunction which my progress to cardiogenic shock with a fatal outcome. Heart transplantation is rarely considered a treatment option, due to 1) multi-organ involvement, and 2) possibility of recurrence of lupus in the transplanted heart. We summarized published cases of cardiac transplantation in SLE. Methods Two investigators independently searched PubMed, Ovid/Medline, and Google Scholar using terms “heart transplantation”, “cardiac transplantation” AND “lupus”, “systemic lupus erythematosus”, and “lupus myocarditis” for papers published in English in 1988-2020. We then manually searched the references in relevant articles. We included all cases of adult patients where individual patient data were present. Results We identified 11 cases, six males, and five females, mean age 28 +/- 5.47 years. Six of the patients were male and five were female. While all patients had SLE, the most common indication for transplant was pulmonary hypertension (6), followed by lupus myocarditis (2), dilated cardiomyopathy (2), and infective endocarditis (1). In 6 patients there was a dual organ (heart/lung) transplantation, while in five the heart was the only transplanted organ. Two patients died within 2 months post transplant from bowel infarction, and one died in one year from rejection. Remaining eight patients were alive and well after a follow-up ranging nine months to four years, mean 26 +/- 9.9 months. Recurrence of lupus was not reported in any patient, including six cases where it was specifically indicated that there was no recurrence. Conclusion Based on reported cases, heart transplantation in SLE is a viable option, with good survival and no recurrence of lupus in the transplanted heart. In cases of intractable heart failure in patients with SLE, cardiac transplantation should be considered.
Graph-Structured Data

A central object in data analysis is a graph \(G = (V,E)\) defined by a set of vertices V and edges between those vertices E. The vertices can serve as a proxy for any data type (e.g., social network users, a company’s products, and waypoints on a map), and the graph representation then simplifies the structure of these data items down to only their connectivity. This structure can of course be composed with many other structures we have studied (vectors, matrices, etc.), but this chapter will focus specifically on what can be inferred from the graphs, and in particular, focusing on linear algebraic approaches which align well with the rest of this book. In this section, we overview how graphs can be used to model the movement of information, which reveals which vertices are most important. We also show how to cluster or find interesting subgraphs that capture where more interesting or meaningful patterns appear.
Meningeal Hemangiopericytoma Presenting as Pure Gerstmann Syndrome: A Double Rarity.

Gerstmann syndrome is a neurobehavioral syndrome characterized by four cardinal symptoms: acalculia, agraphia, finger-toe agnosia, and dysgraphia. The syndrome is caused primarily by lesions at the confluence of parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes, but also can involve the middle frontal lobe of the dominant hemisphere. Documented inciting lesions include stroke, tumor, hemorrhage, arteriovenous malformations, and seizures. A meningeal solitary fibrous tumor (SFT)/hemangiopericytoma (HPC) is a diagnostic challenge due to its resemblance to more common brain tumors like meningioma, with histopathology being the definitive diagnostic test. A 37-year-old male presented to our tertiary center with blurred vision, "not being himself," and "acting funny" for three weeks. On exam, he was found to have a right inferior quadrantanopia, grade II papilledema and demonstrated all four symptoms of Gerstmann syndrome - inability to perform simple calculations (acalculia), or identify his fingers (finger agnosia), could not distinguish his left side from the right (left-right disorientation), nor write out his name (agraphia). Brain imaging showed an extra-axial, highly vascularized 7.6-cm mass compressing the left parietal lobe. He underwent a complete resection of the mass. Postoperatively, he had gradual improvement with complete resolution of agraphia, acalculia, finger agnosia, and left-right disorientation within a week status post-resection. Tumor pathology indicated hemangiopericytoma/solitary fibrous tumor. This case enunciates the enigmatic tetrad of Gerstmann syndrome. Though classically described as a sequela of stroke, the mass effect of the tumor on the parietal lobe may produce the symptoms, which can resolve following resection.
Are Working Habits Different Between Well-Performing and at-Risk Students in Online Project-Based Courses?

We analyze differences in working habits between well-performing and at-risk students using highly-granular data collected from two semesters of an online project-based, upper-level course on cloud computing at a US institution of higher education. Such differentiating metrics may provide deeper insights than interim grades, which are oftentimes the only quantifiable data that is captured and available to an instructor as a proxy for students' learning. Interim grades provide little insight into students' broader work habits and may mask unsustainable learning strategies that result in shallow learning or quickly-forgotten skills/knowledge. The adoption of technology-enhanced learning tools for course delivery, automatic feedback, and grading enable data-informed insight and reflection into students' working habits. This data could allow the detection of early signs of under-prepared students or students in crisis. We empirically assess what working habits, if any, differ among well-performing and at-risk students. From clickstream and other activity data, we derive 22 metrics such as time spent reading project write-ups, timing of starting and finishing work, or break-taking. We also calculate two measures of consistency of each metric measured by a coefficient of variance and a variance of ranking over the semester as well as outlier behavior of a student. Using Z-test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, we confirm differences in multiple behavior patterns. Notably, our data suggest that well-performing students start and finish working on a project earlier than at-risk students but they also tend to have fewer submissions which indicate they are more thoughtful about feedback.
Learning Ensembles of First-Order Clauses for Recall-Precision Curves: A Case Study in Biomedical Information Extraction

Many domains in the field of Inductive Logic Programming (ILP) involve highly unbalanced data. Our research has focused on Information Extraction (IE), a task that typically involves many more negative examples than positive examples. IE is the process of finding facts in unstructured text, such as biomedical journals, and putting those facts in an organized system. In particular, we have focused on learning to recognize instances of the protein-localization relationship in Medline abstracts. We view the problem as a machine-learning task: given positive and negative extractions from a training corpus of abstracts, learn a logical theory that performs well on a held-aside testing set. A common way to measure performance in these domains is to use precision and recall instead of simply using accuracy. We propose Gleaner, a randomized search method which collects good clauses from a broad spectrum of points along the recall dimension in recall-precision curves and employs an “at least N of these M clauses” thresholding method to combine the selected clauses. We compare Gleaner to ensembles of standard Aleph theories and find that Gleaner produces comparable testset results in a fraction of the training time needed for ensembles.
Does Local Label Bias Consumer Taste Bud and Preference: Evidence of a Strawberry Sensory Experiment

Previous research mainly focuses on the impact of locality information/labels on consumer preference as a credence attribute that is not observable even after purchasing the products. We hypothesize that locality information on food may also influence consumer perception of the three types of attributes of food products: search (i.e., color, size, freshness, and shape), experience (i.e., flavor and texture), and other credence attributes (i.e., nutritional value). We conduct an experiment with a total of 100 participants. We combine the consumer sensory analysis with the CVM to determine the impact of locality information on consumers' perception of strawberry search, experience, and credence attributes, and how these three types of attributes affect consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) at different consumption stages. Results show that providing locality information affects the sensory attributes of color perceived by consumers. Color, size, and freshness have a significant impact on consumers' WTP before consumers taste the strawberries, while flavor and texture exhibit an influential impact on consumers' WTP after tasting. Locality information is not a significant factor in determining consumers' WTP before and after they taste the strawberries. However, for some consumers, it significantly affects their WTP if locality is perceived to be associated with improved nutritional quality and food safety comparing to people who perceive local food to be fresher.
Effectiveness of virtual environment desensitization in the treatment of agoraphobia

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of virtual environment technology in the area of psychotherapy. In particular, this study investigated the effectiveness of virtual environment desensitization VED in the treatment of agoraphobia fear of being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult or embarrassing. Sixty undergraduate college students served as subjects. Thirty subjects served in the experimental group and the other 30 served as a control group. Subjects' degree of fear/anxiety was measured using two instruments, the Attitude Towards Agoraphobia Questionnaire ATAQ and the Subjective Units of Discomfort Scale SUDS. Only subjects in the experimental group were exposed to the VED treatment. The scores of the control group did not change significantly, while both ATAQ and SUDS scores decreased significantly for the experimental group. The average SUDS scores of the experimental group decreased steadily across sessions, indicating steady improvement with treatment. It is hoped that this research will be a first step toward the utilization of virtual environment technology in providing more effective, economical, and confidential treatment of psychological disorders.
Interpreting the Mineral Reservation of the Stock-Raising Homestead Act: Watt v. Western Nuclear, Inc.

The Supreme Court interpreted the Stock-Raising Homestead Act (SRHA) in Watt v. Western Nuclear, Inc. as reserving common gravel deposits to the US because they are minimal in character. This ignored traditional rules of statutory construction, an adopted an all-inclusive definition of the term minerals that is limited only by fluctuating market conditions. The Court subjugated the original congressional objective of settling the West to the current policy of reserving all assets absolutely. Rather than clarifying the definition of reserved minerals, this injected additional ambiguity into the land title area in which the Court has been unwilling to upset settled expectations. Such a departure from the common use and understanding of the term and from property rights cannot be justified by either policy considerations or notions of justice and fair play.
Observations on the Food and Food Habits of Clapper Rails (Rallus longirostris Boddaert) from Tidal Marshes Along the East and Gulf Coasts of the United States

The feeding habits of five nominal subspecies of clapper rails (RaNus longirostris Boddaert) collected in tidal marshes along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the United States are compared. Data on the food from the stomachs of 183 rails were analyzed and the earlier literature critically reviewed. During the warmer months (May through early fall), crabs, predominantly Ucu spp., comprised the major part of the food items found. Limited data on a few rails collected during late fall and winter, when Uca spp. are not usually available, indicate that snails then become a major part of the clapper rail’s diet during that part of the year. Earlier studies, which describe the food or feeding habits of clapper rails, are reviewed and the food habits and trophic relationships of some other tidal marsh consumers are discussed. Data from this and previous studies indicate that clapper rails are opportunistic omnivores, and occupy a relatively broad niche within tidal marsh ecosystems. A comparison of available data of the food of five clapper rail subspecies of the eastern United States indicates no distinct differences in their feeding behavior. Differences in the kinds of food eaten appear to simply reflect the types of marsh habitat (fresh, brackish, polyhaline) or geographical location (temperate, subtropical, tropical) in which a particular clapper rail population occurs. The food habits of the king rail are compared with those of the clapper rail and problems concerning the taxonomic status of the “subspecies” of Rallus longirostris are briefly discussed.
The Cores of Large Standard Exchange Economies

Abstract : An exchange economy consists of a set of traders each of whom is characterized by an initial endowment and a preference relation. In addition, one usually assumes that the set of traders is finite. Edgeworth's conjecture that as the number of traders in an exchange economy increases, the core approaches the set of competitive equilibria has been formalized in two disparate ways by mathematical economists. Here the authors report the results obtained by a new method for the resolution of Edgeworth's conjecture, based on nonstandard analysis, which synthesizes the asymptotic method of Debreu-Scarf and the infinite method of Aumann. (Author)
Network externalities in online video games: an empirical analysis utilizing online product ratings

Video games have become a major contributor to the USA and global economy. This paper studies network externalities in the online video game industry. Even though network externalities are recognized as a major driver of new product diffusion, testing the existence and the impact of network externalities at the individual level has been a challenge. By employing online product ratings in the estimation, we find that for online video games: (1) a larger installed base generates higher product ratings by individuals; (2) network externalities exhibit nonlinear dynamics over product life cycle—nonsignificant initially, highly significant next, and less significant in the later period; and (3) network externalities differ across consumer segments: the impact of the installed base is stronger on less-experienced consumers than on more-experienced ones. Our results suggest that network externalities should be treated as a dynamic rather than a time-invariant phenomenon and heterogeneous rather than homogeneous across consumers.
Individuals with Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis Have Elevated Levels of Biomarkers for Apoptosis but Not Necrosis.

Hepatocyte apoptosis or necrosis from accumulation of bile salts may play an important role in the disease progression of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). The aim of the current study was to measure serum markers of hepatocyte apoptosis (cytokeratin-18 fragments—K18) and necrosis (high-mobility group protein B1—HMGB1) in adults with PSC and examine the relationship with disease severity. We measured serum levels of K18 and HMGB1 in well-phenotyped PSC (N = 37) and 39 control subjects (N = 39). Severity of PSC was assessed biochemically, histologically, and PSC Mayo risk score. Quantification of hepatocyte apoptosis was performed using TUNEL assay. The mean age of the study cohort was 49.7 ± 13.3 years and comprised of 67 % men and 93 % Caucasian. Serum K18 levels were significantly higher in the PSC patients compared to control (217.4 ± 78.1 vs. 157.0 ± 58.2 U/L, p = 0.001). However, HMGB1 levels were not different between the two groups (5.38 ± 2.99 vs. 6.28 ± 2.85 ng/mL, p = 0.15). Within the PSC group, K18 levels significantly correlated with AST (r = 0.5, p = 0.002), alkaline phosphatase (r = 0.5, p = 0.001), total bilirubin (r = 0.61, p ≤ 0.001), and albumin (r = −0.4, p = 0.02). Serum K18 levels also correlated with the level of apoptosis present on the liver biopsy (r = 0.8, p ≤ 0.001) and Mayo risk score (r = 0.4, p = 0.015). Serum K18 but not HMGB1 levels were increased in PSC and associated with severity of underlying liver disease and the degree of hepatocyte apoptosis.
Using genetic algorithms for data mining optimization in an educational web-based system

This paper presents an approach for classifying students in order to predict their final grade based on features extracted from logged data in an education web-based system. A combination of multiple classifiers leads to a significant improvement in classification performance. Through weighting the feature vectors using a Genetic Algorithm we can optimize the prediction accuracy and get a marked improvement over raw classification. It further shows that when the number of features is few; feature weighting is works better than just feature selection.
Confounding in the Analysis of Variance

Unintentional and intentional confounding in the analysis of variance is discussed. Some different kinds of unintentional confounding that can occur in between-subject designs, within-subject designs, and mixed designs are considered. The usefulness of losing information to conserve resources by intentionally confounding variables gives rise to split-plot, confounded factorial, and fractional replication designs. An example from infancy research is provided. Keywords: analysis of variance; confounded variables; confounding; aliasing
Near-optimal nonmyopic value of information in graphical models

A fundamental issue in real-world systems, such as sensor networks, is the selection of observations which most effectively reduce uncertainty. More specifically, we address the long standing problem of nonmyopically selecting the most informative subset of variables in a graphical model. We present the first efficient randomized algorithm providing a constant factor (1 - 1/e – e) approximation guarantee for any e > 0 with high confidence. The algorithm leverages the theory of submodular functions, in combination with a polynomial bound on sample complexity. We furthermore prove that no polynomial time algorithm can provide a constant factor approximation better than (1 - 1/e) unless P = NP. Finally, we provide extensive evidence of the effectiveness of our method on two complex real-world datasets.
Applications of intelligent agent technology to the grid

Summary form only given. Grids are a distributed computing technology whose objective is to provide the basic mechanisms for forming and operating dynamic distributed collaborations, or virtual organizations as they are sometimes called. While grid infrastructure has focused on such things as the means for discovering and monitoring dynamic services, managing faults and failures, creating and managing service level agreements, creating and enforcing dynamic policy, to name a few - to date, only limited progress has been made on creating the higher level reactive behaviors that would enable truly dynamic formation of virtual organizations. What is needed are the basic algorithms that enable independently operating entities to interact with one another with partial knowledge and have emerge a robust desirable behavior. This is exactly the range of problems that are being addressed by intelligent agent technologies. Hence, it seems likely that agent technology plays an important role in the development of the grid as a pervasive infrastructure and the grid offers an exciting range of applications for agents. In This work the author explores the relationship of intelligent agents to the grid and in particular focus on how agent technology can be applied to some specific challenges faced by grid infrastructure and applications.
Time preferences and consumer behavior

We investigate the predictive power of survey-elicited time preferences. The discount factor elicited from choice experiments using real payments predicts various health, energy, and financial outcomes, including overall self-reported health, smoking, installing energy-efficient lighting, and credit card balance. Allowing for time-inconsistent preferences, both the long-run and present-bias discount factors (δ and β) are also significantly associated in the expected direction with several outcomes. We consider several hypotheses regarding the strength of the association between discount factors and outcomes, such as salience of the outcome or liquidity constraints.
The Erosion of Tariff Preferences: The Impact of U.S. Tariff Reductions on Developing Countries

The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the program instituted in 1976 that allows developing countries to export thousands of products to the United States duty-free, is an important element of U.S. efforts to promote economic growth in the developing world. However, since the program's inception U.S. tariff rates have fallen significantly, thus potentially reducing the ability of the GSP program to encourage U.S. imports from beneficiary countries. This paper estimates the impact of U.S. tariff reductions on imports from the developing world using a panel of import data from 76 countries and 2,389 GSP-eligible products between 1998 and 2001. It finds that reductions in U.S. tariff rates have diminished imports from developing countries significantly, although some countries have been impacted more than others.
Avoiding the boson sign problem at finite chemical potential

The usual path integral formulation for scalar particles at finite density involves a sign problem, making numerical simulation impractical. We present alternative methods free of this difficulty. We apply these approaches to |φ| 4 theory in 2+ 1 dimensions, presenting preliminary numerical results for physical quantities in the vicinity of the phase transition in the T μ plane.
10 – FISCAL POLICY

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the concept of fiscal policy. Restrictive fiscal policy can be used to combat inflationary pressure. In the face of inflation, a planned government surplus would be in order. The Keynesian analysis suggests that general economic conditions should be the prime determinant of a proper fiscal policy. An annual balanced budget might contribute to economic instability. When the economy is slack, budget authorities should plan a deficit. When the economy is experiencing an economic boom, a budget surplus is in order. Thus, the budget can be used to affect the conditions of private aggregate demand. Although Keynesian analysis indicates that discretionary fiscal policy can be an effective stabilization instrument, economists have begun to question whether it really is. Their pessimism stems from the asymmetric nature of fiscal policy. Tax reductions and spending programs are attractive to political entrepreneurs. In contrast, tax increases are unattractive. Politicians would be reluctant to follow this course. Therefore, in the real world, the Keynesian countercyclical medicine is not likely to be applied evenly.
A Gradual Approach to a More Trustworthy, Yet Scalable, Proof-Carrying Code

Proof-carrying code (PCC) allows a code producer to associate to a program a machine-checkable proof of its safety. In the original approach to PCC, the safety policy includes proof rules which determine how various actions are to be proved safe. These proof rules have been considered part of the trusted code base (TCB) of the PCC system. We wish to remove the proof rules from the TCB by providing a formal proof of their soundness. This makes the PCC system more secure, by reducing the TCB; it also makes the system more flexible, by allowing code producers to provide their own safety-policy proof rules, if they can guarantee their soundness. Furthermore this security and flexibility are gained without any loss in the ability to handle large programs.
High-Resolution Simulations of Clusters of Galaxies

Recently, high-resolution Chandra observations revealed many complex processes operating in the intracluster medium such as cold fronts, cooling flows with puzzling properties, and subsonic turbulent motions. The detailed studies of these processes can provide new insights into the cluster gas properties and cluster evolution. Using very high-resolution Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) gasdynamics simulations of clusters forming in the CDM universes, we investigate structural evolution of the intracluster gas and the role of dynamical (e.g., mergers) and physical (e.g., cooling, star formation, stellar feedback) processes operating during cluster evolution. In particular, we use the simulations to investigate the structure and dynamical properties of cold fronts. We also discuss the internal turbulent motions of cluster gas induced by mergers. Finally, we present preliminary results from an ongoing program to carry out a series of simulations that include cooling, star formation, stellar feedback, and metal enrichment and discuss implications for the cluster observables.
Systematic testing and comparison of deterministic and stochastic unit commitment on an 8-zone test case based on ISO New England data

The increasing penetration of variable and intermittent generation, especially the wind power, are introducing greater uncertainties to the modern power systems. The operation of power system is thus facing more challenges. Many effective models and algorithms are proposed to mitigate the challenges. Among those, the Stochastic Security-Constrained Unit Commitment (S-SCUC) is one of the most important tools. The S-SCUC has many different features over the traditional deterministic Security-Constrained Unit Commitment (D-SCUC). The propose of this paper is to develop a systematic testing framework to compare the performances of S-SCUC and D-SCUC. To make the results better reflecting the true power systems, we use the real generation data from the ISO New England (ISO-NE) to conduct the tests. The ISO-NE bulk network is condensed into a 8-zone economic test system. Computational experiments are designed to facilitate the comparisons under a variety of possible system conditions, including various wind power penetration levels, various reserve requirement levels, and various months of a year. The testing results have demonstrated that the average cost saving of S-SCUC is a "U-shape" function, where S-SCUC has the least cost saving over D-SCUC at the saddle point of the "U-shape."
Race and Pregnancy Outcomes in the Twentieth Century: A Long-Term Comparison

Untreated syphilis explained one-third of the higher prematurity rates of black relative to white babies born at Johns Hopkins in the early twentieth century. Differences in prematurity rates explained 41 percent of the black-white stillbirth gap and one-quarter of the black-white birth weight gap. Black babies had lower mortality and higher weight gain than white babies during the first ten days of life spent in the hospital because of higher black breast-feeding rates. Historically low birth weights may have a long reach: in 1988 maternal birth weight accounted for 5-8 percent of the gap in black-white birth weights. R elatively little is known about black health at the beginning of the twentieth century. Mortality data tell us that African-Americans faced a large urban mortality penalty because they lived in the worse parts of cities, had neither the knowledge nor the income to protect themselves against a severe disease environment, and were generally the last to receive sewage connections and clean water supplies.1 Data from urban hospitals suggest that in late-nineteenth-century Boston blacks babies were roughly 200 grams smaller than white babies, but that their weights were comparable to those of babies born in Europe. Their weights were also much higher than those inferred for babies who half a century earlier had been born in slavery.2 This article uses records from Johns Hopkins Hospital during the first third of the twentieth century to examine not only birth weights in the past, but also prematurity and stillbirth rates, the probability of surviving the first ten days of life, and weight gain in the first ten days of life. Examining pregnancy outcomes by race is important because it provides evidence on the distribution of well-being. Examining pregnancy outcomes is also important because health differentials in early life may
Towards optimal training of cascaded detectors

Cascades of boosted ensembles have become popular in the object detection community following their highly successful introduction in the face detector of Viola and Jones [1]. In this paper, we explore several aspects of this architecture that have not yet received adequate attention: decision points of cascade stages, faster ensemble learning, and stronger weak hypotheses. We present a novel strategy to determine the appropriate balance between false positive and detection rates in the individual stages of the cascade based on a probablistic model of the overall cascade's performance. To improve the training time of individual stages, we explore the use of feature filtering before the application of Adaboost. Finally, we show that the use of stronger weak hypotheses based on CART can significantly improve upon the standard face detection results on the CMU-MIT data set.
On generation of Crab giant pulses

We propose that Crab giant pulses are generated on closed magnetic field lines near the light cylinder via anomalous cyclotron resonance on the ordinary mode. Waves are generated in a set of fine, unequally spaced, narrow emission bands at frequencies much lower than a local cyclotron frequency. Location of emission bands is fitted to spectral structures seen by Eilek et al. To reproduce the data, the required density of plasma in the giant pulses emission region is much higher, by a factor of ∼3 × 105, than the minimal Goldreich–Julian density. Emission is generated by a population of highly energetic particles with radiation-limited Lorentz factors γ∼ 7 × 107, produced during occasional reconnection close to the Y point, where the last closed field lines approach the light cylinder.
MULTIPLE WAGE-BARGAINING SYSTEMS IN THE SINGLE EUROPEAN CURRENCY AREA

Little attention in the EMU literature has been paid to the interaction between central bank monetary rules and systems of collective wage bargaining. Analytically and empirically, coordinated wage bargaining systems respond with real wage restraint to non-accommodating monetary policy. Since wage determination is dominated by collective bargaining in all the EMU member states and wage coordination within the member states has grown since 1980, this is a topic of potential importance. In particular, the replacement of the Bundesbank, directly targeting German inflation, by an ECB targeting European inflation has removed a major institutional support of wage restraint in Germany. The consequences of this for EMU are worked out under two scenarios, that inflation expectations will be generated by ECB monetary policy and that they will reflect German inflation outcomes. Possible institutional developments are discussed including government-union bargains. The Bundesbank has also played a major role in maintaining fiscal rectitude by targeting excess fiscal deficits in Germany: again its replacement by the ECB — targeting (if at all) European rather than German fiscal policy — loosens fiscal constraints. For underlying structural reasons therefore, it is possible that Germany and other EMU countries will move to a period of fiscal activism with wage restraint and low inflation purchased through social contract negotiations.
Modeling influenza viral dynamics in tissue

Predicting the virulence of new Influenza strains is an important problem. The solution to this problem will likely require a combination of in vitro and in silico tools that are used iteratively. We describe the agent-based modeling component of this program and report preliminary results from both the in vitro and in silico experiments.
Intensity Variations of the Soft X-ray Background: the Boundary Structure of the Local Hot Bubble at Low Galactic Latitudes

42 ROSAT PSPC pointed observations in the Galactic plane (l ∼ 4° – 26°) are mosaicked in order to study the spatial structure of the X-ray emitting gas in the Local Hot Bubble (LHB). Degree scale X-ray intensity variations are detected at the ± 10% level in the 1/4 keV band, which imply a likely influence from a clumpy boundary shell of the LHB in the observed 1/4 keV band X-ray background. The possible origins of such a clumpy boundary structure of the LHB are discussed.
Predicting Equity Liquidity

In this paper we develop a measure of liquidity, price impact, which quantifies the change in a firm's stock price associated with its observed net trading volume. For a large set of institutional trades we compare out-of-sample, characteristic-based estimates of price impact to actual price impacts. Predictive predetermined firm characteristics, chosen to proxy for the severity of adverse selection in the equity market, the non-information-based costs of making a market in the stock, and the extent of shareholder heterogeneity, include relative size, historical relative trading volume, institutional holdings, and the inverse of the stock price. We find numerous aspects of trade execution which are significantly related to the price impact forecast error in economically plausible ways: For example, the predicted price impact overestimates the actual price impact for very large trades, for trades executed in a more patient manner, and for trades where the institution pays higher commissions.
Predictability and Power in Legislative Bargaining

The rules and procedures of legislatures often provide legislators with information bearing on the identities of upcoming proposers. For a broad class of legislative bargaining games, we establish that Markovian equilibria necessarily deliver all economic surplus to the first proposer whenever the information structure permits the legislators to rule out some minimum number of proposers one round in advance. This result holds regardless of the recognition process and even if players vary in patience and risk aversion. It raises the possibility that procedures adopted in the interest of transparency may contribute to the imbalance of political power.
Modeling of end-use energy profile: An appliance-data-driven stochastic approach

In this paper, the modeling of building end-use energy profile is comprehensively investigated. Top-down and Bottom-up approaches are discussed with a focus on the latter for better integration with occupant information. Compared to the Time-Of-Use (TOU) data used in previous Bottom-up models, this work utilizes high frequency sampled appliance power consumption data from wireless sensor network, and hence builds an appliance-data-driven probability based end-use energy profile model. ON/OFF probabilities of appliances are used in this model, to build a non-homogeneous Markov Chain, compared to the duration statistics based model that is widely used in other works. The simulation results show the capability of the model to capture the diversity and variability of different categories of end-use appliance energy profile, which can further help on the design of a modern robust building power system.
Parallel implementation of ray-tracing algorithm on the Intel Delta parallel computer

Ray tracing is one of the computer graphics techniques used to render high quality images. Ray tracing complex scenes can require large amounts of CPU time and memory storage. We present a parallel implementation of the ray tracing algorithm on the Intel Delta parallel computer. Two key issues of efficient implementation are load balancing and database distribution. In our database distribution, one part of the database is duplicated on each processor and the remaining part is evenly distributed among groups of processors. We balance load among processors by distributing subimages to processors in a global fashion based on previous workload requests. >
Rapid onset natural disasters : The role of financing in effective risk management

The authors provide a conceptual framework for designing a comprehensive risk management strategy for rapid onset natural disasters at the country level, with a particular emphasis on the role of catastrophe loss funding. The authors discuss the key policy and technical issues involved in building financially sustainable catastrophe risk transfer and funding programs in disaster prone countries and their links to risk mitigation. They also deal with the cognitive and political economy issues that are likely to arise and ways to accommodate them.
Biomass Cofiring in Coal Power Plants and its Impact on Agriculture in the United States

We analyze the e ects on local biomass supply, demand, and prices of co-firing requirement for existing coal-fired power plants. The co-firing requirement is imposed on 398 existing power plants. The biomass feedstock can come from corn stover, wheat straw, switchgrass, and/or forest residues. Our model incorporates county-level biomass supply as well as national crop commodity demand. A solution to the model consists of county biomass prices and national crop prices.