cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Minimum complexity regression estimation with weakly dependent observations

The minimum complexity regression estimation framework (Barron, 1991; Barron and Cover, 1991 and Rissanen, 1989) is a general data-driven methodology for estimating a regression function from a given list of parametric models using independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) observations. We extend Barron's regression estimation framework to m-dependent observations and to strongly mixing observations. In particular, we propose abstract minimum complexity regression estimators for dependent observations, which may be adapted to a particular list of parametric models, and establish upper bounds on the statistical risks of the proposed estimators in terms of certain deterministic indices of resolvability. Assuming that the regression function satisfies a certain Fourier-transform-type representation, we examine minimum complexity regression estimators adapted to a list of parametric models based on neural networks and by using the upper bounds for the abstract estimators, we establish rates of convergence for the statistical risks of these estimators. Also, as a key tool, we extend the classical Bernstein inequality from i.i.d. random variables to m-dependent processes and to strongly mixing processes.
Microwave-Assisted Oxidation of α-Substituted Carbonyl Compounds to Carboxylic Acids in Aqueous Media

Abstract Carbonyl compounds containing electron-withdrawing substituents are efficiently oxidized by aqueous sodium hypochlorite in the absence of added organic solvents using microwaves.
Thermal recrystallization of alpha-recoil damaged minerals of the pyrochlore structure type

Thermal recrystallization effects (measurement of the heat of recrystallization and identification of phases formed), have been determined for naturally occurring, metamict members of the pyrochlore group which have received alpha doses of up to 4 × 1017 alphas/mg. The heats of recrystallization, Et, range from 125 to 210 J/g. Release of energy decreases as a function of crystallinity (estimated on the basis of the intensity of X-ray diffraction maxima), with the fully-metamict samples approaching 210 J/g. Lower measured values (40–125 J/g) are the result of alteration of the pyrochlores. Other metamict, complex oxides with stoichiometries of ABO4 and AB2O6 have lower heats of recrystallization (40–85 J/g), and are easily distinguished from pyrochlore group minerals. Activation energies of recrystallization, Ea, range between values of 0.29 to 0.97 eV, less than those measured for Pu-doped, synthetic zirconolites.
The State of the Science on Nursing Best Practices for Diabetes Self-management.

Jane Jeffrie Seley is a diabetes nurse practitioner at New York Presbyterian—Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York City. She is a contributing editor and the column coordinator for Diabetes Under Control in the American Journal of Nursing. Katie Weinger is an investigator in behavioral and mental health research, director of the Center of Innovation in Diabetes Education and of the Office of Research Fellow Affairs at Joslin Diabetes Center, and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, all in Boston. She has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIDDK60115) to study breaking down barriers to diabetes self-care. Contact author: Jane Jeffrie Seley, diabetesnp@gmail.com. Seley serves on the advisory boards of Abbott Diabetes Care, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi-Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Roche Diagnostics, Bayer Diabetes Care, Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals, and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, several of which provided funding for the project di...
Stable rational cohomology of automorphism groups of free groups and the integral cohomology of moduli spaces of graphs

It is not known whether or not the stable rational cohomology groups $\tilde H^*(\operatorname{Aut}(F_\infty);\mathbb{Q})$ always vanish (see Hatcher in [5] and Hatcher and Vogtmann in [7] where they pose the question and show that it does vanish in the first 6 dimensions). We show that either the rational cohomology does not vanish in certain dimensions, or the integral cohomology of a moduli space of pointed graphs does not stabilize in certain other dimensions. Similar results are stated for groups of outer automorphisms. This yields that $H^5(\hat Q_m; \mathbb{Z})$, $H^6(\hat Q_m; \mathbb{Z})$, and $H^5(Q_m; \mathbb{Z})$ never stabilize as $m \to \infty$, where the moduli spaces $\hat Q_m$ and $Q_m$ are the quotients of the spines $\hat X_m$ and $X_m$ of "e;outer space"e: and "e;auter space"e;, respectively, introduced in [3] by Culler and Vogtmann and [6] by Hatcher and Vogtmann.
A Wavelet Packet Based Sifting Process and its Application for Structural Health Monitoring

This article presents an innovative wavelet packet based sifting process to decompose a signal into its components with different frequency contents by examining the energy content in the wavelet packet components of a signal and imposing certain decomposition criteria. A new method is illustrated for simulation data of a linear three-degree-of-freedom spring-mass-damper system and the results are compared with those obtained using the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method. Both methods provide good approximations, as compared with the exact solution for modal responses from a conventional modal analysis and both show relatively greater errors at the beginning and ending parts of the signal due to the well-known end effects. A comparison study is also provided to illustrate differences between two sifting processes of the proposed approach and the EMD, by using a harmonic signal with a sweeping frequency and the impulse response of a linear single-degree-of-freedom system with viscous damping. Incorpo...
Ultrastrong adhesion of graphene membranes

Pressurized blister tests show that the adhesion energies of graphene samples on silicon oxide are much higher than those measured in typical micromechanical structures.
Special matrix solution for functional differential systems with infinite delays

The question of the properties of the solutions of functional differential systems with infinite delays has been studied by many authors. In this article we have obtained sufficient conditions for the uniqueness of the solutions and for the stability of solutions of a system of integro-differential equations with infinite retardation. The result has many physical applications.
Numerical Simulation of Phase Change Heat Transfer in PCM-Encapsulated Heat Sinks

An enthalpy-based computational model is developed for analyzing PCM-encapsulated heat sinks for electronics chips. Solution is obtained by developing a control volume-based finite difference code and results are validated by comparing results with an analytical solution for a limiting case problem. Results based on a parametric study indicate that the two-dimensional code developed for this study can be used in evaluating PCM, and selecting geometrical dimensions of the PCM encapsulated heat sink
lincRNAs act in the circuitry controlling pluripotency and differentiation

Although thousands of large intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) have been identified in mammals, few have been functionally characterized, leading to debate about their biological role. To address this, we performed loss-of-function studies on most lincRNAs expressed in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells and characterized the effects on gene expression. Here we show that knockdown of lincRNAs has major consequences on gene expression patterns, comparable to knockdown of well-known ES cell regulators. Notably, lincRNAs primarily affect gene expression in trans. Knockdown of dozens of lincRNAs causes either exit from the pluripotent state or upregulation of lineage commitment programs. We integrate lincRNAs into the molecular circuitry of ES cells and show that lincRNA genes are regulated by key transcription factors and that lincRNA transcripts bind to multiple chromatin regulatory proteins to affect shared gene expression programs. Together, the results demonstrate that lincRNAs have key roles in the circuitry controlling ES cell state.
Choice of Treatment Intensities by a Nonprofit Hospital Under Prospective Pricing

Under prospective pricing, payers for health care essentially use price regulation of hospitals as a way of indirectly regulating the provision of treatment intensity. This paper presents a theory of how a nonprofit hospital selects treatment intensities for its products given the payer's choice of prices and then determines how the payer should select prices in light of this theory. The main result is that, in equilibrium, the ratio of price to marginal cost will vary across products inversely with the elasticity of demand with respect to treatment intensity. This means that, generally, the hospital will earn positive (negative) accounting profit on products with low-(high-) intensity elasticities of demand.
On a Toeplitz determinant identity of Borodin and Okounkov

In this note we give two other proofs of an identity of A. Borodin and A. Okounkov which expresses a Toeplitz determinant in terms of the Fredholm determinant of a product of two Hankel operators. The second of these proofs yields a generalization of the identity to the case of block Toeplitz determinants.
Political capture of decentralization : vote-buying through grants-financed local jurisdictions

A recent trend in decentralization in several large and diverse countries is the creation of local jurisdictions below the regional level -- municipalities, towns, and villages -- whose spending is almost exclusively financed by grants from both regional and national governments. This paper argues that such grants-financed decentralization enables politicians to target benefits to pivotal voters and organized interest groups in exchange for political support. Decentralization, in this model, is subject to political capture, facilitating vote-buying, patronage, or pork-barrel projects, at the expense of effective provision of broad public goods. There is anecdotal evidence on local politics in several large countries that is consistent with this theory. The paper explores its implications for international development programs in support of decentralization.
Effect of Ethanol Consumed in Combination with High or Low Fat Diets on the Postinitiation Phase of Hepatocarcinogenesis in the Rat

In this study, the effect of chronic ethanol ingestion on the modification of the postinitiation phase of hepatocarcinogenesis was examined. Hepatic lesions were initiated in Sprague-Dawley rats by administration of 10 doses of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) over a 2-week period. Following a week of acclimation rats were fed ethanol (35% of caloric intake) in low fat (11% of calories) or high fat (35% of calories) AIN-76-based liquid diets according to a unique feeding regime for 12 weeks. The effect of ethanol on the development of hepatic gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT)-positive foci and on nutrient status was evaluated. Only those rats consuming ethanol with a high fat diet developed fatty livers, but all those consuming ethanol had low hepatic vitamin A and glutathione levels compared to pair-fed and ad libitum-fed controls. Despite these changes, no effect of ethanol consumption on the formation of GGT-positive foci was observed. Rats fed a high fat diet had an increased number and size of foci compared to rats on a low fat diet (P less than or equal to 0.01). It was concluded that despite these effects of ethanol on several physiological parameters, modification of the development of presumptive preneoplastic hepatic foci was not affected.
Existence and Stability of Even-dimensional Asymptotically de Sitter Spaces

A new proof of Friedrich’s theorem on the existence and stability of asymptotically de Sitter spaces in 3 + 1 dimensions is given, which extends to all even dimensions. In addition we characterize the possible limits of spaces which are globally asymptotically de Sitter, to the past and future.
Gromov-Witten/Donaldson-Thomas correspondence for toric 3-folds

We prove the equivariant Gromov-Witten theory of a nonsingular toric 3-fold X with primary insertions is equivalent to the equivariant Donaldson-Thomas theory of X. As a corollary, the topological vertex calculations by Agangic, Klemm, Marino, and Vafa of the Gromov-Witten theory of local Calabi-Yau toric 3-folds are proven to be correct in the full 3-leg setting.
Radiation myelopathy of the thoracic spinal cord in long term survivors treated with radical radiotherapy using conventional fractionation

Previous reports on radiation myelopathy of the thoracic spinal cord have attempted to predict tolerance doses as a function of overall treatment time and number of fractions by extrapolation of data from collected myelopathy cases having markedly heterogeneous treatment parameters. A review of long term survivors receiving radical radiotherapy with conventional fractionation for lung and esophageal cancer was undertaken to determine if the proposed tolerance levels were consistent with clinical results in a series of patients constituting the group at risk for developing myelopathy. Spinal cord doses were determined in 58 patients who survived greater than or equal to 18 months following radiotherapy. All patients were treated with megavoltage equipment at dose rates of 200 rads/day continuously (53 patients) or 250 rads/day using split course (5 patients). Tumor doses ranged from 4500 rads to 7000 rads. Seventeen patients (29%) received less than 5000 rads to the thoracic cord, 6 patients (10%) received 5000 rads, and 35 patients (61%) received greater than 5000 rads. There were two patients who developed myelopathy. Review of our data, the clinical data of others and recent experimental results suggest that the slope of tolerance curves for thoracic spinal cord commonly utilized to express time-dose-fractionation relationships may be inappropriate. It is suggested that cord tolerance to well fractionated radiation has been previously underestimated.
An improved aldol protocol for the preparation of 6-styrenylpyrones

Abstract An improved aldol protocol for the synthesis of 6-styrenylpyrones is reported. The first synthesis of PTP1B inhibitor 1 and 4 has been described.
Modeling the red sequence: Hierarchical growth yet slow luminosity evolution

We explore the effects of mergers on the evolution of massive early-type galaxies by modeling the evolution of their stellar populations in a hierarchical context. We investigate how a realistic red sequence population set up by z {approx} 1 evolves under different assumptions for the merger and star formation histories, comparing changes in color, luminosity, and mass. The purely passive fading of existing red sequence galaxies, with no further mergers or star formation, results in dramatic changes at the bright end of the luminosity function and color-magnitude relation. Without mergers there is too much evolution in luminosity at a fixed space density compared to observations. The change in color and magnitude at a fixed mass resembles that of a passively evolving population that formed relatively recently, at z {approx} 2. Mergers among the red sequence population ('dry mergers') occurring after z = 1 build up mass, counteracting the fading of the existing stellar populations to give smaller changes in both color and luminosity for massive galaxies. By allowing some galaxies to migrate from the blue cloud onto the red sequence after z = 1 through gas-rich mergers, younger stellar populations are added to the red sequence. This manifestation of themore » progenitor bias increases the scatter in age and results in even smaller changes in color and luminosity between z = 1 and z = 0 at a fixed mass. The resultant evolution appears much slower, resembling the passive evolution of a population that formed at high redshift (z {approx} 3-5), and is in closer agreement with observations. We conclude that measurements of the luminosity and color evolution alone are not sufficient to distinguish between the purely passive evolution of an old population and cosmologically motivated hierarchical growth, although these scenarios have very different implications for the mass growth of early-type galaxies over the last half of cosmic history.« less
Mean¿variance portfolio selection with ¿at-risk¿ constraints and discrete distributions.

We examine the impact of adding either a VaR or a CVaR constraint to the mean–variance model when security returns are assumed to have a discrete distribution with finitely many jump points. Three main results are obtained. First, portfolios on the VaR-constrained boundary exhibit (K + 2)-fund separation, where K is the number of states for which the portfolios suffer losses equal to the VaR bound. Second, portfolios on the CVaR-constrained boundary exhibit (K + 3)-fund separation, where K is the number of states for which the portfolios suffer losses equal to their VaRs. Third, an example illustrates that while the VaR of the CVaR-constrained optimal portfolio is close to that of the VaR-constrained optimal portfolio, the CVaR of the former is notably smaller than that of the latter. This result suggests that a CVaR constraint is more effective than a VaR constraint to curtail large losses in the mean–variance model. � 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Utilizing Afterglow Magnetization from Cross-Polarization Magic-Angle-Spinning Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy to Obtain Simultaneous Heteronuclear Multidimensional Spectra

The time required for data acquisition and subsequent spectral assignment are limiting factors for determining biomolecular structure and dynamics using solid-state NMR spectroscopy. While strong m...
On tight contact structures with negative maximal twisting number on small Seifert manifolds

We study some properties of transverse contact structures on small Seifert manifolds, and we apply them to the classification of tight contact structures on a family of small Seifert manifolds.
Financial Opacity and Firm Performance: The Readability of REIT Annual Reports

We examine the capital market pricing implications of firm disclosure opacity as measured by the linguistic readability of REIT annual reports. The SEC has expressed concern that firms selectively manage the transparency of disclosures in order to hide adverse information. After controlling for other non-experimental factors that influence the readability of REIT financial statements, we find (1) financial opacity is negatively related to reported firm performance, and (2) the residual opacity that remains after controlling for other determinants of annual report readability has incremental explanatory power for returns beyond the Fama and French (1992, 1993) risk factors. The opacity risk-return premium persists after controlling for a (heretofore undocumented) stark monotonic decrease in annual report readability following the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Instrumentation of a roller compactor to monitor vibration behavior during earthwork compaction

Among the goals of intelligent soil compaction are continuous monitoring and identification of soil parameters and the feedback control of one or more of the following: vibration frequency, force amplitude, and forward velocity. The development of a robust model structure for feedback control and/or soil parameter identification for continuous quality control/quality assurance requires comprehensive information about the machine's behavior during operation, e.g., vibration characteristics. This paper describes the development of a comprehensive instrumentation system to monitor the three-dimensional vibration of roller compactor components and the phase lag of the drum response with respect to the eccentric force, a key component of roller compactor dynamics. The measurement techniques are explained in detail, and experimental data is presented to demonstrate the nature of the responses observed during field testing.
A fine-wire thermocouple probe for measurement of stagnation temperatures in real gas hypersonic flows of nitrogen

A fine-wire thermocouple probe was used to determine freestream stagnation temperatures in hypersonic flows. Data were gathered in a N/sub 2/ blowdown wind tunnel with runtimes of 1-5 s. Tests were made at supply pressures between 30 and 1400 atm and supply temperatures between 700 and 1900 K, with Mach numbers of 14 to 16. An iterative procedure requiring thermocouple data, pilot pressure measurements, and supply conditions was used to determine test cell stagnation temperatures. Probe conduction and radiation losses, as well as real gas behavior of N/sub 2/, were accounted for during analysis. Temperature measurement error was found to be 5 to 10%. A correlation was drawn between thermocouple diameter Reynolds number and temperature recovery ratio. Transient probe behavior was studied and was found to be adequate in temperature gradients up to 1000 K/s. >
Estimating the low-speed downwash angle on an aft tail

A closed-form analytic solution for the downwash induced on an aft tail by the main wing of an airplane is presented. This infinite series solution is based on Prandtl's classical lifting-line theory and accounts for the effects of wing planform shape, as well as tail position and vortex rollup. The results obtained from the present analysis reduce to the known solution for an elliptic wing. Results for a tapered wing are also presented. This infinite series solution applies only to a main wing with no sweep or dihedral. However, an approximate correction is presented, which can be used with some caution for swept wings
Conjugation of oligonucleotides via an electrophilic tether: N-chloroacetamidohexyl phosphoramidite reagent.

Abstract A novel method for the preparation of oligonucleotides conjugated with nucleophilic ligands is described. A new phosphoramidite building block derived from N -chloroacetyl-6-aminohexanol is attached at the 5′-terminus on the last step of oligonucleotide synthesis. Postsynthetic treatment of support-bound modified oligonucleotide with a variety of amines and mercaptans affords conjugates in high yield.
Is the Journey to Work Explained by Urban Structure

Basic to several key issues in current urban economic theory and public policy is a presumption that local imbalances between employment and residential sites strongly influence people's commuting patterns. We examine this presumption by finding the commuting pattern for the Los Angeles region in 1980 which would minimise average commuting time or distance, given the actual spatial distributions of job and housing locations. We find that the amount of commuting required by these distributions is far less than actual commuting, and that variations in required commuting across job locations only weakly explain variations in actual commuting. We conclude that other factors must be more important to location decisions than commuting cost, and that policies aimed at changing the jobs-housing balance will have only a minor effect on commuting.
Procedural representation in a fuzzy problem-solving system

This paper addresses the problem of developing new representational structures for use in problem-solving domains which are imprecise or uncertain in nature. The incompatibility of precise representations with complex systems is discussed, and an argument is made that the inability to arrive at symbolic representations, not any inherent "complexity," is what makes natural reasoning difficult to model. The programming language FUZZY, which provides a number of facilities for representing and manipulating fuzzy information, is described briefly, and the use of "procedure demons" to specify global control regimes is examined. The procedural mechanisms available in FUZZY are then used to analyze a simple problem of fuzzy deductive inference.
Asymmetric synthesis of protected arylglycines by rhodium-catalyzed addition of arylboronic acids to N-tert-butanesulfinyl imino esters.

A new method for the Rh(I)-catalyzed addition of arylboronic acids to N-tert-butanesulfinyl imino esters has been developed for the asymmetric synthesis of arylglycine derivatives. This method provides high yields (61−90%) and diastereoselectivities (>98:2) for a variety of functionalized arylboronic acids. The N-sulfinyl arylglycine ester products are versatile intermediates for further transformations, including selective protecting group removal, conversion to β-amino alcohols, and direct incorporation into peptides.
Invited Commentary---Three Thoughts on Services

Rust and Chung should be congratulated on presenting a very nice, indeed limpid, overview and synthesis of much of the services marketing literature. Their review sparked three associations. First, somehow when we weren’t looking, the field of services marketing matured. In the spirit of philosophy of science, perhaps it’s inevitable that while an academic area is forging its identity, the inquiry emphasizes distinctions between itself and the extant literature, in this case, how services differ from goods; that the budding paradigm, in order to be noticed, protests its revolutionary form. Services are more intangible, it was said, with implications of perceptions of risk, and difficulty and subjectivity in customer evaluations. Services are simultaneously produced and consumed and are therefore perishable, itwas noted,with implications for more complex demand management. And services are heterogeneous, it was argued, primarily because of the interpersonal components in the service delivery system;namely, theserviceprovidersandthecustomers themselves. Now, 20–25 years since those early defining days, the area of services marketing and management is sufficiently mature that many of the research questions documented in the Rust and Chung review appear to be equally applicable to goods, at least consumer packaged goods, where extensive databases offer observations of frequency and volume to allow for variance to be modeled. There still exist conceptual distinctions between goods and services, but the primary differences that are popular topics of study seem to be at the subtler tactical level. For example, the pricing questions summarized for the services literature appear to represent similar constructs with slight variations in manifestation, namely, pricing and consumer demand being functions of time of arrival,
Preparation of Cerium Dioxide Powders for Catalyst Supports

Studies of the mechanisms by which cerium dioxide enhances automotive catalyst performance would be facilitated by the use of pure, high-surface-area forms of cerium dioxide. A cerium dioxide powder with a BET area of 50 m2·g−1 has been prepared by spray drying an aqueous solution of cerium nitrate, citric acid, and nitric acid. The thermal stability of the BET area at temperatures from 500° to 1100°C has been determined and compares favorably to other CeO2 powders. Microstructure evolution during thermal treatments is discussed and pelleting procedures are reported.
Anomalous Diffusion on the Percolating Networks

According to the standard diffusion equation, by introducing reasonably into an anomalous diffusion coefficient, the generalized diffusion equation, which describes anomalous diffusion on the percolating networks with a power-law distribution of waiting times, is derived in this paper. This solution of the generalized diffusion equation is obtained by using the method, which is used by Barta. The problems of anomalous diffusion on percolating networks with a power-law distribution of waiting times, which are not solved by Barta, are resolved.
Overview of hard processes at RHIC : high-pT light-hadron and charm production

An overview of the experimental results on high-pT light-hadron production and open charm production is presented. Data on particle production in elementary collisions are compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations. Particle production in Au+Au collisions is then compared to this baseline.
Remote induction of asymmetry in [13]-macro-dilactone topology by a single stereogenic center

Analysis of a series of unsaturated [13]-macro-dilactones showed that the configuration of a single carbon dictates the planar chirality of a macrocycle backbone and in turn remotely switches the facial display of an embedded alkene unit.
Spreading Chromatin into Chemical Biology

Epigenetics, broadly defined as the inheritance of non-Mendelian phenotypic traits, can be more narrowly defined as heritable alterations in states of gene expression ("on" versus "off") that are not linked to changes in DNA sequence. Moreover, these alterations can persist in the absence of the signals that initiate them, thus suggesting some kind of "memory" to epigenetic forms of regulation. How, for example, during early female mammalian development, is one X chromosome selected to be kept in an active state, while the genetically identical sister X chromosome is "marked" to be inactive, even though they reside in the same nucleus, exposed to the same collection of shared trans-factors? Once X inactivation occurs, how are these contrasting chromatin states maintained and inherited faithfully through subsequent cell divisions? Chromatin states, whether active (euchromatic) or silent (heterochromatic) are established, maintained, and propagated with remarkable precision during normal development and differentiation. However, mistakes made in establishing and maintaining these chromatin states, often executed by a variety of chromatin-remodeling activities, can lead to mis-expression or mis-silencing of critical downstream gene targets with far-reaching implications for human biology and disease, notably cancer. Though chromatin biologists have identified many of the "inputs" that are important for controlling chromatin states, the detailed mechanisms by which these processes work remain largely opaque, in part due to the staggering complexity of the chromatin polymer, the physiologically relevant form of our genome. The primary objective of this article is to serve as a "call to arms" for chemists to contribute to the development of the precision tools needed to answer pressing molecular problems in this rapidly moving field.
Sublinear Time Algorithms for Earth Mover’s Distance

We study the problem of estimating the Earth Mover’s Distance (EMD) between probability distributions when given access only to samples of the distribution. We give closeness testers and additive-error estimators over domains in [0,1]d , with sample complexities independent of domain size—permitting the testability even of continuous distributions over infinite domains. Instead, our algorithms depend on the dimension of the domain space and the quality of the result required. We also prove lower bounds for closeness testing, showing the dependencies on these parameters to be essentially optimal. Additionally, we consider whether natural classes of distributions exist for which there are algorithms with better dependence on the dimension, and show that for highly clusterable data, this is indeed the case. Lastly, we consider a variant of the EMD, defined over tree metrics instead of the usual l 1 metric, and give tight upper and lower bounds.
PRICING FOR LARGE POSITIONS IN CONTINGENT CLAIMS

Approximations to utility indifference prices are provided for a contingent claim in the large position size limit. Results are valid for general utility functions on the real line and semi-martingale models. It is shown that as the position size approaches infinity, the utility function's decay rate for large negative wealths is the primary driver of prices. For utilities with exponential decay, one may price like an exponential investor. For utilities with a power decay, one may price like a power investor after a suitable adjustment to the rate at which the position size becomes large. In a sizable class of diffusion models, limiting indifference prices are explicitly computed for an exponential investor. Furthermore, the large claim limit arises endogenously as the hedging error for the claim vanishes.
"Network Intervention:.": Assessing the Effects of Formal Mentoring on Workplace Networks

This article assesses the effects of formal mentoring on workplace networks. It also provides conceptual clarity and empirical evidence on expected gender differences in the effects of such programs. Qualitative interviews with 40 past participants in a formal mentoring program at a software laboratory in Beijing, China, provide insight into the core mechanisms by which such programs produce network change: access to organizational elites, participation in semiformal foci, enhanced social skills, and legitimacy-enhancing signals. These mechanisms are theorized to lead to an expansion in proteges' networks, relative to those of non-participants in formal mentoring. Legitimacy-enhancing signals are theorized to enable female proteges to derive greater network benefit from formal mentoring than their male counterparts. Empirical support for these propositions comes from a longitudinal quasi-experiment involving 75 employees who experienced the treatment of formal mentoring and 64 employees in a matched control group. A second empirical strategy, which exploits exogenous variation in the timing of treatment and enables a comparison of the post-program networks of one treated group to the pre-program networks of another treated group, provides corroborating support. These findings contribute to research on the efficacy of formal mentoring, gender and workplace networks, and the cumulative advantage or disadvantage that can arise from network change.
Jellyfish: networking data centers randomly

Industry experience indicates that the ability to incrementally expand data centers is essential. However, existing high-bandwidth network designs have rigid structure that interferes with incremental expansion. We present Jellyfish, a high-capacity network interconnect which, by adopting a random graph topology, yields itself naturally to incremental expansion. Somewhat surprisingly, Jellyfish is more cost-efficient than a fat-tree, supporting as many as 25% more servers at full capacity using the same equipment at the scale of a few thousand nodes, and this advantage improves with scale. Jellyfish also allows great flexibility in building networks with different degrees of oversubscription. However, Jellyfish's unstructured design brings new challenges in routing, physical layout, and wiring. We describe approaches to resolve these challenges, and our evaluation suggests that Jellyfish could be deployed in today's data centers.
Exploring the viability of the Cell Broadband Engine for bioinformatics applications

This paper evaluates the performance of bioinformatics applications on the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.) recently developed at IBM. In particular we focus on three highly popular bioinformatics applications - FASTA, ClustalW, and HMMER. The characteristics of these bioinformatics applications, such as small critical time-consuming code size, regular memory accesses, existing vectorized code and embarrassingly parallel computation, make them uniquely suitable for the Cell/B.E. processing platform. The price and power advantages afforded by the Cell/B.E. processor also make it an attractive alternative to general purpose processors. We report preliminary performance results for these applications, and contrast these results with the state-of-the-art hardware.
Particle-in-cell charged-particle simulations, plus Monte Carlo collisions with neutral atoms, PIC-MCC

Many-particle charged-particle plasma simulations using spatial meshes for the electromagnetic field solutions, particle-in-cell (PIC) merged with Monte Carlo collision (MCC) calculations, are coming into wide use for application to partially ionized gases. The author emphasizes the development of PIC computer experiments since the 1950s starting with one-dimensional (1-D) charged-sheet models, the addition of the mesh, and fast direct Poisson equation solvers for 2-D and 3-D. Details are provided for adding the collisions between the charged particles and neutral atoms. The result is many-particle simulations with many of the features met in low-temperature collision plasmas; for example, with applications to plasma-assisted materials processing, but also related to warmer plasmas at the edges of magnetized fusion plasmas. >
N-Glycosyl-N'-[p-(isoamyloxy)phenyl]-thiourea Derivatives : Potential Anti-TB Therapeutic Agents

Abstract Thiocarlide (THC; N,N′‐bis[p‐(isoamyloxy)phenyl]‐thiourea; also known as Isoxyl®) has been used in the past as an anti‐tuberculosis agent. In an effort to improve the therapeutic value of THC, several N‐glycosyl‐N′‐[p‐(isoamyloxy)phenyl]‐thiourea derivatives were synthesized by coupling an aniline derivative and glycosyl isothiocyanates. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of the new products against M. tuberculosis were determined.
Enantioselective organocatalytic direct Michael addition of nitroalkanes to nitroalkenes promoted by a unique bifunctional DMAP-thiourea.

A new catalyst is designed, synthesized, and evaluated for the asymmetric Michael addition of nitroalkanes to nitroalkenes. The obdurate nature of this reaction has made this a formidable challenge to subdue by asymmetric catalysis. The catalyst design includes a thiourea function to activate the nitroalkene by a double H-bond and a 4-dimethylaminopyridine unit to deprotonate the nitroalkane and to bind the resulting nitronate anion also by a double H-bond. The chiral scaffold for the catalyst is 2,2′-diamino-1,1′-binaphthalene (BINAM), and a bis-conjugate is prepared by the attachment of the thiourea unit and the dimethylaminopyridine moiety (DMAP) via the two amino groups. The resulting catalyst will effect the reaction of nitroalkanes to a variety of nitrostyrenes and gives excellent asymmetric inductions (91−95% ee) over a range of 10 substrates. Remarkably, the asymmetric induction increases with decreasing catalyst loading with the optimal compromise between rate and induction at a loading of 2 mol %.
Determination of the Far-Infrared Cosmic Background Using COBE/DIRBE and WHAM Data

Determination of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) at far infrared wavelengths using COBE/DIRBE data is limited by the accuracy to which foreground interplanetary and Galactic dust emission can be modeled and subtracted. Previous determinations of the far infrared CIB (e.g., Hauser et al. 1998) were based on the detection of residual isotropic emission in skymaps from which the emission from interplanetary dust and the neutral interstellar medium were removed. In this paper we use the Wisconsin H(alpha) Mapper (WHAM) Northern Sky Survey as a tracer of the ionized medium to examine the effect of this foreground component on determination of the CIB. We decompose the DIRBE far infrared data for five high Galactic latitude regions into HI- and H(alpha)- correlated components and a residual component. Eased on FUSE H2 absorption line observations, the contribution of a11 H2-correlated component is expected to he negligible. We find the H(alpha)-correlated component to be consistent with zero for each region, and we find that addition of an H(alpha)-correlated component in modeling the foreground emission has negligible effect on derived CIB results. Our CIB detections and 2(sigma) upper limits are essentially the same as those derived by Hauser et al. and are given by (nu)I(sub nu)(nW/sq m/sr) < 75, < 32, 25+/-8, and 13+/-3 at gamma = 60, 100, 140, and 240 microns, respectively. Our residuals have not been subjected to a detailed anisotropy test, so our CIB results do not supersede those of Hauser et al. Mie derive upper limits on the 100 micron emissivity of the ionized medium that are typically about 40% of the 100 micron emissivity of the neutral atomic medium. This low value may be caused in part by a lower dust-to-gas mass ratio in the ionized medium than in the neutral medium, and in part by a shortcoming of using H(alpha) intensity as a tracer of far infrared emission. If H(alpha) is not a reliable tracer, our analysis would underestimate the emissivity of the ionized medium, and both our analysis and the Hauser et al. analysis may slightly overestimate the CIB. We estimate the possible effect for the CIB to be only about 5%, which is much smaller than the quoted uncertainties. From a comparison of the Hauser et al. CIB results with the integrated galaxy brightness from Spitzer source counts, we obtain 2(sigma) upper limits on a possible diffuse CIB component that are 26 nW/sq m/sr at 140 microns and 8.5 nW/sq m/sr at 240 microns.
SECOND-GENERATION ASIAN AMERICAN PAN-ETHNIC IDENTITY: PLURALIZED MEANINGS OF A RACIAL LABEL

Recent research on the collective identity label described as Asian American, which was originally formulated as a political move- ment symbol, shows only some support among the various Asian ethnic groups that reside in the United States at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Based on a sample of second-generation Asian American student leaders in four public universities, this study provides empirical evidence that the definition of the term Asian American has multiplied as a result of major demographic and cultural factors that have affected the Asian popu- lation. These definitions reflect ethnic and religious diversification as well as the model minority stereotype and a cohort identity for the second-gen- eration experience. At the same time, this diversification of definitions is also influenced by two concurrent and interlacing cultural discourses, one that emphasizes the racialized otherness of being "Asian American" and another that emphasizes the cultural diversity within this racial label. Implications for future research and theoretical development follow.
A Test for the Nature of the Type Ia Supernova Explosion Mechanism

Currently, popular models for Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) fall into two general classes. The —rst comprises explosions of nearly pure carbon/oxygen (C/O) white dwarfs (WDs) at the Chandrasekhar limit which ignite near their centers. The second consists of lower mass C/O cores which are ignited by the detonation of an accreted surface helium layer. Explosions of the latter type produce copious Fe, Co, and Ni Ka emission from 56Ni and 56Co decay in the detonated surface layers, emission which is much weaker from Chandrasekhar-mass models. The presence of this emission provides a simple and unambiguous discriminant between these two models for SNe Ia. Both mechanisms may produce 0.1¨0.6 M _ of 56Ni, making them bright c-ray line emitters. The time to maximum brightness of 56Ni decay lines is distinctly shorter in the class of model (D15 days) than in the model (D30 days), making M \ M ch M ch c-ray line evolution another direct test of the explosion mechanism. It should just be possible to detect K-shell emission from a explosion from SNe Ia as far away as the Virgo cluster with the XMM sub-M ch observatory. A 1¨ 2m 2 X-ray telescope such as the proposed Constellation-X observatory could observe Ka emission from SNe Ia in the Virgo cluster, providing not just a detection but highM \ M ch accuracy —ux and kinematic information. S
A locking-free $$hp$$ DPG method for linear elasticity with symmetric stresses

We present two new methods for linear elasticity that simultaneously yield stress and displacement approximations of optimal accuracy in both the mesh size $$h$$ and polynomial degree $$p$$ . This is achieved within the recently developed discontinuous Petrov---Galerkin (DPG) framework. In this framework, both the stress and the displacement approximations are discontinuous across element interfaces. We study locking-free convergence properties and the interrelationships between the two DPG methods.
Coordinated scheduling of customer orders for quick response

The scheduling problem addressed in this paper concerns a manufacturer who produces a variety of product types and operates in a make-to-order environment. Each customer order consists of known quantities of the different product types, and must be delivered as a single shipment. Periodically the manufacturer schedules the accumulated and unscheduled customer orders. Instances of this problem occur across industries in manufacturing as well as in service environments. In this paper we show that the problem of minimizing the weighted sum of customer order delivery times is unary NP-hard. We characterize the optimal schedule, solve several special cases of the problem, derive tight lower bounds, and propose several heuristic solutions. We report the results of a set of computational experiments to evaluate the lower bounding procedures and the heuristics, and to determine optimal solutions. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 52: 493-512, 2005.
A Bayesian approach to discovering truth from conflicting sources for data integration

In practical data integration systems, it is common for the data sources being integrated to provide conflicting information about the same entity. Consequently, a major challenge for data integration is to derive the most complete and accurate integrated records from diverse and sometimes conflicting sources. We term this challenge the truth finding problem. We observe that some sources are generally more reliable than others, and therefore a good model of source quality is the key to solving the truth finding problem. In this work, we propose a probabilistic graphical model that can automatically infer true records and source quality without any supervision. In contrast to previous methods, our principled approach leverages a generative process of two types of errors (false positive and false negative) by modeling two different aspects of source quality. In so doing, ours is also the first approach designed to merge multi-valued attribute types. Our method is scalable, due to an efficient sampling-based inference algorithm that needs very few iterations in practice and enjoys linear time complexity, with an even faster incremental variant. Experiments on two real world datasets show that our new method outperforms existing state-of-the-art approaches to the truth finding problem.
Cocaine Influences Alcohol‐Seeking Behavior and Relapse Drinking in Alcohol‐Preferring (P) Rats

Background The results of several studies suggest that there may be common neurocircuits regulating drug-seeking behaviors. Common biological pathways regulating drug-seeking would explain the phenomenon that seeking for 1 drug can be enhanced by exposure to another drug of abuse. The objective of this study was to assess the time course effects of acute cocaine administration on ethanol (EtOH) seeking and relapse. Methods Alcohol-preferring (P) rats were allowed to self-administer 15% EtOH and water. EtOH-seeking was assessed through the use of the Pavlovian spontaneous recovery (PSR) model, while EtOH-relapse drinking was assessed through the use of the alcohol-deprivation effect. Results Cocaine (0, 1, or 10 mg/kg), injected immediately, 30 minutes, or 4 hours prior to the first PSR testing session, dose-dependently increased responding on the EtOH lever compared to extinction responses and responding by saline controls. Under relapse conditions, cocaine given immediately prior to the relapse session had no effect (1 mg/kg) or reduced responding (10 mg/kg). In contrast, cocaine given 4 hours prior to the relapse session markedly enhanced EtOH responding compared to saline. Conclusions The enhanced expression of EtOH-seeking and EtOH-relapse behaviors may be a result of a priming effect of cocaine on neuronal circuits mediating these behaviors. The effect of cocaine on EtOH-relapse drinking is indicative of the complex interactions that can occur between drugs of abuse; production of conflicting behaviors (immediate), and priming of relapse/seeking (4-hour delay).
A Method for Preparation of Unsupported Sol–Gel Thin Films

Unsupported gel films 1 to 3 μm thick may be prepared from colloidal sol–gel systems by spin-coating onto a camphor substrate. Sublimation of the camphor surface allows the film to separate and be freely sintered, giving a rapid indication of sintering behavior and microstructural development.