cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
MULTIPOLE FORMULAE FOR GRAVITATIONAL LENSING SHEAR AND FLEXION

The gravitational lensing equations for convergence, potential, shear, and flexion are simple in polar coordinates and separate under a multipole expansion once the shear and flexion spinors are rotated into a "tangential" basis. We use this to investigate whether the useful monopole aperture-mass shear formulae generalize to all multipoles and to flexions. We re-derive the result of Schneider and Bartelmann that the shear multipole m at radius R is completely determined by the mass multipole at R, plus specific moments Q (m) in and Q (m) out of the mass multipoles internal and external, respectively, to R. The m ≥ 0 multipoles are independent of Q out. But in contrast to the monopole, the m < 0 multipoles are independent of Q in. These internal and external mass moments can be determined by shear (and/or flexion) data on the complementary portion of the plane, which has practical implications for lens modeling. We find that the ease of E/B separation in the monopole aperture moments does not generalize to m ≠ 0: the internal monopole moment is the only nonlocal E/B discriminant available from lensing observations. We have also not found practical local E/B discriminants beyond the monopole, though they could exist. We show also that the use of weak-lensing data to constrain a constant shear term near a strong-lensing system is impractical without strong prior constraints on the neighboring mass distribution.
Development and application of a tomographic model from CT images for calculating internal dose to a pregnant woman

Assessment of radiation dose and possible risk to a pregnant woman and her fetus is an important task in radiation protection. Although stylized models for male and female patients of different ages have been developed, tomographic models for pregnant women have not been developed to date. This dissertation presents an effort to construct a partial-body model of a pregnant woman from a set of CTimages. The patient was 30-weeks pregnant, and the CT scan covered the portion of the body from above liver to below pubic symphysis in 70 slices, each 7 mm thick. The image resolution was 512×512 pixels in a 48 cm ×48 cm field. The images were carefully segmented to identify 34 organs and tissues. It has been found that the masses are different from the Reference Woman. The characteristics of the resulting model are discussed and compared with one existing stylized mathematical model for pregnant women. Based on this tomographic model, a Monte Carlo code, EGS4-VLSI, was used to derive specific absorbed fractions. Monoenergetic and isotropic photon and electron emitters distributed in different source organs were assumed and the energies ranged from 10 keV to 4 MeV for photons and from 100 keV to 4 MeV for electrons. The results for high energy (>50 keV ) photons showed general agreement with previous studies, however, the results for lower energy ( keV ) photons showed differences of up to several hundred percent for some source and target organs. For electron results, several tens of percent differences were found. Those differences can be explained by mass differences and the relative geometry differences between source and target organs. In summary, the stylized models for pregnant women are satisfactory for a very large size patient for most of the photon energies (between 50 keV and 4 MeV). However, a tomographic model has to be used to obtain acceptable dose assessments for electrons. The newly calculated SAF data set can provide the nuclear medicinedosimetry field a new perspective involving internal electrons.
A Deeply Pipelined CABAC Decoder for HEVC Supporting Level 6.2 High-Tier Applications

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is the latest video coding standard that specifies video resolutions up to 8K ultra-high definition (UHD) at 120 frames/s to support the next decade of video applications. This results in high-throughput requirements for the context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC) entropy decoder, which was already a well-known bottleneck in H.264/AVC. To address the throughput challenges, several modifications were made to CABAC during the standardization of HEVC. This paper leverages these improvements in the design of a high-throughput HEVC CABAC decoder. It also supports the high-level parallel processing tools introduced by HEVC, including tile and wavefront parallel processing. The proposed design uses a deeply pipelined architecture to achieve a high clock rate. Additional techniques such as the state prefetch logic, latched-based context memory, and separate finite state machines are applied to minimize stall cycles, while multibypass-bin decoding is used to further increase the throughput. The design is implemented in an International Business Machines 45-nm silicon on insulator process. After place and route, its operating frequency reaches 1.6 GHz. The corresponding throughputs achieve up to 1696 and 2314 Mbin/s under common and theoretical worst-case test conditions, respectively. The results show that the design is sufficient to decode in real-time high-tier video bitstreams at level 6.2 (8K UHD at 120 frames/s), or main-tier bitstreams at level 5.1 (4K UHD at 60 frames/s) for applications requiring subframe latency, such as video conferencing.
Contagion of accounting methods: evidence from stock option expensing

I examine how a firm’s accounting methods can be influenced by the choices of other firms, which I label contagion. I model accounting method choice as a combination of intrinsic propensities to adopt a method and contagion effects. I predict contagion of accounting methods occurs for two reasons: (1) adoption decisions of other firms are informative for the adoption decision, and (2) prior adoptions change the net benefits of the decision. I test these predictions in the stock option expensing setting where firms had the choice to use the intrinsic or fair value method. Using a firm-level diffusion model, I document evidence consistent with my predictions.
The Tree-particle-mesh N-body gravity solver

The tree particle-mesh (TPM) N-body algorithm couples the tree algorithm for directly computing forces on particles in a hierarchical grouping scheme with the extremely efficient mesh-based PM structured approach. The combined TPM algorithm takes advantage of the fact that gravitational forces are linear functions of the density field. This allows the use of domain decomposition to break down the density field into many isolated high-density regions containing a significant fraction of the mass but residing in a very small volume. At low redshift, ~1/3 of the particles in a typical large cosmological simulation can be assigned to ~104-105 separate groups occupying ~10-2.5 of the total volume. In each of these high-density regions, the gravitational potential is computed via the tree algorithm supplemented by tidal forces from the external density distribution. For the bulk of the volume, forces are computed via the PM algorithm; time steps in this PM component are large compared to individually determined time steps in the tree regions. Since each tree region can be treated independently, the algorithm lends itself to very efficient parallelization using message passing. We have tested the new TPM algorithm (a refinement of that originated by Xu) by comparison with results from Ferrell & Bertschinger's P3M code and find that, except in small clusters, the TPM results are at least as accurate as those obtained with the well-established P3M algorithm, while taking significantly less computing time. Production runs of 109 particles indicate that the new code has great scientific potential when used with distributed computing resources.
The expansion factors of an outer automorphism and its inverse

A fully irreducible outer automorphism o of the free group F n of rank n has an expansion factor which often differs from the expansion factor of o -1 Nevertheless, we prove that the ratio between the logarithms of the expansion factors of o and o -1 is bounded above by a constant depending only on the rank n. We also prove a more general theorem applying to an arbitrary outer automorphism of F n and its inverse and their two spectrums of expansion factors.
Equivalence relations, invariants, and normal forms

For an equivalence relation E on the words in some finite alphabet, we consider the recognition problem (decide whether two words are equivalent), the invariant problem (calculate a function constant on precisely the equivalence classes), the normal form problem (calculate a particular member of an equivalence class, given an arbitrary member) and the first member problem (calculate the first member of an equivalence class, given an arbitrary member). A solution for any of these problems yields solutions for all earlier ones in the list. We show that, for polynomial time recognizable E, the first member problem is always in the class $\Delta _2^{\text{P}} $ (solvable in polynomial time with an oracle for an NP set) and can be complete for this class even when the normal form problem is solvable in polynomial time. To distinguish between the other problems in the list, we construct an E whose invariant problem is not solvable in polynomial time with an oracle for E (although the first member problem is in ...
Configuration E-7 Supersonic Fighter/Attack Technology Program

The program covering the design and early technology development of Configuration E-7, a supersonic STOVL Fighter/Attack aircraft, is described. This aircraft uses the ejector principle to augment engine fan air for vertical lift. The initial design objectives selected in 1980 are listed and discussed. Some design considerations applicable to the propulsion concept and the chosen configuration are mentioned
Introduction to D-branes, with applications

A brief review of some of the central ideas, terminology and techniques of the technology of orientifolds and D-branes is presented. Some applications are reviewed, including the construction of dual solitonic strings in the context of string/string duality, the computation of the Bekenstien-Hawking entropy/area law for extremal black holes, and the construction of N =1 string vacua in dimensions lower than ten.
Genome-Wide Location Analysis Reveals Distinct Transcriptional Circuitry by Paralogous Regulators Foxa1 and Foxa2

Gene duplication is a powerful driver of evolution. Newly duplicated genes acquire new roles that are relevant to fitness, or they will be lost over time. A potential path to functional relevance is mutation of the coding sequence leading to the acquisition of novel biochemical properties, as analyzed here for the highly homologous paralogs Foxa1 and Foxa2 transcriptional regulators. We determine by genome-wide location analysis (ChIP-Seq) that, although Foxa1 and Foxa2 share a large fraction of binding sites in the liver, each protein also occupies distinct regulatory elements in vivo. Foxa1-only sites are enriched for p53 binding sites and are frequently found near genes important to cell cycle regulation, while Foxa2-restricted sites show only a limited match to the forkhead consensus and are found in genes involved in steroid and lipid metabolism. Thus, Foxa1 and Foxa2, while redundant during development, have evolved divergent roles in the adult liver, ensuring the maintenance of both genes during evolution.
The Chemical Potential

The definition of the fundamental quantity, the chemical potential, is badly confused in the literature: there are at least three distinct definitions in various books and papers. While they all give the same result in the thermodynamic limit, major differences between them can occur for finite systems, in anomalous cases even for finite systems as large as a cm3. We resolve the situation by arguing that the chemical potential defined as the symbol μ conventionally appearing in the grand canonical density operator is the uniquely correct definition valid for all finite systems, the grand canonical ensemble being the only one of the various ensembles usually discussed (microcanonical, canonical, Gibbs, grand canonical) that is appropriate for statistical thermodynamics, whenever the chemical potential is physically relevant. The zero–temperature limit of this μ was derived by Perdew et al. for finite systems involving electrons, generally allowing for electron–electron interactions; we extend this derivation and, for semiconductors, we also consider the zero–T limit taken after the thermodynamic limit. The enormous finite size corrections (in macroscopic samples, e.g. 1 cm3) for one rather common definition of the c.p., found recently by Shegelski within the standard effective mass model of an ideal intrinsic semiconductor, are discussed. Also, two very–small–system examples are given, including a quantum dot.
Effects of Control Power and Guidance Cues on Lunar Lander Handling Qualities

A piloted simulation was conducted to assess handling qualities for a precision lunar landing task from terminal descent to touchdown. The experiment variables were control power and guidance cues. A dynamics and control model was derived from Apollo Lunar Module data, and guidance laws were designed to follow a reference trajectory. The experiment was conducted on the large motion base Vertical Motion Simulator at the NASA Ames Research Center. Six pilot astronauts served as evaluation pilots, providing CooperHarper ratings, Task Load Index ratings, and qualitative comments. The piloting task was to fly a final approach profile from 500 ft altitude to touchdown, starting from a 250 ft lateral offset to the landing site. Following guidance cues, the pilots were able to accomplish this task for control powers ranging from 100% to 15% of the nominal (Apollo) value. The handling qualities were satisfactory (Level 1) at nominal control power, and degraded as control power decreased. Without guidance cues, in the limited time available for this experiment, the evaluation pilots were unable to develop a flying technique for the precision landing task with lateral offset approach. This highlights the need for guidance cues in future lunar operations that may require precision landing capability.
Laser-Induced Etching Of Insulators Using A DC Glow Discharge In Silane

We report a new method of laser-controlled etching in which the radiation from a pulsed-ultraviolet excimer laser is used to etch inorganic insulators exposed to plasma species that have been produced in a glow discharge sustained in silane. The maximum etch rate achieved was 50 nm/min for thin-film silicon dioxide.
The Milky Way Rotation Curve and Its Vertical Derivatives: Inside the Solar Circle

We measure the Galactic rotation curve and its first two vertical derivatives in the first and fourth quadrants of the Milky Way using the 21 cm VGPS and SGPS. We find tangent velocities of the atomic gas as a function of Galactic longitude and latitude by fitting an analytic line profile to the edges of the velocity profiles. The shape of the analytic profile depends only on the tangent velocity and the velocity dispersion of the gas. We use two complementary methods to analyze the tangent velocities: a global model to fit typical parameter values and a local fitting routine to examine spatial variations. We confirm the validity of our fitting routines by testing simple models. Both the global and local fits are consistent with a vertical falloff in the rotation curve of – -->22 ± 6 km s−1 kpc−1 within 100 pc of the Galactic midplane. The magnitude of the falloff is several times larger than what would be expected from the change in the potential alone, indicating some other physical process is important. The falloff we measure is consistent in magnitude with that measured in the halo gas of other galaxies.
The Zerhouni Challenge: Defining the Fundamental Hypothesis of Emergency Care Research

What is your hypothesis? This is almost always the first question I ask graduate students when they enter my office to propose a new research project. It is also the first thing I look for when reviewing a research grant or original research manuscript. The hypothesis is fundamental to modern scientific inquiry. Without one, it is impossible to judge the potential impact of a proposed line of investigation. Why, then, was I surprised, and somewhat unprepared, when the same question was asked by the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Elias Zerhouni? What makes Dr. Zerhouni’s question compelling is that it wasn’t directed at a specific research grant or manuscript: it was directed at an entire field of investigation, the field of emergency care research. On January 25, 2007, a group of Emergency Medicine investigators, including Chuck Cairns, Jim Hoekstra, Judd Hollander, Roger Lewis, Sandy Schneider, and me, met with Dr. Zerhouni at the NIH to discuss the future of emergency care research. After numerous conference calls and e-mail exchanges, we were prepared to highlight the synergy between the recent reports of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on the Future of Emergency Care in the United States Health System and the NIH roadmap initiative to “reengineer the clinical research enterprise” in the United States. Dr. Zerhouni listened attentively to a wellorchestrated proposal that was primarily focused on integrating emergency care research and research training into the new Clinical Translational Science Award program. 7,8 Although he acknowledged the importance of building our research infrastructure, he asked us to consider the “why” as much as the “how.” He challenged us to define and prioritize emergency care research. What areas of scientific investigation are unique to emergency care, best studied by emergency care investigators, and inadequately explored by other groups of scientists? He asked us to state the unique fundamental hypothesis of emergency care research. Before he even finished articulating the question, my mind was racing to recall the text of the IOM reports, 1-3 the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Research Committee report submitted to the IOM, 9 and even the original 1995
Attitude Adaptation in Satisficing Games

Satisficing game theory offers an alternative to classical game theory that describes a flexible model of players' social interactions. Players' utility functions depend on other players' attitudes rather than simply their actions. However, satisficing players with conflicting attitudes may enact dysfunctional behaviors, which results in poor performance. We present an evolutionary method by which a population of players may adapt their attitudes to improve payoff. In addition, we extend the Nash-equilibrium concept to satisficing games, showing that the method leads players toward the equilibrium in their attitudes. We apply these ideas to the stag hunt-a simple game in which cooperation does not easily evolve from noncooperation. The evolutionary method provides two major contributions. First, satisficing players may improve their performance by adapting their attitudes. Second, numerical results demonstrate that cooperation in the stag hunt can emerge much more readily under the method we present than under traditional evolutionary models.
Nitrogen isotopes in the Allende meteorite

Nitrogen in the Allende meteorite consists of at least two components, partially resolvable in a stepwise heating experiment. L-nitrogen, released below 1000 C, has a low delta N-15 (-60 to -90 per mil), and is associated with neon-A and CCF-xenon and may reside in a carbonaceous carrier. H-nitrogen, released above 1000 C, is associated with normal xenon, and may reside in silicate minerals. It is very difficult to account for the entire range of N-15/N-14 ratios in solar system materials by mass-dependent chemical and physical processes alone. In particular, an N-14 enriched component of nuclear origin appears necessary to account for the L-nitrogen in Allende.
Hotspots, polar wander, Mesozoic convection and the geoid

The geoid bears little relation to present tectonic features of the Earth other than trenches and hotspots. The Mesozoic supercontinent of Pangea, however, apparently occupied a central position in the Atlantic–African geoid high. This and the equatorial Pacific geoid high contain most of the world's hotspots. The plateaus and rises which are now in the western Pacific formed in the Pacific geoid high and this may have been the early Mesozoic–late Palaeozoic position of a large part of Asia and other fragments of the Pacific rim continents. The major global geoid highs were regions of extensive Cretaceous volcanism and may be the former sites of continental aggregations and mantle insulation and, therefore, hotter-than-normal mantle. The pent-up heat causes rifts and hotspots and results in uplift, magmatism, fragmentation and dispersal of the continents and the subsequent formation of plateaus, aseismic ridges and seamount chains which cause a global rise in sea-level. Convection in the upper mantle caused by such lateral temperature gradients is intrinsically episodic. A geoid anomaly of 50 m can be formed in about 100 Myr by continental insulation. We show here that such geoid anomalies are long-lived and may be used to remove the ambiguity in early Mesozoic–late Palaeozoic plate reconstructions. Geoid highs control the rotation axis of the Earth and, in effect, bring long-lived continental aggregations to the Equator. Many aspects of continental geology such as vertical-tectonics and episodicity of magmatism and transgressions can be explained by continental insulation.
Real-Time Light Modulators For Incoherent To Coherent Image Conversion

In recent years it has become possible to read out electronic image sensors by means of deformable membrane mirror arrays1'2"'"5. Similar techniques have also been explored for use with scanned electron beams6'7. The principal motivation for this work has been "real-time" light modulators for the input plane of coherent optical processors.
Understanding High-Stakes Consumer Decisions: Mammography Adherence Following False-Alarm Test Results

Consumers often have to decide whether to acquire information in high-stakes decision domains. We study women in mammography waiting rooms to test how a "false-alarm" result (i.e., an indication that a malady is present when a "more accurate" follow-up test reveals it is not) affects willingness to get retested. In Study 1 we show that, given a false-alarm result, life-threatening test consequences are associated with more disutility for future testing than when test consequences are less significant; this does not hold for normal test results. In Study 2 in the mammography context, we show that patients receiving a false-alarm result experienced more stress, were less likely to believe that a positive mammography result indicated cancer, and more likely to delay mammography than patients receiving normal results unless they were also told that they may be vulnerable to breast cancer in the future. We show that delays in planned adherence following a false-alarm result can be mitigated by an information intervention. Finally, we have preliminary evidence that a previous history of false-positive results can cause a consumer to both react more negatively to emotional stress and respond more positively to coping information.
Global propagation of gravity waves generated with the whole atmosphere transfer function model

Abstract A brief review is presented of the Transfer Function Model (TFM) [e.g., Mayr et al., Space Science Reviews, 1990], which describes acoustic gravity waves (AGW) that propagate across the globe in a dissipative and static (no winds) background atmosphere with globally uniform temperature and density variations extending from the ground to 700 km. Unique among existing models, the TFM can be placed between the analytical approach on one end, and the rigorous numerical approach of general circulation models (GCM). The time consuming numerical integration of the conservation equations is restricted to compute the transfer function (TF) for a broad range of frequencies and spherical harmonics. Given TF, the atmospheric response for a chosen source configuration is then obtained in short order. Computationally efficient, the model is well suited to serve as experimental and educational tool for simulating propagating wave patterns across the globe. By design, the TFM is also semi-analytical and therefore well suited to explore the different wave modes that can be generated under different dynamical conditions.
A Technique for Estimating Performance of Fault-Tolerant Programs

A technique is presented for estimating the performance of programs written for execution on fail-stop processors. It is based on modeling the program as a discrete-time Markov chain and then using z-transforms to derive a probability distribution for time to completion.
The Light Echo around Supernova 2003gd in Messier 74

ABSTRACT We confirm the discovery of a light echo around the Type II‐plateau supernova 2003gd in Messier 74 (NGC 628), seen in images obtained with the High Resolution Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) as part of a larger Snapshot program on the late‐time emission from supernovae. The analysis of the echo we present suggests that it is due to the SN light pulse scattered by a sheet of dust grains located ∼113 pc in front of the SN, and that these grains are not unlike those assumed to be in the diffuse Galactic interstellar medium, both in composition and in size distribution. The echo is less consistent with scattering off carbon‐rich grains, and if anything, the grains may be somewhat more silicate rich than the Galactic dust composition. The echo also appears to be more consistent with a SN distance closer to 7 Mpc than to 9 Mpc. This further supports the conclusion we reached elsewhere that the initial mass for the SN progenitor was relatively low (∼8...
Coordinates on Schubert cells, Kostant's harmonic forms, and the Bruhat-Poisson structure on G/B

For the flag manifoldX=G/B of a complex semi-simple Lie groupG, we make connections between the Kostant harmonic forms onG/B and the geometry of the Bruhat Poisson structure. We show that on each Schubert cell, the corresponding Kostant harmonic form can be described using only data coming from the Bruhat Poisson structure. We do this by using an explicit set of coordinates on the Schubert cell.
Copper-Catalyzed Intramolecular Alkene Carboetherification: Synthesis of Fused-Ring and Bridged-Ring Tetrahydrofurans

Fused-ring and bridged-ring tetrahydrofuran scaffolds are found in a number of natural products and biologically active compounds. A new copper-catalyzed intramolecular carboetherification of alkenes for the synthesis of bicyclic tetrahydrofurans is reported herein. The reaction involves Cu-catalyzed intramolecular addition of alcohols to unactivated alkenes and subsequent aryl C–H functionalization provides the C–C bond. Mechanistic studies indicate a primary carbon radical intermediate is involved and radical addition to the aryl ring is the likely C–C bond-forming mechanism. Preliminary catalytic enantioselective reactions are promising (up to 75% ee) and provide evidence that copper is involved in the alkene addition step, likely through a cis-oxycupration mechanism. Catalytic enantioselective alkene carboetherification reactions are rare and future development of this new method into a highly enantioselective process is promising. During the course of the mechanistic studies a protocol for alkene hyd...
The effect of the distribution of colorant on the color of fibers

The relationship between the color of a dyed fabric and the concentration of the dye in the system as given by the widely used Kubelka and Munk treatment is not satisfactory. A treatment by Allen and Goldfinger based on a model more appropriate for a textile substrate permits a wide variety of pertinent predictions. One of them is the calculation of the effect of a ring distribution of dye in the fiber on the color of the fabric. An experimental study of this effect is presented as supporting evidence of the validity of the Allen and Goldfinger approach.
A mean-value model for control of Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines

A Mean Value Model (MVM) for a Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine is presented. Using a phenomenological zero-dimensional approach with five continuous and three discrete states we first model the effects of the Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) valve, the exhaust Rebreathing Lift (RBL), and the fueling rate on the state of charge in the cylinder at intake valve closing. An Arrhenius integral is then used to model the start of combustion, θ soc . A series of simple algebraic relations that captures the combustion duration and heat release is finally used to model the state of charge after the HCCI combustion and the Location of Peak Pressure (LPP). The model is parametrized and validated using steady-state test data from an experimental gasoline engine at the General Motors Corporation. The simple model captures the temperature, pressure, air-to-fuel ratio, and inert gas fraction of the exhausted mass flow. This characterization is important for the overall HCCI dynamics because the thermodynamic state (pressure, temperature) and concentration (oxygen and inert gas) of the exhausted mass flow affect the next combustion event. The high dilution level in HCCI engines increases the significance of this internal feedback that generally exists to a smaller extent in conventional spark-ignition and compression-ignition internal combustion engines.
THE GLOBAL MCKAY¿RUAN CORRESPONDENCE VIA MOTIVIC INTEGRATION

The purpose of this paper is to show how the motivic integration methods of Kontsevich, Denef-Loeser and Looijenga can be adapted to prove the McKay-Ruan correspondence, a generalization of the McKay-Reid correspondence to orbifolds that are not necessarily global quotients.
Synthesis of organometallic mixed sulfur-selenium π-acceptor molecules☆

The reactive dianion, 4,5-diselenolato-1,3-dithiole-2-thione (dsit) was prepared by the reaction of 1,3-dithiole-2-thione with in-situ generated lithium diisopropylamide and finely powdered elemental selenium. Addition of methanolic-ammoniacal solutions of the appropriate metal (nickel and palladium) dichlorides to the above reaction mixture followed by methanolic solutions of tetraalkylammonium [tetrabutylammonium (TBA) and tetraethylammonium (TEA)] bromide, results in the precipitation of dark colored solids from the solutions. Isolation and purification of these solids revealed that the solids had the general composition (TAA)2[M(dsit)2] where TAA were tetrabutylammonium or tetraethylammonium anions and M were Ni(II) and Pd(II). Electrochemical or chemical oxidation of the nickel(II) organometallic complexes resulted in the formation of the π-acceptor (TBA) [Ni(dsit2)] while a similar reaction with the palladium(II) complexes failed to produce the equivalent (TAA) [Pd(dsit)2].
Non-selectivity of ERG reductions in eyes treated for retinoblastoma

Purpose We have monitored retinal function in patients treated for retinoblastoma (primarily, but not exclusively by intra-arterial chemotherapy infusion) by electroretinography (ERG) recordings for the past 7 years. We here present data from 599 ERG studies of 108 patients, in which a complete ERG protocol including both photopic and scotopic recordings was performed, in justification of our frequent practice of reporting primarily 30-Hz photopic flicker amplitude data.
Efficient synthesis of cis-2,6-di-(2- quinolylpiperidine).

An efficient synthesis of cis-2,6-di-(2-quinolylpiperidine) has been developed. The key steps involve Wittig reaction of N-Cbz-protected cis-piperidine-2,6-dicarboxaldehyde (3) with 2-(triphenylphosphinyl-methyl)quinoline bromide (4) and sequential removal of the N-Cbz group and double bond reduction. This synthetic procedure provides an efficient preparation for this useful norlobelane analogue.
Fluid-mineral equilibria in a hydrothermal system, Roosevelt hot springs, Utah

The availability of fluids and drill cuttings from the active hydrothermal system at Roosevelt Hot Springs allows a quantitative comparison between the observed and predicted alteration mineralogy, calculated from fluid-mineral equilibria relationships. Comparison of all wells and springs in the thermal area indicates a common reservoir source, and geothermometer calculations predict its temperature to be higher (288°C ± 10°) than the maximum measured temperature of 268°C. The composition of the deep reservoir fluid was estimated from surface well samples, allowing for steam loss, gas release, mineral precipitation and ground-water mixing in the well bore. This deep fluid is sodium chloride in character, with approximately 9700 ppm dissolved solids, a pH of 6.0, and gas partial pressures of O2 ranging from 10−32 to 10−35 atm, CO2 of 11 atm, H2S of 0.020 atm and CH4 of 0.001 atm. Comparison of the alteration mineralogy from producing and nonproducing wells allowed delineation of an alteration pattern characteristic of the reservoir rock. Theoretical alteration mineral assemblages in equilibrium with the deep reservoir fluid, between 150° and 300°C, in the system Na2O-K2O-CaO-MgO-FeO-Fe2O3-Al2O3-H4SiO4-H2O-H2S-CO2-HCl, were calculated. Minerals theoretically in equilibrium with the calculated reservoir fluid at >240°C include sericite, K-feldspar, quartz, chalcedony, hematite, magnetite and pyrite. This assemblage corresponds with observed higher-temperature (>210°C) alteration assemblage in the deeper parts of the producing wells. The presence of montmorillonite and mixed-layer clays with the above assemblage observed at temperatures <210°C corresponds with minerals predicted to be in equilibrium with the fluid below 240°C. Alteration minerals present in the reservoir rock that do not exhibit equilibrium with respect to the reservoir fluid include epidote, anhydrite, calcite and chlorite. These may be products of an earlier hydrothermal event, or processes such as boiling and mixing, or a result of errors in the equilibrium calculations as a result of inadequate thermochemical data.
The More minimal supersymmetric standard model

Abstract Effective Supersymmetry is presented as a theory of physics above the electroweak scale which has significant theoretical advantages over both the standard model and the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). The theory is supersymmetric at short distances but differs significantly from the MSSM. Flavor symmetry violation is intimately related to supersymmetry breaking. There is a new physics scale M ∼ 5–20 TeV which sets the mass of the first two sparticle families. Supersymmetric sources of CP violation and flavor changing neutral currents for the first two families are suppressed. Effective Supersymmetry can be implemented with automatic suppression of baryon and lepton number violation and a dynamically generated μ term, while maintaining naturalness in the Higgs sector. There are implications for new particle searches, flavor and CP violation experiments, as well as for the construction of theories of flavor and dynamical supersymmetry breaking.
The Age-dependent Luminosities of the Red Giant Branch Bump, Asymptotic Giant Branch Bump, and Horizontal Branch Red Clump

Color-magnitude diagrams of globular clusters usually exhibit a prominent horizontal branch (HB) and may also show features such as the red giant branch (RGB) bump and the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) bump. Stellar evolution theory predicts that the luminosities of these features will depend on the metallicity and age of the cluster. We calculate theoretical lines of 2-12 Gyr constant age RGB bumps and AGB bumps in the ΔV-[Fe/H] diagram, which shows the brightness difference between the bump and the HB as a function of metallicity. In order to test the predictions, we identify giant branch bumps in new Hubble Space Telescope color-magnitude diagrams for eight SMC clusters. First, we conclude that the SMC cluster bumps are RGB bumps. The data for clusters younger than ~6 Gyr are in fair agreement with our predictions for the relative age-dependent luminosities of the HB and RGB bump. The ΔV data for clusters older than ~6 Gyr demonstrate a less satisfactory agreement with our calculations. We conclude that ~6 Gyr is the lower bound to the age of clusters for which the Galactic globular cluster, age-independent ΔV-[Fe/H] calibration is valid. Application of the ΔV-[Fe/H] diagram to stellar population studies is discussed.
Stability of NLO global analysis and implications for Hadron collider physics

The phenomenology of Standard Model and New Physics at hadron colliders depends critically on results from global QCD analysis for parton distribution functions (PDFs). The accuracy of the standard next-to-leading-order (NLO) global analysis, nominally a few percent, is generally well matched to the expected experimental precision. However, serious questions have been raised recently about the stability of the NLO analysis with respect to certain inputs, including the choice of kinematic cuts on the data sets and the parametrization of the gluon distribution. In this paper, we investigate this stability issue systematically within the CTEQ framework. We find that both the PDFs and their physical predictions are stable, well within the few percent level. Further, we have applied the Lagrange Multiplier method to explore the stability of the predicted cross sections for W production at the Tevatron and the LHC, since W production is often proposed as a standard candle for those colliders. We find the NLO predictions on σW to be stable well within their previously-estimated uncertainty ranges.
Length and Stable Length

This paper establishes the existence of a gap for the stable length spectrum on a hyperbolic manifold. If M is a hyperbolic n-manifold, for every positive ϵ there is a positive δ depending only on n and on ϵ such that an element of π1(M) with stable commutator length less than δ is represented by a geodesic with length less than ϵ. Moreover, for any such M, the first accumulation point for stable commutator length on conjugacy classes is at least 1/12.
The forced nonlinear Schrödinger equation

Abstract In many applications, the nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLS) occurs with a nonlinear boundary value being specified. In these cases one may consider the semi-infinite NLS as being forced and driven by the boundary value. Here we numerically study one such case where the NLS field at the origin, q ( x = 0, t ), is specified as a boundary value. We find that solitons may be created by the forcing. We devise a model to predict these numerical results, and do so with reasonable quantitative results, and excellent qualitative results. The model is able to predict the threshold for soliton production fairly accurately.
Metal adatom induced corrugation of Cu(001)

Abstract We report the discovery of a metal adatom induced corrugation of Cu(001) as probed by atom beam scattering (ABS). At Pb or Bi coverages of 0.05 (fraction of Cu layer), and while a (1×1) LEED pattern is still observed, the ABS diffraction pattern from uncovered Cu(001) areas has changed considerably from that of clean Cu(001). We show that these uncovered areas have become up to ten times more corrugated than the clean Cu(001). We performed several carefully designed experiments to test whether our data could be interpreted as a result of scattering from adsorbate islands or from a lattice of randomly occupied sites. Instead, we ascribe the nature of this metal adatom induced corrugation to the redistribution of the Cu(001) surface charge density due to the adsorption of Pb or Bi atoms. No effect is seen following adsorption of weakly chemisorbed adatoms, such as Hg. A model consistent with all our observations is presented.
Plus-minus method to solve large-amplitude near-surface static corrections

The surface conditions in Saudi Arabia demonstrate significant variability ranging from flat gravel plains to sand-dunes, sabkhas (salt flats) and desert wadis (washouts). Saudi Aramco has used a single-layer velocity model from surface to datum for most of the prospective areas for both 2D and 3D seismic data. Source gathers have been interpreted by picking the first arrivals to obtain a linear fit for the direct and refractor arrivals using the intercept-time method. This creates depth and velocity control input for a multiple-layer model of the near-surface, from which static corrections to datum are calculated. On 2D lines with very large amplitude near-surface anomalies, the plusminus technique has been applied to solve local areas. The implementation of the plus-minus technique utilizes a variable near-surface velocity derived from either upholes or the direct-arrival velocity determined from source gathers. With this method, multiple source-pairs build up effective spreads. Then by compiling high fold of delay-times at a location, a statistical average is taken where the high fold reduces the significance of picking errors. The model is built utilizing multiple refraction layers and is referenced to the datum, thus tying it to the regional model. The example 2D seismic line has a static model calculated from the single-layer velocity model. The intercept-time method was applied locally over a near-surface anomaly caused by unconsolidated material at the foot of a cliff. Further analysis of the near-surface involved the plus-minus method to solve the high amplitude time shifts.
Using a model of the human visual system to identify and enhance object contours in natural images

Segmentation of natural images depends on the ability to identify continuous contours that define the boundaries between objects. However, in many natural images (especially those captured in environments where the illumination is largely ambient) continuous contours can be difficult to identify. In spite of this, the human visual system efficiently perceives the contours along the boundaries of occluding objects. In fact, optical illusions, such as the Kanizsa triangle, demonstrate that the human visual system can 'see' object boundaries even when spatial intensity contrasts are totally absent from an image. In searching for the mechanism that generates these 'subjective contours' neurological researchers have found that the 2D image on the retina is mapped onto Layer 4 of the primary visual cortex (V1) and that there are lateral connections within the 6 layers of V1 that might subserve contour completion. This paper builds on a previous model of the early visual system (including the retina, the LGN and the simple cells of V1) by adding lateral interconnections to demonstrate how these interconnections might provide contour completion. Images are presented to show how this model enhances the detection of continuous spatial contours, thus contributing to the segmentation of natural images.
Cesium-Beam Servo System Using Square-Wave Frequency Modulation

This paper describes a new modulation and servo system that is being tested in the NRC long-beam cesium-frequency standard. Square-wave frequency modulation is employed; it is introduced by switching between two separately generated frequencies. The synthesizer producing these frequencies and the problems caused by switching transients are described. Since in a laboratory standard systematic errors play a very important role these errors are discussed in the description of the servo system. The resulting systematic error as calculated from results of experiments on its components is less than 1 part in 1013.
Incentive-Compatible Experimental Design

We consider the design of experiments to evaluate treatments that are administered by self-interested agents, each seeking to achieve the highest evaluation and win the experiment. For example, in an advertising experiment, a company wishes to evaluate two marketing agents in terms of their efficacy in viral marketing, and assign a contract to the winner agent. Contrary to traditional experimental design, this problem has two new implications. First, the experiment induces a game among agents, where each agent can select from multiple versions of the treatment it administers. Second, the action of one agent -- selection of treatment version -- may affect the actions of another agent, with the resulting strategic interference complicating the evaluation of agents. An incentive-compatible experiment design is one with an equilibrium where each agent selects its natural action, which is the action that maximizes the performance of the agent without competition (e.g., expected number of conversions if agent is assigned the advertising contract). Under a general formulation of block experiment designs, we identify sufficient conditions that guarantee incentive-compatible experiments.These conditions rely on the existence of statistics that can estimate how agents would perform without competition,and their use in constructing score functions to evaluate the agents. In the setting with no strategic interference, we also study the power of the design, i.e., the probability that the best agent wins, and show how to improve the power of incentive-compatible designs.From the technical side, our theory uses a range of statistical methods such as hypothesis testing, variance-stabilizing transformations and the Delta method, all of which rely on asymptotics.
VORTEX MOTION DRIVEN BY A BACKGROUND VORTICITY GRADIENT

The motion of self-trapped vortices on a background vorticity gradient is examined numerically and analytically. The vortices act to level the local background vorticity gradient. Conservation of momentum dictates that positive vortices (``clumps'') and negative vortices (``holes'') react oppositely: clumps move up the gradient, whereas holes move down the gradient. A linear analysis gives the trajectory of small clumps and holes that rotate against the local shear. Prograde clumps and holes are always nonlinear, and move along the gradient at a slower rate. This rate vanishes when the background shear is sufficiently large.
Extended lifetime biofuel cells

Over the last 40 years, researchers have been studying and improving enzymatic biofuel cells, but until the last five years, the technology was plagued by short active lifetimes (typically 8 hours to 7 days) that prohibited the commercial use of this technology. This tutorial review introduces the topic of enzymatic biofuel cells and discusses the recent work done to stabilize and immobilize enzymes at bioanodes and biocathodes of biofuel cells. This review covers a wide variety of fuel systems from sugar to alcohols and covers both direct electron transfer (DET) systems and mediated electron transfer (MET) systems.
Why Evolved Cognition Matters to Understanding Cultural Cognitive Variations

There is great intellectual substance in Geoffrey Lloyd™s musings on the nuances of cognitive styles (Lloyd 2007) and a great many mischievous challenges to our entrenched assumptions too, as we have come to expect from such an impeccable yet unconventional scholar. Rather than discuss Lloyd™s latest contributions to our appreciation of Greek and Chinese world-views, it may be relevant here to focus on the general issue, of the possible contribution of recent scientific findings, in psychology or neuroscience or biology, to an understanding of the role of cognition in culture.Lloyd™s piece in this issue contains precious elements towards this under-standing. But it also seems to perpetuate a misleading description of the state of the art. As a correction to that picture, it may be important to stress that evolution does not usually result in innate cognitive structures, that more learning requires more, not less, genetically specific structure, that most cognitive processes are not accessible to conscious inspection and therefore also to ethnographic investigation. It may also be of help to emphasize differences between two kinds of mental events, intuitive and reflective, that are sometimes confused in anthropological discussions of cognition and culture. I suggest that a more accurate description may help dispel various misunderstandings, about the connections between evolution and cognition, between evolved cognition and cultural representations, and about the need or value of certain kinds of anthropological relativism.