cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Influence of socioeconomic status, wealth and financial empowerment on gender differences in health and healthcare utilization in later life: evidence from India.

Abstract Empirical studies from developed countries observe that women report worse health and higher healthcare utilization than men, but the health disadvantage diminishes with age; gender differences in self-rated health often vanish or are reversed in older ages. Comparable assessments of health during later life from developing countries are limited because of the lack of large-scale surveys that include older women. Our study attempts to address the shortage of developing country studies by examining gender differences in health and healthcare utilization among older adults in India. Both ordered and binary logit specifications were used to assess significant gender differences in subjective and objective health, and healthcare utilization after controlling for demographics, medical conditions, traditional indicators of socioeconomic status like education and income, and additional wealth indicators. The wealth indicators, measured by property ownership and economic independence, are regarded as financially empowering older adults to exercise greater control over their health and well-being. Data are drawn from a nationally representative decennial socioeconomic and health survey of 120,942 Indian households conducted during 1995–1996. The study sample comprises 34,086 older men and women aged ≥60 years. Our results indicate that older women report worse self-rated health, higher prevalence of disabilities, marginally lower chronic conditions, and lower healthcare utilization than men. The health disadvantage and lower utilization among women cannot be explained by demographics and the differential distribution of medical conditions. While successive controls for education, income, and property ownership narrows the gender gap in both health and healthcare utilization, significant differentials still persist. Upon controlling for economic independence, gender differentials disappear or are reversed, with older women having equal or better health than otherwise similar men. Financial empowerment might confer older women the health advantage reflected in developed societies by enhancing a woman's ability to undertake primary and secondary prevention during the life course.
Rapid assembly of tetrahydrodibenzofurans and tetrahydrocarbazoles from benzene and o-iodophenols and o-iodoanilines: reductive radical arylation of benzene in action

Abstract In the presence of catalytic benzeneselenol, generated in situ from diphenyl diselenide, tributyltin hydride brings about the radical addition of ortho-functionalized aryl iodides to benzene giving aryl cyclohexadienes. These may then be cyclized by means of standard electrophilic reagents. The use of o-methoxycarbamoyliodobenzene leads to a tetrahydrocarbazole, whereas o-iodobenzoic acid provides a tetrahydrodibenzopyranone. o-Iodophenols lead, overall, to tetrahydrodibenzofurans.
Adaptive Bilateral Filter for Sharpness Enhancement and Noise Removal

In this paper, we present the adaptive bilateral filter (ABF) for sharpness enhancement and noise removal. The ABF sharpens an image by increasing the slope of the edges without producing overshoot or undershoot. It is an approach to sharpness enhancement that is fundamentally different from the unsharp mask (USM). This new approach to slope restoration also differs significantly from previous slope restoration algorithms in that the ABF does not involve detection of edges or their orientation, or extraction of edge profiles. In the ABF, the edge slope is enhanced by transforming the histogram via a range filter with adaptive offset and width. The ABF is able to smooth the noise, while enhancing edges and textures in the image. The parameters of the ABF are optimized with a training procedure. ABF restored images are significantly sharper than those restored by the bilateral filter. Compared with an USM based sharpening method-the optimal unsharp mask (OUM), ABF restored edges are as sharp as those rendered by the OUM, but without the halo artifacts that appear in the OUM restored image. In terms of noise removal, ABF also outperforms the bilateral filter and the OUM. We demonstrate that ABF works well for both natural images and text images.
The Relative Valuation of Caps and Swaptions: Theory and Empirical Evidence

Although traded as distinct products, caps and swaptions are linked by noarbitrage relations through the correlation structure of interest rates. Using a string market model, we solve for the correlation matrix implied by swaptions and examine the relative valuation of caps and swaptions. We find that swaption prices are generated by four factors and that implied correlations are lower than historical correlations. Long-dated swaptions appear mispriced and there were major pricing distortions during the 1998 hedge-fund crisis. Cap prices periodically deviate significantly from the no-arbitrage values implied by the swaptions market. THE GROWTH IN INTEREST-RATE SWAPS during the past decade has led to the creation and rapid expansion of markets for two important types of swap-related derivatives: interest-rate caps and swaptions. These over-the-counter derivatives are widely used by many firms to manage their interest-rate risk exposure and collectively represent the largest class of fixed-income options in the financial markets. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association ~ISDA! estimates that the total notional amount of caps and swaptions outstanding at the end of 1997 was over $4.9 trillion, which was more than 300 times the $15 billion notional of all Chicago Board of Trade Treasury note and bond futures options combined. Caps and swaptions are generally traded as separate products in the financial markets, and the models used to value caps are typically different from those used to value swaptions. Furthermore, most Wall Street firms use a piecemeal approach in calibrating their models for caps and swaptions, making it difficult to evaluate whether these derivatives are fairly priced
A radiation hard dipole magnet coils using aluminum clad copper conductors

A C-type septum dipole magnet is located 600 mm downstream of the primary target in an external beam line of the AGS. Conventional use of fiberglass/epoxy electrical insulation for the magnet coils results in their failure after a relatively short running period; therefore, a radiation-hard insulation system is required. This is accomplished by replacing the existing copper conductor with a copper conductor having a thin aluminum skin which is anodized to provide the electrical insulation. Since the copper supports a current density of 59 A/mm/sup 2/, no reduction in cross-sectional area can be tolerated. Design considerations, manufacturing techniques, and the operating experience of a prototype dipole are presented. >
Sequential Copper-Catalyzed Vinylation/Cyclization: An Efficient Synthesis of Functionalized Oxazoles

A modular and practical synthesis of highly substituted oxazoles has been developed. The transformation consists of a sequential copper-catalyzed amidation of vinyl halides followed by cyclization promoted by iodine. A wide variety of functionalized oxazoles and polyazoles can be obtained in a selective manner from simple and easily accessible precursors.
Orbital Evolution of Planets Embedded in a Planetesimal Disk

The existence of the Oort comet cloud, the Kuiper belt, and plausible inefficiencies in planetary core formation all suggest that there was once a residual planetesimal disk of mass ~10–100 M⊕ in the vicinity of the giant planets following their formation. Since removal of this disk requires an exchange of orbital energy and angular momentum with the planets, significant planetary migration can ensue. The planet migration phenomenon is examined numerically by evolving the orbits of the giant planets while they are embedded in a planetesimal disk having a mass of MD = 10–200 M⊕. We find that Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune evolve radially outward as they scatter the planetesimals, while Jupiter's orbit shrinks as it ejects mass. Higher mass disks result in more rapid and extensive planet migration. If orbital expansion and resonance trapping by Neptune are invoked to explain the eccentricities of Pluto and its cohort of Kuiper belt objects at Neptune's 3:2 mean motion resonance, then our simulations suggest that a disk mass of order MD ~ 50 M⊕ is required to expand Neptune's orbit by Δa ~ 7 AU, in order to pump up Plutino eccentricities to e ~ 0.3. Such planet migration implies that the solar system was more compact in the past, with the initial Jupiter-Neptune separation having been smaller by about 30%. We discuss the fate of the remnants of the primordial planetesimal disk. We point out that most of the planetesimal disk beyond Neptune's 2:1 resonance should reside in nearly circular, low-inclination orbits, unless there are (or were) additional, unseen, distant perturbers. The planetesimal disk is also the source of the Oort cloud of comets. Using the results of our simulations together with a simple treatment of Oort cloud dynamics, we estimate that ~12 M⊕ of disk material was initially deposited in the Oort cloud, of which ~4 M⊕ will persist over the age of the solar system. The majority of these comets originated from the Saturn-Neptune region of the solar nebula.
Key topics in public water utility reform

Urban water supply services have traditionally been provided by state-owned water utilities. In the past decades, many governments have tried to turn state-owned water utilities into effective and viable organizations, with mixed success. Why have some public utilities become more efficient service providers, while others have not been able to break the vicious cycle of low performance and low cost recovery? This report presents a framework of attributes of well-functioning utilities and how they have introduced key institutional changes. It aims to help water and sanitation sector practitioners choose and apply public utility reform approaches. The report concludes that structural trends are altering the landscape in which water utilities operate and that these alterations offer opportunities for change. The major transition of most utilities in the past decades has not been from public to private operation, but from centralized to decentralized public provision. Fiscal squeeze has hit utilities hard: as public budgets decreased in the 1990s, infrastructure investments dropped disproportionally as governments have few discretionary spending categories. Under budgetary pressure, many public institutions have adopted new management tools, often borrowed from the private sector, to complement more traditional bureaucratic tools. Many countries have democratized, and an emerging civil society, including a consumer movement, has put pressure to deliver better services.
Private Monitoring and Communication in Cartels: Explaining Recent Collusive Practices*

Motivated by recent cartel practices, a stable collusive agreement is characterized when firms’ prices and quantities are private information. Conditions are derived whereby an equilibrium exists in which firms truthfully report their sales and then make transfers within the cartel based on these reports. The properties of this equilibrium fit well with the cartel agreements used in a number of markets including citric acid, lysine, and vitamins.
Grand corruption in utilities

This paper discusses mechanisms of grand corruption in private sector utility provision in developing countries. By the term "grand corruption," the authors abstract from the petty corruption that consumers experience - for example, when firms and individuals pay bribes to get water delivery or an electricity connection. The paper focuses on decisions made at the government level involving private sector management, ownership, and provision of utility services. Corruption at that level may influence the pace and nature of private sector involvement and competition in utilities, as well as the level and form of investments, subsidies, and prices. On the basis of a literature review and interviews with firms and regulating authorities in two countries, Tanzania and the Philippines, this paper discusses the levels and determinants of grand corruption in utilities. The paper concludes by discussing a research program to extend this knowledge through a cross-country survey instrument.
SELF-STABILIZING MASTER–SLAVE TOKEN CIRCULATION AND EFFICIENT SIZE-COMPUTATION IN A UNIDIRECTIONAL RING OF ARBITRARY SIZE

Self-stabilizing algorithms represent an extension of distributed algorithms in which nodes of the network have neither coordination, synchronization, nor initialization. We consider the model where there is one designated master node and all other nodes are anonymous and have constant space. Recently, Lee et al. obtained such an algorithm for determining the size of a unidirectional ring. We provide a new algorithm that converges much quicker. This algorithm exploits a token-circulation idea due to Afek and Brown. Disregarding the time for stabilization, our algorithm computes the size of the ring at the master node in O(n log n) time compared to O(n3) steps used in the algorithm by Lee et al. We have also shown that the master node, after determining the size of the ring, can compute the average of observations made at each node in O(n) rounds or O(n2) steps. It seems likely that one should be able to obtain master–slave algorithms for other problems in networks.
The Logic of State Failure: Learning from Late-Century Africa

In the last decades of the twentieth century, the rate of civil war and state failure in Africa rose precipitously. In an effort to comprehend the reasons for the rapid rise of political disorder, ...
Diasporas and Outsourcing: Evidence from oDesk and India

We examine the role of the Indian diaspora in the outsourcing of work to India. Our data are taken from oDesk, the world's largest online platform for outsourced contracts. Despite oDesk minimizing many of the frictions that diaspora connections have traditionally overcome, diaspora connections still matter on oDesk, with ethnic Indians substantially more likely to choose a worker in India. This higher placement is the result of a greater likelihood of choosing India for the initial contract and substantial path dependence in location choices. We further examine wage and performance outcomes of outsourcing as a function of ethnic connections. Our examination of potential rationales for the greater ethnic-based placement of contracts assesses taste-based preferences and information differences. This paper was accepted by Lee Fleming, entrepreneurship and innovation.
Privacy and security in teleradiology

Teleradiology is probably the most successful eHealth service available today. Its business model is based on the remote transmission of radiological images (e.g. X-ray and CT-images) over electronic networks, and on the interpretation of the transmitted images for diagnostic purpose. Two basic service models are commonly used teleradiology today. The most common approach is based on the message paradigm (off-line model), but more developed teleradiology systems are based on the interactive use of PACS/RIS systems. Modern teleradiology is also more and more cross-organisational or even cross-border service between service providers having different jurisdictions and security policies. This paper defines the requirements needed to make different teleradiology models trusted. Those requirements include a common security policy that covers all partners and entities, common security and privacy protection principles and requirements, controlled contracts between partners, and the use of security controls and tools that supporting the common security policy. The security and privacy protection of any teleradiology system must be planned in advance, and the necessary security and privacy enhancing tools should be selected (e.g. strong authentication, data encryption, non-repudiation services and audit-logs) based on the risk analysis and requirements set by the legislation. In any case the teleradiology system should fulfil ethical and regulatory requirements. Certification of the whole teleradiology service system including security and privacy is also proposed. In the future, teleradiology services will be an integrated part of pervasive eHealth. Security requirements for this environment including dynamic and context aware security services are also discussed in this paper.
Control-Oriented Order Reduction of Finite Element Model

In the dynamics modeling of a structure, finite element analysis employs reduction techniques, such as Guyan's reduction, that remove some of the insignificant physical coordinates, that is, degrees of freedom at a node point. Despite such reduction, the resultant model is still too large for control design. This warrants further reduction as is frequently done in control design by approximating a large dynamical system with a fewer number of state variables. A problem, however, arises because a model usually undergoes, before being reduced, some form of coordinate transformation that destroy the physical meanings of the states. To correct such a problem, we developed a method that expresses a reduced model in terms of a subset of the original states
International joint ventures: an integrated framework

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of issues that are involved in forming joint ventures (JVs) as well as subsequent operation of the venture.Design/methodology/approach – This paper looked at a wide range of literature on international joint ventures (IJVs) to analyze issues managers face during the formation and implementation of these ventures. This paper aims to provide not only avenues for further research in the area but also practical advice to managers in what they need to be aware of while deciding whether to enter an IJV.Findings – This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the literature with respect to IJVs. Issues with formation include such topics as trust, motives for formation, control issues, and culture. An integrated framework is suggested by the author to look at a diverse range of issues together. This paper takes the small pieces of the IJV literature and connects them into a big picture to make it easier for practitioners as well as acade...
The MSTAT-I: A new measure of an individual's tolerance for ambiguity.

This paper describes a new 22-item measure of an individual's tolerance for ambiguity. This new measure is based on a revised construct definition which more comprehensively addresses characteristics of ambiguous stimuli and individuals' reactions to perceived ambiguity. Reliability and convergent and discriminant validity evidence support the psychometric quality of this new measure.
ICJ Halts Antarctic Whaling – Japan Starts Again

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgment in Whaling in the Antarctic, a dispute brought by Australia against Japan, found that Japan had violated the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) moratoria on all commercial whaling and the use of factory ships to process whales, and also the prohibition on whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary. In the course of analyzing whether special permits issued by Japan qualified for the scientific whaling exemption under Article VIII ICRW, the Court benefited from a more robust scientific fact-finding process than at times in the past. The judgment emphasized the mutual obligations of this multilateral agreement by taking the view that the provisions of the ICRW’s scientific whaling exemptions are neither self-judging nor subject to a ‘margin of appreciation’ in favour of a state party claiming the exemption. The case was driven by conflicting attitudes towards commercial whaling, and also towards global common spaces. The ICJ’s decision and Japan’s response indicate the limits of the ICRW in resolving those differences.
Ring‐Expanding Carbonylation of Epoxides

This review summarizes the field of metal-catalyzed ring-expanding carbonylation of epoxides. Specifically, epoxide carbonylation to -, -, and -lactones is reviewed, in addition to epoxide carbonylation to succinic anhydrides, 1,3-oxazinane-2,4-diones and 1,3-oxathiolan-2-ones. For each reaction, the mechanism of catalysis and control of stereochemistry are discussed and the scope and limitations of the catalysts are considered. Experimental conditions and procedures are also presented. In addition, non-carbonylative routes preparing similar products are compared. Keywords: Carbonylation; carbon-carbon bond formation; carbon monoxide; catalysis; epoxide; lactone; ring-expansion; succinic anhydride
The roles of charge exchange and dissociation in spreading Saturn's neutral clouds

[1] Neutrals sourced directly from Enceladus's plumes are initially confined to a dense neutral torus in Enceladus's orbit around Saturn. This neutral torus is redistributed by charge exchange, impact/photodissociation, and neutral-neutral collisions to produce Saturn's neutral clouds. Here we consider the former processes in greater detail than in previous studies. In the case of dissociation, models have assumed that OH is produced with a single speed of 1 km s−1, whereas laboratory measurements suggest a range of speeds between 1 and 1.6 km s−1. We show that the high-speed case increases dissociation's range of influence from 9 to 15 RS. For charge exchange, we present a new modeling approach, where the ions are followed within a neutral background, whereas neutral cloud models are conventionally constructed from the neutrals' point of view. This approach allows us to comment on the significance of the ions' gyrophase at the moment charge exchange occurs. Accounting for gyrophase (1) has no consequence on the H2O cloud, (2) doubles the local density of OH at the orbit of Enceladus, and (3) decreases the oxygen densities at Enceladus's orbit by less than 10%. Finally, we consider velocity-dependent, as well as species-dependent cross sections and find that the oxygen cloud produced from charge exchange is spread out more than H2O, whereas the OH cloud is the most confined.
Mass transport regrowth of GaN for ohmic contacts to AlGaN/GaN

A novel selective area mass transport regrowth technique for n + -GaN, requiring no Ga or Si precursor, was developed for low resistivity contact formation to AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. Masked samples were reactive ion etched followed by a short anneal in NH 3 and H 2 at 1050-1080 °C. During annealing mass transport occurred from large open areas to mask edges and narrow mask openings. Autodoping from the SiO 2 mask provided n-type doping. After depositing Ti/Al/Ni/Au contacts, the contact resistance was measured to ∼0.3 Ω mm, showing a weak dependence on the annealing temperature. Devices with regrown contacts were fabricated, achieving a power density of 4.8 W/mm at 8 GHz. The technique provides a low-cost regrowth process, with applications in particular for high Al composition AlGaN/GaN devices.
Optimal Portfolio Choice and the Valuation of Illiquid Securities

Traditional models of portfolio choice assume that investors can continuously trade unlimited amounts of securities. In reality, investors face liquidity constraints. I analyze a model where investors are restricted to trading strategies that are of bounded variation. An investor facing this type of illiquidity behaves very differently from an unconstrained investor. A liquidity-constrained investor endogenously acts as if facing borrowing and short-selling constraints, and one may take riskier positions than in liquid markets. I solve for the shadow cost of illiquidity and show that large price discounts can be sustained in a rational model. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.
A Numerical Assessment of Cosmic-ray Energy Diffusion through Turbulent Media

How and where cosmic rays are produced, and how they diffuse through various turbulent media, represent fundamental problems in astrophysics with far-reaching implications, both in terms of our theoretical understanding of high-energy processes in the Milky Way and beyond, and the successful interpretation of space-based and ground based GeV and TeV observations. For example, recent and ongoing detections, e.g., by Fermi (in space) and HESS (in Namibia), of γ-rays produced in regions of dense molecular gas hold important clues for both processes. In this paper, we carry out a comprehensive numerical investigation of relativistic particle acceleration and transport through turbulent magnetized environments in order to derive broadly useful scaling laws for the energy diffusion coefficients.
A stability property of nonlinear sampled-data systems with slowly varying inputs

A stability analysis is presented that deals with the response of a nonlinear sampled-data system to a slowly varying exogenous input signal. The main result, similar to existing results for purely continuous-time and discrete-time systems, establishes that if the system possesses a manifold of exponentially stable constant operating points (equilibria) corresponding to constant values of the input signal, then an initial state close to this manifold and a slowly varying input signal yield a trajectory that remains close to the manifold. The analysis involves casting the sampled-data system as a continuous-time system with discrete jumps at the sampling instants.
Efficient continuous skyline computation

In a number of emerging streaming applications, the data values that are produced have an associated time interval for which they are valid. A useful computation over such streaming data is to produce a continuous and valid skyline summary. Previous work on skyline algorithms have only focused on evaluating skylines over static data sets, and there are no known algorithms for skyline computation in the continuous setting. In this paper, we introduce the continuous time-interval skyline operator, which continuously computes the current skyline over a data stream. We present a new algorithm called LookOut for evaluating such queries efficiently, and empirically demonstrate the scalability of this algorithm. In addition, we also examine the effect of the underlying spatial index structure when evaluating skylines. Whereas previous work on skyline computations have only considered using the R^*-tree index structure, we show that for skyline computations using an underlying quadtree has significant performance benefits over an R^*-tree index.
Limit surfaces of Riemann examples

The family of embedded, singly periodic minimal surfaces of Riemann have as limit-surfaces the helicoid, the catenoid, a single plane, or an infinite set of equally-spaced parallel planes.
Detecting magnetic fields in large-scale structure with radio polarization

We present our attempts to detect magnetic fields in filamentary large-scale structure (LSS) by observing polarized synchrotron emission emitted by structure formation shocks. Little is known about the strength and order of magnetic fields beyond the largest clusters of galaxies, and synchrotron emission holds enormous promise as a means of probing magnetic fields in these low density regions. We report on observations taken at the Green Bank Telescope which reveal a possible Mpc extension to the Coma cluster relic. We also highlight the major obstacle that diffuse galactic foreground emission poses for any search for large-scale, low surface-brightness extragalactic emission. Finally we explore cross-correlation of diffuse radio emission with optical tracers of LSS as a means to statistically detecting magnetic fields in the presence of this confounding foreground emission.
Learning probabilistic relational planning rules

To learn to behave in highly complex domains, agents must represent and learn compact models of the world dynamics. In this paper, we present an algorithm for learning probabilistic STRIPS-like planning operators from examples. We demonstrate the effective learning of rule-based operators for a wide range of traditional planning domains.
The semiclassical structure of low-energy states in the presence of a magnetic field

We consider a compact Riemannian manifold with a Hermitian line bundle whose curvature is non-degenerate. The Laplacian acting on high tensor powers (the semiclassical regime) of the bundle exhibits a cluster of low-energy states. We demonstrate that the orthogonal projectors onto these states are the Fourier components of an operator with the structure of the Szego projector, i.e. a Fourier integral operator of Hermite type. This result yields semiclassical asymptotics for the low-energy eigenstates.
Synthesis of asynchronous circuits for stuck-at and robust path delay fault testability

In this paper, we present methods for synthesizing multilevel asynchronous circuits to be both hazard free and completely testable. Making an asynchronous two-level circuit hazard free usually requires the introduction of either redundant or nonprime cubes or both. This adversely affects the circuit's testability. However, using extra inputs, which is seldom necessary, and a synthesis-for-testability method, we convert the two-level circuit into a multilevel circuit that is completely testable. To avoid the addition of extra inputs as much as possible, we introduce new exact minimization algorithms for hazard-free two-level logic where we first minimize the number of redundant cubes and then minimize the number of nonprime cubes. We target both the stuck-at and robust path delay fault models using similar methods. However, the area overhead for the latter may be slightly higher than for the former.
Organizational philosophy and the computer center

The computer has been so widely accepted as a tool of management that there is no longer any debate about its ability to serve the needs of management. But, unfortunately, the introduction of a computer does not in itself guarantee increased effectiveness, efficiencies or profits for the firm. Rather, the computer must be viewed as still another management resource from which certain benefits can be extracted but these advantages do not automatically result from installation of the device. Even in view of this fact, the number of computers being used in business continues to increase at a rapid rate, how rapid being dependent upon which set of projections one chooses to believe. Today, the question is not should a computer be used, but rather how management can best use the computer to serve its needs.
Estimating the Consequences of Unintended Fertility for Child Health and Education in Romania: An Analysis Using Twins Data*

We use the natural experiment of twins at first birth to estimate the effects of unplanned fertility on the nutritional status and school enrolment of children in Romania, a country with a unique fertility history. A first‐birth twins shock has negative impacts on children's human capital investments, particularly for later‐born siblings. We infer that harsh pronatalist policies prior to the 1989 Revolution had adverse consequences for the human capital of Romanian children, and that policies to make fertility control easier will have significant positive impacts on children's health and schooling.
Modern Liberalism, Female Circumcision, and the Rationality of Traditions

Tolerance is at the heart of Western liberalism, permitting mutually exclusive ideas and practices to coexist peacefully with one another, without the proponents of the differing ideas and practices killing one another. Yet, nothing challenges tolerance like the practice of sunna, female circumcision, clitorectomy, or genital mutilation. In this essay, I critique the Western critics of the practices, not in order to defend these practices, but rather to show that Western liberalism itself does not offer transcultural and transtemporal principles, for these principles only cohere within the tradition of liberalism. The Western critique of sunna often maps onto the bodies of African women Western symbolic notions of sexual and political freedom, as symbolized in the clitoris. The practices of sunna cohere within the web of beliefs, the tradition, of those who practice them and, thus, are rationally justified within those traditions. I offer Alasdair MacIntyre's notion of moral inquiry as a guide through the complex world of cultural and moral dialogue between differing traditions.
Maximum penalized quasi-likelihood estimation of the diffusion function

We develop a maximum penalized quasi-likelihood estimator for estimating in a non-parametric way the diffusion function of a diffusion process, as an alternative to more traditional kernel-based estimators. After developing a numerical scheme for computing the maximizer of the penalized maximum quasi-likelihood function, we study the asymptotic properties of our estimator by way of simulation. Under the assumption that overnight London Interbank Offered Rates (LIBOR), the USD/EUR, USD/GBP, JPY/USD, and EUR/USD nominal exchange rates, and the 1-month, 3-month Treasury bill yields, and 30-year Treasury bond yields are generated by diffusion processes, we use our numerical scheme to estimate the diffusion function.
A space marching inversion algorithm for pulsed borehole radar in the time-domain

An iterative algorithm is developed to reconstruct the image of formation conductivity surrounding a borehole using time-domain data. The forward modeling employed in the algorithm is derived from the transmission line matrix (TLM) method, which is used to simulate electromagnetic waves propagating in formations with two-dimensional variations in cylindrical coordinates. A new structure of a transmission line mode is used to simulate a coil-type transmitter antenna in a borehole. Since the inversion algorithm proceeds iteratively and the part of the formation involved in the inversion marches in space step by step, no optimization is necessary, and problems caused by optimization procedure such as inverting large-scale matrix and computation of Jacobian matrix numerically, are avoided. This method is especially useful in cases where the analytic gradient is not available. The inversion algorithm is tested in formations having both one- and two-dimensional conductivity variations with coil-type transmitters. Investigation depth and resolution for noise-free cases are also discussed. >
Estimating the costs of REDD at the country level

Individual countries considering participating in a Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) mechanism need information on what it would cost them to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and how to actually deliver those emissions reductions. Estimates of global average costs provide very little guidance in this regard. This paper aims to do two things. First, it tries to clarify some very important conceptual issues. What exactly are we asking when we ask what the 'cost' of REDD is? What kinds of costs should be included? Second, it tries to highlight some of the issues involved in properly estimating the costs of REDD. Such estimates would help them to assess issues such as (i) how many emission reductions they might potentially be able to 'sell' to a REDD mechanism at given prices; (ii) how much the country would benefit from such sales; (iii) how they might be able to actually reduce deforestation so as to generate these emissions reductions; (iv) how the costs and benefits of REDD would be distributed among different groups within the country; (v) what the budgetary implications would be for government agencies.
Formal Theoretical Foundation of Electrical Aging of Dielectrics

Based on the rate theory of chemical reactions, a quantitative mathematical model of electrical aging of dielectrics is established. The empirical aging law Vn t=C and associated Weibull failure distributions for a constant voltage test are demonstrated to be approximations of the exact formulas derived. The meaning of constants n and C is explained. New parameters controlling the rate of aging are identified and shown to be the material constants, independent of the test voltage or time. Generalization of the aging law for an arbitrary test voltage profile is outlined. The life characteristics, dielectric strength degradation curves and Weibull distributions for constant and linearly rising test voltages are described in detail.
Axions from string decay

We have studied numerically the evolution and decay of axion strings. These global defects decay mainly by axion emission and thus contribute to the cosmological axion energy density. The relative importance of this source relative to misalignment production of axions depends on the spectrum. Radiation spectra for various string loop configurations are presented. They support the contention that the string decay contribution is of the same order of magnitude as the contribution from misalignment.
Fuel-optimal trajectories for aeroassisted coplanar orbital transfer problem

The optimal control problem arising in coplanar, orbital transfer employing aeroassist technology is addressed. The maneuver involves the transfer from high Earth orbit to low Earth orbit by means of the atmosphere with the object of minimizing the total fuel consumption. Simulations are carried out to obtain the fuel-optimal trajectories for flying the spacecraft through the atmosphere. A highlight is the application of an efficient multiple-shooting method for treating the nonlinear, two-point boundary value problem resulting from the optimization procedure. The strategy for the atmospheric portion of the minimum-fuel transfer is to fly at the maximum lift-to-drag ratio L/D initially in order to recover from the downward plunge, and then to fly at a negative L/D to level off the flight so that the vehicle skips out of the atmosphere with a flight path angle near zero degrees. >
Online learning control by association and reinforcement

This paper focuses on a systematic treatment for developing a generic online learning control system based on the fundamental principle of reinforcement learning or more specifically neural dynamic programming. This online learning system improves its performance over time in two aspects: 1) it learns from its own mistakes through the reinforcement signal from the external environment and tries to reinforce its action to improve future performance; and 2) system states associated with the positive reinforcement is memorized through a network learning process where in the future, similar states will be more positively associated with a control action leading to a positive reinforcement. A successful candidate of online learning control design is introduced. Real-time learning algorithms is derived for individual components in the learning system. Some analytical insight is provided to give guidelines on the learning process took place in each module of the online learning control system.
Can we know God is real

This article focuses on whether Christian faith has the status of knowledge or is something less than that. I argue that it is, indeed, knowledge whenever some significant cluster of Christian beliefs is experienced as self-evident and that cluster includes or presupposes God’s reality. Whenever that happens those beliefs are justified and so count as knowledge, not blind trust. This conclusion is not, however, presented as a proof of God’s existence. In fact, I argue that God’s existence cannot be proven – though it can be known. Nor am I assuming that knowledge must be defined as justified true belief. I take knowledge to be justified belief, and argue here that the experience of a belief’s self-evidence counts as justification.
CoMFA 3D-QSAR analysis of HIV-1 RT nonnucleoside inhibitors, TIBO derivatives based on docking conformation and alignment.

HIV-1 RT is one of the key enzymes in the duplication of HIV-1. Inhibitors of HIV-1 RT are classified as nonnucleoside RT inhibitors (NNRTIs) and nucleoside analogues. NNRTIs bind in a region not associated with the active site of the enzyme. Within the NNRTI category, there is a set of inhibitors commonly referred to as TIBO inhibitors. Fifty TIBO inhibitors were used in the work to build 3-D QSAR models. The two known crystal structures of complexes are used to investigate and validate the docking protocol. The results show that the docking simulations reproduce the crystal complexes very well with RMSDs of ∼1 A and ∼0.6 A for 1REV and 1COU, respectively. The alignment of molecules and “active” conformation selection are the key to a successful 3D-QSAR model by CoMFA. The flexible docking (Autodock3) was used on determination of “active” conformation and molecular alignment, and CoMFA and CoMSIA were used to develop 3D-QSAR models of 50 TIBOs in the work. The 3D-QSAR models demonstrate a good ability to...
ANALYTIC INVARIANTS OF BOUNDARY LINKS

Using basic topology and linear algebra, we define a plethora of invariants of boundary links whose values are power series with noncommuting variables. These turn out to be useful and elementary reformulations of an invariant originally defined by M. Farber [Fa2].
Routing and capacity assignment in a network with different classes of messages

A mathematical model is presented for the problem of jointly assigning routes to the communicating pairs of nodes and capacities to the links in a packet-switched network. It is assumed that several classes of flow are using the network, different service requirements and message characteristics being associated with each class. An algorithm that generates good feasible solutions to the model, together with tight lower bounds on the value of the objective function, is presented. Results of numerical experiments using several network topologies are reported. >
Synthesis and stability of S-cyanoethyl-protected 4-thiouridine and 2′-deoxy-4-thiouridine

Abstract A convenient preparation of S-(2-cyanoethyl) protected 2′-deoxy-4-thiouridine (5a) and 4-thiouridine (5b) is presented. The S-cyanoethyl protecting group is stable to reagents commonly encountered during the phosphoramidite method of solid-phase oligonucleotide synthesis, and is readily deprotected using concentrated NH4OH at 25°C.
Three-Dimensional Gas Turbine Combustor Emissions Modeling

An emission model that combines the analytical capabilities of three-dimensional combustor performance codes with mathematical expressions based on detailed chemical kinetic scheme is formulated. The expressions provide the trends of formation and/or the consumption of Nox , CO, and UHC in various regions of the combustor utilizing the details of the flow and combustion characteristics given by the three-dimensional analysis. By this means, the optimization of the combustor design to minimize pollutant formation and maintain satisfactory stability and performance could be achieved. The developed model was used to calculate the emissions produced by several engine combustors that varied significantly in design and concept, and operated on both conventional and high-density fuels. The calculated emissions agreed well with the measurements. The model also provided insight into the regions in the combustor where excessive emissions were formed, and helped to understand the influence of the combustor details and air admissions arrangement on reaction rates and pollutant concentrations.
Manipulation through political endorsements

Abstract We study elections with three candidates under plurality voting. A candidate is a Condorcet loser if the majority of the voters place that candidate at the bottom of their preference rankings. We first show that a Condorcet loser might win the election in a three-way race. Next we introduce to the model an endorser who has private information about the true probability distribution of the preferences of the voters. Observable endorsements facilitate coordination among voters who may otherwise split their votes and lead to the victory of the Condorcet loser. When the endorser has an ideological bias towards one of the candidates, the coordination impact of endorsements remains unaltered, moreover the endorser successfully manipulates the outcome of the election in favor of his bias, even if his ideological bias is known by the voters. The results are true for any endorsement cost and any magnitude of bias as long as the electorate is large enough.
Isotropic-Nematic Transition in Liquid-Crystalline Elastomers

In liquid-crystalline elastomers, the nematic order parameter and the induced strain vary smoothly across the isotropic-nematic transition, without the expected first-order discontinuity. To investigate this smooth variation, we measure the strain as a function of temperature over a range of applied stress, for elastomers cross-linked in the nematic and isotropic phases, and analyze the results using a variation on Landau theory. This analysis shows that the smooth variation arises from quenched disorder in the elastomer, combined with the effects of applied stress and internal stress.
Direct Conversion of Coal and Coal-Derived Carbon in Fuel Cells

A direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC) using a carbon-rich derivative of coal would maximize the conversion efficiency of this vast energy resource by avoiding the efficiency limitations of heat engines. A total conversion efficiency of 80% (based on heat of combustion of carbon) has been achieved at 30–120 mA/cm2 using carbon materials extracted from coal and other fossil resources. High experimental efficiency is grounded in two favorable aspects of the reaction thermodynamics. The net fuel cell reaction (C + O2 = CO2 ) has a nearly zero entropy change and therefore a theoretical efficiency of 100%. The fixed chemical potentials of carbon reactant and CO2 product make possible the full utilization of fuel in a single pass through the cell. The pure CO2 product can be used directly in enhanced oil and gas recovery, or sequestered. Historically, the development of carbon fuel cells have been limited by low anode rates, accumulation of impurities in the electrolyte, logistics of refueling, and lack of suitable cathodes. These problems are being addressed by recent developments of highly reactive carbon materials, low-cost techniques for separation of coal from ash, the possibility of pneumatic distribution of solid particulate fuel to the cells, and availability of cathodes from the molten carbonate fuel cell technology. Rate depends on atomic scale disorder and accessibility of reactive sites, but not on purity. Sources of suitable anode fuel include thermally decomposed products of (1) mechanical and chemical coal/ash separation or (2) solvent extraction. With current understanding of the cell basics, the next steps are demonstration of an engineering scale fuel cell stack (∼1 kW), supported by development of coal-to-carbon processes and techniques of electrolyte management. Successful development of a direct conversion fuel cell for coal (or coal-derived carbon) has extraordinary implications in extending the energy reserves of coal-producing nations, easing the control of regulated emissions at the plant, and expanding the use the earth’s greatest fossil resource while decreasing emissions of greenhouse gas.© 2004 ASME
The Consequences of Economic Globalization for Affluent Democracies

AbstractIn recent decades, economic globalization has grown significantly in affluent democracies. Taking this as a point of departure, we review social science research on the consequences of economic globalization for the state, the economy, and civil society. We advocate for a concrete position of empirical scrutiny, between the grand theorists and earlier empirical skeptics, and measure economic globalization as the heightening of international trade and investment. Social scientists have engaged in lively debates surrounding such topics as how globalization affects the welfare state, politics, deindustrialization, inequality, and organized labor. Among the themes that emerge from these debates are the distinct values of within- and between-country comparisons and the need for a stronger connection between theoretical accounts of globalization and empirical analyses. At the same time, many aspects of social life have been neglected by recent research on globalization. Throughout, we gauge current cons...