cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Syntheses of functionalized β-lactams from tartaric acid

A totally chemical method has been developed to differentiate the hydroxyl and carboxyl groups of tartaric acid. Structural assignment of the resulting isomers has been unambiguously determined and the appropriate β-hydroxy-hydroxamate derivative has been converted cleanly to the corresponding β-lactam. Interestingly, the isomeric α-hydroxy-hydroxamate derivative could also be converted to the same β-lactam in modest yield
Effective field theory for dilute Fermi systems

Abstract The virtues of an effective field theory (EFT) approach to many-body problems are illustrated by deriving the expansion for the energy of an homogeneous, interacting Fermi gas at low density and zero temperature. A renormalization scheme based on dimensional regularization with minimal subtraction leads to a more transparent power-counting procedure and diagrammatic expansion than conventional many-body approaches. Coefficients of terms in the expansion with logarithms of the Fermi momentum are determined by the renormalization properties of the EFT that describes few-body scattering. Lessons for an EFT treatment of nuclear matter are discussed.
Unrest in Brazil: Political-Military Crises 1955-1964

* Introduction * Book I: The Election of 1955 * Book II: The Coups of November 1955 * Book III: Expressions of Discontent, 1956-1959 * Book IV: Janio * Book V: Goulart and the Parliamentary Regime * Book VI: Goulart and the Presidential Regime * Book VII: March 1964 * Book VIII: The Military Movement of 1964 * Epilogue * Appendix: Notes about the Electorate, the Legal Political Parties, and the Communist Party of Brazil * Sources of Material * Glossary * Index
Responses to open peer commentaries on "Global health justice and governance".

"Global Health Justice and Governance" received numerous comments. In this response, I emphasize the importance of interdependent co-production by diverse actors of the conditions for all to be healthy, the marriage of justice and technical capacity, the removal of politics from science, the need for shared values among global actors, the complementarity of health policies and other public policies, the value of caring principles in a global health ethic, and the role played by power relations in health policy. I also clarify some misconceptions regarding 'provincial globalism,' a middle-ground approach between nationalism and cosmopolitanism, and note the potential for applying the PG/SHG framework to regulatory challenges in synthetic biology.
Isomorphism and Embedding of Borel Systems on Full Sets

A Borel system consists of a measurable automorphism of a standard Borel space. We consider Borel embeddings and isomorphisms between such systems modulo null sets, i.e. sets which have measure zero for every invariant probability measure. For every t>0 we show that in this category, up to isomorphism, there exists a unique free Borel system (Y,S) which is strictly t-universal in the sense that all invariant measures on Y have entropy <t, and if (X,T) is another free system obeying the same entropy condition then X embeds into Y off a null set. One gets a strictly t-universal system from mixing shifts of finite type of entropy ?t by removing the periodic points and "restricting" to the part of the system of entropy <t. As a consequence, after removing their periodic points the systems in the following classes are completely classified by entropy up to Borel isomorphism off null sets: mixing shifts of finite type, mixing positive-recurrent countable state Markov chains, mixing sofic shifts, beta shifts, synchronized subshifts, and axiom-A diffeomorphisms. In particular any two equal-entropy systems from these classes are entropy conjugate in the sense of Buzzi, answering a question of Boyle, Buzzi and Gomez.
Transient thermal and dynamic stresses in strongback-design blankets

Abstract Transient thermal stresses are compared for strongback-design blankets that contain stainless steel, ferritic steel, or a vanadium alloy as structural material. Transient dynamic stresses due to plasma disruptions are computed on a parametric basis. Disruption loading characteristics, for which transient effects are important, are identified. Also explored are the relative merits of supporting the blanket at the top vs. the bottom from the standpoint of dynamic stresses.
Rotating Kaluza–Klein black holes

Abstract All regular four-dimensional black holes are constructed in the theory obtained by Kaluza–Klein reduction of five-dimensional Einstein gravity. They are interpreted in string theory as rotating bound states of D0- and D6-branes. Conservation of angular momentum is important for the stability of the bound states. The thermodynamics, the duality symmetries, and the near-horizon limit are explored.
Si-based benzylic 1,4-rearrangement/cyclization reaction.

The trans-selective hydrosilylation of ynones (1) yields β-silylated enones (2) that undergo a benzylic 1,4-rearrangement/cyclization reaction in the presence of base, yielding 2,5-dihydro-1,2-oxasiloles (3).
Power Outages, Power Externalities, and Baby Booms

Determining whether power outages have significant fertility effects is an important policy question in developing countries, where blackouts are common and modern forms of family planning are scarce. Using birth records from Zanzibar, this study shows that a month-long blackout in 2008 caused a significant increase in the number of births 8 to 10 months later. The increase was similar across villages that had electricity, regardless of the level of electrification; villages with no electricity connections saw no changes in birth numbers. The large fertility increase in communities with very low levels of electricity suggests that the outage affected the fertility of households not connected to the grid through some spillover effect. Whether the baby boom is likely to translate to a permanent increase in the population remains unclear, but this article highlights an important hidden consequence of power instability in developing countries. It also suggests that electricity imposes significant externality effects on rural populations that have little exposure to it.
On the Degree of Rivalry for Maximum Innovative Activity

Introduction, 245. — Model I — the framework, 250. — Model I — rivalry and speed of innovation, 253. — Model II — the framework. 255. — Model II — rivalry and speed of innovation, 256. — Summary and conclusions, 258. — Appendix, 259.
The unstable spectrum of the Navier–Stokes operator in the limit of vanishing viscosity

Abstract The Navier–Stokes equations for the motion of an incompressible fluid in three dimensions are considered. A partition of the evolution operator into high frequency and low frequency parts is derived. This decomposition is used to prove that the eigenvalues of the Navier–Stokes operator in the inviscid limit converge precisely to the eigenvalues of the Euler operator beyond the essential spectrum.
Mercury's core - The effect of obliquity on the spin-orbit constraints

Constraints were previously placed on various properties of a Mercurian liquid core for compatibility with Mercury's escape from the stable spin-orbit resonance with the spin angular velocity equal to twice the orbital mean motion (the 2n resonance), under the assumption that the planet's obliquity was nearly zero at the time of resonance passage. Capture probabilities at arbitrary nonzero obliquities for the 2n resonance are determined for the cases where the core is strongly or weakly coupled to the mantle. It is found that the capture probabilities are reduced to below unity for all core-fluid viscosities in the weak-coupling limit, but are almost unchanged in the strong-coupling limit. The reduction in capture probability is attributed to reduction of the mantle's spin angular velocity by the core-mantle interaction, which would also reduce the obliquity to negligibly small values before the 2n resonance was even reached. It is concluded that the constraints on the core may still be maintained since Mercury most likely passed through the 2n resonance with nearly zero obliquity.
Radiative precession of an isolated neutron star

Euler's equations of motion are derived exactly for a rigid, triaxial, internally frictionless neutron star spinning down electromagnetically in vacuo. It is shown that the star precesses, but not freely: its regular precession relative to the principal axes of inertia couples to the component of the radiation torque associated with the near-zone radiation fields and is modified into an anharmonic wobble. The wobble period τ1 typically satisfies τ1≲10^−2τ0, where τ0 is the braking time-scale; the wobble amplitude evolves towards a constant non-zero value, oscillates, or decreases to zero, depending on the degree of oblateness or prolateness of the star and its initial spin state; the (negative) angular frequency derivative ω˙ oscillates as well, exhibiting quasi-periodic spikes for triaxial stars of a particular figure. In light of these properties, a young, Crab-like pulsar ought to display fractional changes of order unity in the space of a few years in its pulse profile, magnetic inclination angle and ω˙. Such changes are not observed, implying that the wobble is damped rapidly by internal friction, if its amplitude is initially large upon crystallization of the stellar crust. If the friction is localized in the inner and outer crusts, the thermal luminosity of the neutron star increases by a minimum amount ΔL≈3×10^31(e/10^−12)(ω/10^3 rad s^−1)^2(τd/1 yr)^−1 erg s^−1, where e is the ellipticity, and τd is the damping time-scale, with the actual value of ΔL determined in part by the thermal conduction time τcond. The increased luminosity is potentially detectable as thermal X-rays lasting for a time ≈ max(τd,τcond) following crystallization of the crust.
Analyst Following and Market Liquidity

This paper investigates the relation between analyst characteristics (number of analysts following a firm and their forecast dispersion) and market liquidity characteristics (bid-ask spreads and depths and the adverse-selection component of the spread). Prior research has found contradictory results on the relation between analyst following and market liquidity and has offered differing theories on how analysts affect liquidity. While prior research has posited analysts as proxies for privately informed trade or as signals of information asymmetry, I hypothesize that analysts provide public information, implying that analyst following (forecast dispersion) should have a positive (negative) association with liquidity. Cross-sectional simultaneous estimations provide support for this hypothesis. The results are both statistically significant and economically important. Granger causality tests indicate that analyst characteristics lead market liquidity characteristics. These results clarify the role of analysts in providing information to financial markets and highlight benefits of increased analyst following.
LADDER, a sketching language for user interface developers

Sketch recognition systems are currently being developed for many domains, but can be time consuming to build if they are to handle the intricacies of each domain. In order to aid sketch-based user interface developers, we have developed tools to simplify the development of a new sketch recognition interface. We created LADDER, a language to describe how sketched diagrams in a domain are drawn, displayed, and edited. We then automatically transform LADDER structural descriptions into domain specific shape recognizers, editing recognizers, and shape exhibitors for use in conjunction with a domain independent sketch recognition system, creating a sketch recognition system for that domain. We have tested our framework by writing several domain descriptions and automatically generating a domain specific sketch recognition system from each description.
On improving the accuracy of the M2 barotropic tides embedded in a high-resolution global ocean circulation model

Abstract The ocean tidal velocity and elevation can be estimated concurrently with the ocean circulation by adding the astronomical tidal forcing, parameterized topographic internal wave drag, and self-attraction and loading to the general circulation physics. However, the accuracy of these tidal estimates does not yet match accuracies in the best data-assimilative barotropic tidal models. This paper investigates the application of an augmented state ensemble Kalman Filter (ASEnKF) to improve the accuracy of M2 barotropic tides embedded in a 1/12.5° three-dimensional ocean general circulation model. The ASEnKF is an alternative to the techniques typically used with linearized tide-only models; such techniques cannot be applied to the embedded tides in a nonlinear eddying circulation. An extra term, meant to correct for errors in the tide model due to imperfectly known topography and damping terms, is introduced into the tidal forcing. Ensembles of the model are created with stochastically generated forcing correction terms. The discrepancies for each ensemble member with TPXO, an existing data-assimilative tide model, are computed. The ASEnKF method yields an optimal estimate of the model forcing correction terms, that minimizes resultant root mean square (RMS) tidal sea surface elevation error with respect to TPXO, as well as an estimate of the tidal elevation. The deep-water, global area-averaged RMS sea surface elevation error of the principal lunar semidiurnal tide M2 is reduced from 4.4 cm in a best-case non-assimilative solution to 2.6 cm. The largest elevation errors in both the non-assimilative and ASEnKF solutions are in the North Atlantic, a highly resonant basin. Possible pathways for achieving further reductions in the RMS error are discussed.
Evaluation of a completely automated tissue-sectioning machine for paraffin blocks

Tissue-sectioning automation can be a resourceful tool in processing anatomical pathology specimens. The advantages of an automated system compared with traditional manual sectioning are the invariable thickness, uniform orientation and fewer tissue-sectioning artefacts. This short report presents the design of an automated tissue-sectioning device and compares the sectioned specimens with normal manual tissue sectioning performed by an experienced histology technician. The automated system was easy to use, safe and the sectioned material showed acceptable quality with well-preserved morphology and tissue antigenicity. It is expected that the turnaround time will be improved in the near future.
Spin-Statistics Connection for Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

The spin-statistics connection has been proved for nonrelativistic quantum mechanics (Jabs in Found Phys 40:776–792, 2010). The proof is extended here to the relativistic regime using the parametrized Dirac equation. A causality condition is not required.
Minsky's Money Manager Capitalism and the Global Financial Crisis

The world's worst economic crisis since the 1930s is now well into its fourth year. Minsky's work has enjoyed unprecedented interest, with many calling this a "Minsky moment" or "Minsky crisis" and locating the beginnings of the crisis in the 2000s. I argue that we should not view this as a "moment" that can be traced to recent developments. Rather, we have seen a slow realignment of the global financial system toward what Minsky called "money manager capitalism"—something like a return to prewar "finance capitalism" analyzed by Rudolf Hilferding, Thorstein Veblen, and John Maynard Keynes—and later by John Kenneth Galbraith. Getting out of this crisis will require radical policy changes no less significant than those adopted in the New Deal.
DIALECTIC IN PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY

Dialectic, as one of the methods of philosophy, is characterized by being prepositional, interrogative, controversial, and interminable. These notes suffice to distinguish dialectic from science, sophistic, rhetoric, and, generally, from intuitive and demonstrative knowledge. Each note also determines a function which dialectic fulfills in philosophical inquiry. The interrogative function is best seen in the consideration of principles and the formulation of problems. As prepositional and controversial, philosophy depends upon the history of philosophy and is engaged in a continuous controversy which, as interminable, is capable of progress as dialectic ensures and promotes a community of understanding.
Analysis and design of Si terahertz transit-time diodes

Abstract This paper presents a numerical simulation of a Si MITATT diode working in the submillimeter-wave and lower terahertz frequency range. A full band Monte Carlo simulation that included the microscopic details of carrier transport and a simpler drift-diffusion based model were used to investigate the diode DC, small-signal and large-signal properties of MITATT diodes operating between 200 and 300 GHz. Although the full band Monte Carlo simulation shows the effects of transient velocities and dead zones required by energy conservation during ionization, there is still a reasonable agreement between the two simulations. The results show that silicon based transit-time devices can produce significant power up to high submillimeter-wave frequencies. The paper will describe the simulation of transit-time devices at very high frequencies, compare results from a detailed physical Monte Carlo model with a numerically simpler drift–diffusion approach and describe device performance between 200 and 300 GHz.
A Multi-wavelength Study of the Host Environment of SMBHB 4C+37.11

4C+37.11, at z = 0.055, shows two compact radio nuclei, imaged by very long baseline interferometry at 7 mas separation, making it the closest known resolved supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB). An important question is whether this unique object is young and was caught on the way to a gravitational in-spiral and merger, or has "stalled" at 7 pc. We describe new radio/optical/X-ray observations of the massive host and its surrounding X-ray halo. These data reveal X-ray/optical channels following the radio outflow and large scale edges in the X-ray halo. These structures are promising targets for further study which should elucidate their relationship to the unique SMBHB core.
Supported lipid bilayer/carbon nanotube hybrids.

Carbon nanotube transistors combine molecular-scale dimensions with excellent electronic properties, offering unique opportunities for chemical and biological sensing. Here, we form supported lipid bilayers over single-walled carbon nanotube transistors. We first study the physical properties of the nanotube/supported lipid bilayer structure using fluorescence techniques. Whereas lipid molecules can diffuse freely across the nanotube, a membrane-bound protein (tetanus toxin) sees the nanotube as a barrier. Moreover, the size of the barrier depends on the diameter of the nanotube—with larger nanotubes presenting bigger obstacles to diffusion. We then demonstrate detection of protein binding (streptavidin) to the supported lipid bilayer using the nanotube transistor as a charge sensor. This system can be used as a platform to examine the interactions of single molecules with carbon nanotubes and has many potential applications for the study of molecular recognition and other biological processes occurring at cell membranes.
Detection of 1-100 keV x rays from high-intensity 500-fs laser-produced plasmas using charge-coupled devices

We describe a compact, vacuum compatible, large format, charge- coupled device (CCD) camera for scientific imaging and detection of 1- 100 keV x rays in experiments at LLNL JANUS-1ps laser. A standard, front-illuminated, multi-pin phase device with 250 k electron full well capacity, low dark current (10 pA/cm{sup 2} at 20 C) and low read noise (5 electron rms) is cooled to -35 C to give the camera excellent 15-bit dynamic range and signal-to-noise response. Intensity and x-ray energy linear response were determined for optical and x-ray (<65 keV) photons and are in excellent agreement. Departure from linearity was less than 0.7%. Inherent linearity and energy dispersive characteristics of CCD cameras are well suited for hard x-ray photon counting. X-rays absorbed within the depletion and field-free regions can be distinguished by studying the pulse height spectrum. Results are presented for the detection of 1-100 keV Bremsstrahlung continuum, K-shell and L-shell fluorescence spectra emitted from high intensity (10{sup 18}W cm{sup -2}), 500 fs laser- produced plasmas.
An algorithm for producing half-tone computer graphics presentations with shadows and movable light sources

In the years since the introduction of SKETCHPAD an increasing number of graphics systems for line drawing have been developed. Software packages are now available to do such things as picture definition, rotation and translation of picture data, and production of animated movies and microfilm. Automatic windowing, three-dimensional figures, depth cueing by intensity, and even stereo line drawing are now feasible and in some cases, available in hardware.
Improvement of the WENO scheme smoothness estimator

This paper has analyzed the weights of the 5th order WENO (weighted essentially non-oscillatory) scheme suggested by Jiang and Shu and a modifled smoothness estimator is suggested to improve the accuracy. Several numerical tests are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the new scheme.
Carbonate saturation state of surface waters in the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean: controls and implications for the onset of aragonite undersaturation

Abstract. Predicting when surface waters of the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean will become undersaturated with respect to biogenic carbonate minerals is challenging in part due to the lack of baseline high-resolution carbon system data. Here we present ~ 1700 surface total alkalinity measurements from the Ross Sea and along a transect between the Ross Sea and southern Chile from the austral autumn (February–March 2013). We calculate the saturation state of aragonite (ΩAr) and calcite (Ω Ca) using measured total alkalinity and pCO2. In the Ross Sea and south of the Polar Front, variability in carbonate saturation state (Ω) is mainly driven by algal photosynthesis. Freshwater dilution and calcification have minimal influence on Ω variability. We estimate an early spring surface water ΩAr value of ~ 1.2 for the Ross Sea using a total alkalinity–salinity relationship and historical pCO2 measurements. Our results suggest that the Ross Sea is not likely to become undersaturated with respect to aragonite until the year 2070.
Protein contact prediction by integrating joint evolutionary coupling analysis and supervised learning

Residue-residue contacts play an important role in maintaining the native fold of a protein and guiding protein folding. However, contact prediction from sequence is very challenging, as indicated by CASP10 [1], which shows that long-range contact prediction accuracy on hard targets is only ~20%.
Electrical Current in Sinai Billiards Under General Small Forces

The Lorentz gas of Z 2 -periodic scatterers (or the so called Sinai billiards) can be used to model motion of electrons on a metal. We investigate the linear response for the system under various external forces (during both the flight and the collision). We give some characterizations under which the forced system is time-reversible, and derive an estimate of the electrical current generated by the forced system. Moreover, applying Pesin entropy for- mula and Young dimension formula, we get several characterizations of the non-equilibrium steady state of the forced system.
Calculation approach validation for airblast atomizers

In order to formulate a common approach that could provide the spray parameters of airblast atomizers, various processes of liquid preparation, breakup and secondary atomization have been included in a semi-analytical calculation procedure. The air velocity components in the atomizer flow field are provided by mathematical expressions, and the spray droplets are considered to form at ligament breakup through a disturbance wave growth concept. The validation of the developed approach included the application to six atomizers that significantly varied in concept, design, and size. They represented both prefilming and plain-jet types, and their data utilized in the present effort were obtained with six different liquids. Satisfactory agreement between the measurements and the predictions has been achieved under wide ranges of air/fuel ratio and air pressure drop for various test liquids. The results of this investigation indicate the potential of using such an approach in the early phases of airblast atomizer design, and may be followed by more detailed calculations using analytical tools.Copyright © 1991 by ASME
Global liquidity and external bond issuance in emerging markets and developing economies

Using the universe of all externally issued bonds by corporates and sovereigns in emerging and developing economies during 2000-14, this paper analyzes various issuance trends, including the unprecedented post-crisis surge. The paper focuses on external issuance at the country-industry and individual bond levels and finds that global factors matter greatly for emerging and developing economies issuance. A decrease in U.S. expected equity market (or interest rate) volatility, U.S. corporate credit spreads, and U.S. interbank funding costs and an increase in the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet (i) raise the odds that the monthly issuance volume of a country-industry is above its historical average; (ii) decrease individual bond yields and spreads; and (iii) raise bond maturities, after controlling for country pull factors, bond characteristics (for example, type of issuer, industry, and riskiness). Additionally, we document support that the risk-taking channel of exchange rate appreciation also operates for external bond issuance. Moreover, while the paper finds that country pull factors affect the impact of global factors, it does not find consistent evidence for this across the board. This result suggests that, during loose global funding conditions, flows are mostly driven by push factors and do not systematically discriminate between emerging and developing economies. Taken together, the findings suggest that although issuers might be able to benefit from benign international funding conditions, the large issuance volumes, currency risks, and high exposure to global factors could pose external and domestic challenges for policy makers, particularly when global cycles reverse.
Overconfidence by Bayesian-Rational Agents

This paper derives two mechanisms through which Bayesian-rational individuals with differing priors will tend to be relatively overconfident about their estimates and predictions, in the sense of overestimating the precision of these estimates. The intuition behind one mechanism is slightly ironic: In trying to update optimally, Bayesian agents overweight information of which they overestimate the precision and underweight in the opposite case. This causes overall an overestimation of the precision of the final estimate, which tends to increase as agents get more data. This paper was accepted by Teck Ho, decision analysis.
Vanishing of cohomology over Gorenstein rings of small codimension

We prove that if M, N are finite modules over a Gorenstein local ring R of codimension at most 4, then the vanishing of Ext n R(M, N) for n >> 0 is equivalent to the vanishing of Ext n R(N, M) for n >> 0. Furthermore, if R has no embedded deformation, then such vanishing occurs if and only if M or N has finite projective dimension.
The difluorotoluene debate--a decade later.

2,4-Difluorotoluene is unusual among hydrofluorocarbons because it is shaped like the DNA base thymine. It was first synthesised as a nucleotide analogue and incorporated into DNA a decade ago. Although it is a nonpolar molecule, it was found to be replicated by DNA polymerase enzymes as if it were thymine. We concluded that replication of DNA base pairs can occur without Watson–Crick hydrogen bonds, and hypothesised that steric effects, rather than these hydrogen bonds, were the main arbiters of DNA replication fidelity. A debate was initiated then, with claims by some that the molecule is polar and forms hydrogen bonds with adenine, thus supporting the hydrogen bonding theory of DNA replication. Here we discuss the evolution of this debate, and reflect on the relevant data that have since come from hundreds of papers and dozens of laboratories. Although discussion on this topic continues, the steric hypothesis for DNA replication is now widely accepted among biochemists, and the changing paradigm has been reflected in textbooks.
Regularity for a singular conservation law

The main structure underlying the nonlinearity of conservation laws of gasdynamical type in two independent variables will be discussed at the hand of a canonical example describing also properties of water waves near shore. The ultimately singular nature of such laws is here the central issue and calls for an unusual formulation (Sect. 2). Attention is directed to the globally strong solutions, and an unusual regularization (Sect. 2) is employed to make them accessible, after illposedness is overcome (Sect. 3). The usual regularity theory is not normally sufficient for singular partial differential equations, and the necessary additional chapter on extensions to the singular locus is developed (Sect. 4) in detail for the canonical example. Criteria for the relation between regularized and strong solutions are discussed in Section 5 and used in Section 6 to characterize the class of solutions that are globally strong in the strictest sense.
Spin c {structures and homotopy equivalences

We show that a homotopy equivalence between manifolds induces a correspondence between their spin c {structures, even in the presence of 2{torsion. This is proved by generalizing spin c {structures to Poincar e complexes. A procedure is given for explicitly computing the correspondence under reasonable hypotheses.
Molecular dynamics simulations of polymers: methods for optimal FORTRAN programming

The structure of the general classical trajectory FORTRAN code is discussed for use in molecular dynamics simulations of polymer processes. Substantial reductions in the number of mathematical operations in the code are achieved by using statement functions, modifying the ususal chain rule derivatives, applying appropriate vector identities, and using closure relationships among the required derivatives of the potential.
A STUDY OF ACTOR AND ACTION SEMANTIC RETENTION IN VIDEO SUPERVOXEL SEGMENTATION

Existing methods in the semantic computer vision community seem unable to deal with the explosion and richness of modern, open-source and social video content. Although sophisticated methods such as object detection or bag-of-words models have been well studied, they typically operate on low level features and ultimately suffer from either scalability issues or a lack of semantic meaning. On the other hand, video supervoxel segmentation has recently been established and applied to large scale data processing, which potentially serves as an intermediate representation to high level video semantic extraction. The supervoxels are rich decompositions of the video content: they capture object shape and motion well. However, it is not yet known if the supervoxel segmentation retains the semantics of the underlying video content. In this paper, we conduct a systematic study of how well the actor and action semantics are retained in video supervoxel segmentation. Our study has human observers watching supervoxel segmentation videos and trying to discriminate both actor (human or animal) and action (one of eight everyday actions). We gather and analyze a large set of 640 human perceptions over 96 videos in 3 different supervoxel scales. Furthermore, we design a feature defined on supervoxel segmentation, called supervoxel shape context, which is inspired by the higher order processes in human perception. We conduct actor and action classification experiments with this new feature and compare to various traditional video features. Our ultimate findings suggest that a significant amount of semantics have been well retained in the video supervoxel segmentation and can be used for further video analysis.
Sex, Gender, and Decisions at the Family → Work Interface

What is the linkage between individuals’ sex and the interface between their work and family roles? The answer to this question is by no means straight-forward as gender roles, work roles, and family roles evolve. To address the question, we examine the influence of family-domain factors on work-domain decisions and their linkages to sex and gender. According to the logic of appropriateness, a theory of decision making, people develop and apply rules in decision-making situations that are consistent with their personal identities. We identify three broad types of decisions in the work domain — role entry, participation, and exit decisions — that may be influenced by factors in the family domain according to such rules. Next, we review the literature on the linkage between individuals’ sex and an example of each of these types of decisions: the role-entry decision about whether to start a business, the role-participation decision about the number of hours to devote to one’s job or business, and the role-exit decision about whether to quit a job. Our review suggests that (1) family-domain factors mediate effects of sex on work-domain decisions and (2) sex moderates relationships between family-domain factors and work-domain decisions. Based on the review, we offer a model of the linkages among sex, family-domain factors, and work-domain decisions that incorporates constructs from theories of the psychology of gender (femininity) and identity theories (family role salience). Finally, we offer guidelines for future theory and research to test and extend the model.
Interplanetary magnetic fields

Within the past four years, significant scientific progress has been possible as a result of improvements in observations of the interplanetary field. First, the range of radial distances over which observations are available has been greatly extended; measurements have been made as near the Sun as 0.3 AU and as far away as 8.5 AU. Second, the range of solar latitudes that have been studied by direct means has also been increased from 7 1/4 to 16°. Third, there have been many more opportunities to compare observations at two or more spacecraft including cases in which they are at widely separated locations.
Magnetoresistance due to domain walls in micron scale Fe wires with stripe domains

The magnetoresistance (MR) associated with domain boundaries has been investigated in microfabricated bcc Fe (0.65 to 20 /spl mu/m linewidth) wires with controlled stripe domains. Domain configurations have been characterized using MFM. MR measurements as a function of field angle, temperature and domain configuration are used to estimate MR contributions due to resistivity anisotropy and domain walls. Evidence is presented that domain boundaries enhance the conductivity in such microstructures over a broad range of temperatures (1.5 K to 80 K).
Catalytic Diastereoselective Petasis Reactions

The Petasis boronic acid Mannich reaction is a versatile multicomponent reaction of boronic acids, amines and aldehydes that generates highly functionalized α-amino acids and β-amino alcohols.[1] When enantiopure α-hydroxy aldehyde derivatives are used as the carbonyl component in the reaction, enantiopure β-amino alcohols are produced with exclusively anti diastereoselectivity.[2] This motif has proven useful in the synthesis of stereodefined, biologically active molecules including sialic acids,[3] iminocyclitols,[4] and pyrrolizidine alkaloids.[5] The characteristic of the diastereoselective boronic acid Mannich reaction that makes it valuable, namely its predictable sense of anti diastereoselectivity, is also its limitation as syn β-amino alcohols are unattainable under these conditions [Eq. 1].[6] Previous attempts to obtain syn β-amino alcohols via the Petasis reaction have been unsuccessful and underscore the difficulty in overriding the intrinsic selectivity of the reaction.[7] Herein, we report the first diastereoselective Petasis reaction catalyzed by chiral biphenols that enables the synthesis of anti and syn β-amino alcohols in pure form.
Recent Advances in Noble Metal Nanocatalysts for Suzuki and Heck Cross-Coupling Reactions

Since metal nanoparticles have a high surface-to-volume ratio and very active surface atoms, they are very attractive catalysts for a wide variety of organic and inorganic reactions, compared to bulk catalysts. Metal nanoparticles suspended in colloidal solutions and those adsorbed onto bulk supports have been used as catalysts for a wide variety of carbon-carbon bond formation reactions such as the Suzuki and Heck cross-coupling reactions. This review article highlights some of the latest advances in the application of noble metal nanoparticles as catalysts for these two industrially important classes of cross-coupling reactions. We will discuss several important advances in using metal nanocatalysts in Suzuki and Heck cross-coupling reactions such as investigations on the nanoparticle shape dependence on the catalytic activity, novel types of supported metal nanoparticles as nanocatalysts, and the use of bi-metallic, tri-metallic and multi-metallic nanoparticles as catalysts for the Suzuki and Heck cross-coupling reactions.
The Assignment of Workers to Jobs in an Economy with Coordination Frictions

This paper studies the assignment of heterogeneous workers to heterogeneous jobs. Owing to the anonymity of a large labor market, workers use mixed strategies when applying for jobs. This randomness generates coordination frictions. Two workers may apply for a particular job, whereas an identical job gets no applications. The model generates assortative matching, with a positive but imperfect correlation between matched workers’ and firms’ types. It predicts that a worker’s wage is increasing in her job’s productivity and a firm’s profit is increasing in its employees’ productivity. The model also yields a version of the welfare theorems.
A Combinatorial Model for the Teichmüller Metric

We study how the length and the twisting parameter of a curve change along a Teichmuller geodesic. We then use our results to provide a formula for the Teichmuller distance between two hyperbolic metrics on a surface, in terms of the combinatorial complexity of curves of bounded lengths in these two metrics.
Use of spermicide-coated condoms and other risk factors for urinary tract infection caused by Staphylococcus saprophyticus.

Background Staphylococcus saprophyticus is the second most common cause of urinary tract infection (UTI) in young women. Relatively little is known about risk factors for this infection including exposure to vaginal spermicides, which increases the risk of UTI caused by Escherichia coli . Patients and Methods We conducted a case-control study in a large health maintenance organization. Case patients were sexually active young women with acute UTIs caused by S saprophyticus identified from computerized laboratory files during 1990 to 1993. Population-based control patients were randomly selected from the organization's enrollment files. Exposures such as sexual activity and contraceptive practice were determined by interview. Results Of 1299 eligible women, 66% (96 case patients and 629 control patients) were interviewed. Case patients were more often unmarried and were more sexually active. Ninety-nine percent of case patients and 57% of control patients reported previous UTIs. Exposure to any type of condom during the previous year was reported by 53% of case patients and 31% of control patients. Exposure to spermicide-coated condoms during the previous month was associated with a higher risk of UTI (odds ratio [OR], 3.8; 95% confidence interval,1.4-10.3). The OR for exposure during the previous year ranged from 2.2 (95% confidence interval, 1.0-4.8) for less than once weekly to 6.05 (95% confidence interval, 2.2-16.6) for more than twice weekly. In multivariate analyses, younger age (OR, 0.97 per year), intercourse frequency (OR, 1.2 per weekly episode), prior UTI (OR, 3.3), and frequency of exposure to spermicide-coated condoms (OR, 8.4 for more than once weekly and 10.9 for more than twice weekly) were independent predictors of UTI. Among women exposed to spermicide-coated condoms, 74% of UTIs caused by S saprophyticus were attributable to this exposure. Conclusions Spermicide-coated condoms were associated with an increased risk of UTI caused by S saprophyticus . Because sexual activity and spermicide exposure are important risk factors for UTI caused by both S saprophyticus and E coli , it is likely that they share a similar pathogenesis.
Privacy and mechanism design

This paper is a survey of recent work at the intersection of mechanism design and privacy. The connection is a natural one, but its study has been jump-started in recent years by the advent of differential privacy, which provides a rigorous, quantitative way of reasoning about the costs that an agent might experience because of the loss of his privacy. Here, we survey several facets of this study, and differential privacy plays a role in more than one way. Of course, it provides us a basis for modeling agent costs for privacy, which is essential if we are to attempt mechanism design in a setting in which agents have preferences for privacy. It also provides a toolkit for controlling those costs. However, perhaps more surprisingly, it provides a powerful toolkit for controlling the stability of mechanisms in general, which yields a set of tools for designing novel mechanisms even in economic settings completely unrelated to privacy.
Algorithms for Leader Selection in Stochastically Forced Consensus Networks

We are interested in assigning a pre-specified number of nodes as leaders in order to minimize the mean-square deviation from consensus in stochastically forced networks. This problem arises in several applications including control of vehicular formations and localization in sensor networks. For networks with leaders subject to noise, we show that the Boolean constraints (which indicate whether a node is a leader) are the only source of nonconvexity. By relaxing these constraints to their convex hull we obtain a lower bound on the global optimal value. We also use a simple but efficient greedy algorithm to identify leaders and to compute an upper bound. For networks with leaders that perfectly follow their desired trajectories, we identify an additional source of nonconvexity in the form of a rank constraint. Removal of the rank constraint and relaxation of the Boolean constraints yields a semidefinite program for which we develop a customized algorithm well-suited for large networks. Several examples ranging from regular lattices to random graphs are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed algorithms.
Forecasting Volatility in the Presence of Limits to Arbitrage

In this article, we develop a novel model to forecast the volatility of S&P 500 futures returns by considering measures of limits to arbitrage. When arbitrageurs face constraints on their trading strategies, option prices can become disconnected from fundamentals, resulting in a distortion that reflects the limits to arbitrage. The corresponding market based implied volatility will therefore also contain these distortions. Our contributions are both conceptual and empirical. Conceptually, the limits to arbitrage framework can shed light on relative asset prices as exemplified by this particular study. Empirically, our volatility forecasting model explains 71% of the variation in realized volatility, a substantial improvement over a naive forecast based only on lagged realized volatility, which produces an R-super-2 of 53%. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 35:987–1002, 2015
AVO-sensitive semblance analysis for wide-azimuth data

Conventional semblance-based moveout analysis models prestack reflection data with events that have hyperbolic move-out and no amplitude variation with offset (AVO). Substantial amplitude variation and even phase change with offset do not significantly compromise the semblance operator. However, polarity reversal associated with a change in the sign of the reflection coefficient may cause conventional semblance to fail. An existing modification of the semblance operator that takes amplitude variations into account (so-called AK semblance) is limited to narrow-azimuth data and cannot handle nonhyperbolic moveout at large offsets. We employ a 3D nonhyperbolic moveout inversion algorithm to extend the AK semblance method to wide-azimuth data recorded on long spreads. To preserve velocity resolu-tion, the ratio K of the AVO gradient and intercept is kept constant within each semblance window. In the presence of azimuthal anisotropy, however, the parameter K has to be azimuthally dependent. Synthetic tests con...
Civic Awakening in the Jury Room: A Test of the Connection between Jury Deliberation and Political Participation

Deliberative democratic theory posits that civic discussion leads to increased involvement in public affairs. To test this claim, this study explored the link between jury deliberation and electoral participation. It was hypothesized that empanelled jurors who reach verdicts are more likely to vote in subsequent elections than empanelled jurors who fail to reach a verdict or even begin deliberations. Data collected in Thurston County, Washington, supported this hypothesis. Controlling for other trial features and past voting frequency, citizens who served on a criminal jury that reached a verdict were more likely to vote in subsequent elections than were those jurors who deadlocked, were dismissed during trial, or merely served as alternates.
Dynamics of Protoplanetary Disks

Protoplanetary disks are quasi-steady structures whose evolution and dispersal determine the environment for planet formation. I review the theory of protoplanetary disk evolution and its connection to observations. Substantial progress has been made in elucidating the physics of potential angular momentum transport processes—including self-gravity, magnetorotational instability, baroclinic instabilities, and magnetic braking—and in developing testable models for disk dispersal via photoevaporation. The relative importance of these processes depends upon the initial mass, size, and magnetization of the disk, and subsequently on its opacity, ionization state, and external irradiation. Disk dynamics is therefore coupled to star formation, pre-main-sequence stellar evolution, and dust coagulation during the early stages of planet formation and may vary dramatically from star to star. The importance of validating theoretical models is emphasized, with the key observations being those that probe disk structure...
Online Student Ratings: Will Students Respond?.

In this chapter, the author examines important issues related to online reporting of student survey results.
Have Americans' Attitudes Become More Polarized?—An Update*

Objective: I update the analysis of attitudinal polarization originally presented in DiMaggio, Evans and Bryson (DEB) (1996) by using newly available years of survey data. Method: Like DEB, I derive aggregate distributional parameters for social groups in each year of the surveys, and then regress the year of the surveys on each parameter. Results: As in DEB's original paper, there is little evidence of general polarization in attitudes between the early 1970s and today. However, while DEB found some evidence that polarization in the public may be the result of polarization in our political system, with the additional years of data this conclusion is inescapable. Conclusions: While political scientists have recently found polarization among our elected officials on economic issues, it seems clear that members of the public who are involved with politics are becoming polarized on moral issues. Political scientists should follow up on this research to see not only if elected officials are polarized on these issues, but the causal direction of the link between officials and the public.