cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Simulation of long-term landscape-level fuel treatment effects on large wildfires

A simulation system was developed to explore how fuel treatments placed in topologically random and optimal spatial patterns affect the growth and behaviour of large fires when implemented at different rates over the course of five decades. The system consisted of a forest and fuel dynamics simulation module (Forest Vegetation Simulator, FVS), logic for deriving fuel model dynamics from FVS output, a spatial fuel treatment optimisation program, and a spatial fire growth and behaviour model to evaluate the performance of the treatments in modifying large fire growth. Simulations were performed for three study areas: Sanders County in western Montana, the Stanislaus National Forest in California, and the Blue Mountains in south-eastern Washington. For different spatial treatment strategies, the results illustrated that the rate of fuel treatment (percentage of land area treated per decade) competes against the rates of fuel recovery to determine how fuel treatments contribute to multidecade cumulative impacts on the response variables. Using fuel treatment prescriptions that simulate thinning and prescribed burning, fuel treatment arrangements that are optimal in disrupting the growth of large fires require at least 1 to 2% of the landscape to be treated each year. Randomly arranged units with the same treatment prescriptions require about twice that rate to produce the same fire growth reduction. The results also show that the topological fuel treatment optimisation tends to balance maintenance of previous units with treatment of new units. For example, with 2% landscape treatment annually, fewer than 5% of the units received three or more treatments in five decades with most being treated only once or twice and ~35% remaining untreated after five decades.
Unsaturated nitriles: stereoselective MgO eliminations.

α,β-Unsaturated nitriles are readily synthesized by eliminating MgO from β-hydroxynitriles. Deprotonating acyclic, and cyclic, β-hydroxynitriles with excess MeMgCl smoothly generates dianion intermediates that eject MgO with concurrent formation of α,β-unsaturated nitriles. Alternatively, sequential addition of lithioacetonitrile and MgBr2 to aldehydes and ketones generates magnesium alkoxides in situ that eliminate MgO upon addition of MeMgCl. The MeMgCl-induced MgO eliminations smoothly generate α,β-unsaturated nitriles from hindered ketones that are otherwise difficult to synthesize.
Trends and Issues in the Dissemination of Child Development and Early Education Knowledge

SUMMARY. The ideas presented in this paper draw on the author's 25 years experience as Director of the ERIC Clearing House on Elementary and Early Childhood Education (ERIC/EECE), and the responsibility for disseminating the information from this vast document collection to teachers, parents and others in the field. The paper discusses current trends in the environment to which the dissemination of child development and early education knowledge is directed. It considers ways in which practitioners receive and use new information and research findings, and particularly the culture gap between scientist/researcher and clinician/practitioner, and considers the implications of this for those who disseminate this information.
[3+2]-Cycloaddition reactions of alkynyl(phenyl)iodonium triflates with ethyl diazoacetate, N-t-butyl-α-phenyl nitrone and t-butylnitrileoxide as 1,3-dipoles

Abstract The [3+2]-cycloaddition of various β-substituted ethynyliodonium salts, RCCl + O − Tf, with ethyl diazoacetate, N-t-butyl-α-phenyl nitrone and t-butylnitrile oxide results in single regioisomeric pyrroles, dihydroisoxazoles, and isoxazoles respectively in moderate yields.
Confidence intervals for regression (MEM) spectral estimates

The probability density and confidence intervals for the maximum entropy (or regression) method (MEM) of spectral estimation are derived using a Wishart model for the estimated covariance. It is found that the density for the estimated transfer function of the regression filter may be interpreted as a generalization of the student's t distribution. Asymptotic expressions are derived which are the same as those of Akaike. These expressions allow a direct comparison between the performance of the maximum entropy (regression) and maximum likelihood methods under these asymptotic conditions. Confidence intervals are calculated for an example consisting of several closely space tones in a background of white noise. These intervals are compared with those for the maximum likelihood method (MLM). It is demonstrated that, although the MEM has higher peak to background ratios than the MLM, the confidence intervals are correspondingly larger. Generalizations are introduced for frequency wavenumber spectral estimation and for the joint density at different frequencies.
The liquid carbon challenge: evolving views on transportation fuels and climate

Carbon-based liquid fuels are highly valued for transportation; they are the world’s largest form of commercial energy and second largest source of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Strategies to address their CO2 emissions have been shaped by fuel cycle analysis (FCA), a version of lifecycle assessment that examines fuel products and their supply chains. FCA studies have diverse findings and large uncertainties. Disagreements are particularly sharp for biofuels, which are seen as key replacements for petroleum fuels. A critical reading of the evolving literature reveals problems of model structure, including system boundary misspecification, flawed carbon cycle representation, and use of a static framework to analyze dynamic systems. New analytic paradigms are needed for liquid fuels, given their tradability, the realities of the carbon cycle, and the implausibility of capturing carbon from mobile sources. Logical decomposition of options shows that, beyond measures to limit fuel demand, CO 2 emissions from liquid fuels must be balanced by increasing the rate of net carbon fixation. Further analysis and discussion are needed of carbon accounting methods, energy research priorities, ways to link CO 2 removal options to fuel-related mitigation efforts, and the transportation elements of climate policy. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. How to cite this article:
Modeling distributed energy resource dynamics on the transmission system

As distributed energy resource (DER) projects grow in popularity, there has been little focus on their potential to influence the dynamic stability of a transmission system. If implemented in large enough numbers, DER equipment may feasibly be leveraged to provide ancillary services such as spinning reserve, system inertia, or system stabilization. To determine the potential impacts of DER on future transmission grid stability, dynamic models of DER load combinations were created, reduced in order, and scattered throughout Central and Southern California within an existing Western Systems Coordinating Council (WSCC) dynamic model. Evaluation of the composite WSCC-DER dynamic model allows correlations to be drawn between various DER properties and the transmission grid stability. Key findings show that increasing DER inertia tends to destabilize the transmission system. The cause of this counterintuitive relationship requires further study but likely is related to the high impedance separating the DER from the transmission grid.
The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Teen Childbearing

After 41 consecutive years of increase, out-of-wedlock teen childbearing unexpectedly reversed course in 1991 and by 2002 was 20% below its peak. Explanations for that reversal have proven elusive. In this paper, we present evidence that exposure to legalized abortion in utero for the cohort of women that became teenagers in the 1990s is one factor contributing to this decline. We estimate that the legalization of abortion in the 1970s changed the composition of women at risk of bearing children out of wedlock some 15�24 years later. This composition effect reduced out-of-wedlock teen birth rates by 6%, which accounts for roughly 25% of the observed decline in unmarried teen birth rates over this period. It also lowered rates of unmarried births for women aged 20�24. At the same time, it increased the number of married births to women 20�24, so that there is only a small reduction in total fertility over the ages 15�24. The detailed information available on birth certificates enables a more direct identification of in utero abortion exposure than prior studies looking at other outcomes such as crime.
Breadth-first heuristic search

Recent work shows that the memory requirements of A* and related graph-search algorithms can be reduced substantially by only storing nodes that are on or near the search frontier, using special techniques to prevent node regeneration, and recovering the solution path by a divide-and-conquer technique. When this approach is used to solve graph-search problems with unit edge costs, we show that a breadth-first search strategy can be more memory-efficient than a best-first strategy. We also show that a breadth-first strategy allows a technique for preventing node regeneration that is easier to implement and can be applied more widely. The breadth-first heuristic search algorithms introduced in this paper include a memory-efficient implementation of breadth-first branch-and-bound search and a breadth-first iterative-deepening A* algorithm that is based on it. Computational results show that they outperform other systematic search algorithms in solving a range of challenging graph-search problems.
Channel-Adapted Quantum Error Correction for the Amplitude Damping Channel

Error correction procedures are considered which are designed specifically for the amplitude damping channel. Amplitude damping errors are analyzed in the stabilizer formalism. This analysis allows a generalization of the [4,1] ldquoapproximaterdquo amplitude damping code. This generalization is presented as a class of [2(M+1),M] codes; quantum circuits for encoding and recovery operations are presented. A [7,3] amplitude damping code based on the classical Hamming code is presented. All of these are stabilizer codes whose encoding and recovery operations can be completely described with Clifford group operations. Finally, optimization options are described in which recovery operations may be further adapted according to the damping probability gamma.
Crop Insurance Contracting: Moral Hazard Costs through Simulation

May 2001 Draft Taeho Kim, Research Assistant Department of Agricultural Economics 308 Armsby Building Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802 tele: 814-863-8248 fax: 814-865-3746 R.D. Weaver, Professor of Agricultural Economics 207D Armsby Building Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802 r2w@psu.edu tele: 814-865-6361 fax: 814-865-3746
Probing single-molecule protein conformational dynamics

Protein conformational fluctuations and dynamics, often complex and associated with inhomogeneities, play a crucial role in biomolecular functions. It is extremely difficult to characterize such inhomogeneous dynamics in an ensemble-averaged measurement, especially when the proteins are involved in multiple-step, multiple-conformation complex chemical interactions and transformations, such as in enzymatic reactions, protein-protein interactions, and ion-channel membrane protein processes. Alternatively, single-molecule spectroscopy is a powerful approach to probing and analyzing protein conformational dynamics in real time.
Homogeneous 2+1 Dimensional Gravity in the Ashtekar Formulation

Abstract The constraint hypersurfaces defining the Witten and Ashtekar formulations for 2+1 gravity are very different. In particular the constraint hypersurface in the Ashtekar case is not a manifold but consists of several sectors that intersect each other in a complicated way. The issue of how to define a consistent dynamics in such a situation is then rather non-trivial. We discuss this point by working out the details in a simplified (finite-dimensional) homogeneous reduction of 2+1 gravity in the Ashtekar formulation.
The Moore thesis: what's left after 1989?

This article reconsiders the work of Barrington Moore and his critics on the historical emergence of democracy in the light of post-communist democratization. What are we to make of a region which violates Moore's dictum – “No bourgeoisie, no democracy”? Using the tools of comparative historical analysis, it makes sense of how democracy emerged in the region by developing a theory which both explains why this was possible and what social actors were essential to this outcome. With attention to patterns of social development in the region, the politics of elite alliance in the final phase of communism, the strength of civil society at extrication, and the role of the international system, it explains differences in regime outcomes across the region.
Fluoroanalogues of anti-cytomegalovirus agent cyclopropavir: synthesis and antiviral activity of (E)- and (Z)-9-{[2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl)-3-fluorocyclopropylidene]methyl}-adenines and guanines.

Synthesis of fluorinated cyclopropavir analogues 13a, 13b, 14a, and 14b is described starting from alkene 15. Addition of carbene derived from dibromofluoromethane gave bromofluoro cyclopropane 16. Reduction (compound 17) followed by desilylation gave intermediate 18, which was transformed to 2-nitrophenylselenenyl derivative 19. Oxidation to selenoxide 20 was followed by β-elimination to afford methylenecyclopropane 21. Addition of bromine provided compound 22 for alkylation-elimination of adenine and 2-amino-6-chloropurine. The resultant E,Z isomeric mixtures of methylenecyclopropanes 23a + 24a and 23c + 24c were resolved and the individual isomers were deprotected to give adenine analogues 13a and 14a as well as compounds 13c and 14c. Hydrolytic dechlorination of 13c and 14c furnished guanine analogues 13b and 14b. The only significant antiviral effects were observed with analogue 13a against HCMV and 14a against VZV in cytopathic inhibition assays.
A 12-Gb/s 11-mW Half-Rate Sampled 5-Tap Decision Feedback Equalizer With Current-Integrating Summers in 45-nm SOI CMOS Technology

The design and experimental results of a low-power, low-area 5-tap decision feedback equalizer (DFE) implemented in a 45 nm SOI CMOS technology are reported. The DFE employs a low-power current-integrating summer with sampling front-end, which eliminates systematic frequency-dependent loss inherent in conventional integrating serial receivers. Further power and area savings are achieved through the use of a direct-feedback architecture and CMOS-style rail-to-rail clocking. The 5-tap DFE core occupies 73 times 50 mum2 and consumes 11 mW from a 1 V supply when equalizing 12 Gb/s data passed over a 30" channel with 15 dB of loss at 6 GHz.
Tandem Diels-Alder cyclization/aromatization reactions of 5-vinyl-1-acyl-2-aryl-2,3-dihydro-4-pyridones

Abstract A tandem Diels–Alder cyclization/aromatization of 5-vinyl-2,3-dihydro-4-pyridones and various dienophiles is reported. The intermediate Diels–Alder cycloadduct undergoes an elimination/aromatization to provide β-amino-ketones, β-amino-alcohols, and unnatural amino acids containing useful functionality.
Risk and risk-based capital of U.S. bank holding companies

This paper analyzes banks’ capital and risk-based capital (RBC) ratios as predictors of risk. Using quarterly data on U.S. bank holding companies (BHCs) from 1997 through 2010, we regress the capital and RBC ratios against six balance-sheet and market-based indicators of risk. Although the capital and RBC ratios are statistically significant predictors of BHCs’ levels of risk, we find the capital ratio is a statistically significantly better predictor of risk than the RBC ratio. This difference is strongest since the recent financial crisis beginning in 2007.
Generating Sequence of Eye Fixations Using Decision-Theoretic Attention Model

Human eyes scan images with serial eye fixations. We propose a novel attention selectivity model for the automatic generation of eye fixations on 2D static scenes. An activation map was first computed by extracting primary visual features and detecting meaningful objects from the scene. An adaptable retinal filter was applied on this map to generate "Regions of Interest" (ROIs), whose locations corresponded to those of activation peaks and whose sizes were estimated by an iterative adjustment algorithm. The focus of attention was moved serially over the detected ROIs by a decision-theoretic mechanism. The generated sequence of eye fixations was determined from the perceptual benefit function based on perceptual costs and rewards, while the time distribution of different ROIs was estimated by a memory learning and decaying model. Finally, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed attention model, the gaze tracking results of different human subjects and the simulated eye fixation shifting were compared.
Filters and components with inductance cancellation

Electrical filters are important for attenuating electrical ripple, eliminating electromagnetic interference (EMI) and susceptibility, improving power quality, and minimizing electromagnetic signature. Capacitors are critical elements in such filters, and filter performance is strongly influenced by the capacitor parasitics. This paper introduces a new design technique that overcomes the capacitor parasitic inductance that limits filter performance at high frequencies. Coupled magnetic windings are employed to effectively cancel the parasitic inductance of capacitors, and to add inductance in filter branches where it is desired. The underlying basis of the new technique is treated in detail, and its application to the design of both discrete filters and integrated LC filter components is described. Numerous experimental results demonstrating the high performance of the approach in both discrete filters and integrated filter elements are provided.
Design and Characterization of a Liquid-Fueled Micro-Combustor

As part of an effort to develop a microscale gas turbine engine, this paper presents the design and experimental characterization of a micro-combustor that catalytically burns JP8 fuel. Due to the high energy densities of hydrocarbon fuels, microscale heat engines based on them may enable compact power sources with specific energies higher than those of current battery systems. In addition, utilizing a commonly available logistics fuel would provide advantages for military applications. Thus, a microscale engine burning JP8 fuel is attractive as a portable power source. A liquid-fueled micro-combustor with a combustion chamber volume of 1.4 cm3 and an overall die size of 36.4 mm × 36.4 mm × 6.5 mm was designed, micro-fabricated, and experimentally characterized. Two configurations were tested and compared; one with the combustion chamber entirely filled with a catalyst, and the other with the combustion chamber partially filled with a catalyst. In the configuration filled with a catalyst, JP8 combustion was sustained at mass flow rates up to 0.1 g/sec, and an exit gas temperature of 780 K; an overall combustor efficiency of 19%, and a power density of 43 MW/m3 were achieved. The primary limitation on increasing the mass flow rates and temperature further was structural failure of the device due to thermal stresses. With the partially-filled configuration, a mass flow rate of 0.2 g/sec, and a corresponding power density of 54 MW/m3 were obtained. The exit gas temperature for the partially-filled configuration was as high as 720 K, and the maximum overall efficiency was over 22%. Although the reduced amount of catalyst led to incomplete combustion, smaller thermal losses resulted in an increase in the overall combustor efficiency and power density. A non-dimensional operating map was constructed based on the experiment, and it suggests that improving the thermal efficiency would be necessary to achieve higher efficiencies in the device.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
Parental Time Investment and Human Capital Formation: A Quantitative Analysis of Intergenerational Mobility

A large literature has documented low intergenerational mobility in the U.S. over the last few decades, prompting a growing interest in understanding mechanisms underlying intergenerational mobility. In this paper, I construct a quantitative general equilibrium model that explores parental time investment in preschool-aged and younger children as a channel through which economic status can be transmitted intergenerationally. Altruistic parents differ in their own human capital and assets, and in the human capital of their children. They each decide how to split their time across investment in their child's human capital, market work, and leisure. My calibrated model reproduces several measures of intergenerational income mobility, as well as the lifecycle inequality seen in U.S. data. Decomposing its results, I find that the parental time investment channel accounts for nearly 50 percent of the observed persistence in intergenerational income. Despite their higher opportunity costs of time, more skilled parents choose to invest more time in their young children. This force significantly amplifies the intergenerational correlation of human capital. However, at the same time, I find that the parental time investment channel actually reduces the cross-sectional dispersion of human capital. This result is driven by dynastic smoothing of the marginal value of human capital; individuals insure their descendants' lifetime utilities through the parental investment channel by investing more time in less able children. Finally, policy experiments suggest that interventions targeted at the college decision have little effect on intergenerational mobility. By contrast, I find that those targeted at parental time investment decisions, such as a proportional subsidy for such investments, may be an effective way to increase intergenerational mobility as well as social welfare, since they disproportionately raise investment in the children from disadvantaged families.
A Characterization of Scoring Rules for Linear Properties

We consider the design of proper scoring rules, equivalently proper losses, when the goal is to elicit some function, known as a property, of the underlying distribution. We provide a full characterization of the class of proper scoring rules when the property is linear as a function of the input distribution. A key conclusion is that any such scoring rule can be written in the form of a Bregman divergence for some convex function. We also apply our results to the design of prediction market mechanisms, showing a strong equivalence between scoring rules for linear properties and automated prediction market makers.
Heterogeneous Patterns of Financial Development:Implications for Asian Financial Integration

This paper analyzes detailed differences in patterns of financial development across the major Asian economies, including three of the region’s largest economies (China, Japan and South Korea), to understand how these differences might affect possibilities for greater regional financial integration. In particular, the paper argues that heterogeneous patterns of financial development, and not just differences in levels of financial development, may present an economic challenge to regional financial integration efforts, aside from possible political challenges. The paper provides background on the case for financial openness, Asian experiences with financial integration, and regional economic responses to external shocks. It also discusses policy options, including regulatory reform and coordination, and possible risk management policies and institutions, in the context of heterogeneous patterns of financial development.
Expanding the Power of Big Labor: The NLRB’s Growing Intrusion into Higher Education

This written testimony was submitted to accompany an appearance before two subcommittees of the House of Representatives regarding the National Labor Relations Board's jurisdiction over higher education institutions. In this testimony I made three points: First, the NLRB’s use of a “substantial religious character” test to determine the scope of the exemption for a religiously-affiliated university from the National Labor Relations Act is at odds with over 30 years’ worth of Supreme Court and lower court precedents. Second, intrusion by the NLRB into the internal matters of religious institutions poses a threat to religious freedom. Finally, opposition to NLRB jurisdiction over religiously-affiliated colleges and universities is not inconsistent with support by churches of the rights of workers to unionize.
Predicting diverse M-best protein contact maps

Protein contacts contain important information for protein structure and functional study, but contact prediction from sequence information remains very challenging. Recently evolutionary coupling (EC) analysis, which predicts contacts by detecting co-evolved residues (or columns) in a multiple sequence alignment (MSA), has made good progress due to better statistical assessment techniques and high-throughput sequencing. Existing EC analysis methods predict only a single contact map for a given protein, which may have low accuracy especially when the protein under prediction does not have a large number of sequence homologs. Analogous to ab initio folding that usually predicts a few possible 3D models for a given protein sequence, this paper presents a novel structure learning method that can predict a set of diverse contact maps for a given protein sequence, in which the best solution usually has much better accuracy than the first one. Our experimental tests show that for many test proteins, the best out of 5 solutions generated by our method has accuracy at least 0.1 better than the first one when the top L/5 or L/10 (L is the sequence length) predicted long-range contacts are evaluated, especially for protein families with a small number of sequence homologs. Our best solutions also have better quality than those generated by the two popular EC methods Evfold and PSICOV.
Opportunity Cost Neglect Attenuates the Effect of Choices on Preferences

The idea that choices alter preferences has been widely studied in psychology, yet prior research has focused primarily on choices for which all alternatives were salient at the time of choice. Opportunity costs capture the value of the best forgone alternative and should be considered as part of any decision process, yet people often neglect them. How does the salience of opportunity costs at the time of choice influence subsequent evaluations of chosen and forgone options? In three experiments, we found that there was a larger postchoice spread between evaluations of focal options and opportunity costs when opportunity costs were explicit at the time of choice than when they remained implicit.
Total Synthesis of the Galbulimima Alkaloids Himandravine and GB17 Using Biomimetic Diels-Alder Reactions of Double Diene Precursors.

The enantioselective total syntheses of himandravine and GB17 were completed through a common biomimetic strategy involving Diels–Alder reactions of unusual double diene containing linear precursors. The double diene precursors, containing or lacking a C12 substituent as required to produce GB17 or himandravine, respectively, were found to undergo Diels–Alder reactions to afford mixtures of regioisomeric cycloadducts that map onto the alternative carbocyclic frameworks of both himandravine and GB17. Computational investigations revealed that these Diels–Alder reactions proceed via transition state structures of similar energy that have a high degree of bispericyclic character and that the low levels of regioselectivity observed in the reactions are a consequence of competing orbital interaction and distortion energies. The combined experimental and computational results provide valuable insights into the biosynthesis of the Galbulimima alkaloids.
Loading of a surface-electrode ion trap from a remote, precooled source

We demonstrate loading of ions into a surface-electrode trap (SET) from a remote, laser-cooled source of neutral atoms. We first cool and load $\ensuremath{\sim}$${10}^{6}$ neutral ${}^{88}$Sr atoms into a magneto-optical trap from an oven that has no line of sight with the SET. The cold atoms are then pushed with a resonant laser into the trap region where they are subsequently photoionized and trapped in an SET operated at a cryogenic temperature of 4.6 K. We present studies of the loading process and show that our technique achieves ion loading into a shallow (15 meV depth) trap at rates as high as 125 ions/s while drastically reducing the amount of metal deposition on the trap surface as compared with direct loading from a hot vapor. Furthermore, we note that due to multiple stages of isotopic filtering in our loading process, this technique has the potential for enhanced isotopic selectivity over other loading methods. Rapid loading from a clean, isotopically pure, and precooled source may enable scalable quantum-information processing with trapped ions in large, low-depth surface-trap arrays that are not amenable to loading from a hot atomic beam.
The neurotranscriptome of the Aedes aegypti mosquito

A complete genome sequence and the advent of genome editing open up non-traditional model organisms to mechanistic genetic studies. The mosquito Aedes aegypti is an important vector of infectious diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever and has a large and complex genome, which has slowed annotation efforts. We used comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of adult gene expression to improve the genome annotation and to provide a detailed tissue-specific catalogue of neural gene expression at different adult behavioral states. We carried out deep RNA sequencing across all major peripheral male and female sensory tissues, the brain and (female) ovary. Furthermore, we examined gene expression across three important phases of the female reproductive cycle, a remarkable example of behavioral switching in which a female mosquito alternates between obtaining blood-meals from humans and laying eggs. Using genome-guided alignments and de novo transcriptome assembly, our re-annotation includes 572 new putative protein-coding genes and updates to 13.5 and 50.3 % of existing transcripts within coding sequences and untranslated regions, respectively. Using this updated annotation, we detail gene expression in each tissue, identifying large numbers of transcripts regulated by blood-feeding and sexually dimorphic transcripts that may provide clues to the biology of male- and female-specific behaviors, such as mating and blood-feeding, which are areas of intensive study for those interested in vector control. This neurotranscriptome forms a strong foundation for the study of genes in the mosquito nervous system and investigation of sensory-driven behaviors and their regulation. Furthermore, understanding the molecular genetic basis of mosquito chemosensory behavior has important implications for vector control.
Beyond Protecting Groups in Metal Catalyzed C-C Coupling: Direct Anomeric Propargylation of Aldoses.

Krische and Hong explain the unique features of Shimizu and Kanai’s protecting-group-free methodology for modifying carbohydrates.
Atomic-scale dynamics of atoms and dimers on the Si(001) surface

Abstract The kinetics of adsorbed Si monomers and dimers, at submonolayer coverage, are measured using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Si monomers are observed in empty-state STM images acquired between room temperature and 115°C. The monomers are trapped at the ends of rebonded-SB type dimer rows. When monomers thermally escape from the traps, they rapidly diffuse along the substrate dimer row until they find another unoccupied trap or return to their original trap. The binding activation barrier at isolated traps is ∼1.0 eV. A slightly lower barrier exists for monomers to hop between the ends of neighboring dimer rows — a process facilitating diffusion along segments of SB type steps. In addition to monomers, the interactions of adsorbed Si dimers with steps and islands on Si(001) are quantified using atom tracking STM. Diffusing dimers are reflected from steps, sides of islands, and certain surface defect structures. Site-specific free energies are extracted from measurements of lattice-site occupation probabilities of dimers trapped between these reflecting barriers. Relative to the free energy of isolated dimers on a terrace, dimers located at the first lattice site next to SA steps and the sides of islands are bound by ∼0.03–0.06 eV. The binding decreases to half that at the second lattice site, and is indistinguishable from the free-terrace value at a distance of three or more lattice sites.
Estimation of polynomial distributed lags and leads with end point constraints

This paper considers the use of the polynomial distributed lag (PDL) technique when the lag length is estimated rather than fixed. We focus on the case where the degree of the polynomial is fixed, the polynomial is constrained to be zero at a certain lag length q, and q is estimated along with the other parameters. We extend the traditional PDL setup by allowing q to be real-valued rather than integer-valued, and we derive the asymptotic covariance matrix of all the parameter estimates, including the estimate of q. The paper also considers the estimation of distributed leads rather than lags, a case that can arise if expectations are assumed to be rational.
Application-aware resource block and power allocation for LTE

In this paper, we implement an application-aware scheduler that differentiates users running real-time applications and delay-tolerant applications while allocating resources. This approach ensures that the priority is given to real-time applications over delay-tolerant applications. In our system model, we include realistic channel effects of Long Term Evolution (LTE) system. Our application-aware scheduler runs in two stages, the first stage is resource block allocation and the second stage is power allocation. In the optimal solution of resource block allocation problem, each user is inherently guaranteed a minimum Quality of Experience (QoE) while ensuring priority given to users with real-time applications. In the power allocation problem, a new power allocation method is proposed which utilizes the optimal solution of the application-aware resource block scheduling problem. As a proof of concept, we run a simulation comparison between a conventional proportional fairness scheduler and the application-aware scheduler. The simulation results show better QoE with the application-aware scheduler.
Associative long short-term memory

We investigate a new method to augment recurrent neural networks with extra memory without increasing the number of network parameters. The system has an associative memory based on complex-valued vectors and is closely related to Holographic Reduced Representations and Long Short-Term Memory networks. Holographic Reduced Representations have limited capacity: as they store more information, each retrieval becomes noisier due to interference. Our system in contrast creates redundant copies of stored information, which enables retrieval with reduced noise. Experiments demonstrate faster learning on multiple memorization tasks.
DOC: Deep OCclusion Estimation from a Single Image

In this paper, we propose a deep convolutional network architecture, called DOC, which detects object boundaries and estimates the occlusion relationships (i.e. which side of the boundary is foreground and which is background). Specifically, we first represent occlusion relations by a binary edge indicator, to indicate the object boundary, and an occlusion orientation variable whose direction specifies the occlusion relationships by a left-hand rule, see Fig. 1. Then, our DOC networks exploit local and non-local image cues to learn and estimate this representation and hence recover occlusion relations. To train and test DOC, we construct a large-scale instance occlusion boundary dataset using PASCAL VOC images, which we call the PASCAL instance occlusion dataset (PIOD). It contains 10,000 images and hence is two orders of magnitude larger than existing occlusion datasets for outdoor images. We test two variants of DOC on PIOD and on the BSDS ownership dataset and show they outperform state-of-the-art methods typically by more than 5AP. Finally, we perform numerous experiments investigating multiple settings of DOC and transfer between BSDS and PIOD, which provides more insights for further study of occlusion estimation.
Fueling Local Water Pollution: Ethanol Refineries, Land Use, and Nitrate Runoff

Ethanol production in the United States, driven by federal renewable fuel policy, has exploded over the past two decades and has prompted the construction of many ethanol refineries throughout the US Corn Belt. These refineries have introduced a new inelastic demand for corn in the areas where they were built, reducing basis for nearby farmers and effectively subsidizing local corn production. In this paper, I explore whether and to what extent the construction of new ethanol refineries has actually increased local corn acreage. I also explore some environmental effects of this acreage increase. Using a thirteen year panel of over two million field-level observations in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska, I estimate a net increase of nearly 300,000 acres of corn in 2014 relative to 2002 that can be attributed to the placements of new ethanol refineries. This increase comprises approximately 0.75% of the total 2014 corn acreage within my dataset. Furthermore, this effect is separate from the general equilibrium effect of ethanol policy increasing aggregate demand for corn. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that over 21,000 tons of the nitrogen applied to fields in my sample in 2014 can be attributed to refinery location effects. Essentially all of these observed effects occur only in areas within 30 miles of an ethanol refinery, suggesting that refineries have meaningful localized impacts on land use and environmental quality such as nitrate runoff.
Moment-Distribution Constants from Models

Experimental method of determining moment distribution constants for beams with variable moments of inertia; method based on concept of 3-dimensional M/EI solid whose properties are functions of loads, slopes, and deflections of statically indeterminate member which it represents; mathematical integration or approximate summation process are replaced by weighing.
Can we still avoid automatic face detection

After decades of study, automatic face detection and recognition systems are now accurate and widespread. Naturally, this means users who wish to avoid automatic recognition are becoming less able to do so. Where do we stand in this cat-and-mouse race? We currently live in a society where everyone carries a camera in their pocket. Many people willfully upload most or all of the pictures they take to social networks which invest heavily in automatic face recognition systems. In this setting, is it still possible for privacy-conscientious users to avoid automatic face detection and recognition? If so, how? Must evasion techniques be obvious to be effective, or are there still simple measures that users can use to protect themselves? In this work, we find ways to evade face detection on Facebook, a representative example of a popular social network that uses automatic face detection to enhance their service. We challenge widely-held beliefs about evading face detection: do our old techniques such as blurring the face region or wearing "privacy glasses" still work? We show that in general, state-of-the-art detectors can often find faces even if the subject wears occluding clothing or even if the uploader damages the photo to prevent faces from being detected.
Better Health Care: A Way Forward

Despite areas of excellence, the United States health care system could perform much better than it does. The key questions: what can realistically be expected, and how can the nation get there? To set expectations, real-world examples are helpful. Cross-national comparisons show that if the US health care system performed like systems in other Western democracies, individuals would live longer lives and spend less, and the United States could provide universal access to care.1 As just one example, if health care costs in the United States had increased since 1980 at the rate of health care costs in Switzerland, where all citizens purchase private insurance from competing plans, an estimated $15.9 trillion dollars could have been saved2—nearly enough to retire the US national debt.
Time-Lock Puzzles from Randomized Encodings

Time-lock puzzles are a mechanism for sending messages "to the future". A sender can quickly generate a puzzle with a solution s that remains hidden until a moderately large amount of time t has elapsed. The solution s should be hidden from any adversary that runs in time significantly less than t, including resourceful parallel adversaries with polynomially many processors.While the notion of time-lock puzzles has been around for 22 years, there has only been a single candidate proposed. Fifteen years ago, Rivest, Shamir and Wagner suggested a beautiful candidate time-lock puzzle based on the assumption that exponentiation modulo an RSA integer is an "inherently sequential" computation.We show that various flavors of randomized encodings give rise to time-lock puzzles of varying strengths, whose security can be shown assuming the mere existence of non-parallelizing languages, which are languages that require circuits of depth at least t to decide, in the worst-case. The existence of such languages is necessary for the existence of time-lock puzzles.We instantiate the construction with different randomized encodings from the literature, where increasingly better efficiency is obtained based on increasingly stronger cryptographic assumptions, ranging from one-way functions to indistinguishability obfuscation. We also observe that time-lock puzzles imply one-way functions, and thus the reliance on some cryptographic assumption is necessary.Finally, generalizing the above, we construct other types of puzzles such as proofs of work from randomized encodings and a suitable worst-case hardness assumption (that is necessary for such puzzles to exist).
The Environmental Cost of Global Fuel Subsidies

Author(s): Davis, LW | Abstract: Despite increasing calls for reform many countries continue to provide subsidies for gasoline and diesel. This paper quantifies the external costs from global fuel subsidies using the latest available data and estimates from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Under preferred assumptions about supply and demand elasticities, current subsidies cause $44 billion in external costs annually. This includes $8 billion from carbon dioxide emissions, $7 billion from local pollutants, $12 billion from traffic congestion, and $17 billion from accidents. These external costs are in addition to conventional deadweight loss, estimated to be $26 billion annually. Government incentives for alternative fuel vehicles are unlikely to cost-effectively reduce these externalities as they do little to address traffic congestion or accidents and only indirectly address carbon dioxide and local pollutants.
Electrifying news! Journalists, audiences, and the culture of timeliness in the United States, 1840--1920:

The telegraph literally and figuratively electrified news by transforming reporting into a process that delivered impulses of information whose timeliness often riveted and sometimes excited newspa...
Differences in Mexican Americans’ Prevalence of Chronic Pain and Co-Occurring Analgesic Medication and Substance Use Relative to Non-Hispanic White and Black Americans: Results from NHANES 1999–2004

Objective. Little is known about the burgeoning Mexican American (MA) population’s pain experience. Methods . Using 1999–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data, prevalence of chronic pain, analgesic medication use, and substance use were examined among MA, non-Hispanic White (NHW), and non-Hispanic Black (NHB) respondents. Logistic and linear regression models examined racial/ethnic differences in: 1) chronic pain prevalence among all respondents, 2) location and number of pain sites among respondents with chronic pain, and 3) analgesic medication and substance use among respondents with chronic pain. Results . Compared to NHWs and NHBs, MAs were less likely to report any chronic pain. Among respondents with chronic pain, MAs had higher odds of reporting headache, abdominal pain, and a greater number of pain sites than NHWs. Compared to NHWs, MAs with chronic pain had lower odds of reporting past-month analgesic medication and COX-2 inhibitor use. MAs with chronic pain had lower odds of being a current cigarette smoker and heavy alcohol drinker but had similar street drug/cocaine use relative to NHWs. Conclusions . Results suggest that: 1) MAs are less likely to develop chronic pain than NHWs, 2) MAs with chronic pain report greater headache and abdominal pain than NHWs, and 3) MAs with chronic pain are less likely to use analgesic medications and other substances compared to NHWs. These results suggest that providers should consider taking extra time to discuss analgesic medications with MAs. Future investigations should examine reasons underlying these racial/ethnic differences in chronic pain, as well as differences in the use of other substances, such as marijuana.
Some Structural Transformations of the Blood-Cells of Vertebrates

The current descriptions of the structure of vertebrate blood-cells are largely based on material which has been prepared by the smear method and coagulated by heat, alcohol, or mixtures of electrolytes. The activities of white cells, that are generally recognized, are slow ameboid movement by means of either blunt or fine pseudopods, and the engulfment of objects by means of active pseudopods. The numerous recent investigations on blood-cells made with the aid of the dark-field method of illumination have added interesting points of detail to previous knowledge of the form and activities of the cellular elements of the blood. No convincing evidence has been brought forward to show that the widely held notions about vertebrate blood-cells are seriously at fault. This fact is clearly due to the confusion caused by the presence of fibrin granules and threads in preparations made by the usual methods. In fact, many of the recent investigations are nothing more than the description of attempts to interpret the complex and variable images of the structural elements of blood clots which are produced by oblique illumination on a dark background. By the employment of a special mounting or culture medium, I have been enabled to determine that both white cells and erythrocytes of all classes of vertebrates may undergo many marked structural transformations, which are of a reversible nature. In this paper, the more important of these transformations, so far observed, will be described.
Structural Complexity Quantification for Engineered Complex Systems and Implications on System Architecture and Design

The complexity of today’s highly engineered products is rooted in the interwoven architecture defined by its components and their interactions. Such structures can be viewed as the adjacency matrix of the associated dependency network representing the product architecture. To evaluate a complex system or to compare it to other systems, numerical assessment of its structural complexity is essential. In this paper, we develop a quantitative measure for structural complexity and apply the same to real-world engineered systems like gas turbine engines. It is observed that low topological complexity implies centralized architectures and that higher levels of complexity generally indicate highly distributed architectures. We posit that the development cost varies non-linearly with structural complexity. Empirical evidence of such behavior is presented from the literature and preliminary results from simple experiments involving assembly of simple structures further strengthens our hypothesis. We demonstrate that structural complexity and modularity are not necessarily negatively correlated using a simple example. We further discuss distribution of complexity across the system architecture and its strategic implications for system development efforts.© 2013 ASME