cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Logical Foundations of Local Gauge Symmetry and Symmetry Breaking

Quantum field theory has successfully generated a number of general conclusions. It seems meaningful to disclose the logical forms of these conclusions. The present paper reports two results. The first result shows the logic of local gauge symmetry and indefinability of mass. The second result shows the logic of Higgs mechanism and definability of mass. The results are obtained by integrating four components, namely, gauge symmetry and Higgs mechanism in quantum field theory, and incompleteness theorem and indefinability theorem in mathematical logic. Godel numbering is the key for arithmetic modeling applied in this paper.
1801-P: Novel De Novo INS P.T97P Variant Presenting with Severe Neonatal DKA

Objective: A 5 month old, premature male infant with history of hydrops fetalis and hernia repair presented unresponsive in respiratory distress requiring intubation and was found to have pH 6.93, bicarbonate 6 mmol/L, anion gap 23 mmol/L, glucose 669 mg/dL and HbA1c 14.2%. His condition improved with insulin drip, fluid and electrolyte management. Work-up revealed negative autoantibodies and the University of Chicago Neonatal Diabetes Sequencing Panel was performed. Testing revealed a heterozygous sequence variant of unknown significance in the INS gene (c.289A>C), resulting in the amino acid change p.T97P. In silico pathogenicity prediction tools provided contradictory results. Neither parent carried the variant. INS gene mutations have been associated with Mutant INS-gene-induced Diabetes of Youth (MIDY) that includes permanent neonatal diabetes and MODY 10. Expression of mutant proinsulin is thought to lead to misfolded complexes in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), leading to ER stress and β-cell death. Methods: To determine the effects of this variant on insulin processing and release, we utilized a validated luminescent insulin secretion assay where Gaussia luciferase is inserted into the C-peptide portion of proinsulin. We compared luciferase secretion for wild type and variant INS sequences. Results: The mutation decreased luciferase release ∼10-fold versus wild type. Proteasome inhibition led to partial rescue. However, overall expression of proinsulin-luciferase peptide was unchanged between the wild type and mutant. Therefore, it is likely that the mutation causes disruptions in processes downstream of transcription and translation, such as folding, proteolytic processing and transport. Conclusions: The novel INS p.T97P is the first identified A-chain mutation resulting in MIDY not involving the creation or deletion of cysteine residues. The substitution of the polar threonine with nonpolar proline may be sufficient to disrupt nearby disulfide bonding in the proinsulin folding pathway. Disclosure R. Lal: Consultant; Self; Abbott, Biolinq. H.P. Moeller: None. R. Freeman: None. P. Prahalad: None. J.P. Annes: None. Funding National Institutes of Health (1K12DK122550, T32DK007217, R01DK101530, T32GM113854, P30DK116074)
Expanding the brain researcher's toolkit

Despite the wealth and quality of basic neuroscience research, there is still little we can do to treat or prevent most brain disorders. Industry efforts, meanwhile, have shied away from this field, particularly after a series of major drug candidates for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease failed to meet expectations (1).
Confirming the absence of nuclear warheads via passive gamma-ray measurements

Abstract Arms-control agreements between the United States and Russia negotiated after the end of the Cold War have imposed limits on the number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons. Verification of these agreements has relied on onsite inspections, sometimes supported by radiation detection techniques to confirm the absence of a nuclear warhead when ambiguities arise. So far, these measurements have sought to detect neutron emissions associated with the presence of plutonium, but they would be inadequate for uranium devices. In an effort to offer instruments that could be used to confirm the absence of both plutonium and uranium weapons, here we propose an inspection system that uses only passive gamma radiation detection techniques. Such a system would be particularly valuable for next-generation arms-control agreements that limit total numbers of weapons and would involve containerized items in storage. We conducted extensive Monte Carlo simulations to support the development of a verification protocol and detection algorithm. We demonstrate the viability of the technique using standard laboratory check sources and MCNP simulations for simplified configurations of special nuclear material.
Identifying songs of social justice and protest for social work education

Educators of social justice continually seek new tools to encourage learning. Music recordings and their lyrics provide an innovative means for learning about the emergence of social concerns and e...
Immutability and Innateness Arguments about Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Rights

A popular and intuitively plausible type of argument for the rights of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals is based on claims that sexual orientations are inborn and/or unchangeable. Socially and politically, expressing doubts about such arguments for LGB rights is seen by advocates of such rights as tantamount to opposing them. Legally, such arguments intersect with the so-called immutability factor in equal protection jurisprudence. This article considers the legal, ethical and empirical support for arguments for LGB rights based on immutability and innateness. I raise a variety of problem for such arguments in various contexts, in part, through the lens of amicus briefs associated with two recent Supreme Court cases about marriage equality for same-sex couples. My analysis helps explain and contextualize disagreement within the LGBT community about the wisdom and efficacy of such arguments.
Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies to Reduce Climate Vulnerabilities and Maintain Ecosystem Services

Increasing temperatures and altered precipitation regimes associated with human-caused changes in the earth s climate are having substantial impacts on ecological systems and human well-being. Maintaining functioning ecosystems, the provision of ecosystem services, and healthy human populations into the future will require integrating adaptation and mitigation strategies. Adaptation strategies are actions that help human and natural systems accommodate changes. Mitigation strategies are actions that reduce anthropogenic influences on climate. Here, we provide an overview of what will likely be some of the most effective and most important mitigation and adaptation strategies for addressing climate change. In addition to describing the ways in which these strategies can address impacts to natural and human systems, we discuss the social considerations that we believe must be incorporated into the development and application of mitigation or adaptation strategies to address political situations, cultural differences, and economic limitations.
Is the right to die dead

On June 26, 1997, the United States Supreme Court, by a vote of 9-0, unanimously rejected two constitutional facial challenges to state laws in Washington and New York prohibiting doctor-assisted suicide. The first case challenged Washington's criminal prohibition against doctor-assisted suicide on the ground that it violated the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. The second case challenged, under the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause, New York's distinction between allowing a terminally ill patient to refuse life-sustaining treatment and criminally prohibiting anyone from helping the patient to end his or her life. Several terminally ill patients (who had since died) along with several physicians and various state officials brought these two cases. The essay explores how the Court could consistently hold that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide while also indicating that the issue of the right to die remains open. My argument is that the Court's decision to treat the matter as involving a constitutional claim to assisted suicide was to avoid getting into an area of drawing boundary conditions that the Court was not yet ready to draw. The explanation that these cases could be viewed on the basis of the doctor's intention when assisting suicide instead of right to die versus withdrawing life-sustaining treatment is simply wrong headed. The better explanation is that the Court chose a level of abstraction to frame the issue to avoid reaching the ultimate question of whether the Constitution protects a right to die at this time. If and when the Court finally reaches that ultimate issue, a good philosophical case can be made for allowing patient's intention (or, where the patient is no longer a prospective purposive agent, his or her family or designee's intention) to govern the decision. In furtherance of this claim, the article questions: Why the Court chose to frame the issue as it did? What legal metatheory allowed it to do so? What might encourage a different framing of the issue in the future? And how a set of cases with very different facts might evoke a deeper and better philosophical development of the law in this area.
Convergence rates of active learning for maximum likelihood estimation

An active learner is given a class of models, a large set of unlabeled examples, and the ability to interactively query labels of a subset of these examples; the goal of the learner is to learn a model in the class that fits the data well. Previous theoretical work has rigorously characterized label complexity of active learning, but most of this work has focused on the PAC or the agnostic PAC model. In this paper, we shift our attention to a more general setting - maximum likelihood estimation. Provided certain conditions hold on the model class, we provide a two-stage active learning algorithm for this problem. The conditions we require are fairly general, and cover the widely popular class of Generalized Linear Models, which in turn, include models for binary and multi-class classification, regression, and conditional random fields. We provide an upper bound on the label requirement of our algorithm, and a lower bound that matches it up to lower order terms. Our analysis shows that unlike binary classification in the realizable case, just a single extra round of interaction is sufficient to achieve near-optimal performance in maximum likelihood estimation. On the empirical side, the recent work in [12] and [13] (on active linear and logistic regression) shows the promise of this approach.
The European experience with merger and deregulation

This comprehensive book contains case studies on the evolution of competition policy, with an emphasis on merger policy, for seven major US industries that have experienced substantial deregulation in the past forty years – electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, railroads, airlines, hospitals and banking. Also included is a comparison of the EU’s experience in attempting to bring about competition in the energy, finance, and airline industries.
Extension of Popov's theorems for stability of nonlinear control systems

Abstract In Part I of this paper, Popov's Theorem PI is first introduced and then a new Theorem I is formulated. The proof is given in Appendix I. An illustrative example shows that the result obtained from Theorem I agrees with that obtained from Lur'e's Theorem. In Part II the linear part transfer function may have poles along the imaginary axis with real positive residues. The nonlinear function f (e) is bounded as well as continuous. Popov's Theorem PII is extended to form a new Theorem II, which gives the condition for quasi-asymptotic stability. Two corollaries are also given. Corollary IIa gives the condition for asymptotic stability. The proof of Theorem II and its corollaries is given in Appendix II. Three examples check with the results of analog computer studies.
Use of A-Train data to estimate convective buoyancy and entrainment rate

[1] This study describes a satellite-based method to estimate simultaneously convective buoyancy (B) and entrainment rate (λ). The measurement requirements are cloud-top height (CTH), cloud-top temperature (CTT), cloud profiling information (from radar and lidar), and ambient sounding. Initial results of the new method applied to A-Train data are presented. It is observed that tropical oceanic convection above the boundary layer fall into two groups: deep convection (DC) and cumulus congestus (Cg). DC tend to have negative buoyancy near cloud top and λ < 10%/km. Cg are further divided into two groups due to the snapshot view of the A-Train: one has positive buoyancy and λ ≤ 10%/km and the other has negative buoyancy and λ reaching up to 50%/km. Uncertainty analysis is conducted showing that CTT and CTH are the primary source of errors, but they do not affect our conclusions qualitatively. Brief comparisons with previous studies indicate the results of this study are broadly consistent with these earlier studies. Although most of the initial results are expected, this study represents the first time, to our knowledge, that satellite data are used to estimate convective buoyancy and entrainment rate. This new, space-borne method presents an opportunity for a number of follow-up investigations. For example, it serves as a bridge to connect A-Train observations (and follow-up missions) to GCM cumulus parameterizations.
Graphene Nanoribbons: From Chemistry to Circuits

The Y-chart is a powerful tool for understanding the relationship between various views (behavioral, structural, and physical) of a system, at different levels of abstraction, from high-level, architecture and circuits, to low-level, devices and materials. We thus use the Y-chart adapted for graphene to guide the chapter and explore the relationship among the various views and levels of abstraction. We start with the innermost level, namely, the structural and chemical view. The edge chemistry of patterned graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) lies intermediate between graphene and benzene, and the corresponding strain lifts the degeneracy that otherwise promotes metallicity in bulk graphene. At the same time, roughness at the edges washes out chiral signatures, making the nanoribbon width the principal arbiter of metallicity. The width-dependent conductivity allows the design of a monolithically patterned Wide–Narrow–Wide (WNW) all graphene interconnect-channel heterostructure. In a three-terminal incarnation, this geometry exhibits superior electrostatics, a correspondingly benign short-channel effect and a reduction in the contact Schottky barrier through covalent bonding. However, the small bandgaps make the devices transparent to band-to-band tunneling. Increasing the gap with width confinement (or other ways to break the sublattice symmetry) is projected to reduce the mobility even for very pure samples, through a fundamental asymptotic constraint on the bandstructure. An analogous trade-off, ultimately between error rate (reliability) and delay (switching speed) can be projected to persist for all graphitic derivatives. Proceeding thus to a higher level, a compact model is presented to capture the complex nanoribbon circuits, culminating in inverter characteristics, design metrics, and layout diagrams.
Superimposed Schematics: Introducing E-R Structure for In-Situ Information Selections

Considerable research exists on providing structured access to unstructured information sources, primarily for search and query. Little attention has been placed on (1) keeping the by-products of the process (e.g., connections between structured and unstructured data are typically forgotten and context is lost), (2) developing a rich, conceptual structure for this new layer of information (e.g., the structured data is often represented in simple relational tables), and (3) further elaborating and linking the new, structured information. We propose superimposed schematics to address these issues. Superimposed schematics offer ER modeling constructs integrated with marks, where a mark holds an address to an information element in an underlying source. A superimposed schematic enables a conceptual addressing scheme for the information it contains (directly) and for the information it references (through marks). This addressing scheme can then be used for marking from additional layers of superimposed information. We consider schematics as a useful model for superimposed information and discuss how it fits into our general research on superimposed information.
Return Predictability and the Implied Intertemporal Hedging Demands for Stocks and Bonds: International Evidence

We investigate return predictability and the implied intertemporal hedging demands for stocks and bonds in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and U.K. We first estimate predictive regression models for domestic bill, stock, and bond returns in each country, where returns depend on the nominal bill yield, dividend yield, and term spread. Employing the recently developed methodology of Campbell, Chan, and Viceira (2003), we calculate the implied optimal asset demands, including their myopic and intertemporal hedging components, for domestic bills, stocks, and bonds for an investor with an infinite horizon and Epstein-Zin-Weil utility in each country. We find that return predictability generates sizable positive intertemporal hedging demands for domestic stocks in the U.S. and U.K., while the intertemporal hedging demands for domestic stocks are decidedly smaller in Australia, Canada, and Germany and essentially zero in France and Italy. The intertemporal hedging demands for domestic bonds are negative and reasonably large in magnitude in the U.S., France, Germany, and Italy, while they are considerably smaller in magnitude in Australia, Canada, and the U.K. We also calculate optimal asset demands for an investor in the U.S. who, in addition to domestic bills, stocks, and bonds, has access to foreign stocks and bonds. We continue to find a sizable positive intertemporal hedging demand for U.S. stocks, and an important positive intertemporal hedging demand for U.K. stocks emerges. In another exercise, we find that investors in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K. who have access to U.S. stocks and bonds all display sizable positive intertemporal hedging demands for U.S. stocks. Overall, we discover interesting similarities and differences in the implied intertemporal hedging demands for stocks and bonds across countries, and our results indicate that return predictability implies especially strong intertemporal hedging demands for U.S. and U.K. stocks
Inhibition of synaptosomal accumulation of l-norepinephrine II: N-aryloxyalkylphentermines, quaternary d-amphetamines, and 3-aryloxypropylamines.

Abstract The inhibitory potencies of a series of N ‐substituted phentermines on the synaptosomal uptake of l ‐norepinephrine were found to be similar to those of the corresponding amphetamines. Quaternization of N, N ‐dimethyl‐ d ‐amphetamine diminished, but did not abolish, its inhibitory potency, indicating that a permanently charged cation is also effective. Since the addition of an aromatic moiety at the end of a four‐atom chain originating at the nitrogen of amphetamine or phentermine significantly increased inhibitor strength, several 3‐aryloxypropylamines and 4‐phenylbutylamine were tested, but they were much weaker inhibitors than dl ‐amphetamine. Thus, the observed increase in inhibitor potency apparently was not simply the result of a specific interaction of the "nonmimic" portion of the N ‐substituted amphetamines or phentermines.
The Differential Impact of Regional Policies on Economic Growth: One Size Does Not Fit All

We analyze the impact of Michigan economic development policies and highway infrastructure improvements on per capita income and job growth in 1990s using fixed effect estimation procedure. We also improve measurement of policy treatment while accounting for possible spillover effect. The policies considered for analysis have significant impact on growth outcomes. However this effect is non-linear. The size of this impact changes over time and the path of change varies by type of policy. Policy impacts are different between metro and non-metropolitan areas. Also, cross-policy effects are found. The results can assist decision makers in targeting policies.
A Manual for Law Schools on Adjunct Faculty

In 1991, American Bar Association (ABA) President Sandy D'Alemberte created the ABA Coordinating Committee on Legal Education with the mandate to explore ways to expand the participation of practicing lawyers and judges in American legal education. The committee, composed of representatives from a substantial number of ABA sections and a roughly equivalent number of law school professors, focused on the role of part-time and adjunct faculty in American law schools, and published in 1993 the first edition of A Manual for Law Schools on Adjunct Faculty. The purpose of this Manual is to highlight steps that law schools might take to provide adjunct faculty with orientation, guidance, monitoring, and evaluation, and in the process enrich the educational program of the school. Neither committee concludes that any of the points in the Manual are in any way mandatory for any institution. The purpose of the document is not regulatory, but is suggestive and hortatory. The information provided in this Manual is offered as a starting point for discussions regarding orientation, guidance, monitoring, evaluation, and other issues relating to adjunct faculty at individual schools. This report represents the work product of the 1996-97 ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Skills Training Committee and the 1996-97 ABA Coordinating Committee on Legal Education.
Automatic Single-Image 3d Reconstructions of Indoor Manhattan World Scenes

3d reconstruction from a single image is inherently an ambiguous problem. Yet when we look at a picture, we can often infer 3d information about the scene. Humans perform single-image 3d reconstructions by using a variety of single-image depth cues, for example, by recognizing objects and surfaces, and reasoning about how these surfaces are connected to each other. In this paper, we focus on the problem of automatic 3d reconstruction of indoor scenes, specifically ones (sometimes called “Manhattan worlds”) that consist mainly of orthogonal planes. We use a Markov random field (MRF) model to identify the different planes and edges in the scene, as well as their orientations. Then, an iterative optimization algorithm is applied to infer the most probable position of all the planes, and thereby obtain a 3d reconstruction. Our approach is fully automatic—given an input image, no human intervention is necessary to obtain an approximate 3d reconstruction.
Mining weighted sequential patterns based on length-decreasing support constraints

We suggest an efficient weighted sequential pattern mining algorithm with length decreasing support constraints. Our approach is to push weight constraints and length decreasing support constraints to improve performance.
Topological expansion for baryons and mesons

A method of including baryons in the topological classification scheme of Veneziano is described. Every amplitude is classified in terms of the number of handles and boundaries of an associated surface. This classification is purely topological. It does not refer to numbers of flavorsN, or rely on an equalityN −1∼-g 2 that is supposed to be a consequence of the topological expansion. The lowest-order amplitudes are associated with surfaces that have a characteristic tree structure. The analog of Veneziano’s planar-discontinuity formula holds.
Hiding conflict over industry returns: a stakeholder analysis of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

This paper explores the political context and effects of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The paper explores the EITI using a stakeholder analysis of the various interests that it claims to further, and shows how these are chronically imbalanced. Critical conflicts of interest and unequal power between the various parties are obscured by an underlying reliance on liberal consensus theory, which suggests that all parties can be winners. Not only can the interests involved not be reconciled within this framework, but they potentially cannot be reconciled outside it either. What is occluded is the political economy of development within the extractive industries, where the global power of the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWI) is strategically positioned to aid multinational companies, at the expense of workers and wider publics within the signatory countries. In this, political elites play a classic comprador role. The paper situates this particular voluntary instrument within the wider anti-corruption technologies and global campaign of the donor countries and BWI. It argues that, while corruption is widespread within the signatory countries, it cannot be tackled by this instrument, and further, that that is not the principal logic within it: instead, the EITI furthers the pathologising agenda of governance transcripts about the South, which denies and mystifies Northern global agency and excessive profit extraction.
Products of Shifted Primes. Multiplicative Analogues of Goldbach’s Problems, II

A fixed power of each positive integer has a product representation using shifted primes N — p.
Scalable trapped ion quantum computation with a probabilistic ion-photon mapping

We propose a method fur scaling trapped ions fur large-scale quantum computation and communication based on a probabilistic ion photon mapping. Deterministic quantum gates between remotely located trapped ions can be achieved through detection of spontaneously-emitted photons, accompanied by the local Coulomb interaction between neighboring ions. We discuss gate speeds and tolerance to experimental noise for different probabilistic entanglement schemes.
Mechanical Property Characterizations and Performance Modeling of SOFC Seals

This study provides modeling tools for the design of reliable seals for SOFC stacks. The work consists of 1) experimental testing to determine fundamental properties of SOFC sealing materials, and 2) numerical modeling of stacks and sealing systems. The material tests capture relevant temperature-dependent physical and mechanical data needed by the analytical models such as thermal expansion, strength, fracture toughness, and relaxation behavior for glass-ceramic seals and other materials. Testing has been performed on both homogenous specimens and multiple material assemblies to investigate the effect of interfacial reactions. A viscoelastic continuum damage model for a glass-ceramic seal was developed to capture the nonlinear behavior of this material at high temperatures. This model was implemented in the MSC MARC finite element code and was used for a detailed analysis of a planar SOFC stack under thermal cycling conditions. Realistic thermal loads for the stack were obtained using PNNL’s in-house multiphysics solver. The accumulated seal damage and component stresses were evaluated for multiple thermal loading cycles, and regions of high seal damage susceptible to cracking were identified. Selected test results, numerical model development, and analysis results will be presented.
Identification and Management of Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome Immediately Post–Heart Transplantation

Atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) is a serious hematologic disorder with high mortality if left untreated. A comprehensive literature review revealed only two cases of aHUS post-heart transplantation. In both cases the disease developed after induction of calcineurin inhibitor therapy. We report a case of immediate post-heart transplantation aHUS, manifested before the induction of, and therefore not associated with, calcineurin inhibitors.
Unbalanced Voltage Sag Ride-Through of a Doubly Fed Induction Generator Wind Turbine With Series Grid-Side Converter

Regulatory standards for grid interconnection require wind generators to ride through disturbances such as faults and support the grid during such events. Conventional accommodations for providing voltage sag ride-through for doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) wind turbines result in compromised control of the turbine shaft and grid current during unbalanced faults. This paper presents the analysis and control design of a DFIG wind turbine with a series grid-side converter for ride-through during unbalanced voltage sag events. A dynamic model and control structure is developed for unbalanced operating conditions. Experimental results from 2-kW laboratory hardware are used to verify the proposed concepts. Hardware results illustrate an excellent ride-through response of the DFIG system under various sag conditions.
Rat growth during chronic centrifugation

ABSTRACT Female weanling rats were chronically centrifuged at 4.15 g with controls at terrestrial gravity. Samples of 6 to 10 rats were sacrificed for body composition studies at 0, 28, 63, 105, 179 and 308 days of centrifugation and 57 days after centrifugation ended. The centrifuged group had a significantly lower mature body mass than the controls (251 vs 318 g) but the rate of approach to the mature values was the same in both groups. Retirement to 1 g on the 60th day resulted in complete recovery. Masses of muscle, bone, skin, CNS, heart, kidneys, body water and body fat were changed in the centrifuged group. However, an analysis of the growth in mass of individual components relative to growth of the total fat-free compartment revealed that only skin (which increased in mass) was responding to centrifugation per se .
Architecting and implementing versatile dependability

Distributed applications must often consider and select the appropriate trade-offs among three important aspects – fault-tolerance, performance and resources. We introduce a novel concept, called versatile dependability, that provides a framework for analyzing and reasoning about these trade-offs in dependable software architectures. We present the architecture of a middleware framework that implements versatile dependability by providing the appropriate ”knobs” to tune and re-calibrate the trade-offs. Our framework can adjust the properties and the behavior of the system at development-time, at deployment-time, and throughout the application’s life-cycle. This renders the versatile dependability approach useful both to applications that require static fault-tolerance configurations supporting the loss/addition of resources and changing workloads, as well as to applications that evolve in terms of their dependability requirements. Through a couple of specific examples, one on adapting the replication style at runtime and the other on tuning the system scalability under given constraints, we demonstrate concretely how versatile dependability can provide an extended coverage of the design space of dependable distributed systems.
Growth, Initial Conditions, Law and Speed of Privatization in Transition Countries: 11 Years Later

The end of the communist era brought much optimism over the growth possibilities of the economies that are now referred to as the transition countries. An inefficient system, rife with distortions and without incentives, was to be replaced by the market. Privatization, liberalization, and decentralization would bring unprecedented prosperity. To be sure, there were some worries about a short transition recession. But the only real issue was how best to secure the transition.
The Chow ring of the symmetric space Gl(2n,C)/SO(2n,C)

Abstract We show this Chow ring is Z ⊕ Z . We do this by partitioning the space into 2n subvarieties each of which is fibered over Gl ( 2 n − 2 , C ) / SO ( 2 n − 2 , C ) .
Simulations of the wardle instability of c-type shock waves

C-type shocks in the partially ionized ISM are modelled by numerical simulations. Under certain conditions the shocks are subject to the Wardle instability, which initially makes the shock front rippled, then in the non-linear stage can produce density variations in both the ion and neutral fluids. A systematic search in the numerically accessible parameter space is done to determine the wave vector kmax and the growth rate S max of the fastest growing modes. The neutral Alfven number, and the angle θ s between the shock normal and the upstream magnetic field determine the strength and obliqueness of the shock, as well as the dimensionless parameters of the fastest growing mode. The results confirm and extend Wardle’s linear analysis.
Identifying Structural Models of Committee Decisions With Heterogeneous Tastes and Ideological Bias

In practice, members of a committee often make different recommendations despite a common goal and shared sources of information. We study the nonparametric identification and estimation of a structural model, where such discrepancies are rationalized by the members’ unobserved types, which consist of ideological bias while weighing different sources of information, and tastes for multiple objectives announced in the policy target. We consider models with and without strategic incentives for members to make recommendations that conform to the final committee decision. We show that pure-strategy Bayesian Nash equilibria exist in both cases, and that the variation in common information recorded in the data helps us to recover the distribution of private types from the members’ choices. Building on the identification result, we estimate a structural model of interest rate decisions by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Bank of England. We find some evidence that the external committee members are les...
Proof abstraction for imperative languages

Modularity in programming language semantics derives from abstracting over the structure of underlying denotations, yielding semantic descriptions that are more abstract and reusable. One such semantic framework is Liang's modular monadic semantics in which the underlying semantic structure is encapsulated with a monad. Such abstraction can be at odds with program verification, however, because program specifications require access to the (deliberately) hidden semantic representation. The techniques for reasoning about modular monadic definitions of imperative programs introduced here overcome this barrier. And, just like program definitions in modular monadic semantics, our program specifications and proofs are representation-independent and hold for whole classes of monads, thereby yielding proofs of great generality.
Watson and the era of cognitive computing

In the last decade, the availability of massive amounts of new data, and the development of new machine learning technologies, have augmented reasoning systems to give rise to a new class of computing systems. These Cognitive Systems learn from data, reason from models, and interact naturally with us, to perform complex tasks better than either humans or machines can do by themselves. In essence, cognitive systems help us perform like the best in each domain by penetrating the complexity of big data and leveraging the power of models. O ne of the first cognitive systems, Watson, demonstrated through a Jeopardy! exhibition match, that it was capable of answering complex factoid questions as effectively as the worlds champions. Follow-on cognitive systems perform other tasks, such as discovery, reasoning, and multi-modal understanding in a variety of domains, such as healthcare, insurance, and education. We believe such cognitive systems will transform every profession, industry, and our everyday life for the better. In this talk, I will give an overview of the applications and key capabilities of cognitive systems, and highlight the role pervasive computing will play in such systems.
EOLIAN RECORDS, DEEP-SEA SEDIMENTS

Dust lifted from arid and semiarid continental surfaces, commonly by large spring and summer storms, travels transoceanic distances and forms an important component of deep-sea sediments. That sedimentary record provides a history of continental aridity in the dust flux data, a history of the intensity of the prevailing winds in the dust grain-size data, and a record of provenance in the geochemistry of the dust grains. Furthermore, identification of eolian source regions permits reconstruction of transport pathways via the zonal winds. All these aspects of the sedimentary dust record have been brought to bear on fundamental problems of climate and climate change during Cenozoic times.
The Determination of Planetary Masses from Radio Tracking of Space Probes and Planetary Radar

This paper reviews the progress in recent years in determining the masses of the terrestrial planets through radio tracking information from space probes and from planetary radar measurements. The history over the past decade of radio tracking information from the Mariner, Pioneer and lunar spacecraft, and planetary radar information is reviewed; the progress in these new technologies in terms of the resulting improvements in the accuracy of Doppler and time-delay measurements is emphasized. The use of these new data types to improve the planetary masses, other astronomical constants, and the planetary ephemerides, is described. New values for planetary masses and related constants based on weighted least squares results using information from radio tracking and radar measurements available over the periods 1962-1968 is presented. The internal consistency of these results is reviewed and a discussion of the estimated accuracy of these new determinations is given. The potential accuracy of these results is shown to be about an order of magnitude better than the presently quoted error bounds.
On PAC learning algorithms for rich boolean function classes

We survey the fastest known algorithms for learning various expressive classes of Boolean functions in the Probably Approximately Correct (PAC) learning model.
The Microscopic Quantum Theory of Low Temperature Amorphous Solids

The quantum excitations in glasses have long presented a set of puzzles for condensed matter physicists. A common view is that they are largely disordered analogs of elementary excitations in crystals, supplemented by two level systems which are chemically local entities coming from disorder. A radical revision of this picture argues that the excitations in low temperature glasses are deeply connected to the energy landscape of the glass when it vitrifies: the excitations are not low excited states built on a single ground state but locally defined resonances, high in the energy spectrum of a solid. According to a semiclassical analysis, the two level systems involve resonant collective tunneling motions of around two hundred molecular units which are relics of the mosaic of cooperative motions at the glass transition temperature Tg. The density of states of the TLS is determined by Tg and the mosaic’s length scale, which is a weak function of the cooling rate. The universality of phonon scattering in insulating glasses is explained. The Boson Peak and the plateau in thermal conductivity, observed at higher temperatures, are also quantitatively understood within the picture as arising from the same cooperative motions, but now accompanied by thermal activation of the mosaic’s vibrational modes. The dynamics of some of the local structural transitions have significant quantum corrections to the semiclassical picture. These corrections lead to a deviation of the heat capacity and conductivity from the standard tunneling model results and explain the anomalous time dependence of the heat capacity. Interaction between tunneling centers contributes to the large and negative value of the Gruneisen parameter often observed in glasses.
Modeling Aggregate Behavior and Fluctuations in Economics: Stochastic Views of Interacting Agents

This book has two components: stochastic dynamics and stochastic random combinatorial analysis. The first discusses evolving patterns of interactions of a large but finite number of agents of several types. Changes of agent types or their choices or decisions over time are formulated as jump Markov processes with suitably specified transition rates: optimisations by agents make these rates generally endogenous. Probabilistic equilibrium selection rules are also discussed, together with the distributions of relative sizes of the bases of attraction. As the number of agents approaches infinity, we recover deterministic macroeconomic relations of more conventional economic models. The second component analyses how agents form clusters of various sizes. This has applications for discussing sizes or shares of markets by various agents which involve some combinatorial analysis patterned after the population genetics literature. These are shown to be relevant to distributions of returns to assets, volatility of returns, and power laws.
INTERPRETATIONS OF FISSION GAS BEHAVIOR IN REFRACTORY FUELS.

The swelling of the refractory nuclear fuels, UO2, UN, and UC, at temperatures of the order of 1700°C, is related to the behavior of the fission gases as these gases make their way out of the fuels...
Some Realism about Environmental Skepticism: The Implications of Bjorn Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist for Environmental Law and Policy

In the short time following its release, Bjorn Lomborg's book, 'The Skeptical Environmentalist', has proven to be a lightning rod for controversy and polarized reaction. The work has attracted downright fawning reviews in The Economist, The New York Times, and The Washington Post while simultaneously garnering absolute scorn from such ordinarily staid publications as Science, Nature, and Scientific American. To this author's knowledge, however, no academic journal yet has published a sustained analysis of the work and its implications for environmental science, law, and policy. This review essay attempts to fill that niche by undertaking a thorough assessment of Lomborg's argument, his evidence, and his significance to the environment-development discussion. Part I provides a critical review of Lomborg's claim that available scientific research undermines the 'Litany' of fears and concerns espoused by advocates of environmental protection. Part II examines Lomborg's argument that environmental policy, risk regulation, and other subjects of social decision making are best addressed through an exclusive and narrowly defined use of cost-benefit analysis. Some thoughts on less technocratic forms of cost-benefit analysis conclude the essay.
Having your cake and eating it too: autonomy and interaction in a model of sentence processing

Is the human language understander a collection of modular processes operating with relative autonomy, or is it a single integrated process? This ongoing debate has polarized the language processing community, with two fundamentally different types of model posited, and with each camp concluding that the other is wrong. One camp puts forth a model with separate processors and distinct knowledge sources to explain one body of data, and the other proposes a model with a single processor and a homogeneous, monolithic knowledge source to explain the other body of data. In this paper we argue that a hybrid approach which combines a unified processor with separate knowledge sources provides an explanation of both bodies of data, and we demonstrate the feasibility of this approach with the computational model called COMPERE. We believe that this approach brings the language processing community significantly closer to offering humanlike language processing systems.
Strategies for Bonding W and Al2O3 at Low Temperatures

Several strategies for bonding W and Al 2 O 3 via co-sintering at temperatures below 1200° C are investigated experimentally, with a particular emphasis on enhancing interfacial toughness and strength. These strategies include (i) a variation on the classical Mo-Mn process, and (ii) a conventional glass migration technique, as well as (iii) a series of new techniques based on the formation of a transient liquid phase. The interfacial strength of W/Al 2 O 3 co-sintered specimens and the sintered strength of the W layer are evaluated with the four-point bending delamination test. The microstructure and chemical composition of the systems are also examined, and related to the strength measurements.
XML to Relational Conversion Using Theory of Regular Tree Grammars

In this paper, we study the different steps of translation from XML to relational models, while maintaining semantic constraints. Our work is based on the theory of regular tree grammars, which provides a useful formal framework for understanding various aspects of XML schema languages. We first study two normal form representations for regular tree grammars. The first normal form representation, called NF1, is used in the two scenarios: (a) Several document validation algorithms use the NF1 representation as the first step in the validation process for efficiency reasons, and (b) NF1 representation can be used to check whether a given schema satisfies the structural constraints imposed by the schema language. The second normal form representation, called NF2, forms the basis for conversion of a set of type definitions in a schema language L1 that supports union types (e.g., XML-Schema), to a schema language L2 that does not support union types (e.g., SQL), and is used as the first step in our XML to relational conversion algorithm.
Temporal dynamic controllability revisited

An important issue for temporal planners is the ability to handle temporal uncertainty. We revisit the question of how to determine whether a given set of temporal requirements are feasible in the light of uncertain durations of some processes. In particular, we consider how best to determine whether a network is Dynamically Controllable, i.e., whether a dynamic strategy exisls for executing the network that is guaranteed to satisfy the requirements. Previous work has shown the existence of a pseudo-polynomial algorithm for testing Dynamic Controllability. Here, we simplify the previous framework, and present a strongly polynomial algorithm with a termination criterion based on the structure of the network.
Paging in a distributed virtual memory

Poor memory performance has been associated with functional languages. The MT System is being developed to study the design choices in the development of an all-software based distributed virtual memory for a pure list-based functional language. Of key importance is to understand the virtual memory behaviour of the different components of a pure functional system. In this paper, we present results obtained from observing the paging behaviour of the MT heap that demonstrate the virtual memory benefits of using the MT allocation algorithm over allocation algorithms that box their data. FIFO performs nearly as well as LRU for list-based memory on a set of benchmarks which include a metacircular evaluator for MT. The empirical results are explained by the paging behaviour of three frequent high-level memory accessing operations.
Accelerating EM: an empirical study

Many applications require that we learn the parameters of a model from data. EM (Expectation-Maximization) is a method for learning the parameters of probabilistic models with missing or hidden data. There are instances in which this method is slow to converge. Therefore, several accelerations have been proposed to improve the method. None of the proposed acceleration methods are theoretically dominant and experimental comparisons are lacking. In this paper, we present the different proposed accelerations and compare them experimentally. From the results of the experiments, we argue that some acceleration of EM is always possible, but that which acceleration is superior depends on properties of the problem.