cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Recent advances in crosslinking chemistry of biomimetic poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogels

The designs and applications of biomimetic hydrogels have become an important and integral part of modern tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Many of these hydrogels are prepared from synthetic macromers (e.g., poly(ethylene glycol) or PEG) as they provide high degrees of tunability for matrix crosslinking, degradation, and modification. For a hydrogel to be considered biomimetic, it has to recapitulate key features that are found in the native extracellular matrix, such as the appropriate matrix mechanics and permeability, the ability to sequester and deliver drugs, proteins, or nucleic acids, as well as the ability to provide receptor-mediated cell–matrix interactions and protease-mediated matrix cleavage. A variety of chemistries have been employed to impart these biomimetic features into hydrogel crosslinking. These chemistries, such as radical-mediated polymerizations, enzyme-mediated crosslinking, bio-orthogonal click reactions, and supramolecular assembly, may be different in their crosslinking mechanisms but are required to be efficient for gel crosslinking and ligand bioconjugation under aqueous reaction conditions. The prepared biomimetic hydrogels should display a diverse array of functionalities and should also be cytocompatible for in vitro cell culture and/or in situ cell encapsulation. The focus of this article is to review recent progress in the crosslinking chemistries of biomimetic hydrogels with a special emphasis on hydrogels crosslinked from poly(ethylene glycol)-based macromers.
Commonality in product design: Cost saving, valuation change and cannibalization

Abstract Offering a variety of products is important for a firm to attract different consumer segments. However, high product variety increases production and distribution costs. Modular product design and parts commonality are approaches used to counter this trend in cost and still offer a variety of products. This paper develops a model to examine when modular products should be introduced and how much modularity to offer. The model looks at a market consisting of a high segment and a low segment. Customers choose the product that maximizes their surplus, which is defined as the product’s utility minus its price. Presence of commonality affects the utility of a product. Greater commonality decreases production cost but makes the products more indistinguishable from one another. This makes the product more desirable for the low segment but less desirable for the high segment. The firm’s objective is to design the products and set the prices so as to maximize its profit.
Electrochemical CO2 Reduction: Recent Advances and Current Trends

With rising levels of CO2 in our atmosphere, technologies capable of converting CO2 into useful products have become more valuable. The field of electrochemical CO2 reduction is reviewed here, with sections on mechanism, formate (formic acid) production, carbon monoxide production, reduction to higher products (methanol, methane, etc.), use of flow cells, high pressure approaches, molecular catalysts, non-aqueous electrolytes, and solid oxide electrolysis cells. These diverse approaches to electrochemical CO2 reduction are compared and contrasted, emphasizing potential processes that would be feasible for large-scale use. Although the focus is on recent reports, highlights of older reports are also included due to their important contributions to the field, particularly for high-rate electrolysis.
Cargèse Lectures on String Theory with Eight Supercharges

These lectures give an introduction to the interrelated topics of Calabi-Yau compactification of the type II string, black hole attractors, the all-orders entropy formula, the dual ( 0 , 4 ) CFT, topological strings and the OSV conjecture. Based on notes by MG of lectures by AS at the 2006 Cargese summer school.
Dynamics of freely swimming flexible foils

We use modeling and simulations guided by initial experiments to study thin foils which are oscillated at the leading edge and are free to move unidirectionally under the resulting fluid forces. We find resonant-like peaks in the swimming speed as a function of foil length and rigidity. We find good agreement between the inviscid model and the experiment in the foil motions (particularly the wavelengths of their shapes), the dependences of their swimming speeds on foil length and rigidity, and the corresponding flows. The model predicts that the foil speed is proportional to foil length to the −1/3 power and foil rigidity to the 2/15 power. These scalings give a good collapse of the experimental data.
THE ENRICHMENT OF THE INTRACLUSTER MEDIUM

To determine the relative contributions of galactic and intracluster stars to the enrichment of the intracluster medium (ICM), we present X-ray surface brightness, temperature, and Fe abundance profiles for a set of 12 galaxy clusters4Based on observations obtained with XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and NASA. for which we have extensive optical photometry. Assuming a standard initial mass function and simple chemical evolution model scaled to match the present-day cluster early-type SN Ia rate, the stars in the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) plus the intracluster stars (ICS) generate 31+11 –9%, on average, of the observed ICM Fe within r 500 (~0.6 times r 200, the virial radius). An alternate, two-component SN Ia model (including both prompt and delayed detonations) produces a similar BCG+ICS contribution of 22+9 –9%. Because the ICS typically contribute 80% of the BCG+ICS Fe, we conclude that the ICS are significant, yet often neglected, contributors to the ICM Fe within r 500. However, the BCG+ICS fall short of producing all the Fe, so metal loss from stars in other cluster galaxies must also contribute. By combining the enrichment from intracluster and galactic stars, we can account for all the observed Fe. These models require a galactic metal-loss fraction (0.84+0.11 –0.14) that, while large, is consistent with the metal mass not retained by galactic stars. The SN Ia rates, especially as a function of galaxy environment and redshift, remain a significant source of uncertainty in further constraining the metal-loss fraction. For example, increasing the SN Ia rate by a factor of 1.8—to just within the 2σ uncertainty for present-day cluster early-type galaxies—allows the combined BCG + ICS + cluster galaxy model to generate all the ICM Fe with a much lower galactic metal-loss fraction (~0.35).
Design for a microcomputer-based rural development information system

A new type of rural development information system is described. It is based on two recently introduced low-cost technologies; microcomputers and the informant survey. When the informant data from the universe of subdistricts in a region are analyzed with modern multivariate techniques, it is possible to derive comprehensive measures of institutional structure as well as five measures of rural progress. The latter are: a level of living scale based on housing characteristics, a measure ofinequality derived from the difference between the housing of irrigated and dryland farmers, an estimate of agricultural productivity, a score of ecological problems, and a measure of status group restrictions, specifically restrictions on females. These and similar measures of social structure constitute the ‘macrosocial accounting’ file. In addition this information system includes project monitoring and administrative accounting files. The uses of this system are familiar — comparative description, monitoring and evaluation — but in this integrated and upgraded form, the potential problem solving capacity of rural development agencies should be significantly enhanced.
Inequality and income: The mediating effects of social spending and risk

This paper estimates models of social spending, income risk, and per capita income levels using data from a post-war panel of OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. The objective is to test two theories about the pathway from inequality to per capita income. According to one theory, inequality reduces incomes because it induces social spending, which acts as a drag on the economy. The results here suggest, however, that inequality does not seem to induce social spending, and social spending does not seem to lower per capita incomes. According to a second theory, inequality causes upheaval which adds to the volatility of per capita income, which may reduce the level of per capita income. The results suggest, however, that volatility, measured here as the standard deviation of per capita income, has little measurable impact on either per capita income or social spending. The mainsprings of per capita income are more likely to be the traditional factors: the work force, human capital, and physical capital. JEL classification: E6.
Forecasting Organic Food Prices: Emerging Methods for Testing and Evaluating Conditional Predictive Ability

Organic farmers, wholesalers, and retailers need price forecasts to improve their decision-making practices. This paper presents a methodology and protocol to select the best performing method from several time and frequency domain candidates. Weekly farmgate prices for organic fresh produce are used. Forecasting methods are evaluated on the basis of an aggregate accuracy measure and several out-of-sample predictive ability tests. A seasonal autoregressive method is recommended for all planning horizons. The role of better price forecasts for the agents who deal in less common organic produce is highlighted. A confirmation for the claim that the organic produce industry needs better farmgate price forecasts to grow is provided.
Algorithms for the measurement of liquid metal coolant flow velocity with correlated thermal signals

The flow velocity of liquid metal coolant can be determined through the measurements of temperature fluctuation recorded by a pair of temperature sensors placed certain distance apart along the flow. Traditionally, this was done using a cross-correlation algorithm to estimate the transit time of the coolant, and thus its velocity. This widely used cross-correlation algorithm, however, suffers from the ambiguity in reading of measurements. To alleviate this problem, the transfer function estimation approach was recently proposed which tends to give more accurate results. In this paper, we introduce a new algorithm that can further improve the accuracy in the transit time estimation using an adaptive inverse system model at a higher cost of computation. When real-time computation is a concern, we propose a second algorithm based on an adaptive filtering approach which makes a sound trade-off between accuracy and computation cost. This algorithm incurs less processing time than the first proposed algorithm with higher accuracy than the two aforementioned conventional algorithms.
Photoproduction of charmed baryons

The results of a search for the photoproduction of charmed baryons in the broad-band neutral beam at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are reported. The lowest lying charmed baryon ({lambda}/sub c//sup +/) is observed through its decay to p-anti K/sup 0/. The cross section times branching ratio of {gamma} + C --> {lambda}/sub c//sup +/ + X, {gamma} + C --> p + anti K/sup 0/ is measured to be sigma B = 3 nanobarns/nucleon. The total error on this measurement is estimated to be -20% to +40%. The mass of the {lambda}/sub c//sup +/ is found to be 2.284 +- 0.001 GeV/c/sup 2/, in good agreement with the Mark II result from SPEAR. Upper limits (90% confidence level) are set on sigma B for the modes {lambda}/sup 0/π, {lambda}/sup 0/πππ, pKπ.
Intergenerational Conflict and the Political Economy of School Spending

Abstract In this paper we use survey data to examine support among voters from different age cohorts for public school spending. The survey asked potential voters in California how they intended to vote on two initiatives, one a statewide initiative that would increase spending on public schools throughout the state and the other a local initiative that would increase spending only in the respondent's local school district. We find that support for school spending generally declines with age, but that older voters are more willing to support local spending on schools than state spending. We examine two explanations for this voting pattern: the capitalization of local spending into housing values and intergenerational altruism. Our results do not strongly favor one explanation over the other, suggesting that both factors probably play important roles in sustaining support among older voters for local school spending.
Dendritic Cell-Derived Exosomes Express a Streptococcus pneumoniae Capsular Polysaccharide Type 14 Cross-Reactive Antigen That Induces Protective Immunoglobulin Responses against Pneumococcal Infection in Mice

Exosomes activate T cells in vivo, but whether exosomes are able to induce humoral immune responses is still unknown. We found that dendritic cells, but not other immune cells, constitutively release an exosome-associated glycoconjugate that is cross-reactive with the capsular polysaccharide of Streptococcus pneumoniae type 14 (Cps14-CRA). Cps14-CRA was localized to the cholesterol-enriched microdomains or rafts of the exosomes and was mapped to the β1→6 branched N-acetyl-lactosamine derivatives of the Cps14-CRA. Injection of CFA-primed naive mice with purified dendritic cell exosomes induced immunoglobulin (Ig) anti-Cps14 responses composed predominantly of IgM, IgG3, and IgG1. These responses were associated with protection against a lethal challenge with live S. pneumoniae type 14, but not with type 3 bacteria, and was correlated with the titer of elicited IgM and IgG3 anti-Cps14. These data show, for the first time, that exosomes can induce a humoral immune response to an associated unprocessed, autologous antigen. Although anti-Cps14 Ig responses are specifically demonstrated, these could reflect a broader mechanism that modulates both natural immunity and autoimmunity to other glycotopes.
Solution of Scott's Problem on the Number of Directions Determined by a Point Set in 3-Space

Let P be a set of n points in R3, not all in a common plane. We solve a problem of Scott (1970) by showing that the connecting lines of P assume at least 2n - 5 different directions if n is odd and at least 2n - 7 if n is even. The bound for odd n is sharp.
SERVICE PROCESS CONFIGURATIONS IN ELECTRONIC RETAILING: A TAXONOMIC ANALYSIS OF ELECTRONIC FOOD RETAILERS

Abstract. Service-products of electronic retailers consist of bundles of physical goods, offline services, and digital content. We analyze data on service-product attributes from a sample of 255 electronic food retailers to develop a taxonomy of electronic service-products. The taxonomy is comprised of eight service-product configurations. Digital content and target market segment variables provide the dimensions along which the service-product configurations are differentiated in the taxonomy. We examine and find positive and significant correlation between the ordering of configurations in the taxonomy and (i) customer satisfaction with product information, product selection, and overall service quality, and (ii) customer loyalty. We also find that operations variables such as product availability, timeliness of delivery, and customer support exhibit positive and significant correlations with overall service quality and customer loyalty. We discuss the implications of the study findings for managing electronic food retailing operations.
Elastic-Plastic Analysis of a Propagating Crack under Cyclic Loading

Fatigue cracks have been experimentally shown to close at positive stresses during constant-amplitude load cycling. The crack-closure phenomenon is caused by residual plastic deformations remaining in the wake of an advancing crack tip. This paper is concerned with the development and application of a two-dimensional finiteelement analysis to predict crack-closure and crack-opening stresses during specified histories of cyclic loading. An existing finite-element computer program which accounts for elastic-plastic material behavior under cyclic loading was modified to account for changing boundary conditions—crack growth and intermittent contact of crack surfaces. This program was subsequently used to study the crack-closure behavior under constantamplitude and simple block-program loading. a [B]
A visualization framework for the modeling and formal analysis of high assurance systems

Increasingly, object-oriented technology, specifically the Unified Modeling Language (UML), is being used to develop critical embedded systems. Several efforts have attempted to translate UML models into formal specification languages, thus enabling the models to be analyzed by model checkers. Unfortunately, the complexity and volume of the analysis results often prevents developers from fully taking advantage of the analysis capabilities. This paper introduces a generic visualization framework, Theseus, that provides developers with a model-based, visual interpretation of the analysis results in terms of the original UML diagrams. Within this framework, a playback mechanism displays the execution path that has led to a model checking violation in terms of the original UML state diagram and a newly generated sequence diagram that depicts the problem scenario. A Theseus prototype supporting the Spin and SMV model checkers has been applied to the analysis of UML models for embedded systems from industry.
Conceptualizing and Measuring Quality of Life for National Policy

The interests in social indicators and social reporting started in the 1960s with the new awareness of poverty in the midst of affluence. In this paper I first discuss the poverty concept and its implication for social policy strategy. The poverty concept should be but one in a system of concepts that throws light on the whole distribution of income and wealth and how income from labor as well as income from capital is generated. The central concepts in the system are income and economic standard, which I explain in different perspectives on command over resources. The command-over-resources concept is used to get from a narrow concept of material welfare that can be measured in money to a wider concept of welfare that includes the universal common social concerns. I confess to being intrigued by the fact that a list of social concerns can be agreed upon that seems to be relevant across cultures, political systems and times. I suggest that this surmised universality springs from the great “life projects” that all humans face over the life cycle. I then discuss the role of social indicators and social reporting as continuous information on these common concerns in the context of an epistemology of the democratic process. Social reporting would serve the democratic process best if it answers “how it is” and leaves the answers on “how it ought to be” and “what should be done” to come about through discussion among citizens.
Finite Element Incremental Approach and Exact Rigid Body Inertia

In the dynamics of multibody systems that consist of interconnected rigid and deformable bodies, it is desirable to have a formulation that preserves the exactness of the rigid body inertia. As demonstrated in this paper, the incremental finite element approach, which is often used to solve large rotation problems, does not lead to the exact inertia of simple structures when they rotate as rigid bodies. Nonetheless, the exact inertia properties, such as the mass moments of inertia and the moments of mass, of the rigid bodies can be obtained using the finite element shape functions that describe large rigid body translations by introducing an intermediate element coordinate system. The results of application of the parallel axis theorem can be obtained using the finite element shape functions by simply changing the element nodal coordinates. As demonstrated in this investigation, the exact rigid body inertia properties in case of rigid body rotations can be obtained using the shape function if the nodal coordinates are defined using trigonometric functions. The analysis presented in this paper also demonstrates that a simple expression for the kinetic energy can be obtained for flexible bodies that undergo large displacements without the need for interpolation of large rotation coordinates.
Informality and Protection from Health Shocks: Lessons from Yemen

The informal sector is generally believed to be more vulnerable to various risks due to limited access to social insurance, but little empirical evidence exists to support this statement. This paper examines the relationship between informality and protection from health risks in Yemen. The formal sector, when defined based on pension coverage, largely overlaps with public employment where the better educated, more experienced, and better informed tend to work. The results indicate that, even after accounting for socio-economic status, water supply and quality conditions, risky behavior patterns, and unobserved heterogeneity, formal sector households have better accessibility and affordability to health service. This may in part explain better health outcomes among formal households, although large heterogeneity across regions (urban/rural) exists. However, the role of the existing health insurance is found to be unclear. The findings reconfirm the importance of policies that promote universal access to health service and a risk pooling avenue delinked from employment types as well as healthy living conditions and lifestyles.
Breakdown of Predictability in Gravitational Collapse

The principle of equivalence, which says that gravity couples to the energy-momentum tensor of matter, and the quantum-mechanical requirement that energy should be positive imply that gravity is always attractive. This leads to singularities in any reasonable theory of gravitation. A singularity is a place where the classical concepts of space and time break down as do all the known laws of physics because they are all formulated on a classical space-time background. In this paper it is claimed that this breakdown is not merely a result of our ignorance of the correct theory but that it represents a fundamental limitation to our ability to predict the future, a limitation that is analogous but additional to the limitation imposed by the normal quantum-mechanical uncertainty principle. The new limitation arises because general relativity allows the causal structure of space-time to be very different from that of Minkowski space. The interaction region can be bounded not only by an initial surface on which data are given and a final surface on which measurements are made but also a "hidden surface" about which the observer has only limited information such as the mass, angular momentum, and charge. Concerning this hidden surface one has a "principle of ignorance": The surface emits with equal probability all configurations of particles compatible with the observers limited knowledge. It is shown that the ignorance principle holds for the quantum-mechanical evaporation of black holes: The black hole creates particles in pairs, with one particle always falling into the hole and the other possibly escaping to infinity. Because part of the information about the state of the system is lost down the hole, the final situation is represented by a density matrix rather than a pure quantum state. This means there is no $S$ matrix for the process of black-hole formation and evaporation. Instead one has to introduce a new operator, called the superscattering operator, which maps density matrices describing the initial situation to density matrices describing the final situation.
Exploiting the past to reduce delay in CSMA scheduling: a high-order markov chain approach

Recently several CSMA algorithms based on the Glauber dynamics model have been proposed for multihop wireless scheduling, as viable solutions to achieve the throughput optimality, yet are simple to implement. However, their delay performances still remain unsatisfactory, mainly due to the nature of the underlying Markov chains that imposes a fundamental constraint on how the link state can evolve over time. In this paper, we propose a new approach toward better queueing and delay performance, based on our observation that the algorithm needs not be Markovian, as long as it can be implemented in a distributed manner, achieving the same throughput optimality and better delay performance. Our approach hinges upon utilizing past state information observed by local link and then constructing a high-order Markov chain for the evolution of the feasible link schedules. Our proposed algorithm, named delayed CSMA, adds virtually no additional overhead onto the existing CSMA-based algorithms, achieves the throughput optimality under the usual choice of link weight as a function of queue length, and also provides much better delay performance by effectively resolving temporal link starvation problem. From our extensive simulations we observe that the delay under our algorithm can be often reduced by a factor of 20 over a wide range of scenarios, compared to the standard Glauber-dynamics-based CSMA algorithm.
Synchronized aggregate signatures: new definitions, constructions and applications

An aggregate signature scheme is a digital signature scheme where anyone given n signatures on n messages from n users can aggregate all these signatures into a single short signature. Unfortunately, no "fully non-interactive" aggregate signature schemes are known outside of the random oracle heuristic; that is, signers must pass messages between themselves, sequentially or otherwise, to generate the signature. Interaction is too costly for some interesting applications.In this work, we consider the task of realizing aggregate signatures in the model of Gentry and Ramzan (PKC 2006) when all signers share a synchronized clock, but do not need to be aware of or interactive with one another. Each signer may issue at most one signature per time period and signatures aggregate only if they were created during the same time period. We call this synchronized aggregation.We present a surprisingly efficient synchronized aggregate signature scheme secure under the Computational Diffie-Hellman assumption in the standard model. Our construction is based on the stateful signatures of Hohenberger and Waters (Eurocrypt 2009). Those signatures do not aggregate since each signature includes unique randomness for a chameleon hash and those random values do not compress. To overcome this challenge, we remove the chameleon hash from their scheme and find an alternative method for moving from weak to full security that enables aggregation. We conclude by discussing applications of this construction to sensor networks and software authentication.
Experimental Determination of Asymmetry-Induced Trim Angles of Attack

One- and three-degree-of-freedom dynamic stability balances were used in supersonic and hypersonic wind tunnels to measure the trim angles of attack of a 10° cone with small asymmetries. The asymmetries, tested independently, were a flare section near the base of the model and a misalignment of the principal axes with respect to the geometric axes. The test hardware, techniques, and results are described. Numerical simulations are compared with the wind tunnel results and full-scale flight data. The comparisons show that the trim angles determined with these techniques permit accurate prediction of flight performance. asymmetry and an inertia asymmetry. The aerodynamic asymmetry was a small wedge (flare section) located at the aft end of the vehicle. The inertia asymmetry was generated by rotating two of the vehicle's principal axes with respect to the geometric axes. In both cases, the asymmetries were designed to provide a reference out-of-plane trim angle of 0.5° during the initial portion of the flight (Moo « 4.2). The asymmetries were combined with an offset center of gravity so that the induced trim angle would produce a roll torque. Success of these flights depended to a large degree on the accuracy with which the trim angle, induced by either type of asymmetry, could be predicted. During the planning phases of the flights, it was apparent that experimental determination of the trim angles, in a wind tunnel, would be advisable. The type of data desired, together with the small magnitude of the trim angles to be measured, required that new test hardware and procedures be developed. This paper presents the results of a study conducted to measure the trim angle of attack of a 10° cone with small asymmetries. Details of the experimental techniques, comparisons of experimental results with analytical and numerical predictions, and comparisons with flight data are presented in the follow- ing sections.
Predicting Peptide Binding Sites on Protein Surfaces by Clustering Chemical Interactions

Short peptides play important roles in cellular processes including signal transduction, immune response and transcription regulation. Correct identification of the peptide binding site on a given protein surface is of great importance not only for mechanistic investigation of these biological processes but also for therapeutic development. In the present study, we developed a novel computational approach, referred to as ACCLUSTER, for predicting the peptide binding sites on protein surfaces. Specifically, we use the twenty standard amino acids as probes to globally scan the protein surface. The poses forming good chemical interactions with the protein are identified, followed by clustering with the Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) technique. Finally, these clusters are ranked based on their sizes. The cluster with the largest size is predicted as the putative binding site. Assessment of ACCLUSTER was performed on a diverse test set of 251 non-redundant protein-peptide complexes. The results were compared with the performance of POCASA, a pocket detection method for ligand binding site prediction. Peptidb, another protein-peptide database that contains both bound structures and unbound or homologous structures was used to test the robustness of ACCLUSTER. The performance of ACCLUSTER was also compared with PepSite2 and PeptiMap, two recently developed methods developed for identifying peptide binding sites. The results showed that ACCLUSTER is a promising method for peptide binding site prediction. Additionally, ACCLUSTER was also shown to be applicable to small molecular binding site prediction and protein-protein interface prediction. Notably, ACCLUSTER is based on physical interactions rather than informatics training, and can easily be extended to other macromolecular systems, including systems like peptide-RNA complexes which lack sufficient structural data and therefore pose challenges to machine-learning based methods.
1-naphthylpropargyl ether group: a readily cleaved and sterically minimal protecting system for stereoselective glycosylation.

The (1-naphthyl)propargyl group is introduced as a sterically unintrusive alcohol protecting group that is cleaved in a single step by exposure to dichlorodicyanoquinone in wet dichloromethane. In conjunction with a 4,6-O-benzylidene protecting group and the use of the sulfoxide glycosylation method, 3-O-naphthylpropargyl protected mannosyl donors are extremely β-selective.
Bright sub-Poissonian light from a GAWBS-compensated nonlinear-fiber Sagnac interferometer

Summary form only given. We experimentally demonstrate bright sub-Poissonian light generation with a balanced nonlinear Sagnac interferometer. In contrast to the previous work, where such a device was used for quadrature squeezing of the input vacuum, we inject a coherent-state input signal, which can be either amplified or deamplified depending on its phase relative to that of the pump, transforming a balanced Sagnac interferometer into a phase-sensitive amplifier.
Remote sensing in the coming decade: the vision and the reality

Investment in understanding the Earth pays off twice. It enables pursuit of scientific questions that rank among the most interesting and profound of our time. It also serves society's practical need for increased prosperity and security. Over the last half-century, we have built a sophisticated network of satellites, aircraft, and ground-based remote sensing systems to provide raw information from which we derive Earth knowledge. This network has served us well in the development of science and the provision of operational services. In the next decade, the demand for such information will grow dramatically. New remote sensing capabilities will emerge. Rapid evolution of Internet geospatial and location-based services will make communication and sharing of Earth knowledge easier. Governments, businesses, and consumers will all benefit. But this exciting future is threatened from many directions. Risks range from technology and market uncertainties in the private sector to budget cuts and project setbacks in the public sector. The coming decade will see a dramatic confrontation between the vision of what needs to be accomplished in Earth remote sensing and the reality of our resources and commitment. The outcome will have long-term implications for both the remote sensing community and society as a whole.
Uncertainty in techno-economic estimates of cellulosic ethanol production due to experimental measurement uncertainty

Background: Cost-effective production of lignocellulosic biofuels remains a major financial and technical challenge at the industrial scale. A critical tool in biofuels process development is the techno-economic (TE) model, which calculates biofuel production costs using a process model and an economic model. The process model solves mass and energy balances for each unit, and the economic model estimates capital and operating costs from the process model based on economic assumptions. The process model inputs include experimental data on the feedstock composition and intermediate product yields for each unit. These experimental yield data are calculated from primary measurements. Uncertainty in these primary measurements is propagated to the calculated yields, to the process model, and ultimately to the economic model. Thus, outputs of the TE model have a minimum uncertainty associated with the uncertainty in the primary measurements. Results: We calculate the uncertainty in the Minimum Ethanol Selling Price (MESP) estimate for lignocellulosic ethanol production via a biochemical conversion process: dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment of corn stover followed by enzymatic hydrolysis and co-fermentation of the resulting sugars to ethanol. We perform a sensitivity analysis on the TE model and identify the feedstock composition and conversion yields from three unit operations (xylose from pretreatment, glucose from enzymatic hydrolysis, and ethanol from fermentation) as the most important variables. The uncertainty in the pretreatment xylose yield arises from multiple measurements, whereas the glucose and ethanol yields from enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation, respectively, are dominated by a single measurement: the fraction of insoluble solids (fIS) in the biomass slurries. Conclusions: We calculate a $0.15/gal uncertainty in MESP from the TE model due to uncertainties in primary measurements. This result sets a lower bound on the error bars of the TE model predictions. This analysis highlights the primary measurements that merit further development to reduce the uncertainty associated with their use in TE models. While we develop and apply this mathematical framework to a specific biorefinery scenario here, this analysis can be readily adapted to other types of biorefining processes and provides a general framework for propagating uncertainty due to analytical measurements through a TE model.
Gendering Grotius Sex and Sex Difference in the Laws of War

I construct a genealogy of the principle of distinction; the injunction to distinguish between combatants and civilians at all times during war. I outline the influence of a series of discourses—ge...
An optimal policy for competitive processing of high and low priority arrivals

Two mutually independent traffic streams whose arrivals are stored in an infinite capacity buffer are considered. The two arrival traffics are modeled by renewal processes and compete for service by a single processor, with one of the processes requiring a strict upper bound on the total delay per arrival. It is assumed that the processing time per arrival for each process is a constant; the value of this constant is different for each of the two traffic streams. Given the above model, the authors find the optimal processing sharing policy, which attains throughput one and minimizes the expected delays of both traffic streams. The delays induced by the optimal policy are analyzed. Numerical results for the case in which the two renewal processes have exponentially distributed interarrival intervals are presented. >
The Long-Term Consequences of Vietnam-Era Conscription and Genotype on Smoking Behavior and Health

Research is needed to understand the extent to which environmental factors moderate links between genetic risk and the development of smoking behaviors. The Vietnam-era draft lottery offers a unique opportunity to investigate whether genetic susceptibility to smoking is influenced by risky environments in young adulthood. Access to free or reduced-price cigarettes coupled with the stress of military life meant conscripts were exposed to a large, exogenous shock to smoking behavior at a young age. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we interact a genetic risk score for smoking initiation with instrumented veteran status in an instrumental variables (IV) framework to test for genetic moderation (i.e. heterogeneous treatment effects) of veteran status on smoking behavior and smoking-related morbidities. We find evidence that veterans with a high genetic predisposition for smoking were more likely to have been smokers, smoke heavily, and are at a higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer or hypertension at older ages. Smoking behavior was significantly attenuated for high-risk veterans who attended college after the war, indicating post-service schooling gains from veterans' use of the GI Bill may have reduced tobacco consumption in adulthood.
Mathematical Modeling of a Fermilab Helium Liquefier Coldbox

Publisher Summary This chapter develops a mathematical model to describe the thermo- and gas-dynamic processes for the equipment included in the Fermilab Central Helium Liquefier coldboxes. The model is based on a finite element approach, opposite to a global variables approach, thus providing for higher accuracy and conversion stability. Though the coefficients used in equations are unique for a given coldbox, the general approach, the equations, the methods of computations, and most of the subroutines written in FORTRAN can be readily applied to different coldboxes. Moreover, the simulation results are compared against actual operating data to demonstrate applicability of the model. The simulation model has been checked upon several sets of experimentally known process conditions for 2-compressors and 3-compressors flows. The model has proven to be accurate within 5% when allowed to converge with sufficient number of iterations.
Control of squeezed states

We consider the classical and quantum control of squeezed states of harmonic oscillators. This provides a method for reducing noise below the quantum limit and provides an example of the control of under-actuated systems in the stochastic and quantum context. We also consider the interaction of a squeezed quantum oscillator with an external heat bath.
Determining shape and reflectance of hybrid surfaces by photometric sampling

A method is presented for determining the shapes of hybrid surfaces without prior knowledge of the relative strengths of the Lambertian and specular components of reflection. The object surface is illuminated using extended light sources and is viewed from a single direction. Surface illumination using extended sources makes it possible to ensure the detection of both Lambertian and specular reflections. Uniformly distributed source directions are used to obtain an image sequence of the object. This method of obtaining photometric measurements is called photometric sampling. An extraction algorithm uses the set of image intensity values measured at each surface point to compute orientation as well as relative strengths of the Lambertian and specular reflection components. The simultaneous recovery of shape and reflectance parameters enables the method to adapt to variations in reflectance properties from one scene point to another. Experiments were conducted on Lambertian surfaces, specular surfaces, and hybrid surfaces. >
Reading, writing, and squeezing the entangled states of two nanomechanical resonators coupled to a SQUID

We study a system of two nanomechanical resonators embedded in a dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). We show that the inductively coupled resonators can be treated as two entangled quantum memory elements with states that can be read from, or written on, by employing the SQUID as a displacement detector or switching additional external magnetic fields, respectively. We present a scheme to squeeze the even mode of the state of the resonators and, consequently, reduce the noise in the measurement of the magnetic flux threading the SQUID. We finally analyze the effect of dissipation on the squeezing using the quantum master equation, and show the qualitatively different behavior for the weak and strong damping regimes. Our predictions can be tested using current experimental capabilities.
Sharp dichotomies for regret minimization in metric spaces

The Lipschitz multi-armed bandit (MAB) problem generalizes the classical multi-armed bandit problem by assuming one is given side information consisting of a priori upper bounds on the difference in expected payoff between certain pairs of strategies. Classical results of Lai-Robbins [28] and Auer et al. [3] imply a logarithmic regret bound for the Lipschitz MAB problem on finite metric spaces. Recent results on continuum-armed bandit problems and their generalizations imply lower bounds of √t, or stronger, for many infinite metric spaces such as the unit interval. Is this dichotomy universal? We prove that the answer is yes: for every metric space, the optimal regret of a Lipschitz MAB algorithm is either bounded above by any f e w(log t), or bounded below by any g ∈ o(√t). Perhaps surprisingly, this dichotomy does not coincide with the distinction between finite and infinite metric spaces; instead it depends on whether the completion of the metric space is compact and countable. Our proof connects upper and lower bound techniques in online learning with classical topological notions such as perfect sets and the Cantor-Bendixson theorem.We also consider the full-feedback (a.k.a., best-expert) version of Lipschitz MAB problem, termed the Lipschitz experts problem, and show that this problem exhibits a similar dichotomy. We proceed to give nearly matching upper and lower bounds on regret in the Lipschitz experts problem on uncountable metric spaces. These bounds are of the form Θ(tγ), where the exponent γ e [1/2, 1] depends on the metric space. To characterize this dependence, we introduce a novel dimensionality notion tailored to the experts problem. Finally, we show that both Lipschitz bandits and Lipschitz experts problems become completely intractable (in the sense that no algorithm has regret o(t)) if and only if the completion of the metric space is non-compact.
A 1 GS/s 6 Bit 6.7 mW Successive Approximation ADC Using Asynchronous Processing

An asynchronous 6 bit 1 GS/s ADC is achieved by time interleaving two ADCs based on the binary successive approximation (SA) algorithm using a series capacitive ladder. The semi-closed loop asynchronous technique eliminates the high internal clocks and significantly speeds up the SA algorithm. A key feature to reduce the power in this design involves relaxing the comparator requirements using an error correction technique, which can be viewed as an extension of the SA algorithm to remove degradation due to metastability. Fabricated in 65 nm CMOS with an active area of 0.11 mm2, it achieves a peak SNDR of 31.5 dB at 1GS/s sampling rate and has a total power consumption of 6.7 mW.
Catalytic Enantioselective Olefin Metathesis in Natural Product Synthesis. Chiral Metal-Based Complexes that Deliver High Enantioselectivity and More

Chiral olefin metathesis catalysts enable chemists to access enantiomerically enriched small molecules with high efficiency; synthesis schemes involving such complexes can be substantially more concise than those that would involve enantiomerically pure substrates and achiral Mo alkylidenes or Ru-based carbenes. The scope of research towards design and development of chiral catalysts is not limited to discovery of complexes that are merely the chiral versions of the related achiral variants. A chiral olefin metathesis catalyst, in addition to furnishing products of high enantiomeric purity, can offer levels of efficiency, product selectivity and/or olefin stereoselectivity that are unavailable through the achiral variants. Such positive attributes of chiral catalysts (whether utilized in racemic or enantiomerically enriched form) should be considered as general, applicable to other classes of transformations.
Rethinking Nationalism and an Appellative Conundrum: Historiography and Politics in Iraq

This study highlights research on Iraq that includes the Assyrians. It does not intend to argue the validity of definitions of ‘nationness’ and nationalism, but provides a brief description of the variety of ways in which Assyrians have been both included and excluded from modern research on the Middle East and, more specifically, Iraq. Moreover, it resituates the Assyrians in the debate and historiography of Iraqi Studies.
Rhodium(III)-Catalyzed Alkenyl C ? H Bond Functionalization: Convergent Synthesis of Furans and Pyrroles

Ring in the new: a new annulation for the efficient synthesis of substituted furans and pyrroles is reported. The Rh(III) -catalyzed reaction of O-methyl α,β-unsaturated oximes with aldehydes and N-tosyl imines affords secondary alcohol and amine intermediates, respectively. Cyclization and aromatization occurs under the reaction conditions to provide access to biologically relevant furans and pyrroles in good yields. Cp*=C(5)Me(5), DCE=1,2-dichloroethane, THF=tetrahydrofuran.
The (Nearly) Forgotten Early Empirical Legal Research

The modern empirical legal studies movement has well-known antecedents in the law and society and law and economics traditions of the latter half of the 20th century. Less well known is the body of empirical research on legal phenomena from the period prior to World War II. This paper considers that earlier work with discussions of what accounts for the burst of such research in the 1920s and 30s, methodological and funding issues confronting that research, why the research seemed to come to an end in the latter part of the 1930s (to begin to reappear in the 1950s), and some of the continuities in findings between that research and more recent empirical research on law.