cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
WITTEX: an innovative three-satellite radar altimeter concept

The Water Inclination Topography and Technology Experiment (WITTEX) consists of three TOPEX-class radar altimeters on individual satellites in the same orbit plane. If built with delay-Doppler radar altimeter technology, the WITTEX satellites will be sufficiently small that all three can be launched simultaneously by one vehicle. Even though the WITTEX satellites will be in a common inertial orbit plane, Earth rotation separates their tracks at nadir. Cross-track separation will be proportional to intersatellite spacing. WITTEX will provide near-simultaneous and accurate measurement of sea surface heights along three parallel tracks, providing oceanographic data not previously available, including the two-dimensional (2-D) surface gradient. WITTEX offers a variety of beneficial solutions to the classic time/space sampling tradeoff that confronts oceanic radar altimetry.
Hairy Roots, Bioreactor Growth

Introduction Influence of Product Recovery on Bioreactor Design and Operation Bioreactors for Recovery of Intracellular Metabolites Bioreactors for Recovery of Extracellular Metabolites Principles of Bioreactor Operation Growth Kinetics Biomass Yield—Reactor Monitoring and Control Influence of Root Morphology on Reactor Design Principles for Bioreactor Design and Scaleup Submerged Reactor Environment Liquid-Dispersed Reactor Environment Acknowledgments List of Variables References Keywords: biomass; mist reactor
“Uncovering” Industrial Symbiosis

Summary Since 1989, efforts to understand the nature of interfirm resource sharing in the form of industrial symbiosis and to replicate in a deliberate way what was largely self-organizing in Kalundborg, Denmark have followed many paths, some with much success and some with very little. This article provides a historical view of the motivations and means for pursuing industrial symbiosis—defined to include physical exchanges of materials, energy, water, and by-products among diversified clusters of firms. It finds that “uncovering” existing symbioses has led to more sustainable industrial development than attempts to design and build eco-industrial parks incorporating physical exchanges. By examining 15 proposed projects brought to national and international attention by the U.S. President’s Council on Sustainable Development beginning in the early 1990s, and contrasting these with another 12 projects observed to share more elements of self-organization, recommendations are offered to stimulate the identification and uncovering of already existing “kernels” of symbiosis. In addition, policies and practices are suggested to identify early-stage precursors of potentially larger symbioses that can be nurtured and developed further. The article concludes that environmentally and economically desirable symbiotic exchanges are all around us and now we must shift our gaze to find and foster them.
Observations of velocity shear driven plasma turbulence

Electrostatic and magnetic turbulence observations from HAWKEYE-1 during the low altitude portion of its elliptical orbit over the Southern Hemisphere are presented. The magnetic turbulence is confined near the auroral zone and is similar to that seen at higher altitudes by HEOS-2 in the polar cusp. The electrostatic turbulence is composed of a background component with a power spectral index of 1.89 + or - .26 and an intense component with a power spectral index of 2.80 + or - .34. The intense electrostatic turbulence and the magnetic turbulence correlate with velocity shears in the convective plasma flow. Since velocity shear instabilities are most unstable to wave vectors perpendicular to the magnetic field, the shear correlated turbulence is anticipated to be two dimensional in character and to have a power spectral index of 3 which agrees with that observed in the intense electrostatic turbulence.
Identification of noise artifacts in searches for long-duration gravitational-wave transients

We present an algorithm for the identification of transient noise artifacts (glitches) in cross-correlation searches for long gravitational-wave (GW) transients lasting seconds to weeks. The algorithm utilizes the auto-power in each detector as a discriminator between well-behaved stationary noise (possibly including a GW signal) and non-stationary noise transients. We test thealgorithmwithbothMonteCarlonoiseandtime-shifteddatafromtheLIGO S5 science run and find that it removes a significant fraction of glitches while keeping the vast majority (99.6%) of the data. We show that this cleaned data can be used to observe GW signals at a significantly lower amplitude than can otherwise be achieved. Using an accretion disk instability signal model, we estimate that the algorithm is accidentally triggered at a rate of less than 10 −5 % by realistic signals, and less than 3% even for exceptionally loud signals. We conclude that the algorithm is a safe and effective method for cleaning the cross-correlation data used in searches for long GW transients.
Copulas and Other Measures of Dependency

Copulas have been developed for modeling the probability distribution of a multivariate random variable. The technique includes generating distributions with asymmetrical tail dependence structure, which is important in extreme value theory. Keywords: families of copulas; measures of dependency; modeling multivariate distributions
Flash caching on the storage client

Flash memory has recently become popular as a caching medium. Most uses to date are on the storage server side. We investigate a different structure: flash as a cache on the client side of a networked storage environment. We use trace-driven simulation to explore the design space. We consider a wide range of configurations and policies to determine the potential client-side caches might offer and how best to arrange them. Our results show that the flash cache writeback policy does not significantly affect performance. Write-through is sufficient; this greatly simplifies cache consistency handling. We also find that the chief benefit of the flash cache is its size, not its persistence. Cache persistence offers additional performance benefits at system restart at essentially no runtime cost. Finally, for some workloads a large flash cache allows using miniscule amounts of RAM for file caching (e.g., 256 KB) leaving more memory available for application use.
Negative Database for Data Security

Data Security is a major issue in any web-based application. There have been approaches to handle intruders in any system, however, these approaches are not fully trustable; evidently data is not totally protected. Real world databases have information that needs to be securely stored. The approach of generating negative database could help solve such problem. A Negative Database can be defined as a database that contains huge amount of data consisting of counterfeit data along with the real data. Intruders may be able to get access to such databases, but, as they try to extract information,they will retrieve data sets that would include both the actual and the negative data. In this paper we present our approach towards implementing the concept of negative database to help prevent data theft from malicious users and provide efficient data retrieval for all valid users.
Quantum revivals versus classical periodicity in the infinite square well

A particle of mass M moves in an infinite square well of width L (the “particle in a box”). Classically, the motion has period L2M/E, which depends on the initial condition through the energy E. Quantum mechanically, any wave function repeats exactly with period 4ML2/πℏ, independent of the initial condition. Given this qualitative difference, how can the classical motion possibly be the limit of the quantal time development? The resolution of this paradox involves the difference between the exact revival (recurrence) of the wave function and the approximate periodicity of expectation values such as 〈x(t)〉. (The latter may recur an odd integral number of times before the full wave function recurs.) The period of the expectation values does depend on the initial condition and can possess the expected classical limit. [An Appendix demonstrates that, under suitably quasiclassical conditions, the quantal time evolution of 〈x(t)〉 passes over to the classical result not only in period, but also in its exact func...
Automated design tool for examining microelectronic packaging design alternatives

Microelectronic packaging design issues have been given greater attention mainly because the performance, reliability and cost of semiconductor chips are increasingly dictated by the choice and design of the package. The task of integrating the requirements imposed by different disciplines such as mechanical and thermal issues in an automated design tool, is discussed in this paper. Finite element analysis and nonlinear programming techniques are used in an iterative fashion to progress from an initial design concept to a design that satisfies all design requirements or one that is superior to other design alternatives. Two packaging design examples serve to illustrate the functionalities of the automated design optimization tool. >
Durability of Fly Ash–Based Geopolymer Structural Concrete in the Marine Environment

AbstractThe use of supplementary cementitious materials as partial replacements of the cement in concrete will play a significant role with respect to the environmental control of greenhouse effects and global temperature reduction. The development of geopolymer concrete (GPC), in which all of the portland cement is replaced with fly ash (in combination with sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate solutions), offers a promising alternative to ordinary portland cement concrete. This paper evaluates the durability characteristics of low-calcium fly ash–based geopolymer concrete that was subjected to a corrosive marine environment. A series of GPC beams, which contained fly ash with 8- and 14-M concentrations of NaOH and SiO2/Na2O solutions, respectively, and were centrally reinforced with a 13-mm rebar, were tested for accelerated corrosion exposure with wet and dry cycling in artificial seawater and an induced current. A sudden rise in the current intensity that is attributable to specimen cracking was indica...
Compressive sensing over networks

In this paper, we demonstrate some applications of compressive sensing over networks. We make a connection between compressive sensing and traditional information theoretic techniques in source coding and channel coding. Our results provide an explicit trade-off between the rate and the decoding complexity. The key difference of compressive sensing and traditional information theoretic approaches is at their decoding side. Although optimal decoders to recover the original signal, compressed by source coding have high complexity, the compressive sensing decoder is a linear or convex optimization. First, we investigate applications of compressive sensing on distributed compression of correlated sources. Here, by using compressive sensing, we propose a compression scheme for a family of correlated sources with a modularized decoder, providing a trade-off between the compression rate and the decoding complexity. We call this scheme Sparse Distributed Compression. We use this compression scheme for a general multicast network with correlated sources. Here, we first decode some of the sources by a network decoding technique and then, we use a compressive sensing decoder to obtain the whole sources. Then, we investigate applications of compressive sensing on channel coding. We propose a coding scheme that combines compressive sensing and random channel coding for a high-SNR point-to-point Gaussian channel. We call this scheme Sparse Channel Coding. We propose a modularized decoder providing a trade-off between the capacity loss and the decoding complexity. At the receiver side, first, we use a compressive sensing decoder on a noisy signal to obtain a noisy estimate of the original signal and then, we apply a traditional channel coding decoder to find the original signal.
Modification of photochemical reactivity by zeolites: Role of cations in controlling the behavior of radicals generated within faujasites

a-Alkyldibenzylketones included in cation exchanged faujasite type zeolites show photobehavior different from that in isotropic organic solvents. Rearrangement and disproportionation which do not contribute in solution are the major processes within the cavities of faujasites. Cation size plays a major role in controlling the pathway pursued by the primary and the secondary radical pair. Photochemical and photophysical properties of organic molecules are considerably altered when they become part of an organized or constrained structure.l In this context, the internal surfaces of zeolites have attracted recent attention.2 We provide here an example wherein the chemical behavior of primary and secondary intermediates derived from Q- alkyldibenzylketones are significantly altered when they are generated and confined within supercages of faujasites that are of molecular sizes. The supercage contain exchangeable cations, the number of which depends on the Si to Al ratio of the zeolite framework and on the charge of the cation. The translational and rotational processes that occur on the interior are expected to depend on variables such as the number of cations in a supercage, their size, charge and location within the supercage. For example, the ionic diameters of the alkali ions increase by over a factor of two, implying an increase in volume of a factor of about an order of magnitude in going from Li to Cs ions. Such an increase in ionic volume should lead to a comparable decrease in accessible volume within the zeolite. Such changes as we illustrate below have significant consequences on the behavior of molecules included in supercages Photolysis of u-alkyldibenzylketones (h-g) in benzene and as complexes of faujasitess gave products resulting from the Norrish type I and type II reactions (Scheme 1 and Table). All products except olefins have been characterized earlier6 and olefins were identified by their IR, lH-NMR and mass spectral properties. Results from three of these ketones are summarised in the Table. There are remarkable differences in product distribution between benzene solution and the solid zeolite complexes: (a) Within the zeolite, the main products are 1,2-diphenyl-1-alkylethanes (AB), 1-phenyl-4'-alkylacetophenones (RP) and olefins, whereas in benzene both olefins and RP are absent. (b) The yields of both olefins and RP are dependent
The use of methyl 2,2-difluoro-2-(fluorosulfonyl)acetate as the difluorocarbene source to generate an in situ source of difluoromethylene triphenylphosphonium ylide

Abstract Under moderate conditions in the presence of a demethylating reagent, such as iodide, methyl 2,2,-difluoro-2-(fluorosulfonyl)acetate (MDFA) releases difluorocarbene, which in the presence of triphenylphosphine forms difluoromethylene triphenylphosphonium ylide. When the process is carried out also in the presence of aldehydes or activated ketones, the ensuing in situ Wittig-type reaction of the ylide with the carbonyl reactants produces 1,1-difluoroalkenes in good yield. Density Functional Theory calculations were used to provide new estimates of the energies and structures of singlet and triplet states of CH 2 :, CHF:, and CF 2 : carbenes, as well as those of their respective triphenylphosphonium ylides.
Boundary Preserving Dense Local Regions

We propose a dense local region detector to extract features suitable for image matching and object recognition tasks. Whereas traditional local interest operators rely on repeatable structures that often cross object boundaries (e.g., corners, scale-space blobs), our sampling strategy is driven by segmentation, and thus preserves object boundaries and shape. At the same time, whereas existing region-based representations are sensitive to segmentation parameters and object deformations, our novel approach to robustly sample dense sites and determine their connectivity offers better repeatability. In extensive experiments, we find that the proposed region detector provides significantly better repeatability and localization accuracy for object matching compared to an array of existing feature detectors. In addition, we show our regions lead to excellent results on two benchmark tasks that require good feature matching: weakly supervised foreground discovery and nearest neighbor-based object recognition.
Template-guided organization of chromonic liquid crystals into micropatterned anisotropic organic solids.

We have developed an approach to generate micropatterns of anisotropic organic materials which exploits the self-organization, driven by π-stacking and hydrophobic interactions, of an ionic perylenebis(dicarboximide) 1 in aqueous solutions.
The synthesis of α-stannyl-silanes and their use in the formation of alkenes

Abstract α-Stannyl-silanes were prepared from aldehydes via α-hydroxy- and α-chloro-silanes. Stannyl-silane 5d was transmetallated using n-butyllithium and the resultant α-lithio-silane condensed with aldehydes to yield alkenes.
Supported ionic liquid catalysis investigated for hydrogenation reactions

The concept of supported ionic liquid catalysis (silc) has successfully been applied to hydrogenation reactions, which significantly reduced the required amounts of ionic liquid phase and enabled the usage of fixed-bed technology; the resulting catalysts exhibited high activity and outstanding stability.
Encryption Key protection for Private Computing on Public Platforms

Private Computing on Public Platforms (PCPP) is a new technology designed to enable secure and private execution of applications on remote, potentially hostile, public platforms. PCPP must secure its encryption keys to ensure that application isolation is robust and reliable. To this end we offer a protection scheme for PCPP encryption keys. In this paper we first discuss a commonly used key storage mechanism, the Linux Key Retention Service (LKRS) and show a method for defeating this protection allowing one user to read the LKRS stored keys from another user's processes. We then describe our PCPP key protection methodology and how it interacts with the other PCPP building blocks to isolate encryption keys even from privileged users.
The Tevatron at the frontier of dark matter direct detection

Direct detection of dark matter (DM) requires an interaction of dark matter particles with nucleons. The same interaction can lead to dark matter pair production at a hadron collider, and with the addition of initial state radiation this may lead to mono-jet signals. Mono-jet searches at the Tevatron can thus place limits on DM direct detection rates. We study these bounds both in the case where there is a contact interaction between DM and the standard model and where there is a mediator kinematically accessible at the Tevatron. We find that in many cases the Tevatron provides the current best limit, particularly for light dark matter, below ∼5 GeV, a and for spin dependent interactions. Non-standard dark matter candidates are also constrained. The introduction of a light mediator significantly weakens the collider bound. A direct detection discovery that is in apparent conflict with mono-jet limits will thus point to a new light state coupling the standard model to the dark sector. Mono-jet searches with more luminosity and including the spectrum shape in the analysis can improve the constraints on DM-nucleon scattering cross section.
On the distance to the Ophiuchus star-forming region

The Ophiuchus molecular cloud complex has produced in Lynds 1688 the richest known embedded cluster within ∼300 pc of the Sun. Unfortunately, distance estimates to the Oph complex vary by nearly ∼40% (∼120–165 pc). Here I calculate a new independent distance estimate of 135±8 pc to this benchmark star-forming region based on Hipparcos trigonometric parallaxes to stars illuminating reflection nebulosity in close proximity to Lynds 1688. Combining this value with recent distance estimates from reddening studies suggests a consensus distance of 139±6 pc (4% error), situating it within ∼11 pc of the centroid of the ∼5 Myr old Upper Sco OB subgroup of Sco OB2 (145 pc). The velocity vectors for Oph and Upper Sco are statistically indistinguishable within ∼1 km s–1 in each vector component. Both Oph and Upper Sco have negligible motion (<1 km s–1) in the Galactic vertical direction with respect to the Local Standard of Rest, which is inconsistent with the young stellar groups having formed via the high velocity cloud impact scenario. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
A Metadata Kernel for Electronic Permanence

This paper presents a streamlined metadata record format designed to support the permanence of network discoverable objects. It starts with the Dublin Core consensus and distills out a subset of four semantic buckets - a metadata kernel - that balances the needs for adequate identification of persistent objects and for low cost metadata generation. To minimize the burden of creating, understanding, and manipulating data in those buckets, a very simple record format has been designed, called an Electronic Resource Citation (ERC). The basic ERC can be parsed by two lines of Perl code. Beyond permanence support, the ERC design suggests quite a new path for the ongoing development of simple metadata; readers familiar with the current evolutionary challenges may find the ERC to be simpler, and yet more complete, compact, extensible,and international than the Dublin Core.
Delegation and Incentive Compensation

Top management faces two key organizational design choices: (1) how much authority to delegate to lower‐level managers, and (2) how to design incentive compensation to ensure that these managers do not misuse their discretion. Theoretical accounting literature emphasizes that top management makes these two choices jointly, but there is little empirical evidence on this assertion. Capitalizing on a unique database of branch manager practices in retail banks, this study provides some of the first evidence on the joint nature of the delegation and incentive compensation choices for lower‐level managers. A simultaneous model of these two choices indicates that high‐growth, volatile, and innovative banks delegate more authority to branch managers. In turn, branch managers with more authority receive more incentive‐based pay. However, in contrast with principal‐agent theory, I find no evidence that the extent of incentive compensation plays a significant role in explaining the extent of delegation.
The Effect of Race and Ethnicity on Bill Sponsorship and Cosponsorship in Congress

This article examines Black and Latino legislators' use of bill sponsorship and cosponsorship in Congress. As we explain, sponsoring and cosponsoring legislation are unique in that they are among the few activities outside the roll call arena that have both position taking and policy implications. We hypothesize that given minority legislators' lack of influence in Congress, they sponsor and cosponsor fewer bills than do nonminorities. We find support for our expectation; on average, Black and Latino legislators sponsor and cosponsor significantly fewer bills in Congress than do Whites and non-Latinos, respectively. But we also find the relationship to be contingent on which party controls Congress. Whereas Democratic Congresses encourage minorities' bill sponsorship and cosponsorship, Republican Congresses depress it. Because the concepts of participation and representation in Congress are so intimately tied to one another, these findings have a number of implications for the study of descriptive and sub...
A novel heterocyclic atom exchange reaction with Lawesson's reagent: a one-pot synthesis of dithiomaltol

A one-pot reaction of maltol with Lawesson's reagent generates dithiomaltol, a thiopyran-4-thione, via an unusual heterocyclic atom exchange (HCAE) reaction; only pyrones with proton or aliphatic substituents undergo the HCAE substitution.
Do Behavioral Biases Affect Prices

This paper documents strong evidence for behavioral biases among Chicago Board of Trade proprietary traders and investigates the effect these biases have on prices. Our traders appear highly loss-averse, regularly assuming above-average afternoon risk to recover from morning losses. This behavior has important short-term consequences for afternoon prices, as losing traders actively purchase contracts at higher prices and sell contracts at lower prices than those that prevailed previously. However, the market appears to distinguish these risk-seeking trades from informed trading. Prices set by loss-averse traders are reversed significantly more quickly than those set by unbiased traders.
Xbox 360 System Architecture

This article covers the Xbox 360's high-level technical requirements, a short system overview, and details of the CPU and the GPU. The Xbox 360 contains an aggressive hardware architecture and implementation targeted at game console workloads. The core silicon implements the product designers' goal of providing game developers a hardware platform to implement their next-generation game ambitions. The core chips include the standard conceptual blocks of CPU, graphics processing unit (GPU), memory, and I/O. Each of these components and their interconnections are customized to provide a user-friendly game console product. The authors describe their architectural trade-offs and summarize the system's software programming support
Capacity and delay tradeoffs for ad hoc mobile networks

We consider the throughput/delay tradeoffs for scheduling data transmissions in a mobile ad hoc network. To reduce delays in the network, each user sends redundant packets along multiple paths to the destination. Assuming the network has a cell partitioned structure and users move according to a simplified independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) mobility model, we compute the exact network capacity and the exact end-to-end queueing delay when no redundancy is used. The capacity-achieving algorithm is a modified version of the Grossglauser-Tse two-hop relay algorithm and provides O(N) delay (where N is the number of users). We then show that redundancy cannot increase capacity, but can significantly improve delay. The following necessary tradeoff is established: delay/rate/spl ges/O(N). Two protocols that use redundancy and operate near the boundary of this curve are developed, with delays of O(/spl radic/N) and O(log(N)), respectively. Networks with non-i.i.d. mobility are also considered and shown through simulation to closely match the performance of i.i.d. systems in the O(/spl radic/N) delay regime.
PEER EFFECTS IN ACADEMIC OUTCOMES: EVIDENCE FROM A NATURAL EXPERIMENT

I use data from Williams College to implement a quasi-experimental empirical strategy aimed at measuring peer effects in academic outcomes. In particular, I use data on individual students' grades, their SAT scores, and the SAT scores of their roommates. I argue that first-year roommates are assigned randomly with respect to academic ability. This allows me to measure differences in grades of high-, medium-, or low-SAT students living with high-, medium-, or low-SAT roommates. With random assignment these estimates would provide compelling estimates of the effect of roommates' academic characteristics on an individual's grades. I also consider the effect of peers at somewhat more aggregated levels. In particular, I consider the effects associated with different academic environments in clusters of rooms that define distinct social units. The results suggest that peer effects are almost always linked more strongly with verbal SAT scores than with math SAT scores. Students in the middle of the SAT distribut...
Bi(OTf)3-, TfOH-, and TMSOTf-mediated, one-pot epoxide rearrangement, addition, and intramolecular silyl-modified Sakurai (ISMS) cascade toward dihydropyrans: comparison of catalysts and role of Bi(OTf)3.

Catalytic quantities of bismuth(III) triflate efficiently initiate the rearrangement of epoxides to aldehydes, which subsequently react with (Z)-δ-hydroxyalkenylsilanes to afford 2,6-disubstituted 3,6-dihydro-2H-pyrans. Isolated yields of desired products using Bi(OTf)3 were compared with yields obtained when the reactions were run with TfOH and TMSOTf in the presence and absence of several additives. These studies, as well as NMR spectroscopic analyses, indicate an initial Lewis acid/base interaction between Bi(OTf)3 and substrates providing TfOH in situ.
Medical libraries in hospitals.

Speech upon the practical side of medical libraries in hospitals, how far the library may be made to contribute toward the general usefulness of the institution, what it should contain to satisfy the particular needs of its readers, and how its contents may be made most easily available.
Dynamic asset allocation

This article analyzes whether dynamically adjusting a portfolio with multiple asset classes can lead to superior returns. This article utilizes mean reverting behavior of different asset classes and applies a relative valuation technique to dynamically allocate funds to six different asset classes. The dynamic asset allocation (DAA) strategy generates a positive annualized geometric mean return differential over 20–30 year horizons on a geometric mean basis. The standard deviation of the DAA strategy was lower than that of the six individual asset classes while the Sharpe ratios and Max Drawdown for DAA also compared favorably to large and small cap stocks portfolios. The approach developed in this study can be useful to investors in identifying the most undervalued asset class at a particular point in time. This strategy may also be very well suited for retirement portfolios that are inherently long term in nature.
Optical switching networks with minimum number of limited-range wavelength converters

We study the problem of determining the minimum number of limited-range wavelength converters needed to construct strictly, wide-sense, and rearrangeably nonblocking optical cross-connects for both unicast and multicast traffic patterns. We give the exact formula to compute this number for rearrangeably and wide-sense nonblocking cross-connects under both the unicast and multicast cases. We also give optimal cross-connect constructions with respect to the number of limited-range wavelength converters.
O conceito de contingência na psicologia experimental

Define-se contingencia como uma relacao entre eventos ambientais ou entre comportamento e eventos ambientais na forma condicional "se.., entao...". Contingencias mais simples especificam relacoes entre estimulos (contingencias SS) ou entre respostas e estimulos (contingenciasRS). O presente trabalho apresenta uma diversidade de procedimentos experimentais viabilizados pelo conceito de contingencia, dos reflexos condicionais de Pavlov a quantificacao da Lei do Efeito.
Identifying driver genomic alterations in cancers by searching minimum-weight, mutually exclusive sets

An important goal of cancer genomic research is to identify the driving pathways underlying disease mechanisms. It is well known that somatic genome alterations (SGAs) affecting the genes that encode the proteins within a common signaling pathway exhibit mutual exclusivity, in which these SGAs usually do not co-occur in a tumor. With some success, this property has been utilized as an objective function to guide the search for driver mutations. However, the mutual exclusivity alone is not sufficient to indicate that genes affected by such SGAs are in common pathways. Here, we propose a novel, signal-oriented framework for identifying driver SGAs, such that our new method constrains the mutual exclusivity only on tumors that have SGAs to perturb a common signal (not on all tumors as previous methods used). We apply this framework to the OV and GBM data FROM TCGA, and perform systematic evaluations. Our results indicate that the signal-oriented approach enhances the ability to find informative sets of driver SGAs that likely constitute signaling pathways.
LEFT-WING ASYMPTOTICS OF THE IMPLIED VOLATILITY IN THE PRESENCE OF ATOMS

The paper considers the asymptotic behavior of the implied volatility in stochastic asset price models with atoms. In such models, the asset price distribution has a singular component at zero. Examples of models with atoms include the constant elasticity of variance (CEV) model, jump-to-default models, and stochastic models described by processes stopped at the first hitting time of zero. For models with atoms, the behavior of the implied volatility at large strikes is similar to that in models without atoms. On the other hand, the behavior of the implied volatility at small strikes is influenced significantly by the atom at zero. De Marco, Hillairet, and Jacquier found an asymptotic formula for the implied volatility at small strikes with two terms and also provided an incomplete description of the third term. In the present paper, we obtain a new asymptotic formula for the left wing of the implied volatility, which is qualitatively different from the De Marco–Hillairet–Jacquier formula. The new formula...
On the Effect of Bias Estimation on Coverage Accuracy in Nonparametric Inference

AbstractNonparametric methods play a central role in modern empirical work. While they provide inference procedures that are more robust to parametric misspecification bias, they may be quite sensitive to tuning parameter choices. We study the effects of bias correction on confidence interval coverage in the context of kernel density and local polynomial regression estimation, and prove that bias correction can be preferred to undersmoothing for minimizing coverage error and increasing robustness to tuning parameter choice. This is achieved using a novel, yet simple, Studentization, which leads to a new way of constructing kernel-based bias-corrected confidence intervals. In addition, for practical cases, we derive coverage error optimal bandwidths and discuss easy-to-implement bandwidth selectors. For interior points, we show that the MSE-optimal bandwidth for the original point estimator (before bias correction) delivers the fastest coverage error decay rate after bias correction when second-order (equi...
Central conjugate locus of 2-step nilpotent Lie groups

We compute the conjugate locus with multiplicities of a geodesic that lies in the center of a 2-step nilpotent Lie group N with a left invariant metric. We compare the isometry types of two such nilpotent groups whose conjugate loci for central geodesics are the same in a suitable sense. This comparison is related to work of Gordon and Wilson (J Differ Geom 47(3):504–529, 1997).
Interactive Bayesian hierarchical clustering

Clustering is a powerful tool in data analysis, but it is often difficult to find a grouping that aligns with a user's needs. To address this, several methods incorporate constraints obtained from users into clustering algorithms, but unfortunately do not apply to hierarchical clustering. We design an interactive Bayesian algorithm that incorporates user interaction into hierarchical clustering while still utilizing the geometry of the data by sampling a constrained posterior distribution over hierarchies. We also suggest several ways to intelligently query a user. The algorithm, along with the querying schemes, shows promising results on real data.
Coastal State Competences Regarding Safety of Maritime Navigation: recent trends

The erosion of the freedom of the seas regime that has been taking place especially since the end of World War II seems to be continuing more gradually and in a different manner. In order to protect the interests of the international community coinciding more or less with their own needs, the coastal states, the archipelagic states, the regional fishing organizations for the high seas and the International Seabed Authority are ever more often exercising functions that previously had been carried out above all by the flag state. In this work we examine the evolution of international law governing the safety of maritime navigation. The analysis covers, first, the cooperation between coastal states and the International Maritime Organization and, subsequently, coastal states' independently exercisable competences: both topics concerning the reinforcement of the safety maritime navigation.
Mutant PIK3CA bearing colon cancer cells display increased metastasis in an orthotopic model

C22 Mutations in the PIK3CA gene are common in human cancers including colon cancer. We compared two pairs of colon cancer cells (HCT116 and DLD1) bearing only the wild type or mutant PIK3CA allele for their survival capacity under stress conditions in vitro as well as their metastatic properties in an in vivo orthotopic model. When subjected to growth factor deprivation stress (GFDS), the mutant PIK3CA cells displayed resistance to GFDS induced apoptosis relative to the wild type cells. PI3K and its downstream effector AKT were constitutively activated during stress conditions in the mutant PIK3CA cells but not in the wild type cells. The mutant cells showed hypersensitivity to PI3K inhibition. Moreover, the pro-apoptotic protein Bax was expressed at a very high level in the wild type PIK3CA cells whereas it was almost undetectable in the mutant cells. Knockdown of Bax expression by Bax siRNA protected the wild type PIK3CA cells from GFDS induced apoptosis, suggesting an important role of Bax in GFDS induced apoptosis. These results indicated that the mutant PIK3CA confers resistance to GFDS induced apoptosis and that the mutant cells are more dependent on PI3K pathway for survival. In vivo studies demonstrated that the mutant PIK3CA bearing cells were more metastatic than the wild type cells in an orthotopic model of colon cancer. Taken together, these results suggest that mutant PIK3CA imparts a more aggressive phenotype in colon cancer cells and could be a potential therapeutic target for treatment of colon cancer patients bearing PIK3CA mutations.
Transition-Metal Hydride Radical Cations

Transition-metal hydride radical cations (TMHRCs) are involved in a variety of chemical and biochemical reactions, making a more thorough understanding of their properties essential for explaining observed reactivity and for the eventual development of new applications. Generally, these species may be treated as the ones formed by one-electron oxidation of diamagnetic analogues that are neutral or cationic. Despite the importance of TMHRCs, the generally sensitive nature of these complexes has hindered their development. However, over the last four decades, many more TMHRCs have been synthesized, characterized, isolated, or hypothesized as reaction intermediates. This comprehensive review focuses on experimental studies of TMHRCs reported through the year 2014, with an emphasis on isolated and observed species. The methods used for the generation or synthesis of TMHRCs are surveyed, followed by a discussion about the stability of these complexes. The fundamental properties of TMHRCs, especially those pert...
Economic Role of Corn Production and Marketing Systems in the Midwest U.S.

The structure of mid-western corn production is analyzed within the context of a changing structure of the U.S. and global production and marketing systems. Further, the economic role of corn production in mid-western regions is investigated both at the major corn-producing states and an industry level using a combination of a descriptive analysis and an impact analysis. The impact analysis is done using an input-output model. The descriptive analysis by itself cannot be used to draw definitive conclusions regarding the role of the region’s production and marketing systems; thus, in addition to the descriptive analysis, an input-output analysis using IMPLAN is executed to incorporate the interdependence of the production and marketing system with other sectors of the economy by estimating economic multipliers.
Collection and activation analysis of airborne gunshot residues

It appears that the technique developed is sufficient to detect the firing of the major brands of U.S. ammunition through the antimony and barium particles that a revolver firing expels into the air. The sensitivity of the detection in a still room has been shown to be at leats 72 hrs after firing with common Western ammunition. The results of tests made with other types of ammunition suggest that this sensitivity or better exists with the other major brands of ammunition. The airborne gunshort residue, as seen in Figs 2 and 3, did not behave in a characteristic way which could enable precise determination of the time of firing, but gross estimates should be possible. From the data using Western ammunition, the airborne gunshot residue falls off roughly exponentially with time for the first 48 hrs, then changes to a slower rate of decrease. This technique is now ready to be tested under varying degrees of ventilation and larger calibers of ammunitions.
Applicability of benefit transfers for evaluation of homeland security counterterrorism measures

Benefit–Cost Analyses for Security Policies describes how to undertake the evaluation of security policies within the framework of benefit–cost analysis and offers a unique contribution to analysis of homeland security regulations in the United States. The authors outline how established procedures for benefit–cost analysis must adapt to meet challenges posed by current security policy, through examining specific security related regulations. The logic of risk assessment, selection of a discount rate, valuation of travellers’ time when delayed due to screening, valuation of changes in risks of injury or death, and impacts of terrorist events on the economy as a whole are among the issues discussed. An outline of the research and policy evaluation steps needed to build robust benefit-cost methods to evaluate security related regulations in the future is presented in the book.
The Political Success of Neo-Liberalism in the Czech Republic

Drawing political parallels between the Czech Republic and other members of the Visegrad group of countries, the author explains the continuing popularity of neo-liberal politics in the Czech Republic and some of the policies deployed to achieve it: unemployment control and wage regulation, bankruptcy prevention, social safety nets, and active labor market policies. Many of these policies, although inconsistent with the Thatcherite rhetoric of the government, form the backbone of its popular support. The privatization program, its adept implementation by the government, and its contribution to government popularity are also described. The sociological consequences of these political actions are discussed with reference to the Czech transformation; the author defines important public attitudes and describes how the population was prepared to make compromises, thus indicating the degree of confidence in the government. In conclusion, political culture and economic strength are recognized as integral parts of this complicated reform, whose success the author attributes to its social acceptability with regard to the voters, and to the skill of the government in its implementation.
Full residual finiteness growths of nilpotent groups

Full residual finiteness growth of a finitely generated group G measures how efficiently word metric n-balls of G inject into finite quotients of G. We initiate a study of this growth over the class of nilpotent groups. When the last term of the lower central series of G has finite index in the center of G we show that the growth is precisely nb, where b is the product of the nilpotency class and dimension of G. In the general case, we give a method for finding an upper bound of the form nb where b is a natural number determined by what we call a terraced filtration of G. Finally, we characterize nilpotent groups for which the word growth and full residual finiteness growth coincide.
A Dirichlet process functional approach to heteroscedastic-consistent covariance estimation

The mixture of Dirichlet process (MDP) defines a flexible prior distribution on the space of probability measures. This study shows that ordinary least-squares (OLS) estimator, as a functional of the MDP posterior distribution, has posterior mean given by weighted least-squares (WLS), and has posterior covariance matrix given by the (weighted) heteroscedastic-consistent sandwich estimator. This is according to a pairs bootstrap distribution approximation of the posterior, using a Polya urn scheme. Also, when the MDP prior baseline distribution is specified as a product of independent probability measures, this WLS solution provides a new type of generalized ridge regression estimator. Such an estimator can handle multicollinear or singular design matrices even when the number of covariates exceeds the sample size, and can shrink the coefficient estimates of irrelevant covariates towards zero, which makes it useful for nonlinear regressions via basis expansions. Also, this MDP/OLS functional methodology can be extended to methods for analyzing the sensitivity of the heteroscedasticity-consistent causal effect size over a range of hidden biases, due to missing covariates omitted from the regression; and more generally, can be extended to a Vibration of Effects analysis. The methodology is illustrated through the analysis of simulated and real data sets. Overall, this study establishes new connections between Dirichlet process functional inference, the bootstrap, consistent sandwich covariance estimation, ridge shrinkage regression, WLS, and sensitivity analysis, to provide regression methodology useful for inferences of the mean dependent response. A study of least squares (LS) estimator as Dirichlet process posterior functional.In this setting, LS has heteroscedastic-consistent posterior covariance matrix.Dirichlet process functional methodology has connections with the bootstrap.Dirichlet process functional methodology has connections with ridge regression.Dirichlet process functional methodology has connections with causal inference.