cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Sampling in Developing Countries

The survey process is complex and, if well implemented, becomes a very powerful tool for collecting vital data that are essential for developing policy. This article discusses many issues related to survey design and, in particular, how they operate in developing countries. Keywords: survey research; population inference; sample design; stratification; clustering; sample size; sampling precision; nonresponse bias
Interventions for family members of adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders

Problem The family members of adolescents diagnosed with disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) experience profound stress and burden. Despite the need for empirically supported interventions that address the challenges faced by these family members, few such interventions are available. Methods In this qualitative descriptive study, we conducted in-depth interviews with 15 families of adolescents diagnosed with DBD. We asked the family members to identify what types of mental health services they needed and to describe the “ideal” program that would best address their concerns. Findings Family members identified several intervention modalities that would fit their needs, including multifamily groups, family therapy, individual therapy, and community-based hotlines. They indicated that programs should address the following topics: family communication, conflict resolution, education about DBD, and strategies to improve interactions with child service agencies. Conclusions Clinicians should recognize that all family members may need support to manage the stressors associated with caring for or living with adolescents with DBD. When working with families, clinicians should provide information about the etiology and management of DBD, help navigate interactions with child service agencies, and employ strategies to improve family communication and functioning.
Sedum of North America North of the Mexican Plateau

The Research Station was used as a base while working in the Teton Mountains and the adjacent Pinyon Peak Highlands in July and August. Studies were concerned with the classification, distribution and evolution of species of Sedum, the genus of stonecrops. Detailed studies of population, as part of a sampling survey, and collections of living plants for experimental investigations at Ithaca were made. The small laboratory at the Station made possible the temporary culture of plants there, until they could be either shipped or taken back to Ithaca. Also, the program at the Station included preliminary microscopic examinations of the gross morphology, especially of the floral parts. The work on Sedum in 1966 is part of a comprehensive study of the whole genus. Results of the research in Wyoming are being incorporated in the manuscript of a book on the North American species. Project Number 142.
Prevalence Rate or Ratio

The prevalence rate or ratio refers to the number of people who have a disease or condition at a given point in time in a given population divided by the number of people in that population. Keywords: prevalence rate or ratio; prevalence
A review of the role and impact of export processing zones

As instruments for encouraging economic development, export processing zones have only limited usefulness. A better policy choice is general liberalization of a country's economy. Traditional export processing zones are fenced-in industrial estates specializing in manufacturing for exports. Modern ones have more flexible rules, such as permitting more liberal domestic sales. They provide a free-trade and liberal regulatory environment for the firms involved. Their primary goals: to provide foreign exchange earnings by promoting nontraditional exports, to provide jobs and create income, and to attract foreign direct investment and attendant technology transfer and knowledge spillover. Domestic, international, or joint venture firms operating in export processing zones typically benefit from reduced red tape, flexible labor laws, generous long-term tax holidays and concessions, above-average communications services and infrastructure (and often subsidized utilities and rental rates), and unlimited duty-free imports of raw and intermediate inputs and capital goods needed for production. In this review of experience, Madani concludes that export processing zones have limited applications; the better policy choice is to liberalize a country's entire economy. Under certain conditions - including appropriate setup and good management - export processing zones can play a dynamic role in a country's development, but only as a transitional step in an integrated movement toward general liberalization of the economy (with revisions as national economic conditions change). The World Bank, writes Madani, should be cautious about supporting export processing zone projects, doing so only on a case-by-case basis, only with expert guidance, and only as part of a general reform package. It should not support isolated export processing zone projects in unreformed or postreform economies (in the last case they might encourage backsliding on trade policy). In general, if a policy is good for the economy as a whole, it is likely to be good for an export processing zone. Sound policy will encourage: * Sound, stable monetary and fiscal policies, clear private property and investment laws, and a business-friendly economic environment. * Moderate, simplified (but not overfriendly) corporate tax schedules, and generally liberal tariffs and other trade taxes. * Private development and management of export processing zones and their infrastructure and unsubsidized utilities. * Labor laws that are business-friendly but do not abuse workers' safety and labor rights. * A better understanding of the impact of industrial refuse on the quality of air, soil, water, and human health. This paper - a product of Trade, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the impact of trade policy and trade policy tools on development.
Optimal limited contingency planning

For a given problem, the optimal Markov policy over a finite horizon is a conditional plan containing a potentially large number of branches. However, there are applications where it is desirable to strictly limit the number of decision points and branches in a plan. This raises the question of how one goes about finding optimal plans containing only a limited number of branches. In this paper, we present an any-time algorithm for optimal k-contingency planning. It is the first optimal algorithm for limited contingency planning that is not an explicit enumeration of possible contingent plans. By modelling the problem as a partially observable Markov decision process, it implements the Bellman optimality principle and prunes the solution space. We present experimental results of applying this algorithm to some simple test cases.
Tax Multipliers: Pitfalls in Measurement and Identification

Abstract To analyze the pitfalls in measuring and identifying tax shocks, we build a novel value-added tax rate dataset for the period 1980–2009. The problem of identification (i.e., changes in tax policy not triggered by output fluctuations) is clearly disentangled from the problem of measurement (i.e., finding a tax policy variable under the direct control of policymakers). On the identification front, our results favor the use of narratives a la Romer and Romer (2010) . On the measurement front, our findings support the use of tax rates as the true measure of tax policy as opposed to revenue-based measures, such as cyclically adjusted revenues.
Fishing behavior across space and time

We introduce a model of fishing behavior that features costly targeting of a spatially and temporally heterogenous, multiple-species fish stock. We characterize fishing behavior under species-specific regulations including time-area-depth closures, per-trip landings limits and tradable harvest permits. Our behavioral model yields a system of Kuhn-Tucker necessary conditions which form the basis of our empirical estimation. Data from the Gulf of Mexico commercial reef fish fishery are used to estimate the model. The estimated harvest technology exhibits local weak output disposability which are linked to spatially and temporally dependent stock conditions in the reef fish fishery. The model predicts harvests, discards and fishing profit across multiple species, and importantly across continuous space and time dimensions. Policy simulations further identify behavioral responses to closure regulations, individual tradeable quota management and recent sea turtle bycatch management rules which impose limits on fishing depth. Our model overcomes limitations of discrete choice spatial fishing behavioral models, and offers a powerful tool for improving regulation of spatially and temporally heterogeneous, multi-species fisheries.
Economic Fundamentals and Exchange Rates Under Different Exchange Rate Regimes: Korean Experience

Korea provides a unique opportunity to study the different behaviors or roles, if any, of limited flexibility and free floating exchange rate regimes. Korea shifted from a limited flexibility to a ...
On the Generation of 2-Dimensional Index Workloads

A large number of database index structures have been proposed over the last two decades, and little consensus has emerged regarding their relative effectiveness. In order to empirically evaluate these indexes, it is helpful to have methodologies for generating random queries for performance testing. In this paper we propose a domain-independent approach to the generation of random queries: choose randomly among all logically distinct queries. We investigate this idea in the context of range queries over 2-dimensional points. We present an algorithm that chooses randomly among logically distinct 2-d range queries. It has constant-time expected performance over uniformly distributed data, and exhibited good performance in experiments over a variety of real and synthetic data sets. We observe nonuniformities in the way randomly chosen logical 2-d range queries are distributed over a variety of spatial properties. This raises questions about the quality of the workloads generated from such queries. We contrast our approach with previous work that generates workloads of random spatial ranges, and we sketch directions for future work on the robust generation of workloads for studying index performance.
Microbiologically Facilitated Effects on the Surface Composition of Alloy 22, a Candidate Nuclear Waste Packaging Material

The effects of microbiological activities on the surface composition of Alloy 22 was investigated. Prior studies suggesting microbially-generated selective dissolution of chromium from Alloy 22 were based solely on analyzing solubilized Alloy 22 elements. These and other investigations point to the insufficiencies of analyzing solubilized (or solubilized and reprecipitated) alloying elements to discern between homogeneous/stoichiometric dissolution and selective/non-stoichiometric dissolution of alloying elements. Therefore, an approach using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) to interrogate the surface layers of treated Alloy 22 specimens was taken to resolve this issue. Sputtering into the surface of the samples, coupled with XPS analysis at given intervals, allowed a high resolution quantitative elemental evaluation of the alloy as a function of depth. Biotically-incubated Alloy 22 show a region that could be depleted of chromium. Surfacial XPS analysis of these same coupons did not detect the presence of re-precipitated Alloy 22 component elements, also supporting the possible occurrence of non-stoichiometric dissolution. Thus, these preliminary data do not exclude the possibility of selective dissolution. It also appears that this experimental approach shows promise to unequivocally resolve this issue. Further tests using smoother-surface, more highly polished coupons should allow for better resolution between surface layers to permit a decisive determinationmore » of the mode of Alloy 22 dissolution using sputtering XPS analysis.« less
MEASURING ACCESS TO FOOD IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF LATIN AMERICA

The participants at the food summit organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1996 pledged to reduce the number of hungry by half by 2015. Measuring and quantifying food insecurity is a crucial component of making progress towards that goal. This paper presents one possible approach towards measuring what share of the population might be affected by food insecurity and to what extent. A food security threshold can be calculated as the sum of the cost of a food basket and the cost of other basic necessities. This food security threshold can then be compared to available income. We calculated two food security threshold levels, one based on a representative healthy food basket and one based on a low-cost healthy food basket. The approach is illustrated for nine lower income Latin American countries. To examine the implications of skewed income distribution on food security, we allocated national income across five income groups within each country according to income distribution data from the World Bank and then compared these per capita income levels of the five quintiles to the food security thresholds. Honduras and Nicaragua were found to be the most food insecure countries with 40 percent of the population estimated to be unable to afford the healthy low-cost food basket.
Is Electronic Privacy Achievable

“You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.” Scott McNealy, Sun MicrosystemsWhile secrecy and integrity policies are most often crafted for protection of corporate (e.g., commercial, educational and government) information, we understand privacy policies to be targeted toward the protection of information for and about individuals. The purpose of this panel is to focus on how new technologies are affecting privacy.
Inoculating multivariate schemes against differential attacks

We demonstrate how to prevent differential attacks on multivariate public key cryptosystems using the Plus (+) method of external perturbation. In particular, we prescribe adding as few as 10 Plus polynomials to the Perturbed Matsumoto-Imai (PMI) cryptosystem when g=1 and r=6, where θ is the Matsumoto-Imai exponent, n is the message length, g=gcd(θ,n), and r is the internal perturbation dimension; or as few as g+10 when g ≠ 1. The external perturbation does not significantly decrease the efficiency of the system, and in fact has the additional benefit of resolving the problem of finding the true plaintext among several preimages of a given ciphertext. We call this new scheme the Perturbed Matsumoto-Imai-Plus (PMI+) cryptosystem.
Is Tiger Woods’s Swing Really a Work of Art? Defining the Line Between the Right of Publicity and the First Amendment

The age of the celebrity athlete is upon us. For better or worse, no longer does your local hero merely hit game-winning home runs or sink buzzer-beating fall away jumpers. He now sells you T-shirts and educates you on a wide variety of topics, from which sneaker will help you jump the highest to which fast-food establishment will best satisfy your appetite. A quick walk through your local supermarket will confirm that it is impossible to escape the reach of celebrity athletes in today's culture. Michael Jordan looms from cereal boxes; Donovan Mc­ Nabb stares from soup cans; Sammy Sosa invites you to try a can of soda; Markus Naslund smirks at you from the cover of a video game; Barry Bonds scowls at you from a magazine rack. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine a world without celeb­ rity athletes. Athletic success often translates into an economic windfall for the athlete from sources outside the athletic domain: "Through en­ dorsements, licensing, sponsorships, and television spots, advertis­ ers offer a seemingly unlimited source of income for today's most popular athletes."1 Due to the increasing economic value of popu­ lar athletes' identities, athletes have become determined to "hold
System overview on electromagnetic compensation for reflector antenna surface distortion

Extensive work has been performed to demonstrate the feasibility of adaptive feed compensation on space communication antenna systems. The authors address the system requirements for such a system and identify candidate technologies (analog and digital) for possible hardware implementation. The system requirements for implementing electromagnetic compensation are derived by considering the ACTS (Advanced Communication Technology Satellite) multibeam antenna system configuration and a 19-element phased array feed. >
Treading water: The long-term impact of the 1998 flood on nutrition in Bangladesh

Bangladesh was hit by the worst flood in over a century in the summer of 1998. Although many households were able to smooth consumption expenditure, not everyone was able to maintain adequate calorie consumption. As a consequence, the nutritional status of children in households that were more severely exposed to the flood deteriorated. We use a three round panel data set to investigate which households were better protected from longer term nutritional crises, and whether the health of flood-exposed children recovered to the level of those who were not exposed. The evidence suggests that children exposed to the flood were adversely affected by the shock to their health and did not recover within the survey period. The results also suggest that ex ante government programs were more effective than ex post interventions to protect the heath of children from the impact of the flood.
Three-dimensional oscillations of suspended cables involving simultaneous internal resonances

The near resonant response of suspended, elastic cables driven by planar excitation is investigated using a three degree-of-freedom model. The model captures the interaction of a symmetric in-plane mode with two out-of-plane modes. The modes are coupled through quadratic and cubic nonlinearities arising from nonlinear cable stretching. For particular magnitudes of equilibrium curvature, the natural frequency of the in-plane mode is simultaneously commensurable with the natural frequencies of the two out-of-plane modes in 1:1 and 2:1 ratios. A second nonlinear order perturbation analysis is used to determine the existence and stability of four classes of periodic solutions. The perturbation solutions are compared with results obtained by numerically integrating the equations of motion. Furthermore, numerical simulations demonstrate the existence of quasiperiodic responses.
Investments and Portfolio Performance

This book contains the recent contributions of Edwin J Elton and Martin J Gruber to the field of investments. All of the articles in this book have been published in the leading finance and economic journals. Sixteen of the nineteen articles have been published in the last ten years. This book supplements the earlier contributions of the editors published by MIT Press in 1999.
Deep Star Counts and Cosmological Backgrounds: A Powerful New Model for the Point Source Sky

I report further development of “SKY”, the model for the point source sky developed by Wainscoat et al. (1992) and recently considerably enhanced by Cohen (1994a). SKY predicts cumulative or differential source counts, and integrated surface brightness of the sky due to smeared point sources, in any direction, both for many “hardwired” far-UV, optical, and infrared filters and, in a customised mode, for any filter lying entirely within the 2.0–35.0 μm range. SKY realistically represents the Galaxy using disk, spiral arms, local spurs, Gould’s Belt, molecular ring, bulge, halo and a representation of the IR extragalactic sky. Science applications are: interpreting deep optical and near-IR star counts in terms of the interplay between different geometric components (e.g. halo:disk ratios at high latitudes; disk, arms, and ring at low latitudes) and seeking cosmological IR background radiation. Practical issues are establishing confusion limits due to high surface density of sources. Emphasis will be on the comparison between predicted source counts and theoretical performance for relevant instruments intended for the VLT.
Creating Class I MHC–Null Pigs Using Guide RNA and the Cas9 Endonuclease

Pigs are emerging as important large animal models for biomedical research, and they may represent a source of organs for xenotransplantation. The MHC is pivotal to the function of the immune system in health and disease, and it is particularly important in infection and transplant rejection. Pigs deficient in class I MHC could serve as important reagents to study viral immunity as well as allograft and xenograft rejection. In this study, we report the creation and characterization of class I MHC knockout pigs using the Cas9 nuclease and guide RNAs. Pig fetal fibroblasts were genetically engineered using Cas9 and guide RNAs, and class I MHC− cells were then used as nuclear donors for somatic cell nuclear transfer. We produced three piglets devoid of all cell surface class I proteins. Although these animals have reduced levels of CD4−CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood, the pigs appear healthy and are developing normally. These pigs are a promising reagent for immunological research.
Solving the Quartic with a Pencil

By this, we really mean four different formulas each of which gives one root of the equation. Each formula is expressible using only the operations of addition, subtrac tion, multiplication, division, and extraction of roots. If you just want to know the formula or one way to derive it?and don't care about anything else?you can just skip to the last section of this paper. The formulas for the roots of a general quartic are listed and derived there. The derivation requires the solution of the general cubic (for which we give only hints at the derivation). Readers should be forewarned: this paper is a bit like a tourist trap. There is a main attraction, but you don't get to see it until you pass many of the souvenirs that are available along the way. The real goal of the paper is to expose readers to a number of mathematical tidbits related to the solution of the general quartic. There is a mathematical notion of a "pencil" that is rather cool and has gained prominence in geometry and topology in recent years. Pencils were also studied exten sively by algebraic geometers in the nineteenth century. The geometric picture behind the solution to the quartic presented in the last section is a particular pencil associ ated with the quartic. We begin with a description of a pencil from the view point of a topologist.
Surface and deep ocean circulation in the subpolar North Atlantic during the mid-Pleistocene revolution

[1] We investigated surface and deep ocean variability in the subpolar North Atlantic from 1000 to 500 thousand years ago (ka) based on two Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) sites, Feni drift site 980 (55°29′N, 14°42′W) and Bjorn drift site 984 (61°25′N, 24°04′W). Benthic foraminiferal stable isotope data, planktic foraminiferal faunas, ice-rafted debris data, and faunally based sea-surface temperature estimates help test the hypothesis that oceanographic changes in the North Atlantic region were associated with the onset of the 100-kyr world during the mid-Pleistocene revolution. Based on percentage of Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (s) records from both sites, surface waters during interglacials and glacials were cooler in the mid-Pleistocene than during marine isotope stages (MIS) 5 and 6. In particular, interglaciations at Bjorn drift site 984 were significantly cooler. Faunal evidence suggests that the interglacial Arctic front shifted from a position between the two sites to a position northwest of Bjorn drift site 984 after ca. 610 ka. As during the late Pleistocene, we find faunal evidence for lagging surface warmth at most of the glacial initiations during the mid-Pleistocene. Each initiation is associated with high benthic δ13C values that are maintained into the succeeding glaciation, which we term “lagging NADW production.” These findings indicate that lagging warmth and lagging NADW production are robust features of the regional climate system that persist in the middle to late Pleistocene.
Linear Segmentation and Segment Significance

We present a new method for discovering a segmental discourse structure of a document while categorizing each segment's function and importance. Segments are determined by a zero-sum weighting scheme, used on occurrences of noun phrases and pronominal forms retrieved from the document. Segment roles are then calculated from the distribution of the terms in the segment. Finally, we present results of evaluation in terms of precision and recall which surpass earlier approaches'.
A Mixin-Based, Semantics-Based Approach to Reusing Domain-Specific Programming Languages

Domain-specific programming languages (DSLs) are emerging as an important paradigm for the engineering of large reliable software systems. Modular interpreters are an approach to building off-the-shelf software components that implement fragments of DSLs. We describe an approach to implementing modular interpreters in an object-oriented fashion, using the design pattern of extensible computations. The modular structuring and reuse of DSL implementations has potentially important lessons for object-oriented reuse, because of the highly recursive nature of any non-trivial programming language, and the close semantic relationship between inheritance and recursion.We give paradigmatic examples of the definition of extensible computations in the Java programming language, and consider what extensions would be required for typed object-oriented languages in order to support this approach in a statically type-safe manner.
From monetary targeting to inflation targeting : lessons from the industrialized countries

The author examines changes in monetary policy in industrial countries by evaluating, and providing case studies of monetary targeting, and inflation targeting. Inflation targeting has successfully controlled inflation, with some qualifications. It weakens the effects of inflationary shocks, as examples from Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom show. It can promote growth, and does not lead to increased fluctuations in output. But inflation targets do not necessarily reduce the cost of reducing inflation. The key to success of inflation targeting, is its stress on transparency, and communication with the public. Inflation targeting increases accountability, which helps ameliorate the time-inconsistency trap (in which the central bank tries to expand output, and employment in the short run, by pursuing overly expansionary monetary policy). Time-inconsistency is more likely to come from political pressures on the central bank, to engage in overly expansionary monetary policy. A key advantage of inflation targeting, is that it helps focus the political debate on what a central bank can do in the long run (control inflation) rather than what it cannot do (raise economic growth, and the number of jobs permanently through expansionary monetary policy). By increasing transparency, and accountability, inflation targeting helps promote central bank independence. Accountability to the general public seems to work as well as direct accountability to the government. Inflation targeting is consistent with democratic principles. In discussing operational design, the author explains, among other things, that: 1) Inflation targeting is far from rigid rule. 2) Inflation targets have always been above zero with no loss of credibility. 3) Inflation targeting does not ignore traditional stabilization goals. 4) Avoiding undershoots of the inflation target, is as important, as avoiding overshoots. 5) When inflation is initially high, inflation targeting may have to be phased-in after disinflation. 6)The edges of the target range, can take on a life of their own. 7) Targeting asset prices, such as the exchange rate, worsens performance.
Impact of an inpatient geriatric consultative service on outcomes for cognitively impaired patients.

Background Impact of geriatric consultative services (GCS) on hospital readmission and mortality outcomes for cognitively impaired (CI) patients is not known.
WPv4: a re-imagined Walden's paths to support diverse user communities

The Walden's Paths Project, as part of our philosophy of continual evaluation, actively seeks out user communities who may find our system to be of interest. In the past few years we noticed a recurring trend of user issues, needs, and sought-after features. In order to better support our users, we initiated a redesign of Walden's Paths that not only solves these problems, but enables us to perform more rapid prototyping and experimentation of new features and interfaces. In order to accomplish these goals, we have created a web service that handles the storage, modification, and representation of our path data structures. This service is completely isolated from user interface layers, allowing many different interface designs to be implemented on top of the basic Walden's Paths data structures. We also present several prototype interfaces - Marginalia, CoWPaths, Walden's Drupal, PathCompiler v2, mWalden - that represent new areas in which we believe our ideas can be applied such as collaborative work, location-aware services, large educational databases, offline presentation, and mobile computing.
Proximity-induced magnetism in transition-metal substituted graphene

We investigate the interactions between two identical magnetic impurities substituted into a graphene superlattice. Using a first-principles approach, we calculate the electronic and magnetic properties for transition-metal substituted graphene systems with varying spatial separation. These calculations are compared for three different magnetic impurities, manganese, chromium, and vanadium. We determine the electronic band structure, density of states, and Millikan populations (magnetic moment) for each atom, as well as calculate the exchange parameter between the two magnetic atoms as a function of spatial separation. We find that the presence of magnetic impurities establishes a distinct magnetic moment in the graphene lattice, where the interactions are highly dependent on the spatial and magnetic characteristic between the magnetic and carbon atoms, which leads to either ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic behavior. Furthermore, through an analysis of the calculated exchange energies and partial density of states, it is determined that interactions between the magnetic atoms can be classified as an RKKY interaction.
The insurance industry in Mauritius

The insurance industry is relatively well developed. It makes extensive use of reinsurance facilities and is free from the pervasive premium, product, investment, and reinsurance controls that have bedeviled the insurance markets of so many developing countries around the world. Total premiums amounted in 2001 to 4.1 percent of GDP, while insurance company assets were equivalent to 18 percent of GDP. Life insurance, which has been favored by generous tax incentives and has also benefited from the growth of pension business and housing finance, represents 61 percent of total premiums. Nonlife business is also well organized. Large industrial and commercial risks are reinsured with top international companies, while motor insurance, which is the largest class of business with 45 percent of total nonlife premiums, does not suffer from high loss ratios or unduly long delays in settlement. Investment limits are generally sound and, with some small but important exceptions, effectively nonbinding. There is no minimum requirement for investment in government securities. Investment in overseas assets is limited to 25 percent of total assets, except for foreign life companies and general insurance business which are not allowed to invest in overseas assets. The insurance sector is highly concentrated. The three largest groups have 76 percent of total assets. Despite the high level of concentration, the insurance industry appears to be competitive, operating with high efficiency and re Despite the high level of concentration, the insurance industry appears to be competitive, operating with high efficiency and reasonable profitability. Large and medium-size companies have strong reserves, appropriate reinsurance arrangements, and good profitability. However, several of the smaller companies have weak financial ratios and suffer from long delays in settling claims. Insurance regulation and supervision is entrusted to the Financial Services Commission (FSC). The current regulatory framework has many strong elements, including reliance on solvency monitoring, prudent asset diversification, international accounting standards, and actuarial methods. But there are some important gaps in corporate governance, internal controls, and risk management. In addition, solvency ratios are below international standards and do not include modern risk-based capital requirements. These gaps are already being addressed in two new draft insurance bills which contain many highly modern provisions. Implementing regulations on solvency and actuarial standards need to be developed. Insurance supervision has been invigorated since the creation of the FSC, but further strengthening is required. It needs to emphasize risk management and internal controls, to develop an early warning system, and to establish clear procedures for early and effective intervention. The FSC should require actuaries to report on the reinvestment risk faced by insurance companies and their exposure to a large and persistent fall in interest rates.
The stability of massive main-sequence stars as a function of metallicity

We investigate the pulsational stability of massive (M 120 M� ) main-sequence stars of a range of metallicities, including primordial, Population III stars. We include a formulation of convective damping motivated by numerical simulations of the interaction between convection and periodic shear flows. We find that convective viscosity is likely strong enough to stabilize radial pulsations whenever nuclear burning (the � -mechanism) is the dominant source of driving. This suggests that massive main-sequence stars with Z 2 × 10 −3 are pulsationally stable and are unlikely to experience pulsation-driven mass loss on the main sequence. These conclusions are, however, sensitive to the form of the convective viscosity and highlight the need for further high-resolution simulations of the convection–oscillation interaction. For more metal-rich stars (Z 2 × 10 −3 ), the dominant pulsational driving arises due to the κ-mechanism arising from the iron-bump in opacity and is strong enough to overcome convective damping. Our results highlight that even for oscillations with periods a few orders of magnitude shorter than the outer convective turnover time, the ‘frozen-in’ approximation for the convection–oscillation interaction is inappropriate, and convective damping should be taken into account when assessing mode stability.
Application of Grid-Enabled Technologies for Solving Optimization Problems in Data-Driven Reservoir Studies

This paper presents use of numerical simulations coupled with optimization techniques in reservoir modeling and production optimization. We describe three main components of an autonomic oil production management framework. This framework implements a dynamic, data-driven approach and enables execution in a Grid environment for large scale optimization formulations in reservoir modeling.
Finance and hunger : empirical evidence of the agricultural productivity channel

Using cross-country and panel regressions, the authors show that financial sector development significantly reduces undernourishment (hunger), largely through gaining farmers and others access to productivity-enhancing equipment, translating into beneficial income and general effects. They show specifically that a deeper financial sector leads to higher agricultural productivity, including higher cereal yields, through increased fertilizer and tractor use. Higher productivity in turn leads to lower undernourishment. The results are robust to various specifications and econometric tests and imply that a 1 percentage point increase in private credit to GDP reduces undernourishment by 0.22-2.45 percentage points, or about one-quarter the impact of GDP per capita.
An Unsupervised Method for Uncovering Morphological Chains

Most state-of-the-art systems today produce morphological analysis based only on orthographic patterns. In contrast, we propose a model for unsupervised morphological analysis that integrates orthographic and semantic views of words. We model word formation in terms of morphological chains, from base words to the observed words, breaking the chains into parent-child relations. We use log-linear models with morpheme and word-level features to predict possible parents, including their modifications, for each word. The limited set of candidate parents for each word render contrastive estimation feasible. Our model consistently matches or outperforms five state-of-the-art systems on Arabic, English and Turkish.
Thermopower of the correlated narrow gap semiconductor FeSi and comparison to RuSi

Iron based narrow gap semiconductors such as FeSi, FeSb2, or FeGa3have received a lot of attention because they exhibit a large thermopower, as well as striking similarities to heavy fermion Kondo insulators. Many proposals have been advanced, however, lacking quantitative methodologies applied to this problem, a consensus remained elusive to date. Here, we employ realistic many-body calculations to elucidate the impact of electronic correlation effects on FeSi. Our methodology accounts for all substantial anomalies observed in FeSi: the metallization, the lack of conservation of spectral weight in optical spectroscopy, and the Curie susceptibility. In particular, we find a very good agreement for the anomalous thermoelectric power. Validated by this congruence with experiment, we further discuss a new physical picture of the microscopic nature of the insulator-to-metal crossover. Indeed, we find the suppression of the Seebeck coefficient to be driven by correlation induced incoherence. Finally, we compare FeSi to its iso-structural and iso-electronic homologue RuSi, and predict that partially substituted Fe1 − x Ru x Si will exhibit an increased thermopower at intermediate temperatures.
Credit transfer for market-based infrastructure

The lingua franca of a market-based resource allocation infrastructure is the credit transfer protocol. The protocol design determines the expressible access-control policies and the supported trading patterns. This paper presents a protocol supporting fine grained manipulation of ownership authorities for enhanced expressiveness.
Moving object tracking using local windows

The authors describe a novel technique for the analysis of a sequence of time-varying images taken by a stationary camera. The proposed algorithm is divided into the three stages: (1) motion detection, (ii) object location, and (iii) trajectory tracing. In the first stage, two consecutive images are compared, and a difference image is formed to detect the presence of any motion. A subimage is then defined in the difference image as the active region in which the motion is analyzed. In the second stage, the subimage is compared with both previous and next frames. The local windows enclosing the object are determined in each respective image. These windows are then used in the last stage for tracing the trajectory of the moving object. Their center-of-mass points are computed and plotted on a two-dimensional plane. The approach is tested for both fast and slow motion cases using real-world images of moving objects in complex scenes. >
(0,4) dualities

We study a class of two-dimensional N=(0,4) quiver gauge theories that flow to superconformal field theories. We find dualities for the superconformal field theories similar to the 4d N=2 theories of class S, labelled by a Riemann surface C. The dual descriptions arise from various pair-of-pants decompositions, that involve an analog of the T_N theory. Especially, we find the superconformal indices of such theories can be written in terms of a topological field theory on C. We interpret this class of SCFTs as the ones coming from compactifying 6d N=(2,0) theory on CP^1×C. Moreover, some new dualities of (0,2) and (2,2) theories are also discussed.
Information Asymmetry and the Market Response to Open Market Share Repurchases

This paper proposes a new measure of firm information asymmetry. The information asymmetry measure is based on causality tests relating repurchase information to firm returns. Our results indicate that firms with greater information asymmetry show larger abnormal returns surrounding the announcement of an open market share repurchase. This new information asymmetry proxy remains a significant explanatory factor for announcement abnormal returns after controlling for other conventional information asymmetry proxies, such as firm size, number of analysts following, and analyst forecast dispersion. Further, our measure of information asymmetry is positively related to long-term abnormal returns at one, two, and three-year windows.
Schema Based XML Security: RBAC Approach

Security of XML instance is a basic problem, especially in enterprise with large number of users and XML objects as well as complex authorizations administration. In this paper, a role-based access control (RBAC) model based on XML Schema is proposed. RBAC has been proven to be efficient to improve security administration with flexible authorization management. XML Schemais a specification to define format and contents of XML instance. Access control based on a schema will be transported to all its instances. As a proposed alternate of XML Document Type Definition (DTD), XML Schema supports complex constraints for XML components, such as elements, attributes, datatypes and groups. Also, XML Schema provides a mechanism to build rich reuse relationships between schemas and elements. These will be applied in reusable permissions in our model, which efficiently simplify the security administration. Based on these features fine-grained access control can be achieved. At the same time, our model also supports instances-level authorization naturally, which provides a uniform mechanism for XML security. A abstract implementation is presented in this paper for our proposed model. “Pure” XML technologies will be applied in the implementation mechanism, which make the system lightweight and can be easily embedded into existing systems.
Inherited disorders of glycosylation.

Glycosylation is an essential process by which sugars are attached to proteins and lipids. Complete lack of glycosylation is not compatible with life. Because of the widespread functions of glycosylation, inherited disorders of glycosylation are multisystemic. Keywords: glycosylation; glycoproteins; glycolipids; congenital; muscular dystrophy
Attributes associated with probability of infestation by the pinon ips, Ips confusus, (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) in pinon pine, Pinus edulis

(Please note, this is an abstract only) We examined attributes associated with the probability of infestation by pinon ips (Ips confusus), in pinon pine (Pinus edulis), in an outbreak in the Coconino National Forest, Arizona. We used data collected from 87 plots, 59 infested and 28 uninfested, and a logistic regression approach to estimate the probability of infestation based on plot- and tree-level attributes. Pinon pine stand density index was a good predictor of the likelihood of infestation by pinon ips at the plot level and a cross-validation analysis indicated that the model correctly classified 82% of the cases. Diameter at root collar and pinon dwarf mistletoe infestation level were good predictors of individual tree infestation and a cross-validation analysis indicated that the model correctly classified 72% of the cases. Results suggest that the occurrence of pinon ips infestations may be related to stress factors associated with increased stocking and pinon dwarf mistletoe infestations.
A new estimation method of thermal history in crosslinked polyethylene

The authors conducted differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) measurements of various crosslinked polyethylenes of known thermal history, and found close relationships between the DSC profiles and the thermal history. From the detailed investigation of these relationships, the temperature and the period of heat treatment can be correlated into functions for the DSC profiles. Using these relationships, one can estimate the thermal history. Applying this method to actual cable, the results show good agreement with the thermal history of the cable. It is concluded that this method is useful and beneficial for revealing the thermal history on crosslinked polyethylene insulated cables and for considering the thermal behavior of the cable. >
Casimir scaling in SU(2) lattice gauge theory

By employing the multilevel algorithm in numerical Monte Carlo simulations, we evaluate the static potential in four dimensional SU(2) lattice gauge theory with no dynamical fermions, for static sources in the j=(1/2),1,(3/2) representations. We find data supporting the Casimir scaling hypothesis. With the same technique we show that the ratio of the logarithm of Wilson loops in the j=2 and j=(1/2) representations, as a function of the area of the loops, also satisfies Casimir scaling.
The influence of health care professional characteristics on pain management decisions.

Objective Evidence suggests that patient characteristics such as sex, race, and age influence the pain management decisions of health care providers. Although this signifies that patient demographics may be important determinants of health care decisions, pain-related care also may be impacted by the personal characteristics of the health care practitioner. However, the extent to which health care provider characteristics affect pain management decisions is unclear, underscoring the need for further research in this area. Methods A total of 154 health care providers (77 physicians, 77 dentists) viewed video vignettes of virtual human (VH) patients varying in sex, race, and age. Practitioners provided computerized ratings of VH patients' pain intensity and unpleasantness, and also reported their willingness to prescribe non-opioid and opioid analgesics for each patient. Practitioner sex, race, age, and duration of professional experience were included as predictors to determine their impact on pain management decisions. Results When assessing and treating pain, practitioner sex, race, age, and duration of experience were all significantly associated with pain management decisions. Further, the role of these characteristics differed across VH patient sex, race, and age. Conclusions These findings suggest that pain assessment and treatment decisions may be impacted by the health care providers' demographic characteristics, effects which may contribute to pain management disparities. Future research is warranted to determine whether findings replicate in other health care disciplines and medical conditions, and identify other practitioner characteristics (e.g., culture) that may affect pain management decisions.
Dissolved organic matter export from a forested watershed during Hurricane Irene

[1] We incorporate high-resolution time-series data to calculate the total amount of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) transported during Hurricane Irene in Esopus Creek in New York (August 2011). During this 200-yr event the Esopus Creek experienced a 330-fold discharge increase and a 4-fold increase in concentration, resulting in the export of roughly 43% and 31% of its average annual DOC and DON fluxes, respectively, in just 5 days. The source of this large dissolved organic matter (DOM) flux also shifted during its course and showed an increased contribution of aromatic organic matter. We conclude that more frequent large events due to climate change will increase the export of terrigenous dissolved organic matter, and potentially impact the water quality and biogeochemistry of lakes and coastal systems. In addition, we show that the use of conventional models for extreme events lead to erroneous flux calculations, unless supported by high resolution data collected during the events.