cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Detection of marine slicks with SAR: Scientific and experimental legacy of werner alpers, his students and colleagues

It has long been known from the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data record that marine slicks can be identified as zones of reduced backscatter separately from the surrounding wind-roughened waters. The composition and properties of marine slicks dampens the shortwave field by both suppression of wave growth and increase in wave dissipation, through an increase in surface tension and a reduction in wind friction. There are, however, clear complications related to SAR marine slick detection. The first problem is that marine slicks may be confused on SAR imagery with areas of low wind and other low-backscatter ocean features such as air-sea temperature differences, rain, and freshwater plumes. The second problem is that there are two primary forms of marine slicks, one composed of biogenic material and the other related to mineral oils from natural seeps or oil spills largely from anthropogenic-related hazards. Biogenic oils, often called surface active agents or surfactants and/or natural films, occur in a thin monolayer and are highly viscoelastic oils that are a byproduct of ocean plant and animal growth. Surfactants readily accumulate in convergent zones by internal waves and current/eddy fields, but are mixed into the upper ocean and rapidly disperse and disappear under windy conditions. The conundrum of detecting and isolating spilled mineral oil from biogenic films and other ocean forms of low backscatter areas has long been recognized by Werner Alpers, his students, and colleagues, and continues to this day. This rich experimental and theoretical legacy, largely focused on the use of radar and SAR, took on steam in the 1980s and continues to this day. This includes laboratory experiments, detailed examination of the properties of both mineral and biogenic slicks and the dampening effects on radar scattering, collection of radar and SAR imagery from ocean platforms, aircraft, the space shuttle, and satellites. The complications and difficulties of this seemingly relative simple notion of separating biogenic films and mineral oil, including as these materials interact with wind, waves, and currents and the use of all sorts of radar frequencies and polarizations collecting data from all over the world, continues to prove challenging in identifying a reliable methodology. In this study, we will review the past efforts of Professor Alpers and his continued influence on current efforts to clearly identify mineral oil and its properties within the vagaries of the ocean environment.
The many types of carbonic anhydrases in photosynthetic organisms.

Carbonic anhydrases (CAs) are enzymes that catalyze the interconversion of CO2 and HCO3−. In nature, there are multiple families of CA, designated with the Greek letters α through θ. CAs are ubiquitous in plants, algae and photosynthetic bacteria, often playing essential roles in the CO2 concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) which enhance the delivery of CO2 to Rubisco. As algal CCMs become better characterized, it is clear that different types of CAs are playing the same role in different algae. For example, an α-CA catalyzes the conversion of accumulated HCO3− to CO2 in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, while a θ-CA performs the same function in the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. In this review we argue that, in addition to its role of delivering CO2 for photosynthesis, other metabolic roles of CA have likely changed as the Earth’s atmospheric CO2 level decreased. Since the algal and plant lineages diverged well before the decrease in atmospheric CO2, it is likely that plant, algae and photosynthetic bacteria all adapted independently to the drop in atmospheric CO2. In light of this, we will discuss how the roles of CAs may have changed over time, focusing on the role of CA in pH regulation, how CAs affect CO2 supply for photosynthesis and how CAs may help in the delivery of HCO3− for other metabolic reactions.
Proposed Dual-Mode Machine for Wind Power Harvesting

Because of the increasing concerns on the energy utilization and the environmental protection, the wind power has gained lots of attentions recently. The wind power harvesting applications generally can be classified as two big families, namely the constant-speed constant-frequency (CSCF) wind power generation and the variable-speed constant-frequency (VSCF) wind power generation. Without installation of power converters, the CSCF type takes the absolute merit of compact system architecture as well as simplicity. Yet, its operating speed has to be maintained in a limited range so that there is no correlation with the wind speed. Therefore, it suffers from the problems of lower efficiency and higher mechanical losses.
A review of the new GLP-1 receptor agonist/basal insulin fixed-ratio combination products.

There have been several new treatment approaches established for the management of hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes (T2D), with treatment guidelines listing both glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor ag...
Timing Matters: Approaches for Measuring and Visualizing Behaviours of Timing and Spacing of Work in Self-Paced Online Teacher Professional Development Courses

One feature of self-paced online courses is greater learner control over the timing of their work in a course. However, the greater timing flexibility that learners enjoy in such environments may play a different role in the learning process than has been previously observed in formal online or face-to-face courses. As such, the study of work timing merits further investigation. Toward this goal, this study forwards two measures that represent the timing of coursework: 1) the timing index, or the degree to which a participant completes 50% of their work, and 2) the spacing count, the frequency of work performed across the course timeframe. In this study, the authors demonstrate the use of these measures from a data set of 42 U.S. middle-school teachers who participated in a self-paced, online professional development course to support teacher implementation of a new blended-learning curriculum. Using the two measures, the authors identify timing behaviours of participants and examine the effects that timing has on teacher self-efficacy after completing the course. The two measures and visualizations demonstrated in this paper yield useful individual-level variables for course timing that can be used for further study on the effects on learning outcomes.
Training a Sentence-Level Machine Translation Confidence Measure.

We present a supervised method for training a sentence level confidence measure on translation output using a human-annotated corpus. We evaluate a variety of machine learning methods. The resultant measure, while trained on a very small dataset, correlates well with human judgments, and proves to be effective on one task based evaluation. Although the experiments have only been run on one MT system, we believe the nature of the features gathered are general enough that the approach will also work well on other systems.
The Educational Experiences of Black Males: The Early Years.

While our nation's cities and communities are experiencing numerous problems such as high unemployment, low educational achievement, increasing levels of crime and rampant drug cultures, one segment of the population in this country is being disproportionately affected by these negative circumstances. That group of individuals is young black men. Their current condition has been poignantly portrayed in the media and their future is being characterized by pejorative modifiers such as "disappearing," "endangered," and "vanishing." But no matter how appalling and gloomy the situation is and may seem, there are viable solutions which can bring about the gradual resolution of this overwhelming problem. The remedies though must span the entire developmental, educational and social continuum of the lives of these young me and will require the assistance of parents, teachers, college students and other significant individuals and groups in the communities where we live
CLINICAL ENZYMOLOGY IN THE EVALUATION OF HEART AND LIVER DISEASE

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a few experimental studies on clinical enzymology in the evaluation of heart and liver disease. It describes the importance of organ specificity in relation to the selection of enzyme tests and the diagnosis of myocardial infarction. In a study described in the chapter, it was observed that bromsulfalein retention and prothrombin time were more sensitive than any of the enzyme tests studied in detecting injury secondary to chronic congestive failure. The chapter also presents a longitudinal study of several serum constituents in a patient with infectious hepatitis. A patient with unexplained alkaline phosphatase activity may present a problem in differential diagnosis. The issue of sensitivity in the detection of increased biliary pressure was earlier investigated by Reichard, who measured enzyme activity in cholecystectomized patients following the ingestion of a fatty meal and the administration of morphine. The data indicated that the serum enzyme activity frequently increased and that OCT was more sensitive than GPT or GOT.
LEAD IN PAPER: A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FOOD CONTAMINATION

Many paper products, including newspapers and paper goods used in packaging foods, contain lead. The lead content of newspapers, an important constituent of recycled paper, varies with color of ink, type of printing process, and source of newsprint. Recycled newsprint is richer in lead than virgin newsprint. Lead on or in food packages ranged from 2 to 10,000 ppm, and varied with the quantity of printing and color of ink. Printed packages contained more lead than unprinted material, although some unprinted ones contained up to 58 ppm. The potential for introducing lead into meat and milk by feeding waste paper to ruminants is explored. Negligible amounts of lead are introduced into soils and plants from news-paper mulch.
High resolution photon time-tagging lidar for atmospheric point cloud generation

The application of time-correlated single photon counting hardware and techniques to atmospheric lidar is presented. The results establish the viability of adapting photon time-tagging techniques to atmospheric lidar systems, facilitating high-range resolution (millimeter-level precision) and dynamic system observing capabilities that address the variety of atmospheric scatterers often present in atmospheric lidar profiles. The technique is demonstrated through measurements made by a high repetition rate, low pulse energy, elastic scattering, photon counting lidar. Detection probabilities with a non-zero system dead-time are derived and tested using acquired data. Atmospheric point cloud generation and the statistical implications on data retrievals utilizing this approach are presented. The results show an ability to preserve backscattered intensities while generating photon detections at picosecond resolution from a variety atmospheric scatterers.
Lower Extremity Somatosensory Evoked Potential P37 Waveform Optimization.

ABSTRACTSomatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) using tibial nerve stimulation are used during neurophysiologic intraoperative monitoring (NIOM). These SEPs produce a P37 waveform that is recorded from scalp electrodes. In this study, we attempted to determine the best derivation for recording the P37 waveform. Surgical cases using tibial nerve SEP NIOM were reviewed. Only cases in which the P37 was recorded using all of the following derivations were analyzed: centroparietal ipsilateral–centroparietal contralateral (CPi-CPc), centroparietal midline–frontopolar midline (CPz-Fpz), and CPz-CPc. The amplitude of the P37 waveform was measured in each derivation. Descriptive statistics were obtained for the P37 waveform amplitude. The mean amplitude in each of the derivations was compared using a chi-square test. Data from 39 patients (78 lower limbs) were available for analysis. The mean age of the patients was 49.64 years (range: 4–87 years); 18 were female. The highest amplitude P37 waveform was recorded fro...
Behavioral Health and Diabetes: Increasing Treatment Adherence

Diabetes is a chronic illness in which the body struggles to produce or process insulin correctly. Insulin is a hormone created by the pancreas that allows glucose (blood sugar) from the food humans consume to enter the body’s cells and be used for energy. When insulin is absent or not working effectively in the body, glucose accumulates in the bloodstream, depriving the body’s cells of energy in the short term and producing dire health consequences over the long term, such as kidney failure, heart disease, blindness, and serious infections requiring amputation. Thus, to measure the severity of diabetes, providers collect blood samples to assess average glucose levels in the bloodstream, called the glycated hemoglobin percentage (HbA1c). Upwards of 29.1 million people in the United States or approximately 1 in every 11 Americans lives with diabetes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). In this chapter, we focus on the two most prevalent types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2.
Modeling the Kinematics of Human Locomotion Over Continuously Varying Speeds and Inclines

Powered knee and ankle prostheses can perform a limited number of discrete ambulation tasks. This is largely due to their control architecture, which uses a finite-state machine to select among a set of task-specific controllers. A non-switching controller that supports a continuum of tasks is expected to better facilitate normative biomechanics. This paper introduces a predictive model that represents gait kinematics as a continuous function of gait cycle percentage, speed, and incline. The basis model consists of two parts: basis functions that produce kinematic trajectories over the gait cycle and task functions that smoothly alter the weight of basis functions in response to task. Kinematic data from 10 able-bodied subjects walking at 27 combinations of speed and incline generate training and validation data for this data-driven model. Convex optimization accurately fits the model to experimental data. Automated model order reduction improves predictive abilities by capturing only the most important kinematic changes due to walking tasks. Constraints on a range of motion and jerk ensure the safety and comfort of the user. This model produces a smooth continuum of trajectories over task, an impossibility for finite-state control algorithms. Random sub-sampling validation indicates that basis modeling predicts untrained kinematics more accurately than linear interpolation.
Evolution of a Revolution: The Movement to 24/7 Web-Based Libraries

SUMMARY Since 1993, Stevens Institute Library has successfully demonstrated that an academic institution can function well by acquiring only those materials when needed “just-in-time” instead of having materials on the shelf “just-in-case” they were needed. Users are seeking key and useful targeted concise information and no longer have the time to digest artificially long texts.
Implantable Pulse Generator Site May Be Associated With Spinal Cord Stimulation Revision Surgeries

Background The use of implantable pulse generators (IPG) for spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in patients with chronic pain has been well established. Although IPG-related complications have been reported on, the association between IPG site and SCS complications has not been well studied. Objective To investigate whether IPG placement site in buttock or flank is associated with SCS complications and, hence, revision surgeries. Method A retrospective cohort study was performed that included 330 patients (52% female) treated at a single institution who underwent permanent implantation of an SCS system between 2014 and 2018. Patients ranged between 20 and 94 years of age (mean: 57.54 ± 13.25). Statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics. Tests included independent samples t test, chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, and logistic regression. Results There was a total of 93 revision surgeries (rate of 28%), where 71 out of 330 patients (rate of 21.5%) had had at least one revision surgery. Univariate tests demonstrated a significant association between IPG site and revision surgeries (p = 0.028 [chi-square test] and p = 0.031 [Mann-Whitney U test]); however, multivariate logistic regression demonstrated that neither IPG site was more likely than the other to require revision surgeries (p = 0.286). Conclusion Although this study found a significant association between IPG site and revision surgeries, the effect of IPG site was not found to be predictive. The IPG site likely influences whether a patient will require revision surgery, but further investigation is required to establish this association.
Necessary conditions for responsible innovation

As we reflect on what actions, changes, and realizations are possible due to the disruptive natural experiment of the current pandemic, there are reasons for both optimism and pessimism as industri...
Multi-omics integration analysis identifies novel genes for alcoholism with potential link to neurodegenerative diseases

Abstract Significance Identification of causal variants and genes underlying genome-wide association study (GWAS) loci is essential to understanding the biology of alcohol use disorder (AUD). Methods Integration of “multi-omics” data is often necessary to nominate candidate causal variants and genes and prioritize them for follow up studies. Here, we used Mendelian randomization to integrate AUD and drinks per week (DPW) GWAS summary statistics with the gene expression and methylation quantitative trait loci (eQTLs and mQTLs) in the largest brain and myeloid datasets. We also used AUD-related single cell epigenetic data to nominate candidate causal variants and genes associated with DPW and AUD. Results Our multi-omics integration analyses prioritized unique as well as shared genes and pathways among AUD and DPW. The GWAS variants associated with both AUD and DPW showed significant enrichment in the promoter regions of fetal and adult brains. The integration of GWAS SNPs with mQTLs from fetal brain prioritized variants on chromosome 11 in both AUD and DPW GWASs. The co-localized variants were found to be overlapping with promoter marks for SPI1, specifically in human microglia, the myeloid cells of the brain. The co-localized SNPs were also strongly associated with SPI1 mRNA expression in myeloid cells from peripheral blood. The prioritized variant at this locus is predicted to alter the binding site for a transcription factor, RXRA, a key player in the regulation of myeloid cell function. Our analysis also identified MAPT as a candidate causal gene specifically associated with DPW. mRNA expression of MAPT was also correlated with daily amounts of alcohol intake in post-mortem brains (frontal cortex) from alcoholics and controls (N = 92). Results may be queried and visualized in an online public resource of these integrative analysis (https://lcad.shinyapps.io/alc_multiomics/). These results highlight overlap between causal genes for neurodegenerative diseases, alcohol use disorder and alcohol consumption. In conclusion integrating GWAS summary statistics with multi-omics datasets from multiple sources identified biological similarities and differences between typical alcohol intake and disordered drinking highlighting molecular heterogeneity that might inform future targeted functional and cross-species studies. Interestingly, overlap was also observed with causal genes for neurodegenerative diseases.
“Stone Steppers” and “Place Makers”: Community College Students’ Transfer Aspirations and Perceptions of Time:

Background/ContextSociologists of education have studied how community colleges’ institutional authorities and organizational barriers stratify students’ postsecondary aspirations. Notions of how s...
Four Weeks of 16/8 Time Restrictive Feeding in Endurance Trained Male Runners Decreases Fat Mass, without Affecting Exercise Performance.

Background: Time restricted Feeding (TRF) is a dietary pattern utilized by endurance athletes, but there is insufficient data regarding its effects on performance and metabolism in this population. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of a 16/8 TRF dietary pattern on exercise performance in trained male endurance runners. Methods: A 4-week randomized crossover intervention was used to compare an 8-h TRF to a 12-h normal diet (ND) feeding window. Exercise training and dietary intake were similar across interventions. Runners completed a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan to assess body composition, a graded treadmill running test to assess substrate utilization, and ran a 10 km time trial to assess performance. Results: There was a significant decrease in fat mass in the TRF intervention (−0.8 ± 1.3 kg with TRF (p = 0.05), vs. +0.1 ± 4.3 kg with ND), with no significant change in fat-free mass. Exercise carbon dioxide production (VCO2) and blood lactate concentration were significantly lower with the TRF intervention (p ≤ 0.02). No significant changes were seen in exercise respiratory exchange ratio or 10 km time trial performance (−00:20 ± 3:34 min:s TRF vs. −00:36 ± 2:57 min:s ND). Conclusion: This investigation demonstrated that adherence to a 4-week 16/8 TRF dietary intervention decreased fat mass and maintained fat-free mass, while not affecting running performance, in trained male endurance runners.
Dual detection of chromatin accessibility and DNA methylation using ATAC-Me

The epigenome is multidimensional, with individual molecular components operating on different levels to control transcriptional output. Techniques that combine measurements of these features can reveal their precise correspondence in genomic space, or temporal connectivity, to better understand how they jointly regulate genes. ATAC-Me is an integrated method to probe DNA methylation and chromatin accessibility from a single DNA fragment library. Intact nuclei undergo Tn5 transposition to isolate DNA fragments within nucleosome-free regions. Isolated fragments are exposed to sodium bisulfite before library amplification and sequencing. A typical ATAC-Me experiment detects ~60,000–75,000 peak regions (P < 0.05), covering ~3–4 million CpG sites with at least 5× coverage. These sites display a range of methylation values depending on the cellular and genomic context. The approach is well suited for time course studies that aim to capture chromatin and DNA methylation dynamics in tandem during cellular differentiation. The protocol is completed in 2 d with standard molecular biology equipment and expertise. Analysis of resulting data uses publicly available software requiring basic bioinformatics skills to interpret results. This protocol provides a step-by-step workflow for ATAC-Me, an integrated method for simultaneously probing DNA methylation and chromatin accessibility from a single DNA fragment library.
A comparative analysis of virtual versus physical process-migration strategies for distributed modeling and simulation of mobile computing networks

Improvements in processor power and diminishing processor costs coupled with the potential of asynchronous, distributed algorithms promise to expand the frontier of mobile computing networks. In general, a mobile computing network consists of semi-autonomous or autonomous stationary and mobile agents that perform local computations, cooperate, and communicate among themselves to achieve a desired objective. While the stationary entities are connected through a static interconnection network and interact with each other, the mobile units interact dynamically with the stationary entities. Examples of newly emerging mobile computing networks include route guidance in the U.S. Department of Transportation's Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems, distributed scheduling in railway networks, semi-autonomous decision making in the battlefield environment, and the community health care network wherein mobile physicians may interact with remote patient medical records. This paper focuses on the high level principles that underlie the distributed modeling and accurate simulation of mobile computing networks on a parallel processing testbed. The testbed consists of a network of workstations configured as a loosely-coupled parallel processor and it closely resembles reality. A key issue is the representation of the stationary and mobile entities of the mobile computing network through concurrent and interacting processes in the testbed. The nature of the representation will influence the accuracy and performance of the simulation. This paper first reviews a process representation technique that has been proposed in the literature for modeling railway networks and then analyzes its limitations. This strategy is referred to as Virtual Process Migration (VPM). The paper then proposes a new strategy, termed Physical Process Migration (PPM), that aims to address the limitations of VPM. It details the software techniques underlying both approaches, describes their implementations on a realistic testbed, and then contrasts their performance under different representative scenarios. While VPM is capable of modeling modest to large-scale mobile computing networks on a testbed consisting of a few processors, the number of processors of the testbed in PPM must correspond to the number of stationary and mobile entities of the mobile computing network size that is being modeled. Analysis of the simulation results reveals that both VPM and PPM are highly effective and very useful strategies under different circumstances. For a given number of mobile and stationary entities, simulation under PPM is fast when every mobile entity requires significant computation. On the other hand, VPM exhibits superior performance relative to PPM when the number of data elements exchanged by each mobile entity at each hop is significantly high.
Corporate Law and Social Norms

Corporate law serves both tofacilitate and to regulate the conduct ofthe corporate enterprise. Insofar as corporate law is regulatory, it provides incen? tives and disincentives to the major actors in the corporate enterprise?direc? tors, officers, and significant shareholders?through the threat of liability. In significant part, however, these actors are motivated not by the desire to avoid liability, but by the prospect of financial gain, on the one hand, and by social norms, on the other. Much work has been done on the way in which these actors are motivated by the threat of liability and the prospect of finan? cial gain, but relatively little work has been done on the operation of social norms. The purpose ofthis Article is to illuminate both corporate law specifi? cally, and the interrelation of law and social norms generally, by studying the ways in which that interrelation operates in the field of corporate law. The Article begins by describing three kinds of social norms?behavioral pat? terns, practices, and obligational norms?and considering the origins and effects of social norms. It then examines the critical role of social norms in several central areas of corporate law: fiduciary duties (specifically, care and loyalty), corporate governance (specifically, board composition and the role of institutional investors), and takeovers.
Modeling the Semantics of 3D Protein Structures

The post Human Genome Project era calls for reliable, integrated, flexible, and convenient data management techniques to facilitate research activities. Querying biological data that is large in volume and complex in structure such as 3D proteins requires expressive models to explicitly support and capture the semantics of the complex data. Protein 3D structure search and comparison not only enable us to predict unknown structures, but can also reveal distant evolutionary relationships that are otherwise undetectable, and perhaps suggest unsuspected functional properties. In this work, we model 3D protein structures by adding spatial semantics and constructs to represent the contributing forces such as hydrogen bonds and high-level structures such as protein secondary structures. This paper makes a contribution to modeling the specialty of life science data and develops methods to meet the novel challenges posed by such data.
Axisymmetric Magnetic Mirror Fusion-Fission Hybrid

Early application of the simple axisymmetric mirror, requiring intermediate performance between a neutron source for materials testing Q=Pfusion/Pinput ~0.05 and pure fusion Q>10, are the hybrid applications. The Axisymmetric Mirror has attractive features as a driver for a fusion-fission hybrid system: geometrical simplicity, as well as the typical mirror features of inherently steady-state operation, and natural divertors in the form of end tanks. This level of physics performance has the virtue of being low risk with only modest RD and its simplicity promises economy advantages. Operation at Q~1 allows for relatively low electron temperatures, in the range of 3 keV, for the DT injection energy ~ 80 keV from existing positive ion neutral beams designed for steady state. A simple mirror with the plasma diameter of 1 m and mirror-to-mirror length of 40 m is discussed. Simple circular steady state superconducting coils are based on 15 T technology development of the ITER central solenoid. Three groups of physics issues are presented: axial heat loss, MHD stability, and microstability of sloshing ions. Burning fission reactor wastes by fissioning transuranics in the hybrid will multiply fusion’s neutron energy by a factor of ~10 or more and diminish the Q needed to overcome the cost of recirculating power for good economics to less than 2 and for minor actinides with multiplication over 50 to Q~0.2. Hybrids that obtain revenues from sale of both electricity and production of fissile fuel with fissioning blankets might need Q 4.
Approximate equilibrium and incentivizing social coordination

We study techniques to incentivize self-interested agents to form socially desirable solutions in scenarios where they benefit from mutual coordination. Towards this end, we consider coordination games where agents have different intrinsic preferences but they stand to gain if others choose the same strategy as them. For non-trivial versions of our game, stable solutions like Nash Equilibrium may not exist, or may be socially inefficient even when they do exist. This motivates us to focus on designing efficient algorithms to compute (almost) stable solutions like Approximate Equilibrium that can be realized if agents are provided some additional incentives. Our results apply in many settings like adoption of new products, project selection, and group formation, where a central authority can direct agents towards a strategy but agents may defect if they have better alternatives. We show that for any given instance, we can either compute a high quality approximate equilibrium or a near-optimal solution that can be stabilized by providing small payments to some players. Our results imply that a little influence is necessary in order to ensure that selfish players coordinate and form socially efficient solutions.
Intermediate Microeconomics with Microsoft Excel

This unique text uses Microsoft Excel workbooks to instruct students. In addition to explaining fundamental concepts in microeconomic theory, readers acquire a great deal of sophisticated Excel skills and gain the practical mathematics needed to succeed in advanced courses. In addition to the innovative pedagogical approach, the book features explicitly repeated use of a single central methodology, the economic approach. Students learn how economists think and how to think like an economist. With concrete, numerical examples and novel, engaging applications, interest for readers remains high as live graphs and data respond to manipulation by the user. Finally, clear writing and active learning are features sure to appeal to modern practitioners and their students. The website accompanying the text is found at www.depauw.edu/learn/microexcel.
Risk aversion, risk premia, and the labor margin with generalized recursive preferences

Abstract A flexible labor margin allows households to absorb shocks to asset values with changes in hours worked as well as changes in consumption. This ability to absorb shocks along both margins alters the household's attitudes toward risk, as shown by Swanson (2012) . In the present paper, I extend that analysis to the case of generalized recursive preferences, as in Epstein and Zin (1989) and Weil (1989) , including multiplier preferences, as in Hansen and Sargent (2001) . Understanding risk aversion for these preferences is important because they are a primary mechanism being used to bring macroeconomic models into closer agreement with asset prices. Traditional, fixed-labor measures of risk aversion show no stable relationship to the equity premium in a standard macroeconomic model, while the closed-form expressions I derive here match the equity premium closely.
The Agenda-Setter for Complex Litigation

I am honored to be allowed to contribute to this collection in recognition of Chief Judge Edward Becker, who has long been at the forefront in developing sensible ways for addressing a variety of issues that lie at the heart of handling modern complex litigation. As I reflected on Judge Becker's contributions to this area on which I have focused my professional career, it struck me that the right theme for this essay would be the judge's role as an agenda-setter. For me, he first set that agenda nearly twenty years ago when I was working on my first civil procedure article, and he has kept doing so ever since. In political circles, it is widely appreciated that setting the agenda is a way to control the outcome of the game. Stalin, for instance, was able to achieve power in the early Soviet Union in significant measure because as General Secretary he controlled the agenda for the Politburo. But judges do not get to set their own agendas; it is one of the hallmarks of Anglo-American judges that they take what comes to them by the luck of the draw. Others ‒ mainly the litigants ‒ set the agenda for judges. So judges cannot control the game in the same way. Despite these institutional constraints, Judge Becker has set the complex litigation agenda for decades. In part, it is because he set the agenda in other capacities than as a sitting judge. For example, he was a catalyst behind the creation of the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules. In part, it is because the Judiciary has called on him to serve as an agenda-setter as a member of its Long Range Planning Committee. In part, it is because his incredible energy allows him to reach out to the practicing bar and academic communities along with carrying out his many judicial duties.
Comparative yield estimation via shock hydrodynamic methods

Shock TOA (CORRTEX) from recent underground nuclear explosions in saturated tuff were used to estimate yield via the simulated explosion-scaling method. The sensitivity of the derived yield to uncertainties in the measured shock Hugoniot, release adiabats, and gas porosity is the main focus of this paper. In this method for determining yield, we assume a point-source explosion in an infinite homogeneous material. The rock is formulated using laboratory experiments on core samples, taken prior to the explosion. Results show that increasing gas porosity from 0% to 2% causes a 15% increase in yield per ms/kt{sup 1/3}. 6 refs., 4 figs.
ECONOMIC WELL-BEING AT OLDER AGES: INCOME- AND CONSUMPTION-BASED POVERTY MEASURES IN THE HRS

According to economic theory, well-being or utility depends on consumption. However, at the household level, total consumption is rarely measured because its collection requires a great deal of survey time. As a result income has been widely used to assess economic well-being and poverty rates. Yet, because households can use wealth to consume more than income, an income-based measure of well-being could yield misleading results for many households, especially at older ages. The authors use data from the Health and Retirement Study to find income-based poverty rates which they compare with poverty rates as measured in the Current Population Survey. They use HRS consumption data to calculate a consumption-based poverty rate and study the relationship between income-based and consumption-based poverty measures. They find that the poverty rate based on consumption is lower than the income-based poverty rate. Particularly noteworthy is the much lower rate among the oldest single persons such as widows. The explanation for the difference is the ability to consume out of wealth.
Friend or Foe or Family? A Tale of Formal and Informal Plants in India

This paper examines the interaction between formal (organized) and informal (unorganized) plants in the manufacturing sector in India. How has the size and productivity of the plants in the organized sector affected the plants in the unorganized sector? How have informal plants affected formal plants? Are the magnitudes of the effects symmetric in either direction? The evidence shows that there are positive horizontal and vertical spillovers in each direction. Informal firms are an important supplier of inputs to formal firms. Employment and output in the organized sector is greater in those states in India that have a greater presence of unorganized suppliers of inputs. Conversely, unorganized employment and output are greater in states that have a greater presence of organized buyers of inputs. But there are two important asymmetries in the relationship between the organized and unorganized sectors. First, the unorganized sector is much more dependent on and responsive to organized sector presence than vice versa. Second, unorganized sector productivity is dependent on and responsive to organized sector productivity and presence but the reverse is not true.
Longitudinal control of the lead car of a platoon

The work presented here belongs to the area of Intelligent Highway Vehicle Systems (IHVS). In particular it deals with the scenario where cars move along the highway in tightly spaced platoons. We present the control schemes that perform the major longitudinal tasks that will be required from the lead vehicle of a platoon moving on an automated highway. In particular schemes that maintain safe spacing, track an optimal velocity and perform various maneuvers (forming, breaking up platoons and changing lanes) are described.
The maximin fitness function: multi-objective city and regional planning

The maximin fitness function can be used in multi-objective genetic algorithms to obtain a diverse set of non-dominated designs. The maximin fitness function is derived from the definition of dominance, and its properties are explored. The modified maximin fitness function is proposed. Both fitness functions are briefly compared to a state-of-the-art fitness function from the literature. Results from a real-world multi-objective problem are presented. This problem addresses land-use and transportation planning for high-growth cities and metropolitan regions.
GRAVITATIONAL LENSES AND THE STRUCTURE OF GALAXIES

Nearly singular isothermal mass distributions with small core radii are consistent with stellar dynamics, lens statistics, and lens models as a model for E/S0 galaxies. Models like the de Vaucouleurs model with a constant mass-to-light ratio are not. While the isothermal distributions are probably an oversimplification, E/S0 galaxies (at least in projection) must have significant amounts of dark matter on scales of an effective radius.
Retrofitting Word Vectors to Semantic Lexicons

Vector space word representations are learned from distributional information of words in large corpora. Although such statistics are semantically informative, they disregard the valuable information that is contained in semantic lexicons such as WordNet, FrameNet, and the Paraphrase Database. This paper proposes a method for refining vector space representations using relational information from semantic lexicons by encouraging linked words to have similar vector representations, and it makes no assumptions about how the input vectors were constructed. Evaluated on a battery of standard lexical semantic evaluation tasks in several languages, we obtain substantial improvements starting with a variety of word vector models. Our refinement method outperforms prior techniques for incorporating semantic lexicons into word vector training algorithms.
Frequency domain compensation of a DYNGEN turbofan engine model

Following Rosenbrock's ideas regarding the advantages of dominance in linear multivariable control systems, a new graphical technique is used for the design of compensators that achieve dominance. The technique is illustrated with an application to the problem of designing compensators for a linear turbofan-engine model. The resulting design is put into perspective by examining it in the light of two other multivariable frequency-domain methods. One, MacFarlane's method of characteristic loci, is used to realize a final design for stability and low interaction. The other is a direct technique based upon the algebraic expansion of the determinant of the return difference in terms of it's elements. Results from simulations carried out on the NASA DYNGEN software are included.
Feature subset selection by estimation of distribution algorithms

This paper describes the application of four evolutionary algorithms to the selection of feature subsets for classification problems. Besides of a simple genetic algorithm (GA), the paper considers three estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs): a compact GA, an extended compact GA, and the Bayesian Optimization Algorithm. The objective is to determine if the EDAs present advantages over the simple GA in terms of accuracy or speed in this problem. The experiments used a Naive Bayes classifier and public-domain and artificial data sets. All the algorithms found feature subsets that resulted in higher accuracies than using all the features. However, in contrast with other studies, we did not find evidence to support or reject the use of EDAs for this problem.
Vertical structure of aerosols, temperature, and moisture associated with an intense African dust event observed over the eastern Caribbean

[1] An unusually intense African dust event affected a large area of the western Atlantic and eastern Caribbean in early April 2010. Measurements made east of Barbados from the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) Twin Otter research aircraft are used to characterize particle size distributions; vertical distributions of aerosols, temperature, and moisture; and processes leading to the observed stratification in the boundary layer. The vertical profiles of various aerosol characterizations were similar on both days and show three layers with distinct aerosol and thermodynamic characteristics: the Saharan Air Layer (SAL; ~2.2 km ± 500 m), a subcloud layer (SCL; surface to ~500 m), and an intermediate layer extending between them. The SAL and SCL display well-mixed aerosol and thermodynamic characteristics; but the most significant horizontal and vertical variations in aerosols and thermodynamics occur in the intermediate layer. The aerosol variability observed in the intermediate layer is likely associated with modification by shallow cumulus convection occurring sometime in the prior history of the air mass as it is advected across the Atlantic. A comparison of the thermodynamic structure observed in the event from its origin over Africa with that when it reached Barbados indicates that the lower part of the SAL was moistened by surface fluxes as the air mass was advected across the Atlantic. Mixing diagrams using aerosol concentrations and water vapor mixing ratios as conserved parameters provide insight into the vertical transports and mixing processes that may explain the observed aerosol and thermodynamic variability in each layer.
Monte Carlo simulation of spin-polarized transport

Monte Carlo simulations are performed to study the in-plane transport of spin-polarized electrons in III-V semiconductor quantum wells. The density matrix description of the spin polarization is incorporated in the simulation algorithm. The spin-orbit interaction terms generate coherent evolution of the electron spin polarization and also cause dephasing. The spatial motion of the electrons is treated semiclassically. Three different scattering mechanisms--optical phonons, acoustic phonons and ionized impurities--are considered. The electric field is calculated self-consistently from the charge distribution. The Monte Carlo scheme is described, and simulation results are reported for temperatures in the range 77-300 K.
A framework for ensuring and improving dependability in highly distributed systems

A distributed software system’s deployment architecture can have a significant impact on the system’s dependability. Dependability is a function of various system parameters, such as network bandwidth, frequencies of software component interactions, power usage, and so on. Recent studies have shown that the quality of deployment architectures can be improved significantly via active system monitoring, efficient estimation of the improved deployment architecture, and system redeployment. However, the lack of the appropriate tools for monitoring, analyzing, and effecting redeployment at the architectural level makes improving a system’s deployment architecture a very challenging problem. To cope with these challenges, developers typically resort to ad hoc solutions that decrease the potential for reuse and understandability. In this paper, we first present an extensible framework that guides the design and development of solutions for this type of problem, enables the extension and reuse of the solutions, and facilitates autonomic analysis and redeployment of a system’s deployment architecture. We then discuss a suite of extensible and integrated tools that help developers in realizing the framework.
New regime of low ion collisionality in the neoclassical equilibrium of tokamak plasmas

The neoclassical description of an axisymmetric toroidal plasma equilibrium is formulated for an unconventionally low ordering of the collisionality that suits realistic thermonuclear fusion conditions. This requires a drift-kinetic analysis to the second order of the ion Larmor radius, which yields a new contribution to the leading solution for the non-Maxwellian part of the ion distribution function if the equilibrium geometry is not up-down symmetric. An explicit geometrical factor weighs this second Larmor-radius order, low-collisionality effect that modifies the neoclassical ion parallel flow, and the ion contribution to the bootstrap current.
The adding up problem

The 'adding up problem' was given professional respectability by Cline (1982). It stated that all developing countries could not attain the same level of performance as the East Asian countries because either the markets of the developed world could not cope with the implied increase in the volume of imports or protectionist measures would not allow them to. The argument is backed by the hypothesis of Lewis (1980) that developing country growth is limited by a fixed relationship between their primary exports and growth in the developed countries. This contradicts the reality (manufacturing exports have assumed the increased importance in recent years) and, the author argues, is wrong.
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles: Singular Extremals and Chattering

In this paper, we consider the time minimal problem for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. We investigate, on a simplified model, the existence of singular extremals and discuss their optimality status. Moreover, we prove that singular extremals corresponding to the angular acceleration are of order 2. We produce in this case a semi-canonical form of our Hamiltonian system and we can conclude the existence of chattering extremals..