cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Autophagy is Required for Glucose Homeostasis and Lung Tumor Maintenance

Macroautophagy (autophagy hereafter) recycles intracellular components to sustain mitochondrial metabolism that promotes the growth, stress tolerance and malignancy of lung cancers, suggesting that autophagy inhibition may have antitumor activity. To assess the functional significance of autophagy in both normal and tumor tissue, we conditionally deleted the essential autophagy gene, autophagy-related-7, Atg7, throughout adult mice. Here we report that systemic ATG7 ablation caused susceptibility to infection and neurodegeneration that limited survival to 2-3 months. Moreover, upon fasting, autophagy-deficient mice suffered fatal hypoglycemia. Prior autophagy ablation did not alter the efficiency of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) initiation by activation of oncogenic KrasG12D and deletion of the Trp53 tumor suppressor. Acute autophagy ablation in mice with pre-existing NSCLC, however, blocked tumor growth, promoted tumor cell death, and generated more benign disease (oncocytomas). This anti-tumor activity occurred prior to destruction of normal tissues, suggesting that, acute autophagy inhibition may be therapeutically beneficial in cancer.
Terfenol-D driven flaps for helicopter vibration reduction

The utility of helicopter aviation is limited by the high vibration levels caused by the interaction of each rotor blade with the wake of preceding blades. Existing full-blade actuation using a swashplate has various problems such as insufficient bandwidth, limitations in the number of harmonics controlled, high maintenance, and lack of spanwise lift variation. These problems are avoided by the proposed flap operated, individual blade control system, which uses magnetostrictive actuation technology. Terfenol-D actuation has many advantages over competing technologies such as hydraulic systems, electric motors, and piezoelectric elements. These benefits include all-electric operation, simplicity and reliability, low mass, low voltage, and insensitivity to centripetal acceleration. A blade mounted Terfenol-D actuator was developed for the high-weight-penalty helicopter application. The optimum coil to Terfenol-D volume ratio was derived that gives the highest mechanical power output for a small actuator envelope and mass. A fixed ability to dissipate coil resistive losses is assumed. The magnetostrictive actuation system will weigh less than 1% of gross vehicle weight, and use only 0.7% of cruise power. Other required subsystems of the vibration reduction system are available from commercial sources or are described in the literature. Helicopter vibration reduction greater than 90% is predicted because of superior actuator performance and individual blade control. This magnetostrictive actuator technology will also produce future helicopter systems having lower noise and higher performance. Such advances will significantly improve the utility and competitiveness of helicopters for civilian and military transportation.
Observation of the photorefractive effect in a polymer.

We report the first observation of the photorefractive effect in a polymeric material, the electro-optic polymer bisphenol-A-diglycidylether 4-nitro-1,2-phenylenediamine made photoconductive by doping with the hole-transport agent diethylamino-benzaldehyde diphenylhydrazone. The gratings formed exhibit dynamic writing and erasure, strong electric-field dependence, polarization anisotropy, and estimated space-charge fields up to 26 kV/cm at an applied field of 126 kV/cm. Application of similar concepts should provide a broad new class of easily fabricated photorefractive materials.
QCD and nuclear physics

Abstract The main part of this talk is a review and summary of how QCD is used in two main areas of nuclear physics, namely in determining the quark flavor and spin content of the proton and in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. Brief comments are made concerning effective theories in hadron physics and on the separation of various twists in using the operator product expansion to analyze hard processes.
Localizer: a Modeling Language for Local Search

Local search is a traditional technique to solve combinatorial search problems and has raised much interest in recent years. The design and implementation of local search algorithms is not an easy task in general and may require considerable experimentation and programming effort. However, contrary to global search, little support is available to assist the design and implementation of local search algorithms. This paper is an attempt to support the implementation of local search. It presents the preliminary design of LOCALIZER, a modeling language which makes it possible to express local search algorithms in a notation close to their informal descriptions in scientific papers. Experimental results on our first implementation show the feasibility of the approach.
Geoacoustic inversion of tow-ship noise via near-field-matched-field processing

This paper discusses geoacoustic inversion from tow-ship noise data acquired via a horizontal towed array. Through simulations and experimental results, it is shown that even very quiet ships radiate sufficient noise power to enable self-noise inversion of basic geoacoustic parameters such as effective bottom velocity. The experimental results presented are particularly encouraging in view of the high level of interference shown to be tolerated from nearby shipping.
Implementation of Pellet's theorem

Pellet's theorem determines when the zeros of a polynomial can be separated into two regions, based on the presence or absence of positive roots of an auxiliary polynomial, but does not provide a method to verify its conditions or to compute the roots of the auxiliary polynomial when they exist. We derive an explicit condition for these roots to exist and, when they do, propose efficient ways to compute them. A similar auxiliary polynomial appears for the generalized Pellet theorem for matrix polynomials and it can be treated in the same way.
Base pressure of a projectile within the transonic flight regime

An equivalent body concept is developed to examine the base pressure problem of a transonic flow past a blunt-based projectile. The inviscid flow is established by finite difference computations of the axisymmetric potential equation. All viscous flow processes are treated through integral formulations. The strong viscidinviscid interaction is clearly illustrated from the method of approach to the problem. A definition of the base pressure that is compatible with that for the supersonic flow regime has been developed for the transonic flow regime. An analysis of the asymptotic far-wake condition relates a needed parameter to the total drag experienced by the projectile. Results are obtained for transonic (both subsonic and supersonic) approaching flow conditions and are also compared with the available experimental data. Extension to cases with small angles of incidence is also discussed.
A PDF method for multidimensional modeling of HCCI engine combustion: effects of turbulence/chemistry interactions on ignition timing and emissions

Abstract In the limit of homogeneous reactants and adiabatic combustion, ignition timing and pollutant emissions in homogeneous-charge compression-ignition (HCCI) engines would be solely governed by chemical kinetics. As one moves away from this idealization, turbulence and turbulence/chemistry interactions (TCI) play increasingly important roles. Here, the influence of TCI on autoignition and emissions of CO and unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) is examined using a three-dimensional time-dependent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model that includes detailed chemical kinetics. TCI is accounted for using a transported probability density function (PDF) method: the joint PDF of 40 chemical species and mixture enthalpy is considered. The modeled joint PDF equation is solved using a consistent hybrid particle/finite-volume method. Variations in global equivalence ratio, wall temperature, swirl level, degree of mixture inhomogeneity (premixed versus direct injection, and start-of-injection timing for direct-injection cases), and a top-ring-land crevice (TRLC) are investigated. For low-swirl nearly homogeneous conditions and no TRLC, TCI has little effect on ignition timing; however, even in that case the influence of TCI on emissions is not negligible. With increasing swirl, higher degrees of mixture inhomogeneity, and for cases that include a TRLC, TCI effects become increasingly important and result in significant changes in ignition timing and emissions. Unburned fuel is a non-negligible contribution to UHC for high swirl and in cases where a TRLC is considered. In addition to providing new insight into HCCI combustion processes, this work also demonstrates the feasibility of bringing transported PDF methods to bear in modeling a geometrically complex three-dimensional time-dependent turbulent combustion system.
Mechanical fluidity of fully suspended biological cells.

Mechanical characteristics of single biological cells are used to identify and possibly leverage interesting differences among cells or cell populations. Fluidity—hysteresivity normalized to the extremes of an elastic solid or a viscous liquid—can be extracted from, and compared among, multiple rheological measurements of cells: creep compliance versus time, complex modulus versus frequency, and phase lag versus frequency. With multiple strategies available for acquisition of this nondimensional property, fluidity may serve as a useful and robust parameter for distinguishing cell populations, and for understanding the physical origins of deformability in soft matter. Here, for three disparate eukaryotic cell types deformed in the suspended state via optical stretching, we examine the dependence of fluidity on chemical and environmental influences at a timescale of ∼1 s. We find that fluidity estimates are consistent in the time and frequency domains under a structural damping (power-law or fractional-derivative) model, but not under an equivalent-complexity, lumped-component (spring-dashpot) model; the latter predicts spurious time constants. Although fluidity is suppressed by chemical cross-linking, we find that ATP depletion in the cell does not measurably alter the parameter, and we thus conclude that active ATP-driven events are not a crucial enabler of fluidity during linear viscoelastic deformation of a suspended cell. Finally, by using the capacity of optical stretching to produce near-instantaneous increases in cell temperature, we establish that fluidity increases with temperature—now measured in a fully suspended, sortable cell without the complicating factor of cell-substratum adhesion.
Glutamine-derived aldehydes for the inhibition of human rhinovirus 3C protease

Peptide aldehydes have been synthesized and evaluated as inhibitors of human rhinovirus 3C protease. Those inhibitors containing a C-terminal glutamine aldehyde were prepared using newly developed methodology involving reduction of the corresponding glutarimide, which can be easily prepared from N-protected glutamine. Low molecular weight (<500) compounds with low to submicromolar inhibitory activity in both isolated enzyme and in vitro translation assays have been identified.
Inflation targeting and real exchange rates in emerging markets

We examine the inflation targeting (IT) experiences of emerging market economies, focusing especially on the roles of the real exchange rate and the distinction between commodity and non-commodity exporting nations. In the context of a simple empirical model, estimated with panel data for 17 emerging markets using both IT and non-IT observations, we find a significant and stable response running from inflation to policy interest rates in emerging markets that are following publically announced IT policies. By contrast, central banks respond much less to inflation in non-IT regimes. IT emerging markets follow a “mixed IT strategy” whereby both inflation and real exchange rates are important determinants of policy interest rates. The response to real exchange rates is much stronger in non-IT countries, however, suggesting that policymakers are more constrained in the IT regime—they are attempting to simultaneously target both inflation and real exchange rates and these objectives are not always consistent. We also find that the response to real exchange rates is strongest in those countries following IT policies that are relatively intensive in exporting basic commodities. We present a simple model that explains this empirical result.
Optimizing road capacity and type

We extend the traditional road investment model, with its focus on capacity and congestion as measures of capital and its utilization, to include free-flow speed as another dimension of capital. This has practical importance because one can view free-flow speed as a continuous proxy for road type (e.g. freeway, arterial, and urban street). We derive conditions for optimal investment in capacity and free-flow speed, and analyze the optimal balance between the two. We then estimate cost functions for capital and user costs and apply the resulting model using parameters representing large US urban areas. We show that providing high free-flow speed may be quite expensive, and there is sometimes a tradeoff between it and capacity. We find suggestive evidence that representative freeways in many large urban areas provide too high a free-flow speed relative to capacity, thus making the case for reexamination of typical design practice.
Nostradamus: a floorplanner of uncertain designs

Floorplanning is an early phase in chip planning. It provides information on approximate area, delay, power, and other performance measures. Careful floorplanning is, thus, of extreme importance. In many applications, while a good floorplan is needed, the information about all modules is not available, or even worse, part of the provided information is inaccurate. Examples of such applications are designing a huge system where the floorplan is needed early in the design process, but not all the modules have been designed. Another example is the field of reconfigurable computing where it is not known what modules will be needed on the reconfigurable chip as the program is being executed. Floorplanning with uncertainty is the problem of obtaining a good floorplan when the information about module dimensions is not complete. In this paper, the floorplanning problem with uncertainty is formulated. Correlation between input characteristics and output characteristics is studied. Also, it is established that traditional floorplanners are incapable of efficiently handling uncertainty. An effective method for dealing with uncertain data is proposed. Experiments show that, for example, with up to 30% input uncertainty an area estimate with less than 7% error can be obtained.
Dual identities inside the gluon and the graviton scattering amplitudes

Recently, Bern, Carrasco and Johansson conjectured dual identities inside the gluon tree scattering amplitudes. In this paper, we use the properties of the heterotic string and open string tree scattering amplitudes to refine and derive these dual identities. These identities can be carried over to loop amplitudes using the unitarity method. Furthermore, given the M-gluon (as well as gluon-gluino) tree amplitudes, M-graviton (as well as graviton-gravitino) tree scattering amplitudes can be written down immediately, avoiding the derivation of Feynman rules and the evaluation of Feynman diagrams for graviton scattering amplitudes.
Entanglement spectra of critical and near-critical systems in one dimension

The entanglement spectrum of a pure state of a bipartite system is the full set of eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix obtained from tracing out one part. Such spectra are known in several cases to contain important information beyond that in the entanglement entropy. This paper studies the entanglement spectrum for a variety of critical and near-critical quantum lattice models in one dimension, chiefly by the infinite time evolving block decimation (iTEBD) numerical method, which enables both integrable and non-integrable models to be studied. We find that the distribution of eigenvalues in the entanglement spectra agrees with an approximate result derived by Calabrese and Lefevre to an accuracy of a few per cent for all models studied. This result applies whether the correlation length is intrinsic or generated by the finite matrix size accessible in iTEBD. For the transverse Ising model, the known exact results from Peschel and Eisler for the entanglement spectrum are used to confirm the validity of the iTEBD approach. For more general models, no exact result is available but the iTEBD results directly test the hypothesis that all moments of the reduced density matrix are determined by a single parameter.
Cluster Algebras and Grassmannians of Type G2

We prove a conjecture of Geiss, Leclerc and Schroer, producing cluster algebra structures on multi-homogeneous coordinate ring of partial flag varieties, for the case G2. As a consequence we sharpen the known fact that coordinate ring of the double Bruhat cell \(G^{e,w_0}\) is an upper cluster algebra, by proving that it is a cluster algebra.
Assessment of high-heat-flux thermal management schemes

This paper explores the recent research developments in high-heat-flux thermal management. Cooling schemes such as pool boiling, detachable heat sinks, channel flow boiling, microchannel and mini-channel heat sinks, jet-impingement, and sprays, are discussed and compared relative to heat dissipation potential, reliability, and packaging concerns. It is demonstrated that, while different cooling options can be tailored to the specific needs of individual applications, system considerations always play a paramount role in determining the most suitable cooling scheme. It is also shown that extensive fundamental electronic cooling knowledge has been amassed over the past two decades. Yet there is now a growing need for hardware innovations rather than perturbations to those fundamental studies. An example of these innovations is the cooling of military avionics, where research findings from the electronic cooling literature have made possible the development of a new generation of cooling hardware which promise order of magnitude increases in heat dissipation compared to today's cutting edge avionics cooling schemes.
TeV scale singlet dark matter

It is well known that stable weak scale particles are viable dark matter candidates since the annihilation cross section is naturally about the right magnitude to leave the correct thermal residual abundance. Many dark matter searches have focused on relatively light dark matter consistent with weak couplings to the Standard Model. However, in a strongly coupled theory, or even if the coupling is just a few times bigger than the Standard Model couplings, dark matter can have TeV-scale mass with the correct thermal relic abundance. Here we consider neutral TeV-mass scalar dark matter, its necessary interactions, and potential signals. We consider signals both with and without higher-dimension operators generated by strong coupling at the TeV scale, as might happen for example in an RS scenario. We find some potential for detection in high energy photons that depends on the dark matter distribution. Detection in positrons at lower energies, such as those PAMELA probes, would be difficult though a higher energy positron signal could in principle be detectable over background. However, a light dark matter particle with higher-dimensional interactions consistent with a TeV cutoff can in principle match PAMELA data.
Policies of System Level Pipeline Modeling

Pipelining is a well understood and often used implementation technique for increasing the performance of a hardware system. We develop several SystemC/C++ modeling techniques that allow us to quickly model, simulate, and evaluate pipelines. We employ a small domain specific language (DSL) based on resource usage patterns that automates the drudgery of boilerplate code needed to configure connectivity in simulation models. The DSL is embedded directly in the host modeling language SystemC/C++. Additionally we develop several techniques for parameterizing a pipeline's behavior based on policies of function, communication, and timing (performance modeling).
Flame synthesis of graphene films in open environments

Few-layer graphene is grown on copper and nickel substrates at high rates using a novel flame synthesis method in open-atmosphere environments. Transmittance and resistance properties of the transferred films are similar to those grown by other methods, but the concentration of oxygen, as assessed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, is actually less than that for graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition under near vacuum conditions. The method involves utilizing a multi-element inverse-diffusion-flame burner, where postflame species and temperatures are radially-uniform upon deposition at a substrate. Advantages of the specific flame synthesis method are scalability for large-area surface coverage, increased growth rates, high purity and yield, continuous processing, and reduced costs due to efficient use of fuel as both heat source and reagent. Additionally, by adjusting local growth conditions, other carbon nanostructures (i.e. nanotubes) are readily synthesized.
Constructing lower probabilities

An elaboration of Dempster's method of constructing belief functions suggests a broadly applicable strategy for constructing lower probabilities under a variety of evidentiary constraints.
Identification of novel biomarker and therapeutic target candidates for diagnosis and treatment of follicular adenoma

Follicular adenoma is a type of benign and encapsulated nodule in the thyroid gland, but some adenomas have the potential to progress to follicular carcinoma. Therefore, it is important to monitor the state and progress of follicular adenoma in the clinic and discover drug development targets for the treatment of follicular adenoma to prevent its worsening to follicular carcinoma. Currently, the study of biomarkers and therapeutic targets lacks applications of up-to-date technologies, including proteomics and bioinformatics. To discover novel protein biomarker and therapeutic target candidates, a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry approach was applied to directly compare follicular adenoma with normal thyroid tissue samples. The proteomics analysis revealed 114 protein biomarker candidates out of 1,780 identified and quantified proteins. A comprehensive approach to prioritize the biomarker candidates by category and rank revealed CD63, DDB1, TYMP, VDAC2, and DCXR as the top five biomarker candidates. Upstream regulator analysis using the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) software discovered four therapeutic target candidates for follicular adenoma, including TGFB1, MYC, ANGPT2, and NFE2L2. This study provided biomarker and therapeutic target candidates for a follow-up study, which will facilitate monitoring and treatment of follicular adenoma.
Evidence on Value Creation in the Financial Services Industries through the Use of Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances

While an extensive body of literature has examined merger, acquisition, and consolidation activity in commercial banks and other financial services firms, little attention has been paid to examining how these institutions use the cooperative activities of joint ventures and strategic alliances to accomplish their growth objectives. We analyze the effects of the use of joint ventures and strategic alliances by a sample of firms in the banking, investment services, and insurance industries. Our results show that commercial banks, investment services firms, and insurance companies experience significant abnormal returns of 0.66% on average when they announce their participation in a joint venture or strategic alliance. These abnormal returns are significantly positive across the four strategic motives of domestic, international, horizontal, and diversifying cooperative activities. Using a matched sample, we also show that our sample firms enjoy significant, positive, abnormal returns for holding periods of six, 12, and 18 months after the announcement of the cooperative activity.
Some geometrical aspects of control points for toric patches

We use ideas from algebraic geometry and dynamical systems to explain some ways that control points influence the shape of a Bezier curve or patch. In particular, we establish a generalization of Birch’s Theorem and use it to deduce sufficient conditions on the control points for a patch to be injective. We also explain a way that the control points influence the shape via degenerations to regular control polytopes. The natural objects of this investigation are irrational patches, which are a generalization of Krasauskas’s toric patches, and include Bezier and tensor product patches as important special cases.
GALAXY MERGERS AND THE MASS-METALLICITY RELATION: EVIDENCE FOR NUCLEAR METAL DILUTION AND FLATTENED GRADIENTS FROM NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS

Recent results comparing interacting galaxies to the mass-metallicity relation show that their nuclear oxygen abundances are unexpectedly low. We present analysis of N-body/smoothed-particle hydrodynamics numerical simulations of equal-mass mergers that confirm the hypothesis that these underabundances are accounted for by radial inflow of low-metallicity gas from the outskirts of the two merging galaxies. The underabundances arise between first and second pericenters, and the simulated abundance dilution is in good agreement with observations. The simulations further predict that the radial metallicity gradients of the disk galaxies flatten shortly after first passage, due to radial mixing of gas. These predictions will be tested by future observations of the radial metallicity distributions in interacting galaxies.
Assembled Columnar Structures from bis-urea Macrocycles

Presented is a review of our research on using macrocyclic bis-ureas as supramolecular building blocks. These macrocycles predictably self-assemble into columnar structures via strong urea–urea hydrogen bonds and pi–stacking interactions. We developed a facile synthetic route to these macrocyclic ureas, confirmed their self-assembly pattern, and are now assessing their potential as a supramolecular building block. A series of bis-urea macrocycles were synthesized and assembled to verify the fidelity of their self-assembly motifs. Ultimately, a large phenylether bis-urea macrocycle was synthesized that formed tubular assemblies containing a guest accessible channel. We have characterized the structure of the assembled nanotubes by NMR and X-ray crystallography and evaluated this new porous solid with respect to its binding properties and specificity. This porous self-assembled material is thermally and chemically stable and can reversibly bind and exchange a variety of guest molecules.
TURBULENCE, AMALGAMATION, AND GENERIC AUTOMORPHISMS OF HOMOGENEOUS STRUCTURES

We study topological properties of conjugacy classes in Polish groups, with emphasis on automorphism groups of homogeneous countable structures. We first consider the existence of dense conjugacy classes (the topological Rokhlin property). We then characterize when an automorphism group admits a comeager conjugacy class (answering a question of Truss) and apply this to show that the homeomorphism group of the Cantor space has a comeager conjugacy class (answering a question of Akin, Hurley and Kennedy). Finally, we study Polish groups that admit comeager conjugacy classes in any dimension (in which case the groups are said to admit ample generics). We show that Polish groups with ample generics have the small index property (generalizing results of Hodges, Hodkinson, Lascar and Shelah) and arbitrary homomorphisms from such groups into separable groups are automatically continuous. Moreover, in the case of oligomorphic permutation groups, they have uncountable cofinality and the Bergman property. These results in particular apply to automorphism groups of many ω-stable, ℵ0-categorical structures and of the random graph. In this connection, we also show that the infinite symmetric group S∞ has a unique non-trivial separable group topology. For several interesting groups we also establish Serre’s properties (FH) and (FA).
Accelerate instrument control and automation

Automating instrument set up and measurement within a programming environment can be difficult. This paper will demonstrate the details of creating a sequence of instrument commands that will perform the necessary set-up and measurement and will assure the correct syntax and options for later integration into an automated environment. Agilent's Command Expert will be used to generate the instrument commands that can be profiled to improve execution time and identify bottlenecks. Different instruments can be substituted, and the software will identify commands that need to be altered or will not work for the new instrument. Once developed and tuned, the command sequence can easily be used in the following Application Development Environments (ADEs): Visual Studio, LabVIEW, MATLAB, VEE, SystemVue, and Excel. These and other features help remove many of the barriers that exist today when trying to automate instrument control for validation and test.
Matrix Infrared Spectroscopic and Computational Investigation of Late Lanthanide Metal Hydride Species MHX(H2)y (M = Tb-Lu, x = 1-4, y = 0-3)

Laser-ablated late lanthanide metal atoms were condensed with pure hydrogen at 4 K, and new infrared absorptions are assigned to binary metal hydrides on the basis of deuterium substitution and density functional theory frequency calculations. The dominant absorptions in the 1330-1400 cm(-1) region are identified as LnH(3) complexes with very weak ligand bands near 3900 cm(-1). With ytterbium, YbH and YbH(2) were the major initial products, but YbH(3) increased at their expense upon sample irradiation. Evidence is also presented for the LuH and ErH molecules and the tetrahydride anions in solid hydrogen.
Modeling the time to an initial public offering: When does the fruit ripen?

This paper uses a duration model to examine credit unions who have converted to mutual savings institutions. We investigate the characteristics that they possess which might influence the probability that they subsequently demutualize and become publicly traded banks. Our key findings are as follows. First, we find evidence of positive duration dependence in the data we examine. Second, we find that the hazard of an IPO issue increases in two waves. The first occurs between 3 1/2 years to 4 years reflecting the increased transition intensity for those who wish to demutualize early. However, the majority of the institutions in our sample do so by approximately 8 years after conversion, and this is where the second spike in the hazard occurs. Finally, upon estimating the model with Cox’s (Biometrika 62:269–276, 1975) semi-parametric partial likelihood approach, we find the probability that a converted institution will issue an IPO is influenced to a large extent by various measures that capture asset quality, in particular through measures that are equity driven. However, contrary to what is found in the literature on bank transformation, we find that the size of an institution does not appear to influence the hazard rate within this industry.
Avoidance behavior in US university Spanish‐language instruction

The use of communicative strategies (CSs) by L2 learners is a well-documented facet of second language research, with a number of studies suggesting a direct correlation between CS use and L2 proficiency. However, current research regarding learners' use of these strategies has not yet addressed the potential overuse of linguistic avoidance among FL learners. This study attempts to measure avoidance use among US university students of Spanish as a FL. Thirty-two participants completed two communicative writing assignments, one requiring the use of the preterit/imperfect aspect, and another the subjunctive. Participants were then interviewed regarding their use and/or conscious avoidance of these grammatical forms. Results indicate a great deal of purposeful, conscious avoidance of both of these targeted grammatical forms on the part of participants. El uso de estrategias comunicativas por los aprendices de una segunda lengua (L2) es un tema de gran importancia y de enfoque dentro del conjunto de investigaciones sobre el aprendizaje de una L2. Existen varios estudios que sugieren la existencia de una correlacion directa entre el uso de estas estrategias y la competencia linguistica global. No obstante, los que estudian este tema todavia no han investigado el posible sobreuso de la evasion linguistica entre estudiantes de lengua extranjera. Este estudio intenta medir la evasion linguistica entre estudiantes estadounidenses a nivel universitario matriculados en clases del espanol como lengua extranjera. Participaron 32 estudiantes que completaron dos tareas comunicativas escritas para este estudio, una que les requiso el uso del preterito/imperfecto para cumplir con las metas comunicativas del ejercicio, y la otra les requiso el subjuntivo. Despues se entrevistaron sobre su uso y/o evasion consciente de estas dos formas gramaticales. Los resultados de este estudio indican que los participantes evadieron estas dos formas gramaticales de manera consciente e intencional un gran numero de veces.
Aérgia: exploiting packet latency slack in on-chip networks

Traditional Network-on-Chips (NoCs) employ simple arbitration strategies, such as round-robin or oldest-first, to decide which packets should be prioritized in the network. This is counter-intuitive since different packets can have very different effects on system performance due to, e.g., different level of memory-level parallelism (MLP) of applications. Certain packets may be performance-critical because they cause the processor to stall, whereas others may be delayed for a number of cycles with no effect on application-level performance as their latencies are hidden by other outstanding packets'latencies. In this paper, we define slack as a key measure that characterizes the relative importance of a packet. Specifically, the slack of a packet is the number of cycles the packet can be delayed in the network with no effect on execution time. This paper proposes new router prioritization policies that exploit the available slack of interfering packets in order to accelerate performance-critical packets and thus improve overall system performance. When two packets interfere with each other in a router, the packet with the lower slack value is prioritized. We describe mechanisms to estimate slack, prevent starvation, and combine slack-based prioritization with other recently proposed application-aware prioritization mechanisms. We evaluate slack-based prioritization policies on a 64-core CMP with an 8x8 mesh NoC using a suite of 35 diverse applications. For a representative set of case studies, our proposed policy increases average system throughput by 21.0% over the commonlyused round-robin policy. Averaged over 56 randomly-generated multiprogrammed workload mixes, the proposed policy improves system throughput by 10.3%, while also reducing application-level unfairness by 30.8%.
Factors' correlation in the Heath–Jarrow–Morton interest rate model

We propose a new derivation of the Heath–Jarrow–Morton risk-neutral drift restriction that takes into account nonzero instantaneous correlations between factors. The result allows avoiding the orthogonalization of factors and provides an approach by which interest rate derivatives can be priced by preserving the economic meaning of each underlying factor. An application is given for the term structure of credit-risky bonds, driven by two correlated factors—the risk-free forward rate and the forward credit spreads. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Prediction of thermodynamic parameters in gas chromatography from molecular structure: hydrocarbons.

Theoretical prediction of gas-chromatographic retention times could be used as an additional method for a more accurate identification of organic compounds during GC/MS analysis. Two separate quantitative structure−property relationship models were introduced for the calculation of thermodynamic values (ΔH°, ΔS°) for aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. These values are required for the calculation of retention times in temperature programmed gas chromatography. Seven-descriptor and five-descriptor MLR models were selected for the calculation of ΔH° and ΔS° values, respectively, based on the best cross-validation abilities. The final prediction capabilities of the models were evaluated by a test set procedure. RMS errors calculated from the test set were 207 cal mol-1 and 0.58 cal mol-1 K-1 for ΔH° and ΔS° prediction models, respectively. To evaluate the error of the models represented in the time scale, several chromatograms were simulated using experimental Pro ezGC and theoretically calculated thermody...
A Modular Functor Which is Universal for Quantum Computation

We show that the topological modular functor from Witten-Chern-Simons theory is universal for quantum computation in the sense that a quantum circuit com- putation can be efficiently approximated by an intertwining action of a braid on the functor's state space. A computational model based on Chern-Simons theory at a fifth root of unity is defined and shown to be polynomially equivalent to the quantum circuit model. The chief technical advance: the density of the irreducible sectors of the Jones representation has topological implications which will be considered elsewhere.
Quasi-Monte Carlo: halftoning in high dimensions?

The goal in Quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) is to improve the accuracy of integrals estimated by the Monte Carlo technique through a suitable specification of the sample point set. Indeed, the errors from N samples typically drop as N −1 with QMC, which is much better than the N −1/2 dependence obtained with Monte Carlo estimates based on random point sets. The heuristic reasoning behind selecting QMC point sets is similar to that in halftoning, that is, to spread the points out as evenly as possible, consistent with the desired point density. I will outline the parallels between QMC and halftoning, and describe an halftoning-inspired algorithm for generating a sample set with uniform density, which yields smaller integration errors than standard QMC algorithms in two dimensions.
Molecular Packing and Symmetry of Two-Dimensional Crystals

Periodic arrangements on surfaces resulting from monolayer formation are critical in determining the electronic structure of thin films, the adhesion of surface coatings, the properties of lubricants, and the polymorphic form of heteronucleated crystals. Unlike substrate-directed chemisorption, the process of physisorption is highly responsive to molecular structure and stands out as a controllable method of creating variable surface patterns with periodicities on the low end of the nanoscale. Despite decades of study focused upon such ordered structures, the principles guiding the formation of these two-dimensional crystals have been obscured by the lack of a systematic and critical compilation. Thus, prediction of two-dimensional structure based upon the composition of the individual building blocks remains in its infancy. Here we demonstrate through the compilation and analysis of a database of two-dimensional structures that molecular-scale patterns are dictated by the same factors that determine bulk...
Generation of trifluoromethylcopper from chlorodifluoroacetate

Abstract In the presence of fluoride ion, methyl chlorodifluoroacetate undergoes halide ion-promoteddecarboxylation to give trifluoromethide which can be trapped with cuprous iodide. Theresulting trifluoromethyl copper reagent has been observed spectroscopically and can betrapped with aryl iodides to give the corresponding trifluoromethylaromatic compound.
Attenuation of perceived motion smear during the vestibulo-ocular reflex

Previous studies indicated that less motion smear is perceived when a physically stationary target is presented during voluntary eye movements than when similar retinal-image motion occurs during steady fixation. In this study, we assessed whether the perception of motion smear is attenuated also during the involuntary vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). Normal observers matched the length of perceived smear in two experimental conditions that were designed to produce similar trajectories of retinal image motion. In the fixation condition, a small bright target was presented for a duration of 50-200 ms in rightward or leftward motion, while the observer remained stationary and maintained fixation. In the VOR condition, the target moved along with the observer, who underwent full-body rotation around a vertical axis in darkness. Horizontal eye movement recordings during VOR trials allowed us to calculate the velocity of retinal image motion on each VOR trial. The principal result was that the extent of perceived motion smear was significantly less during VOR than fixation trials, particularly for target durations of 100 ms or longer. These findings support the conclusion that extra-retinal signals during the involuntary VOR contribute to a reduction of perceived motion smear.
Recent progress in quantum hadrodynamics

Quantum hadrodynamics (QHD) is a framework for describing the nuclear many-body problem as a relativistic system of baryons and mesons. Motivation is given for the utility of such an approach and for the importance of basing it on a local, Lorentz-invariant lagrangian density. Calculations of nuclear matter and finite nuclei in both renormalizable and nonrenormalizable, effective QHD models are discussed. Connections are made between the effective and renormalizable models, as well as between relativistic mean-field theory and more sophisticated treatments. Recent work in QHD involving nuclear structure, electroweak interactions in nuclei, relativistic transport theory, nuclear matter under extreme conditions, and the evaluation of loop diagrams is reviewed.
Macroeconomic Effects of Reducing Gender Wage Inequality in an Export-Oriented, Semi- Industrialized Economy

The paper presents two short-run, structuralist models of an export-oriented, two-sector, semi-industrialized economy in which women workers are concentrated in export production. The first model analyzes the comparative static effects of an exogenous increase in female wages holding male wages and the exchange rate constant. The second model endogenizes the female–male wage ratio and the real exchange rate, assuming flexible nominal wages and a crawling-peg exchange rate. Either stable or unstable dynamics are possible. In the stable cases, a depreciation policy can either close or widen the gender wage gap.
Does infrastructure reform work for the poor? A case study on the cities of La Paz and El Alto in Bolivia

From 1994 onward, Bolivia undertook a major reform of its infrastructure sectors. Foster and Irusta examine the impact of the reforms from the perspective of poor households in the adjacent cities of La Paz and El Alto, particularly in terms of access to services. Different policies adopted across the infrastructure sectors led to diverging outcomes. In the water and sewerage sector, the concessionaire was placed under legal obligation to meet connection targets in low income neighborhoods, while customers were given the facility to spread payment of connection charges over a two year period and opt for a lower cost "condominial connection." As a result the rate of expansion of services increased by 70 percent relative to the pre-reform period. In the telecommunications sector, fixed and cellular services tell very different stories. On the one hand, fixed line services remained inaccessible to the poor due to the membership fee of US$1,500 charged by the cooperative, or the alternative nonmember option of paying a US$23 monthly rental fee. On the other hand, cellular coverage increased tenfold from 1996-99 as the advent of competition led to huge reductions both in connection and calling charges, while the introduction of prepayment cards greatly facilitated the control of expenditure. The expansion that took place did not bypass the poor. While first quintile households saw barely any improvement in access to utility services in the period leading up to the 1994 reforms, in the five years that followed coverage rates for these households rose by more than 20 percentage points for water and sewerage, and more than 10 percentage points for electricity and telephones. Overall, 80 percent of new water and sewerage connections and 65 percent of new electricity and telephone connections went to residents in the poorest neighborhoods of La Paz and El Alto. This paper - a product of the Finance, Private Sector, and Infrastructure Unit, Latin America and the Caribbean Region - part of a larger effort in the region to understand and evaluate the social impacts of the infrastructure reforms that took place in the 1990s.
The effect of Nix and Hydra on the putative Pluto–Charon dust cloud

Abstract Impact-generated dust clouds around airless bodies have been observed or suggested to be present throughout the solar system, including around the Martian, Galilean and Saturnian satellites. Simulations have assessed Pluto and Charon as sources of a possible dust cloud or torus and found that such a cloud would be dominated by Charon-produced ejecta and would have an optical depth of τ ≈ 10 − 11 . These simulations were conducted before the discovery of two additional, small satellites of Pluto, Nix and Hydra. These small moons may yield impact-generated dust in excess of their larger counterparts due to their lower escape velocities, despite their smaller cross sections. In this paper, we extend a previous model of the Pluto–Charon dust cloud to include Nix and Hydra, both as sinks for Pluto- and Charon-generated dust and as sources of impact-generated dust. We find that Nix- and Hydra-generated dust grains outlive Pluto and Charon dust grains significantly and are the dominant contributors of dust in the Pluto–Charon system. Furthermore, we estimate the net geometric optical depth of grains between 0.1 and 100 μ m to be on the order of 10−7.
Stability and performance of a simple distributed tracking policy for production control of manufacturing systems

The objective of distributed tracking is to operate a production system as closely as possible to an idealized regime obtained by a continuous-flow relaxation of the actual (discrete) production control problem. The stability and performance of a large class of distributed tracking policies called "nonidling-nonexceeding (NINE)" were investigated in an earlier paper (1994). In this work we focus on the most natural tracking policy in this class and find a tight bound on its performance for a single machine and a sufficient condition for its stability for multiple-machine systems. This condition is considerably less stringent than the one available for general NINE policies. >
Challenges in SiC power MOSFET design

Abstract The impact of fundamental and technological parameters is considered for SiC power MOSFETs. The wide bandgap nature of SiC increases the surface electric field by 2× at inversion compared to silicon, placing an important role on surface roughness in reducing the field-effect mobility. The presence of interface-trapped charges also acts to reduce the channel mobility and increases the sensitivity of the threshold voltage to temperature. The high critical electric field of SiC increases the stored energy in the switch output capacitance by 10× compared to silicon. For hard-switched converters, it is important to design SiC MOSFETs with a high saturation current to enable high-speed turn-on transients required to discharge the integral drain-source capacitance.