cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Announcement Effects and the Theory of Storage: An Empirical Study of Lumber Futures

We investigate how lumber futures returns are affected by monthly housing starts announcements and analyze the dependence of the response on lumber inventories and time to delivery. To do so we develop a generalized least squares (GLS) method to jointly analyze simultaneously traded contracts. We find that increases in the unanticipated component of housing starts announcements increase returns on lumber futures contracts. Further, and as predicted by the theory of storage but previously unrecorded, the effects of housing starts shocks decline with lumber inventories. There is also a time-to-delivery effect: near-delivery contracts respond more sharply to housing starts news than do farther-out contracts.
Computational Aeroelasticity: Success, Progress, Challenge

This article asserts a much broader dee nition of the term, one in whichCAEencompassesalllevelsofaeroelasticanalysis.Aeroelastic tools based on both linear unsteady aerodynamics and nonlinear CFD methods have been developed and successfully applied. We refer to both of these methodologies as components of CAE. Likewisestructuralmodelingassimpleasbeamtheorytostate-of-the-art e nite element modeling (FEM) have been incorporated into aeroelastic tools, and these techniques should also be included under the CAE heading. It is not the intention of this article to provide an exhaustive history of the development and application of CAE over the past 70 years. Rather, the subject will be examined in the context of two primary themes: 1) aeroelastic problems requiring theoretical
Topic maps for custom viewing of data

A Topic Map is a structured network of hyperlinks that points into an information pool. Topic Maps have an existence independent of the information pool and hence different Topic Maps can form different layers above the same information pool and provide us with different views of it. We explore the use of Topic Maps with the Unified Column Descriptor (UCD) scheme developed in the frame of the ESO-CDS data mining project. UCD, with its multi-tier hierarchical structure, categorizes parameters reported in tables and catalogs. By using Topic Maps we show how columns from different catalogs with similar but not identical descriptions could be combined. A direct application for the Virtual Observatory community is that of merging catalogs in order to generate customized views of data.© (2002) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Prediction of aqueous solubility of organic compounds by the general solubility equation (GSE).

The revised general solubility equation (GSE) is used along with four different methods including Huuskonen's artificial neural network (ANN) and three multiple linear regression (MLR) methods to estimate the aqueous solubility of a test set of the 21 pharmaceutically and environmentally interesting compounds. For the selected test sets, it is clear that the GSE and ANN predictions are more accurate than MLR methods. The GSE has the advantages of being simple and thermodynamically sound. The only two inputs used in the GSE are the Celsius melting point (MP) and the octanol water partition coefficient (Kow). No fitted parameters and no training data are used in the GSE, whereas other methods utilize a large number of parameters and require a training set. The GSE is also applied to a test set of 413 organic nonelectrolytes that were studied by Huuskonen. Although the GSE uses only two parameters and no training set, its average absolute errors is only 0.1 log units larger than that of the ANN, which requir...
Autotune: game-based adaptive bitrate streaming in P2P-assisted cloud-based vod systems

Hybrid peer-to-peer assisted cloud-based video-on-demand (VoD) systems augment cloud-based VoD systems with P2P networks to improve scalability and save bandwidth costs in the cloud. In these systems, the VoD service provider (e.g., NetFlix) relies on the cloud to deliver videos to users and pays for the cloud bandwidth consumption. The users can download videos from both the cloud and peers in the P2P network. It is important for VoD service provider to i) minimize the cloud bandwidth consumption, and ii) guarantee users’ satisfaction (i.e., quality-of-experience). Though previous adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR) methods improve video playback smoothness, they cannot achieve these two goals simultaneously. To tackle this challenge, we propose AutoTune, a game-based adaptive bitrate streaming method. In AutoTune, we formulate the bitrate adaptation problem in ABR as a noncooperative Stackelberg game, where VoD service provider and the users are players. The VoD service provider acts as a leader and it decides the VoD service price for users with the objective of minimizing cloud bandwidth consumption while ensuring users’ participation. In response to the VoD service price, the users select video bitrates that lead to maximum utility (defined as a function of its satisfaction minus associated VoD service fee). Finally, the Stackelberg equilibrium is reached in which the cloud bandwidth consumption is minimized while users are satisfied with selected video bitrates. Experimental results from the PeerSim simulator and the PlanetLab real-world testbed show that compared to existing methods, AutoTune can provide high user satisfaction and save cloud bandwidth consumption.
Deposited low temperature silicon GHz modulator

We demonstrate multi gigahertz polysilicon electro-optic modulator fabricated using low temperature excimer laser annealing technique compatible with CMOS backend integration. Carrier injection modulation at 3 Gbps is achieved.
Analyzing the gender pay gap in transition economies: How much does personality matter?

We estimate the personality-earnings relation in Russia, Armenia and Kazakhstan and examine how much of the gender pay gap can be explained by locus of control (LOC). We use data from an employee survey conducted in 2005 and employ Oaxaca-Blinder-Neumark decomposition. Among Russian and Armenian survey participants, men are more likely to exhibit an internal LOC (attribute success to own actions), and individuals with an internal LOC tend to earn more than individuals who attribute success to fate or other external forces (exhibit an external LOC). In Kazakhstan, gender differences in LOC and the estimated effects of LOC on earnings are small and statistically insignificant. Gender differences in LOC explain 5.5 percent of the gender pay gap in Armenia, 7 percent in Russia, and 2.7 percent in Kazakhstan. Our findings suggest that personality plays an important role in explaining the pay gap.
Inflation Dynamics and Time-Varying Volatility: New Evidence and an Ss Interpretation*

Is monetary policy less effective at increasing real output during periods of high volatility than during normal times? In this article, I argue that greater volatility leads to an increase in aggregate price flexibility so that nominal stimulus mostly generates inflation rather than output growth. To do this, I construct price-setting models with "volatility shocks" and show these models match new facts in CPI micro data that standard price-setting models miss. I then show that these models imply that output responds less to nominal stimulus during times of high volatility. Furthermore, because volatility is countercyclical, this implies that nominal stimulus has smaller real effects during downturns. For example, the estimated output response to additional nominal stimulus in September 1995, a time of low volatility, is 55% larger than the response in October 2001, a time of high volatility. JEL Codes: E10, E30, E31, E50, D8. Copyright 2014, Oxford University Press.
Highly efficient and enantioselective cyclization of aromatic imines via directed C-H bond activation.

The first highly enantioselective catalytic reaction involving aromatic C−H bond activation is communicated. Enantioselective cyclization of aromatic ketimines containing alkenyl groups tethered at the meta position of an imine directing group has been achieved using 5 mol % [RhCl(coe)2]2 and 15 mol % of an (S)-binol-derived phosphoramidite ligand. Selectivities of up to 96% ee and up to quantitative yields were obtained. Moreover, the identified catalyst system enables the intramolecular alkylation reaction to be performed at temperatures 75 °C lower than our previously reported achiral system. The reaction can even be performed at room temperature for one of the optimal substrates.
Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processes in Emotion Generation Common and Distinct Neural Mechanisms

Emotions are generally thought to arise through the interaction of bottom-up and top-down processes. However, prior work has not delineated their relative contributions. In a sample of 20 females, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare the neural correlates of negative emotions generated by the bottom-up perception of aversive images and by the top-down interpretation of neutral images as aversive. We found that (a) both types of responses activated the amygdala, although bottom-up responses did so more strongly; (b) bottom-up responses activated systems for attending to and encoding perceptual and affective stimulus properties, whereas top-down responses activated prefrontal regions that represent high-level cognitive interpretations; and (c) self-reported affect correlated with activity in the amygdala during bottom-up responding and with activity in the medial prefrontal cortex during top-down responding. These findings provide a neural foundation for emotion theories that posit multi...
Smoothing parameter selection in nonparametric regression using an improved Akaike information criterion

Summary. Many different methods have been proposed to construct nonparametric estimates of a smooth regression function, including local polynomial, (convolution) kernel and smoothing spline estimators. Each of these estimators uses a smoothing parameter to control the amount of smoothing performed on a given data set. In this paper an improved version of a criterion based on the Akaike information criterion (AIC), termed AICc, is derived and examined as a way to choose the smoothing parameter. Unlike plug-in methods, AICc can be used to choose smoothing parameters for any linear smoother, including local quadratic and smoothing spline estimators. The use of AICc avoids the large variability and tendency to undersmooth (compared with the actual minimizer of average squared error) seen when other 'classical' approaches (such as generalized cross-validation or the AIC) are used to choose the smoothing parameter. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that the AICc-based smoothing parameter is competitive with a plug-in method (assuming that one exists) when the plug-in method works well but also performs well when the plug-in approach fails or is unavailable.
THE FIBULA-FLEXOR HALLUCIS LONGUS OSTEOMUSCULAR FLAP

Limb salvage after loss of bone and soft tissue may require many operations to obtain soft-tissue cover and bony continuity. We describe a fibula-flexor hallucis longus osteomuscular flap which can provide both soft tissue and bone in a single stage. The flap is based on the peroneal vessels and is covered by a split-thickness skin graft. We report the results in five patients with an average bone defect of 8.3 cm and soft-tissue and skin loss. All regained a normal gait on the donor side; four had clinical and radiological union with excellent soft-tissue cover, but one required later amputation due to diffuse coagulopathy. The flap provides free vascularised bone with muscle cover. It has a dependable, long pedicle with minimal morbidity at the donor site, and allows monitoring of the vascularity of the fibular graft.
MicroRNAs induced in melanoma treated with combination targeted therapy of Temsirolimus and Bevacizumab

Targeted therapies directed at commonly overexpressed pathways in melanoma have clinical activity in numerous trials. Little is known about how these therapies influence microRNA (miRNA) expression, particularly with combination regimens. Knowledge of miRNAs altered with treatment may contribute to understanding mechanisms of therapeutic effects, as well as mechanisms of tumor escape from therapy. We analyzed miRNA expression in metastatic melanoma tissue samples treated with a novel combination regimen of Temsirolimus and Bevacizumab. Given the preliminary clinical activity observed with this combination regimen, we hypothesized that we would see significant changes in miRNA expression with combination treatment. Using microarray analysis we analyzed miRNA expression levels in melanoma samples from a Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program-sponsored phase II trial of combination Temsirolimus and Bevacizumab in advanced melanoma, which elicited clinical benefit in a subset of patients. Pre-treatment and post-treatment miRNA levels were compared using paired t-tests between sample groups (patients), using a p-value < 0.01 for significance. microRNA expression remained unchanged with Temsirolimus alone; however, expression of 15 microRNAs was significantly upregulated (1.4 to 2.5-fold) with combination treatment, compared to pre-treatment levels. Interestingly, twelve of these fifteen miRNAs possess tumor suppressor capabilities. We identified 15 putative oncogenes as potential targets of the 12 tumor suppressor miRNAs, based on published experimental evidence. For 15 of 25 miRNA-target mRNA pairings, changes in gene expression from pre-treatment to post-combination treatment samples were inversely correlated with changes in miRNA expression, supporting a functional effect of those miRNA changes. Clustering analyses based on selected miRNAs suggest preliminary signatures characteristic of clinical response to combination treatment and of tumor BRAF mutational status. To our knowledge, this is the first study analyzing miRNA expression in pre-treatment and post-treatment human metastatic melanoma tissue samples. This preliminary investigation suggests miRNAs that may be involved in the mechanism of action of combination Temsirolimus and Bevacizumab in metastatic melanoma, possibly through inhibition of oncogenic pathways, and provides the preliminary basis for further functional studies of these miRNAs.
Real users, real data, real problems: the MiTAP system for monitoring bio events

The MiTAP (MITRE Text and Audio Processing) system [13] is a prototype for monitoring infectious disease outbreaks and other global threats. MiTAP focuses on providing timely, multi-lingual, global information access to analysts, medical experts and individuals involved in humanitarian assistance and relief work. Multiple information sources in multiple languages are automatically captured, filtered, translated, summarized, and categorized into searchable newsgroups. Critical information is automatically extracted and tagged to facilitate browsing, searching, and sorting. The demonstration highlights how different users cull different kinds of information from the MiTAP system. Some use it in order to track disease outbreak; others have been using it to monitor economic and political situations worldwide.
Regioisomerism-dependent TLR7 agonism and antagonism in an imidazoquinoline

Chronic immune activation is a hallmark of progressive HIV infection. Recent reports point to the engagement of toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) and -9 by viral RNA as contributing to the activation of innate immune responses, which drive viral replication leading to immune exhaustion. The only known class of TLR7 antagonists is single-stranded phosphorothioate oligonucleotides, which has been demonstrated to inhibit immune activation in human and Rhesus macaque in vitro models. The availability of a selective and potent small-molecule TLR7 antagonist should allow the evaluation of potential benefits of suppression of TLR7-mediated immune activation in HIV/AIDS. Gardiquimod is a known N(1)-substituted 1H-imidazoquinoline TLR7 agonist, the synthesis of which has not been published. We show that the 3H regioisomer is completely inactive as a TLR7 agonist and is weakly antagonistic. A des-amino precursor of the 3H regioisomer is more potent as a TLR7 antagonist, with an IC(50) value of 7.5 microM. This class of compound may serve as a starting point for the development of small-molecule inhibitors of TLR7.
Structure of extreme correlated equilibria: a zero-sum example and its implications

We exhibit the rich structure of the set of correlated equilibria by analyzing the simplest of polynomial games: the mixed extension of matching pennies. We show that while the correlated equilibrium set is convex and compact, the structure of its extreme points can be quite complicated. In finite games the ratio of extreme correlated to extreme Nash equilibria can be greater than exponential in the size of the strategy spaces. In polynomial games there can exist extreme correlated equilibria which are not finitely supported; we construct a large family of examples using techniques from ergodic theory. We show that in general the set of correlated equilibrium distributions of a polynomial game cannot be described by conditions on finitely many moments (means, covariances, etc.), in marked contrast to the set of Nash equilibria which is always expressible in terms of finitely many moments.
Protecting terrestrial ecosystems and the climate through a global carbon market

Protecting terrestrial ecosystems through international environmental laws requires the development of economic mechanisms that value the Earth's natural systems. The major international treaties to address ecosystem protection lack meaningful binding obligations and the requisite financial instruments to affect large-scale conservation. The Kyoto Protocol's emissions-trading framework creates economic incentives for nations to reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions cost effectively. Incorporating GHG impacts from land-use activities into this system would create a market for an important ecosystem service provided by forests and agricultural lands: sequestration of atmospheric carbon. This would spur conservation efforts while reducing the 20% of anthropogenic CO(2) emissions produced by land-use change, particularly tropical deforestation. The Kyoto negotiations surrounding land-use activities have been hampered by a lack of robust carbon inventory data. Moreover, the Protocol's provisions agreed to in Kyoto made it difficult to incorporate carbon-sequestering land-use activities into the emissions-trading framework without undermining the atmospheric GHG reductions contemplated in the treaty. Subsequent negotiations since 1997 failed to produce a crediting system that provides meaningful incentives for enhanced carbon sequestration. Notably, credit for reducing rates of tropical deforestation was explicitly excluded from the Protocol. Ultimately, an effective GHG emissions-trading framework will require full carbon accounting for all emissions and sequestration from terrestrial ecosystems. Improved inventory systems and capacity building for developing nations will, therefore, be necessary.
Regularization for matrix completion

We consider the problem of reconstructing a low rank matrix from noisy observations of a subset of its entries. This task has applications in statistical learning, computer vision, and signal processing. In these contexts, ‘noise’ generically refers to any contribution to the data that is not captured by the low-rank model. In most applications, the noise level is large compared to the underlying signal and it is important to avoid overfitting. In order to tackle this problem, we define a regularized cost function well suited for spectral reconstruction methods. Within a random noise model, and in the large system limit, we prove that the resulting accuracy undergoes a phase transition depending on the noise level and on the fraction of observed entries. The cost function can be minimized using OPTSPACE (a manifold gradient descent algorithm). Numerical simulations show that this approach is competitive with state-of-the-art alternatives.
DIVERSIFICATION OF RISK AND GROWTH

This paper provides evidence that domestic opportunities to share risk have contributed to slower growth. We first provide a simple model economy that demonstrates how a country's ability to diversify risk is linked to its growth rate. In the context of the model economy, we then investigate empirically whether there is any systematic relationship between domestic opportunities to diversify risk and growth. We employ two econometric procedures: (1) traditional instrumental variables estimation and (2) dynamic panel methods. Interpreted in the context of the model economy, the empirical analysis reveals a robust negative relationship between domestic opportunities to diversify risk and both capital stock and output growth.
Ring-closing metathesis strategy to P-heterocycles

The first examples of ring-closing metathesis reactions with allylphosphonamides1, vinylphosphonamides2, and vinylphosphonates8 using the Grubbs ruthenium catalyst3 are described. These RCM reactions lead to the 6-membered allylphosphonamides4, the 5-membered vinylphosphonamides5, and various 5-, 6- and 7-membered phosphonates9–10. The yield, rate and mode of metathesis in these reactions are sensitive to simple olefin and nitrogen substitution. The first examples of ring-closing metathesis reactions with allylphosphonamides1, vinylphosphonamides2, and vinylphosphonates using the Grubbs ruthenium catalyst3 are described. These RCM reactions lead to 6-membered allylphosphonamides4, 5-membered vinylphosphonamides5, and various 5–7 membered cyclic phosphonates. The yield, rate and mode of metathesis are sensitive to simple olefin and nitrogen substitution. Download full-size image
Ergodicity of the Airy line ensemble

In this paper, we establish the ergodicity of the Airy line ensemble with respect to horizontal shifts. This shows that it is the only candidate for Conjecture 3.2 in Corwin & Hammond, Invent. Math. 2014, regarding the classification of ergodic line ensembles satisfying a certain Brownian Gibbs property after a parabolic shift.
Hedging American contingent claims with constrained portfolios

The valuation theory for American Contingent Claims, due to Bensous- san (1984) and Karatzas (1988), is extended to deal with constraints on portfolio choice, including incomplete markets and borrowing/short-selling constraints, or with different interest rates for borrowing and lending. In the unconstrained case, the classical theory provides a single arbitrage-free price u0; this is expressed as the supremum, over all stopping times, of the claim's expected discounted value under the equivalent martingale measure. In the presence of constraints, fu0g is replaced by an entire interval (hlow; hup) of arbitrage-free prices, with endpoints characterized as hlow = inf2D u; hup = sup 2D u . Here u is the analogue of u0, the arbitrage-free price with unconstrained portfolios, in an auxiliary market model M ; and the family fMg2D is suitably chosen, to contain the original model and to reflect the constraints on portfolios. For several such constraints, explicit computations of the endpoints are carried out in the case of the American call-option. The analysis involves novel results in martingale theory (including simultaneous Doob-Meyer decompositions), optimal stopping and stochastic con- trol problems, stochastic games, and uses tools from convex analysis.
Cobalt(II)chloride catalyzed chemoselective thioacetalization of aldehydes

A mild and chemoselective dithioacetalization procedure for the protection of various aldehydes in the presence of catalytic amount of cobalt(II)chloride is described.
Does the Third Law of Thermodynamics Hold in the Quantum Regime

The first in a long series of papers by John T. Lewis, in collaboration with G. W. Ford and the present author, considered the problem of the most general coupling of a quantum particle to a linear passive heat bath, in the course of which they derived an exact formula for the free energy of an oscillator coupled to a heat bath in thermal equilibrium at temperature $T$. This formula, and its later extension to three dimensions to incorporate a magnetic field, has proved to be invaluable in analyzing problems in quantum thermodynamics. Here, we address the question raised in our title viz. Nernst’s third law of thermodynamics.
Diagonalization of the Finite Hilbert Transform on Two Adjacent Intervals

We continue the study of stability of solving the interior problem of tomography. The starting point is the Gelfand–Graev formula, which converts the tomographic data into the finite Hilbert transform (FHT) of an unknown function f along a collection of lines. Pick one such line, call it the x-axis, and assume that the function to be reconstructed depends on a one-dimensional argument by restricting f to the x-axis. Let $$I_1$$ be the interval where f is supported, and $$I_2$$ be the interval where the Hilbert transform of f can be computed using the Gelfand–Graev formula. The equation to be solved is $$\left. {\mathcal {H}}_1 f=g\right| _{I_2}$$ , where $${\mathcal {H}}_1$$ is the FHT that integrates over $$I_1$$ and gives the result on $$I_2$$ , i.e. $${\mathcal {H}}_1: L^2(I_1)\rightarrow L^2(I_2)$$ . In the case of complete data, $$I_1\subset I_2$$ , and the classical FHT inversion formula reconstructs f in a stable fashion. In the case of interior problem (i.e., when the tomographic data are truncated), $$I_1$$ is no longer a subset of $$I_2$$ , and the inversion problems becomes severely unstable. By using a differential operator L that commutes with $${\mathcal {H}}_1$$ , one can obtain the singular value decomposition of $${\mathcal {H}}_1$$ . Then the rate of decay of singular values of $${\mathcal {H}}_1$$ is the measure of instability of finding f. Depending on the available tomographic data, different relative positions of the intervals $$I_{1,2}$$ are possible. The cases when $$I_1$$ and $$I_2$$ are at a positive distance from each other or when they overlap have been investigated already. It was shown that in both cases the spectrum of the operator $${\mathcal {H}}_1^*{\mathcal {H}}_1$$ is discrete, and the asymptotics of its eigenvalues $$\sigma _n$$ as $$n\rightarrow \infty $$ has been obtained. In this paper we consider the case when the intervals $$I_1=(a_1,0)$$ and $$I_2=(0,a_2)$$ are adjacent. Here $$a_1 < 0 < a_2$$ . Using recent developments in the Titchmarsh–Weyl theory, we show that the operator L corresponding to two touching intervals has only continuous spectrum and obtain two isometric transformations $$U_1$$ , $$U_2$$ , such that $$U_2{\mathcal {H}}_1 U_1^*$$ is the multiplication operator with the function $$\sigma (\lambda )$$ , $$\lambda \ge (a_1^2+a_2^2)/8$$ . Here $$\lambda $$ is the spectral parameter. Then we show that $$\sigma (\lambda )\rightarrow 0$$ as $$\lambda \rightarrow \infty $$ exponentially fast. This implies that the problem of finding f is severely ill-posed. We also obtain the leading asymptotic behavior of the kernels involved in the integral operators $$U_1$$ , $$U_2$$ as $$\lambda \rightarrow \infty $$ . When the intervals are symmetric, i.e. $$-a_1=a_2$$ , the operators $$U_1$$ , $$U_2$$ are obtained explicitly in terms of hypergeometric functions.
VOTING FOR INCOME‐IMMISERIZING REDISTRIBUTION IN THE MELTZER–RICHARD MODEL

This paper argues that income received via redistributive transfers, unlike labor income, requires no direct sacrifice of leisure; this makes it attractive to many voters even if it leaves them poorer. This point is made within the classic Meltzer and Richard (1981) model wherein heterogeneous voters evaluate an income-redistribution program that finances a lump-sum transfer to all via a distorting income tax. The politicalequilibrium policy under majority rule is the tax most preferred, utility-wise, by the median voter. She, and many poorer voters, may support income redistribution that, ironically, leaves them poorer in income terms but with higher utility. (JEL H2, E6, D
Probabilistically bounded staleness for practical partial quorums

Data store replication results in a fundamental trade-off between operation latency and data consistency. In this paper, we examine this trade-off in the context of quorum-replicated data stores. Under partial, or non-strict quorum replication, a data store waits for responses from a subset of replicas before answering a query, without guaranteeing that read and write replica sets intersect. As deployed in practice, these configurations provide only basic eventual consistency guarantees, with no limit to the recency of data returned. However, anecdotally, partial quorums are often "good enough" for practitioners given their latency benefits. In this work, we explain why partial quorums are regularly acceptable in practice, analyzing both the staleness of data they return and the latency benefits they offer. We introduce Probabilistically Bounded Staleness (PBS) consistency, which provides expected bounds on staleness with respect to both versions and wall clock time. We derive a closed-form solution for versioned staleness as well as model real-time staleness for representative Dynamo-style systems under internet-scale production workloads. Using PBS, we measure the latency-consistency trade-off for partial quorum systems. We quantitatively demonstrate how eventually consistent systems frequently return consistent data within tens of milliseconds while offering significant latency benefits.
Rural Households in a Changing Climate

This paper argues that climate change poses two distinct, if related, sets of challenges for poor rural households: challenges related to the increasing frequency and severity of weather shocks and challenges related to long-term shifts in temperature, rainfall patterns, water availability, and other environmental factors. Within this framework, the paper examines evidence from existing empirical literature to compose an initial picture of household-level strategies for adapting to climate change in rural settings. The authors find that although households possess numerous strategies for managing climate shocks and shifts, their adaptive capacity is insufficient for the task of maintaining -- let alone improving -- household welfare. They describe the role of public policy in fortifying the ability of rural households to adapt to a changing climate.
Has Consumption Inequality Mirrored Income Inequality

We revisit to what extent the increase in income inequality since 1980 was mirrored by consumption inequality. We do so by constructing an alternative measure of consumption expenditure using a demand system to correct for systematic measurement error in the Consumer Expenditure Survey. Our estimation exploits the relative expenditure of high- and low-income households on luxuries versus necessities. This double differencing corrects for measurement error that can vary over time by good and income. We find consumption inequality tracked income inequality much more closely than estimated by direct responses on expenditures. (JEL D31, D63, E21)
Rethinking the Univariate Approach to Unit Root Testing: Using Covariates to Increase Power

In the context of testing for a unit root in a univariate time series, the convention is to ignore information in related time series. This paper shows that this convention is quite costly, as large power gains can be achieved by including correlated stationary covariates in the regression equation.The paper derives the asymptotic distribution of ordinary least-squares estimates of the largest autoregressive root and its t-statistic. The asymptotic distribution is not the conventional Dickey-Fuller distribution, but a convex combination of the Dickey-Fuller distribution and the standard normal, the mixture depending on the correlation between the equation error and the regression covariates. The local asymptotic power functions associated with these test statistics suggest enormous gains over the conventional unit root tests. A simulation study and empirical application illustrate the potential of the new approach.
Aerodynamic requirements for flare and landing of low-L/D glide vehicles.

The flare and landing performance of glide (unpowered) vehicles with low lift-to-drag ratios (L/D) is investigated analytically to determine the influence on landing characteristics of such factors as L/D, control range, and wing loading. An optimum-flare routine yielding minimum velocity loss for a specified reduction in sink rate is used to determine flare and landing maneuvers corresponding to a family of aerodynamic polars typical of lifting-body vehicles. Optimum flares are also computed for specific vehicles, including the X-15, the M2-F1 lifting body, and representative paraglider systems. The landing time at a given wing loading is found to increase rapidly with L/D and approach speed. For L/D below about 2.5, the landing time goes to zero. Data obtained from manned flights of a paraglider landing system indicate significant dispersion of touchdown sink rates due to wind shears. Criteria are derived for the flare margin, or landing time, required to offset these effects. It is shown that at wing loadings less than about 40 psf, an L/D greater than 3 is needed to compensate adequately for both flare-initiation tolerance and possible wind shears.
Recent progress in algebraic combinatorics

A survey of recent progress in three areas of algebraic combinatorics: (1) the Saturation Conjecture for Littlewood-Richardson coefficients, (2) the n! and (n+1)^{n-1} conjectures, and (3) longest increasing subsequences of permutations.
Are the Poor Protected from Budget Cuts? Evidence for Argentina

Macroeconomic adjustment programs often emphasize the need to protect social spending from cuts, and to protect pro-poor spending in particular. But does this happen in practice during fiscal contractions? The paper presents evidence for Argentina. Using aggregate time series data the paper first finds that social spending was not protected historically, although more “pro-poor” social spending was no more vulnerable. Turning next to new data for an externally-financed workfare scheme introduced in response to a macro crisis, the paper finds that this program was far better targeted than other social spending. However, it appears that the program still had to assure that a small but relatively well-protected share of its benefits went to the non-poor. This appears to be a political economy constraint.
Trifluoroacetic acid-mediated hydroarylation: synthesis of dihydrocoumarins and dihydroquinolones.

Trifluoroacetic acid mediates the hydroarylation of alkenes to afford dihydrocoumarins and dihydroquinolones in good yield. Intermolecular hydroarylation of cinnamic acids by phenols is particularly facile, which leads to the conclusion that previous reports of palladium-catalyzed hydroarylation of cinnamic acids in trifluoroacetic acid are erroneous.
ACOUSTIC IDENTIFICATION OF NINE DELPHINID SPECIES IN THE EASTERN TROPICAL PACIFIC OCEAN

Acoustic methods may improve the ability to identify cetacean species during shipboard surveys. Whistles were recorded from nine odontocete species in the eastern tropical Pacific to determine how reliably these vocalizations can be classified to species based on simple spectrographic measurements. Twelve variables were measured from each whistle (n = 908). Parametric multivariate discriminant function analysis (DFA) correctly classified 41.1% of whistles to species. Non-parametric classification and regression tree (CART) analysis resulted in 51.4% correct classification. Striped dolphin whistles were most difficult to classify. Whistles of bottlenose dolphins, false killer whales, and pilot whales were most distinctive. Correct classification scores may be improved by adding prior probabilities that reflect species distribution to classification models, by measuring alternative whistle variables, using alternative classification techniques, and by localizing vocalizing dolphins when collecting data for classification models.
Citizen Complaints, Regulatory Violations, and their Implications for Swine Operations in Illinois

Using a unique Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) livestock inspection data set, this paper presents an extensive empirical investigation of relationships between citizen complaints, swine production and community characteristics, EPA inspections, and regulatory violations. Our results suggest that facility and community characteristics have a relationship with citizen complaints. Also, complaint-initiated inspections are more efficient than regularly scheduled ones in terms of regulatory violation detection rates. Additionally, EPA inspectors and inspections influence a facility's compliance behavior. Except for building type and swine inventory intensity, facility and community characteristics are not associated with a facility's probability of regulatory violation.
Pulsating Fronts in a 2D Reactive Boussinesq System

We consider a reactive Boussinesq system with no stress boundary conditions in a periodic domain which is unbounded in one direction. Specifically, we couple the reaction-advection-diffusion equation for the temperature, T, and the linearized Navier-Stokes equation with the Boussinesq approximation for the fluid flow, u. We show that this system admits smooth pulsating front solutions that propagate with a positive speed.
One money for Europe? Lessons from the US currency union

Currency union Barry Eichengreen The creation of a monetary union in Europe is often justified by the desire to reap the full benefits of economic integration. The complete removal of capital controls raises a large number of issues. The case for free capital mobility is strong, but not overwhelming. It hinges on issues of technology, transport costs, market structure and labour mobility, and in the end is an empirical matter, for which US experience may provide useful information. Policy-making institutions differ in important respects, however. The US tradition of fiscal federalism, for example, has no EC-wide counterpart. Yet its functions seem a desirable feature of a monetary union. In particular it is shown to play an important role in absorbing regional disturbances, mostly via the tax system. US experience also suggests that a currency union creates pressure for fiscal policy harmonization, affecting both taxes and spending. Although a currency union fundamentally alters the balance-of-payments adjustment process, the potential problem of depressed regions remains a serious one. Given the increased tightness of the external constraint, the limited extent of labour mobility, and other features of European labour markets, solutions based on US experience include extensive swap facilities and a European version of fiscal federalism.
Risk Communication for Public Health Emergencies

This review defines crisis risk communication, traces its origins to a number of applied fields, and then shows how basic principles have become incorporated into emergency preparedness and risk communication for public health. Literature from four different disciplines that inform crisis risk communications are reviewed. These are (a) environmental risk communication, (b) disaster management, (c) health promotion and communication, and (d) media and communication studies. Current curricula and training materials are briefly reviewed. Although this literature review suggests much progress has been made to incorporate and disseminate crisis risk communication principles into public health practice, and case studies suggest that public health workers have gained skills and experience, this emerging field still lacks in-depth evaluation of the effectiveness of event-specific crisis risk communication efforts.
The first laser guide star adaptive optics observations of the galactic center : Sgr A*'S infrared color and the extended red emission in its vicinity

We present the first laser guide star adaptive optics (LGSAO) observations of the Galactic center. LGSAO has dramatically improved the quality and robustness with which high angular resolution infrared images of the Galactic center can be obtained with the Keck II 10 m telescope. Specifically, Strehl ratios of 0.7 and 0.3 at L' (3.8 μm) and K' (2.1 μm), respectively, are achieved in these LGSAO images; these are at least a factor of 2 higher and a factor of 4-5 more stable against atmospheric fluctuations than the Strehl ratios delivered thus far with the Keck natural guide star AO system on the Galactic center. Furthermore, these observations are the first that cover a large area (76'' × 76'') surrounding the central black hole at diffraction-limited resolution for an 8-10 m class telescope. During our observations, the infrared counterpart to the central supermassive black hole, Sgr A*-IR, showed significant infrared intensity variations, with observed L' magnitudes ranging from 12.6 to 14.5 mag and a decrease in flux density of a factor of 2 over an 8 minute interval. The faintest end of our L' detections, 1.3 mJy (dereddened), is the lowest level of emission yet observed for this source by a factor of 3. No significant variation in the location of Sgr A*-IR is detected as a function of either wavelength or intensity. Previous claims of such positional variations are easily attributable to a nearby (009 or 720 AU, projected), extended, very red source, which we suggest arises from a locally heated dust feature. Near a peak in its intensity, we obtained the first measurement of Sgr A*-IR's K' - L' color; its K' - L' of 3.0 ± 0.2 mag (observed) or 1.4 ± 0.2 (dereddened) corresponds to an intrinsic spectral index of α = -0.5 ± 0.3 for Fν ∝ να. This is significantly bluer than other recent infrared measurements from the literature, which suggest α = -4 ± 1. Because our measurement was taken at a time when Sgr A* was ~6 times brighter in the infrared than the other measurements, we posit that the spectral index of the emission arising from the vicinity of our Galaxy's central black hole may depend on the strength of the flare, with stronger flares giving rise to a higher fraction of high-energy electrons in the emitting region.
Active Control of Discrete-Frequency Turbomachinery Noise Using a Rotary-Valve Actuator

Turbomachine discrete-frequency tones, a significant environmental concern, are generated by rotor-stator interactions, Specific spatial modes are generated, but not all generated modes propagate to the far field. It is the propagating spatial modes generated by rotor-stator interaction that represent the community-disturbing far field discrete-frequency noise. Fundamental active airfoil source discrete-frequency noise control experiments are performed, with the active airfoil source control optimized to generate propagating spatial modes to cancel the propagating spatial modes generated by the rotor-stator interaction. These experiments demonstrate the viability and effectiveness of rotary-valve discrete-frequency noise control. Specifically, the active noise control system combines the active airfoil source control with in-duct spatial mode measurement. In this unique design, the active airfoils of the stator vane row are driven by a remote centerbody-mounted rotary-valve system. Propagating spatial mode reductions of 5 dB and 9 dB upstream and downstream with negligible modal spillover are demonstrated.
Expanding the diversity of purine libraries

Abstract In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in the synthesis of purine derivatives due to the discovery of purine-derived ligands for a variety of nucleotide dependent enzymes. The majority of chemistry has focused on substitution of the purine core structure by alkylation at N9 and nucleophilic–aromatic substitution reactions at C2 and C6. Here we report the syntheses of aryl, N -aryl, O -aryl substituted purine libraries by the palladium-mediated coupling of boronic acids, anilines or phenols at the C2 position, and copper(II)-mediated N -arylation with boronic acids at the N9 position. The chemistry described here greatly expands our ability to introduce different functionality and create new purine scaffolds.
The Benefits of Synchronized Genuine Smiles in Face-to-Face Service Encounters

This paper examines the role of facial expressions in dyadic interactionsbetween a banking service provider and customer. We conduct experiments in which service providers manipulate their facial expressions while interacting with customers in one of three conditions: In the neutral condition the banker tried to maintain a neutral facial expression; in the smiling condition the banker tried to smile throughout the interaction; in the empathetic condition the banker tried to respond with the same or complementary facial expressions. Results show that the customers (n=37) were more satisfied with the service provider interaction when they perceived the service provider was empathetic. More significantly, the service provider and customer shared synchronized genuine facial expressions with many prolonged smiles, when customers said the service provider was empathetic. According to the analysis of the interactions, smiling bankers who did not share smiles with customers were appraised worse than non-smiling bankers.
A closer look at the automatic induction of linguistic knowledge

Much recent research activity has focused toward automatically extracting linguistic information from on-line corpora. There is no question that great progress has been made applying machine learning to computational linguistics. We believe now that the field has matured, it is time to look inwards and carefully examine the basic tenets of the corpus-based learning paradigm. The goal of this paper is to raise a number of issues that challenge the paradigm in hopes of stimulating introspection and discussion that will make the field even stronger.
Choosing Rural Road Investments to Help Reduce Poverty

The author examines how rural road investment projects should be selected and appraised when the objective is poverty reduction. After critically reviewing past and current practices, the author develops an operational approach grounded in a public economics framework in which concerns of equity and efficiency are inseparable, information is incomplete in important ways, and resources are limited. She addresses a key problem: that an important share of the benefits to the poor from rural roads cannot be measured in monetary terms. The selction formula she proposes aims to identify places where poverty and economic potential are high and access is low. She illustrates the method using data for and project experience in Vietnam. Among the advantages of proceeding as outlined in her proposal: This approach holds the hope of building capacity and is participatory; it extracts local information that may not be readily available to the central government; and it appears to be feasible because it relies on local authorities participating in the appraisal of subprojects.
Influence of Crystallographic Orientation on Energy Dissipation During Sliding

The aim of this study is to evaluate a methodology for modeling the influence of crystallographic grain orientation in sliding contacts. The simulations of translating interfering cylindrical asperities, using finite element analysis, were conducted using two different plasticity models for copper: a conventional isotropic, homogeneous J 2 plasticity model and a continuum crystal plasticity model. Using crystal plasticity, the dependence of crystallographic orientation on plastic deformation and energy dissipation can be determined. The relative trends predicted using crystal plasticity are consistent with experiments that show friction depends on crystallographic orientation when plastic deformation is one of the primary energy dissipation mechanisms.
SOLID-LIQUID PHASE TRANSFER CATALYTIC METHOD FOR THE PREPARATION OF ACYCLIC AND CYCLIC KETENE ACETALS

Abstract Solid-liquid phase transfer catalytic elimination reaction for the preparation of acyclic and cyclic ketene acetals has been developed.