cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Measurements of EUV Coronal Holes and Open Magnetic Flux

Coronal holes are regions on the Sun's surface that map the footprints of open magnetic field lines. We have developed an automated routine to detect and track boundaries of long-lived coronal holes using full-disk extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) images obtained by SOHO/EIT, SDO/AIA, and STEREO/EUVI. We measure coronal hole areas and magnetic flux in these holes, and compare the measurements with calculations by the potential field source surface (PFSS) model. It is shown that, from 1996 through 2010, the total area of coronal holes measured with EIT images varies between 5% and 17% of the total solar surface area, and the total unsigned open flux varies between (2-5)× 1022 Mx. The solar cycle dependence of these measurements is similar to the PFSS results, but the model yields larger hole areas and greater open flux than observed by EIT. The AIA/EUVI measurements from 2010-2013 show coronal hole area coverage of 5%-10% of the total surface area, with significant contribution from low latitudes, which is under-represented by EIT. AIA/EUVI have measured much enhanced open magnetic flux in the range of (2-4)× 1022 Mx, which is about twice the flux measured by EIT, and matches with the PFSS calculated open flux, with discrepancies in the location and strength of coronal holes. A detailed comparison between the three measurements (by EIT, AIA-EUVI, and PFSS) indicates that coronal holes in low latitudes contribute significantly to the total open magnetic flux. These low-latitude coronal holes are not well measured with either the He I 10830 line in previous studies, or EIT EUV images; neither are they well captured by the static PFSS model. The enhanced observations from AIA/EUVI allow a more accurate measure of these low-latitude coronal holes and their contribution to open magnetic flux.
RELATIVE ABUNDANCE MEASUREMENTS IN PLUMES AND INTERPLUMES

We present measurements of relative elemental abundances in plumes and interplumes. Plumes are bright, narrow structures in coronal holes that extend along open magnetic field lines far out into the corona. Previous work has found that in some coronal structures the abundances of elements with a low first ionization potential (FIP) 10 eV). We have used Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer observations made on 2007 March 13 and 14 over a ≈24 hr period to characterize abundance variations in plumes and interplumes. To assess their elemental composition, we used a differential emission measure analysis, which accounts for the thermal structure of the observed plasma. We used lines from ions of iron, silicon, and sulfur. From these we estimated the ratio of the iron and silicon FIP bias relative to that for sulfur. From the results, we have created FIP-bias-ratio maps. We find that the FIP-bias ratio is sometimes higher in plumes than in interplumes and that this enhancement can be time dependent. These results may help to identify whether plumes or interplumes contribute to the fast solar wind observed in situ and may also provide constraints on the formation and heating mechanisms of plumes.
Strong coordination over multi-hop line networks

We analyze the problem of strong coordination over a multi-hop line network where the node initiating the coordination is a terminal network node. We provide a characterization of the capacity region when the initiating node possesses unlimited local randomness and intermediate nodes operate under a functional regime. In this regime, next-hop messages are created only using common randomness and previous-hop incoming messages, i.e., local randomness at intermediate nodes is only used for generating actions.
Introducing a Cost-Effective Approach for Improving the Arterial Traffic Performance Operating Under the Semi-Actuated Coordinated Signal Control:

The semi-actuated coordinated operation mode is a type of signal control where minor approaches are placed with detectors to develop actuated phasing while major movements are coordinated without u...
Decomposition and embedding in the stochastic GW self-energy

We present two new developments for computing excited state energies within the GW approximation. First, calculations of the Green’s function and the screened Coulomb interaction are decomposed into two parts: one is deterministic, while the other relies on stochastic sampling. Second, this separation allows constructing a subspace self-energy, which contains dynamic correlation from only a particular (spatial or energetic) region of interest. The methodology is exemplified on large-scale simulations of nitrogen-vacancy states in a periodic hBN monolayer and hBN-graphene heterostructure. We demonstrate that the deterministic embedding of strongly localized states significantly reduces statistical errors, and the computational cost decreases by more than an order of magnitude. The computed subspace self-energy unveils how interfacial couplings affect electronic correlations and identifies contributions to excited-state lifetimes. While the embedding is necessary for the proper treatment of impurity states, the decomposition yields new physical insight into quantum phenomena in heterogeneous systems.
Clebsch confinement and instantons in turbulence

The turbulence in incompressible fluid is represented as a field theory in 3 dimensions. There is no time involved, so this is intended to describe stationary limit of the Hopf functional. The basi...
Thermodynamic theory of highly multimoded nonlinear optical systems

Lately, there has been a resurgence of interest in nonlinear multimode optical systems. The sheer complexity emerging from the presence of a multitude of nonlinearly interacting modes has led not only to new opportunities in observing a host of novel optical effects but also to new theoretical challenges in understanding their collective dynamics. Here, we present a consistent thermodynamical framework capable of describing in a universal fashion the exceedingly intricate behaviour of such photonic configurations. In this respect, we derive new equations of state and show that both the ‘internal energy’ and optical power always flow in accord to the second law of thermodynamics. The laws governing isentropic processes are derived and the prospect for realizing Carnot-like cycles is presented. In addition to shedding light on fundamental issues, our work may pave the way towards a new generation of high-power multimode optical structures and could have ramifications in other disciplines, such as Bose–Einstein condensates and optomechanics. A thermodynamical framework for multimode nonlinear optical systems is presented. The new understanding may lead to next-generation high-power multimode optical structures.
Revisiting constraints on asteroid-mass primordial black holes as dark matter candidates

Simons Foundation; US Department of Energy; NSF; NASA; NASA ROSES ATP [16-ATP16-0084]; NASA ADAP [16-ADAP16-0116]
Optimal layout synthesis for quantum computing

Recent years have witnessed the fast development of quantum computing. Researchers around the world are eager to run larger and larger quantum algorithms that promise speedups impossible to any classical algorithm. However, the available quantum computers are still volatile and error-prone. Thus, layout synthesis, which transforms quantum programs to meet these hardware limitations, is a crucial step in the realization of quantum computing. In this paper, we present two synthesizers, one optimal and one approximate but nearly optimal. Although a few optimal approaches to this problem have been published, our optimal synthesizer explores a larger solution space, thus is optimal in a stronger sense. In addition, it reduces time and space complexity exponentially compared to some leading optimal approaches. The key to this success is a more efficient spacetime-based variable encoding of the layout synthesis problem as a mathematical programming problem. By slightly changing our formulation, we arrive at an approximate synthesizer that is even more efficient and outperforms some leading heuristic approaches, in terms of additional gate cost, by up to 100%, and also fidelity by up to 10x on a comprehensive set of benchmark programs and architectures. For a specific family of quantum programs named QAOA, which is deemed to be a promising application for near-term quantum computers, we further adjust the approximate synthesizer by taking commutation into consideration, achieving up to 75% reduction in depth and up to 65% reduction in additional cost compared to the tool used in a leading QAOA study.
Neural Shape Parsers for Constructive Solid Geometry.

Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) is a geometric modeling technique that defines complex shapes by recursively applying boolean operations on primitives such as spheres and cylinders. We present CSGNET, a deep network architecture that takes as input a 2D or 3D shape and outputs a CSG program that models it. Parsing shapes into CSG programs is desirable as it yields a compact and interpretable generative model. However, the task is challenging since the space of primitives and their combinations can be prohibitively large. CSGNET uses a convolutional encoder and recurrent decoder based on deep networks to map shapes to modeling instructions in a feed-forward manner and is significantly faster than bottom-up approaches. We investigate two architectures for this task --- a vanilla encoder (CNN) - decoder (RNN) and another architecture that augments the encoder with an explicit memory module based on the program execution stack. The stack augmentation improves the reconstruction quality of the generated shape and learning efficiency. Our approach is also more effective as a shape primitive detector compared to a state-of-the-art object detector. Finally, we demonstrate CSGNET can be trained on novel datasets without program annotations through policy gradient techniques.
A Grounded Theory Study of the Meaning of Career Success

The purpose of this research was to examine the concept of career success as discussed by career actors and to develop theory about the construct of career success. I used grounded theory methodolo...
Hydrodynamics of simply spinning black holes & hydrodynamics for spinning quantum fluids

We find hydrodynamic behavior in large simply spinning five-dimensional Anti-de Sitter black holes. These are dual to spinning quantum fluids through the AdS/CFT correspondence constructed from string theory. Due to the spatial anisotropy introduced by the angular momentum, hydrodynamic transport coefficients are split into groups longitudinal or transverse to the angular momentum, and aligned or anti-aligned with it. Analytic expressions are provided for the two shear viscosities, the longitudinal momentum diffusion coefficient, two speeds of sound, and two sound attenuation coefficients. Known relations between these coefficients are generalized to include dependence on angular momentum. The shear viscosity to entropy density ratio varies between zero and 1/(4π) depending on the direction of the shear. These results can be applied to heavy ion collisions, in which the most vortical fluid was reported recently. In passing, we show that large simply spinning five-dimensional Myers-Perry black holes are perturbatively stable for all angular momenta below extremality.
ReviewRobot: Explainable Paper Review Generation based on Knowledge Synthesis.

To assist human review process, we build a novel ReviewRobot to automatically assign a review score and write comments for multiple categories such as novelty and meaningful comparison. A good review needs to be knowledgeable, namely that the comments should be constructive and informative to help improve the paper; and explainable by providing detailed evidence. ReviewRobot achieves these goals via three steps: (1) We perform domain-specific Information Extraction to construct a knowledge graph (KG) from the target paper under review, a related work KG from the papers cited by the target paper, and a background KG from a large collection of previous papers in the domain. (2) By comparing these three KGs, we predict a review score and detailed structured knowledge as evidence for each review category. (3) We carefully select and generalize human review sentences into templates, and apply these templates to transform the review scores and evidence into natural language comments. Experimental results show that our review score predictor reaches 71.4%-100% accuracy. Human assessment by domain experts shows that 41.7%-70.5% of the comments generated by ReviewRobot are valid and constructive, and better than human-written ones for 20% of the time. Thus, ReviewRobot can serve as an assistant for paper reviewers, program chairs and authors.
Accelerating computational modeling and design of high-entropy alloys

High-entropy alloys, with N elements and compositions {cν = 1,N} in competing crystal structures, have large design spaces for unique chemical and mechanical properties. Here, to enable computational design, we use a metaheuristic hybrid Cuckoo search (CS) to construct alloy configurational models on the fly that have targeted atomic site and pair probabilities on arbitrary crystal lattices, given by supercell random approximates (SCRAPs) with S sites. Our Hybrid CS permits efficient global solutions for large, discrete combinatorial optimization that scale linearly in a number of parallel processors, and linearly in sites S for SCRAPs. For example, a four-element, 128-site SCRAP is found in seconds—a more than 13,000-fold reduction over current strategies. Our method thus enables computational alloy design that is currently impractical. We qualify the models and showcase application to real alloys with targeted atomic short-range order. Being problem-agnostic, our Hybrid CS offers potential applications in diverse fields. An evolutionary-based algorithm enables modeling of complex solid-solution alloys over exponential search spaces in practical time, accelerating materials design of such high-entropy alloys.
Solving Bayesian risk optimization via nested stochastic gradient estimation

In this article, we aim to solve Bayesian Risk Optimization (BRO), which is a recently proposed framework that formulates simulation optimization under input uncertainty. In order to efficiently so...
Transition-edge sensor detectors for the Origins Space Telescope

The Origins Space Telescope is one of four flagship missions under study for the 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey. With a 5.9-m cold (4.5 K) telescope deployed from space, Origins promises unprecedented sensitivity in the near-, mid-, and far-infrared from 2.8 to 588 μm. This mandates the use of ultrasensitive and stable detectors in all of the Origins instruments. At the present, no known detectors can meet Origins’ stability requirements in the near- to mid-infrared or its sensitivity requirements in the far-infrared. We discuss the applicability of transition-edge sensors, as both calorimeters and bolometers, to meet these requirements, and lay out a path toward improving the present state-of-the-art.
Style investing, comovement and return predictability.

Abstract Barberis and Shleifer (2003) argue that style investing generates momentum and reversals in style and individual asset returns, as well as comovement between individual assets and their styles. Consistent with these predictions, in some specifications, past style returns help explain future stock returns after controlling for size, book-to-market and past stock returns. We also use comovement to identify style investing and assess its impact on momentum. High comovement momentum portfolios have significantly higher future returns than low comovement momentum portfolios. Overall, our results suggest that style investing plays a role in the predictability of asset returns.
Optimal group size in microlending

Microlending, where a bank lends to a small group of people without credit histories, began with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, and is widely seen as the creation of Muhammad Yunus, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his largely successful efforts. Since that time the modeling of microlending has received a fair amount of academic attention. One of the issues not yet addressed in full detail, however, is the issue of the size of the group. Some attention has nevertheless been paid using an experimental and game theory approach. We, instead, take a mathematical approach to the issue of an optimal group size, where the goal is to minimize the probability of default of the group. To do this, one has to create a model with interacting forces, and to make precise the hypotheses of the model. We show that the original choice of Muhammad Yunus, of a group size of five people, is, under the right, and, we believe, reasonable hypotheses, either close to optimal, or even at times exactly optimal, i.e., the optimal group size is indeed five people.
Liquidity and market efficiency.

Abstract Short-horizon return predictability from order flows is an inverse indicator of market efficiency. We find that such predictability is diminished when bid-ask spreads are narrower, and has declined over time with the minimum tick size. Variance ratio tests suggest that prices were closer to random walk benchmarks in the more liquid decimal regime than in other ones. These findings indicate that liquidity stimulates arbitrage activity, which, in turn, enhances market efficiency. Further, as the tick size decreased, open-close/close-open return variance ratios increased, while return autocorrelations decreased. This suggests an increased incorporation of private information into prices during more liquid regimes.
Volume, Opinion Divergence, and Returns: A Study of Post-Earnings Announcement Drift

This paper examines the relationship between post–earnings announcement returns and different measures of volume at the earnings date. We find that post-event returns are strictly increasing in the component of volume that is unexplained by prior trading activity. We interpret unexplained volume as an indicator of opinion divergence among investors and conclude that post-event returns are increasing in ex ante opinion divergence. Our evidence is consistent with Varian [1985], who suggests that opinion divergence may be treated as an additional risk factor affecting asset prices.
What improves environmental performance? evidence from Mexican industry

Using new survey evidence, the authors analyze the effects of regulation, plant-level management policies, and plant and firm characteristics on environmental performance in Mexican factories. They focus especially on management policies: the degree of effort to improve environmental performance and the type of management strategy adopted. They index effort with two variables: adoption of ISO 14000-type procedures for pollution management and use of plant personnel for environmental inspection and control. Proxies for strategic orientation are two indices of mainstreaming: assigning environmental responsibilities to general managers instead of specialized environmental managers, and providing environmental training for all plant employees, not just specialists. Detailed survey data let them test the performance impact of such factors as ownership, scale, sector, trade and other business relationships, local regulatory enforcement, local community pressure, management education and experience, and workers' general education. Their findings are: 1) Process is important. Plants that institute ISO 14000-type internal management procedures show superior environmental performance. 2) Mainstreaming works. Environmental training for all plant personnel is more effective than developing a cadre of environmental specialists, and assigning environmental tasks to general managers is more effective than using special environmental managers. 3) Regulatory pressure works. Plants that have experienced regulatory inspections and enforcement are significantly cleaner than those that have not. 4) Public scrutiny promotes stronger environmental policies. Publicly traded Mexican firms are significantly cleaner than privately held firms. 5) Size matters. Large plants in multiplant firms are much more likely to adopt policies that improve environmental performance. 6) OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) influences do not matter. It is generally assumed that plants linked to OECD economies show superior environmental performance, but they find no evidence that OECD links--including multinational ownership, trade, management training, or management experience--affect environmental performance. 7) New technology is not significantly cleaner. They find no evidence that plants with newer equipment perform better environmentally (once other factors are accounted for). 8) Education promotes clean production. Plants with more highly educated workers show significantly better environmental management efforts and performance.
Bad News for Conservatives? Moral Judgments and the Dark Triad Personality Traits: A Correlational Study

This study examined correlations between moral value judgments on a 17-item Moral Intuition Survey (MIS), and participant scores on the Short-D3 “Dark Triad” Personality Inventory—a measure of three related “dark and socially destructive” personality traits: Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy. Five hundred sixty-seven participants (302 male, 257 female, 2 transgendered; median age 28) were recruited online through Amazon Mechanical Turk and Yale Experiment Month web advertisements. Different responses to MIS items were initially hypothesized to be “conservative” or “liberal” in line with traditional public divides. Our demographic data confirmed all of these hypothesized categorizations. We then tested two broad, exploratory hypotheses: (H1) the hypothesis that there would be “many” significant correlations between conservative MIS judgments and the Dark Triad, and (H2) the hypothesis that there would be no significant correlations between liberal MIS judgments and Machiavellianism or Psychopathy, but “some” significant correlations between liberal MIS judgments and Narcissism. Because our hypotheses were exploratory and we ran a large number of statistical tests (62 total), we utilized a Bonferroni Correction to set a very high threshold for significance (p = .0008). Our results broadly supported our two hypotheses. We found eleven significant correlations between conservative MIS judgments and the Dark Triad—all at significance level of p < .00001—but no significant correlations between the Dark Triad and liberal MIS judgments. We believe that these results raise provocative moral questions about the personality bases of moral judgments. In particular, we propose that because the Short-D3 measures three “dark and antisocial” personality traits, our results raise some prima facie worries about the moral justification of some conservative moral judgments.
Human Rights for Hedgehogs?: Global Value Pluralism, International Law, and Some Reservations of the Fox

INTRODUCTION 975 I. FOUNDATIONALISM: CLARITY AND CONTROVERSY 978 A. Clarity: The Nature and Scope of Human Rights 979 1. What Are Human Rights for Hedgehogs? 980 2. Hedgehogs and Hard Cases 981 B. Controversy: The Anti-Foundationalist Pedigree of Human Rights 989 1. Appraising the Two Principles of Human Dignity 990 2. Rehabilitating International Human Rights 996 II. VALUE PLURALISM AND THE (IR)RELEVANCE OF OBJECTIVITY ........ 1001 III. SOVEREIGNTY AND HUMAN RIGHTS 1005 CONCLUSION 1007
Optical and X-ray transients from planet–star mergers

We evaluate the prompt electromagnetic signatures of the merger between a massive close-in planet (a ‘hot Jupiter’) and its host star, events with an estimated Galactic rate of ∼0.1–1 yr−1. Depending on the ratio of the mean density of the planet ρ¯p to that of the star ρ¯☆, a planet–star merger results in three possible outcomes. If ρ¯p/ρ¯☆≳5, then the planet directly plunges below the stellar atmosphere before being disrupted by tidal forces. The dissipation of orbital energy creates a hot wake behind the planet, producing a extreme ultraviolet (EUV)/soft X-ray transient that increases in brightness and temperature as the planet sinks below the stellar surface. The peak luminosity LEUV/X ≲ 1036 erg s−1 is achieved weeks to months prior to merger, after which the stellar surface is enshrouded by an outflow driven by the merger. The final stages of the inspiral are accompanied by an optical transient powered by the recombination of hydrogen in the outflow, which peaks at a luminosity of ∼1037–1038 erg s−1 on a time-scale ∼days. If the star is instead significantly denser (ρ¯p/ρ¯☆≲5), then the planet overflows its Roche lobe above the stellar surface. For ρ¯p/ρ¯☆≲1 mass transfer is stable, resulting in the planet being accreted on the relatively slow time-scale set by tidal dissipation. However, for an intermediate-density range 1≲ρ¯p/ρ¯☆≲5 mass transfer may instead be unstable, resulting in the dynamical disruption of the planet into an accretion disc around the star. Outflows from the super-Eddington accretion disc power an optical transient with a peak luminosity of ∼1037–1038 erg s−1 and characteristic duration ∼week–months. Emission from the disc itself becomes visible once the accretion rate decreases below the Eddington rate, resulting in a bolometric brightening and shift of the spectral peak to ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths. Optical transients from both direct-impact merger and tidal-disruption events in some ways resemble classical novae, but can be distinguished by their higher ejecta mass and lower velocity around hundreds of km s−1, and by hard pre- and post-cursor emission, respectively. The most promising search strategy is with combined surveys of nearby massive galaxies (e.g. M31) at optical, UV and X-ray wavelengths with cadences from days to months.
Transmission of financial stress in Europe: The pivotal role of Italy and Spain, but not Greece

Abstract This paper proposes a stochastic volatility model to measure sovereign financial distress. It examines how key European sovereign CDS affect each other, and particularly Germany, Spain and Italy as the core EU countries, after controlling for common and systematic risks. It is found that extreme bad news led to persistent and nearly permanent effects on stochastic volatility and, consequently, has an impact on sovereign CDS spreads. The stability of Germany is a close proxy for the resilience of the euro area as markets use Germany's sovereign CDS as a hedge for systemic risk. Although most of the CDS changes for Germany during 2009-16 were due to idiosyncratic factors, market developments in Italy and Spain contributed significantly, probably due to their relative size and importance in the region. Changes in Greece's sovereign CDS had no significant effect on core's European sovereign CDS despite initial widespread concerns about such linkages. Spain and Italy show a notable co-dependence in explaining each other's volatility, supporting their relative importance. 1
Malthus to Solow

A unified growth theory is developed that accounts for the roughly constant living standards displayed by world economies prior to 1800 as well as the growing living standards exhibited by modern industrial economies. Our theory also explains the industrial revolution which is the transition from an era when per capita incomes are stagnant to one with sustained growth.... [The authors] use a standard growth model with...[several] technologies. The first denoted the Malthus technology requires land labor and reproducible capital as inputs. The second denoted the Solow technology does not require land. [The authors] show that in the early stages of development only the Malthus technology is used and due to population growth living standards are stagnant despite technological progress. Eventually technological progress causes the Solow technology to become profitable and both technologies are employed. At this point living standards improve since population growth has less influence on per capita income growth. In the limit the economy behaves like a standard Solow growth model. (EXCERPT)
Corporate governance and hedge fund activism

Recently, the mainstream media have paid considerable attention to hedge funds behaving as agents of corporate change. We study this phenomenon using a unique dataset of hedge fund activism for the period 1994–2005, and find evidence that hedge fund activists improve both short-term stock performance and long-term operating performance of their targets. The most dramatic changes in performance accrue to targets where activists seek corporate governance changes and reductions in excess cash. Additionally, hedge funds themselves benefit from activism: the risk-adjusted annual performance of hedge funds seeking changes in corporate governance is about 7–11% higher than for non-activist hedge funds and hedge funds pursuing less aggressive activism. These results imply that hedge funds can facilitate long-lasting changes in corporate governance, cash flows, and operating performance that benefit target firm shareholders and hedge fund investors alike.
Private Disordering? Payment Card Fraud Liability Rules

This Article argues that private ordering of fraud loss liability in payment card systems is likely to be socially inefficient because it does not reflect Coasean bargaining among payment card network participants. Instead, loss allocation rules are the result of the most powerful party in the system exercising its market power. Often loss liability is placed not on the least cost avoider of fraud, but on the most price inelastic party, even if that party has little or no ability to prevent or mitigate losses. Moreover, for virtually identical payment systems, there is international variation in both loss liability rules and security standards, suggesting that at least some variations are suboptimal.True Coasean bargaining is not possible in payment systems; the transaction costs are too high because of the sheer number of participants. Targeted coordination and competition, however, can achieve outcomes that if not Coasean, are at least optimized relative to the current system. Thus, the Article suggests a pair of complimentary regulatory responses. First, regulators should develop a system for coordinating payment card security measures with governance that adequately represents all parties involved in payment card networks. And second, regulators should pursue more vigorous antitrust enforcement of card networks’ restrictions on merchant pricing in order to expose the costs of participating in a payment system – which include fraud costs – to market discipline. The Article also presents an extended defense of the major existing regulatory intervention in payment card fraud loss allocation, the federal caps on consumer liability for unauthorized payment card transactions.
Ellipse R-CNN: Learning to Infer Elliptical Object From Clustering and Occlusion

Images of heavily occluded objects in cluttered scenes, such as fruit clusters in trees, are hard to segment. To further retrieve the 3D size and 6D pose of each individual object in such cases, bounding boxes are not reliable from multiple views since only a little portion of the object’s geometry is captured. We introduce the first CNN-based ellipse detector, called Ellipse R-CNN, to represent and infer occluded objects as ellipses. We first propose a robust and compact ellipse regression based on the Mask R-CNN architecture for elliptical object detection. Our method can infer the parameters of multiple elliptical objects even they are occluded by other neighboring objects. For better occlusion handling, we exploit refined feature regions for the regression stage, and integrate the U-Net structure for learning different occlusion patterns to compute the final detection score. The correctness of ellipse regression is validated through experiments performed on synthetic data of clustered ellipses. We further quantitatively and qualitatively demonstrate that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art model (i.e., Mask R-CNN followed by ellipse fitting) and its three variants on both synthetic and real datasets of occluded and clustered elliptical objects.
The Value of Vagueness: Delegation, Defiance, and Judicial Opinions

An established line of research demonstrates that vague judicial opinions are less likely to be implemented than clear opinions. Vague opinions thus present a puzzle. Why would judges craft opinions that risk noncompliance? We argue that the relationships between judges and other policy makers in separation-of-powers systems are central to understanding this puzzle. Opinion vagueness can reflect efforts to resolve core tradeoffs associated with judicial policymaking that bear some resemblance to standard accounts of political delegation. Vagueness offers judges the ability to manage their uncertainty over policy outcomes and to hide likely defiance from public view. At the same time, vagueness removes a central source of pressure for compliance that judges can place on other policy makers. Using a game-theoretic model, we identify conditions under which judges use vagueness precisely as legislatures use statutory discretion. We also demonstrate conditions under which judges use vagueness in ways unanticipated by standard delegation accounts.
Dimensions of Brand Personality

Although a considerable amount of research in personality psychology has been done to conceptualize human personality, identify the “Big Five” dimensions, and explore the meaning of each dimension,...
Integrating the Promotional and Service Roles of Retail Inventories

In some retail contexts, higher inventories not only improve service levels, but also stimulate demand by serving as a promotional tool (e.g., by increasing product visibility). Motivated by a building-products retailer's practice of stocking large quantities of products to stimulate demand, we study inventory management and pricing policies when demand is uncertain but increases with stocking quantity. We first characterize the profit-maximization policy for a stochastic inventory model with a general inventory-dependent demand distribution and given price, and show that demand stimulation (by inventories) has the effect of increasing the target service level beyond the classical newsvendor model's critical fractile ratio. To underscore the importance of considering both demand stochasticity and inventory influence, we consider two functionally oriented benchmark policies---a demand-driven policy and a critical fractile policy---that might, respectively, represent marketing and inventory managers' viewpoints. Our numerical analysis reveals that the optimal policy can generate considerably higher profits than the two complementary functional perspectives. Moreover, we prove that the optimal stocking quantity always exceeds the critical fractile solution and can even exceed the demand-driven stocking quantity. We also address the problem of jointly optimizing both stocking quantity and price for demand-stimulating products using a multiplicative model to represent the influence of price and stocking quantity on the demand distribution. For this model, we show that the pricing and stocking decisions can be determined sequentially, with the optimal policy setting higher prices and stock levels than both the functional policies.
The Constitutionality of School Corporal Punishment of Children as a Betrayal of Brown v. Board of Education

American judicial history, like any institutional history, has had its shameful moments and its glorious ones, with plenty in-between. Some of the worst and best of these decisions have concerned race relations. Consider such low points for the United States Supreme Court as Dred Scott v. Sandford1 and the Japanese-American restriction cases.2 The former, among other things, essentially upheld slavery as constitutional3 while the latter upheld the constitutionality of the mass internment of and curfew imposed upon persons of Japanese ancestry who lived on the West Coast during World War II.4 Even taking into account that these decisions were creatures of other, more backward eras, their
Impact of Supply Chain Transparency on Sustainability under NGO Scrutiny

We analyze a brand's disclosure of its supplier list to improve the suppliers’ compliance with social and environmental sustainability standards. We develop a model of a buyer, a supplier, and an NGO; when a violation of the supplier occurs, the buyer and the supplier both incur penalties. Given that the disclosure influences the NGO's perception of the supplier and results in a different level of NGO scrutiny, the buyer decides whether to reveal her supplier. Our model characterizes the buyer's optimal revelation strategy and provides the equilibrium efforts of the supplier and the NGO. The results show that an increase in the penalty for the supplier or an increase in the NGO's auditing efficiency always gives the buyer an incentive to reveal the supplier and has a beneficial effect on supply chain sustainability. However, an increase in the penalty for the buyer acts as a deterrent to the revelation, and thus it often has a detrimental effect on sustainability, except when the increase is modest and the buyer makes an individual effort to monitor her supplier. Moreover, although an increase in the NGO's gain in utility from targeting a revealed supplier acts as a deterrent to the revelation, it can have either a beneficial or detrimental effect on sustainability, depending on the extent of the increase and the efficiency of the NGO's auditing. Last, if the buyer can invest in improving the supplier's capability, the above‐mentioned factors that have beneficial (detrimental) impacts on sustainability also make the investment more (less) worthwhile.
Time‐Dependent and Time‐Invariant Covariates Within a Proportional Hazards Model: A Financial Distress Application

Research in the area of financial distress often uses a proportional hazards model to determine the influence of covariates on the duration of time that precedes financial distress. Acritical issue in the use of a proportional hazards model is the use of time‐invariant and time‐dependent covariates. Time‐invariant covariates remain fixed while time‐dependent covariates change during the estimation of the model. Although the choice of covariates might substantially affect the estimation of the proportional hazards model, existing literature often fails to consider the potential effect of this choice on model estimation. This paper reviews the distinction between time‐invariant and time‐dependent covariates and the effect of covariate selection on the estimation of a proportional hazards model. Using a sample of financially distressed and non‐financially distressed firms, this paper suggests the choice of time dependence substantially influences model estimation and that covariate selection should be given more serious consideration in financial distress research.
Toward a National Strategic Investment Framework

America is entering a tumultuous period unrivaled in recent history. We are facing a disruption of our economy only rivaled by the Great Depression. We need to come to grips with our reliance on foreign oil that is at the heart of our national security problems. We are confronted with the challenge of global survival because of climate change. Finally, our economic growth over the past several decades has left many in America behind. These were the key issues in the recent presidential election, which was essentially an 18-month national visioning process that established societal goals of reducing CO2, decreasing dependence on imported oil, and increasing economic well-being for all Americans. The goals established through this extensive national debate and election started a transformation process that will enable America to overcome the enormous challenges we face and initiate an investment program that will continue for decades and through this century. The societal goals, articulated in broad scope, ...
Predicting and Understanding Law-Making with Machine Learning

Out of nearly 70,000 bills introduced in the U.S. Congress from 2001 to 2015, only 2,513 were enacted. We developed a machine learning approach to forecasting the probability that any bill will become law. Starting in 2001 with the 107th Congress, we trained models on data from previous Congresses, predicted all bills in the current Congress, and repeated until the 113th Congress served as the test. For prediction we scored each sentence of a bill with a language model that embeds legislative vocabulary into a semantic-laden vector space. This language representation enables our investigation into which words increase the probability of enactment for any topic. To test the relative importance of text and context, we compared the text model to a context-only model that uses variables such as whether the bill’s sponsor is in the majority party. To test the effect of changes to bills after their introduction on our ability to predict their final outcome, we compared using the bill text and meta-data available at the time of introduction with using the most recent data. At the time of introduction context-only predictions outperform text-only, and with the newest data text-only outperforms context-only. Combining text and context always performs best. We conducted a global sensitivity analysis on the combined model to determine important factors predicting enactment.
Welfare Reform, Privatization, and Power: Reconfiguring Administrative Law Structures from the Ground Up

Since welfare reform in 1996, privatization has led to a radical reconfiguration in the dominant mode of governance in public benefits programs. The United States has largely moved from systems controlled through law and regulation to systems controlled through contracts. With this shift has come a significant diminishment in public accountability in general and, more specifically, a diminishment in the ability of poor communities and their advocates to intervene in the making of welfare policy. At the same time, privatization has proven to be an extraordinarily effective mechanism for imposing highly punitive welfare programs on poor communities. Building upon the findings of grassroots, community-controlled research on the effectiveness of privatized welfare-to-work programs, this article argues that "collaborative" or "new governance" structures provide potentially meaningful opportunities for increasing public accountability in privatized welfare settings. However, given the long history and current practice of using welfare programs as a means of subordination, these structures must be configured in a way that makes primary and renders substantive the role of low income communities in the new collaborative governance enterprise.
Administrative Severability Clauses

Severability clauses can help administrative agencies minimize the damage caused by judicial review and can make the regulatory environment more efficient, participatory, and predictable. Yet agencies rarely include these clauses in their rules because courts tend to treat administrative rules with severability clauses the same as those without. Courts have treated administrative severability clauses in this way largely because they have mistakenly analogized them to severability clauses contained in statutes. While Congress routinely includes severability clauses in statutes that are drafted in distinct iterations, by different committees with legislative staff who often lack the time and expertise to consider the clauses’ potential ramifications, administrative agencies use these clauses with more care. This Article proposes a Chevron-style deference framework for administrative severability clauses. Under this framework, after a reviewing court has set aside a challenged regulatory provision, the court should defer to a promulgating agency’s opinion on severability as expressed through a severability clause, unless the remainder of the rule itself would suffer from legal defects resulting from the court’s invalidation of the challenged provisions. This framework would better promote the overarching goals of administrative law than do current judicial doctrine and agency practice. authors. Charles W. Tyler is a law clerk to the Honorable Goodwin Liu, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of California; Yale Law School, J.D. 2013. E. Donald Elliott is Adjunct Professor of Law, Yale Law School, and Senior of Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP. For their suggestions and encouragement, we thank Ali Deich, Arthur Ewenczyk, Heather Gerken, Abbe Gluck, Daniel Hemel, Chris Hu, Rob Katz, Daniel Markovits, Jerry Mashaw, Tracey Meares, Ben Moskowitz, Janice Ong, Nick Parrillo, Judith Resnik, Stan Richards, Rebecca Schonberg, Travis Silva, Andrew Tutt, and Ke Wu. The views set forth in this Article are the personal views of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the institutions with which they are affiliated or their clients. administrative severability clauses 2287 article contents
Be Careful What You Ask For: Effects of Response Instructions on the Construct Validity and Reliability of Situational Judgment Tests

The aim of this study was to examine how six different types of situational judgment test (SJT) instructions, used frequently in practice, influence the psychometric characteristics of SJTs. The six SJT versions used the exact same items and differed only in their instructions; these versions were administered in two phases. Phase I was a between-subjects design (n = 486) that had participants complete one version of the SJTs. Phase II was a within-subjects design (n = 231) held several weeks later that had participants complete all six versions of the SJTs. Further, 146 of these individuals completed both phases, allowing for an assessment of test-retest reliability. A variety of objective and subjective criteria were collected, including self and peer ratings. Results indicated that instructions had a large effect on SJT responses, reliability, and validity. In general, instructions asking what one ‘would do’ showed more favorable characteristics than those that asked what one ‘should do’. Correlations between these two types were relatively low despite the fact that the same items were used, and criterion-related validities differed substantially in favor of the ‘would do’ instructions. Overall, this study finds that researchers and practitioners must give careful consideration to the types of SJT instructions used; failing to do so could influence criterion-related validity and cloud inferences of construct validity.
Financial Health and the Intensive Margin of Trade

Using data on 2380 firms from nine emerging countries, this paper shows that there is a positive and significant relationship between financial health and the intensive margin of trade. The magnitude of this positive relationship is shown to depend on several firm characteristics, where the effects of financial health on firm-level exports are larger for firms with higher levels of export, bigger size (measured by assets), higher productivity (measured by value added per worker), and moderate levels of financial health (measured by cash flow over total assets). The results are robust to the consideration of foreign ownership and country characteristics as well as industry and time fixed effects.