cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An unintended consequence of book-tax conformity: A loss of earnings informativeness

Increasing the conformity between accounting earnings and taxable income has been proposed to improve financial reporting and curtail aggressive tax planning. We find, however, that increasing conformity results in earnings that are less informative. Our inquiry exploits a unique sample of firms forced to change from the cash method to the accrual method for tax purposes, thereby increasing their book-tax conformity. We find that these firms experienced a decrease in earnings informativeness compared to control firms unaffected by the change. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of tax law changes affecting the informativeness of accounting earnings.
Synthesis of Highly Substituted Tetrahydrofurans by Catalytic Polar‐Radical‐Crossover Cycloadditions of Alkenes and Alkenols

The products are isolated as inseparable mixtures of diastereomers, some also containing traces of additional diastereomers not shown in the scheme.
The nutrition transition in high‐ and low‐income countries: what are the policy lessons?

This article examines the speed of changes in diets, activity patterns, and body composition, summarizes major dietary changes, and provides some sense of the way the burden of obesity is shifting from the rich to the poor globally. The focus is on the lower- and middle-income world with some examples from higher-income countries. Then macro policy options are examined. A case study of edible oil pricing in China is presented. The challenge is for the agricultural economics profession to focus on this major global issue—one which challenges some of the earlier paradigms of food policy and agricultural development.
Uncertainty, belief, and probability

We introduce a new probabilistic approach to dealing with uncertainty, based on the observation that probability theory does not require that every event be assigned a probability. For a nonmeasurable event (one to which we do not assign a probability), we can talk about only the inner measure and outer measure of the event. In addition to removing the requirement that every event be assigned a probability, our approach circumvents other criticisms of probability-based approaches to uncertainty. For example, the measure of belief in an event turns out to be represented by an interval (defined by the inner and outer measures), rather than by a single number. Further, this approach allows us to assign a belief (inner measure) to an event E without committing to a belief about its negation -E (since the inner measure of an event plus the inner measure of its negation is not necessarily one). Interestingly enough, inner measures induced by probability measures turn out to correspond in a precise sense to Dempster-Shafer belief functions. Hence, in addition to providing promising new conceptual tools for dealing with uncertainty, our approach shows that a key part of the important Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence is firmly rooted in classical probability theory. Cet article presente une nouvelle approche probabiliste en ce qui concerne le traitement de l'incertitude; celle-ci est basee sur l'observation que la theorie des probabilityes n'exige pas qu'une probabilitye soit assignee a chaque evenement. Dans le cas d'un evenement non mesurable (un evenement pour lequel on n'assigne aucune probabilitye), nous ne pouvons discuter que de la mesure interieure et de la mesure exterieure de l'evenement. En plus d'eliminer la necessite d'assigner une probabilityea l'evenement, cette nouvelle approche apporte une reponse aux autres critiques des approches a l'incertitude basees sur des probabilityes. Par exemple, la mesure de croyance dans un evenement est representee par un intervalle (defini par la mesure interieure et exterieure) plutot que par un nombre unique. De plus, cette approche nous permet d'assigner une croyance (mesure interieure) a un evenement E sans se compromettre vers une croyance a propos de sa negation -E (puisque la mesure interieure d'un evenement et la mesure interieure de sa negation ne sont pas necessairement une seule et unique mesure). II est interessant de noter que les mesures interieures qui resultent des mesures de probabilitye correspondent d'une maniere precise aux fonctions de croyance de Dempster-Shafer. En plus de constituer un nouvel outil conceptuel prometteur dans le traitement de l'incertitude, cette approche demontre qu'une partie importante de la theorie de l'evidence de Dempster-Shafer est fermement ancree dans la theorie classique des probabilityes.
Parenting Strategies as Influences of Teen Drinking via Self Esteem: An Important Area for Family Policy

Globally, in developing as well as developed countries, rampant increases in teen drinking are widely recognized as major threats to individual, family, and societal well-being. Parenting strategies influence drinking and related behaviors, leading to their incorporation in national family, health, and substance abuse policy programs. Drinking teens become drinking adults, harming current and future family generations in a vicious ‘‘recycling.’’ Longitudinal micro-level analyses from late grade to late high school shows that parenting strategies lead to, or can curb teen drinking, both directly and indirectly, through self-esteem. Parenting often overemphasizes control and underemphasizes positive communications (responsiveness). Particular parenting strategies decrease teen drinking directly or indirectly, by enhancing or detracting child self-esteem, or both. Policies targeting parents via communication and intervention campaigns, to reduce their teens’ drinking, offer a fruitful complementary tool to targeting teens directly, and to traditional policy tools. The emphasis of ‘‘extant’’ parent-targeted public policy campaigns is misplaced. We must reach parents earlier, in mid-grade-school years. Behavioral control should not be the dominant theme—psychological control must be strongly discouraged, and responsiveness encouraged, fostering long-term self-esteem and family health.
Heuristic pairwise alignment of de Bruijn graphs to facilitate simultaneous transcript discovery in related organisms from RNA-Seq data

The advance of high-throughput sequencing has made it possible to obtain new transcriptomes and study splicing mechanisms in non-model organisms. In these studies, there is often a need to investigate the transcriptomes of two related organisms at the same time in order to find the similarities and differences between them. The traditional approach to address this problem is to perform de novo transcriptome assemblies to obtain predicted transcripts for these organisms independently and then employ similarity comparison algorithms to study them. Instead of obtaining predicted transcripts for these organisms separately from the intermediate de Bruijn graph structures employed by de novo transcriptome assembly algorithms, we develop an algorithm to allow direct comparisons between paths in two de Bruijn graphs by first enumerating short paths in both graphs, and iteratively extending paths in one graph that have high similarity to paths in the other graph to obtain longer corresponding paths between the two graphs. These paths represent predicted transcripts that are present in both organisms. We show that our algorithm recovers significantly more shared transcripts than traditional approaches by applying it to simultaneously recover transcripts in mouse against rat and in mouse against human from publicly available RNA-Seq libraries. Our strategy utilizes sequence similarity information within the paths that is often more reliable than coverage information. Our approach generalizes the pairwise sequence alignment problem to allow the input to be non-linear structures, and provides a heuristic to reliably recover similar paths from the two structures. Our algorithm allows detailed investigation of the similarities and differences in alternative splicing between the two organisms at both the sequence and structure levels, even in the absence of reference transcriptomes or a closely related model organism.
Lower bounds to randomized algorithms for graph properties

Abstract For any property P on n-vertex graphs, let C(P) be the minimum number of edges needed to be examined by any decision tree algorithm for determining P. In 1975 Rivest and Vuillemin settled the Aanderra-Rosenberg Conjecture, proving that C(P)=Ω(n 2 ) for every nontrivial monotone graph property P. An intriguing open question is whether the theorem remains true when randomized algorithms are allowed. In this paper we show that Ω(n( log n) 1 12 edges need to be examined by any randomized algorithm for determining any nontrivial monotone graph property.
The molecular content of galaxies

CO observations of more than 200 galaxies have been made as part of the FCRAO Extragalactic CO Survey using the 14 m millimeter telescope of the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory (HPBW=45”). In the more nearby galaxies, the radial distributions of CO(H2) are compared with those of HI, blue light, radial continuum, Hα, and IR surface brightness, with an important goal being to determine the star formation efficiency as a function of radius. For the entire sample, the global infrared and CO luminosities are compared in order to investigate the dependence of the CO luminosity and the L IR /(H2) ratio on galaxy type, luminosity, and environment.
Academic capitalism and academic culture: A case study.

This case study investigated the impact of academic capitalism on academic culture by examining the perspectives of faculty members in an American academic department with significant industrial funding. The results of this study indicate that faculty members believe that the broad integrity of the academic culture remains unaffected in this department and they consider industrial sponsorship as a highly effective vehicle for enhancing the quality of education of students and pursuing their scientific interests. This study provides valuable insights to federal and institutional policies created to foster industry-academia partnerships and commercialization of academic research.
Simulation of fluid flow in the step and flash imprint lithography process

Step and flash imprint lithography (SFIL) is a photolithography process in which the photoresist is dispensed onto the wafer in its liquid monomer form and then imprinted and cured into a desired pattern instead of using traditional optical systems. The mask used in the SFIL process is a template of the desired features that is made using electron beam writing. Several variable sized drops of monomer are dispensed onto the wafer for imprinting. The base layer thickness at the end of the imprinting process is typically about 50nm, with an approximate imprint area of 1in^2. This disparate length scale allows simulation of the fluid movement between the template and wafer by solving governing equations of fluid mechanics simplified by lubrication theory. Capillary forces are also an important factor governing fluid movement; a dimensionless capillary number describes the relative importance of these forces to the viscous forces in the fluid. This paper presents a simulation to model the flow and coalescence of the multiple fluid drops and the effect the number of drops dispensed has on imprint time. The imprint time is shown to decrease with increasing numbers of drops or with an applied force on the template. Appropriate filling of features on the template is an important issue in SFIL, which is presented in this study by simulating the interface movement into and around the feature by a modified boundary condition on the governing equations. It is found that above a critical aspect ratio, features do not fill and fluid does not spread outside the mask edge. The simulation provides a predictive tool for understanding and optimizing fluid management in SFIL.
Statin therapy: where are we? where do we go next?

Statin therapy reduces coronary artery disease morbidity and mortality in primary and secondary prevention trials including patients with elevated and average cholesterol levels. The association between reduction of total or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and preventive benefit is well established. However, additional risk factors for coronary artery disease need to be incorporated into risk assessment to provide an accurate measure of global risk for use in lifestyle intervention and drug therapy guidelines. Assessment of outcomes in the Air Force/Texas Coronary Atherosclerosis Prevention Study primary prevention trial, which involved patients with average cholesterol levels and reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), suggests the importance of on-treatment values of apolipoproteins B and A-I in predicting first major events in such a population. Other data, including trials of fibrate therapy showing reduction in coronary artery disease events, support the importance of triglycerides and HDL-C in coronary artery disease risk. Challenges for future treatment guidelines include incorporation of emerging and novel risk factors into risk assessment, refinement of global risk measurement, and simplification for application to clinical practice.
Capital Rationing and Managerial Retention: The Role of External Capital

ABSTRACT: In modern businesses, firms face new challenges of managerial retention in a capital budgeting process. We consider a model in which a manager privately observes the capital productivity of a project and has access to multiple outside financing options. We show that if the manager can obtain funding from either internal or external capital (but not both), the firm may exclude highly profitable investment projects but fund those projects that have moderate capital productivity, even when there is no limit on capital allocation. Furthermore, the firm may voluntarily impose capital rationing in order to keep the projects within the firm, even though it has sufficient capital to fund such profitable projects. However, if the firm can utilize both the internal and external capital, highly profitable projects are always retained and the voluntary capital rationing is not optimal. Our analysis identifies testable empirical predictions on the association between capital budgeting and external capital.
DEADLOCK AVOIDANCE FOR FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS WITH CHOICES BASED ON DIGRAPH CIRCUIT ANALYSIS

Due to existence of concurrent part flows and resource sharing in modern automated flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), deadlock is a common problem and its occurrence causes loss of productivity. When a manufacturing system is modeled by a digraph, existence of circuits in such a graph is a necessary condition for deadlock. Our previous work further showed that the knot and order of a circuit is closely related to impending deadlocks — a type of deadlock that is more difficult to detect. In this paper, we extend our previous work on deadlock avoidance for flexible manufacturing systems to allow choices in process flows (a.k.a., flexible part routing). Due to introduction of choices, part flow dynamics become more sophisticated and our previous results are no longer valid. A systematic circuit analysis is performed in this paper. New concepts such as broken circuit, basic circuit, choice circuit and supremal circuit are introduced to reduce significantly the number of circuits thus improving efficiency of our approach. The extended method is highly permissive with the adjusted effective free space calculation to capture more necessary parts flow dynamics, especially when multiple knots exist in the digraph model. The online policy runs in polynomial time once the set of basic circuits of the digraph is computed offline. Simulation results on selected examples are given.
Phase Equilibria and Crystal Chemistry in the Quaternary System Ba‐Sr‐Y‐Cu‐O in Air

Studies in the Sr-Y-Cu-O and Ba-Sr-Y-Cu-O systems have revealed that Sr will substitute for Ba in (Ba,Sr)2YCu3O6+x up to about 60%. There are no ternary compounds in the Sr-Y-Cu-O system equivalent to the three ternary phases in the Ba system. A new binary phase, “Sr14Cu24O41”(CuO ∼ 63.158 mol%), was found which forms a solid solution with Y2O3 to a Sr:Y ratio of approximately 2:1. This phase can also incorporate considerable amounts of Ba and Ca and many other large ions.
Least-informative Bayesian prior distributions for finite samples based on information theory

A procedure is presented, based on Shannon information theory, for producing least-informative prior distributions for Bayesian estimation and identification. This approach relies on constructing an optimal mixture distribution and applies in small sample sizes (unlike certain approaches based on asymptotic theory). The procedure is illustrated in a small-scale numerical study and is contrasted with an approach based on maximum entropy. >
The Fit of Thinking Style and Situation: New Measures of Situation-Specific Experiential and Rational Cognition

Decades of research provide strong evidence that consumers process information in two distinct and qualitatively different ways, rational and experiential. However, little research has addressed situational influences on thinking style, and there have been no attempts to simultaneously measure and validate two-dimensional situation-specific thinking. We develop and validate a new instrument for measuring situation-specific thinking style using performance tasks, consumer Web activities, and differing motivations. We establish differences in thinking style across types of tasks and motivations, and congruence effects related to the fit of situation-specific thinking style and the nature of the task on performance and attitudinal outcomes.
Conditional sampling for spectrally discrete max-stable random fields

Max-stable random fields play a central role in modeling extreme value phenomena. We obtain an explicit formula for the conditional probability in general max-linear models, which include a large class of max-stable random fields. As a consequence, we develop an algorithm for efficient and exact sampling from the conditional distributions. Our method provides a computational solution to the prediction problem for spectrally discrete max-stable random fields. This work offers new tools and a new perspective to many statistical inference problems for spatial extremes, arising, for example, in meteorology, geology, and environmental applications.
A function on the homology of 3-manifolds

In analogy with the Thurston norm, we define for an orientable 3- manifold M a numerical function on H2(M; Q/Z). This function measures the minimal complexity of folded surfaces representing a given homology class. A similar function is defined on the torsion subgroup of H1(M; Z). These functions are estimated from below in terms of abelian torsions of M. One of the most beautiful invariants of a 3-dimensional manifold M is the Thurston semi-norm on H2(M; Q), see (8). The geometric idea leading to this semi-norm is to consider the minimal genus of a surface in M realizing any given 2- homology class of M. Thurston's definition of the semi-norm uses a suitably normal- ized Euler characteristic of the surface rather than the genus. The Thurston semi- norm is uninteresting for a rational homology sphere M, since then H2(M; Q) = 0. However, a rational homology sphere may have non-trivial 2-homology with coeffi- cients in Q/Z. Homology classes in H2(M; Q/Z) can be realized by folded surfaces, locally looking like unions of several half-planes in R 3 with common boundary line. It is natural to consider "smallest" folded surfaces in a given homology class. We use this train of ideas to define for an arbitrary orientable 3-manifold M (not necessarily a rational homology sphere) a function θ : H2(M; Q/Z) → R+ = {r ∈ R | r ≥ 0}. This function measures the "minimal" normalized Euler characteristic of a folded surface representing a given class in H2(M; Q/Z). Using the boundary homomorphism d : H2(M; Q/Z) → H1(M) = H1(M; Z), whose image is equal to Tors H1(M), we derive from θ a function � : Tors H1(M) → R+ by �(u) = infx∈d−1(u) θ(x) for any u ∈ Tors H1(M). One can view �(u) as a "normalized minimal genus" of oriented knots in M representing u. If M is a rational homology sphere, then d is an isomorphism and � = θ ◦ d −1 . We give an estimate of the function θ from above in terms of the Thurston semi-norm on knot complements in M. This estimate implies that θ is bounded from above and is upper semi-continuous with respect to a natural topology on H2(M; Q/Z). (I do not know whether θ is continuous.) The functions θ andare also estimated from below using abelian torsions of M. These estimates are parallel
The two social philosophies of Ostroms' institutionalism

The article argues that Ostroms’ institutionalism has a dimension that is complex and profound enough to deserve to be considered a “social theory” or a “social philosophy”. The paper pivots around the thesis that the “social philosophy” behind the Bloomington School’s research agenda has in fact two facets that may or may not be consistent with each other. The article describes the main features of the two facets, offers a brief overview of the development of these ideas, and clarifies their relationship to Public Choice theory and alternative visions of public goods analysis, public administration, and governance. The argument goes further to raise the provocative question whether the two “social philosophies” involved in the approach undertaken by Elinor Ostrom and Vincent Ostrom are necessarily and inseparably connected with the rest of their research program.
Towards general information theoretical representations of database problems

General database systems are described from the general systems theoretical (GST) framework. In this context traditional information theoretical (statistical) and general information theoretical (fuzzy measure and set theoretical, possibilistic, and random set theoretical) representations are derived. A preliminary formal framework is introduced.
Variability and trends in the global tropopause estimated from radiosonde data

[1] This study examines global tropopause variability on synoptic, monthly, seasonal, and multidecadal timescales using 1980–2004 radiosonde data. On synoptic and monthly timescales, tropopause height variations are anticorrelated with stratospheric temperature variations and positively correlated with tropospheric temperature variations. Correlations are stronger in the extratropics than in the tropics, for the upper troposphere (500–300 hPa) than for the lower troposphere, and for the lower stratosphere than for the middle stratosphere. The extratropical tropopause is more sensitive to temperature changes than the tropical tropopause, and in both regions, monthly anomalies of tropopause height are more sensitive to stratospheric temperature change than tropospheric, rising 2–3 km per degree cooling of the lower stratosphere. Tropopause height trends over 1980–2004 are upward at almost all of the (predominantly extratropical) stations analyzed, yielding an estimated global trend of 64 ± 21 m/decade, a corresponding tropopause pressure trend of −1.7 ± 0.6 hPa/decade, and tropopause temperature decrease of 0.41 ± 0.09 K/decade. These tropopause trends are accompanied by significant stratospheric cooling and smaller tropospheric warming. However, the tropopause trends are spatially correlated with stratospheric temperature trends and uncorrelated with tropospheric temperature trends. This association of tropopause height and stratospheric temperature trends, together with the presence of a significant quasi-biennial oscillation signal in tropopause height, suggests that at these lowest frequencies the tropopause is primarily coupled with stratospheric temperatures. Therefore, as an indicator of climate change, long-term changes in the tropopause may carry less information about changes throughout the vertical temperature profile than has been suggested by previous studies using reanalyses and global climate models.
Novel Architectures and Algorithms for Delay Reduction in Back-Pressure Scheduling and Routing

The back-pressure algorithm is a well-known throughput-optimal algorithm. However, its delay performance may be quite poor even when the traffic load is not close to network capacity due to the following two reasons. First, each node has to maintain a separate queue for each commodity in the network, and only one queue is served at a time. Second, the backpressure routing algorithm may route some packets along very long routes. In this paper, we present solutions to address both of the above issues, and hence, improve the delay performance of the back-pressure algorithm. One of the suggested solutions also decreases the complexity of the queueing data structures to be maintained at each node.
Feedforward current control of boost single-phase PFC converters

This paper presents the theory and application of feedforward current control for boost single-phase ac-dc converters with power factor correction. The proposed feedforward signal involves the instantaneous line voltage and the derivative of the reference current. The new control method is compared to existing feedback and feedforward control methods and is shown to significantly reduce input current harmonic distortion, particularly for applications where the current loop crossover frequency is relatively low compared to the line frequency. Implementation of the proposed control using analog devices and the associated issues, such as performance sensitivity to parameter variation and uncertainties, are presented. Analysis results are complemented by numerical simulation and experimental results from a prototype converter. Targeted applications of the proposed method are airborne systems where the line frequency is high, as well as low-cost digital control for terrestrial 50-60-Hz systems where the current loop crossover frequency is limited by the speed of the digital controller.
Nutrition and Cardiovascular Disease

The major cardiovascular diseases affecting the developed world have at their core atherosclerosis and hypertension, both of which are profoundly affected by diet and can be approached, at least in part, from a nutritional point of view, as can the increasing “epidemic” of obesity. Diet is a multi-component mixture of many nutrients, which may interact with one another. The definitive study of nutrients and their impact on cardiovascular disease can be a daunting enterprise. Many dietary risk factors contribute to these diseases in various environmental and ethnic settings. These risk factors are often in evidence in youth so that preventive measures must be initiated early in life. Although most of the information about nutritional risk factors and cardiovascular disease derives from studies in the developed world, the situation is rapidly evolving toward epidemic proportions in the developing world where a major burden on the economy and health services will be imposed.
Ultra-thin SiO2 film studies: index, thickness, roughness and the initial oxidation regime

Abstract Special techniques are needed to reliably measure the ultra-thin film and interfacial properties. In this review several novel ultra-thin film techniques that were developed and/or adapted are discussed: Fowler–Nordheim electron tunneling current oscillations; spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE); a novel application of SE called spectroscopic immersion ellipsometry; atomic force microscopy along with fractal analysis. Recent results using these novel techniques are reviewed on ultra-thin SiO2 films for film thickness measurements, the kinetics of the initial regime of Si oxidation, and interfacial roughness and the effects of roughness on Si oxidation and interfacial electronic properties.
Waveform Analysis of GaAs FET Breakdown

drain-gate breakdown of GaAs metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors analyzed using high frequency waveform probing. Peak drain-gate voltage was theoretically and experimentally found to be a determining breakdown factor. The impact ionization induced conduction component of the gate and drain current of pinched-off MESFET at RF was found to correspond to the dc breakdown currents. The transit time of 30 ps was obtained for the impact ionization generated electrons to travel from gate to drain. This yields the hot electron drift velocity of 4.3×106 cm/s which is in good agreement with the published data.
SYNTHESIS OF 3,6-DIMETHOXY-2-NAPHTHALDEHYDE

(1993). SYNTHESIS OF 3,6-DIMETHOXY-2-NAPHTHALDEHYDE. Organic Preparations and Procedures International: Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 252-255.
The Network as a Storage Device: Dynamic Routing with Bounded Buffers

We study dynamic routing in store-and-forward packet networks where each network link has bounded buffer capacity for receiving incoming packets and is capable of transmitting a fixed number of packets per unit of time. At any moment in time, packets are injected at various network nodes with each packet specifying its destination node. The goal is to maximize the throughput, defined as the number of packets delivered to their destinations. In this paper, we make some progress on throughput maximization in various network topologies. Let n and m denote the number of nodes and links in the network, respectively. For line networks, we show that Nearest-to-Go (NTG), a natural distributed greedy algorithm, is $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{n})$-competitive, essentially matching a known $\Omega(\sqrt{n})$lower bound on the performance of any greedy algorithm. We also show that if we allow the online routing algorithm to make centralized decisions, there is a randomized polylog(n)-competitive algorithm for line networks as well as for rooted tree networks, where each packet is destined for the root of the tree. For grid graphs, we show that NTG has a competitive ratio of $\tilde{\Theta}(n^{2/3})$while no greedy algorithm can achieve a ratio better than $\Omega(\sqrt{n})$. Finally, for arbitrary network topologies, we show that NTG is $\tilde{\Theta}(m)$-competitive, improving upon an earlier bound of O(mn).
1-Trimethylsilyl-3-trimethylsilyloxyisobenzofuran - a potentially useful synthon for linear polycyclics

Abstract 1-Trimethylsilyl-3-trimethylsilyloxyisobenzofuran 7 may be prepared in a simple one-pot procedure from phthalide as a model for the corresponding 4-methoxy derivative 2b, a potentially useful anthracycline synthon.
High speed parallel multi-chip interconnection with free space optics

In many MCM applications, data distribution from and to the memory chips that may reside on an MCM or on a adjacent board can become one of the key bottlenecks in high performance system implementation. This type of performance-limited data paths can be replaced by using an free-space optical interconnect (FSOI) module with crossbar connectivity between point to point interconnects. This system can be made into a standard data communication module for various applications (interconnect processors, DSP chips, memory and telecom interface circuits).
U.S. banking deregulation and self-employment: A differential impact on those in need☆

Abstract Starting in 1978, the U.S. banking sector was gradually deregulated in terms of restrictions on geographical expansion. This paper examines the impact of intrastate branching deregulation on self-employment income growth rates. Cross-state evidence suggests that the growth rate of self-employment income increased after reform, with the effect being more pronounced for women and non-white minorities at the low end of the income distribution. As banks are the prime source of finance for the self-employed, the results suggest that branching reform led to improved access to credit for previously underserved business owners.
Treatment Margin Assessment using Mega-Voltage Computed Tomography of a Tomotherapy Unit in the Radiotherapy of a Liver Tumor

th fraction for the assessment of the daily liver shift by four groups based on Couinard’s proposal. Daily setup errors were corrected by bony landmarks as a prerequisite. Subsequently, the anterior-, posterior-, right-, and left shifts of the liver edges were measured by maximum linear discrepancies between the kilo-voltage computed tomography (KVCT) image and MVCT image. All data were set in the 2-dimensional right angle coordinate system of the transverse section of each patient’s body. Results: The liver boundary shift had different patterns for each group. In group II (segment 2, 3, and 4), the anterior mean shift was 2.80±1.73 mm outwards, while the left mean shift was 2.23±1.37 mm inwards. In group IV (segment 7 and 8), the anterior-, posterior-, right-, and left mean shifts were 0.15±3.93 mm inwards, 3.15±6.58 mm inwards, 0.60±3.58 mm inwards, and 4.50±5.3 5 mm inwards, respectively. The reduced volume in group II after MVCT reassessment might be a consequence of stomach toxicity. Conclusion: Inter-fractional liver shifts of each group based on Couinard’s proposal were somewhat systematic despite certain variations observed in each patient. The geometrical deformation of the liver by respiratory movement can cause shrinkage in the left margins of liver. We recommend a more sophisticated approach in free-breathing mode when irradiating the left lobe of liver in order to avoid stomach toxicity.
Dynamic Pricing with an Unknown Demand Model: Asymptotically Optimal Semi-Myopic Policies

We consider a monopolist who sells a set of products over a time horizon of T periods. The seller initially does not know the parameters of the products' linear demand curve, but can estimate them based on demand observations. We first assume that the seller knows nothing about the parameters of the demand curve, and then consider the case where the seller knows the expected demand under an incumbent price. It is shown that the smallest achievable revenue loss in T periods, relative to a clairvoyant who knows the underlying demand model, is of order T in the former case and of order log T in the latter case. To derive pricing policies that are practically implementable, we take as our point of departure the widely used policy called greedy iterated least squares ILS, which combines sequential estimation and myopic price optimization. It is known that the greedy ILS policy itself suffers from incomplete learning, but we show that certain variants of greedy ILS achieve the minimum asymptotic loss rate. To highlight the essential features of well-performing pricing policies, we derive sufficient conditions for asymptotic optimality.
Fusion for Profit: How Marketing and Finance Can Work Together to Create Value

Foreword Foreword PART I: FINANCIAL TOOLS NECESSARY FOR UNDERSTANDING THE MARKETING-FINANCE INTERFACE 1. Choosing Marketing Policy in the Short Run 2. Choosing Marketing Policy in the Long Run PART II: DEFINING THE MARKET 3. What is the Impact on Strategy? PART III: UNDERSTANDING MARKET SHARES 4. Should the Firm Pursue Market Share? 5. Should the Multiproduct Firm Use the Market Share Metric? PART IV: STRATEGIES AND PRICING POLICIES FOR NEW PRODUCTS AND BUNDLES 6. Pricing New Products: Strategies and Caveats 7. Choosing Strategies for New Products Using Market-Level Data 8. Choosing Strategies for New Products Using Primary Data 9. Bundling PART V: INTEGRATING MARKETING STRATEGY AND THE SUPPLY CHAIN 10. Channels of Distribution PART VI: MARKETING POLICY AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR 11. How Does Consumer Behavior Aff ect Marketing Policy? PART VII: HOW TO CHOOSE ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION STRATEGIES 12. Coordinating Advertising Strategy, Branding, and Positioning 13. Determining the Advertising Budget 14. Measuring Advertising Productivity PART VIII: HOW TO CHOOSE COMPENSATION PLANS 15. How Should the Firm Compensate Managers to Maximize Performance? 16. How Should the Firm Compensate Its Sales Force? The Basic Moel 17. Model Extensions: How Should the Multiagent/Multiproduct Firm Reward and Measure Sales Force Performance? PART IX: HOW TO ALLOW FOR COMPETITIVE REACTION 18. How to Make Marketing Decisions When Competitors React: A Game-Theoretic Approach PART X: OTHER APPLICATIONS OF FUSION FOR PROFIT 19. Measuring and Building Brand Equity 20. How Marketing Policy Aff ects Consumer Well-Being and Social Welfare 21. Internet Marketing 22. Mergers and Acquisitions 23. How to Choose Optimal International Marketing Strategies
Models of management morality: European applications and implications

This article explores the extent to which three models of management morality - Immoral Management, Moral Management, and Amoral Management - are extant in the European business environment. After a brief introduction and presentation of examples of each model, a further description of each model and European applications are outlined. Two possible hypotheses regarding the models' presence in European business are presented and then concluding observations are made.
Surface conservation laws at microscopically diffuse interfaces

In studies of interfaces with dynamic chemical composition, bulk and interfacial quantities are often coupled via surface conservation laws of excess surface quantities. While this approach is easily justified for microscopically sharp interfaces, its applicability in the context of microscopically diffuse interfaces is less theoretically well-established. Furthermore, surface conservation laws (and interfacial models in general) are often derived phenomenologically rather than systematically. In this article, we first provide a mathematically rigorous justification for surface conservation laws at diffuse interfaces based on an asymptotic analysis of transport processes in the boundary layer and derive general formulae for the surface and normal fluxes that appear in surface conservation laws. Next, we use nonequilibrium thermodynamics to formulate surface conservation laws in terms of chemical potentials and provide a method for systematically deriving the structure of the interfacial layer. Finally, we derive surface conservation laws for a few examples from diffusive and electrochemical transport.
A remark on the converging-input converging-state property

Suppose that an equilibrium is asymptotically stable when external inputs vanish. Then, every bounded trajectory which corresponds to a control which approaches zero and which lies in the domain of attraction of the unforced system, must also converge to the equilibrium. This "well-known" but hard-to-cite fact is proved and slightly generalized here.
Exploring Familiarity and Destination Choice in International Tourism

The aim of this study is to identify the characteristics of prospective and experienced tourists to international tourism destinations. More specifically, this study examines how the differences in the level of familiarity with the host country (i.e., informational familiarity and experiential familiarity) influence sub-destination choice in terms of its scale and popularity. A survey was conducted with Korean nationals as potential visitors to tourism destinations in Japan. Six one-way ANOVA tests and six chi-square tests were performed to identify the relationships and differences between tourists' characteristics and the destination choices. The results indicate that (1) teens and people in their 50s and above were interested in visiting more popular places, (2) tourists who are more familiar with Japan tended to visit less popular destinations, and (3) tourists with more travel experiences to the country tended to visit destinations with bigger scale and less popularity. Managerial implications for each destination with different scales and popularities will be suggested to customize service for prospective first-time and experienced visitors.
A fluorogenic ‘click’ reaction of azidoanthracene derivatives

Abstract Fluorogenic reactions have broad applications in biolabeling, combinatorial synthesis of fluorescent dyes, and materials development. It was recently reported that the highly selective and efficient Cu(I)-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction can be employed in designing new types of fluorogenic reactions. In this study, we report a fluorogenic reaction using anthracene azides as starting materials. The fluorescence of the anthryl core can be greatly inhibited upon introducing electron-donating azido groups in the proximity. Such weakly fluorescent anthracene azides demonstrate high reactivity with a variety of alkynes under the CuAAC conditions producing a strongly fluorescent triazole product with high quantum yields. This reaction can be used in the synthesis and screening of fluorescent dyes combinatorially. Compared with most existing methods, the fluorogenic CuAAC reaction is a much milder and simpler technique to prepare large libraries of fluorescent dyes without further purification. In order to demonstrate the efficiency of using anthracene azides for biolabeling applications, both small molecules and biomolecules including the multialkyne-derivatized cowpea mosaic virus and tobacco mosaic virus had been studied.
Strategic asset allocation for individual investors: the impact of the present value of Social Security benefits

Abstract This paper demonstrates the dramatic effect of Social Security wealth on individuals’ asset allocation. We first discuss why Social Security wealth should be included in portfolio asset-mix decisions. We then draw parallels between Social Security benefits and inflation-indexed treasury bonds to help quantify the present value of Social Security benefits. Finally, we show the portfolio impact of including Social Security wealth under several asset-mix decision rules. Excluding Social Security wealth from the asset mix decision results in suboptimal portfolios. Including Social Security wealth provides an incentive for including more stock in the asset mix.
Direct or indirect tax instruments for redistribution: short-run versus long-run

Optimal tax theory has shown that, under simple assumptions, indirect taxation such as production subsidies, tariffs, or differentiated commodity taxation, are sub-optimal and that redistribution should be achieved solely with the direct income tax. However, these important results of optimal tax theory, namely production efficiency and uniform commodity taxation under nonlinear income taxation, have been shown to break down when labor taxation is based on income only and when there is imperfect substitution of labor types in the production function. These results in favor of indirect tax instruments are valid in the short-run when skills are exogenous and individuals cannot move from occupation to occupation. In the long-run, it is more realistic to assume that individuals choose their occupation based on the relative after-tax rewards. This paper shows that, in that context, production efficiency and the uniform commodity tax result are restored. Therefore, in a long-run context, direct income taxation should be preferred to indirect tax instruments to raise revenue and achieve redistribution. D 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
The metal-insulator transitions of VO2: A band theoretical approach

The results of first principles electronic structure calculations for the metallic rutile and the insulating monoclinic phase of vanadium dioxide are presented. In addition, the insulating phase is investigated for the first time. The density functional calculations allow for a consistent understanding of all three phases. In the rutile phase metallic conductivity is carried by metal orbitals, which fall into the one-dimensional band, and the isotropically dispersing bands. Hybridization of both types of bands is weak. In the phase splitting of the band due to metal-metal dimerization and upshift of the bands due to increased p-d overlap lead to an effective separation of both types of bands. Despite incomplete opening of the optical band gap due to the shortcomings of the local density approximation, the metal-insulator transition can be understood as a Peierls-like instability of the band in an embedding background of electrons. In the phase, the metal-insulator transition arises as a combined embedded Peierls-like and antiferromagnetic instability. The results for VO2 fit into the general scenario of an instability of the rutile-type transition-metal dioxides at the beginning of the d series towards dimerization or antiferromagnetic ordering within the characteristic metal chains. This scenario was successfully applied before to MoO2 and NbO2. In the compounds, the and bands can be completely separated, which leads to the observed metal-insulator transitions.
On the (im)possibility of non-interactive correlation distillation

We study the problem of non-interactive correlation distillation (NICD). Suppose that Alice and Bob each have a string, denoted by A=a0a1…an-1 and B=b0b1…bn-1, respectively. Furthermore, for every k=0,1,…,n-1, (ak,bk) is drawn independently from a distribution , known as the 'noise model'. Alice and Bob wish to 'distill' the correlation non-interactively, i.e., they wish to each apply a function to their strings, and output one random bit, denoted by X and Y, such that Pr[X=Y] can be made as close to 1 as possible. The problem is, for what noise models can they succeed? This problem is related to various topics in computer science, including information reconciliation and random beacons. In fact, if NICD is indeed possible for some general class of noise models, then some of these topics would, in some sense, become straightforward corollaries. We prove two negative results on NICD for various noise models. We prove that, for these models, it is impossible to distill the correlation to be arbitrarily close to 1. We also give an example where Alice and Bob can increase their correlation with one bit of communication (in this case they need to each output two bits). This example, which may be of interest on its own, demonstrates that even the smallest amount of communication is provably more powerful than no communication.
Use of frit-disc crucibles for routine and exploratory solution growth of single crystalline samples

Solution growth of single crystals from high temperature solutions often involves the separation of residual solution from the grown crystals. For many growths of intermetallic compounds, this separation has historically been achieved with the use of plugs of silica wool. Whereas this is generally efficient in a mechanical sense, it leads to a significant contamination of the decanted liquid with silica fibres. In this paper, we present a simple design for frit-disc alumina crucible sets that has made their use in the growth single crystals from high temperature solutions both simple and affordable. An alumina frit-disc allows for the clean separation of the residual liquid from the solid phase. This allows for the reuse of the decanted liquid, either for further growth of the same phase, or for subsequent growth of other, related phases. In this paper, we provide examples of the growth of isotopically substituted TbCd and icosahedral i-RCd quasicrystals, as well as the separation of (i) the closely relat...
On the sensitivity of the Hough transform for object recognition

Object recognition from sensory data involves, in part, determining the pose of a model with respect to a scene. A common method for finding an object's pose is the generalized Hough transform, which accumulates evidence for possible coordinate transformations in a parameter space whose axes are the quantized transformation parameters. Large clusters of similar transformations in that space are taken as evidence of a correct match. A theoretical analysis of the behavior of such methods is presented. The authors derive bounds on the set of transformations consistent with each pairing of data and model features, in the presence of noise and occlusion in the image. Bounds are provided on the likelihood of false peaks in the parameter space, as a function of noise, occlusion, and tessellation effects. It is argued that haphazardly applying such methods to complex recognition tasks is risky, as the probability of false positives can be very high. >
InP-Based High-Speed Photodetectors

This paper provides an overview on recent advances of InP-based photodetectors for high-speed fiber-optic applications, with emphasis on evanescently coupled waveguide photodiodes, balanced receivers, and distributed traveling wave photodetectors.