cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Computational verb systems: modeling with verbs and applications

Abstract Computational verb systems are methods for developing a new systematic framework of artificial intelligence by embedding the knowledge and experiences that human experts expressed or implied with verbs into machine intelligence. Computation with words is a systematic consideration of coping with complexities. While fuzzy logic provides a computing framework of adjectives and adverbs, it does not cope with verbs. It turns out that verbs are very important to describe the dynamics of complexities for the survival of human beings. Verbs should also be very important building blocks for transferring and representing human experiences, thus very important tools for the next generation of expert system. In this paper, the applications of verbs to modeling complexity are discussed. First, the dynamics of linguistic expressions are identified as the usages of verbs. Then nonlinear and linear dynamic systems are used to model and classify verbs. Based on these models of verbs, the dynamic aspects of linguistic expressions, which associate with qualitative descriptions of human experiences, can be described quantitatively. In particular, verb models of both simple and complex dynamic systems are provided to show how to use computational verb systems. Then verb models are used to solve a real life problem in chaotic cryptanalysis. First, the author's experiences on breaking chaotic shift keying are summarized by three verbs. Then the computational models of these three verbs are found by a few training examples. This computational verb model is viewed as the learned experience of computer on breaking chaotic shift keying. Some new test data are used to test the robustness and reliability of this computational verb model.
Onset of Psychotraumatic Reactions

This study was planned to examine the onset of the posttraumatic psychiatric reaction. Two hundred two injured persons were examined during two summers (1978 and 1979) at the Salzburg Accident Hospital, Austria. Eighty-six of 110 persons with posttraumatic psychiatric reactions developed their symptoms two weeks to two months after the injury. Ninety-two of the 110 showed irritability as the initial symptom.
Design and evaluation of nonblocking collective I/O operations

Nonblocking operations have successfully been used to hide network latencies in large scale parallel applications. This paper presents the challenges associated with developing nonblocking collective I/O operations, in order to help hiding the costs of I/O operations. We also present an implementation based on the libNBC library, and evaluate the benefits of nonblocking collective I/O over a PVFS2 file system for a micro-benchmark and a parallel image processing application. Our results indicate the potential benefit of our approach, but also highlight the challenges to achieve appropriate overlap between I/O and compute operations.
Building Educational Technology Partnerships Through Participatory Design

enough. Teachers work in a complex and dynamic context in which measurable objectives and underlying values collide on a daily basis. Traditionally, teachers work in isolation from their peers; individual teachers have well-established personal practices and philosophies of education. Teachers have enormous discretion with respect to what goes on in their classrooms, yet are also routinely interrogated by supervisors, by parents and other community members, and by educational bureaucracies. This has led to an abiding tension
Who Needs Sleep? An Analysis of Patient Tolerance in Awake Craniotomy.

Background Awake craniotomy (AC) is generally a safe and effective procedure; however, a small but not insignificant portion of cases are aborted due to patient intolerance of the awake portion of surgery. There is not yet a firm understanding of what characteristics indicate patient tolerance or failure of AC. Methods We retrospectively reviewed a single-surgeon database of patients treated by AC over a 5-year period. Charts were reviewed for demographic, clinical, and operative characteristics, including anesthetic administration during the awake portion of surgery. Statistical analysis was performed to determine which factors predicted patient tolerance or failure. Results Our study cohort comprised 120 patients with an average age of 56.0 ± 15.2 years. A majority of patients were male (55.8%). The most common surgical indication was tumor (95.8%), with gliobastoma as the most common diagnosis (43.3%). Male sex predicted surgical tolerance on univariate analysis (P = 0.015). Remifentanil administration was associated with surgical failure on univariate analysis (P = 0.068), and also predicted failure on multivariate analysis (P = 0.030). Preoperative seizure, ketamine administration, and right-sided surgery each predicted patient tolerance, but did not achieve statistical significance. Similarly, respiratory comorbidity was associated with surgical failure, but did not achieve significance. Conclusions AC remains an effective treatment option; the majority of patients tolerate the procedure without issue. Male patients have lower rates of surgical failure, whereas remifentanil administration may increase failure rate.
Biopsy-free screening for glioma.

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a promising diagnostic marker for many cancers and can be noninvasively assayed from blood. For diagnosing glioma, this approach has unfortunately proven to be of limited use since glioma contribute minimal ctDNA to the blood circulation. A more promising avenue may therefore be to hunt for ctDNA in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The study by Mouliere et al in this issue of EMBO Molecular Medicine demonstrates that shallow whole‐genome sequencing of CSF‐cfDNA can be used to detect copy number alterations in glioma‐derived ctDNA, providing a low cost strategy to screen for glioma.
Implementation and testing of JANUS and AORUN acoustic communication algorithms

Terrestrial communication has seen a large expansion over the past few decades. We’ve advanced from landlines to cellphones, and with the development of technologies and research done, today’s terrestrial communication is based on a dense wireless infrastructure founded on extremely capable low-cost hardware platforms. During the same time, the interest in creating underwater networks for use in commercial and military application has increased. This paper will focus on two particular technologies, JANUS and AORUN, implemented on a software-defined acoustic modem enabling interoperability in underwater acoustic communication.
Experiences Vary in Learning Microbiology Online: Students viewing lectures online learn microbiology as well as students hearing lectures in traditional classrooms

Can microbiology be taught online? I receive many e-mails indicating considerable interest in this approach to teaching microbiology. That interest, however, does not address whether computers can teach this subject effectively. If lessons in microbiology were delivered electronically, could we determine whether and which ones are effective?
Modified coal char materials with high rate performance for battery applications

Abstract Global energy consumption has been rising since the early 2000s, and most of the energy supply still comes from burning fossil fuels. Considering the detrimental environmental impacts of fossil fuels, such as CO2 emissions, it is crucial to develop clean energy technologies, such as storage devices that can advance long-term reversible and sustainable energy resources. In this work, we demonstrate the direct use of coal char in anodes tailored for both lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries. The findings show that acid treatment followed by high-temperature argon annealing results in coal char particles with the desired porous structure, surface properties, and turbostratic nanodomains that deliver high reversible capacity and maintain good electrochemical performance at high rates up to 10C. Long-term cycling stability for 500 cycles can be achieved in cells comprising NMC cathodes at 1C with 73.2% capacity retention. This study sheds light on potential energy storage use cases for coal char outside its traditional utilization.
Cannabis Use Is Differentially Associated with Individual Facets of Impulsivity through Expectancy Effects: A Comprehensive Application of the Acquired Preparedness Model.

The acquired preparedness model (APM) posits that the relationship between impulsivity and substance use is mediated by drug effect expectancies. Though the APM has been utilized to explain college...
Sensitivity of Subcritical Measurement Simulations to Neutron Cross-Section Data

Evaluation of nuclear data typically includes validation of the data through computation of keff for critical assemblies. The sensitivity of the computed keff values to the nuclear data is used as an indicator in determining the adequacy of an evaluation. Subcritical measurements offer an alternative to critical experiments as a means to evaluate nuclear data through direct computation of subcritical measurement quantities. In some instances, the subcritical measurement quantities are more sensitive to nuclear data changes than the computed keff values. Simulations of subcritical source-driven noise measurements were performed for highly enriched uranium metal cylinders and highly enriched uranyl nitrate solutions to demonstrate the sensitivity of the computed subcritical quantities to nuclear data. A particular ratio of spectral quantities from the source-driven noise measurements is of interest because of its independence of detection efficiency and source intensity. These simulations indicate that the ...
Grain boundary structure in Ni3Al

Etude par microscopie electronique a balayage et en transmission de l'influence de la segregation du bore et de la non-stœchiometrie sur la structure des joints de flexion et de torsion produits par pressage a chaud. Observation des structures de dislocations dans les joints de grains, et determination de leur vecteur de Burgers
Experience with grapevine: the growth of a distributed system

Grapevine is a distributed, replicated system that provides message delivery, naming, authentication, resource location, and access control services in an internet of computers. The system, described in a previous paper [1], was designed and implemented several years ago. We now have had operational experience with the system under substantial load. In this paper we report on what we have learned from using Grapevine.
MPFL Reconstruction: Technique and Results

Patellar instability is a common problem, and medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) injury is inherent with traumatic patellar dislocations. Initial nonoperative management is focused on reconditioning and strengthening the dynamic stabilizers of the patella. For those patients who progress to recurrent instability, further investigation into the predisposing factors is required. MPFL reconstruction is indicated in patients with recurrent instability and insufficient medial restraint due to MPFL injury. A technique of MPFL reconstruction is outlined. This procedure may also be performed in combination with other realignment procedures.
Dynamic blocking and collapsing for Gibbs sampling

In this paper, we investigate combining blocking and collapsing - two widely used strategies for improving the accuracy of Gibbs sampling - in the context of probabilistic graphical models (PGMs). We show that combining them is not straight-forward because collapsing (or eliminating variables) introduces new dependencies in the PGM and in computation-limited settings, this may adversely affect blocking. We therefore propose a principled approach for tackling this problem. Specifically, we develop two scoring functions, one each for blocking and collapsing, and formulate the problem of partitioning the variables in the PGM into blocked and collapsed subsets as simultaneously maximizing both scoring functions (i.e., a multi-objective optimization problem). We propose a dynamic, greedy algorithm for approximately solving this intractable optimization problem. Our dynamic algorithm periodically updates the partitioning into blocked and collapsed variables by leveraging correlation statistics gathered from the generated samples and enables rapid mixing by blocking together and collapsing highly correlated variables. We demonstrate experimentally the clear benefit of our dynamic approach: as more samples are drawn, our dynamic approach significantly outperforms static graph-based approaches by an order of magnitude in terms of accuracy.
The political economy of environmental regulation.

This new authoritative collection comprises previously published papers on the political economy of environmental regulation: economic analyses of the processes through which political decisions regarding environmental regulation are made, principally in the institutional context found in the United States. Despite this geographic focus, many of the papers contain analytical models that are methodologically of interest and/or have lessons that are relevant in other parts of the world. In the environmental realm, questions of political economy emerge along three fundamental dimensions, which are closely interrelated but conceptually distinct: (1) the degrees of government activity; (2) the form of government activity; and (3) the level of government that has responsibility. The first three parts of the book deal respectively with these three fundamental dimensions of inquiry. The fourth part of the book examines the use of economic analysis in contemporary environmental policy. The Political Economy of Environmental Regulation will be of significant interest to environmental scholars, students and policy makers alike. 22 articles, dating from 1975 to 2003
Resurgent China: Issues for the Future

China has been experiencing very fast economic growth for three decades now. As a result, China’s per capita income has increased almost ten-fold from $224 in 1978 to $2,055 in 2007.1 Surpassing other G-8 countries, China has become the second largest economy in the world in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms, and she is already the world’s top exporter country. This fast economic growth has been associated with fundamental changes in China’s institutions. From a centrally planned economy and very egalitarian society, China has become by and large a market-based economy and an unequal society. China has also become more integrated with the rest of the world.
Banking in developing countries in the 1990s

During the 1990s commercial bank deposits and capital rose relative to GDP in the major developing countries. This rise largely reflected the dramatic fall in inflation of the 1990s and financial liberalization. But much of this growth in banks' loanable funds was absorbed by increased net holdings of central bank debt and of government debt. Much of the rise in government debt reflected post-crisis restructurings, notably in Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico, but rising deficits also played a role. Bank intermediation between depositors and private sector borrowers remained limited in many countries despite financial liberalization. The post-crisis restructurings raise two important issues: the poor performance of loans that was revealed by the crises and the future crowding-out that will result from the spreading-out of the cost of the crisis over time and the inability to retire the restructuring-related debt. The absorption of deposits in nonprivate sector credit, the growth of offshore finance of the private sector, and the poor performance of loans suggest a weakening of the link between the traditional measure of financial depth, M2/GDP, and economic growth and development. The changes in the 1990s also raise issues such as the potential for future deposit growth, the riskiness of bank portfolios, banks' increased dependence on government solvency, the access to credit for firms unable to access global markets, the foreign exchange exposure of countries, and the implications of the ongoing changes in regulation and supervision.
The photochemistry of the early atmosphere

The composition of the earth's present atmosphere is described. The formation of the earth from the coalescence and accretion of the refractory elements of the solar nebula is examined. Two possible compositions of the prebiological paleoatmosphere, which are a reducing atmosphere of CH4, NH3, and H2 or a mildly reducing atmosphere of H2O, CO2, and N2, and their photochemistry are analyzed. General photochemical and chemical processes are reviewed. The use of the coupled continuity-transport equation to calculate the vertical distribution of each species is discussed. A study of the photochemical process of CH4 and NH3 reveals that the reducing atmosphere could not possibly exist. An analysis of the photochemistry and chemistry of the H2O, CO2, and N2 atmosphere reveals that the photodissociation of H2O and CO2 results in a prebiotic source of O2, H2CO, and HCN, which are the components for the evolution of photosynthetic organisms and a strongly oxidizing atmosphere. The reactions which produce O2 and H2CO from H2O and CO2, and the relation between H2O and CO2 concentrations and O2 levels are investigated. The formation of O3 photochemically from O2 is explained.
Temporary International Legal Regimes as Frames for Permanent Ones

This chapter explores the footprint that temporary international legal regimes can leave on international law. Drawing on four different theories of state behaviour, it considers how temporary regimes can shape future permanent regimes. Under a rational design approach, temporary legal regimes influence future permanent regimes largely because they provide valuable experiences from which state actors learn. Under other theories of behaviour—historical institutionalism, constructivism, and behavioural international law—temporary legal regimes can have even more influence on permanent ones. Although these other three theories have important differences, all suggest that temporary regimes strongly shape the real and perceived possibilities for future permanent design choices. This chapter then looks at how these different theoretical approaches play out in case studies in refugee law, international criminal law, and international environmental law. While these case studies do not solely support any one theoretical account, collectively they demonstrate that temporary regimes can have outsized influence on permanent ones. This in turn has important implications for negotiators involved in regime design.
Learning to map sentences to logical form: structured classification with probabilistic categorial grammars

This paper addresses the problem of mapping natural language sentences to lambda–calculus encodings of their meaning. We describe a learning algorithm that takes as input a training set of sentences labeled with expressions in the lambda calculus. The algorithm induces a grammar for the problem, along with a log-linear model that represents a distribution over syntactic and semantic analyses conditioned on the input sentence. We apply the method to the task of learning natural language interfaces to databases and show that the learned parsers outperform previous methods in two benchmark database domains.
Melanoma in Situ with Epidermal Effacement: A Compelling Adjunctive Finding

Since many studies have shown the discordant diagnoses of melanocytic lesions among pathologists despite the existence of an established histologic criteria, we sought to refine the histologic criteria by finding an additional reliable and reproducible objective histopathologic feature, to aid in the diagnosis of melanoma in situ. We performed a retrospective analysis of 100 cases, histologically diagnosed as melanoma in situ and compared to a study control group consisting of junctional benign melanocytic nevi. The epidermis of all the melanocytic lesions were examined for epidermal effacement. Examination of the epidermis in the study group revealed absence of epidermal effacement in only seven (10%) cases, whereas ninety-three (93%) cases showed absence of rete ridges in some foci, making this an overwhelming majority finding in the cases examined. These results serve as a compelling adjunctive finding that can be used to increase the histologic diagnostic accuracy of melanoma in situ.
Cash transfers and temptation goods : a review of global evidence

Cash transfers have been demonstrated to improve education and health outcomes and alleviate poverty in various contexts. However, policy makers and others often express concern that poor households will use transfers to buy alcohol, tobacco, or other "temptation goods." The income effect of transfers will increase expenditures if alcohol and tobacco are normal goods, but this may be offset by other effects, including the substitution effect, the effect of social messaging about the appropriate use of transfers, and the effect of shifting dynamics in intra-household bargaining. The net effect is ambiguous. This paper reviews 19 studies with quantitative evidence on the impact of cash transfers on temptation goods, as well as 11 studies that surveyed the number of respondents who reported they used transfers for temptation goods. Almost without exception, studies find either no significant impact or a significant negative impact of transfers on temptation goods. In the only (two, non-experimental) studies with positive significant impacts, the magnitude is small. This result is supported by data from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. A growing number of studies from a range of contexts therefore indicate that concerns about the use of cash transfers for alcohol and tobacco consumption are unfounded.
Properties of the Galactic Bar from Hydrodynamical Simulations

It is well known that the existence of H I and CO gas at “forbidden” velocities in longitude-velocity (l-V) diagrams of the inner Galaxy (e.g. Liszt & Burton 1980, Liszt 1992) is inconsistent with circular motion in an axisymmetric potential. Gas flow in a barred potential could be consistent with the observations, however. We have compared the observations to 2-D hydrodynamical simulations of gas flows in a family of barred potentials. The gas flow pattern is very sensitive to the assumed potential, and the l-V distribution of cool gas in the inner Galaxy places strong constraints on several parameters of the Milky Way bar.
A Closed Form Formula for Valuing Mortgages

We develop a closed form formula for the value of a fixed-rate residential mortgage that includes the provision that the borrower can prepay at any time with no penalty. The value of the mortgage equals the expectation, under the risk neutral probability measure, of the future cash flows. We model future cash flows by estimating an empirical model of prepayment behavior. A second change of measure leads to a closed form expression for the expectation. The closed form values explain most of the time series variation in MBS prices. The closed form formula significantly shortens the time to calculate mortgage values and durations and can be a useful tool for portfolio management and hedging.
Teaching the toolkit: A laboratory series to demonstrate the evolutionary conservation of metazoan cell signaling pathways.

A major finding of comparative genomics and developmental genetics is that metazoans share certain conserved, embryonically deployed signaling pathways that instruct cells as to their ultimate fate. Because the DNA encoding these pathways predates the evolutionary split of most animal groups, it should in principle be possible to clone representatives of such signaling pathways from almost any species, demonstrating their sequence conservation. Here I describe an 8-week laboratory series that tests this prediction by attempting to clone multiple members of a known signaling pathway from a species where the targets are unknown. Beginning with the molecular components of a signaling pathway and publicly available sequence information from related taxa, students designed partially degenerate PCR primers to amplify the corresponding mRNA sequences from a “new” organism, in this case a turtle (Trachemys scripta). Using a single round of degenerate PCR and standard DNA cloning techniques, we were able to retrieve 6 out of 16 species-specific homologs on the first attempt (∼40% success rate). To conclude the project, the novel sequences were submitted back into the original public database. The molecular methods of the lab can be adapted to any combination of pathway and organism, demonstrating the conserved components of cellular signaling in any biological process, from gastrulation to aging. The linked labs offer intensive research–based training in bioinformatics and molecular biology, while empirically demonstrating the ubiquity of the metazoan cell-signaling toolkit.
Spatial Arrangements of Externality Generating and Receiving Activities

Many cases of externalities in agricultural production such as pesticide drift, cross-pollination, and offensive odors are attributable to the incompatibility of neighboring land uses. This paper offers an examination of when an efficient activity arrangement is compatible with free-market incentives. Also, free-market and socially efficient activity arrangements are characterized in terms of spatial concentration of the externality generating uses.
Perspectives on the Use of Rule-Based Control

Abstract This paper addresses issues regarding the application of artificial intelligence techniques to real-time control. Advantages associated with knowledge-based programming are discussed. A proposed rule-based control technique is summarized and applied to the problem of automated aircraft emergency procedure execution. Although emergency procedures are by definition predominately procedural, their numerous evaluation and decision points make a declarative representation of the knowledge they encode highly attractive, resulting in an organized and easily maintained software hierarchy. Simulation results demonstrate that real-time performance can be obtained using a microprocessor-based controller. It is concluded that a rule-based control system design approach may prove more useful than conventional methods under certain circumstances, and that declarative rules with embedded procedural code provide a sound basis for the construction of complex, yet economical, control systems.
Conditional cash transfers and the equity-efficiency debate

During the past decade, the use of conditional cash transfers to increase investment in human capital has generated considerable excitement in both research and policy forums. Such schemes are being increasingly adopted in a number of contexts and countries to improve outcomes in health, education, and child labor as they aim to balance the goals of current and future poverty reduction. In this paper, the authors define any scheme requiring a specified course of action in order to receive a benefit as a conditional cash transfer. This definition includes cash transfers based on human capital investments, but is sufficiently broad to encompass other schemes such as work-fare programs or consumption transfers. The authors examine the rationales behind, the problems with, and the tradeoffs inherent to conditional cash transfer programs. They discuss two main concerns: low participation and fungibility. Low participation refers to the problem of program uptake. If individuals do not participate in the program, whether it was designed to increase human capital investment or to target resources, the program will not be successful. The problem of fungibility, however, depends on the rationale for the particular conditional cash transfer program. When used to increase efficiency, even when program uptake is high, program effects may be less than envisioned due to behavioral responses of households that lead to changes in the consumption of close substitutes. While researchers have typically addressed these issues separately, the authors emphasize the need for policymakers to incorporate a number of different factors in a comprehensive framework to design optimal conditional cash transfer schemes.
The Past as Future? The Contribution of Financial Globalization to the Current Crisis of Neo-Liberalism as a Development Strategy

Bretton Woods was grounded in the Keynesian view that financial markets are innately too unstable to be given free rein. This view, which also shaped the financial policies of developing countries during the 1st post-war quarter-century, was gradually displaced during the 2nd post- war quarter-century by Neo-liberalism, with financial market liberalization and heavy reliance on freely mobile international capital as its leading components. However, their adoption by the industrialized countries has been associated with exchange rate misalignments, excessive debt leveraging, asset price bubbles, slower and more unstable output and employment growth, and increased income concentration; and additionally in the developing countries by more frequent financial crises, exacerbated by over-indebtedness that forces many of them to adopt pro-cyclical macroeconomic policies that deepen their output and employment losses. This paper contends that the association reflects causality, rooted fundamentally in the innate propensity of financial dynamics to go off track along the lines of Minsky’s Financial Instability Hypothesis, an elaboration of Keynes’s view. An open economy extension of this hypothesis explains the frequency of banking/currency crises in the 2nd quarter-century in the developing countries far better than the convoluted “blame the victim” post-mortems that until recently have been the staple of the IMF. Its recent publications show the IMF analysts moving part way toward the Keynesian view of financial instability, but with a major disconnect between the empirical findings and their implications for theory and policy. As yet there is neither overt abandonment of the efficient market theorizing that had underpinned the IMF’s earlier enthusiasm for financial liberalization, nor candid reconsideration of its opposition to capital controls and other dirigiste policies implied by the Keynesian view. Probably this is because IMF policies are not “owned” by its bureaucracy or membership at large, but by the major financial center countries. Still, the worried discussions among these center countries that global financial discord could lead to deeper financial crises, debt deflation, intensified beggar-my-neighbor trade and currency competition, and the formation of antagonistic regional blocs have a 1930s aura. Optimistically, this could lead again, as at Bretton Woods, to coordinated stabilization policies, among at least the Big Three financial powers, that would also ease the way for developing countries to return to dirigiste development strategies. More likely, a reprise of the 1930s will be needed to create the political climate for accepting all this. Given the odds, developing countries should carve out their own policy space, with capital controls as prerequisite for widening that space.
Management of Chemotherapy Induced Nausea and Vomiting in Patients on Multiday Cisplatin Based Combination Chemotherapy

Introduction of cisplatin based chemotherapy has revolutionized the treatment of germ cell tumors. A common side effect of multiday cisplatin chemotherapy is severe nausea and vomiting. Considerable progress has been made in the control of these side effects since the introduction of cisplatin based chemotherapy in the 1970s. Germ cell tumor which is a model for a curable neoplasm has also turned into an excellent testing ground to develop effective strategies to prevent chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) in multiday cisplatin based regimens. The use of combination of a 5-hydroxytryptamine (HT)3 receptor antagonist, a neurokinin-1 (NK1) antagonist, and dexamethasone has greatly improved our ability to prevent and control acute and delayed CINV. Mechanism and pattern of CINV with multiday chemotherapy may differ from those in single day chemotherapy and therefore efficacy of antiemetic drugs as observed in single day chemotherapy may not be applicable. There are only few randomized clinical trials with special emphasis on multiday chemotherapy. Further studies are essential to determine the efficacy, optimal dose, and duration of the newer agents and combinations in multiday cisplatin based chemotherapy.
Subduction fluxes of water, carbon dioxide, chlorine, and potassium

[1] The alteration of upper oceanic crust entails growth of hydrous minerals and loss of macroporosity, with associated large-scale fluxes of H2O, CO2, Cl−, and K2O between seawater and crust. This age-dependent alteration can be quantified by combining a conceptual alteration model with observed age-dependent changes in crustal geophysical properties at DSDP/ODP sites, permitting estimation of crustal concentrations of H2O, CO2, Cl−, and K2O, given crustal age. Surprisingly, low-temperature alteration causes no net change in total water; pore water loss is nearly identical to bound water gain. Net change in total crustal K2O is also smaller than expected; the obvious low-temperature enrichment is partly offset by earlier high-temperature depletion, and most crustal K2O is primary rather than secondary. I calculate crustal concentrations of H2O, CO2, Cl−, and K2O for 41 modern subduction zones, thereby determining their modern mass fluxes both for individual subduction zones and globally. This data set is complemented by published flux determinations for subducting sediments at 26 of these subduction zones. Global mass fluxes among oceans, oceanic crust, continental crust, and mantle are calculated for H2O, Cl−, and K2O. Except for the present major imbalance between sedimentation and sediment subduction, most fluxes appear to be at or near steady state. I estimate that half to two thirds of subducted crustal water is later refluxed at the prism toe; most of the remaining water escapes at subarc depths, triggering partial melting. The flux of subducted volatiles, however, does not appear to correlate with either rate of arc magma generation or magnitude of interplate earthquakes.
Discovering Cartels: Dynamic Interrelationships between Civil and Criminal Antitrust Investigations

This paper focuses on the genesis, taxonomy and timeline of U.S. criminal antitrust investigations, and uses time-series data on enforcement to examine the interrelationships between the various criminal enforcement variables as well as the linkages between criminal and civil enforcement. The key findings are: (1) there appears to be considerable dynamic interplay between the criminal variables. For example, an increase in grand jury investigations or criminal cases initiated or the number of individuals or firms convicted generates increases in most of these (endogenous) variables in future periods. A broad conclusion that can be drawn is that information unearthed during a given criminal investigation and prosecution often reveals information about other conspiracies leading to future investigations and prosecutions; (2) an increase in civil enforcement leads to future increases in the criminal cases and firms and individuals convicted. This suggests that information gleaned during civil investigations, such as mergers or monopolization cases, may reveal information about collusive behavior in markets leading to criminal investigations and prosecutions; and (3) criminal enforcement follows a counter-cyclical pattern with the number of criminal cases prosecuted increasing following an economic downturn. We relate this to the literature which points to cartel instability during economic downturns. Overall, our results point to complementarities in the investigative process within different facets of criminal investigations as well as between criminal and civil investigations.
Lichen spinulosus: Clinicopathologic review of thirty-five cases

Lichen spinulosus is a rare, idiopathic dermatosis characterized by follicular keratotic papules that are grouped into large patches. In this report the clinical and histologic data of 35 patients with lichen spinulosus are presented. The patients consisted of 14 males and 21 females, and their average age was 17.8 ± 9.5 years. The average age at onset of disease was 16.2 ± 10.1 years. Affected areas were symmetrically distributed and involved the extensor surfaces of the arms and legs, back, chest, face, and neck. Lesions were characterized by round or oval, 2 to 6 cm plaques composed of grouped punctate, "thorny," 1 to 3 mm, follicular keratotic papules. Microscopic examination revealed keratotic plugging of the follicular infundibulum and a perivascular and perifollicular mononuclear infiltrate. Although the cause is not yet known, lichen spinulosus probably represents a follicular reaction pattern of more than one origin.
Overhead Performance Tradeoffs—A Resource Allocation Perspective

A key aspect of many resource allocation problems is the need for the resource controller to compute a function, such as the $\max $ or $ \mathop {\mathrm {arg\,max\kern 0pt}} $ , of the competing users’ metrics. Information must be exchanged between the competing users and the resource controller in order for this function to be computed. In many practical resource controllers, the competing users’ metrics are communicated to the resource controller, which then computes the desired extremization function. However, in this paper, it is shown that information rate savings can be obtained by recognizing that the controller only needs to determine the result of this extremization function. If the extremization function is to be computed losslessly, the rate savings are shown in most cases to be at most 2 b independent of the number of competing users. Motivated by the small savings in the lossless case, simple achievable schemes for both the lossy and interactive variants of this problem are considered. It is shown that both of these approaches have the potential to realize large rate savings, especially in the case where the number of competing users is large. For the lossy variant, it is shown that the proposed simple achievable schemes are in fact close to the fundamental limit given by the rate distortion function.
The 9/11 Dust Cloud and Pregnancy Outcomes: A Reconsideration

The events of 9/11 released a million tons of toxic dust into lower Manhattan, an unparalleled environmental disaster. It is puzzling, then, that the literature has shown little effect of fetal exposure to the dust. However, inference is complicated by preexisting differences between the affected mothers and other NYC mothers as well as heterogeneity in effects on boys and girls. Using all births in-utero on 9/11 in NYC and comparing them to their siblings, we show that residence in the affected area increased prematurity and low birth weight, especially for boys.
Gender inequality in the labor market in Serbia

This paper presents a broad overview of labor market indicators for men and women in Serbia with a focus on employment patterns, entrepreneurship and career advancement as well as earnings differentials. The analysis relies primarily on the results of the Labor Force Surveys conducted in Serbia in April 2008 and October 2009. The findings show that although the overall labor market situation in Serbia is difficult, women are in a much more disadvantageous position than men. Women are much less likely to be employed, start a business or advance in the political arena. Furthermore, there is a significant wage gap between men and women in a number of sectors and occupational groups with low educated women being particularly disadvantaged. The results of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition demonstrate that the wage gap is indicative of discrimination of women in the labor market as earnings differentials cannot be explained by differences in observed characteristics of male and female employees. Based on the obtained results, the paper outlines four broad areas that require the attention of policy-makers: employment generation; enhancement of education outcomes; improvement of the regulatory environment and support to women's business and political careers; and promotion of transparent performance setting mechanisms.
Constraints on the density of baryons in the Universe

It is shown that it is possible to obtain a lower bound on the ratio of baryons to photons in the Universe, E, from Big Bang nucleosynthesis through the use of He-3 and deuterium, and that this limit is consistent with the Li-7 abundance. It is shown that this limit places very narrow bounds on the allowed value for E, thus tightly constraining the neutrino limits to no more than four species. The derived constraints are that E must be between 1.5 x 10 to the -10 and 7 x 10 to the -9 with a best fit between 3 and 6 x 10 to the -10. With reference to dark matter, the derived baryon density for Big Bang nucleosynthesis corresponds very closely with the implied density of matter in binaries and small groups of galaxies, implying that nonbaryonic matter is not dominant by a large factor on scales as large as binaries and small groups of galaxies.
A Conceptual Model of Entrepreneurship as Firm Behavior

This article outlines a conceptual model of entrepreneurship as an organizational-level phenomenon. The model is intended to depict the organizational system elements that relate to entrepreneurial...
Dual Construction of RICO: The Road Not Taken in Reves

This is an article about RICO and about a larger problem in statutory construction. Judge Mikva of the D.C. Circuit captured the essence of the problem when, questioning his colleagues' attempt to narrow RICO's scope he asked "Why is one element of the statute properly deemed broad while another read narrowly?" This Article tries to answer that question. This Article develops a rationale for the seminal Supreme Court decision in Reves v. Ernst & Young, 507 U.S. 170 (1993) that may help resolve other issues that arise because of the interplay between conflicting provisions in RICO and in other statutes. My thesis is that RICO should be interpreted narrowly in some cases and broadly in others, depending on the nature of the issue before the court. The suggested method of interpretation does no more than recognize and apply the fact that RICO has both a remedial and punitive purpose to it. These dual purposes support the use of a dual construction doctrine to resolve statutory ambiguity and answer Judge Mikva's question. The thesis is supported by logic, policy, legislative history...and over 100 years of state and federal court precedent.
Sales: Tests of theories on causality and timing

Abstract Modern theories of sales make conflicting predictions about the temporal pattern of sales, which we test using grocery scanner data. We examine both frozen orange juice, which consumers can store, and refrigerated orange juice, which is more perishable, to determine what role—if any—durability plays in the pattern of sales. We examine (1) whether sales are more frequent for national brands than for private label brands; (2) whether manufacturers, retailers, or others determine sales; (3) the distribution of prices; (4) whether sales and their effects differ for durable (frozen) or nondurable (refrigerated) products; and (5) the temporal ordering of sales. We use correlations, runs tests, probit regressions, and vector-autoregressive analyses to test our hypotheses. Some of our more striking findings are that retailers rather than manufacturers determine sales, private labels have sales as often as national brands, and that a sale of a national brand is more likely to “cause” sales of other products than is a sale of a private label product.
Agriculture and Agribusiness Reform in the CEE Nations and NIS: Issues and Opportunities

Economic transition and reforms in the Central and Eastern European nations and the Newly Independent States have been uneven and probably slower than expected by many observers, with agriculture experiencing special difficulties. Johnson says that there is a real need for practical and consistent assistance in defining strategies that will help complete the reforms while maintaining political stability and a sense of economic security.
VALUING MARGINAL CHANGES IN THE QUALITY OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSET

We present a model that extends the replacement cost theory to cases where benefits are restored for multiple years. Our theoretical framework derives a functional relationship between investments expenditures and environmental benefits. By extending the investment framework, we model reservoir benefits as a function of marginal changes in soil erosion.
Transforming natural resource wealth into sustained growth and poverty reduction : a conceptual framework for Sub-Saharan African oil exporting countries

Oil and mineral revenues raise national savings and hence facilitate investment, capital accumulation, and sustained growth; thus, there are benefits of owning large natural resources. There can be a significant spillover effect from the oil sector to the non-oil sector particularly if governments are committed to bridge the infrastructure gap and promote the non-oil economy and foremost the non-oil tradable sector. Consequently, the capacity for coordinated policy formulation and execution is fundamental as well as sound windfall management mechanisms and institutions. This conceptual framework uses the case of Indonesia and the example of Norway to argue that the resource paradox is avoidable. Abundance should not be a curse, but rather a blessing for Sub-Saharan Africa's oil and mineral exporting countries. The country context and political economy matter a great deal but should not be the main driving forces behind windfall management, to avoid excessive rent-seeking activities, inefficiency, and wasteful spending. The EITI++ implementation can contribute to make a difference, mostly through capacity building, implementation assistance, and coordination support.
Manure Management for Water Quality: Costs to Animal Feeding Operations of Applying Manure Nutrients to Land

Nutrients from livestock and poultry manure are key sources of water pollution. Ever-growing numbers of animals per farm and per acre have increased the risk of water pollution. New Clean Water Act regulations compel the largest confined animal producers to meet nutrient application standards when applying manure to the land, and USDA encourages all animal feeding operations to do the same. The additional costs for managing manure (such as hauling manure off the farm) have implications for feedgrain producers and consumers as well. This report's farm-level analysis examines on-farm technical choice and producer costs across major U.S. production areas for hauling manure to the minimum amount of land needed to assimilate manure nutrients. A regional analysis then focuses on off-farm competition for land to spread surplus manure, using the Chesapeake Bay region as a case study. Finally, a sectorwide analysis addresses potential long-term structural adjustments at the national level and ultimate costs to consumers and producers.
Computing upper and lower bounds on likelihoods in intractable networks

We present deterministic techniques for computing upper and lower bounds on marginal probabilities in sigmoid and noisy-OR networks. These techniques become useful when the size of the network (or clique size) precludes exact computations. We illustrate the tightness of the bounds by numerical experiments.
External Validity in Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Designs

Fuzzy regression discontinuity designs identify the local average treatment effect (LATE) for the subpopulation of compliers, and with forcing variable equal to the threshold. We develop methods th...
Scalar-tensor theory of gravitation with negative coupling constant

The possibility of a scalar-tensor theory with negative coupling constant ω is discussed. It is shown that this type of theory fits the latest measurements of electromagnetic-signal deflection and of time variation of the gravitational constant.