cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Testing for software vulnerability using environment perturbation

We describe a methodology for testing a software system for possible security flaws. Based on the observation that most security flaws are caused by the program's inappropriate interactions with the environment, and are triggered by a user's malicious perturbation on the environment (which we call an environment fault), we view the security testing problem as the problem of testing for the fault-tolerance properties of a software system. We consider each environment perturbation as a fault and the resulting security compromise a failure in the toleration of such faults. Our approach is based on the well-known technique of fault injection. Environment faults are injected into the system under test and system behavior observed. The failure to tolerate faults is an indicator of a potential security flaw in the system. An Environment-Application Interaction (EAI) fault model is proposed which guides us to decide what faults to inject. Based on EAI, we have developed a security testing methodology, and applied it to several applications. We have successfully identified a number of vulnerabilities including vulnerabilities in the Windows NT operating system. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Dynamic network formation with incomplete information

How do networks form and what is their ultimate topology? Most of the literature that addresses these questions assumes complete information: agents know in advance the value of linking even with agents they have never met and with whom they have had no previous interaction (direct or indirect). This paper addresses the same questions under the much more natural assumption of incomplete information: agents do not know in advance—but must learn—the value of linking. We show that incomplete information has profound implications for the formation process and the ultimate topology. Under complete information, the network topologies that form and are stable typically consist of agents of relatively high value only. Under incomplete information, a much wider collection of network topologies can emerge and be stable. Moreover, even with the same topology, the locations of agents can be very different: An agent can achieve a central position purely as the result of chance rather than as the result of merit. All of this can occur even in settings where agents eventually learn everything so that information, although initially incomplete, eventually becomes complete. The ultimate network topology depends significantly on the formation history, which is natural and true in practice, and incomplete information makes this phenomenon more prevalent.
The Molecular Basis of Eukaryotic Transcription (Nobel Lecture)

I am deeply grateful for the honor bestowed on me by the Nobel Committee for Chemistry and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is an honor I share with my collaborators. It is also recognition of the many who have contributed over the past quarter century to the study of transcription.
Rapid prototyping and requirements specification using PDS

Rapid Prototyping is a software development methodology which can reduce development cost by aiding the requirements definition, design, and coding of a software system. PDS is an integrated programming environment which can support rapid prototyping. and it was used by the authors to build a prototype of a relational database system. Observations on both rapid prototyping and PDS are given, and a requirements specification language is proposed as a natural extension to PDS.
Rhodium-catalyzed synthesis of branched amines by direct addition of benzamides to imines.

Rhodium-catalyzed addition of benzamide C–H bonds to a range of aromatic N-sulfonyl aldimines has been developed and proceeds with high functional group compatibility. The synthetic utility of the resulting branched amine products has also been demonstrated by the preparation of isoindoline and isoindolinone frameworks.
Gauge invariance and confinement in noncompact simulations of SU (2)

Abstract Wilson loops have been measured at stong coupling, β = 0.5, on a 124 lattice in a noncompact simulation of pure SU (2) in which random compact gauge transformations impose a kind of lattice gauge invariance. The Wilson loops suggest a confining potential.
Remote Measurements of Trace Species in the Troposphere

A reliable single ended remote monitoring laser infrared radar (lidar) operating in the infrared is described. The system uses a 1.4-4.0 /im tunable optical parametric oscillator (OPO) source as transmitter. Continuous remote monitoring of atmospheric methane over a 17-h period demonstrates the reliability of the system. Simultaneous remote measurements of temperature and humidity using absorption lines of the 1.9-jim water band achieve relative accuracies of 1.0°C and 1%, respectively, over a 45 s averaging period. The expected sensitivity for the measurement of other pollutants with absorption lines within the tuning range of the transmitter is discussed.
Deformed quantum cohomology and (0,2) mirror symmetry

We compute instanton corrections to correlators in the genus-zero topological subsector of a (0, 2) supersymmetric gauged linear sigma model with target space $ {\mathbb{P}^1} \times {\mathbb{P}^1} $ , whose left-moving fermions couple to a deformation of the tangent bundle. We then deduce the theory’s chiral ring from these correlators, which reduces in the limit of zero deformation to the (2, 2) ring. Finally, we compare our results with the computations carried out by Adams et al. [1] and Katz and Sharpe [17]. We find immediate agreement with the latter and an interesting puzzle in completely matching the chiral ring of the former.
Simultaneous transmission/emission imaging for SPECT using energy spectrum fitting

Energy information is used to generate emission (/sup 99m/Tc, E/spl gamma/=140 keV) and transmission (/sup 57/Co, E/spl gamma/=122 keV) images from a combined projection data set. These components are separated from each other and from Compton scatter by fitting the spectra at each pixel with a simple model. The method is tested using a cylindrical phantom containing inserts with differing attention. Emission and transmission position and energy (xyE) data were acquired in list mode and later summed to simulate simultaneous acquisition. Therefore, the true emission and transmission images are known. The quality and quantitative accuracy of the technique are evaluated by comparing images extracted from the combined data set to the "true" scatter-corrected transmission and emission images, respectively. Compared to using two energy windows, the spectrum fitting technique substantially reduced crosstalk. Although the resulting bias in the emission images was typically less than a few percent, the bias in the transmission images varied from -11% to +16% as the emission activity was increased with constant transmission source activity. Also, the variance added to the emission images obtained by the fitting procedure was found to be less than the variance caused by the stochastic nature of the emission and detection processes. >
Subthreshold displacement damage in copper-aluminum alloys during electron irradiation

During electron irradiation at low energies which results in a negligible damage rate in a pure material, lighter solute atoms are displaced, which may in turn indirectly displace solvent atoms by a focussed replacement collision or an interstitial diffusion jump. The extent to which lighter solute atoms contribute to the subthreshold damage rate has been examined by irradiating copper--aluminum alloys at high temperatures in a high voltage electron microscope. The damage rate, as measured by monitoring the growth rate of dislocation loops, at 300 kV was found to increase linearly with the aluminum concentration.
Short-Time Elevated Temperature Mechanical Properties of 2219-T87 and 2219-T6 Aluminum Alloy

The mechanical properties of 2219-T87 and 2219-T6 aluminum were determined after soak times from 0 to 300 sec at temperatures from 300 deg F (149 deg C) to 600 deg F (316 deg C). Specimens were tested also at ambient temperatures after a soaking period of 300 sec at temperatures of 200 deg F (93 deg C) to 700 deg F (371 deg C). In general, the tensile strength of the 2219 aluminum alloy decreased with increasing temperature. The tensile properties were not significantly influenced by variations in the soak times used through 500 deg F (260 deg C). At 600 deg F (316 deg C), increasing the soak time affected the strength slightly. For relatively short time exposures, this material can be recommended for load-bearing applications to 400 deg F (204 deg C), at which temperature 70 percent of the ambient temperature strength is still retained. When tested at ambient temperature after exposure to 400 deg F (204 deg C) for 300 sec, 2219-T87 retained approximately 97 percent of its original ambient temperature strength.
Bursting Oscillations Induced by Small Noise

We consider a model of a square-wave bursting neuron residing in the regime of tonic spiking. Upon introduction of small stochastic forcing, the model generates irregular bursting. The statistical properties of the emergent bursting patterns are studied in the present work. In particular, we identify two principal statistical regimes associated with the noise-induced bursting. In the first case, type I, bursting oscillations are created mainly due to the fluctuations in the fast subsystem. In the alternative scenario, type II bursting, the random perturbations in the slow dynamics play a dominant role. We propose two classes of randomly perturbed slow-fast systems that realize type I and type II scenarios. For these models, we derive the Poincare maps. The analysis of the linearized Poincare maps of the randomly perturbed systems explains the distributions of the number of spikes within one burst and reveals their dependence on the small and control parameters present in the models. The mathematical analy...
The synthesis of phenylalanine-derived C5-substituted rhodanines and their activity against selected methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains.

Abstract A series of rhodanine compounds containing various substituents at the N3- and C5-positions were synthesized and their in vitro activity against a panel of clinically relevant MRSA strains was determined. The anti-MRSA activity of compounds 21 (MIC = 3.9 μg/mL, MBC = 7.8 μg/mL) and 22 (MIC = 1.95 μg/mL, MBC = 7.8 μg/mL) was significantly greater than that of the lead compounds, 1–3 and reference antibiotics penicillin G (MIC = 31.25 μg/mL) and ciprofloxacin (MIC = 7.8 μg/mL) and comparable to that of vancomycin (MIC = 0.97 μg/mL). Compounds 21 and 22 were found to be bactericidal at only 2–4-fold higher than their MIC concentrations. In addition, their MIC values remained unchanged in the presence or absence of 10% serum. Overall, the results suggest that compounds 21 and 22 may be of potential use in the treatment of MRSA infections.
Local Public Finance in the Aftermath of September 11

Abstract The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, present significant challenges for policymakers at all levels of government. Since terrorism seems to present particularly acute risks for core urban areas, it may influence economic and policy decisions in ways that affect the spatial distribution of population and economic activity. These impacts, however, will depend importantly on the assignment of responsibilities among federal, state, and local governments for dealing with terrorism and on the distribution of the costs of these responsibilities. The policy interactions among different levels of government, and between the private and the public sectors, should provide students of political economy with much insight into the nature of the policy process in the American federation.
Nickel-Catalyzed Reductive Conjugate Addition to Enones via Allylnickel Intermediates

An alternative method to copper-catalyzed conjugate addition followed by enolate silylation for the synthesis of β-disubstituted silyl enol ether products (R1(R2)HCCH═C(OSiR43)R3) is presented. This method uses haloarenes instead of nucleophilic aryl reagents. Nickel ligated to either neocuproine or bipyridine couples an α,β-unsaturated ketone or aldehyde (R2HC═CHC(O)R3) with an organic halide (R1–X) in the presence of a trialkylchlorosilane reagent (Cl–SiR43). Reactions are assembled on the benchtop and tolerate a variety of functional groups (aldehyde, ketone, nitrile, sulfone, pentafluorosulfur, and N-aryltrifluoroacetamide), electron-rich iodoarenes, and electron-poor haloarenes. Mechanistic studies have confirmed the first example of a catalytic reductive conjugate addition of organic halides that proceeds via an allylnickel intermediate. Selectivity is attributed to (1) rapid, selective reaction of LNi0 with chlorotriethylsilane and enone in the presence of other organic electrophiles, and (2) minim...
Spectroscopic studies of model polar stratospheric cloud films

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has been used to study nitric acid/ice films representative of type I polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs). These studies reveal that in addition to amorphous nitric acid/ice mixtures, there are three stable stoichiometric hydrates of nitric acid—nitric acid monohydrate (NAM), dihydrate (NAD) and trihydrate (NAT). Two distinct crystalline forms of the trihydrate were also observed. These two forms appear to differ in their concentration of crystalline defects, but not in their chemical composition. In addition to probing the composition of type I PSCs, we have also used FTIR spectroscopy to characterize laboratory surfaces on which measurements of heterogeneous reaction rates are performed. Our studies suggest that “water-rich NAT” is a two-phase system with separate ice and NAT crystalline regimes. Finally, we have used FTIR spectroscopy to determine the desorption kinetics for evaporation of model PSC films. Ice evaporation was found to follow zero-order desorption kinetics with a desorption barrier of 12±2 kcal/mol and a preexponential factor of 1030.5±1.5 molec/cm2-s.
Cross-couplings between benzylic and aryl halides “on water”: synthesis of diarylmethanes

A remarkably simple entry to unsymmetrical diarylmethanes has been developed that relies on an in situ organozinc-mediated, palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling. Thus, by mixing a benzyl and aryl halide together in the presence of Zn metal and a Pd catalyst, diarylmethanes are formed at room temperature without assistance by a surfactant; hence, “on water”.
The pulling force of a single DNA molecule condensed by spermidine

Abstract In a recent experiment, a single DNA double helix is stretched and relaxed in the presence of spermidine, a short positive polyelectrolyte, and the pulling force is measured as a function of DNA extension. In a certain range of spermidine concentration, a force plateau appears whose value shows maximum as a function of spermidine concentration. We present a quantitative theory of this plateau force based on the theory of reentrant condensation and derive almost parabolic behavior of the plateau force as a function of the logarithm of the spermidine concentration in the range of condensation. Our result is in good agreement with experimental data.
Financial Innovation, Values and Volatilities when Markets Are Incomplete

The traditional pricing methodology in finance values derivative securities as redundant assets that have no impact on equilibrium prices and allocations. This paper considers a model with incomplete markets in which the valuation of derivative securities cannot be treated independently from the valuation of the primary securities. The model constitutes a framework for the analysis of the consequences of financial innovation (creation of new contracts or modification of existing contracts). We provide a numerical counterexample to the popular belief that financial innovations that increase the volatilities of traded securities are “bad”. In this example the introduction of an option increases the volatility of the rate of return on the underlying stock, yet the creation of this asset is unanimously supported by investors.
Video quality monitoring for mobile multicast peers using distributed source coding

We consider a peer-to-peer multicast video streaming system in which untrusted intermediaries transcode video streams for heterogeneous mobile peers. Many different legitimate versions of the video might exist. However, there is the risk that the untrusted intermediaries might tamper with the video content. Quality estimation and tampering detection are important in this scenario. We propose that each mobile peer sends a digest of its received video to a quality monitoring server which has access to the original video. The digest is a Slepian-Wolf coded projection of the received video. Distributed source coding provides rate-efficient encoding of the projection by exploiting the correlation between the projections of the original and received videos. Two different projections are designed for quality estimation and tampering detection, respectively. We show that the projections can be encoded at a low rate of just a few kilobits per second. Compared to the ITU-T J.240 Recommendation for remote PSNR monitoring, our scheme achieves a bit-rate which is lower by at least one order of magnitude.
Star formation and x-ray emission in distant star forming galaxies

About 45% of the point sources detected in the 2 Ms Chandra exposure of the Hubble Deep Field-North (HDF-N) can be matched with moderately bright galaxies with z < 1.4 that have been studied by the Caltech Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey. Although the optical spectra of these galaxies appear normal, based on their X-ray properties ~20% of them appear to contain weak active galactic nuclei (AGNs). More than 90% of the X-ray photons detected by Chandra from galaxies within the redshift regime 0.4 < z < 1.1 are powered by accretion onto massive black holes. For the sample of galaxies in common, we use their emitted luminosity in the 3727 A line of [O II] to estimate their star formation rates (SFRs). The X-ray-emitting galaxies are not those with the highest rest-frame equivalent width in this emission line, but rather are among those with the highest SFRs. With SFRs corrected for inclination effects, the distant galaxies show an LX-SFR relationship that is comparable to that of local galaxies. The HDF sample has a significantly higher median SFR and median SFR/galaxy stellar mass than does a sample of local star-forming galaxies. We demonstrate that the observed SFR for most of the galaxies at z ~ 1 in the HDF sample, if maintained as constant over their ages, suffices to produce the stellar mass observed in these galaxies. A rise in SFR at still earlier times is not required. We provide further evidence to support the conclusion that, once AGNs are eliminated, X-ray emission in these distant star-forming galaxies is related to the SFR through the same physical mechanisms that prevail locally.
Preparation of (r)-(+)-7-oxabicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene-exo-2-carboxylic acid, a precursor to substrates for the ring opening metathesis polymerization

Abstract (R)-(+)-7-Oxabicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene-exo-2-carboxylic acid ( 2R ), which can be transformed into carbohydrate-substituted monomer 5 appropriate for ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) was prepared by an enzymatic kinetic resolution of 7-oxabicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene-exo-2-carboxylic acid methyl ester [(±)1] with the lipase from Candida Rugosa.
Seismic anisotropy and mantle flow beneath the northern Great Plains of North America

A diverse set of tectonic features and the recent availability of high-quality broadband seismic data from the USArray and other stations on the northern Great Plains of North America provide a distinct opportunity to test different anisotropy-forming mechanisms. A total of 4138 pairs of well-defined splitting parameters observed at 445 stations show systematic spatial variations of anisotropic characteristics. Azimuthally invariant fast orientations subparallel to the absolute plate motion (APM) direction are observed at most of the stations on the Superior Craton and the southern Yavapai province, indicating that a single layer of anisotropy with a horizontal axis of symmetry is sufficient to explain the anisotropic structure. For areas with simple anisotropy, the application of a procedure for estimating the depth of anisotropy using spatial coherency of splitting parameters results in a depth of 200–250 km, suggesting that the observed anisotropy mostly resides in the upper asthenosphere. In the vicinity of the northern boundary of the Yavapai province and the Wyoming Craton, the splitting parameters can be adequately explained by a two-horizontal layer model. The lower layer has an APM-parallel fast orientation, and the upper layer has a fast orientation that is mostly consistent with the regional strike of the boundary. Based on the splitting measurements and previous results from seismic tomography and geodynamic modeling, we propose a model involving deflecting of asthenosphere flow by the bottom of the lithosphere and channeling of flow by a zone of thinned lithosphere approximately along the northern boundary of the Yavapai province.
Rapid Structured Volume Grid Smoothing and Adaption Technique

A rapid, structured volume grid smoothing and adaption technique, based on signal processing methods, was developed and applied to the Shuttle Orbiter at hypervelocity flight conditions in support of the Columbia Accident Investigation. Because of the fast pace of the investigation, computational aerothermodynamicists, applying hypersonic viscous flow solving computational fluid dynamic (CFD) codes, refined and enhanced a grid for an undamaged baseline vehicle to assess a variety of damage scenarios. Of the many methods available to modify a structured grid, most are time-consuming and require significant user interaction. By casting the grid data into different coordinate systems, specifically two computational coordinates with arclength as the third coordinate, signal processing methods are used for filtering the data [Taubin, CG v/29 1995]. Using a reverse transformation, the processed data are used to smooth the Cartesian coordinates of the structured grids. By coupling the signal processing method with existing grid operations within the Volume Grid Manipulator tool, problems related to grid smoothing are solved efficiently and with minimal user interaction. Examples of these smoothing operations are illustrated for reductions in grid stretching and volume grid adaptation. In each of these examples, other techniques existed at the time of the Columbia accident, but the incorporation of signal processing techniques reduced the time to perform the corrections by nearly 60%. This reduction in time to perform the corrections therefore enabled the assessment of approximately twice the number of damage scenarios than previously possible during the allocated investigation time.
Synthesis of Deoxy and Deoxyhalogeno Analogues of myo-Inositol

Abstract A number of deoxy and deoxyhalogeno analogues of moyo-inositol of Interest 1n Investigating the biochemical processes of the phosphoinositide pathway were synthesized. Syntheses Include those deoxyinositols (cyclohexane pentols) which correspond to myo-inositol deoxygenated at positions 1, 4 and 5, as well as a set of 5-deoxyhalogeno (F, Cl, Br, I) myo- and epimeric neo-inositols. Configurational assignments are based primarily on 1H NMR spectroscopy.
Cognitive dissonance and social change

Abstract When people behave immorally according to their own standards, they feel bad. Rational people may therefore engage in less of an immoral activity than would be in their material self-interest. Despite this fact, I show that increasing people's distaste for being immoral can increase the level of immoral activities. This can happen because of the psychological phenomenon of cognitive dissonance : people will feel pressure to convince themselves that immoral activities are in fact moral; if each person's beliefs affect the beliefs of others, then increasing the pain from being immoral may cause members of society to convince each other that immoral activities are morally okay, and society will engage in more of such activities.
Terrestrial Planet Formation in Disks with Varying Surface Density Profiles

The minimum-mass solar nebula (MMSN) model estimates the surface density distribution of the protoplanetary disk by assuming the planets to have formed in situ. However, significant radial migration of the giant planets likely occurred in the solar system, implying a distortion in the values derived by the MMSN method. The true density profiles of protoplanetary disks is therefore uncertain. Here we present results of simulations of late-stage terrestrial accretion, each starting from a disk of planetary embryos. We assume a power-law surface density profile that scales with heliocentric distance r as r-α and vary α between 1/2 and 5/2 (α = 3/2 for the MMSN model). We find that for steeper profiles (higher values of α), the terrestrial planets (1) are more numerous, (2) form more quickly, (3) form closer to the star, (4) are more massive, (5) have higher iron contents, and (6) have lower water contents. However, the possibility of forming potentially habitable planets does not appear to vary strongly with α.
Edge States from Defects on the Noncommutative Plane

We illustrate how boundary states are recovered when going from a noncommutative manifold to a commutative one with a boundary. Our example is the noncommutative plane with a defect, whose commutative limit was found to be a punctured plane - so here the boundary is one point. Defects were introduced by removing states from the standard harmonic oscillator Hilbert space. For Chern-Simons theory, the defect acts as a source, which was found to be associated with a nonlinear deformation of the w∞ algebra. The undeformed w∞ algebra is recovered in the commutative limit, and here we show that its spatial support is in a tiny region near the puncture.
Bis-Suzuki reactions of 2,3-dihaloindoles. A convenient synthesis of 2,3-diarylindoles

Abstract A convenient, one-pot synthesis of 2,3-diarylindoles 4 is described via a bis-Suzuki palladium-catalyzed cross coupling of 2,3-dihalo-1-(phenylsulfonyl)indoles 1 with arylboronic acids 2 , followed by cleavage of the N -protecting group to give 4 . The anti-inflammatory drug indoxole ( 4c ) is prepared in high yield.
Petri net modeling of gate and interconnect delays for power estimation

Switching activity estimation is an important step in average power estimation of VLSI circuits at the gate level. In this paper, we present a novel approach based on Petri net modeling for real delay switching activity and power estimation of CMOS circuits, considering both gate and interconnect delays. We propose a new type of Petri net called hierarchical colored hardware Petri net (HCHPN), which accurately captures the spatial and temporal correlations in modeling switching activity. The logic circuit is first modeled as a gate signal graph (GSG) which is then converted into the corresponding HCHPN and simulated as a Petri net to obtain the switching activity estimates and the power values. The proposed method is accurate and fast compared to other simulative methods. Experimental results are provided for ISCAS '85 and ISCAS '89 benchmark circuits and compared with the commercial tools, PowerMill, and Prime Power.
Studies of acute pancreatitis with retroperitoneal necrosis: “The suet syndrome”. Improvements in patient survival

Over a career, 76 patients with massive retroperitoneal necrosis associated with acute pancreatitis were initially treated conservatively. Seventy-one subsequently required operative debridement, between 18 days and 13 months after onset of the disease, including 3 who were explored within the first 2 weeks. In the absence of secondary infection, clinical evidence of toxemia was variable, sometimes relatively limited and occasionally minimal, even in association with large amounts of necrotic tissue. In almost all patients the necrotic tissue consisted chiefly of adipose tissue in the retroperitoneum, including the intramesenteric spaces. In 2 patients, the parapancreatic and retroperitoneal mass appeared to consist predominantly of old, partially liquefied blood clots. Liquefaction of necrotic tissue occasionally proceeded extremely slowly over a period of months. In no patient, up to a maximal lapse of 13 months, was liquefaction complete at the time of exploration. Of the 76 consecutive patients with massive retroperitoneal necrosis, managed by delayed and often frequent debridement, 2 patients (2.6%) died. An occasional patient had significant necrosis of the pancreas, per se; approximately 90% did not. Necrotic retroperitoneal adipose tissue or associated hematoma may prove quite toxic, but was sometimes well tolerated over a prolonged period. The advent of secondary infection leads rapidly to toxemia and, possibly, to an increased rate of liquefaction.
Computational dialectology in Irish Gaelic

Dialect groupings can be discovered objectively and automatically by cluster analysis of phonetic transcriptions such as those found in a linguistic atlas. The first step in the analysis, the computation of linguistic distance between each pair of sites, can be computed as Levenshtein distance between phonetic strings. This correlates closely with the much more laborious technique of determining and counting isoglosses, and is more accurate than the more familiar metric of computing Hamming distance based on whether vocabulary entries match. In the actual clustering step, traditional agglomerative clustering works better than the top-down technique of partitioning around medoids. When agglomerative clustering of phonetic string comparison distances is applied to Gaelic, reasonable dialect boundaries are obtained, corresponding to national and (within Ireland) provincial boundaries.
Simple currents and extensions of vertex operator algebras

We consider how a vertex operator algebra can be extended to an abelian interwining algebra by a family of weak twisted modules which aresimple currents associated with semisimple weight one primary vectors. In the case that the extension is again a vertex operator algebra, the rationality of the extended algebra is discussed. These results are applied to affine Kac-Moody algebras in order to construct all the simple currents explicitly (except forE 8) and to get various extensions of the vertex operator algebras associated with integrable representations.
Markets and privacy

Since the 1960s privacy advocates have relied on regulatory and legislativeapproaches to privacy protection in the United States, Canada and Europe. Whileimportant progress has been made in certain areas, there are large gaps andsignificant loopholes in existing legislation. I argue that a market-based approachto privacy protection would be far more effective and efficient in protectingindividual information than current approaches.
Discrete charges on a two dimensional conductor

We investigate the electrostatic equilibria of N discrete charges of size 1/N on a two dimensional conductor (domain). We study the distribution of the charges on symmetric domains including the ellipse, the hypotrochoid and various regular polygons, with an emphasis on understanding the distributions of the charges, as the shape of the underlying conductor becomes singular. We find that there are two regimes of behavior, a symmetric regime for smooth conductors, and a symmetry broken regime for “singular” domains. For smooth conductors, the locations of the charges can be determined, to within $$O\left( {\sqrt {\log {N \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {N {N^2 }}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {N^2 }}} } \right)$$ by an integral equation due to Pommerenke [ Math. Ann., 179: 212–218, (1969)]. We present a derivation of a related (but different) integral equation, which has the same solutions. We also solve the equation to obtain (asymptotic) solutions which show universal behavior in the distribution of the charges in conductors with somewhat smooth cusps. Conductors with sharp cusps and singularities show qualitatively different behavior, where the symmetry of the problem is broken, and the distribution of the discrete charges does not respect the symmetry of the underlying domain. We investigate the symmetry breaking both theoretically, and numerically, and find good agreement between our theory and the numerics. We also find that the universality in the distribution of the charges near the cusps persists in the symmetry broken regime, although this distribution is very different from the one given by the integral equation.
The Institutional Prerequisites for Post-Conflict Reconstruction

A successful post-conflict reconstruction is characterized by a self-sustaining liberal political, economic and social order that does not rely on external support. It is argued that the extent of reconstructed orders is constrained by their institutional prerequisites. These prerequisites—a shared ideology and ethic of individual and private property rights, a commitment to markets and the rule of law—are fundamental. Without these preconditions to serve as a foundation, reconstructed liberal orders will fail to be self-sustaining over time. It is argued that the viability of a shared ideology and ethic, and hence success, is directly dependent on the extent of horizontal ties in the post-conflict country. The main conclusion is that societies lacking adequate horizontal ties will require a high level of continual intervention and reconstruction efforts will have a lower probability of success.
Peripheral covalent modification of diruthenium compounds – New approach toward robust molecular architectures

Abstract This short review describes the carbon–carbon bond formation chemistry at the periphery of inorganic/organometallic diruthenium species. The types of reactions applicable include the Sonogashira, Suzuki, Negishi and Heck cross-couplings. The structural, spectroscopic and voltammetric studies revealed that these peripheral modifications have exerted a minimal perturbation on the electronic structures of the diruthenium species.
Distressed M&A and corporate strategy: lessons from Marvel Entertainment Group's bankruptcy

Purpose – This paper aims to illustrate the viability of distressed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by way of case study utilizing the modern Graham and Dodd valuation approach.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a distressed acquisition case study of the 1996 Marvel Entertainment Group (Marvel) bankruptcy. It draws on previously published Graham and Dodd methodological materials as well as a financial case study of Marvel that was prepared at the time. The valuation presented in this paper is the sole work of the author.Findings – The case study supports the view that distressed M&A can be a viable corporate strategy alternative. It also demonstrates how a multi‐layered valuation approach such as Graham and Dodd can be ideal for identifying value that may be hidden in the confusion and distress of bankruptcy.Research limitations/implications – The case study illustrates the valuation insights that the modern Graham and Dodd approach can produce in a distressed setting.Practical implications –...
Can Parity Violation in Neutrino Transport Lead to Pulsar Kicks

In magnetized proto-neutron stars, neutrino cross sections depend asymmetrically on the neutrino momenta because of parity violation. However, these asymmetric opacities do not induce any asymmetric flux in the bulk interior of the star where neutrinos are nearly in thermal equilibrium. Consequently, parity violation in neutrino absorption and scattering can only give rise to asymmetric neutrino flux above the neutrino-matter decoupling layer. We estimate that a dipole field of B ~ 1015-1016 G is necessary to produce kick velocity of order of a few hundred km s-1 using this mechanism.
Strong-coupling approximations

Standard path-integral techniques such as instanton calculations give good answers for weak-coupling problems, but become unreliable for strong-coupling. Here we consider a method of replacing the original potential by a suitably chosen harmonic oscillator potential. Physically this is motivated by the fact that potential barriers below the level of the ground-state energy of a quantum-mechanical system have little effect. Numerically, results are good, both for quantum-mechanical problems and for massive φ4 field theory in 1+1 dimensions.
The redshift-space power spectrum in the halo model

Recently there has been a lot of attention focused on a virialized halo-based approach to understanding the properties of the matter and galaxy power spectrum. We show that this model allows a natural treatment of the large- and small-scale redshift-space distortions, which we develop here, which extends the pedagogical value of the approach.
Development of a Centrifugal Compressor With a Variable Geometry Split-Ring Pipe Diffuser

Higher noise levels resulted when a compressor was scaled to larger capacity. The machine’s sound pressure level was relieved by increasing the distance between the impeller blade tip and diffuser leading edge. However, the part-load surge line deteriorated severely as a consequence. A variable geometry pipe diffuser solved this problem, permitting operation at stringent off-design conditions. The addition of a variable diffuser permits compressor selection very near its most efficient full-load operating point, without regard for limitations normally imposed by part-load requirements. The principal lessons learned during aerodynamic design refinement include (a) how performance and surge depend upon positioning the variable inlet guide vanes and variable diffuser, and (b) how to define simultaneous variation of inlet guide vanes and diffuser for specific operational objectives. Generally, each operating point requires a unique setting of the variable components to achieve maximum efficiency. However, linked movement is shown to yield both a satisfactory surge line and improved performance for most applications when compared to a compressor without the variable geometry pipe diffuser.
Low-Frequency Characterization of Switched dc-dc Converters

Averaging techniques are developed to represent buck, boost, and buck-boost types of switched dc-dc converters by approximate continuous models. Simple analytical expressions in terms of the circuit components are derived for the characteristic transient and frequency responses of time-average(continuous) power-stage models for use in designing and understanding the behavior of corresponding switched power stages. Novel conclusions include the dependence of effective circuit component values upon switch duty ratio and the existence of a real positive zero in certain transfer functions. Responses from analog computer simulations of the switched and averaged powerstages agree well and, in turn, confirm the analytic predictions. High-order systems can be analyzed by the averaging technique without a commensurate increase in complexity.
Principal Series Representations of Metaplectic Groups Over Local Fields

Let G be a split reductive algebraic group over a non-archimedean local field. We study the representation theory of a central extension \(\widetilde{G}\) of G by a cyclic group of order n, under some mild tameness assumptions on n. In particular, we focus our attention on the development of the theory of principal series representations for \(\widetilde{G}\) and its applications to the study of Hecke algebras via a Satake isomorphism.
Nitrosamines, N-nitrosoamides, and diazonium ions from tri-N-substituted amidines

Abstract N'-Substituted pyrrolidyl amidines react with HNO 2 at 37°C, to give N-nitrosopyrrolidine, N-nitrosoamides, and diazonium derived products.
Indoor/outdoor location of cellular handsets based on received signal strength

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of received signal strength (RSS) methods for locating wireless handset calls in a real cellular environment. An extensive measurement campaign conducted on the Georgia Institute of Technology campus indicates that RSS location techniques can locate handset calls within 100 m error distance to its ground truth up to 78% of the time and less than 300 m error distance up to 98% of the time for a network with a majority of indoor users. This is well above the safety requirements mandated by FCC in the USA. We also propose a received signal strength aggregate (RSSA) method for identifying and locating indoor handsets.
Timing and Self-Control

The dual self-model of self-control with one-period lived short-run selves is excessively sensitive to the timing of shocks and to the interpolation of additional "no- action" time periods in between the dates when decisions are made. We show that when short-run selves have a random length of time this excess sensitivity goes away. We consider both linear and convex cost of self-control models, illustrating the theory through a series of examples. We examine when opportunities to consume will be avoided or delayed; we consider the way in which the marginal interest declines with delay, and we examine how preference "reversals" depend on the timing of information. To accommodate the combination of short time periods and convex costs of self control we extend the model to treat willpower as a cognitive resource that is limited in the short run.
With probability one, a random oracle separates PSPACE from the polynomial-time hierarchy

Abstract We consider how much error a fixed depth Boolean circuit must make in computing the parity function. We show that with an exponential bound of the form exp( n λ ) on the size of the circuits, they make a 50% error on all possible inputs, asymptotically and uniformly. As a consequence, we show that a random oracle set A separates PSPACE from the entire polynomial-time hierarchy with probability one.
Clifford Residues and Charge Quantization

We derive the quantization of action, particle number, andelectric charge in a Lagrangian spin bundle over\({\mathbb{M}} \equiv {\mathbb{M}}_\# \backslash \cup D_J \) Penrose’s conformal compactification of Minkowsky space, with the world tubes of massive particles removed.
Welfare and Labor Force Participation of Low-Wealth Families: Implications for Labor Supply

This paper examines the welfare and labor force participation of families potentially eligible for the new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Higher wage rates and lower TANF benefits decrease the probability of welfare participation. For these families labor supply is moderately responsive to the wage.
Complexity classes without machines: on complete languages for UP

This paper develops techniques for studying complexity classes that are not covered by known recursive enumerations of machines. Often, counting classes, probabilistic classes, and intersection classes lack such enumerations. Concentrating on the counting class UP, we show that there are relativizations for which UPA has no complete languages and other relativizations for which PB ≠ UPB ≠ NPB and UPB has complete languages. Among other results we show that P ≠ UP if and only if there exists a set S in P of Boolean formulas with at most one satisfying assignment such that S ∩ SAT is not in P. P ≠ UP ∩ coUP if and only if there exists a set S in P of uniquely satisfiable Boolean formulas such that no polynomial-time machine can compute the solutions for the formulas in S. If UP has complete languages then there exists a set R in P of Boolean formulas with at most one satisfying assignment so that SAT ∩ R is complete for UP. Finally, we indicate the wide applicability of our techniques to counting and probabilistic classes by using them to examine the probabilistic class BPP. There is a relativized world where BPPA has no complete languages. If BPP has complete languages then it has a complete language of the form B ∩ MAJORITY, where B ∈ P and MAJORITY = {f | f is true for at least half of all assignments} is the canonical PP-complete set.
A Bismuth‐Stabilized Metal‐Rich Telluride Lu9Bi≈1.0Te≈1.0 – Synthesis and Characterization

Synthetic reactions aimed at bismuth incorporation into rare-earth-metal-rich tellurides yielded Lu 9 Bi ≈1.00 Te ≈1.00 over a small range of compositions, but no analogues with Gd, Tb, Er, or Y. A single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis gave the composition Lu 9 Bi 0.99(3) Te 1.01 in the acentric orthorhombic space group Cmc2 1 at ambient temperature. This is isostructural with the re-refined Sc 9 Te 2 earlier reported in a monoclinic Cc structure. Lu 9 Bi ≈1.00 Te ≈1.00 represents the first ternary compound in this structure type and the third lutetium-richest compound after Lu 8 Te and Lu 7 Te. The structure contains 3 × 3 columns of Lu in the form of condensed distorted trans-edge-sharing octahedral chains along α. The Te and Bi anions lie within tricapped trigonal prisms of Lu. Generally shorter Lu-Lu interactions lie in the interior of 3 × 3 metal columns compared with those on the periphery for which fewer Lu-Lu interactions and polar covalent bonding with neighboring tellurium weaken Lu-Lu bonding. Limiting Lu-Lu distances around 3.18 A are by far the shortest among reduced lutetium tellurides. LMTO-type ab initio electronic structure calculations reveal a metallic nature and show that strong polar bonding of Lu to both the more electronegative Bi and Te leaves Lu relatively oxidized, many 5d states falling above the Fermi level. Stronger Lu-Lu bonding within the metal columns is also indicated by their larger individual Hamilton populations. The isostructural Lu 9 SbTe and Sc 9 BiTe were also shown to exist according to powder data.
Pebbling and optimal pebbling in graphs

Given a distribution of pebbles on the vertices of a graph G, a pebbling move takes two pebbles from one vertex and puts one on a neighboring vertex. The pebbling number Π(G) is the least k such that for every distribution of k pebbles and every vertex r, a pebble can be moved to r. The optimal pebbling number ΠOPT(G) is the least k such that some distribution of k pebbles permits reaching each vertex. Using new tools (such as the “Squishing” and “Smoothing” Lemmas), we give short proofs of prior results on these parameters for paths, cycles, trees, and hypercubes, a new linear-time algorithm for computing Π(G) on trees, and new results on ΠOPT(G). If G is connected and has n vertices, then $\Pi_{\rm OPT}(G)\le \lceil{2n/3}\rceil$ (sharp for paths and cycles). Let an,k be the maximum of ΠOPT(G) when G is a connected n-vertex graph with δ(G) ≥ k. Always $2 \lceil{n \over {k+1}}\rceil \le a_{{n},k}\le 4 \lceil{n \over {k+1}}\rceil$, with a better lower bound when k is a nontrivial multiple of 3. Better upper bounds hold for n-vertex graphs with minimum degree k having large girth; a special case is $\Pi_{{\rm OPT}}({G})\le {16}{n}/{({k}^{2}+{17})}$ when G has girth at least 5 and k ≥ 4. Finally, we compute ΠOPT(G) in special families such as prisms and Mobius ladders. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 57: 215–238, 2008
Polyvalent Iodine in Organic Chemistry

Tricoordinate, I(III), and pentacoordinate, I(V), polyvalent iodine compounds have been known for over a century. In the last twenty years, new polyvalent iodine reagents have been introduced along with synthetic methodologies, based on these and derived reagents, that play an ever increasing role in contemporary organic chemistry. In this Perspective, an overview of these developments is provided with emphasis on the chemistry and uses of aryl-, alkenyl-, and alkynyliodonium salts in preparative and synthetic organic chemistry. It is hoped that this brief overview, along with recent more comprehensive reviews of the field, will stimulate further developments and applications of this useful class of compounds across a broad spectrum of organic chemistry.