cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Theoretical prediction and impact of fundamental electric dipole moments

The predicted Standard Model (SM) electric dipole moments (EDMs) of electrons and quarks are tiny, providing an important window to observe new physics. Theories beyond the SM typically allow relatively large EDMs. The EDMs depend on the relative phases of terms in the effective Lagrangian of the extended theory, which are generally unknown. Underlying theories, such as string/M-theories compactified to four dimensions, could predict the phases and thus EDMs in the resulting supersymmetric (SUSY) theory. Earlier one of us, with collaborators, made such a prediction and found, unexpectedly, that the phases were predicted to be zero at tree level in the theory at the unification or string scale ∼ $$ \mathcal{O} $$ (1016 GeV). Electroweak (EW) scale EDMs still arise via running from the high scale, and depend only on the SM Yukawa couplings that also give the CKM phase. Here we extend the earlier work by studying the dependence of the low scale EDMs on the constrained but not fully known fundamental Yukawa couplings. The dominant contribution is from two loop diagrams and is not sensitive to the choice of Yukawa texture. The electron EDM should not be found to be larger than about 5 × 10−30 e cm, and the neutron EDM should not be larger than about 5 × 10−29 e cm. These values are quite a bit smaller than the reported predictions from Split SUSY and typical effective theories, but much larger than the Standard Model prediction. Also, since models with random phases typically give much larger EDMs, it is a significant testable prediction of compactified M-theory that the EDMs should not be above these upper limits. The actual EDMs can be below the limits, so once they are measured they could provide new insight into the fundamental Yukawa couplings of leptons and quarks. We comment also on the role of strong CP violation. EDMs probe fundamental physics near the Planck scale.
Control of Asymmetry in the Radical Addition Approach to Chiral Amine Synthesis

The state-of-the-science in asymmetric free radical additions to imino compounds is presented, beginning with an overview of methods involving stereocontrol by various chiral auxiliary approaches. Chiral N-acylhydrazones are discussed with respect to their use as radical acceptors for Mn-mediated intermolecular additions, from design to scope surveys to applications to biologically active targets. A variety of aldehydes and ketones serve as viable precursors for the chiral hydrazones, and a variety of alkyl iodides may be employed as radical precursors, as discussed in a critical review of the functional group compatibility of the reaction. Applications to amino acid and alkaloid synthesis are presented to illustrate the synthetic potential of these versatile stereocontrolled carbon–carbon bond construction reactions. Asymmetric catalysis is discussed, from seminal work on the stereocontrol of radical addition to imino compounds by non-covalent interactions with stoichiometric amounts of catalysts, to more recent examples demonstrating catalyst turnover.
The effects of feeding irradiated flour to dogs. I. Growth.

Abstract Groups of two male and two female beagles were fed a complete ration in which 35% of the total solids was nonirradiated flour or flour irradiated with 37,200 or 74,400 rads. The dogs were fed the rations during the 24-week period when they were from 14 to 38 weeks of age. There was no statistically significant difference in the initial weight, weight gained, or feed consumed between the dogs fed irradiated flour and those fed nonirradiated flour. Feeding irradiated flour had no apparent effect on the blood content of hemoglobin, red blood cell, white blood cell, or differential white blood cell counts as compared to the blood values of dogs fed nonirradiated flour.
On the testability of causal models with latent and instrumental variables

Certain causal models involving unmeasured variables induce no independence constraints among the observed variables but imply, nevertheless, inequality constraints on the observed distribution. This paper derives a general formula for such inequality constraints as induced by instrumental variables, that is, exogenous variables that directly affect some variables but not all. With the help of this formula, it is possible to test whether a model involving instrumental variables may account for the data, or, conversely, whether a given variable can be deemed instrumental.
Dubious Deductions from AGN Survey Data

The participants in this meeting are almost all carrying out the hard work of making many different types of AGN surveys. Since it’s so much easier to criticize other people’s work than to do actual work myself, I’ll just present some demurs regarding recent papers drawing conclusions from various AGN survey data. In particular I’ll mention some questionable interpretations of surveys of Seyfert 2 near-UV polarization; interpreting the results of searches for polarized broad H-alpha lines in Seyfert 2s; testing the beam model for radio galaxies and quasars; testing the unification of Seyfert spectral types with a torus; and finally testing the energy sources for ULIRGs, especially those with LINER optical spectra. Only the polarized broad H-α results are examined in detail here.
Anytime planning for decentralized POMDPs using expectation maximization

Decentralized POMDPs provide an expressive framework for multi-agent sequential decision making. While finite-horizon DEC-POMDPs have enjoyed significant success, progress remains slow for the infinite-horizon case mainly due to the inherent complexity of optimizing stochastic controllers representing agent policies. We present a promising new class of algorithms for the infinite-horizon case, which recasts the optimization problem as inference in a mixture of DBNs. An attractive feature of this approach is the straightforward adoption of existing inference techniques in DBNs for solving DEC-POMDPs and supporting richer representations such as factored or continuous states and actions. We also derive the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm to optimize the joint policy represented as DBNs. Experiments on benchmark domains show that EM compares favorably against the state-of-the-art solvers.
Temporal coverage based content distribution in heterogeneous smart device networks

The present work studies content distribution in heterogeneous smart device networks, in which all smartphones/ tablets can communicate through proximity channels such as Bluetooth/NFC/Wi-Fi Direct when they are in proximity, but only some devices have the cellular data communication capability. In the context of recent applications of content distribution in smart device networks such as mobile offloading and enterprise network defense prioritization, we propose a temporal coverage based scheme that exploits nodes' encounter regularity and content's delivery delay tolerance to reduce content delivery costs. Using kernel-density estimation (KDE) on the readily available proximity encounter records, we propose a network structural property, T-covering set, and a corresponding localized algorithm that distributedly elects a T-covering set from the underlying network. Using real Bluetooth encounter traces, we demonstrate that temporal coverage based content distribution using T-covering set can significantly reduce content delivery cost with minimal delay and no sacrifice in coverage.
Entrepreneurship and Ethics

Entrepreneurship is concerned with how the opportunity to create “value” in society is discovered or imagined and acted upon thereby bringing new goods and services into the marketplace. The field of business ethics, on the other hand, is concerned with the fairness of methods used to create this “value,” and the ensuing distribution of the value among various stakeholders to the enterprise. Entrepreneurially introduced innovations can alter the economic, political, and social landscape. Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship have the power to do immense good, but can also harm. However, the entrepreneurial process contains within itself the power to address the harm. Keywords: entrepreneur; market inefficiencies; new products and services; creativity; innovation
Dictionary Learning and Non‐Asymptotic Bounds for Geometric Multi‐Resolution Analysis

Data sets in high-dimensional spaces are often concentrated near low-dimensional sets. Geometric Multi-Resolution Analysis (Allard, Chen, Maggioni, 2012) was introduced as a method for approximating (in a robust, multiscale fashion) a low-dimensional set around which data may concentrated and also providing dictionary for sparse representation of the data. Moreover, the procedure is very computationally efficient. We introduce an estimator for low-dimensional sets supporting the data constructed from the GMRA approximations. We exhibit (near optimal) finite sample bounds on its performance, and demonstrate the robustness of this estimator with respect to noise and model error. In particular, our results imply that, if the data is supported on a low-dimensional manifold, the proposed sparse representations result in an error which depends only on the intrinsic dimension of the manifold. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Surfaces, submanifolds, and aligned fox reimbedding in non-Haken 3-manifolds

Understanding non-Haken 3-manifolds is central to many current endeavors in 3-manifold topology. We describe some results for closed orientable surfaces in non-Haken manifolds, and extend Fox's theorem for submanifolds of the 3-sphere to submanifolds of general non-Haken manifolds. In the case where the submanifold has connected boundary, we show also that the partial derivative-connected sum decomposition of the submanifold can be aligned with such a structure on the submanifold's complement.
Nonlinearities in the World Vegetable Oil Price System: El Nino Effects

In this research we estimate the effect of El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) over time on market dynamics for eight major vegetable oil prices. We estimate a system for vegetable oil prices by using a smooth transition vector error correction model (STVECM) to analyze impacts of ENSO events on production, and, more interestingly, their asymmetric nature. The results of estimated Exponential STVECM and Quadratic STAR models, respectively for the system of oil price equations and the ENSO variable regressions, suggest a smooth transition between ENSO regimes, and provide a better overall fit to the data than do linear models. Effects of the ENSO shock are analyzed using generalized impulse-response functions (GIRFs). The non-linear nature of these shocks is apparent, as the GIRFs are observed to be asymmetric depending on whether ENSO shocks are positive or negative. For most vegetable oil prices an ENSO shock has a permanent effect, meaning that prices advance to a new equilibrium level. Generally, a positive ENSO shock results in increased prices, and the opposite is true for the negative ENSO shock. The magnitude of the price change is largest for the coconut oil and palm kernel oil, and is the smallest for the ground nut oil. Also, it takes approximately two years for prices to stabilize at a new equilibrium level after the shock.
The Flight Paths of Migratory Corporations

American corporations earn a large and growing share of their profits from their foreign operations. U.S. law taxes American corporations on their worldwide income, and in so doing may discourage new firms from making the United States their primary residence while encouraging American corporations to leave the country for offshore tax havens. This paper evaluates the incentives American firms face in considering whether to relocate their site of legal residence abroad. The case of McDermott Inc., an American multinational that reorganized as a Panamanian corporation in 1982, is considered in detail. Aggregate data suggest that firms' incentives to follow McDermott in relocating offshore rose steadily through the 1980s until passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which substantially reduced the payoff from relocating.
Physical constraints on models of gamma-ray bursters

The power per logarithmic bandwidth in gamma-ray burst spectra generally increases rapidly with energy through the x-ray range and does not cut off sharply above a few MeV. This spectral form indicates that a very small fraction of the energy from a gamma-ray burst source is emitted at low energies or is reprocessed into x-rays and that the high-energy gamma rays are not destroyed by photon-photon interactions. The implications are that the emission mechanism for the gamma-ray bursts is not synchrotron radiation from electrons that lose most of their energy before being re-accelerated and that either the regions from which the gamma rays are emitted are large compared to the size of a neutron star or the emission is collimated and beamed away from the stellar surface.
A singularity removal theorem for Yang-Mills fields in higher dimensions

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the small-energy behavior of weakly Yang-Mills fields in Rn for n > 4, and in particular to extend the singularity removal theorem of Uhlenbeck [7] to higher dimensions. Fix n > 4, and let ft be some bounded domain in Rn; typically we shall restrict our attention to the cubes ft = [-1, 2]n or ft = [0, l]n. Let G be a fixed finite-dimensional compact Lie group; it will be convenient to consider G as embedded in some large unitary group U(N). Let g be the Lie algebra of G. We define a connection on ft to be a section A of T*ft ? q (i.e., a g-valued 1-form) which is locally L2. For any connection A let (1) F(A):=dA + AAA
Parameter-Less Hierarchical BOA

The parameter-less hierarchical Bayesian optimization algorithm (hBOA) enables the use of hBOA without the need for tuning parameters for solving each problem instance. There are three crucial parameters in hBOA: (1) the selection pressure, (2) the window size for restricted tournaments, and (3) the population size. Although both the selection pressure and the window size influence hBOA performance, performance should remain low-order polynomial with standard choices of these two parameters. However, there is no standard population size that would work for all problems of interest and the population size must thus be eliminated in a different way. To eliminate the population size, the parameter-less hBOA adopts the population-sizing technique of the parameter-less genetic algorithm. Based on the existing theory, the parameter-less hBOA should be able to solve nearly decomposable and hierarchical problems in quadratic or subquadratic number of function evaluations without the need for setting any parameters whatsoever. A number of experiments are presented to verify scalability of the parameter-less hBOA.
Canonical bases of Borcherds-Cartan type

We study the canonical basis for the negative part U - of the quantum generalized Kac-Moody algebra associated to a symmetric Borcherds-Cartan matrix. The algebras U - associated to two different matrices satisfying certain conditions may coincide (6.3). We show that the canonical bases coincide provided that the algebras U - coincide (Theorem 6.3.5). We also answer partially a question by Lusztig in [L3] (Theorem 7.1.1).
Power Divergence Methods

Power divergences are measures of discrepancy between two distributions, with roots in information theory. For two multinomials with common support, the power divergence of order λ is based on the weighted sum ∑ipj(pj/qj)λ of exponentiated ratios of the probabilities pj, qj respectively assigned to the jth possible outcome. Note that these measures are directional rather than symmetric. The limiting logarithmic forms as λ 0 or −1 are also considered power divergences. Asymptotically chi-square goodness-of-fit statistics for count data are generally multiples of power divergences, and hence, general theoretical results and computational approaches for the power-divergence family apply to these statistics and to estimators that minimize them. In particular, comparisons within this framework of tests and estimators based on the Pearson, Neyman, Freeman–Tukey, likelihood ratio, and discrimination information chi-square statistics have shed considerable light on their absolute and relative performance in small sample settings, sparse contingency tables, and in the presence of outlying or zero counts. The “Cressie–Read” statistic, for which λ = 2/3, has been suggested as a possible replacement for the classical test statistics due to its good performance from several perspectives. This article defines the power divergence class of goodness-of-fit statistics and associated estimators, summarizes some basic comparative results, and briefly surveys the increasing use of power divergence in various statistical estimation settings. Keywords: categorical data modeling; power-divergence statistics; minimum distance estimation; goodness-of-fit statistics; sparse asymptotics; power transformation
What Is the True Covering Factor of Absorbing Matter in BALQSOs

Spectropolarimetry of broad absorption line quasars (BALQSOs) has demonstrated that the geometry of the absorbing material is far from spherically symmetric. Calculations of accretion disk spectra suggest that the intrinsic radiation pattern of quasars is also anisotropic. Because the quasar count distribution is very steep, if the orientations of these two anisotropies are correlated, optical flux-limited samples would be very strongly biased with respect to the discovery of BALQSOs. In particular, currently favored models suggest that BALQSOs may be much more common than they appear in the samples. If so, the intrinsic covering fraction of absorbing matter must be relatively large. Numerous consequences follow, including the prediction of a new population of hard X-ray sources (as may have been seen already by ASCA) and a possible explanation for the anomalously strong N V λ1240 lines seen in many high-redshift quasars.
A semiclassical approach to level crossing in supersymmetric quantum mechanics

Much use has been made of the techniques of supersymmetric quantum mechanics (SUSY QM) for studying bound-state problems characterized by a superpotential ϕ(x). Under the analytic continuation ϕ(x) → iϕ(x), a pair of superpartner bound-state problems is transformed into a two-state level-crossing problem in the continuum. The description of matter-enhanced neutrino flavor oscillations involves a level-crossing problem. We treat this with the techniques of supersymmetric quantum mechanics. For the benefit of those not familiar with neutrino oscillations and their description, enough details are given to make the rest of the paper understandable. Many other level-crossing problems in physics are of exactly the same form. Particular attention is given to the fact that different semiclassical techniques yield different results. The best result is obtained with a uniform approximation that explicitly recognizes the supersymmetric nature of the system.
Nonlinear equations and weighted norm inequalities

We study connections between the problem of the existence of positive solutions for certain nonlinear equations and weighted norm inequalities. In particular, we obtain explicit criteria for the solvability of the Dirichlet problem −∆u = v u + w, u ≥ 0 on Ω, u = 0 on ∂Ω, on a regular domain Ω in Rn in the “superlinear case” q > 1. The coefficients v, w are arbitrary positive measurable functions (or measures) on Ω. We also consider more general nonlinear differential and integral equations, and study the spaces of coefficients and solutions naturally associated with these problems, as well as the corresponding capacities. Our characterizations of the existence of positive solutions take into account the interplay between v, w, and the corresponding Green’s kernel. They are not only sufficient, but also necessary, and are established without any a priori regularity assumptions on v and w; we also obtain sharp two-sided estimates of solutions up to the boundary. Some of our results are new even if v ≡ 1 and Ω is a ball or half-space. The corresponding weighted norm inequalities are proved for integral operators with kernels satisfying a refined version of the so-called 3G-inequality by an elementary “integration by parts” argument. This also gives a new unified proof for some classical inequalities including the Carleson measure theorem for Poisson integrals and trace inequalities for Riesz potentials and Green potentials.
Classical Gauged Massless Rarita-Schwinger Fields

We show that, in contrast to known results in the massive case, a minimally gauged massless Rarita--Schwinger field yields a consistent classical theory, with a generalized fermionic gauge invariance realized as a canonical transformation. To simplify the algebra, we study a two-component left chiral reduction of the massless theory. We formulate the classical theory in both Lagrangian and Hamiltonian form for a general non-Abelian gauging and analyze the constraints and the Rarita--Schwinger gauge invariance of the action. An explicit wave front calculation for Abelian gauge fields shows that wavelike modes do not propagate with superluminal velocities. An analysis of Rarita--Schwinger spinor scattering from gauge fields shows that adiabatic decoupling fails in the limit of zero gauge field amplitude, invalidating various ``no-go'' theorems based on ``on-shell'' methods that claim to show the impossibility of gauging Rarita--Schwinger fields. Quantization of Rarita--Schwinger fields, using many formulas from this paper, is taken up in the following paper.
Local-search techniques for propositional logic extended with cardinality constraints

We study local-search satisfiability solvers for propositional logic extended with cardinality atoms, that is, expressions that provide explicit ways to model constraints on cardinalities of sets. Adding cardinality atoms to the language of propositional logic facilitates modeling search problems and often results in concise encodings. We propose two "native" local-search solvers for theories in the extended language. We also describe techniques to reduce the problem to standard propositional satisfiability and allow us to use off-the-shelf SAT solvers. We study these methods experimentally. Our general finding is that native solvers designed specifically for the extended language perform better than indirect methods relying on SAT solvers.
On the geometry of quiver gauge theories (Stacking exceptional collections)

In this paper we advance the program of using exceptional collections to understand the gauge theory description of a D-brane probing a Calabi-Yau singularity. To this end, we strengthen the connection between strong exceptional collections and fractional branes. To demonstrate our ideas, we derive a strong exceptional collection for every Y^{p,q} singularity, and also prove that this collection is simple.
Modified Dirac Hamiltonian for efficient quantum mechanical simulations of micron sized devices

Representing massless Dirac fermions on a spatial lattice poses a potential challenge known as the Fermion Doubling problem. Addition of a quadratic term to the Dirac Hamiltonian provides a possible way to circumvent this problem. We show that the modified Hamiltonian with the additional term results in a very small Hamiltonian matrix when discretized on a real space square lattice. The resulting Hamiltonian matrix is considerably more efficient for numerical simulations without sacrificing on accuracy and is several orders of magnitude faster than the atomistic tight binding model. Using this Hamiltonian and the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism, we show several transport phenomena in graphene, such as magnetic focusing, chiral tunneling in the ballistic limit, and conductivity in the diffusive limit in micron sized graphene devices. The modified Hamiltonian can be used for any system with massless Dirac fermions such as Topological Insulators, opening up a simulation domain that is not readily accessible otherwise.
Tidal truncation of circumplanetary discs

We analyse some properties of circumplanetary discs. Flow through such discs may provide most of the mass to gas giant planets, and such discs are likely sites for the formation of regular satellites. We model these discs as accretion discs subject to the tidal forces of the central star. The tidal torques from the star remove the disc angular momentum near the disc outer edge and permit the accreting disc gas to lose angular momentum at the rate appropriate for steady accretion. Circumplanetary discs are truncated near the radius where periodic ballistic orbits cross, where tidal forces on the disc are strong. This radius occurs at approximately 0.4r H for the planet Hill radius r H . During the T Tauri stage of disc accretion, the disc is fairly thick with aspect ratio H/r ≳ 0.2 and the disc edge tapering occurs over a radial scale ∼ H ∼ 0.1r H . The disc fluid equations can be rescaled in the Hill approximation to a form similar to the flow equations for a disc in a binary star system with a mass ratio of unity. For a circular or slightly eccentric orbit planet, no significant resonances lie within the main body of the disc. Tidally driven waves involving resonances none the less play an important role in truncating the disc, especially when it is fairly thick. We model the disc structure using one-dimensional time-dependent and steady-state models and also two-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations. The circumplanetary disc structure depends on the variation of the disc turbulent viscosity with radius and is insensitive to the angular distribution of the accreting gas. Dead zones may occur within the circumplanetary disc and result in density structures. If the disc is turbulent throughout, the predicted disc structure near the location of the regular Jovian and Saturnian satellites is smooth with no obvious feature that would favour formation at their current locations. It may be possible that substructure, such as due to variations in the disc turbulence, could lead to the trapping of migrating satellites.
Determinants of spatio-temporal patterns of energy technology adoption: An agent-based modeling approach

Abstract Energy technology adoption is a complex process, involving social, behavioral, and economic factors that impact individual decision-making. This paper uses an empirical, geographic information system (GIS)-integrated agent-based model of residential solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption to explore the importance of using empirical household-level data and of incorporating economic as well as social and behavioral factors on model outcomes. Our goal is to identify features of the model that are most critical to successful prediction of the temporal, spatial, and demographic patterns that characterize the technology adoption process for solar PV. Agent variables, topology, and environment are derived from detailed and comprehensive real-world data between 2004 and 2013 in Austin (Texas, USA). Four variations of the model are developed, each with a different level of complexity and empirical characterization. We find that while an explicit focus only on the financial aspects of the solar PV adoption decision performs well in predicting the rate and scale of adoption, accounting for agent-level attitude and social interactions are critical for predicting spatial and demographic patterns of adoption with high accuracy.
Introduction to Higher Order Spatial Statistics in Cosmology

In this lecture notes I concentrate on the classic and widely applicable characterization of higher order statistics by joint moments, a.k.a. higher order correlation functions, and directly related statistics. I put special emphasis on recent results, especially the connection of spatial statistics with symmetries.
RESLVE: leveraging user interest to improve entity disambiguation on short text

We address the Named Entity Disambiguation (NED) problem for short, user-generated texts on the social Web. In such settings, the lack of linguistic features and sparse lexical context result in a high degree of ambiguity and sharp performance drops of nearly 50% in the accuracy of conventional NED systems. We handle these challenges by developing a model of user-interest with respect to a personal knowledge context; and Wikipedia, a particularly well-established and reliable knowledge base, is used to instantiate the procedure. We conduct systematic evaluations using individuals' posts from Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr and demonstrate that our novel technique is able to achieve substantial performance gains beyond state-of-the-art NED methods.
Literature search through mixed-membership community discovery

We introduce a new approach to literature search that is based on finding mixed-membership communities on an augmented co-authorship graph (ACA) with a scalable generative model. An ACA graph contains two types of edges: (1) coauthorship links and (2) links between researchers with substantial expertise overlap. Our solution eliminates the biases introduced by either looking at citations of a paper or doing a Web search. A case study on PubMed shows the benefits of our approach.
Making Work Pay in Madagascar: Employment, Growth, and Poverty Reduction

There is little doubt that economic growth contributes significantly to poverty reduction; however, countries clearly differ in the degree to which income growth translates into reduced levels of poverty. Although cross-country estimates suggest that differences in the responsiveness of poverty to income growth account for a small fraction of overall differences in poverty changes across countries, from the point of view of an individual country these differences may have significant implications for poverty reduction, especially in the short term. The report is structured into eight chapters, beginning with this introduction. Chapter two describes the data and the main definitions used in this report. Chapter three provides the socioeconomic context of the study, with a particular emphasis on growth, poverty, and labor market characteristics. Chapter four takes a look at the linkages between macro and microeconomic data by reviewing the ways in which changes in aggregate and sectoral labor productivity translate into individual earnings as gathered from the household surveys. Chapter five also reviews the relationships between productivity and earnings by looking at the linkages between changes in aggregate and sectoral labor productivity data (macro) and changes in individual earnings as gathered from the household surveys (micro). Chapter six examines the origins and determining factors of household earnings and employment and assesses their impact on poverty and poverty reduction. Chapter seven analyzes the individual and household characteristics that are associated with having either 'good' jobs or 'bad' jobs and reviews the question of whether there may be barriers preventing the movement of workers from bad to good labor market segments. Finally, chapter eight describes the main conclusions of this report and provides suggestions for future work based on these conclusions.
A Tractable Inference Algorithm for Diagnosing Multiple Diseases

We examine a probabilistic model for the diagnosis of multiple diseases. In the model, diseases and findings are represented as binary variables. Also, diseases are marginally independent, features are conditionally independent given disease instances, and diseases interact to produce findings via a noisy OR-gate. An algorithm for computing the posterior probability of each disease, given a set of observed findings, called quickscore, is presented. The time complexity of the algorithm is 0 (nm - 2 m+ ), where n is the number of diseases, M + is the number of positive findings and m - is the number of negative findings. Although the time complexity of quickscore is exponential in the number of positive findings, the algorithm is useful in practice because the number of observed positive findings is usually far less than the number of diseases under consideration. Performance results for quickscore applied to a probabilistic version of Quick Medical Reference (QMR) are provided.
Astrogenomics: big data, old problems, old solutions?

The ominous warnings of a data deluge in the life sciences from high-throughput DNA sequencing data are being supplanted by a second deluge, of cliches bemoaning our collective scientific fate unless we address the genomic data tsunami. It is imperative that we explore the many facets of the genome, not just sequence but also transcriptional and epigenetic variability, integrating these observations in order to attain a genuine understanding of how genes function, towards a goal of genomics-based personalized medicine. Determining any individual's genomic properties requires comparison to many others, sifting out the specific from the trends, requiring access to the many in order to yield information relevant to the few. This is the central big data challenge in genomics that still requires some sort of resolution. Is there a practical, feasible way of directly connecting the scientific community to this data universe?
FX Spreads and Dealer Competition Across the 24-Hour Trading Day

This study examines the impact of competition on bid-ask spreads in the spot foreign exchange market. We measure competition primarily by the number of dealers active in the market and find that bid-ask spreads decrease with an increase in competition, even after controlling for the effects of volatility. The expected level of competition is time varying, highly predictable, and displays a strong seasonal component that in part is induced by geographic concentration of business activity over the 24-hour trading day. Our estimates show that the expected addition of one more competing dealer lowers the average quoted spread by 1.7%. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.
Time allocation in rural households : the indirect effects of conditional cash transfer programs

This brief summarizes the results of a gender impact evaluation study, entitled Time allocation in rural households : the indirect effects of conditional cash transfer programs, conducted during the time period 2004 to present in Pakistan. The study observed that conditional cash transfers are being heralded as effective tools against the intergenerational transmission of poverty. This paper examines the effect of a gender-targeted conditional cash transfer program on the time allocation of mothers in rural program-eligible households. There is no difference in the share of mothers who participate in household work. Mothers in treatment communities increase the amount of time that they spend on housework by two hours per school day. There is no significant change in the amount of time women spend on paid work. There is also no difference in the hours of sleep the mother gets per night.
MAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF HEAVY FERMION SUPERCONDUCTORS CeRhIn5 AND Ce2RhIn8

Some recent neutron scattering works on CeRhIn5 and Ce2RhIn8, together with related resistivity and specific heat measurements, are summarized. In spite of its layered crystal structure, CeRhIn5 is shown to be 3 dimensional both magnetically and in transport. We also find that the Fisher-Langer behavior is closely followed in CeRhIn5. This may circumvent the Kondo lattice model and support applying established Fermi-liquid superconductivity theory to heavy fermion superconductors.
The role of search in university productivity: inside, outside, and interdisciplinary dimensions

Due to improving information technology, the growing complexity of research problems, and policies designed to foster interdisciplinary research, the practice of science in the United States has recently undergone significant structural change. Using a sample of 110 top US universities observed during the late 20th century we find that knowledge flows, both in total and in their major components, are a significant and positive determinant of research output. Outside knowledge-flows from other universities have increased at a faster rate than inside flows from the same university. Over time, the importance of outside flows for research output has risen, and it has done so at a faster rate than the importance of inside flows has decreased. Thus the overall contribution of knowledge-flows has increased and has shifted towards outside flows. Turning to knowledge-flows by field, we find that interdisciplinary knowledge-flows have increased only slightly relative to same field flows, despite policy initiatives that favor interdisciplinary research. Moreover, the importance of interdisciplinary flows for research output, while positive and statistically highly significant, has stayed about the same, even as same field flows have become more important, probably because of growth in cyber infrastructure. Although a final verdict is yet to be reached, one interpretation is that interdisciplinary research is still in its early stages. While interdisciplinary flows have begun to increase, the resulting discoveries, and their influence on subsequent research, may still lie in the future. Copyright 2011 The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.
The equivariant pair-of-pants product in fixed point Floer cohomology

We use equivariant methods and product structures to derive a relation between the fixed point Floer cohomology of an exact symplectic automorphism and that of its square.
Moduli of twisted spin curves

In this note we give a new, natural construction of a compactification of the stack of smooth r-spin curves, which we call the stack of stable twisted r-spin curves. This stack is identified with a special case of a stack of twisted stable maps of Abramovich and Vistoli. Realizations in terms of admissible G m -spaces and Q-line bundles are given as well. The infinitesimal structure of this stack is described in a relatively straightforward manner, similar to that of usual stable curves. We construct representable morphisms from the stacks of stable twisted r-spin curves to the stacks of stable r-spin curves and show that they are isomorphisms. Many delicate features of r-spin curves, including torsion free sheaves with power maps, arise as simple by-products of twisted spin curves. Various constructions, such as the ∂-operator of Seeley and Singer and Witten's cohomology class go through without complications in the setting of twisted spin curves.
Muon-Muon and Other High Energy Colliders

Before we discuss the muon collider in detail, it is useful to look at the other types of colliders for comparison. In this chapter we consider the high energy physics advantages, disadvantages and luminosity requirements of hadron (pp,\(p\bar p\)), of lepton (e + e - , µ + µ - ) and photon-photon colliders. Technical problems in obtaining increased energy in each type of machine are presented. Their relative size, and probable relative costs are discussed.
Why does the productivity of education vary across individuals in Egypt ? firm size, gender, and access to technology as sources of heterogeneity in returns to education

The paper estimates the rates of return to investment in education in Egypt, allowing for multiple sources of heterogeneity across individuals. The paper finds that, in the period 1998-2006, returns to education increased for workers with higher education, but fell for workers with intermediate education levels; the relative wage of illiterate workers also fell in the period. This change can be explained by supply and demand factors. On the supply side, the number workers with intermediate education, as well as illiterate ones, outpaced the growth of other categories joining the labor force during the decade. From the labor demand side, the Egyptian economy experienced a structural transformation by which sectors demanding higher-skilled labor, such as financial intermediation and communications, gained importance to the detriment of agriculture and construction, which demand lower-skilled workers. In Egypt, individuals are sorted into different educational tracks, creating the first source of heterogeneity: those that are sorted into the general secondary-university track have higher returns than those sorted into vocational training. Second, the paper finds that large-firm workers earn higher returns than small-firm workers. Third, females have larger returns to education. Female government workers earn similar wages as private sector female workers, while male workers in the private sector earn a premium of about 20 percent on average. This could lead to higher female reservation wages, which could explain why female unemployment rates are significantly higher than male unemployment rates. Formal workers earn higher rates of return to education than those in the informal sector, which did not happen a decade earlier. And finally, those individuals with access to technology (as proxied by personal computer ownership) have higher returns.
Private Investment and Cash Flow Relationship Revisited: Capital Market Imperfections and Financialization of Real Sectors in Emerging Markets*

Based on the Euler equation approach, the paper analyzes the impacts of availability of internal funds on fixed investment spending in the presence of multiple investment options. It is argued that after financial liberalization real sector firms face a portfolio allocation problem between fixed and financial investments. Therefore, depending on the respective rates of returns the availability of internal funds may be a necessary but not sufficient condition for financing real investment projects. The empirical results using firm level data for Mexico and Turkey confirm this hypothesis and suggest that profits from fixed and financial assets have differential effects on fixed investment spending.
Long-lead ENSO predictability from CMIP5 decadal hindcasts

Using decadal prediction experiments from the WCRP/CMIP5 suite that were initialized every year from 1960-onward, we explore long-lead predictability of ENSO events. Both deterministic and probabilistic skill metrics are used to assess the ability of these decadal prediction systems to reproduce ENSO variability as represented by the NINO3.4 index (EN3.4). Several individual systems as well as the multi-model mean can predict ENSO events 3–4 years in advance, though not for every event during the hindcast period. This long-lead skill is beyond the previously documented predictability limits of initialized prediction systems. As part of the analysis, skill in reproducing the annual cycle of EN3.4, and the annual cycle of its interannual variability is examined. Most of the prediction systems reproduce the seasonal cycle of EN3.4, but are less able to capture the timing and magnitude of the variability. However, for the prediction systems used here, the fidelity of annual cycle characteristics does not appear to be related to the system’s ability to predict ENSO events. In addition, the performance of the multi-model ensemble mean is explored and compared to the multi-model mean based solely on the most skillful systems; the latter is found to yield better results for the deterministic metrics. Finally, an analysis of the near-surface temperature and precipitation teleconnections reveals that the ability of the systems to detect ENSO events far in advance could translate into predictive skill over land for several lead years, though with reduced amplitudes compared to observations.
Electronic Health Records and Environmental Public Health Tracking

The Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network) is a national surveillance system that integrates environmental hazard, exposure, and health outcome data into one system. The Tracking Network launched in July 2009, and has since been receiving data from 23 funded state and local health departments, and several national partners. Despite this success, some challenges exist in obtaining more timely and complete data. This presentation will discuss how the Tracking Network is exploring the use of EHR to meet Tracking Network surveillance challenges and provide other opportunities to enhance environmental public health surveillance.
Preparation and Catalytic Activity of BINOL-Derived Silanediols

Enantiopure silanediols derived from BINOL are an innovative family of stereoselective hydrogen-bond donor (HBD) catalysts. Silanediols incorporated into a BINOL framework are attractive catalysts, as they are readily accessible and highly customizable. Structural modifications of the BINOL backbone affect the reactivity and selectivity of the silanediol catalysts in the additions of silyl ketene acetals to N-acyl isoquinolinium ions. The best results were obtained when the silanediol scaffold was substituted at the 4,4′- and 6,6′-positions. This report includes details regarding the properties of selected BINOL-based silanediol catalysts, including their acidities, binding constants, and X-ray crystal structures.
Amine-catalyzed cascade reactions of ketoses with 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds

An amine-catalyzed cascade reaction of ketoses with 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds is described. Several highly chemo- as well as stereoselective reactions are operating in this novel cascade. The operationally simple protocol allows stereoselective access to optically active carbon chain elongated ketoses.
Same question but different answer : experimental evidence on questionnaire design's impact on poverty measured by proxies

Does the same question asked of the same population yield the same answer in face-to-face interviews when other parts of the questionnaire are altered? If not, what would be the implications for proxy-based poverty measurement? Relying on a randomized household survey experiment implemented in Malawi, this study finds that observationally equivalent as well as same households answer the same questions differently when interviewed with a short questionnaire versus the longer counterpart that, in a prior survey round, would have informed the prediction model for a proxy-based poverty measurement exercise. The analysis yields statistically significant differences in reporting between the short and long questionnaires across all topics and types of questions. The reporting differences result in significantly different predicted poverty rates and Gini coefficients. While the difference in predictions ranges from approximately 3 to 7 percentage points depending on the model specification, restricting the proxies to those collected prior the variation in questionnaire design, namely demographic variables from the household roster and location fixed effects, leads to same predictions in both samples. The findings emphasize the need for further methodological research, and suggest that short questionnaires designed for proxy-based poverty measurement should be piloted, prior to implementation, in parallel with the longer questionnaire from which they have evolved. The fact that at the median it took 25 minutes to complete the food and non-food consumption sections in the long questionnaire also implies that the implementation of these sections might not be as overly costly as usually assumed.
Monopoles and grand unification.

The study of magnetic monopoles may be divided into four eras. In the first, monopoles were unobserved objects whose existence was merely an interesting possibility. The second period began in 1931 with Dirac’s1 observation that the existence of a magnetic monopole would explain the observed quantization of electric charge. A third era was entered when it was realized that electric charge is naturally quantized in unified theories, where electromagnetism is imbedded in a spontaneously broken gauge theory based on a compact semi-simple group; monopoles did not appear to be needed. Finally, a fourth era began in 1974 with the realization2 that such unified theories imply the existence of magnetic monopoles and that these monopoles have calculable properties. Before proceeding further, it may be useful to recall why, aside from the question of monopoles, certain of these unified theories have come to be of particular interest.