cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Reinvigorating the Federal Pardon Process: What the President Can Learn from the States

In the past thirty years the president has been increasingly reluctant to use his constitutional power to pardon, although the demand for pardon has also increased, to restore rights and shorten sentences. The primary reason is that the process for the administration of the power has lost its vigor, its integrity, and its sense of purpose. The attorney general, steward of the power since the Civil War, has allowed a parochial institutional agenda to inform pardon recommendations instead of broadly defined presidential policy goals. The three most recent presidents have been willing to live with a dysfunctional pardon process, evidently because they did not regard pardoning as a duty of office and perceived its risks to outweigh its rewards. Without a plan for using the power, and without a reliable system for executing it, pardoning has become a dangerous activity for any president, and a useless vestigial appendage of the presidency. The failure of the pardon process during the 1990s explains why President Clinton’s final days in office were marred by pardon-related scandal, a fate only narrowly averted by his successor, George W. Bush. It appears that President Obama believes he can avoid scandal by not pardoning at all, or by making only token use of the power.State pardon procedures suggest ways that presidential pardoning could be restored to a useful place in the federal justice system. While states follow a variety of different administrative models, most have procedures that are more transparent, accountable, and authoritative than the federal process. Some states mandate consultation with elected or appointed boards, some require pre-pardon publication of applications or intended executive action, and some require public hearings and consultation with responsible justice officials. In thirty-two of the forty-four states where the governor is responsible for pardoning, the state constitution requires an annual report to the legislature on pardon grants for that year. Experience in the states that have a sound administrative structure suggests that even if a reliable process does not guarantee vigorous pardoning, it at least discourages the sort of irresponsible use (or disuse) of the power that has become the norm in the federal system.Three reforms could reinvigorate the federal pardon process and restore its moral force. First, the process should be guided by clear standards that are applied consistently, and grants should be reasoned and defensible. Second, the process must be administered by individuals who are independent and authoritative, who have the confidence of the president, and who are given the necessary resources to carry out the president’s pardoning agenda. Third, the process must be accessible and responsive to people of all walks of life, and take into account the likelihood that many deserving pardon applicants will not have skilled counsel or well-connected supporters to advocate on their behalf.
Growth, Nontradables, and Price Convergence in the Baltics

Abstract This paper reviews the strong real exchange rate appreciation observed in the three Baltic countries following macroeconomic stabilization. This is primarily a consequence of the undervalued real exchange rates of the new currencies, which is reflected in price levels that are lower than in countries with similar income levels. A tendency for continued real appreciation is to be expected as part of the transition toward higher income levels, due in part to differential productivity growth rates in the tradable and nontradable sectors, as illustrated in a two-sector general equilibrium model. In the absence of an appreciation of the nominal exchange rate, this real appreciation will occur through inflation rates that are higher than in industrial countries. Provided that the current prudent economic policies are continued, such higher inflation will not threaten macroeconomic objectives and may indeed be viewed as an indication that the transition process is progressing as expected.
The Rise of the Close Corporation and the Making of Corporation Law

Who makes corporation law? The study of corporation lawmaking has been a lively area in recent years, but scholars have limited their studies by focusing on only one kind of corporation law, the law of the public corporation. This article takes a new approach to the question through a legal historical case study of the law of the close corporation. Corporation statutes in the first half of the twentieth century were crafted by legislatures to fit public, not close, corporations. Close corporation participants found the standard-issue mechanisms provided by these statutes unsatisfactory, however, and sought instead to organize their firms through private agreements among themselves. Such agreements were common, but courts would void them if they diverged too far from corporation law's "statutory norms. " This gave rise to a process in which close corporations adopted, and judges later approved (or disapproved) a range of agreements and arrangements designed to privately order the close corporation. In the end, this incremental back-and-forth produced a common law of close corporations. Only after the development of this common law of close corporations did legislators change corporation statutes to further legitimize close corporations' special agreements. This account challenges our understandings of how corporate law is made, for it shows that close corporation law was made not only by legislators, courts, and interest groups, but by close corporation participants themselves. This Article thus not only illuminates understudied areas of corporation law and legal history, it provides us a new account of the production of a vital area of modern American law. t J.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law. I thank Jane Baron, David Hoffman, Duncan Hollis, Daniel Holt, Robert Illig, Naomi Lamoreaux, Jonathan Lipson, Douglas Moll, Mark Rahdert, Robert Thompson, Wyatt Wells, and the participants at Temple University's Faculty Workshop for helpful comments and for saving me from many errors (the ones that remain are my responsibility), Josette Oakley for excellent research assistance, and Temple University Beasley School of Law for a Summer Research Grant. Berkeley Business Law Journal
Rational Bias in Inflation Expectations

This paper argues that individuals may rationally weight price increases for food and energy products differently from their expenditure shares when forming expectations about price inflation. We develop a simple dynamic model of the economy with gradual price adjustment in the core sector and flexible prices in the food and energy sectors. Serial correlation of supply shocks to food and energy allows individuals to gain an understanding about future shocks, possibly making it optimal for individuals to place more weight on the movement of prices in these sectors. We use survey data on expected inflation to show that the weights implied by the model differ from the expenditure shares of food and energy prices in the CPI for the United States. We find food price inflation is weighted more heavily and energy price inflation is weighted less heavily. But importantly, we cannot reject the hypothesis that these weights reflect rational behavior in forming expectations about inflation.
Recent Developments: Louisiana Class Actions

The determination of whether a purported class action meets the requirements for class certification under Louisiana's class action procedures has long been plagued by uncertainty, engendering inconsistent certification rulings, misconstrued precedents, and vague evidentiary standards for applying the class action prerequisites. This article surveys two recent Louisiana Supreme Court cases that not only brought much needed clarity to the class certification analysis but also made clear that usage of this unconventional litigation procedure should be judiciously authorized and limited to claims that arise from a common cause or disaster in mass tort cases.
Timing Poorly: A Guide to Generating Poor Returns while Investing in Successful Strategies

The value premium’s persistence and magnitude run counter to the behavioral explanation of the value anomaly. How can investors continue to make the same widely recognized mistake? By examining the difference between mutual funds’ reported buy-and-hold or time-weighted returns, and the average dollar-weighted returns or IRRs end investors earn, the authors quantify the consistently negative effect of value investors’ market-timing decisions: from 1991 to 2013, value mutual fund investors underperformed the funds they invested in by 131 basis points. Their analysis also reveals that investors in growth, large-cap, and small-cap funds are similarly prone to unproductive allocation timing. They also find that less sophisticated investors tend to make poorer timing decisions. Investors who hold funds with high expense ratios had larger return gaps than those who chose less costly funds, and investors in retail funds underperformed by a greater margin than those who qualified for institutional share-class funds. The authors suggest that, by giving away the excess return, value investors themselves finance the value premium and ensure its continuance. Financial education may help individual investors refrain from trading their funds in a counterproductive fashion.
Adverse Selection and Capital Structure: Evidence from Venture Capital

Venture capitalists (VCs) in all non–U.S. countries around the world have consistently reported the use of a variety of securities, including common equity, preferred equity, convertible preferred ...
The City as the Focus The Analysis of Contemporary Chinese Urban Politics

In the past, the study of cities too often played a supporting role in the field of Chinese politics. In recent years, scholars have increasingly placed various aspects of urban politics in the analytical spotlight. This article begins by outlining why urban politics is important in the study of China and ends by discussing how a discrete focus on urban politics can promote the integration of China into broader debates in political science. In between, it critically reviews some of the leading works and trends in subliteratures covering the functioning of city governments, the politics of various urban social groups, city case studies, and urban institutions and organizations.
Searching Inside Google: Cases, Controversies and the Future of the World's Most Provocative Company

For a company whose motto is "Do No Evil," Google certainly has its share of detractors. The company is at the center of numerous controversies that will determine how people use the Internet, find information, and communicate with each other. Professor Jon Garon explores the cases that will shape Google’s future and the implications for copyright and trademark owners, including: the latest AdWords’ case Rescuecom v. Google, the proposed Book Search settlement, the Viacom v. YouTube copyright infringement case, and looming antitrust investigations. He also will speculate about the future of Google as it consolidates its control over online search and advertising and expands into telecommunications, mobile devices and cloud computing.
Cognitive skills among children in Senegal: Disentangling the roles of schooling and family background

Abstract We use unique data to estimate the determinants of cognitive ability among 14–17-year olds in Senegal. Unlike standard school-based samples, tests were administered to current students as well as to children no longer – or never – enrolled. Years of schooling strongly affects cognitive skills, but conditional on years of school, parental education and household wealth, as well as local public school quality, have surprisingly modest effects on test performance. Instead, family background primarily affects skills indirectly through its impacts on years of schooling. Therefore closing the schooling gaps between poor and wealthy children will also close most of the gap in cognitive skills between these groups.
Very fast money: High-frequency trading on the NASDAQ

This paper provides evidence regarding high-frequency trader (HFT) trading performance, trading costs, and effects on market efficiency using a sample of NASDAQ trades and quotes that directly identifies HFT participation. I find that HFTs engage in successful intra-day market timing, spreads are wider when HFTs provide liquidity and tighter when HFTs take liquidity, and prices incorporate information from order flow and market-wide returns more efficiently on days when HFT participation is high.
Is Dual Agency in Real Estate a Cause for Concern

We examine the effects of the regulation of dual agency in residential real estate transactions, for 10,888 transactions in Long Island, New York in 2004–2007. We find that dual agency has an overall null effect on sale price, but includes two opposing forces where buyer and seller interests might be compromised. The link between dual agency and timing of sales is less clear. These findings are robust to endogeneity bias. Although it appears dual agency does cause some market distortions, our analysis yields little evidence that prohibiting dual agency in real estate will increase welfare.
The Demise and Rebirth of Plant Variety Protection: A Comment on Technological Change and the Design of Plant Variety Protection Regimes

In 'Technological Change and the Design of Plant Variety Protection Regimes', Mark Janis and Stephen Smith make two novel and provocative claims. They first argue that the legal regime for protecting new plant varieties has become hopelessly outdated in light of recent changes in technology. They next assert that the fate of the plant variety protection (PVP) system illustrates a broader and more disturbing phenomenon in intellectual property law: the potential for sui generis, industry-specific intellectual property regimes to become increasingly ineffective over time. In this brief essay, I offer three points to amplify the authors' contributions and highlight the legal and political consequences of the arguments they advance. I first discuss plant breeders' rights as a distinct form of intellectual property protection. Next, I review the challenges to implementing the authors' proposal to replace existing PVP rules with unfair competition principles. Third and finally, I consider the extent to which the obsolescence of plant breeders' rights represents a phenomenon that exists in intellectual property systems more generally.
Planning the Funeral at the Birth: Extended Producer Responsibility in the European Union and the United States

This Article examines how governments in the world’s two largest economies are diverging in their approaches to regulating hazardous products and packaging, with major ramiacations for manufacturing, waste management, and trade. The European Union is implementing product-oriented environmental regulation based on the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (“EPR”), which assigns responsibility to manufacturers to take back their products after consumers discard them. In theory, EPR could dramatically alter production practices by internalizing externalities from products and providing incentives for environmentally friendly design. However, practical problems of implementation raise questions about the effectiveness of EPR as a policy tool. This Article explores the European experience with EPR, the reasons for apparent resistance to EPR in the United States, and the implications of a move toward product-oriented environmental law. It critiques EPR on the grounds that the transaction costs of EPR may outweigh its environmental beneats and that practical problems of implementation may preclude the achievement of expected product design incentives. Given the substantial cost and technical hurdles to establishing the legal underpinnings of EPR programs, this Article recommends that the United States consider alternative policy instruments to address environmental externalities from products.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite: The United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Fails to Protect Hopi Katsinam from the Auction Block in France

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) compels member states to take action in order to protect the rights of the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples, including the right to their cultural property. Notwithstanding the UNDRIP’s robust set of protections, its status as a nonbinding piece of international law remains its ultimate and most fatal flaw. France was an enthusiastic supporter of the UNDRIP at ratification, but has effectively abandoned their position. French auction houses and courts have allowed for sales of Native American sacred property to proceed despite the objections of the Hopi Tribe. In spite of international protest, a French court ruled that Native Americans and all other indigenous peoples lacked the requisite standing to bring cultural claims in France. Subsequently, numerous sales of sacred masks known as “Katsinam” have continued without any legal restitution for the Hopi Tribe. This Note argues thatwhile the UNDRIP sets out basic parameters affording indigenous peoples a means of protection, without the ability to enforce its provisions, the Hopi and indigenous peoples throughout the world will remain incapable of using the UNDRIP as a means of empowerment. France has set a dangerous precedent for countries to continue disobeying the principles of the UNDRIP without consequence for noncompliance. Indigenous peoples will remain powerless to protect their sacramentals unless the UNDRIP is transformed into a multilateral treaty and adopted into the domestic law of member states.
Linear learning in changing environments

Abstract The decision maker receives signals imperfectly correlated with an unobservable state variable and must take actions whose payoffs depend on the state. The state randomly changes over time. In this environment, we examine the performance of simple linear updating rules relative to Bayesian learning. We show that a range of parameters exists for which linear learning results in exactly the same decisions as Bayesian learning, although not in the same beliefs. Outside this parameter range, we use simulations to demonstrate that the consumption level attainable under the optimal linear rule is virtually indistinguishable from the one attainable under Bayes’ rule, although the respective decisions will not always be identical. These results suggest that simple rules of thumb can have an advantage over Bayesian updating when more complex calculations are more costly to perform than less complex ones. We demonstrate the implications of such an advantage in an evolutionary model where agents “learn to learn.”
Corporate Governance and Economic Efficiency: When Do Institutions Matter?

Corporate governance attracted attention beyond the realm of lawyers and quite specific legal rules because of the growing perception that a link existed between corporate governance and corporate performance: better governance, the hypothesis goes, yields more efficient production. The potential link between governance and institutions was given saliency by the large institutional differences between the corporate governance systems of the three most successful industrial economies: Germany's universal bank centered system; Japan's main bank/cross holdings centered system; and the United State's stock market centered system. This paper examines the hypothesized link between corporate governance and economic efficiency through two lenses that highlight the role of national institutions: path dependency and industrial organization. The goal is a clearer understanding of the role of corporate governance institutions as vehicles of adaptive efficiency.
Cross-country evidence on the relation between capital gains taxes, risk, and expected returns

Abstract This study empirically examines the role of risk sharing between taxable investors and the government on the relation between capital gains taxes and expected returns. Specifically, using an international panel from 26 countries over the period 1990 to 2004, we find evidence that the general positive relation between capital gains taxes and expected returns becomes weaker or even reverses when (i) a firm's systematic risk is high, (ii) the market risk premium is high, or (iii) the risk-free rate is low. The results are particularly pronounced in countries with substantive changes in tax rates, more trust in government institutions, less integrated and less liquid capital markets, and lower foreign institutional ownership as well as around substantive increases and decreases in the risk parameters. We corroborate our findings in a single country setting, using the 1978, 1997, and 2003 capital gains tax rate changes in the United States as events. Our results underscore the importance of macroeconomic and firm-specific factors in determining the effect of tax capitalization, and suggest that tax rate changes can sometimes have opposite valuation implications than what policymakers have in mind.
Banking in a theory of the business cycle: a model and critique of the Basle Accord on risk-based capital requirements for banks☆

Abstract This paper presents a theoretical framework for understanding the investment decisions and financing decisions of financial and non-financial enterprises over the business cycle. At the core of this theoretical framework is an agency problem between relatively more risk averse depositor/bondholders and relatively less risk averse stockholders. The solution to this agency problem is a corporate governance system that takes the form of an up-front contract that directs managers to make portfolio/investment decisions in the interest of their stockholders, and financing decisions in the interest of their depositor/bondholders. This enables depositor/bondholders to offset any risk shifting portfolio/investment decisions made on behalf of the shareholders thereby mitigating the moral hazard problem among debtors and creditors. The Basle Accord on risk-based capital requirements for depository institutions is one particular regulatory application of this more general theoretical framework. The paper concludes with a comparison between the Basle Accord and the 100% reserve or narrow banking proposal as the means of achieving a risk-free medium of exchange and a financial system that facilitates the optimal transfer of resources from savers to investors consistent with society’s aversion towards risk.
Human Speed-Accuracy Tradeoffs in Search

When foraging for information, users face a tradeoff between the accuracy and value of the acquired information and the time spent collecting it, a problem which also surfaces when seeking answers to a question posed to a large community. We empirically study how people behave when facing these conflicting objectives using data from Yahoo Answers, a community driven question-and-answer site. We first study how users behave when trying to maximize the amount of acquired information while minimizing the waiting time. We find that users are willing to wait longer for an additional answer if they have received a small number of answers. We then assume that users make a sequence of decisions, deciding to wait for an additional answer as long as the quality of the current answer exceeds some threshold. The resulting probability distribution for the number of answers that a question gets is an inverse Gaussian, a fact that is validated by our data.
Toward Coherence in Civil Conspiracy Law: A Proposal to Abolish the Agent's Immunity Rule

Theories of secondary liability, such as conspiracy and aiding and abetting, have gained renewed prominence in light of recent rashes of corporate financial fraud, and gain particular importance where the primary wrongdoers are bankrupt or otherwise judgment-proof. This Article traces the development of civil conspiracy and aiding and abetting claims, and argues that the current "agent’s immunity rule" utilized in some jurisdictions - which immunizes agents from such liability if acting within their official capacity - fails to promote the policies underlying agency law, conspiracy law, or substantive tort law. The current rule should be replaced by a test which focuses directly on whether the agent possessed the requisite scienter to be held liable for the act of another, and the liability of the entity for which the agency acted should be separately assessed based on principles of vicarious liability.
Where a contract is signed determines its value: Chinese provincial variation in utilized vs. contracted FDI flows

Abstract There are major differences between ex ante corporate investment plans and ex post investments. The case of China is useful for understanding this problem because there is substantial time series and cross sectional variation in the ratio of utilized to contracted FDI (UC ratio), which is less than one in most province-year observations. Provinces may believe that they are rewarded for reporting higher levels of contracted FDI, which would lead to lower UC ratios and higher policy incentives in subsequent years. Alternatively, provinces may be rewarded for reporting data more accurately, which would lead to higher UC ratios and policy incentives in subsequent years. Empirical analysis supports the second, institutional theory and suggests that provinces may increase their rate of utilizing pledged FDI by strengthening their legal systems and reducing government bureaucracy.
Legislative Rules Revisited

The distinction between legislative rules and nonlegislative rules is one of the most confusing in administrative law.1 Yet, it is also criti cal for understanding not just when agencies must use procedural formality to issue policy judgments, but also the subsequent treatment of those judgments by courts.2 This Essay explores the legislative rule conundrum through the lens of Judge Richard A. Posner's opinion in Hoctor v United States Department of Agriculture.3 To describe the legislative rule debate is to conjure doctrinal phantoms, circular analytics, and fundamental disagreement even about correct vocabulary. Hoctor illustrates many of the fault lines in existing doctrine and suggests a novel if ultimately unsatisfying ap proach to legislative rules doctrine that turns on characterizing the form, content, and relationship between the new rule and existing law. This Essay suggests instead that much of the legislative rule doctrine might well be jettisoned, avoiding confusion and uncertainty about when agencies must use formal procedures to issue policy.
Walking the talk of trust in human subjects research: the challenge of regulating financial conflicts of interest.

There has been a call for more stringent regulation of financial conflicts of interest in human subjects research following the deaths of several individuals who volunteered to participate in human subjects research, which deaths were linked to the financial conflicts of interest of participating researchers and research institutions. Each proposal argues that regulation is necessary to restore trust in medical research. This Article examines whether proposed strategies for regulating financial conflicts of interest are likely to achieve the goal of a trustworthy human research enterprise. It does not question whether enhancing trustworthiness is an appropriate goal; rather, it assumes that such a goal is worth pursuing. Instead, it argues that adopting trustworthiness as a regulatory goal has significant implications for the style of regulation that the law must employ. The Article then questions whether regulatory strategies proposed to date are consistent with a trust-promoting style and, thus, whether those strategies are likely to result in a more trustworthy human research enterprise.
The Rule of Law

Rule of Law rhetoric is increasingly common, both in U.S. legal literature and in the realm of international governance. In the field of law and economic development, the Rule of Law revival is lead by the international financial institutions (IFIs). Rule of Law discourse has also come to play an important role in the fields of comparative politics and comparative law, particularly with respect to East Asia. This review begins with a discussion of Rule of Law rhetoric in the Anglo-American tradition. It then discusses the international Rule of Law renaissance, focusing on the roles that Rule of Law rhetoric plays in the development activities of the IFIs. Because the claim is that the Rule of Law is key to economic development, this review explores the extent to which Northeast Asia's outstanding economic development conformed to the Rule of Law. An exploration follows of how the Rule of Law–economic development literature has evolved over time, in line with changing ideas about economics and about develo...
Macroscopic and microscopic thermal equilibrium

We study the nature of and approach to thermal equilibrium in isolated quantum systems. An individual isolated macroscopic quantum system in a pure or mixed state is regarded as being in thermal equilibrium if all macroscopic observables assume rather sharply the values obtained from thermodynamics. Of such a system (or state) we say that it is in macroscopic thermal equilibrium (MATE). A stronger requirement than MATE is that even microscopic observables (i.e., ones referring to a small subsystem) have a probability distribution in agreement with that obtained from the micro-canonical, or equivalently the canonical, ensemble for the whole system. Of such a system we say that it is in microscopic thermal equilibrium (MITE). The distinction between MITE and MATE is particularly relevant for systems with many-body localization (MBL) for which the energy eigenfuctions fail to be in MITE while necessarily most of them, but not all, are in MATE. However, if we consider superpositions of energy eigenfunctions (i.e., typical wave functions ψ) in an energy shell, then for generic macroscopic systems, including those with MBL, most ψ are in both MATE and MITE. We explore here the properties of MATE and MITE and compare the two notions, thereby elaborating on ideas introduced in [18].
The Uncorporation and the Unraveling of “Nexus of Contracts” Theory

A corporation is not a contract. It is a state-created entity. It has legal personhood with the right to form contracts, suffer liability for torts, and (as the Supreme Court recently decided) make campaign contributions.1 However, many corporate law scholars have remained wedded to the conception metaphor, model, paradigm, what have you of the corporation as a contract or "nexus" of contracts.2 The nexus of contracts theory is meant to point up the voluntary, market-oriented nature of the firm and to dismiss the notion that the corporation owes anything to the state.3 It is also used as a justification for preserving the corporate law status quo. Since the corporation is contractual in nature, the argument goes, corporate structure reflects what the participants have freely chosen.4 The basic corporate structure shareholders vote for the board of directors, who then appoint the officers is seen not as the decision of state legislatures, but as the free choice of investors, directors, boards, and indeed all of those who are involved with the corporation.5 To question this structure is to dispute the
Revolutionary Justice in Brecht, Conrad, and Blake

AbstractHistorians have approached the scholarly genre of “law and literature” as a means to mine works of literature for images, descriptions, and representations of law and legal events in historical (or historical-analogical) contexts. The questions asked are framed by history and treat literature as source material. Suppose we instead make literature our frame and history our subject. What can literature as form tell historians about “history” as we currently practice it? How might an inspection of literature as a practice change the practice of legal historians? Here I consider the possibilities through an examination of time and justice, and particularly the time of justice, in three literary works: Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Novel, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and William Blake’s poem “London” from Songs of Experience. My principal interlocutor in this exercise is the Marxist liter- ary theorist and historical materialist Walter Benjamin. The conjunction is informative, for Benjamin was deep...
A New Start on the Road Not Taken: Driving with Lane to Head Off Disability-Based Denials of Rights

Like other decisions upholding the rights of people with disabilities, the Supreme Court's ruling in Tennessee v. Lane has been dismissed by critics as a Pyrrhic victory. In Lane, the Court held that Congress had properly exercised its enforcement powers under section 5 of the 14th Amendment to prohibit disability discrimination in access to courts. This article argues that, far from Pyrrhic, the victory in Lane shows the way for advocates for persons with disability to develop a successful strategy for identifying important rights and the means needed for their exercise.
SAM homeostasis is regulated by CFIm- mediated splicing of MAT2A

S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) is the methyl donor for nearly all cellular methylation events. Cells regulate intracellular SAM levels through intron detention of MAT2A, the only SAM synthetase expressed in most cells. The N6-adenosine methyltransferase METTL16 promotes splicing of the MAT2A detained intron by an unknown mechanism. Using an unbiased CRISPR knock-out screen, we identified CFIm25 (NUDT21) as a regulator of MAT2A intron detention and intracellular SAM levels. CFIm25 is a component of the cleavage factor Im (CFIm) complex that regulates poly(A) site selection, but we show it promotes MAT2A splicing independent of poly(A) site selection. CFIm25-mediated MAT2A splicing induction requires the RS domains of its binding partners, CFIm68 and CFIm59 as well as binding sites in the detained intron and 3´ UTR. These studies uncover mechanisms that regulate MAT2A intron detention and reveal a previously undescribed role for CFIm in splicing and SAM metabolism.
DAPES: Named Data for Off-the-Grid File Sharing with Peer-to-Peer Interactions

This paper introduces DAta-centric Peer-to-peer filE Sharing (DAPES), a data sharing protocol for scenarios with intermittent connectivity and user mobility. DAPES provides a set of semantically meaningful hierarchical naming abstractions that facilitate the exchange of file collections via local connectivity. This enables peers to "make the most" out of the limited connection time with other peers by maximizing the utility of individual transmissions to provide data missing by most connected peers. DAPES runs on top of Named-Data Networking (NDN) and extends NDN’s data-centric network layer abstractions to achieve communication over multiple wireless hops through an adaptive hop-by-hop forwarding/suppression mechanism. We have evaluated DAPES through real-world experiments in an outdoor campus setting and extensive simulations. Our results demonstrate that DAPES achieves 50-71% lower overheads and 15-33% lower file sharing delays compared to file sharing solutions that rely on IP-based mobile ad-hoc routing.
PufferBot: Actuated Expandable Structures for Aerial Robots

We present PufferBot, an aerial robot with an expandable structure that may expand to protect a drone’s propellers when the robot is close to obstacles or collocated humans. PufferBot is made of a custom 3D-printed expandable scissor structure, which utilizes a one degree of freedom actuator with rack and pinion mechanism. We propose four designs for the expandable structure, each with unique characterizations for different situations. Finally, we present three motivating scenarios in which PufferBot may extend the utility of existing static propeller guard structures.
Dimensional analysis of spring-wing systems reveals performance metrics for resonant flapping-wing flight

Flapping-wing insects, birds and robots are thought to offset the high power cost of oscillatory wing motion by using elastic elements for energy storage and return. Insects possess highly resilient elastic regions in their flight anatomy that may enable high dynamic efficiency. However, recent experiments highlight losses due to damping in the insect thorax that could reduce the benefit of those elastic elements. We performed experiments on, and simulations of, a dynamically scaled robophysical flapping model with an elastic element and biologically relevant structural damping to elucidate the roles of body mechanics, aerodynamics and actuation in spring-wing energetics. We measured oscillatory flapping-wing dynamics and energetics subject to a range of actuation parameters, system inertia and spring elasticity. To generalize these results, we derive the non-dimensional spring-wing equation of motion and present variables that describe the resonance properties of flapping systems: N, a measure of the relative influence of inertia and aerodynamics, and [Formula: see text], the reduced stiffness. We show that internal damping scales with N, revealing that dynamic efficiency monotonically decreases with increasing N. Based on these results, we introduce a general framework for understanding the roles of internal damping, aerodynamic and inertial forces, and elastic structures within all spring-wing systems.
Sizing Up Categories

Categories intentionally create discontinuities. By breaking the world up into cognizable chunks, they simplify the information environment. But the signals they provide may be inaccurate or scrambled by strategic behavior. This Article considers how law might approach the problem of optimal categorization, given the role of categories in managing and transmitting information. It proceeds from the observation that high categorization costs can be addressed through two opposite strategies—making classifications more fine-grained (splitting), and making classifications more encompassing (lumping). Although continuizing and other forms of splitting offer intuitive answers to inaccurate classification and gaming along category lines, lumping is sometimes a better solution. If category membership carries multiple and offsetting implications, the incentive to manipulate the classification system is dampened. To take a simple example, insurance that covers only one risk is more vulnerable to adverse selection than is an insurance arrangement that covers two inversely correlated risks. Making categories larger, more durable, and more heterogeneous can produce such offsets. These and other forms of bundling can arrest damaging instabilities in categorization.
Data and Image Prior Integration for Image Reconstruction Using Consensus Equilibrium

Image domain prior models have been shown to improve the quality of reconstructed images, especially when data are limited. Pre-processing of raw data, through the implicit or explicit inclusion of data domain priors have separately also shown utility in improving reconstructions. In this work, a principled approach is presented allowing the unified integration of both data and image domain priors for improved image reconstruction. The consensus equilibrium framework is extended to integrate physical sensor models, data models, and image models. In order to achieve this integration, the conventional image variables used in consensus equilibrium are augmented with variables representing data domain quantities. The overall result produces combined estimates of both the data and the reconstructed image that is consistent with the physical models and prior models being utilized. The prior models used in both domains in this work are created using deep neural networks. The superior quality allowed by incorporating both data and image domain prior models is demonstrated for two applications: limited-angle CT and accelerated MRI. The prior data model in both these applications is focused on recovering missing data. Experimental results are presented for a $90^0$ limited-angle tomography problem from a real checked-bagged CT dataset and a $4\times$ accelerated MRI problem on a simulated dataset. The new framework is very flexible and can be easily applied to other computational imaging problems with imperfect data.
Early Performance Prediction using Interpretable Patterns in Programming Process Data

Instructors have limited time and resources to help struggling students, and these resources should be directed to the students who most need them. To address this, researchers have constructed models that can predict students' final course performance early in a semester. However, many predictive models are limited to static and generic student features (e.g. demographics, GPA), rather than computing-specific evidence that assesses a student's progress in class. Many programming environments now capture complete time-stamped records of students' actions during programming. In this work, we leverage this rich, fine-grained log data to build a model to predict student course outcomes. From the log data, we extract patterns of behaviors that are predictive of students' success using an approach called differential sequence mining. We evaluate our approach on a dataset from 106 students in a block-based, introductory programming course. The patterns extracted from our approach can predict final programming performance with 79% accuracy using only the first programming assignment, outperforming two baseline methods. In addition, we show that the patterns are interpretable and correspond to concrete, effective -- and ineffective -- novice programming behaviors. We also discuss these patterns and their implications for classroom instruction.
Cluster Variation Method Analysis of Correlations and Entropy in BCC Solid Solutions

Solid solutions occur when multiple chemical species share sites of a common crystal lattice. Although the single site occupation is random, chemical interaction preferences bias the occupation probabilities of neighboring sites, and this bias reduced the entropy of mixing below its ideal value. Sufficiently strong bias leads to symmetry-breaking phase transitions. We apply the cluster variation method to explore solid solutions on body centered cubic lattices in the context of two specific compounds that exhibit opposite ordering trends. Employing density functional theory to model the energetics, we show that CuZn exhibits an order-disorder transition to the CsCl prototype structure, while AlLi instead takes the NaTl prototype structure, and we evaluate their temperature-dependent order parameters, correlations and entropies.
Data-driven machine learning models for decoding speech categorization from evoked brain responses

Categorical perception (CP) of audio is critical to understand how the human brain perceives speech sounds despite widespread variability in acoustic properties. Here, we investigated the spatiotemporal characteristics of auditory neural activity that reflects CP for speech (i.e., differentiates phonetic prototypes from ambiguous speech sounds). We recorded high density EEGs as listeners rapidly classified vowel sounds along an acoustic-phonetic continuum. We used support vector machine (SVM) classifiers and stability selection to determine when and where in the brain CP was best decoded across space and time via source-level analysis of the event related potentials (ERPs). We found that early (120 ms) whole-brain data decoded speech categories (i.e., prototypical vs. ambiguous speech tokens) with 95.16% accuracy [area under the curve (AUC) 95.14%; F1-score 95.00%]. Separate analyses on left hemisphere (LH) and right hemisphere (RH) responses showed that LH decoding was more robust and earlier than RH (89.03% vs. 86.45% accuracy; 140 ms vs. 200 ms). Stability (feature) selection identified 13 regions of interest (ROIs) out of 68 brain regions (including auditory cortex, supramarginal gyrus, and Brocas area) that showed categorical representation during stimulus encoding (0-260 ms). In contrast, 15 ROIs (including fronto-parietal regions, Broca's area, motor cortex) were necessary to describe later decision stages (later 300 ms) of categorization but these areas were highly associated with the strength of listeners' categorical hearing (i.e., slope of behavioral identification functions). Our data-driven multivariate models demonstrate that abstract categories emerge surprisingly early (~120 ms) in the time course of speech processing and are dominated by engagement of a relatively compact fronto-temporal-parietal brain network.
Exploiting Non-Linear Structure in Astronomical Data for Improved Statistical Inference

Many estimation problems in astrophysics are highly complex, with high-dimensional, non-standard data objects (e.g., images, spectra, entire distributions, etc.) that are not amenable to formal statistical analysis. To utilize such data and make accurate inferences, it is crucial to transform the data into a simpler, reduced form. Spectral kernel methods are non-linear data transformation methods that efficiently reveal the underlying geometry of observable data. Here we focus on one particular technique: diffusion maps or more generally spectral connectivity analysis (SCA). We give examples of applications in astronomy; e.g., photometric redshift estimation, prototype selection for estimation of star formation history, and supernova light curve classification. We outline some computational and statistical challenges that remain, and we discuss some promising future directions for astronomy and data mining.
What determines the composition of a firm's cash reserves?

Abstract We investigate what determines variation in the composition of the financial assets that constitute corporate cash reserves and how this variation relates to other key liquidity management practices. The degree to which a firm invests its cash reserves in less liquid, longer-maturity financial assets that earn a higher yield is explained by financial constraints, the ability to accurately forecast short-term liquidity needs, and the firm's likelihood of defaulting on its debt. During years when a firm's cash reserves are required to fund increases in investment or operating expenses the firm transfers funds from less liquid to more liquid financial assets. A firm's decisions relating to the composition of its cash reserves interacts with other key liquidity management practices, such as relying on credit lines for liquidity, extending trade credit or using it as a source of financing, and holding large amounts of inventories. Our findings provide insights on an important component of corporate liquidity management decisions.
Simulation of a turbulent flow subjected to favorable and adverse pressure gradients

This paper reports the results from a direct numerical simulation of an initially turbulent boundary layer passing over a wall-mounted “speed bump” geometry. The speed bump, represented in the form of a Gaussian distribution profile, generates a favorable pressure gradient region over the upstream half of the geometry, followed by an adverse pressure gradient over the downstream half. The boundary layer approaching the bump undergoes strong acceleration in the favorable pressure gradient region before experiencing incipient or very weak separation within the adverse pressure gradient region. These types of flows have proved to be particularly challenging to predict using lower-fidelity simulation tools based on various turbulence modeling approaches and warrant the use of the highest fidelity simulation techniques. The present direct numerical simulation is performed using a flow solver developed exclusively for graphics processing units. Simulation results are utilized to examine the key phenomena present in the flowfield, such as relaminarization/stabilization in the strong acceleration region succeeded by retransition to turbulence near the onset of adverse pressure gradient, incipient/weak separation and development of internal layers, where the sense of streamwise pressure gradient changes at the foot, apex and tail of the bump.