cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Do Liquidity Constraints Help Preserve Tropical Forests? Evidence from the Eastern Amazon

This article examines the determinants of forest cover and land use efficiency in a shifting cultivation system. A conceptual model demonstrates that liquidity constraints encourage farmers to allocate more land to forest fallow and less to cultivation by limiting input purchases. Data from farm households in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon allow me to test whether farmers allocate land between cropping and fallow efficiently from an individual or a community perspective. I find that many farmers devote more land to fallow than is privately optimal, benefiting community income as a whole due to positive local externalities provided by secondary forest. I also estimate the effect of a variety of socioeconomic and agroecological factors on fallow allocation and land use efficiency. I find over-fallowing to be negatively associated with commercial credit use, suggesting that liquidity constraints do hinder agricultural intensification.
ADSM-an automated distribution system modeling tool for engineering analyses

Designing and operating the distribution system efficiently and economically requires distribution engineers to perform various analytical studies frequently. The system models for these analyses are derived from the information residing in diverse utility databases. One major problem in utilizing these databases is the data mismatch due to different software specifications and hardware platforms. This means additional effort is required to transform data among these systems before engineers can perform any distribution system analyses. The Automated Distribution System Modeler (ADSM) developed jointly at the University of Washington (UW) and Puget Sound Power and Light Co. (PSPL) provides an automated approach for the distribution system modeling. This software tool builds a unified distribution system model automatically from the utility databases and provides a generic interface to various engineering analysis tools. This paper describes the object-oriented design concept of such a tool and discusses the merits of the geographic information system (GIS) environment used as a platform for ADSM. >
Catalytic Enantioselective Carboannulation with Allylsilanes

The first catalytic asymmetric carboannulation with allylsilanes is presented. The enantioselective [3+2] annulation is catalyzed using a scandium(III)/indapybox complex with tetrakis-[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-borate (BArF) to enhance catalytic activity and control stereoselectivity. Functionalized cyclopentanes containing a quaternary carbon center are derived from alkylidene oxindole, coumarin, and malonate substrates with high stereoselectivity. The enantioselective 1,4-conjugate addition and enantioselective lactone formation (by trapping of the β-silyl carbocation) is also described.
Accelerators for cancer therapy

The vast majority of radiation treatments for cancerous tumors are given using electron linacs that provide both electrons and photons at several energies. Design and construction of these linacs are based on mature technology that is rapidly becoming more and more standardized and sophisticated. The use of hadrons such as neutrons, protons, alphas, or carbon, oxygen and neon ions is relatively new. Accelerators for hadron therapy are far from standardized, but the use of hadron therapy as an alternative to conventional radiation has led to significant improvements and refinements in conventional treatment techniques. This paper presents the rationale for radiation therapy, describes the accelerators used in conventional and hadron therapy, and outlines the issues that must still be resolved in the emerging field of hadron therapy.
Evolution and Intelligent Design

This paper discusses two sources of ideas that inuence monetary policy makers today. The rst is a set of analytical results that impose the rational expectations equilibrium concept and do ‘intelligent design’ by solving Ramsey and mechanism design problems. The second is the adaptive learning process that taught us how to anchor the price level with a gold standard, then how to replace the gold standard with a at currency wanting nominal anchors. Models of out-of-equilibrium learning say that such an adaptive evolutionary process converges to a self-conrming equilibrium (SCE). In an SCE, a government’s probability model is correct about events that occur under the prevailing government policy, but possibly wrong about other policies. That causes policy design mistakes absent from a rational expectations equilibrium and expands the role of learning.
Coping with risk through mismatches : domestic and international financial contracts for emerging economies

This paper argues that short termism, dollarization, and the use of foreign jurisdictions are endogenous ways of coping with systemic risks prevalent in emerging markets. They represent a symptom at least as much as a problem. These coping mechanisms are jointly determined and the choice of one of them involves risk tradeoffs. Various conclusions can be derived from the analysis. First, because of the dominance of dollar contracts over short-duration contracts, de-dollarization might be much more difficult to achieve than often believed. Second, one-dimensional policies aimed at reducing currency and duration mismatches might just displace risk and not diminish it. Third, as systemic risks rise, the market equilibrium settles in favor of investor protection against price risk (through dollar and short-duration contracts) at the expense of exposure to credit risk. Finally, the option value to litigate in the event of default might explain this equilibrium outcome.
Necessary and sufficient condition for compactness of the embedding operator.

An improvement of the author’s result, proved in 1961, concerning necessary and sufficient conditions for the compactness of an imbedding operator is given.
Attaching zanamivir to a polymer markedly enhances its activity against drug-resistant strains of influenza a virus.

Effects of the commercial drug zanamivir (Relenza™) covalently attached to poly-l-glutamine on the infectivity of influenza A viruses are examined using the plaque reduction assay and binding affinity to viral neuraminidase (NA). These multivalent drug conjugates exhibit (i) up to a 20,000-fold improvement in anti-influenza potency compared with the zanamivir parent against human and avian viral strains, including both wild-type and drug-resistant mutants, and (ii) superior neuraminidase (NA) inhibition constants, especially for the mutants. These findings provide a basis for exploring polymer-attached inhibitors as more efficacious therapeutics, particularly against drug-resistant influenza strains.
Limitations of cross-monotonic cost-sharing schemes

A cost-sharing scheme is a set of rules defining how to share the cost of a service (often computed by solving a combinatorial optimization problem) amongs serviced customers. A cost-sharing scheme is cross-monotonic if it satisfies the property that everyone is better off when the set of people who receive the service expands. In this article, we develop a novel technique for proving upper bounds on the budget-balance factor of cross-monotonic cost-sharing schemes or the worst-case ratio of recovered cost to total cost. We apply this technique to games defined, based on several combinatorial optimization problems, including the problems of edge cover, vertex cover, set cover, and metric facility location and, in each case, derive tight or nearly-tight bounds. In particular, we show that for the facility location game, there is no cross-monotonic cost-sharing scheme that recovers more than a third of the total cost. This result, together with a recent 1/3-budget-balanced cross-monotonic cost-sharing scheme of Pal and Tardos l2003r closes the gap for the facility location game. For the vertex cover and set cover games, we show that no cross-monotonic cost-sharing scheme can recover more than a O(n−1/3) and O(1/n) fraction of the total cost, respectively. Finally, we study the implications of our results on the existence of group-strategyproof mechanisms. We show that every group-strategyproof mechanism corresponds to a cost-sharing scheme that satisfies a condition weaker than cross-monotonicity. Using this, we prove that group-strategyproof mechanisms satisfying additional properties give rise to cross-monotonic cost-sharing schemes and therefore our upper bounds hold.
The Origins of the Blue‐Sky Laws: A Test of Competing Hypotheses*

Abstract Between 1911 and 1931, 47 of the 48 states adopted state securities, or “blue‐sky,” laws. This paper employs an event history analysis to analyze public interest, public choice, and ideological explanations for the enactment of blue‐sky laws. The data suggest that the decision to adopt a blue‐sky law was heavily influenced by the strength of progressive lobbies. However, the type of law adopted was more strongly influenced by the prevalence of small banks that faced competition for depositors’ funds from securities salesmen. I also provide evidence that more stringent blue‐sky laws increased small‐bank profits.
Tap-Wave-Rub: lightweight malware prevention for smartphones using intuitive human gestures

We introduce a lightweight permission enforcement approach - Tap-Wave-Rub (TWR) - for smartphone malware prevention. TWR is based on simple human gestures (implicit or explicit) that are very quick and intuitive but less likely to be exhibited in users' daily activities. Presence or absence of such gestures, prior to accessing an application, can effectively inform the OS whether the access request is benign or malicious. In this paper, we focus on the design of an accelerometer-based phone tapping detection mechanism. This implicit tapping detection mechanism is geared to prevent malicious access to NFC services, where a user is usually required to tap her phone with another device. We present a variety of novel experiments to evaluate the proposed mechanism. Our results suggest that our approach could be very effective for malware prevention, with quite low false positives and false negatives, while imposing no additional burden on the users. As part of the TWR framework, we also briefly explore explicit gestures (finger tapping, rubbing or hand waving based on proximity sensor), which could be used to protect services which do not have a unique implicit gesture associated with them.
Linearized reduced-order filtering

A reduced-order version of extended Kalman filtering is presented in which both the filtering equation and the associated Riccati equation have been reduced in dimension to allow for real-time processing. The procedure for designing the reduced-order filter is similar to that for designing the extended Kalman filter, the same approximations being applied. One technique useful for limiting the computational burden in a linearized filter design problems is presented and illustrated by an example. The primary limitation of the result is that the nonlinearity must be in terms of the vector to be estimated. >
C2-Acetamidomannosylation. Synthesis of 2-N-acetylamino-2-deoxy-α-d-mannopyranosides with glucal donors

Abstract A one-pot C2-acetamidomannosylation reaction for the synthesis of 2-N-acetylamino-2-deoxy-α- d -mannopyranosides from glucals is described. Glucal donors are activated by the reagent combination of 2,8-dimethyldibenzothiophene-5-oxide (DMDBTO) and trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride. Upon subsequent addition of N-(TMS)acetamide and an appropriate glycosyl acceptor, the corresponding C2-acetamidomannopyranosides are formed.
Three-dimensional modeling of blue jets and blue starters

[1] Blue jets and blue starters are considered as positive streamer coronas expanding from the streamer zones of conventional lightning leaders under conditions when large-scale electric fields near the thundercloud tops exceed the minimum field required for the propagation of positive streamers in air. Results from a three-dimensional fractal model based on a phenomenological probabilistic approach to the modeling of streamer coronas indicate, in particular, that blue jets and blue starters can be formed by a fast (∼1 s) accumulation of ∼110–150 C of positive thundercloud charge distributed in a volume with effective radius ∼3 km near the cloud top at ∼15 km. The model simulates the propagation of branching streamer channels constituting blue jets and blue starters as a three-dimensional growth of fractal trees in the electric field created by thundercloud charges and self-consistently accounts for the electric field effects due to the propagating streamers. Model results closely resemble blue jet and blue starter characteristics in terms of their altitude extents, transverse dimensions, and conical structure and indicate that blue starters are related to the initial phases of blue jets. The proposed model is supported by the recent spectroscopic observations of blue jets and blue starters, in particular, by the documentation of the 427.8 nm (first negative N2+) emission in blue starters as well as by the low-pressure laboratory experiments on emission spectroscopy of corona streamers in air. The model results also appear to be in excellent agreement with the recent discovery of the streamer structure of blue jets.
Kinetic and Cyber

Although a fairly new topic in the context of cyber security, situation awareness (SA) has a far longer history of study and applications in such areas as control of complex enterprises and in conventional warfare. Far more is known about the SA in conventional military conflicts, or adversarial engagements, than in cyber ones. By exploring what is known about SA in conventional—also commonly referred to as kinetic—battles, we may gain insights and research directions relevant to cyber conflicts. For this reason, having outlined the foundations and challenges on CSA in the previous chapter, we proceed to discuss the nature of SA in conventional (often called kinetic) conflict, review what is known about this kinetic SA (KSA), and then offer a comparison with what is currently understood regarding the cyber SA (CSA). We find that challenges and opportunities of KSA and CSA are similar or at least parallel in several important ways. With respect to similarities, in both kinetic and cyber worlds, SA strongly impacts the outcome of the mission. Also similarly, cognitive biases are found in both KSA and CSA. As an example of differences, KSA often relies on commonly accepted, widely used organizing representation—map of the physical terrain of the battlefield. No such common representation has emerged in CSA, yet.
Environmental risk and welfare valuation under imperfect information

Consumers are often uninformed, or unsure, about the ambient level of environmental risk. An optimal policy must jointly determine efficient levels of self-protection, information provision, and public risk mitigation efforts. Unfortunately, conventional welfare measures are not amenable towelfare analysis in the presence of imperfect information. We develop a theoretical welfare measure, called quasi-compensating variation, that is a natural extension of compensating variation (CV). We show that this welfare measure offers not only a money metric of the ‘‘value of information,’’ but also a means to appropriately evaluate the welfare effects of various policies when consumers are imperfectly informed about ambient risk. This welfare measure allows us to obtain a number of results that the traditional CV measure fails to offer. In particular, we show that the consumer’s willingness to pay for a (small) environmental risk reduction is higherforthosewhounderestimate ambientriskthanfor thosewho overestimateor areperfectly informedif the marginal return to self-protection increases with ambient risk. Published by Elsevier B.V.
A COSMOLOGICAL KINETIC THEORY FOR THE EVOLUTION OF COLD DARK MATTER HALOS WITH SUBSTRUCTURE: QUASI-LINEAR THEORY

We present a kinetic theory for the evolution of the phase-space distribution of dark matter particles in galaxy halos in the presence of a cosmological spectrum of fluctuations. This theory introduces a new way to model the formation and evolution of halos, which traditionally have been investigated by analytic gravitational infall models or numerical N-body methods. Unlike the collisionless Boltzmann equation, our kinetic equation contains nonzero terms on the right-hand side arising from stochastic fluctuations in the gravitational potential due to substructures in the dark matter mass distribution. Using statistics for constrained Gaussian random fields in standard cosmological models, we show that our kinetic equation to second order in perturbation theory is of the Fokker-Planck form, with one scattering term representing drift and the other representing diffusion in velocity space. The drift is radial, and the drift and diffusion coefficients depend only on positions and not velocities; our relaxation process in the quasi-linear regime is therefore different from the standard two-body relaxation. We provide explicit expressions relating these coefficients to the linear power spectrum of mass fluctuations and present results for the currently favored cold dark matter model with a nonzero cosmological constant. Solutions to this kinetic equation will provide a complete description of the cold dark matter spatial and velocity distributions for the average halo during the early phases of galaxy halo formation.
Microeconomics of technology adoption

Differences in technology levels across countries account for a large component of the differences in wages and per-capita GDP across countries worldwide. This article reviews micro studies of the adoption of new technologies and the use of inputs complementary with new technologies to shed light on the barriers to technology diffusion in low-income countries. Among the factors examined affecting decisions pertaining to technology choice and input allocations are the financial and nonfinancial returns to adoption, one's own learning and social learning, technological externalities, scale economies, schooling, credit constraints, risk and incomplete insurance, and departures from behavioral rules implied by simple models of rationality.
The diameter of the isomorphism class of a Banach space

We prove that if X is a separable infinite dimensional Banach space then its isomorphism class has infinite diameter with respect to the Banach-Mazur distance. One step in the proof is to show that if X is elastic then X contains an isomorph of c0. We call X elastic if for some K < ?? for every Banach space Y which embeds into X, the space Y is K-isomorphic to a subspace of X. We also prove that if X is a separable Banach space such that for some K <?? every isomorph of X is K-elastic then X is finite dimensional.
Measurements of ocean wave spectra and modulation transfer function with the airborne two frequency scatterometer

The results of this research show that the directional spectrum and the microwave modulation transfer function of ocean waves can be measured with the airborne two frequency scatterometer-microwave resonance technique. The results here are favorable to the future application of this or similar techniques from airborne or spaceborne platforms. Similar to tower based observations, the aircraft measurements of the modulation transfer function show that it is strongly affected by both wind speed and sea state. Also detected were small differences in the magnitudes of the MTF between downwind and upwind radar look directions, and variations with ocean wavenumber. Unexpected results were obtained that indicate the MTF measured from an aircraft is larger than that measured using single frequency, wave orbital velocity techniques such as tower based radars or “ROWS” measurements from low altitude aircraft. Possible reasons for this are discussed. The ability to measure the ocean directional spectrum with the two frequency scatterometer, with supporting MTF data, is demonstrated.
Supermassive black holes and their environments

We make use of the first high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations of structure formation which self-consistently follows the build-up of supermassive black holes (BHs) introduced in Di Matteo et al. to investigate the relation between BHs, host halo and large-scale environment. There are well-defined relations between halo and BH masses and between the activities of galactic nuclei and halo masses at low redshifts. A large fraction of BHs forms antihierarchically, with a higher ratio of BH to halo mass at high than at low redshifts. At z = 1, we predict group environments (regions of enhanced local density) to contain the highest mass and most active (albeit with a large scatter) BHs while the rest of the BH population to be spread over all densities from groups to filaments and voids. Density dependencies are more pronounced at high rather than low redshift. These results are consistent with the idea that gas rich mergers are likely the main regulator of quasar activity. We find star formation to be a somewhat stronger and tighter function of local density than BH activity, indicating some difference in the triggering of the latter versus the former. There exist a large number of low-mass BHs, growing slowly predominantly through accretion, which extends all the way into the most underdense regions, that is, in voids.
Role of sulfur chirality in the chemical processes of biology

Chiral structures profoundly influence chemical and biological processes. While chiral carbon biomolecules have received much attention, chirality is also possible in certain sulfur compounds; just as with carbon, there can be differences in the physiological behavior of chiral sulfur compounds. For instance, one drug enantiomer, Nexium® (esomeprazole, a chiral sulfoxide), is used for its superior clinical properties as a proton pump inhibitor over the racemic mixture, Prilosec® (Losec®, omeprazole). This critical review introduces sulfur stereochemistry and nomenclature, and provides a comprehensive approach to chiral sulfur compounds and their enzymatic reactions in general and secondary metabolism. The major structural types of biological interest are sulfonium salts, sulfoxides, and sulfoximines. (103 references)
A new nucleoside derivative, AJP117510, as an inhibitor of integrin α2β1-collagen binding

A new nucleoside derivative, AJP117510 (1) was isolated from unidentified fungus AJ117510. The structure of 1 was elucidated by spectroscopic analyses. Nucleoside 1 inhibited the binding of integrin a 2 b 1 to collagen in a dose dependent manner with an IC 50 value of 5.9 mM.
On horizons and plane waves

We investigate the possibility of having an event horizon within several classes of metrics that asymptote to the maximally supersymmetric IIB plane wave. We show that the presence of a null Killing vector (not necessarily covariantly constant) implies an effective separation of the Einstein equations into a standard and a wave component. This feature may be used to generate new supergravity solutions asymptotic to the maximally supersymmetric IIB plane wave, starting from standard seed solutions such as branes or intersecting branes in flat space. We find that in many cases it is possible to preserve the extremal horizon of the seed solution. On the other hand, non-extremal deformations of the plane wave solution result in naked singularities. More generally, we prove a no-go theorem against the existence of horizons for backgrounds with a null Killing vector and which contain at most null matter fields. Further attempts at turning on a non-zero Hawking temperature by introducing additional matter have proved unsuccessful. This suggests that one must remove the null Killing vector in order to obtain a horizon. We provide a perturbative argument indicating that this is in fact possible.
Strategic Second Sourcing by Multinationals

Multinationals often serve foreign markets by exporting as well as by investing directly in foreign production facilities. We argue that if the multinational competes in an oligopolistic market characterized by strategic complements then there are strategic reasons to use two production facilities—committing to a second source allows the firm to keep average cost low while increasing its marginal cost. The increase in marginal cost softens product market competition resulting in higher profits. We argue that this theory also has implications for the “make or buy” literature in production management and the literature on second sourcing in industrial organization.
Internet Technologies in China: Insights on the Morally Important Influence of Managers

Within Science and Technology Studies, much work has been accomplished to identify the moral importance of technology in order to clarify the influence of scientists, technologists, and managers. However, similar studies within business ethics have not kept pace with the nuanced and contextualized study of technology within Science and Technology Studies. In this article, I analyze current arguments within business ethics as limiting both the moral importance of technology and the influence of managers. As I argue, such assumptions serve to narrow the scope of business ethics in the examination of technology. To reinforce the practical implications of these assumptions and to further illustrated the current arguments, I leverage the recent dialog around U.S. Internet technologies in China. The goal of this article is to broaden that which is morally salient and relevant to business managers and business ethicists in the analysis of technology by highlighting key lessons from seminal STS scholars. This article should be viewed as part of a nascent yet burgeoning dialog between business ethics and Science and Technology Studies – a dialog that benefits both fields of study.
Fair division with uncertain needs and tastes

Previous studies have shown that egalitarianism maximizes expected social welfare in a contractarian original position with equally likely risk-averse agent tastes. The present paper characterizes agents by subsistence needs as well as by tastes, allows infinitely many possible need and taste profiles, and weakens the requirement that all possibilities be perceived as equally likely. Surplusegalitarianism (meeting needs, then equally dividing the remainder) is shown to maximize expected social welfare when tastes are uncertain and needs are known, can be met, and are a priori required to be met; but intuitively unfair allocations may result if either of the latter two conditions fails to hold. Conditions under which egalitarianism maximizes expected social welfare with needs and tastes both uncertain are also determined.
Highly Selective Synthesis of Heterosubstituted Aromatic Sulfamides

The sulfamide functional group is increasingly relevant in both medicinal and supramolecular chemistry, yet few selective synthetic steps are available for its elaboration. We report here a mild, general, and efficient method for the selective differentiation of N-atom substituents of aromatic sulfamides.
Implications for Asset Returns in the Implied Volatility Skew

This study examined the impact on future asset returns of information contained in the implied volatility skew. Future returns are linked to the discrepancy between call and put volatilities of at-the-money options and to the left side of the volatility skew, calculated as the difference between out-of-the-money and at-the-money puts. The findings discourage the use of skew-based measures for forecasting equity returns without fully parsing the skew into its most basic portions.
The Effect of Immigration on Productivity: Evidence from US States

Abstract In this paper we analyze the long-run impact of immigration on employment, productivity, and its skill bias. We use the existence of immigrant communities across U.S. states before 1960 and the distance from the Mexican border as instruments for immigration flows. We find no evidence that immigrants crowded out employment. At the same time, we find that immigration had a strong, positive association with total factor productivity and a negative association with the high skill bias of production technologies. The results are consistent with the idea that immigrants promoted efficient task specialization, thus increasing TFP, and also promoted the adoption of unskilled-efficient technologies.
CRITICAL DYNAMICS OF TWO-REPLICA CLUSTER ALGORITHMS

The dynamic critical behavior of the two-replica cluster algorithm is studied. Several versions of the algorithm are applied to the two-dimensional, square lattice Ising model with a staggered field. The dynamic exponent for the full algorithm is found to be less than 0.4. It is found that odd translations of one replica with respect to the other together with global flips are essential for obtaining a small value of the dynamic exponent.
Magnetohydrodynamic and Electrohydrodynamic Control of Hypersonic Flows of Weakly Ionized Plasmas

The focus of this work is on theoretical analysis of fundamental aspects of high-speed flow control using electric and magnetic fields. The principal challenge is that the relatively cold gas is weakly ionized in electric discharges or by electron beams, with ionization fraction ranging from 10 −8 to 10 −5 . The low ionization fraction means that, although electrons and ions can interact with electromagnetic fields, transfer of momentum and energy to or from the bulk neutral gas can be quite inefficient. Analytical estimates show that, even at the highest values of the electric field that can exist in cathode sheaths of electric discharges, electrohydrodynamic, or ion wind, effects in a single discharge can be of significance only in low-speed core flows or in laminar sublayers of high-speed flows. Use of multi-element discharges would amplify the single-sheath effect, so that the cumulative action on the flow can conceivably be made significant. However, Joule heating can overshadow the cathode sheath ion wind effects. Theoretical analysis of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow control with electron beam ionization of hypersonic flow shows that the MHD interaction parameter is a steeply increasing function of magnetic field strength and the flow velocity. However, constraints imposed by arcing between electrode segments can reduce the performance and make the maximum interaction parameter virtually independent of Mach number. Estimates also show that the MHD interaction parameter is much higher near the wall (in the boundary layer) than in the core flow, which may have implications for MHD boundary layer and transition control. The paper also considers “electrodeless” MHD turning and compression of high-speed flows. Computations of a sample case demonstrate that the turning and compression of hypersonic flow ionized by electron beams can be achieved; however, the effect is relatively modest due to low ionization level.
Hidden horizons in non-relativistic AdS/CFT

We study boundary Green’s functions for spacetimes with non-relativistic scaling symmetry. For this class of backgrounds, scalar modes with large transverse momentum, or equivalently low frequency, have an exponentially suppressed imprint on the boundary. We investigate the effect of these modes on holographic two-point functions. We find that the boundary Green’s function is generically insensitive to horizon features on small transverse length scales. We explicitly demonstrate this insensitivity for Lifshitz z =2, and then use the WKB approximation to generalize our findings to Lifshitz z >1 and RG flows with a Lifshitz-like region. We also comment on the analogous situation in Schrodinger spacetimes. Finally, we exhibit the analytic properties of the Green’s function in these spacetimes.
Small Littlewood---Richardson coefficients

We develop structural insights into the Littlewood---Richardson graph, whose number of vertices equals the Littlewood---Richardson coefficient $$c_{\lambda ,\mu }^{\nu }$$c?,μ? for given partitions $$\lambda $$?, $$\mu $$μ, and $$\nu $$?. This graph was first introduced in Burgisser and Ikenmeyer (SIAM J Discrete Math 27(4):1639---1681, 2013), where its connectedness was proved. Our insights are useful for the design of algorithms for computing the Littlewood---Richardson coefficient: We design an algorithm for the exact computation of $$c_{\lambda ,\mu }^{\nu }$$c?,μ? with running time $$\mathcal {O}\big ((c_{\lambda ,\mu }^{\nu })^2 \cdot {\textsf {poly}}(n)\big )$$O((c?,μ?)2·poly(n)), where $$\lambda $$?, $$\mu $$μ, and $$\nu $$? are partitions of length at most n. Moreover, we introduce an algorithm for deciding whether $$c_{\lambda ,\mu }^{\nu } \ge t$$c?,μ??t whose running time is $$\mathcal {O}\big (t^2 \cdot {\textsf {poly}}(n)\big )$$O(t2·poly(n)). Even the existence of a polynomial-time algorithm for deciding whether $$c_{\lambda ,\mu }^{\nu } \ge 2$$c?,μ??2 is a nontrivial new result on its own. Our insights also lead to the proof of a conjecture by King et al. (Symmetry in physics. American Mathematical Society, Providence, 2004), stating that $$c_{\lambda ,\mu }^{\nu }=2$$c?,μ?=2 implies $$c_{M\lambda ,M\mu }^{M\nu } = M+1$$cM?,MμM?=M+1 for all $$M \in \mathbb {N}$$M?N. Here, the stretching of partitions is defined componentwise.
Stochastic resonance as a collective property of ion channel assemblies

By use of a stochastic generalization of the Hodgkin-Huxley model we investigate both the phenomena of stochastic resonance (SR) and coherence resonance (CR) in variable size patches of an excitable cell membrane. Our focus is on the challenge: how internal noise stemming from individual ion channels does affect collective properties of the whole ensemble. We investigate both an unperturbed situation with no applied stimuli and one in which the membrane is stimulated externally by a periodic signal and additional external noise. For the nondriven case, we demonstrate the existence of an optimal size of the membrane patch for which the internal noise causes a most regular spike activity. This phenomenon shall be termed intrinsic CR. In the presence of an applied periodic stimulus, we demonstrate that the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) exhibits SR vs. decreasing patch size, or vs. increasing internal noise strength, respectively. Moreover, we demonstrate that conventional SR vs. the external noise intensity occurs only for sufficiently large membrane patches, when the intensity of internal noise is below its optimal level. Thus, biological SR is seemingly rooted in the collective properties of large ion channel ensembles rather than in the individual stochastic dynamics of single ion channels.
The Swing Voter's Curse in the Laboratory

This paper reports the first laboratory study of the swing voter’s curse and provides insights on the larger theoretical and empirical literature on "pivotal voter" models. Our experiment controls for different information levels of voters, as well as the size of the electorate, the distribution of preferences, and other theoretically relevant parameters. The design varies the share of partisan voters and the prior belief about a payoff relevant state of the world. Our results support the equilibrium predictions of the Feddersen-Pesendorfer model, and clearly reject the notion that voters in the laboratory use naive decision-theoretic strategies. The voters act as if they are aware of the swing voter’s curse and adjust their behavior to compensate. While the compensation is not complete and there is some heterogeneity in individual behavior, we find that aggregate outcomes, such as efficiency, turnout, and margin of victory, closely track the theoretical predictions.
Whole-Mount X-Gal Staining of Mouse Tissues

Although the development of improved mouse models, including conditional deletions, marks an exciting time in mouse genetics, it is important to characterize and validate these models. Cre reporter strains allow researchers to assess the recombinase expression profile and function in individual Cre mouse lines. These strains are engineered to express a reporter gene (usually LacZ) following the removal of a floxed STOP cassette, thus marking cell lineages that can be targeted with a given Cre line. This protocol provides a detailed method for the histochemical detection of β-galactosidase activity in Cre mouse strains.
Enhanced Capabilities of Future Fighters as a Result of HiMAT

This paper focuses on projected requirements of future tactical fighters; and relates the HiMAT and other associated research and development programs intended to enhance these fighters. Specific advanced fighter technologies emerging from the programs are discussed, and the potential combat characteristics that can be obtained are presented. The HiMAT program's unique role as a research test bed for high-risk advanced technologies provides an appropriate and economical method of investigating and flight verifying the potential of future fighter technologies. Two remote piloted research vehicles which are 44% scale versions of a 1990 highly maneuverable fighter design, will demonstrate the viability of such advanced technologies as: aeroelastic tailoring, close-coupled canard, supercritical airfoils, variable camber, advanced composite materials, and integrated propulsion controls. Successful development and air vehicle integration of emerging technologies such as these should provide substantial improvements in supersonic performance, low-speed control, transonic maneuverability, and low-weight, low-cost vehicles capable of superior operation over the broad flight envelope potentially required of future fighters.
A Molecular Iron Catalyst for the Acceptorless Dehydrogenation and Hydrogenation of N‑Heterocycles

A well-defined iron complex (3) supported by a bis(phosphino)amine pincer ligand efficiently catalyzes both acceptorless dehydrogenation and hydrogenation of N-heterocycles. The products from these reactions are isolated in good yields. Complex 3, the active catalytic species in the dehydrogenation reaction, is independently synthesized and characterized, and its structure is confirmed by X-ray crystallography. A trans-dihydride intermediate (4) is proposed to be involved in the hydrogenation reaction, and its existence is verified by NMR and trapping experiments.
General transformation formulas for Fermi–Walker coordinates

We calculate the transformation and inverse transformation, in the form of Taylor expansions, from arbitrary coordinates to Fermi–Walker coordinates in tubular neighborhoods of arbitrary timelike paths for general spacetimes. Explicit formulae for coefficients and the Jacobian matrix are given.
Redefining Who’s ‘In’ and Who’s ‘Out’: Explaining Preferences for Redistribution in Bolivia

AbstractHow does welfare state expansion reconfigure political coalitions? This paper challenges traditional accounts that pit social policy ‘insiders’, who univocally oppose policy expansion, against ‘outsiders’ who favour it. It argues that labour market vulnerability and partisan cues can play a critical role in shaping the preferences of both insiders and outsiders, and thus produce new pro-expansion coalitions. To test this claim, it employs historical analysis of key social insurance configurations in Bolivia over the last 30 years, as well as an original survey carried out in Bolivia following that nation’s 2007 extension of a noncontributory national minimum pension.
A Prescription for Building the Milky Way's Halo from Disrupted Satellites

We develop a semianalytic method for determining the phase-space population of tidal debris along the orbit of a disrupting satellite galaxy and illustrate its use with a number of applications. We use this method to analyze Zhao's proposal that the microlensing events toward the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) might be explained by an appropriately placed tidal streamer and find that his scenarios lead either to unacceptably high overdensities (10%-100%) in faint star counts (apparent magnitudes 17.5-20.5) away from the Galactic plane or short timescales for the debris to disperse (108 yr). We predict that the tidal streamers from the LMC and the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy currently extend over more than 2π in azimuth along their orbits. Assuming that each satellite has lost one-half of its primordial mass, we find that the streamers will have overdensities in faint star counts of 10%-100% and less than 1%, respectively, and conclude that this mass-loss rate is unlikely for the LMC but possible for Sagittarius. If the Galaxy has accreted 100 objects of 105-106 M☉ (comparable to its current population of globular clusters) at distances of 20-100 kpc during its lifetime, then 10% of the sky will now be covered by tidal streamers.
Behavioral genetics of food intake regulation in free-living humans

It has been established that the genes influence body size. Recently, it has become clear that food intake is also influenced by heredity. Surprisingly, the genetic effect on intake was found to occur independent of body size. Taking height and body weight into consideration, strong influences of heredity were found on the total amounts of food energy, macronutrients, and fluids ingested. Also, genetic influences were found related to the microstructure of intake, affecting the number, timing, and composition of meals. Since overall intake is determined by the size and frequency of meals, this was not surprising. However, these heritable factors were shown to influence meal size and frequency even when overall daily intake was considered in the model. Recently, we have shown that there are even heritable factors that influence the choice of the environmental conditions at the meals; the time, degree of hunger, stomach fullness, and the number and type of people at the meal. Also the degree to which these conditions affect intake appears to be heritable. These findings suggest that there are important heritable factors that influence body size, overall daily intake independent of body size, meal intake independent of overall daily intake, and the selection of and responsivity to the environmental conditions surrounding eating.
Particulate Contamination Within Fusion Devices and Complex (Dusty) Plasmas

Summary form only given. Over the past decade, dust particulate contamination has increasingly become an area of concern within the fusion research community. In a burning plasma machine design like the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), dust contamination presents problems for diagnostic integration and may contribute to tritium safety issues. Additionally due to ITER design, such dust contamination problems are projected to become of even greater concern due to dust / wall interactions and possible instabilities created within the plasma by such particulates. Since the dynamics of such dust can in general be explained employing a combination of the ion drag, Coulomb force, and ion pre-sheath drifts, recent research in complex (dusty) plasma physics often offers unique insights for this research area. This paper discusses the possibility of how experimental observations of the dust and plasma parameters within a GEC rf Reference Cell might be employed to diagnose conditions within fusion reactors, hopefully providing insight into possible mechanisms for dust detection and removal.
Geometrical transformation of linear diode-laser arrays for longitudinal pumping of solid-state lasers

A 200-stripe linear diode-laser array is geometrically transformed into a two-dimensional, symmetric virtual source with symmetric divergence to end pump a Nd:YAG laser. The geometrical transformation is performed by two planes of diffractive optical elements separated by a 2.6-cm gap. Discounting optical losses, a TEM/sub 00/ mode slope efficiency of 56% is demonstrated. Methods of increasing the throughput efficiency of the diffractive elements (currently approximately 50% per element,) are explored. A theoretical model for estimating the maximum useful pump array size in longitudinally pumped rod and fiber lasers shows that this pump geometry is close to optimum. >
Executive pay and performance Evidence from the U.S. banking industry

This paper examines CEO pay in the banking industry and the effect of deregulating the market for corporate control. Using panel data on 147 banks over the 1980s we find higher levels of pay in competitive corporate control markets, i.e., those in which interstate banking is permitted. We also find a stronger pay-performance relation in deregulated interstate banking markets. Finally, CEO turnover increases substantially after deregulation. These results provide evidence of a managerial talent market - one which matches the level and structure of pay with the competitiveness of the banking environment. Key
Training a 3-Node Neural Network is NP-Complete

We consider a 2-layer, 3-node, n-input neural network whose nodes compute linear threshold functions of their inputs. We show that it is NP-complete to decide whether there exist weights and thresholds for the three nodes of this network so that it will produce output consistent with a given set of training examples. We extend the result to other simple networks. This result suggests that those looking for perfect training algorithms cannot escape inherent computational difficulties just by considering only simple or very regular networks. It also suggests the importance, given a training problem, of finding an appropriate network and input encoding for that problem. It is left as an open problem to extend our result to nodes with non-linear functions such as sigmoids.
The viability of spectrum trading markets

Spectrum trading markets are of growing interest to many spectrum management agencies. They are motivated by their desire to increase the use of market-based mechanisms for spectrum management and reduce their emphasis on command and control methods. Despite the liberalization of regulations on spectrum trading in some countries, spectrum markets have not yet emerged as a key spectrum assignment component. The lack of liquidity in these markets is sometimes cited as a primary factor in this outcome. This work focuses on determining the conditions for viability of spectrum trading markets. We make use of agent-based computational economics to analyze different market scenario and the behaviors of its participants. Our results provide guidelines regarding the number of market participants and the amount of tradable spectrum that should be present in a spectrum trading market for it to be viable. We use the results of this analysis to make recommendations for the design of these markets.
Cooperative game theory within multi-agent systems for systems scheduling

Research concerning organization and coordination within multi-agent systems continues to draw from a variety of architectures and methodologies. The work presented in this paper combines techniques from game theory and multi-agent systems to produce self-organizing, polymorphic, lightweight, embedded agents for systems scheduling within a large-scale real-time systems environment. Results show how this approach is used to experimentally produce optimum real-time scheduling through the emergent behavior of thousands of agents. These results are obtained using a SWARM simulation of systems scheduling within a high energy physics experiment consisting of 2500 digital signal processors.
Synthesis of (±)-aporphine utilizing Pictet–Spengler and intramolecular phenol ortho-arylation reactions

Abstract A synthesis of the alkaloid (±)-aporphine is reported. The initial key step of the synthesis involves a Pictet–Spengler cyclization of N-tosyl tyramine with 2-bromophenylacetaldehyde in trifluoroacetic acid. This step was followed by the second strategic transformation a palladium-mediated intramolecular phenol ortho -arylation reaction utilizing tricyclohexylphosphine as co-catalysts in the presence of cesium carbonate. Finally, de-oxygenation of the phenol, removal of the tosyl group and methylation gave the desired alkaloid.