cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Nigger: A Critical Race Realist Analysis of the N-Word within Hate Crimes Law

On a 2005 summer morning in New York, Nicholas 'Fat Nick' Minucci, who is White, beat Glenn Moore, who is Black, with a baseball bat and robbed him. During the assault, Minucci repeatedly screamed the N-word. At trial, Minucci's attorney argued that he had not committed a hate crime. The essence of the defense's argument was that Minucci's use of the N-word while assaulting and robbing Moore was not indicative of any bias or prejudice. The defense went on to indicate that Minucci had Black friends, was immersed in Black culture, and employed the N-word as part of his everyday vocabulary. Two Black men-Gary Jenkins (a hip-hop music producer) anti Randall Kennedy (a Harvard Law professor)testified that the N-word is not necessarily a racial epithet. In this Article, we systematically analyze this assessment of the N-word within hate crimes law. We employ a Critical Race Realist methodology toward this end. In doing so, we (1) systematically analyze Black and White usage of the N-word within popular culture-i.e., comedy, rap music, and spoken word entertainment and (2) reconcile these findings with research on implicit (subconscious) racial bias. In sum, we argue that whereas the N-Word is used by Blacks in a more race neutral manner within popular culture, its usage among Whites immersed in Black culture is nil. Furthermore, we find that many Whites harbor implicit anti-Black biases, and such biases predict racial hostility and the use of racial epithets. Consequently, within the realm of hate crimes law, courts should presume racial animus where a White person uses the N-word while committing a crime against a Black person. Furthermore, despite high rates of Black usage of the N-word and high rates of implicit anti-Black biases among Blacks, a law of intra-racial hate crimes among Blacks predicated upon their usage of the N-word would be fruitless. This is because the N-word has a different connotation when used intra-racially among Blacks than when directed at Blacks by Whites.
Computation of an over-approximation of the backward reachable set using subsystem level set functions

In this paper, we present a method to decompose the problem of computing the backward reachable set for a dynamic system in a space of a given dimension, into a set of computational problems involving level set functions, each defined in a lower dimensional (subsystem) space. This allows the potential for great reduction in computation time. The overall system is considered as an interconnection of either disjoint or overlapping subsystems. The projection of the backward reachable set into the subsystem spaces is over-approximated by a level set of the corresponding subsystem level set function. It is shown how this method can be applied to two-player differential games. Finally, results of the computation of polytopic over-approximations of the unsafe set for the two aircraft conflict resolution problem are presented.
Do donors get what they paid for? micro evidence on the fungibility of development project aid

Recipient government responses to development project aid have typically been studied at high levels of aggregation, using cross-country comparisons and/or aggregate time series data. Yet increasingly the relevant decisions are being made at the local level, in response to specific community-level projects. The authors use local-level data to test for fungibility of World Bank financing of rural road rehabilitation targeted to specific geographic areas of Vietnam. A simple double difference estimate suggests that the project's net contribution to rehabilitated road increments is close to zero, suggesting complete displacement of funding. However, with better controls for the endogeneity of project placement the authors find much less evidence of fungibility, with displacement accounting for around one-third of the aid. The results point to the importance of dealing with selection bias in assessing project aid fungibility.
Risk characteristics of the combined geographic atrophy and choroidal neovascularisation phenotype in age-related macular degeneration

Aim To investigate the risk characteristics of the combined geographic atrophy (GA) and choroidal neovascularisation (CNV) phenotype of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) compared to GA or CNV. Methods Patients with advanced AMD were identified and divided into three groups using multimodal imaging: patients with GA in at least one eye, patients with CNV in at least one eye, and patients with simultaneous GA and CNV in at least one eye. Epidemiologic and clinical factors were gathered from patient questionnaires. Genotypes for age-related maculopathy susceptibility 2 ( ARMS2 ) and complement factor H ( CFH ) were determined. Results 42 patients with GA or CNV, and 16 patients with combined GA/CNV were identified. Patients with the combined phenotype were older (86.4 vs 81.8 years, p=0.049), and had a higher prevalence of advanced AMD in the fellow eye (81.3% vs 31.0%, p CFH and ARMS2 risk alleles were not associated with the combined phenotype. Conclusions The combined GA/CNV phenotype has similar epidemiologic, clinical, and genetic features as GA and CNV, but occurs at an older age and is more associated with advanced AMD in the fellow eye, suggesting that all these phenotypes are part of the same spectrum of disease and that the combined phenotype represents an even more advanced form of AMD than either GA or CNV.
Student Retention: Impacts of an Agricultural Economics First Year Seminar Course

As universities seek to enhance student retention, a positive first year experience is critical for student success. The objective of this research is to determine whether an agricultural economics first-year seminar course improves retention rates of its undergraduate students. This course provides a unique opportunity for students to learn about the agricultural economics discipline, and also gain insights into what it takes to be a successful college student. Analysis examines whether departmental retention and graduation rates improve after course implementation in 1998, and compares departmental retention and graduation rates to those of the college and university. Qualitative analysis using student evaluations, senior exit interviews and student surveys also assess the impact of this course on student success. Results show that retention and graduation rates improve following course implementation. Retention, four-year graduation rates and five-year graduation rates for the Department exceed those for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and exceed the four-year graduation rates for the university.
Family History of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Patients with Idiopathic Ocular Inflammation

Purpose To determine the prevalence of a family history (FMH) of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in patients with idiopathic ocular inflammation (OI). Design Retrospective observational study. Methods Medical records of idiopathic OI patients seen between January 1995 and June 2005 in the University of Illinois Uveitis Clinic were screened for a FMH of IBD. FMH included first, second, and third degree relatives. Results 727 (32.8%) patients had idiopathic OI. 26 of 727 (3.6%) and 10 of 727 (1.4%) reported a FMH of ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease, respectively. 16 (2.2%) patients with a FMH of indeterminate colitis were excluded from subsequent comparisons. The prevalence of a FMH of IBD among patients with idiopathic OI was 3- to 15-fold higher than the prevalence of UC and Crohn's in the general population (0.055% to 0.27%). Keratoiritis was more common and granulomatous disease less frequent in patients with a FMH of IBD ( P = .014 and .019). Patients tested 26.3% with a FMH of IBD, and 66.7% of patients tested with IBD themselves, were HLA-B27 positive (odds ratio [OR] 5.6, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.77 to 45.8), compared with 40.1% of patients with neither (OR 1.87, 95% CI 0.61 to 6.83). Conclusions A FMH of IBD may be an independent risk factor for the development of OI. In contrast to the subgroup of patients with a personal history of IBD, HLA-B27 may not be an appropriate marker in the subgroup of patients with merely a FMH of IBD, emphasizing the importance of investigating other immunologic factors that may predispose patients with IBD and their relatives to OI.
A Rewriting Based Model for Probabilistic Distributed Object Systems

Concurrent and distributed systems have traditionally been modelled using nondeterministic transitions over configurations. The nondeterminism provides an abstraction over scheduling, network delays, failures and randomization. However a probabilistic model can capture these sources of nondeterminism more precisely and enable statistical analysis, simulations and reasoning. We have developed a general semantic framework for probabilistic systems using probabilistic rewriting. Our framework also allows nondeterminism in the system. In this paper, we briefly describe the framework and its application to concurrent object based systems such as actors. We also identify a sufficiently expressive fragment of the general framework and describe its implementation. The concepts are illustrated by a simple client-server example.
Traces, Pomsets, Fairness and Full Abstraction for Communicating Processes

We provide a denotational trace semantics for processes with synchronous communication and a form of weakly fair parallelism. The semantics is fully abstract: processes have the same trace sets if and only if their communication behaviors are identical in all contexts. The model can easily be adapted for asynchronously communicating processes, or for shared-memory parallel programs. We also provide a partial-order semantics, using pomsets adapted for synchronization and our form of fairness. The pomset semantics can also be adjusted to model alternative paradigms. The traces of a process can be recovered from the pomset semantics by taking all fair interleavings consistent with the partial order.
El poder autónomo del Estado: sus orígenes, mecanismos y resultados

This article was published for the first time in English in 1984 in the magazine Archives Europennes de Sociologie, and afterwards in the compilation of Michael Mann’s works States, war and capitalism: studies in political sociology. We take up Pablo Sanchez Leon’s translation, published in 1991 in the magazine Zona Abierta. Mann argues that: “the state is merely and essentially an arena, a space, and that however these is the precise source of its autonomy.”
Physical Origins of Thermal Properties of Cement Paste

Concrete is the most used human-made material on earth, the backbone of civil infrastructure, yet the link between the composition of cement paste and its thermophysical properties remains rather obscure. This multiscale study combines statistical physics and mean-field homogenization theory to unravel the relationship between the chemistry of the calcium silicate phases present in the paste and its macroscopic heat capacity and thermal conductivity. These results offer a robust physical basis for engineering thermal and acoustic isolation of buildings, and more durable ceramics and other construction materials.
Point-defect optical transitions and thermal ionization energies from quantum Monte Carlo methods: Application to the F -center defect in MgO

We present an approach to calculation of point-defect optical and thermal ionization energies based on the highly accurate quantum Monte Carlo methods. The use of an inherently many-body theory that directly treats electron correlation offers many improvements over the typically employed density functional theory Kohn-Sham description. In particular, the use of quantum Monte Carlo methods can help overcome the band-gap problem and obviate the need for ad hoc corrections. We demonstrate our approach to the calculation of the optical and thermal ionization energies of the $F$-center defect in magnesium oxide, and obtain excellent agreement with experimental and/or other high-accuracy computational results.
Runtime volume visualization for parallel CFD

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the design of a parallel volume rendering (PVR) library which renders in-place distributed data on a rectilinear grid. There are special considerations for such design and implementation. It focuses on the PVR algorithm, and provides a thorough discussion on the library design of a parallel polygonrenderer. The chapter performs tests for runtime visualization of a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver, on the Intel Paragon XP/S using from 8 to 216 processors. Interactive visual responses reflecting simulation states and the physical phenomena modeled, allow better control of the simulation, and can offer additional insights into the physics behind the model. Performance studies show that the parallel rendering process is scalable with the size of the simulation as well as with the parallel computer. The chapter mentions that although the current implementation only handles data on a rectilinear grid, the design principles of the library can be generalized to handle unstructured or curvilinear grids as well.
The Role of Interest Rates in Influencing Long-Run Homeownership Rates

As a stated policy objective, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) seeks to boost the national homeownership rate to 70 percent by 2006. To accomplish this goal, they estimate that 3.8 million additional families be added to the ranks of U.S. homeowners. Furthermore, HUD estimates that the homeownership gap between minority and nonminority families must be reduced by a full 15 percent. Many policy instruments—both targeted and otherwise—have been suggested to increase homeownership. These range from low downpayment loans, greater access to credit in underserved areas, and interest rates subsidies. However, little is know about the efficacy of these measures to raise long-term homeownership rates. In this analysis, we focus on the role of interest rates on homeownership rates and the housing stock. In particular, we provide a critical review of the literature on the relationship between housing and interest rates in contrast to other determinants of homeownership and changes in housing supply. We then present our own estimates of the influence of interest rates on homeownership and housing starts. We find that interest rates play little direct role in changing homeownership rates. While changes in interest rates may affect the timing of changes in tenure status from renter to owner, the long-run ownership rate appears independent of interest rates. We find housing starts are, however, sensitive to changes in the interest rate. This implies that housing supply, or at least the timing of changes in housing supply, is sensitive to interest rates. It is though this mechanism that the stock of owner-occupied housing expands, though household formation and immigration may leave the ownership rate unchanged. We conclude by discussing whether other instruments, such as low down payment loans and improved technology for assessment of credit risk, may potentially be better suited to increasing long-term homeownership rates.
Di‐tert‐butylneopentylphosphine (DTBNpP): An Efficient Ligand in the Palladium‐Catalyzed α‐Arylation of Ketones

Di-tert-butylneopentylphosphine (DTBNpP) and palladium(II) acetate provide an efficient catalytic system for the α-arylation of ketones. Aryl bromides were coupled with ketones using 0.25–0.5 mol-% Pd(OAc)2/DTBNpP in toluene at 50 °C, whereas aryl chlorides required a higher catalyst loading (0.5–2.0 mol-%) and a higher temperature (80 °C). Coupling of 2-bromophenol with ketones using the Pd/DTBNpP system provides an efficient route for the synthesis of benzofurans.
MONETARY ACCOMMODATION, EXCHANGE RATE REGIMES AND INFLATION PERSISTENCE*

Stable URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-0133%28199205%29102%3A412%3C461%3AMAERRA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-LThe Economic Journal is currently published by Royal Economic Society.Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/res.html.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academicjournals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community takeadvantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.http://www.jstor.orgWed Feb 13 07:34:49 2008
Stereochemical Aspects of Radical Pair Reactions

Proprietes de paires de radicaux en solution, dans des solides et dans des agregats moleculaires tels que membranes biologiques et micelles
Perspective on Economic Critiques of Disability Law: The Multifaceted Federal Role in Balancing Equity and Efficiency

Given the recent enactment of the ADA Amendments Act, this article analyzes a Rawlsian philosophical framework with which to view society’s treatment of people with disabilities. Allocation of resources remains a pervasive concern of economists and attorneys alike. Need, merit, and market compete as means by which to decide who should receive what benefits. This article concludes that while economics can play a powerful role in the initial allocation of limited resources, there remains a multifaceted federal role to confront discrimination and promote equity.
Visual Scene Representations: Scaling and Occlusion in Convolutional Architectures.

We study the structure of representations, defined as approximations of minimal sufficient statistics that are maximal invariants to nuisance factors, for visual data subject to scaling and occlusion of line-of-sight. We derive analytical expressions for such representations and show that, under certain restrictive assumptions, they are related to features commonly in use in the computer vision community. This link highlights the condition tacitly assumed by these descriptors, and also suggests ways to improve and generalize them. This new interpretation draws connections to the classical theories of sampling, hypothesis testing and group invariance.
Mapping spaces and homology isomorphisms

Let Map(K, X) denote the space of pointed continuous maps from a finite cell complex K to a space X. Let E* be a generalized homology theory. We use Goodwillie calculus methods to prove that under suitable conditions on K and X, Map(K, X) will send an E*-isomorphism in either variable to a map that is monic in E* homology. Interesting examples arise by letting E* be K-theory, the finite complex K be a sphere, and the map in the X variable be an exotic unstable Adams map between Moore spaces.
Understanding Spatial Welfare Impacts of a Grain Ethanol Plant

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Agricultural Economics Department at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska -Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications: Agricultural Economics by an authorized administrator ofDigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln.
An empirical model of the drift velocity of equatorial plasma depletions

[1] The Far-Ultraviolet Imager on the IMAGE spacecraft (IMAGE-FUV) has been used to observe O+plasma depletions in the post-sunset equatorial ionosphere. Small-scale density irregularities associated with such depletions are believed to adversely affect trans-ionospheric radio signals such as GPS. Prediction of the motion of these plasma depletions is a necessary component of the ability to forecast the occurrence of such radio signal interference. An automated method has recently been developed to identify and track the position and zonal drift velocity of these depletions. Here we use this method to create a large database of the zonal drift velocities of these depletions. We present an empirical model based on these observations that describes the observed drift velocities as a function of both local time and magnetic latitude, which is essential to represent their behavior. A comparison of the observed drift velocities with zonal winds from both an empirical model (Horizontal Wind Model; HWM07) and a first-principles model (the TIEGCM) reveals that the plasma depletions' drift velocities have a latitudinal gradient that cannot be explained solely by the F-region dynamo in the post-sunset period, at least by these climatological models. This suggests that these plasma depletions may not simply drift with the background F-region plasma. It has previously been suggested that vertical polarization electric fields associated with the plasma depletions are responsible for their zonal drifts exceeding the background flow, which may explain the previously-observed discrepancy in the drift velocities and the discrepancy in their gradients reported here.
The Generalized Uncertainty Principle and Black Hole Remnants

In the current standard viewpoint small black holes are believed to emit black body radiation at the Hawking temperature, at least until they approach Planck size, after which their fate is open to conjecture. A cogent argument against the existence of remnants is that, since no evident quantum number prevents it, black holes should radiate completely away to photons and other ordinary stable particles and vacuum, like any unstable quantum system. Here we argue the contrary, that the generalized uncertainty principle may prevent their total evaporation in exactly the same way that the uncertainty principle prevents the hydrogen atom from total collapse: the collapse is prevented, not by symmetry, but by dynamics, as a minimum size and mass are approached.
An optimal application-aware resource block scheduling in LTE

In this paper, we introduce an approach for application-aware resource block scheduling of elastic and inelastic adaptive real-time traffic in fourth generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems. The users are assigned to resource blocks. A transmission may use multiple resource blocks scheduled over frequency and time. In our model, we use logarithmic and sigmoidal-like utility functions to represent the applications running on different user equipments (UE)s. We present an optimal problem with utility proportional fairness policy, where the fairness among users is in utility percentage (i.e user satisfaction with the service) of the corresponding applications. Our objective is to allocate the resources to the users with priority given to the adaptive real-time application users. In addition, a minimum resource allocation for users with elastic and inelastic traffic should be guaranteed. Every user subscribing for the mobile service should have a minimum quality-of-service (QoS) with a priority criterion. We prove that our scheduling policy exists and achieves the maximum. Therefore the optimal solution is tractable. We present a centralized scheduling algorithm to allocate evolved NodeB (eNodeB) resources optimally with a priority criterion. Finally, we present simulation results for the performance of our scheduling algorithm and compare our results with conventional proportional fairness approaches. The results show that the user satisfaction is higher with our proposed method.
Who Takes You to the Dance? How Partners’ Institutional Logics Influence Innovation in Young Firms:

Drawing on institutional theory, we examine how the institutional logics—taken-for granted norms, structures, and practices—of different types of funding partners influence young firms and their search for innovations. We test our hypotheses in a longitudinal study of a complete population of ventures in the minimally invasive surgical device industry in the U.S., supplemented by interviews with industry informants. We find that types of funding partners vary significantly from one another: they all provide resources, but their institutional logics differ. Venture capitalists (VCs) pick young firms with significant patented technologies and help firms launch products, and high-status VCs strengthen both the patenting and product innovations of young firms. Corporate venture capitalists and government agencies also select patent-intensive firms but are less effective than VCs in helping ventures during the relationship because, though these partners often have impressive technical and commercial resources ...
The Physics of Solar Flares

Solar flare phenomena are examined in an introduction for advanced undergraduate and graduate physics students. Chapters are devoted to the history of observations, flare spectroscopy, flare magnetohydrodynamics, flare plasma physics, radiative processes in the solar plasma, preflare conditions, the impulsive phase, the gradual phase, and coronal mass ejections. Diagrams, graphs, and photographs are provided.
An Economic Analysis of Construction Bottlenecks

Road construction, including repaving and repair, often require that 2 or more lanes of traffic be consolidated into 1 lane around the construction area. Normally, the merging process is unmanaged, which in peak traffic periods can result in queues at the site of the bottleneck. Traffic moves through the queue in a stop-and-go manner, thus increasing travel time. This paper calculates the amount of time spent in the traffic queues which result when the behavior of drivers at bottlenecks is unmanaged. It then explores a strategy for imposing order on driver behavior and determines the reduction in queuing time that would result. An example is provided indicating that the value of the reduction can be dramatic.
A SEARCH FOR HYDROXYLAMINE (NH2OH) TOWARD SELECT ASTRONOMICAL SOURCES

Observations of 14 rotational transitions of hydroxylamine (NH_2OH) using the NRAO 12 m telescope on Kitt Peak are reported toward IRC+10216, Orion KL, Orion S, Sgr B2(N), Sgr B2(OH), W3IRS5, and W51M. Although recent models suggest the presence of NH_2OH in high abundance, these observations resulted in non-detection. Upper limits are calculated to be as much as six orders of magnitude lower than those predicted by models. Possible explanations for the lower-than-expected abundance are explored.
Chapter 22 – Extracellular Matrix

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the extracellular matrix constituents of the respiratory system. Until recently the extracellular matrix was thought of solely as a static structural support network. Now it is knows that the extracellular matrix is comprised by a large and varied group of dynamic macromolecules and their regulatory factors, which provides structural support and is a physical barrier. However, it also elicits cellular responses and its interactions are involved in development and organ formation. Disruption of normal extracellular matrix during disease processes can lead to an inflammatory response that exacerbates aberrant remodeling of the lung. The biomechanical properties of the lung are primarily determined by the extracellular matrix components that comprise the tissue. In the lung they can be largely categorized into four groups: the collagens, proteoglycans, elastic fibers, and non-collagenous proteins. The matrix of the normal lung imparts the strength and resilience for the continuous cycling of inspiration and expiration. For proper gas exchange, the components of the extracellular matrix are distributed in a fashion to reduce the boundary between erythrocytes and oxygen. When the exquisite balance of matrix glycoprotein is disturbed, the consequences on the lung are manifested by pathology. Heritable disorders of connective tissue (HDCT) are a series of disorders caused by mutations in structural or modifying components of the extracellular matrix. Since most of these gene products are expressed in multiple tissues, pleiotropic manifestations are observed in most HDCT. Alterations in connective tissue likely play key roles in the pathogenesis of both asthma and COPD.
Astrochemistry and Observations

The past few years have seen dramatic improvements in our ability to extract chemical information from molecular line observations. These advances have been driven by new observational platforms and techniques. In the following I will outline the various methods and uncertainties in computing chemical information from observations across the spectrum of star formation activity (from diffuse clouds, to star-forming cores, to molecular outflows). I will show how improved chemical knowledge can be used to place stronger constraints on theoretical astrochemical models, but also open new avenues in the use of molecular emission to examine the physics of molecular clouds and star formation.
Temporal yoking in continuous multitasking

Continuous tasks such as baggage screening often involve selective gating of sensory information when "targets" are detected. Previous research has shown that temporal selection of behaviorally relevant information triggers changes in perception, learning, and memory. However, it is unclear whether temporal selection has broad effects on concurrent tasks. To address this question, we asked participants to view a stream of faces and encoded faces of a particular gender for a later memory test. At the same time, they listened to a sequence of tones, pressing a button for specific pitched tones. We manipulated the timing of temporal selection such that target faces and target tones could be unrelated, perfectly correlated, or anticorrelated. Temporal selection was successful when the temporally coinciding stimuli were congruent (e.g., both were targets), but not when they were incongruent (i.e., only 1 was a target). This pattern suggests that attentional selection for separate tasks is yoked in time-when the attentional gate opens for 1 task it also opens for the other. Temporal yoking is a unique form of dual-task interaction.
Heavy particle collisions

The speaker (LS) is on record as believing that occasionally, for all its obvious disadvantages, talks should be given by those who had not been deeply involved, if at all, in the subject to be covered. Possible advantages include great freedom in the choice of topics, the lack of a compulsion to cover every detail of the topics chosen, and an objectivity (if some ignorance) in accreditation. Neither of us had been knowledgeable in two of the three topics we have chosen. To avoid pitfalls in our treatment of the third, asymmetric charge transfer, we have given a completely qualitative discussion of developments in that area.
Mixture Models With a Prior on the Number of Components

ABSTRACTA natural Bayesian approach for mixture models with an unknown number of components is to take the usual finite mixture model with symmetric Dirichlet weights, and put a prior on the number of components—that is, to use a mixture of finite mixtures (MFM). The most commonly used method of inference for MFMs is reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo, but it can be nontrivial to design good reversible jump moves, especially in high-dimensional spaces. Meanwhile, there are samplers for Dirichlet process mixture (DPM) models that are relatively simple and are easily adapted to new applications. It turns out that, in fact, many of the essential properties of DPMs are also exhibited by MFMs—an exchangeable partition distribution, restaurant process, random measure representation, and stick-breaking representation—and crucially, the MFM analogues are simple enough that they can be used much like the corresponding DPM properties. Consequently, many of the powerful methods developed for inference in DPMs ...
Interregional burden-sharing of greenhouse gas mitigation in the United States

Emissions trading is an attractive candidate for implementing greenhouse gas mitigation, because it can promote both efficiency and equity. This paper analyzes the interregional impacts of alternative allocations of carbon dioxide emission permits within the U.S. The analysis is performed with the aid of a nonlinear programming model for ten EPA Regions and for six alternative permit distribution formulas. The reason that various alternatives need to be considered is that there is no universal consensus on the best definition of equity. Advance knowledge of absolute and relative regional economic impacts provides policy-makers with a stronger basis for making the choice. The analysis yields several useful results. First, the simulations indicate that no matter how permits are allocated, this policy instrument can substantially reduce the cost of greenhouse gas mitigation for the U.S. in comparison to a system of fixed quotas for each of its regions. Interestingly, the welfare impacts of several of the allocation formulas differ only slightly despite the large differences in their philosophical underpinnings. Also, the results for some equity criteria differ greatly from their application in the international domain. For example, the Egalitarian (per capita) criterion results in the relatively greatest cost burden being incurred by one of the regions of the U.S. with the lowest per capita income.
Forensic fluid dynamics and the Indian Spring (1991) cave collapse problem.

Nof and Paldor (Safety Sci 2010;48:607-14) suggested that resonance in the air pockets in the Indian Spring cavern might have contributed to the 1991 collapse. Here, we extend the resonance theory to one pocket in the cavern and a very broad basin that serves as the other branch of the U-tube. Our methodology is to apply familiar fluid dynamics principles to the situation that occurred in the cave. We did so on the basis of our interviews with four of the five surviving cave divers. We dissected their testimonies to arrive at a physically plausible scenario deter- mined on the basis of a fluid dynamics application to the natural flow in the cave, the flow induced by the compressed air released by the divers and the mudslide. We found that there was a temporary flow blocking during the collapse, but no total flow reversal within the cave.
Multi-view Software Component Modeling for Dependability

Modeling software components from multiple perspectives provides complementary views of a software system and enables sophisticated analyses of its functionality. A software component is traditionally modeled from one or more of four functional aspects: interface, static behavior, dynamic behavior, and interaction protocol. Each of these aspects helps to ensure different levels of component compatibility and interoperability. Existing approaches to component modeling have either focused on only one of the aspects (e.g., interfaces in various IDLs) or on well-understood combinations of pairs of aspects (e.g., interfaces and their associated pre- and post-conditions in static behavior models). We advocate that, in order to accrue the true benefits of component-based software development, one needs to model all four aspects of components. In such a case, ensuring the consistency among the multiple views becomes critical. We offer an approach to modeling components using a fourview perspective (called the Quartet) and identify the points at which the consistency among the models must be maintained. We outline the range of possible intra-component, inter-model relationships, discuss their respective advantages and drawbacks, and motivate the specific choices we have made in our on-going research on ensuring the dependability of software systems from an architectural perspective.
Assembly of functionalized carbocycles or N-heterocycles through a domino electrocyclization–[1,2] migration reaction sequence

The development of processes that streamline the synthesis of complex, functionalized carbocycles and heterocycles remains a hotly pursued topic because their scaffolds are present in a range of bioactive molecules and electronic materials. Although the Nazarov reaction has emerged to be useful in the synthesis of carbocycles and heterocycles, using an electrocyclization to trigger a migration remains underdeveloped. By constructing several bonds in one operation, domino reaction sequences are particularly effective at improving the efficiency of synthesis. The use of transition metal catalysts has the potential to render these processes stereoselective. This review examines the use of electrocyclization–[1,2] migrations to construct molecules and is organized by the type of ring constructed and the order of the two steps in this process.
Self-adapting numerical software and automatic tuning of heuristics

Self-Adapting Numerical Software (SANS) systems aim to bridge the knowledge gap that exists between the expertise of domain scientists, and the know-how that is needed to fulfill efficiently their computational demands. This know-how extends to algorith choice, computational grid utilization, and use of properly optimized kernels. A SANS system is a piece of meta software that mediates between the application program and the computational platform so that application scientists - with disparate levels of knowledge of algorithmic and programmatic complexities of the underlying numerical software - can easily realize numerical solvers and efficiently solve their problem. The main component of a sans system is an Intelligent Agent that automates method selection based on data, algorithm and system attributes. The IA uses heuristics to make its decisions. In this paper we explain how the heuristics of the IA can be tuned over time by redundant testing and using the nature of many applications.
Plain fundamentals of Fundamental Planes: analytics and algorithms

Estimates of the coefficients a and b of the Fundamental Plane relation R∝σa Ib depend on whether one minimizes the scatter in the R direction, or orthogonal to the plane. We provide explicit expressions for a and b (and confidence limits) in terms of the covariances between log R, log σ and log I. Our expressions quantify the origin of the difference between the direct, inverse and orthogonal fit coefficients. They also show how to account for correlated errors, how to quantify the difference between the plane in a magnitude-limited survey and one which is volume limited, how to determine whether a scaling relation will be biased when using an apparent magnitude-limited survey, how to remove this bias and why some forms of the z≈ 0 plane appear to be less affected by selection effects, but that this does not imply that they will remain unaffected at high redshift. Finally, they show why, to a good approximation, the three vectors associated with the plane, one orthogonal to and the other two in it, can all be written as simple combinations of a and b. Essentially, this is a consequence of the fact that the distribution of surface brightness is much broader than that of velocity dispersions, and velocity dispersion and surface brightness are only weakly correlated. Why this should be so for galaxies is a fundamental open question about the physics of early-type galaxy formation. We argue that if luminosity evolution is differential, and sizes and velocity dispersions do not evolve, then this is just an accident: velocity dispersion and surface brightness must have been correlated in the past. On the other hand, if the (lack of) correlation is similar to that at the present time, then differential luminosity evolution must have been accompanied by structural evolution. A model in which the luminosities of low-luminosity galaxies evolve more rapidly than do those of higher luminosity galaxies is able to produce the observed decrease in a (by a factor of 2 at z∼ 1) while having b decrease by only about 20 per cent. In such a model, the dynamical mass-to-light ratio is a steeper function of mass at higher z. Our analysis is more generally applicable to any other correlations between three variables: e.g. the colour–magnitude–σ relation, the luminosity and velocity dispersion of a galaxy and the mass of its black hole or the relation between the X-ray luminosity, Sunyaev–Zeldovich decrement and optical richness of a cluster. Furthermore, for completeness, we show how our analysis generalizes further to correlations between more than three variables.
Modes of extensional faulting controlled by surface processes

We investigate the feedbacks between surface processes and tectonics in an extensional setting by coupling a 2-D geodynamical model with a landscape evolution law. Focusing on the evolution of a single normal fault, we show that surface processes significantly enhance the amount of horizontal extension a fault can accommodate before being abandoned in favor of a new fault. In simulations with very slow erosion rates, a 15 km thick brittle layer extends via a succession of crosscutting short-lived faults (heave 10 km). Using simple scaling arguments, we quantify the effect of surface mass removal on the force balance acting on a growing normal fault. This leads us to propose that the major range-bounding normal faults observed in many continental rifts owe their large offsets to erosional and depositional processes.
The Continental Drift Convection Cell

Continents on Earth periodically assemble to form supercontinents and then break up again into smaller continental blocks (the Wilson cycle). Previous highly developed numerical models incorporate fixed continents while others indicate that continent movement modulates flow. Our simplified numerical model suggests that continental drift is fundamental. A thermally insulating continent is anchored at its center to mantle flow on an otherwise stress-free surface for infinite Prandtl number cellular convection with constant material properties. Rayleigh numbers exceed 107, while continent widths and chamber lengths approach Earth's values. The Wilson cycle is reproduced by a unique, rugged monopolar “continental drift convection cell.” Subduction occurs at the cell's upstream end with cold slabs dipping at an angle beneath the moving continent (as found in many continent/subduction regions on Earth). Drift enhances vertical heat transport up to 30%, especially at the core-mantle boundary, and greatly decreases lateral mantle temperature differences.
Price elasticity of nonresidential demand for energy in south eastern Europe

Recent volatility in international energy prices has revealed South Eastern Europe as one of the most vulnerable regions to such external shocks. Under the current global economic downturn, in addition, the regions energy-intensive industries are faced with the challenge of the weakening demand for their outputs. This paper casts light on the relationship between the price and the demand for energy. Based on firm level data, it is shown that the price elasticity of industrial energy demand is about -0.4 on average. There are a number of data issues to interpret the results correctly. But Albania and Macedonia are systematically found to have a relatively elastic demand for energy on the order of -0.7 to -0.8. In these countries, therefore, price adjustments would be one of the effective policy options to balance demand with supply during the period of energy crisis. In other countries, the demand response would be much weaker; pricing cannot be the only solution. Other policy measures, such as facilitation of firm energy efficiency and improvements in the quality of infrastructure services, may be required.
Strong coupling running, gauge coupling unification and the scale of new physics

The apparent unification of gauge couplings in Grand Unified Theories (GUT) around 1016 GeV is one of the strong arguments in favor of Supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model. In this paper, an analysis of the measurements of the strong coupling running from the CMS experiment at the LHC is combined with a “traditional” gauge coupling unification analysis using data at the Z peak. This approach places powerful constraints on the possible scales of new physics and on the parameters around the unification scale. A supersymmetric analysis without GUT threshold corrections describes the CMS data well and provides perfect unification. The favored scales are M SU SY = 2820 + 650 − 530 GeV and M GU T = 1.05 ± 0.07 1016 GeV. For zero or small threshold corrections the scale of new physics may be well within LHC reach.
There are no unexpected tunnel number one knots of genus one

Author(s): Scharlemann, Martin | Abstract: We show that the only knots that are tunnel number one and genus one are those that are already known: 2-bridge knots obtained by plumbing together two unknotted annuli and the satellite examples classified by Eudave- Munoz and by Morimoto and Sakuma. This confirms a conjecture first made by Goda and Teragaito.
Galactic and accretion disk dynamos

Dynamos in astrophysical disks are usually explained in terms of the standard alpha-omega mean field dynamo model where the local helicity generates a radial field component from an azimuthal field. The subsequent shearing of the radial field gives rise to exponentially growing dynamo modes. There are several problems with this model. The exponentiation time for the galactic dynamo is hard to calculate, but is probably uncomfortably long. Moreover, numerical simulations of magnetic fields in shearing flows indicate that the presence of a dynamo does not depend on a non-zero average helicity. However, these difficulties can be overcome by including a fluctuating helicity driven by hydrodynamic or magnetic instabilities. Unlike traditional disk dynamo models, this `incoherent' dynamo does not depend on the presence of systematic fluid helicity or any kind of vertical symmetry breaking. It will depend on geometry, in the sense that the dynamo growth rate becomes smaller for very thin disks, in agreement with constraints taken from the study of X-ray novae. In this picture the galactic dynamo will operate efficiently, but the resulting field will have a radial coherence length which is a fraction of the galactic radius.
BEHAVIOR IN GROUP CONTESTS: A REVIEW OF EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

Group contests are ubiquitous. Some examples include warfare between countries, competition between political parties, team-incentives within firms, group sports, and rent-seeking. In order to succeed, members of the same group have incentives to cooperate with each other by expending individual efforts. However, since effort is costly, each member also has an incentive to abstain from expending any effort and instead free-ride on the efforts of other members. Contest theory shows that the intensity of competition between groups and the amount of free-riding within groups depend on the group size, sharing rule, group impact function, contest success function, and heterogeneity of players. We review experimental studies testing these theoretical predictions. Almost all studies of behavior in group contests find significant over-expenditure of effort relative to the theory. We discuss potential explanations for such over-expenditure, including the utility of winning, bounded rationality, relative payoff maximization, parochial altruism, and social identity. Despite over-expenditure, most studies find support for the comparative statics predictions of the theory (with the exception of the “group size paradox”). Finally, studies show that there are effective mechanisms that can promote within-group cooperation and conflict resolution mechanisms that can de-escalate and potentially eliminate between-group conflict.