cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Nucleosome-mediated cooperativity between transcription factors

Cooperative binding of transcription factors (TFs) to promoters and other regulatory regions is essential for precise gene expression. The classical model of cooperativity requires direct interactions between TFs, thus constraining the arrangement of TF sites in regulatory regions. Recent genomic and functional studies, however, demonstrate a great deal of flexibility in such arrangements with variable distances, numbers of sites, and identities of TF sites located in cis-regulatory regions. Such flexibility is inconsistent with cooperativity by direct interactions between TFs. Here, we demonstrate that strong cooperativity among noninteracting TFs can be achieved by their competition with nucleosomes. We find that the mechanism of nucleosome-mediated cooperativity is analogous to cooperativity in another multimolecular complex: hemoglobin. This surprising analogy provides deep insights, with parallels between the heterotropic regulation of hemoglobin (e.g., the Bohr effect) and the roles of nucleosome-positioning sequences and chromatin modifications in gene expression. Nucleosome-mediated cooperativity is consistent with several experimental studies, is equally applicable to repressors and activators, allows substantial flexibility in and modularity of regulatory regions, and provides a rationale for a broad range of genomic and evolutionary observations. Striking parallels between cooperativity in hemoglobin and in transcriptional regulation point to a general mechanism that can be used in various biological systems.
Broadly Applicable Z- and Diastereoselective Ring-Opening/Cross-Metathesis Catalyzed by a Dithiolate Ru Complex†

A broadly applicable Ru-catalyzed protocol for Z-selective ring-opening/cross-metathesis (ROCM) is disclosed. In addition to reactions relating to terminal alkenes of different sizes, the first examples of Z-selective ROCM processes involving heteroaryl olefins, 1,3-dienes, and O- and S-substituted alkenes as well as allylic and homoallylic alcohols are reported. Z-Selective transformations with an α-substituted allylic alcohol are shown to afford congested Z alkenes with high diastereoselectivity. Transformations are performed in the presence of 2.0–5.0 mol % of a recently disclosed Ru-based dithiolate complex that can be easily prepared in a single step from commercially available starting materials. Typically, transformations proceed at ambient temperature and are complete within eight hours; products are obtained in up to 97 % yield, >98:2 Z/E, and >98:2 diastereomeric ratio. The present investigations reveal a mechanistically significant attribute of the Ru-based dithiolates that arises from electrostatic interactions with anionic S-based ligands.
Quantum information and physics: some future directions

I consider some promising future directions for quantum information theory that could influence the development of 21st century physics. Advances in the theory of the distinguishability of superoperators may lead to new strategies for improving the precision of quantum-limited measurements. A better grasp of the properties of multi-partite quantum entanglement may lead to deeper understanding of strongly-coupled dynamics in quantum many-body systems, quantum field theory, and quantum gravity.
Meaning and Credibility in Cheap-Talk Games

I define neologism-proofness, a refinement of perfect Bayesian equilibrium in cheap-talk games. It applies when players have a preexisting common language, so that an unexpected message′s literal meaning is clear, and only credibility restricts communication. I show that certain implausible equilibria are not neologism-proof; in some games, no equilibrium is. Journal of Economic Literature classification numbers: D83 D82 C73.
Separating distributed source coding from network coding

This correspondence considers the problem of distributed source coding of multiple sources over a network with multiple receivers. Each receiver seeks to reconstruct all of the original sources. The work by Ho et al. 2004 demonstrates that random network coding can solve this problem at the potentially high cost of jointly decoding the source and the network code. Motivated by complexity considerations we consider the performance of separate source and network codes. Previous work by Effros et al. 2003 demonstrates the failure of separation between source and network codes for nonmulticast networks. We demonstrate that failure for multicast networks. We study networks with capacity constraints on edges. It is shown that the problem with two sources and two receivers is always separable. Counterexamples are presented for other cases.
Metallacycle-mediated cross-coupling with substituted and electronically unactivated alkenes

This perspective surveys the history of – and recent advances in – metallacycle-mediated coupling chemistry of substituted alkenes. While the reaction of preformed metal–π complexes with ethylene was reported nearly 30 years ago, the generalization of this mode of bimolecular C–C bond formation to the regio- and stereoselective union of complex substrates has only recently begun to emerge. This perspective discusses early observations in this area, the challenges associated with controlling such processes, the evolution of a general strategy to overcome these challenges, and a summary of highly regio- and stereoselective convergent coupling reactions that are currently available via metallacycle-mediated cross-coupling of substituted alkenes.
A New Periodic Displacement Method Applied to Electrodeposition of Cu‐Ag Alloys

A new method is described for preparing multilayered alloys by periodically interrupting electrodeposition of the less noble metal to permit electroless displacement of a portion of the electrodeposited material by the more noble component. Visibly smooth, nodule‐free Cu‐Ag alloys of controlled composition have been prepared and shown to exhibit excellent tensile properties. The Ag displacement layers grow epitaxially on Cu(111) planes, which are preferentially aligned parallel with the cathode surface for the cyanide bath studied. In addition, periodic displacement deposition of multilayered structures potentially represents a sensitive means for studying the kinetics of such displacement reactions.
Simulation of ionic current through the nanopore in a double-layered semiconductor membrane

We study the effects of different nanopore geometries (double-conical, single-conical, cylindrical) on the electrostatic potential distribution and ionic conductivity in a double-layered semiconductor nanopore device as functions of the applied membrane bias. Ionic current-voltage characteristics as well as their rectification ratios are calculated using a simple ion transport model. Based on our calculations, we find that the double-layered semiconductor membrane with a single-conical nanopore with a narrow opening in the n-Si layer exhibits the largest range of available potential variations in the pore and, thus, may be better suited for control of polymer translocation through the nanopore.
Globalization and Rural Poverty

As is common in most contentious public debates, different people mean different things by globalization. Some interpret it to mean the global reach of new technology and capital movements, some refer to outsourcing by domestic companies in rich countries, others protest against the tentacles of corporate capitalism or US hegemony (economic, military or cultural). In this chapter I shall limit myself to interpreting globalization simply as openness to foreign trade and long-term capital flows. I shall ignore here the important issues arising from the devastation caused to fragile economies by billions of dollars of volatile short-term capital stampeding around the globe in herd-like movements, or the substantial poverty-reducing potential of international (unskilled) labour flows from poor to rich countries (even if allowed in temporary and regulated doses).
Income Segregation and Local Progressive Taxation: Empirical Evidence from Switzerland

This study investigates spatial income segregation in fiscally decentralized urban areas. The theoretical part proposes the progressivity of local income taxes as a new theoretical explanation for income segregation. The empirical part studies how income tax differentials across municipalities affect the households' location decisions. I use data from the Swiss metropolitan area of Basel that contains tax information on all moving households in 1997. The location choice of the households is investigated within the framework of the random utility maximization model. Different econometric specifications of the error term structure, such as conditional logit, nested logit and multinomial probit, are compared. The empirical results show that rich households are significantly and substantially more likely to move to low-tax municipalities than poor households. This result holds after controlling for alternative explanations of segregation. Social interactions and distance from the central business district are established as other major factors for income segregation. Households in general tend to choose locations close to other households like themselves.
Recent advances in Janus: a speech translation system

We present recent advances from our efforts in increasing coverage, robustness, generality and speed of JANUS, CMU's speech-to-speech translation system. JANUS is a speaker-independent system translating spoken utterances in English and also in German into one of German, English or Japanese. The system has been designed around the task of conference registration (CR). It has initially been built based on a speech database of 12 read dialogs, encompassing a vocabulary of around 500 words. We have since been expanding the system along several dimensions to improve speed, robustness and coverage and to move toward spontaneous input.
Why are Most Funds Open-End? Competition and the Limits of Arbitrage

The majority of asset-management intermediaries (e.g., mutual funds, hedge funds) are structured on an open-end basis, even though it appears that the open- end form can be a serious impediment to arbitrage. I argue that the equilibrium degree of open-ending in an economy can be excessive from the point of view of investors. When funds compete for investors' dollars, they may engage in a counterproductive race towards the open-end form, even though this form leaves them ill-suited to undertaking certain types of arbitrage trades. One implication of the analysis is that, even absent short-sales constraints or other frictions, economically large mispricings can coexist with rational, competitive arbitrageurs who earn small excess returns.
Pricing Strategies for Viral Marketing on Social Networks

We study the use of viral marketing strategies on social networks that seek to maximize revenue from the sale of a single product. We propose a model in which the decision of a buyer to buy the product is influenced by friends that own the product and the price at which the product is offered. The influence model we analyze is quite general, naturally extending both the Linear Threshold model and the Independent Cascade model, while also incorporating price information. We consider sales proceeding in a cascading manner through the network, i.e. a buyer is offered the product via recommendations from its neighbors who own the product. In this setting, the seller influences events by offering a cashback to recommenders and by setting prices (via coupons or discounts) for each buyer in the social network. This choice of prices for the buyers is termed as the seller's strategy. Finding a seller strategy which maximizes the expected revenue in this setting turns out to be NP-hard. However, we propose a seller strategy that generates revenue guaranteed to be within a constant factor of the optimal strategy in a wide variety of models. The strategy is based on an influence-and-exploit idea, and it consists of finding the right trade-off at each time step between: generating revenue from the current user versus offering the product for free and using the influence generated from this sale later in the process.
Econometric models of asymmetric ascending auctions

We develop econometric models of ascending (English) auctions which allow for both bidder asymmetries as well as common and/or private value components in bidders’ underlying valuations. We show that the equilibrium inverse bid functions in each round of the auction are implicitly defined (pointwise) by a system of nonlinear equations, so that conditions for the existence and uniqueness of an increasing-strategy equilibrium are essentially identical to those which ensure a unique and increasing solution to the system of equations. We exploit the computational tractability of this characterization in order to develop an econometric model, thus extending the literature on structural estimation of auction models. Finally, an empirical example illustrates how equilibrium learning affects bidding during the course of the auction.
Mild conditions for the synthesis of functionalized pyrrolidines via Pd-catalyzed carboamination reactions

[reaction: see text] The palladium-catalyzed carboamination of N-protected gamma-aminoalkenes with aryl bromides and triflates has been achieved under new, mild reaction conditions using the weak base Cs(2)CO(3) in dioxane solvent. These reactions tolerate a wide variety of functional groups, including enolizable ketones, nitro groups, methyl esters, and acetates, which are not compatible with previously described conditions.
Comparison friction: experimental evidence from medicare drug plans.

Consumers need information to compare alternatives for markets to function efficiently. Recognizing this, public policies often pair competition with easy access to comparative information. The implicit assumption is that comparison friction—the wedge between the availability of comparative information and consumers’ use of it—is inconsequential because information is readily available and consumers will access this information and make effective choices. We examine the extent of comparison friction in the market for Medicare Part D prescription drug plans in the United States. In a randomized field experiment, an intervention group received a letter with personalized cost information. That information was readily available for free and widely advertised. However, this additional step—providing the information rather than having consumers actively access it—had an impact. Plan switching was 28 percent in the intervention group, versus 17 percent in the comparison group, and the intervention caused an average decline in predicted consumer cost of about $100 per year among letter recipients—roughly 5 percent of the cost in the comparison group. Our results suggest that comparison friction can be large even when the cost of acquiring information is small, and may be relevant for a wide range of public policies that incorporate consumer choice.
Integrability of the linear approximate almost ideal demand system

Integrability of the linear approximate almost ideal demand system (AIDS) is solved, including closed form solutions for the expenditure function, and generating a new method to nest the rank and functional form of a quadratic price independent generalized linear incomplete demand system (QPIGL-IDS). D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Oxygen Isotopes in Meteorites

Among all the c he mic al e le men ts, ox ygen has a co mbin ation of pro pe rtie s tha t ma kes it u nique ly im por ta nt in cosmoc hem is tr y. I t is a n abu nda nt e leme nt , a nd is t he pr inc ipa l co nst it ue nt o f most m inera ls a nd roc ks. It is a lig ht e leme nt, so tha t its three s tab le iso to pes are s ubjec t to large mass­ de pe nde nt frac tio na tio n e ffec ts in bo th equ ilibr ium a nd kine tica lly-co n­ tro lle d processes . Its iso to pes are forme d in differe nt nuc leosynthe tic pro­ cesses, so t ha t s te lla r n ucleo syn the si s can pro duce i so to pi c he te rogenei ty. It ca n un de rgo c hem ica l reac tio ns in w hic h no n-mass -de pe nde nt iso to pe frac tio na tio ns occ ur . I ts cosm ic abu nda nce , re la tive to tha t o f carbo n, o n the o ne ha nd, a nd me ta llic e leme nts o n the o ther , causes it to occur simu lta neous ly i n two cosmochemica l reser voirs: a gas (most ly CO a nd H 20) a nd a so lid (o xides a nd s ilica tes o f the me ta llic e leme nts ). This las t pro per ty is es pec ia lly im por ta nt, as i t a llows ox ygen to avoi d i so to pic ho mogeni zation in the in te rste llar me di um a nd in the e arly so lar syste m, a nd t hus to ser ve as a nat ura l tracer for interact io ns o f differe nt reser voirs . The ab unda nt iso to pe, 160 ( 99. 76% ), is pro duce d in s te llar nuc leo­ s ynthes is b y he lium b ur ning, a nd is re tur ne d to the inters te llar me dium in s uper nova e xplos io ns . T he rare iso to pes, 170 (0.04%) a nd 180 (0.20%), are pro duced b y hot CNO c yc les i n zo nes ric h i n H a nd He , res pecti ve ly, in bo th no vae an d supe rno vae (Audo uze & Va uc la ir 19 80). For all three iso to pes , rap id coo ling o f s te llar ejec ta ca n lea d to the format io n o f mo l­ ec ules a nd/or re frac tor y so lids , w hic h bear the s igna ture o f the par tic ular nuc leos ynt hetic processes (Lat timer et a l 197 8). It mig ht , there fore , be
Topological Mixing for Some Residual Sets of Interval Exchange Transformations

We show that a residual set of non-degenerate IETs on more than 3 letters is topologically mixing. This shows that there exists a uniquely ergodic topologically mixing IET. This is then applied to show that some billiard flows in a fixed direction in an L-shaped polygon are topologically mixing.
Alexander Hamilton, Esq.: Founding Father as lawyer

Alexander Hamilton was unlike the other leading founding fathers in many ways. First of all, he was not born in the 13 colonies.' Nor did he come from an established or wealthy family. The bastard son of an unsuccessful Scotsman and a woman once imprisoned for adultery, he spent his earliest years in abject poverty and went to work at age 11. He was largely self-educated;2 not until he was 18 did he receive any formal schooling and then for less than three years. When the Revolution began he served neither as a highranking officer, like Washington, nor as a key revolutionary politician, like Adams or Jefferson. He began the Revolution as a mere captain, and at the end he was only a lieutenant colonel. Of the founders only Hamilton seriously engaged in law practice after the Revolution. Others-Adams and Jefferson, for example-were lawyers, but law was only peripheral to their postwar careers. James Madison studied law and knew the subject as well as anyone in the country, but he never bothered to seek admission to the bar. Hamilton's highest elective office was to the New York State Assembly,3 and his major appointive office, Secretary of the
Will the Republicans Retake the House in 2010

Historically, statistical models for forecasting the outcome of midterm elections to the United States House of Representatives have not been particularly successful (Jones and Cuzan 2006). However, in what may have been a breakthrough, most models correctly predicted that the Democrats would re-emerge as the majority party in 2006 (Cuzan 2007). One successful model was estimated using 46 elections, beginning with 1914 (only the second time that 435 representatives, the present number, were elected). The model was relatively simple, making use of national-level variables only (Cuzan and Bundrick 2006). Using a similar model, I generated a forecast for the 2010 midterm election.
Dynamic Clustering via Asymptotics of the Dependent Dirichlet Process Mixture

This paper presents a novel algorithm, based upon the dependent Dirichlet process mixture model (DDPMM), for clustering batch-sequential data containing an unknown number of evolving clusters. The algorithm is derived via a low-variance asymptotic analysis of the Gibbs sampling algorithm for the DDPMM, and provides a hard clustering with convergence guarantees similar to those of the k-means algorithm. Empirical results from a synthetic test with moving Gaussian clusters and a test with real ADS-B aircraft trajectory data demonstrate that the algorithm requires orders of magnitude less computational time than contemporary probabilistic and hard clustering algorithms, while providing higher accuracy on the examined datasets.
Probabilistic models for anomaly detection in remote sensor data streams

Remote sensors are becoming the standard for observing and recording ecological data in the field. Such sensors can record data at fine temporal resolutions, and they can operate under extreme conditions prohibitive to human access. Unfortunately, sensor data streams exhibit many kinds of errors ranging from corrupt communications to partial or total sensor failures. This means that the raw data stream must be cleaned before it can be used by domain scientists. In our application environment—the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest—this data cleaning is performed manually. This paper introduces a Dynamic Bayesian Network model for analyzing sensor observations and distinguishing sensor failures from valid data for the case of air temperature measured at 15 minute time resolution. The model combines an accurate distribution of long-term and short-term temperature variations with a single generalized fault model. Experiments with historical data show that the precision and recall of the method is comparable to that of the domain expert. The system is currently being deployed to perform real-time automated data cleaning.
Excitation and Propagation of Eccentricity Disturbances in Planetary Systems

The high eccentricities of the known extrasolar planets remain largely unexplained. We explore the possibility that eccentricities are excited in the outer parts of an extended planetary disk by encounters with stars passing at a few hundred astronomical units. After the encounter, eccentricity disturbances propagate inward because of secular interactions in the disks, eventually exciting the innermost planets. We study how the inward propagation of eccentricity in planetary disks depends on the number and masses of the planets and the spacing between them and on the overall surface density distribution in the disk. The main governing factors are the large-scale surface density distribution and the total size of the system. If the smeared-out surface density is approximated by a power law Σ(r) ∝ r-q, then eccentricity disturbances propagate inward efficiently for flat density distributions with q 1. If this condition is satisfied and the size of the planetary system is 50 AU or larger, the typical eccentricities excited by this mechanism by field star encounters in the solar neighborhood over 5 Gyr are in the range 0.01–0.1. Higher eccentricities (>0.1) may be excited in planetary systems around stars that are formed in relatively dense, long-lived open clusters. Therefore, this mechanism may provide a natural way to excite the eccentricities of extrasolar planets.
CHEMICAL SIGNATURES OF THE FIRST GALAXIES: CRITERIA FOR ONE-SHOT ENRICHMENT

We utilize metal-poor stars in the local, ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs; Ltot ≤ 10 5 L⊙) to empirically constrain the formation process of the first galaxies. Since UFDs have much simpler star formation histories than the halo of the Milky Way, their stellar populations should preserve the fossil record of the first supernova (SN) explosions in their long-lived, low-mass stars. Guided by recent hydrodynamical simulations of first galaxy formation, we develop a set of stellar abundance signatures that characterize the nucleosynthetic history of such an early system if it was observed in the present-day universe. Specifically, we argue that the first galaxies are the product of chemical “oneshot” events, where only one (long-lived) stellar generation forms after the first, PopulationIII, SN explosions. Our abundance criteria thus constrain the strength of negative feedback effects inside the first galaxies. We compare the stellar content of UFDs with these one-shot criteria. Several systems (Ursa MajorII, and also Coma Berenices, BootesI, LeoIV, Segue1) largely fulfill the requirements, indicating that their high-redshift predecessors did experience strong feedback effects that shut off star formation. We term the study of the entire stellar population of a dwarf galaxy for the purpose of inferring details about the nature and origin of the first galaxies “dwarf galaxy archaeology”. This will provide clues to the connection of the first galaxies, the surviving, metal-poor dwarf galaxies, and the building blocks of the Milky Way. Subject headings: stars: abundances – stars: Population II – galaxies: dwarf – dark ages, reionization, first stars – early universe
A static communication elimination algorithm for distributed system verification

A schema of communication elimination laws for distributed programs and systems is mathematically justified in a new equivalence, which was introduced in a recent work. A complete set of applicability conditions is derived for them. A formal communication elimination algorithm, applying the laws as reductions, is mathematically justified for an important class of distributed programs and systems, whose communications are outside the scope of selections. The analysis provides the basis for extensions to general statements. State-vector reduction stands as one of the motivations for this static analysis approach. It has already been applied in an equivalence proof of a non-trivial pipelined distributed system, reported in prior works. The state-vector reduction obtained in this proof, yielding a reduction factor of 2−−607 for the upper-bound on the number of states, is presented in this communication.
Transient Sensitivity Computation for MOSFET Circuits

This paper discusses the algorithms and implementation necessary for computing time domain sensitivities during circuit simulation. The adjoint approach and the direct approach have been studied, and it was concluded that the direct approach is the best for implementation. The direct approach allows the transient sensitivities to be computed concurrently in time with the normal simulation, and it has been demonstrated that accurate sensitivity computations can be obtained, by simply allowing the sensitivity circuits to use the same time steps as the original circuit. This implementation also incorporates the charge based model for the MOSFET's and those sensitivity derivations are shown. It has been found that the responses of the sensitivity circuits can be discontinuous, and that this is due to discontinuities in the derivatives of the charge with respect to voltage. Derivations for various performance function sensitivities in terms of the response sensitivities are also given.
OSNAP: Faster Numerical Linear Algebra Algorithms via Sparser Subspace Embeddings

An oblivious subspace embedding (OSE) given some parameters e, d is a distribution D over matrices Π ∈ Rm×n such that for any linear subspace W ⊆ Rn with dim(W) = d, PΠ~D(∀x ∈ W ||Πx||2 ∈ (1 ± e)||x||2) > 2/3. We show that a certain class of distributions, Oblivious Sparse Norm-Approximating Projections (OSNAPs), provides OSE's with m = O(d1+γ/e2), and where every matrix Π in the support of the OSE has only s = Oγ(1/e) non-zero entries per column, for γ > 0 any desired constant. Plugging OSNAPs into known algorithms for approximate least squares regression, lp regression, low rank approximation, and approximating leverage scores implies faster algorithms for all these problems. Our main result is essentially a Bai-Yin type theorem in random matrix theory and is likely to be of independent interest: we show that for any fixed U ∈ Rn×d with orthonormal columns and random sparse Π, all singular values of ΠU lie in [1 - e, 1 + e] with good probability. This can be seen as a generalization of the sparse Johnson-Lindenstrauss lemma, which was concerned with d = 1. Our methods also recover a slightly sharper version of a main result of [Clarkson-Woodruff, STOC 2013], with a much simpler proof. That is, we show that OSNAPs give an OSE with m = O(d2/e2), s = 1.
Effects of Boattailing on the Turbulence Structure of a Compressible Base Flow

The large-scale turbulent structures in the near wake of a boattailed, axisymmetric afterbody immersed in a supersonic  ow are examined using a planar Mie/Rayleigh scattering visualization technique. Seven key regions in the near wake are studied in both sideand end-view orientations. Estimates of the mean structure size, shape, and inclination are made using spatial correlation analysis, and the effects of the turbulent structures’ passage are measured via steadiness and convolution analysis techniques. The results indicate that base drag is decreased by afterbody boattailing because the turbulent structures are generally less active in the separated  ow region, and, as a result, shear-layer growth is suppressed. The latter result occurs because the large-scale turbulent structures are further inclined down toward the mean  ow direction and tend to be organized more in the streamwise than in the spanwise direction near the base.
Synthesis of Chromans via Pd-Catalyzed Alkene Carboetherification Reactions

A new method for the construction of 2-substituted and 2,2-disubstituted chromans viaPd-catalyzed carboetherification reactions between aryl/alkenyl halides and 2-(but-3-en-1-yl)phenols is described. These reactions effect formation of a C–O bond and a C–C bond to afford the chroman products in good yield, and also provide stereoselective access to tricyclic chroman derivatives.
Estimation in slow mixing, long memory channels

We consider estimation of binary channels with memory where the transition probabilities (channel parameters) from the input to output are determined by prior outputs (state of the channel). While the channel is unknown, we observe the joint input/output process of the channel - we have n i.i.d. input bits and their corresponding outputs. Motivated by applications related to the backplane channel, we want to estimate the channel parameters as well as the stationary probabilities for each state. Two distinct problems complicate estimation in this setting: (i) long memory, and (ii) slow mixing which could happen even with only one bit of memory. In this setting, any consistent estimator can only converge pointwise over the model class. Namely, given any estimator and any sample size n, the underlying model could be such that the estimator performs poorly on a sample of size n with high probability. But can we look at a length-n sample and identify if an estimate is likely to be accurate? Since the memory is unknown a-priori, a natural approach, known to be consistent, is to estimate a potentially coarser model with memory kn = αn log n, where αn is a function that grows O(1). Note however that (i) the coarser model is estimated using only samples from the true model; and (ii) we want the best possible answers with a length-n sample, rather than just consistency. Combining results on universal compression and Aldous' coupling arguments, we obtain sufficient conditions (even for slow mixing models) to identify when naive (i) estimates of the channel parameters and (ii) estimates related to the stationary probabilities of the channel states are accurate, and bound their deviations from true values.
An efficient formal synthesis of balanol via the asymmetric epoxide ring opening reaction

Abstract An efficient formal synthesis of balanol is described. The thirteen-step sequence features a highly enantioselective (92% ee) ring opening of 1,4-cyclohexadiene monoepoxide with TMSN 3 catalyzed by the Cr-salen complex 3 . A selective Beckmann rearrangement followed by amide reduction and nitrogen functionalization affords 2 , thus completing a formal synthesis of balanol in 31% overall yield.
Cavitand templated catalysis of acetylcholine

A Zn–salen-modified cavitand templates the catalytic formation of acetylcholine from choline and acetic anhydride.
New independent source extractors with exponential improvement

We study the problem of constructing explicit extractors for independent general weak random sources. For weak sources on n bits with min-entropy k, perviously the best known extractor needs to use at least log n/log k independent sources [22, 3]. In this paper we give a new extractor that only uses O(log(log n/log k))+O(1) independent sources. Thus, our result improves the previous best result exponentially. We then use our new extractor to give improved network extractor protocols, as defined in [14]. The network extractor protocols also give new results in distributed computing with general weak random sources, which dramatically improve previous results. For example, we can tolerate a nearly optimal fraction of faulty players in synchronous Byzantine agreement and leader election, even if the players only have access to independent n-bit weak random sources with min-entropy as small as k=polylog(n). Our extractor for independent sources is based on a new condenser for somewhere random sources with a special structure. We believe our techniques are interesting in their own right and are promising for further improvement.
Solar wind at 33 AU: Setting bounds on the Pluto interaction for New Horizons

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flies past Pluto on 14 July 2015, carrying two instruments that detect charged particles. Pluto has a tenuous, extended atmosphere that is escaping the planet's weak gravity. The interaction of the solar wind with Pluto's escaping atmosphere depends on solar wind conditions as well as the vertical structure of Pluto's atmosphere. We have analyzed Voyager 2 particles and fields measurements between 25 and 39 AU and present their statistical variations. We have adjusted these predictions to allow for the Sun's declining activity and solar wind output. We summarize the range of SW conditions that can be expected at 33 AU and survey the range of scales of interaction that New Horizons might experience. Model estimates for the solar wind standoff distance vary from ~7 to ~1000 RP with our best estimate being around 40 RP (where we take Pluto's radius to be RP = 1184 km).
Mental Stress: Source of Neurological Degeneration; Case of MS

Mental stress is a vague though familiar concept that accounts for an agency of the good, the bad and the ugly, that operates in the brains of animated beings, in response to environmental stressors; a life saver of various degrees, at its best, and indicative of much mental anguish and the likely cause of costly physiological and mental adversities, at its worst. In this work, we provide evidence for correlation of stressors with afflictions of MS throughout the world, and put forward arguments in support of the fact that stressors can render disruptions in the normal computational processes of the brain, defining the innards of the mental stress, which in turn may lead to the onset of physiologic adversities in the biologic systems, possibly rendering various diseases, even one as MS. It can be also deduced that feeling of unease, normally referred to as stress in common usage, is an indicator of a brain process disruption event. This work takes note of the fact that debilitating symptoms and abnormal behaviors have been considered a neurological disorder since around 15th century [1]; and gradual efforts aimed at understanding the phenomena culminated in 1868 work of Charcot [2]: He wrote a complete description of the disease now known as MS- and the changes in the brain that accompany it, based on what had neurologically become known, at the time and his own clinical studies and observations. Much work has been done since then to find the cause of the disease; some of its intermediary process has been recognized and MS is established today as an autoimmune disease, which may also include some characteristics of viral infection as well. While the real cause of the disease is still not known, major focus is put on the treatment of MS symptoms, aiming to slow down its progress and to reduce the frequency of attacks. In this effort we establish the link between MS and mental stress, through analyses of various aspects of statistics of prevalence and incidence, available in the literature [3-5], which lends itself to opening up of additional treatment possibilities that could be used separate of, or conjunctively with, the medical approaches. On a grander scale, publicizing the adverse workings of the mental stress and its evils can attain statistical gains, in the incidence reduction.
The Growth in Government Domestic Debt : Changing Burdens and Risks

This paper analyzes the recent growth of government domestic debt, including central bank debt, using a new data base on government domestic debt in developing countries with large, open financial systems. On average, government domestic debt grew much faster than GDP between 1994 and 2004 and became larger than foreign debt. The rapid growth of domestic debt reflects financial crises, the growth of central bank debt and the greater attractiveness to governments of issuing domestic debt as well as the recent increase in demands for it. Both its attractiveness and the increased demands for it reflect the current benign international environment to some degree. The main risk of government debt, domestic or foreign, remains its overall size relative to a country's fiscal, financial, and political institutions. While government domestic debt can help the domestic private capital market, large domestic debt, like large external debt, has risks. For example, there can besudden stopsin the demand for domestic debt as well as in foreign lending. Governments need to be aware of the risks and burdens in domestic debt issue-crowding out small borrowers, transferring risks to banks when issuing longer maturity, fixed-interest domestic debt and reducing returns, and imposing risks on holders of pensions, annuities, and life insurance policies. Growth of central bank debt can divert central banks from pursuit of the objective of price stability.
National Demand for Fresh Organic and Conventional Vegetables: Scanner Data Evidence

Using AC Nielsen scanner data on U.S. household consumption of selected fresh vegetables from 1999 to 2003, this study provides an overview of the organic fresh vegetable market by investigating market shares and price premiums of selected organic fresh vegetables and estimating the interrelationship between consumer demand for organic and conventional fresh vegetables. The linear Almost Ideal Demand System was found to fit the data best among alternative demand models. Expenditure, own, and cross price elasticities were computed for both organic and conventional vegetables based on the best fitting model.
Robust control of input limited smart structural systems

Integration of controllers with smart structural systems require the controllers to consume less power and to be small in hardware size. These requirements pose as limits on the control input and the order of the controllers. Use of reduced order model of the plant in the controller design can cause spill over problems in the closed-loop system due to possible excitation of the unmodeled dynamics. In this paper, we present a method to design output feedback robust controllers for smart structures in the presence of control input limits considering unmodeled dynamics as additive uncertainty in the design. The performance requirements for the design are specified as regional pole placement constraints on the closed-loop poles. The controller design problem requires the maximization of damping ratio in the presence of additive uncertainty and control input limits. The resulting optimization problem for the controller design is formulated as a generalized eigenvalue problem involving linear matrix inequality (LMI) constraints. The proposed controller is designed and implemented on a multiinput-multioutput 3-mass smart structural test article. The tradeoffs involved in the controller design are analyzed and the performance and robustness specifications are verified experimentally.
Semi-algebraic functions have small subdifferentials

We prove that the subdifferential of any semi-algebraic extended-real-valued function on $$\mathbf{R}^n$$ has $$n$$ -dimensional graph. We discuss consequences for generic semi-algebraic optimization problems.
A Potential Tale of Two-by-Two Tables From Completely Randomized Experiments

Causal inference in completely randomized treatment-control studies with binary outcomes is discussed from Fisherian, Neymanian, and Bayesian perspectives, using the potential outcomes model. A randomization-based justification of Fisher’s exact test is provided. Arguing that the crucial assumption of constant causal effect is often unrealistic, and holds only for extreme cases, some new asymptotic and Bayesian inferential procedures are proposed. The proposed procedures exploit the intrinsic nonadditivity of unit-level causal effects, can be applied to linear and nonlinear estimands, and dominate the existing methods, as verified theoretically and also through simulation studies. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.
Exporting Christianity: Governance and Doctrine in the Globalization of US Denominations

In this paper we build a model of international competition between religious denominations by adapting the organizational framework in Aghion and Tirole (1997) and the club good model in Iannaccone (1992). We treat denominations akin to multinational enterprises, which decide which countries to enter based on local market conditions and their own productivity. The model yields predictions for how a denomination's religious doctrine and organizational structure affect its ability to attract adherents. We test these predictions using data on the foreign operations of US Protestant denominations from the World Christian Database. Consistent with the model, we find that (1) denominations with a decentralized governance structure have larger membership in countries in which the productivity of pastor effort is higher (as measured by the quality of communications and transportation infrastructure), and (2) denominations with stricter religious doctrine have larger membership in countries in which the government provides fewer social services and in which economic uncertainty (associated with risk of natural disaster) is greater. These findings shed light on the rapid global expansion of new Protestant denominations in recent decades.
Evidence for chamber-dependent radical sources: Impact on kinetic computer models for air pollution

A series of NOx–air irradiations, with trace amounts of propane and propene present to monitor OH radical concentrations, have been carried out in a 5800-L evacuable environmental chamber to investigate radical levels and sources during such irradiations. The data obtained show conclusively that unknown radical sources are present, and that photolysis of initial nitrous acid can be, at best, only a minor source of radicals after ∼30–60 min of irradiation.
Optimal control of parametrically excited linear delay differential systems via Chebyshev polynomials

The use of Chebyshev polynomials in solving finite horizon optimal control problems associated with general linear time-varying systems with constant delay is well known in the literature. The technique is modified in the present paper for the finite horizon control of dynamical systems with time periodic coefficients and constant delay. The governing differential equations of motion are converted into an algebraic recursive relationship in terms of the Chebyshev coefficients of the system matrices, delayed and present state vectors, and the input vector. Three different approaches are considered. The first approach computes the Chebyshev coefficients of the control vector by minimizing a quadratic cost function over a finite horizon or a finite sequence of time intervals. Then two convergence conditions are presented to improve the performance of the optimized trajectories in terms of the oscillation of controlled states within intervals. The second approach computes the Chebyshev coefficients of the control vector by maximizing a quadratic decay rate of the L2 norm of Chebyshev coefficients of the state subject to linear matching and quadratic convergence conditions. The control vector in each interval is computed by formulating a non-linear optimization programme. The third approach computes the Chebyshev coefficients of the control vector by maximizing a linear decay rate of the L∞ norm of Chebyshev coefficients of the state subject to linear matching and linear convergence conditions. The proposed techniques are illustrated by designing regulation controllers for a delayed Mathieu equation over a finite control horizon. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The performance of query control schemes for the zone routing protocol

In this paper, we study the performance of route query control mechanisms for the Zone Routing Protocol (ZRP) for ad hoc networks. ZRP proactively maintains routing information for a local neighborhood (routing zone), while reactively acquiring routes to destinations beyond the routing zone. This hybrid routing approach can be more efficient than traditional routing schemes. However, without proper query control techniques, the ZRP cannot provide the expected reduction in the control traffic.Our proposed query control schemes exploit the structure of the routing zone to provide enhanced detection and prevention of overlapping queries. These techniques can be applied to single- or multiple-channel ad hoc networks to improve both the delay and control traffic performance of ZRP. Our query control mechanisms allow ZRP to provide routes to all accessible network nodes, with less control traffic than purely proactive link state or purely reactive route discovery, and with less delay than conventional flood searching.
Integrated Local Petrov-Galerkin Sinc Method for Structural Mechanics Problems

An integrated, local Petrov-Galerkin Sinc method is introduced and applied to static structural mechanics problems. The method approximates the highest derivative in the local weak form of the governing equation on a rectangular grid, and the lower derivatives and unknown function are found by numerical indenite integration. We suggest that the essential boundary conditions may be applied by the traditional penalty method or by a method in which the stiness matrix is reduced to eliminate dependent degrees of freedom. We propose and compare the performance of three basis functions in terms of their accuracy and convergence properties for two problems: a one-dimensional tapered bar and a two-dimensional plane-stress elasticity problem. Our results indicate that the present method can provide greater accuracy than the Sinc method based on Interpolation of Highest-Derivative, an integration based collocation method suggested by Li and Wu [Li, C. and Wu, X., Numerical solution of dierential equations using Sinc method based on
Collapse of a Crawling Peg Regime in the Presence of a Government Budget Constraint

The dynamics of the collapse of a crawling exchange rate in the presence of an explicit link between the fiscal deficit and domestic credit is investigated. Such an exchange rate regime is generally characterized by two potential steady-state equilibria, which introduce an ex ante indeterminacy in the timing and magnitude of a speculative attack on international reserves in the presence of a sustained inconsistency between the country's fiscal and exchange rate policies. The paper discusses the conditions that define the actual timing of the regime's breakdown.