cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Interdiffusion and Association Phenomena in the System, NiO-Al2O3.

The rate of formation of NiAl2O4 by reaction between single crystals of NiO and Al2O3 can be described by k= 1.1 × 104 exp (−108,000 ± 5,000/RT) cm2/s. In NiO the behavior of D as a function of concentration supports the Lidiard theory of diffusion by impurity-vacancy pairs. A good fit of the theory to the experimental results was obtained by assuming that Al3+ ions diffuse as [AlNi· VNi]’pairs. The diffusion coefficient of pairs, Dp, obeys the equation 6.6 × 10−2 exp (−54,000 ± 3,000/RT) cm2/s. The free energy of association for pairs was calculated to range from 6.5 kcal/mol at 1789°C to 9.0 kcal/mol at 1540°C. The interdiffusion coefficients in the spinel showed a constant small increase with increasing concentration of Al3+ dissolved in the spinel.
Reporting of standard cell placement results

Very large scale integration (VLSI) fabrication technology has advanced rapidly, bringing with it a strong demand for faster and better design automation tools. Accurate reporting of results for placement approaches is crucial to the development of improved automation tools; unfortunately, publicly available placement benchmarks are outdated, and there are wide variations in their interpretation. In addition, the metrics considered by some academic research have questionable relevance to modern design. At best, poor benchmarks and differences in interpretation result in misunderstandings of the effectiveness of some approaches. At worst, they can motivate research in areas of very little promise, while other areas which have true potential are ignored. In this paper, we expand on work previously presented, describing current standard cell placement benchmarks and illustrating common differences in their interpretation. We also propose specific interpretation methods for traditional objectives, and discuss new metrics which should be considered in modern placement research. Our hope is that by presenting these issues clearly, we can enable more accurate evaluations of placement methods, and improve research efficiency.
Vertical Integration during the Hollywood Studio Era

The Hollywood studio system—production, distribution, and exhibition vertically integrated—flourished until 1948, when the famous Paramount decision forced the divestiture of theater chains and the abandonment of a number of vertical practices. Although many of the banned practices have since been posited to have increased efficiency, evidence of an efficiency-enhancing rationale for theater ownership has not been presented. This paper explores the hypothesis that theater chain ownership promoted efficient ex post adjustment in the length of film runs—specifically, abbreviation of unexpectedly unpopular films. Extracontractual run-length adjustments are desirable because demand for a film is not revealed until the film is actually exhibited. The paper employs a unique data set of cinema booking sheets. It finds that run lengths for releases by vertically integrated film producers were significantly—economically and statistically—more likely to be altered ex post. The paper documents and discusses addition...
Modeling of nondirected wireless infrared channels

We show that realistic multipath infrared channels can be characterized well by only two parameters: optical path loss and RMS delay spread. Functional models for the impulse response, based on infrared reflection properties, are proposed and analyzed. Using the ceiling-bounce functional model, we develop a computationally efficient method to predict the path loss and multipath power requirement of diffuse links based on the locations of the transmitter and receiver within a room. Use of our model is a simple, yet accurate, alternative to the use of an ensemble of measured channel responses in evaluating the impact of multipath distortion.
What Does the Yield Curve Tell Us about the Federal Reserve’s Implicit Inflation Target?

This paper uses a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to explore the additional information that can be extracted from the yield curve about the Federal Reserve's implicit inflation target. In the model, monetary policy follows a nominal interest rate rule with a drifting inflation target and agents have imperfect information about the persistent component of inflation target. When the yield curve information is included, the DSGE model generates inflation expectations that are highly correlated with survey data evidence. In the DSGE model, agents learn quickly inflation target and the gap between the perceived target and the actual target is quantitatively small. This is in contrast to some of existing studies that suggest a persistent role of imperfect information even as long-run inflation expectations has declined and stabilized at a low level since the mid 1980s.
Measuring the Mean and Scatter of the X-Ray Luminosity-Optical Richness Relation for maxBCG Galaxy Clusters

We interpret and model the statistical weak lensing measurements around 130,000 groups and clusters of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey presented by Sheldon et al. (2007). We present non-parametric inversions of the 2D shear profiles to the mean 3D cluster density and mass profiles in bins of both optical richness and cluster i-band luminosity. Since the mean cluster density profile is proportional to the cluster-mass correlation function, the mean profile is spherically symmetric by the assumptions of large-scale homogeneity and isotropy. We correct the inferred 3D profiles for systematic effects, including non-linear shear and the fact that cluster halos are not all precisely centered on their brightest galaxies. We also model the measured cluster shear profile as a sum of contributions from the brightest central galaxy, the cluster dark matter halo, and neighboring halos. We infer the relations between mean cluster virial mass and optical richness and luminosity over two orders of magnitude in cluster mass; the virial mass at fixed richness or luminosity is determined with a precision of {approx} 13% including both statistical and systematic errors. We also constrain the halo concentration parameter and halo bias as a function of cluster mass; both are in good agreement with predictions from N-body simulations of LCDM models. The methods employed here will be applicable to deeper, wide-area optical surveys that aim to constrain the nature of the dark energy, such as the Dark Energy Survey, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and space-based surveys.
Response of the brain to enrichment

Before 1960, the brain was considered by scientists to be immutable, subject only to genetic control. In the early sixties, however, investigators were seriously speculating that environmental influences might be capable of altering brain structure. By 1964, two research laboratories proved that the morphology and chemistry or physiology of the brain could be experientially altered (Bennett et al. 1964, Hubel and Wiesel 1965). Since then, the capacity of the brain to respond to environmental input, specifically “enrichment,” has become an accepted fact among neuroscientists, educators and others. In fact, the demonstration that environmental enrichment can modify structural components of the rat brain at any age altered prevailing presumptions about the brain’s plasticity (Diamond et al. 1964, Diamond 1988). The cerebral cortex, the area associated with higher cognitive processing, is more receptive than other parts of the brain to environmental enrichment. The message is clear: Although the brain possesses a relatively constant macrostructural organization, the ever-changing cerebral cortex, with its complex microarchitecture of unknown potential, is powerfully shaped by experiences before birth, during youth and, in fact, throughout life. It is essential to note that enrichment effects on the brain have consequences on behavior. Parents, educators, policy makers, and individuals can all benefit from such knowledge.
Controls on crustal accretion along the back-arc East Scotia Ridge: constraints from bathymetry and gravity data

This study investigates crustal accretion processes along the East Scotia Ridge (ESR), an intermediate-rate back-arc spreading center with ten segments (E1–E10) that strike north–south. Mantle Bouguer anomaly (MBA) was calculated for the ESR region using satellite-derived and shipboard data sources. De-trended MBA (MBAdet) was determined by removing a residual plane from the MBA map, and ΔMBAdet was defined as the along-segment change in MBAdet. ΔMBAdet, as well as segment-averaged values of Na8, Fe8, and 87Sr/86Sr obtained from the published literature, generally appear to be better correlated with distsst (the distance from each segment center to the nearest point on the South Sandwich Trench) than with spreading rate. For each of the northern segments E2 through E6, MBAdet has a central low. MBAdet values also form a broad, longer-wavelength low from segments E2 through E6. Generally speaking, these findings are consistent with earlier studies such as Livermore et al. (Earth Planet Sci Lett 150:261–275, 1997) in suggesting that the region around segment E2 is a center for focused accretion along the ESR. On the other hand, southern segments E7 and E8 have central MBAdet highs, and MBAdet decreases somewhat linearly from segment E7 to E9, notwithstanding intrasegment variations. The quasi-linear MBAdet trend along these ESR segments is similar to that observed for the southernmost Lau spreading centers (e.g., Martinez and Taylor in Nature 416:417–420, 2002). Overall, plate boundary geometry and three-dimensional mantle flow may play a significant role in melting processes along the ESR, especially if the spreading center is processing geochemically heterogeneous South Atlantic mantle.
Metrics for the Evaluation of Pedal Force/Feel Systems in Transport Aircraft

A piloted, fixed-base, simulation study was conducted at NASA Langley Research Center to determine optimum rudder pedal force/feel characteristics for transport aircraft. After completion of this simulation study, an evaluation of four metrics for assessing rudder pedal force/feel system characteristics previously presented in the literature was conducted. This evaluation was based upon the numerical handling-qualities ratings assigned to a variety of pedal force/feel systems used in the simulation study. It is shown that the majority of rudder pedal force/feel system configurations that received poor normalized pilot ratings also failed one or more of the metrics. In addition, the majority of configurations that received satisfactory normalized pilot ratings also passed all of the metrics. Based upon the simulation results, a fifth metric was identified that improved the ability of the complete set of metrics to identify poor force/feel system designs. It is suggested that these metrics could form the basis of a certification requirement for transport aircraft. One of the pilot-induced oscillations that occurred in the simulation was analyzed and a possible triggering event was identified.
DNA sequence-dependent mechanics and protein-assisted bending in repressor-mediated loop formation

As the chief informational molecule of life, DNA is subject to extensive physical manipulations. The energy required to deform double-helical DNA depends on sequence, and this mechanical code of DNA influences gene regulation, such as through nucleosome positioning. Here we examine the sequence-dependent flexibility of DNA in bacterial transcription factor-mediated looping, a context for which the role of sequence remains poorly understood. Using a suite of synthetic constructs repressed by the Lac repressor and two well-known sequences that show large flexibility differences in vitro, we make precise statistical mechanical predictions as to how DNA sequence influences loop formation and test these predictions using in vivo transcription and in vitro single-molecule assays. Surprisingly, sequence-dependent flexibility does not affect in vivo gene regulation. By theoretically and experimentally quantifying the relative contributions of sequence and the DNA-bending protein HU to DNA mechanical properties, we reveal that bending by HU dominates DNA mechanics and masks intrinsic sequence-dependent flexibility. Such a quantitative understanding of how mechanical regulatory information is encoded in the genome will be a key step towards a predictive understanding of gene regulation at single-base pair resolution.
TOF-PET Small-Lesion Image Quality Measured Over a Range of Phantom Sizes

The purpose of this study was to parameterize time-of-flight (TOF) image quality improvement over non-TOF PET using small lesions in a tapering phantom that represents a range of body sizes. A set of 46 1.0-cm spherical inserts was divided into six groups and positioned in a fillable, tapered phantom that represents a range of body dimensions (an oval cross section from 38.5 × 49.5 cm to 6.8 × 17.8 cm with a length of 51.1 cm). These hot spheres were positioned in a uniform, warm background (8:1 radioactivity concentration) and were distributed in six regions of different cross-sectional areas. Two PET/CT studies were acquired on a Discovery 690 PET/CT (GE Healthcare), which has a reported timing resolution of 650 ps. The total exam consisted of six frames (bed positions), with each frame centered on one of the sphere sets. Images were reconstructed with and without TOF information using 3D OSEM with 1-20 iterations of eight subsets, a 50-cm field of view, and a 128 × 128 × 47 image matrix with all corrections modeled in the iterative loop, and z-axis smoothing, but no post-filter was applied. An automated algorithm was used to segment and place regions of interest on the hot spheres in the CT, and then these regions were applied to the PET images to measure contrast recovery and background variability (image noise). As the number of iterations increases for TOF and non-TOF iterative reconstruction, the ratio of contrast for TOF to non-TOF was ~1.0 for small body sizes, but the TOF contrast improvement ranges from 10%-25% for body sizes with diameters >30.0 cm. When comparing the small lesion signal-to-noise ratios between TOF and non-TOF images, the square of the SNR ratios for TOF to non-TOF was a linear function of body size and timing resolution that was parallel to the predicted improvement of TOF. The squares of the SNR ratios for TOF to non-TOF were linearly proportional to Deff/σd, but with a negative offset. TOF image quality was equal to non-TOF for a diameter of ~17.5 cm.
The Final Focus Test Beam project

An overview is given of the Final Focus Test Beam (FFTB), which is being constructed as a prototype final focus system for a future electron-positron linear collider. This beam line will use as input the 50-GeV electron beam from the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) linac, and is designed to reduce the transverse dimensions of the beam spot at the focal point to 1 mu m*0.06 mu m. >
Self-Enforcing Transactions: Reciprocal Exposure in Fisheries

This article tests the importance of transaction-specific investments in determining contract choice in the intermediate market for raw fish. The analysis uses information from a large sample of (implicit) contracts between fishers and processors in British Columbia for the 1988 fishing season. These contracts are of two general types: spot-market arrangements, and ex ante agreements. With a spot contract, buyers and sellers of fish seek one another after incurring seasonal investments (e.g., vessel maintenance, crew, processing facilities, etc.); there is no prior agreement for exchange, nor is there an agreement the relationship will continue beyond the transaction.' With ex ante agreements, the parties agree to trade with one another, perhaps exclusively, prior to either party incurring seasonal start-up costs. These agreements typically have nonprice compensation mechanisms such as financing of vessels by processors, and
Why criminal harms matter: Plato’s abiding insight in the Laws

Commentators have contested the role of resulting harm in criminal law since the time of Plato. Unfortunately, they have neglected what may be not only the best discussion of the issue, but also the first—namely, Plato’s one-paragraph discussion in the Laws. Plato’s discussion succeeds in reconciling two, seemingly irreconcilable viewpoints that till now have been in stalemate. Thus, Plato reconciles the view, that an offender’s desert is solely a function of his subjective willingness to act in disregard of the legitimate interests of others, with the view that criminal sentences can appropriately be made to depend upon how indignant, angry, and upset society is at an offender based upon the results of his culpable conduct. In doing so, Plato casts light on retributive theories of punishment by suggesting that an adjudicator can be committed to retribution and yet rightly believe that it is inappropriate to give an offender the full punishment he deserves. He also lays a basis for the view that causation, rather being predicates for the just punishment of offenders toward whom the public is intuitively angry for harm, is the consequence of the public’s being intuitively angry at offenders for harm.
A Scalable Methodology for Evaluating and Designing Coordinated Air-Traffic Flow Management Strategies Under Uncertainty

As congestion in the United States National Airspace System (NAS) increases, coordination of en route and terminal-area traffic flow management procedures is becoming increasingly necessary to prevent controller workload excesses without imposing excessive delay on aircraft. Here, we address the coordination of flow management procedures in the presence of realistic uncertainties by developing a family of abstractions for implementable flow restrictions (e.g., miles-in-trail restrictions, ground delay programs, and slot-based policies). Using these abstractions, we are able to evaluate the impact of multiple restrictions on generic (uncertain) traffic flows and, hence, to design practical flow management strategies. We use the developed methodology to address several common design problems, including the design of multiple restrictions along a single major traffic stream and the design of multiple flows entering a congested terminal area or sector. For instance, we find that multiple restrictions along a stream can be used to split the backlog resulting from a single restriction and use this observation to develop low-congestion designs. We conclude the discussion by posing a tractable NAS-wide flow management problem using a simple algebraic model for a restriction.
Substitution and superstars

The existing superstar model (Rosen, 1981) does not require imperfect substitutes, and the convexity of total earnings with respect to talent is due to greater output for those with more talent. Our model explains why wages would increase at an increasing rate in talent. Imperfect substitutability between non-superstars and superstars with probabilistic production results in convexity in wage rates.
The Persistence of Lenient Market Categories

Research across disciplines presumes that market categories will have strong boundaries. Categories without well-defined boundaries typically are not useful and so are expected to fade away. We suggest many contexts contain lenient market categories, or less-constraining market categories, that persist and become important. We argue that this fact can be explained by looking at market categories from the producer perspective. Lenient market categories have more flexibility and allow for a wider range of fit. As a result, we expect to see high rates of entry into lenient categories. At the same time, lenient market categories have drawbacks: they do not clearly convey what an organization does and do not identify specific sets of potential consumers. This means organizations are more likely to exit. When entry rates are higher than exit rates, lenient market categories will endure over time. We also predict that organizations exiting lenient categories will enter other lenient categories, further fueling the persistence of such categories. Finally, this trend is exaggerated when influential external agents favor leniency. We find support for these ideas in a longitudinal analysis of organizational entry into and exit from market categories in the software industry.
Health Impact Assessment: A Tool to Help Policy Makers Understand Health Beyond Health Care

Health impact assessment (HIA)--a combination of methods to examine formally the potential health effects of a proposed policy, program, or project--has received considerable interest over the past decade internationally as a practical mechanism for collaborating with other sectors to address the environmental determinants of health and to achieve more effectively the goals of population health promotion. Demand for HIA in the United States seems to be growing. This review outlines the common principles and methodologies of HIA and compares different approaches to HIA. Lessons learned from the related field of environmental impact assessment and from experience with HIA in other countries are examined. Possible avenues for advancing both the field and the broader goals of population health promotion are outlined.
Relationships Between Classroom Schedule Types and Performance on the Algebra I Criterion-Referenced Test

Relationships Between Classroom Schedule Types and Performance on the Algebra I Criterion-Referenced Test
Consumer Boycotts and Farm Labor Welfare: A Multi-Level Market Analysis

The paper addresses the economics of recent boycott strategies and impacts of the agreements on labor and industry. A multi-level market model is used to address the linkage between Taco Bell, growers and labor. Analysis of the resulting segmentation of the labor market is also included.
On long increasing chains modulo flat ideals

We prove that, e.g., in (ω 3)(ω 3) there is no sequence of length W4 increasing modulo the ideal of countable sets (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Habitat monitoring with sensor networks

These networks deliver to ecologists data on localized environmental conditions at the scale of individual organisms to help settle large-scale land-use issues affecting animals, plants, and people.
Quarks in an External Electric Field in Finite Temperature Large N Gauge Theory

We use a ten dimensional dual string background to study aspects of the physics of large N four dimensional SU(N) gauge theory, where its fundamental quarks are charged under a background electric field. The theory is N = 2 supersymmetric for vanishing temperature and electric field. We work in a limit where the quarks do not back-react. At zero temperature, we observe that the electric field induces a phase transition associated with the dissociation of the mesons into their constituent quarks. This is an analogue of an insulator-metal transition, since the system goes from being an insulator with zero current (in the applied field) to a conductor with free charge carriers (the quarks). At finite temperature this phenomenon persists, and the dissociation transition becomes subsumed into the more familiar meson melting transition. Here, the dissociation phenomenon reduces the critical melting temperature.
An AF Algebra Associated with the Farey Tessellation

To the Farey tessellation of the upper half-plane we associate an AF alge- bra A encoding the cutting sequences that define vertical geodesics. The Effros-Shen AF algebras arise as quotients of A. Using the path algebra model for AF algebras we construct, for each � ∈ (0, 1 ), projections (En) in A such that EnEn±1En ≤ �En.
Simulating the poverty impact of macroeconomic shocks and policies

Developing countries face a host of macroeconomic challenges in the design and implementation of development strategies and policies. The importance of the underlying poverty and distributional issues creates a need for relevant and reliable ways of tracking the social impact of shocks and policies. This paper describes and demonstrates the use of a stylized framework for simulating the poverty implications of the Dutch disease, a change in the terms of trade and budgetary policy. The basic approach is to embed a Lorenz model of the size distribution of economic welfare in a general equilibrium model of an open economy. It is observed that, while aggregate welfare and poverty effects may be negligible, the structural and distributional impacts tend to be significant. The latter drive the political economy of policymaking and point to the need for an analytical framework that accounts for both the structural richness of the economy and the heterogeneity of the stakeholders
The Diagonal Distribution for the Invariant Measure of a Unitary Type Symmetric Space

Let Θ denote an involution for a simply connected compact Lie group U, let K denote the fixed point set, and let μ denote the U-invariant probability measure on U/K. Consider the geodesic embedding $\phi :U/K\to U:u\mapsto uu^{ -\Theta}$ of Cartan. In this paper we compute the Fourier transform of the diagonal distribution for $\phi_{*}\mu,$ relative to a compatible triangular decomposition of G, the complexification of U. This boils down to a Duistermaat-Heckman exact stationary phase calculation, involving a Poisson structure on the dual symmetric space G0/K discovered by Evens and Lu.
Quantifier elimination for the reals with a predicate for the powers of two

In 1985, van den Dries showed that the theory of the reals with a predicate for the integer powers of two admits quantifier elimination in an expanded language, and is hence decidable. He gave a model-theoretical argument, which provides no apparent bounds on the complexity of a decision procedure. We provide a syntactical argument that yields a procedure that is primitive recursive, although not elementary. In particular, we show that it is possible to eliminate a single block of existential quantifiers in time 2"O"("n")^0, where n is the length of the input formula and 2"k^x denotes k-fold iterated exponentiation.
Temporally scalable visual SLAM using a reduced pose graph

In this paper, we demonstrate a system for temporally scalable visual SLAM using a reduced pose graph representation. Unlike previous visual SLAM approaches that maintain static keyframes, our approach uses new measurements to continually improve the map, yet achieves efficiency by avoiding adding redundant frames and not using marginalization to reduce the graph. To evaluate our approach, we present results using an online binocular visual SLAM system that uses place recognition for both robustness and multi-session operation. Additionally, to enable large-scale indoor mapping, our system automatically detects elevator rides based on accelerometer data. We demonstrate long-term mapping in a large multi-floor building, using approximately nine hours of data collected over the course of six months. Our results illustrate the capability of our visual SLAM system to map a large are over extended period of time.
The Doctor Might See You Now: The Supply Side Effects of Public Health Insurance Expansions

In the United States, public health insurance programs cover over 90 million individuals. Expansions of these programs, such as the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), may have large effects on physician behavior. This study finds that following the implementation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), physicians decreased the num ber of hours spent with patients, but increased their program partici pation. Suggestive evidence shows that this decrease resulted from shorter office visits. These findings are consistent with the predic tions from a mixed-economy model of physician behavior and pro vide evidence of crowd out resulting from the creation of SCHIP. {JEL H75, 111, 113,118)
Aneutronic fusion in a degenerate plasma

In a Fermi-degenerate plasma, the electronic stopping of a slow ion is smaller than that given by the classical formula, because some transitions between the electron states are forbidden. The bremsstrahlung losses are then smaller, so that the nuclear burning of an aneutronic fuel is more efficient. Consequently, there occurs a parameter regime in which self-burning is possible. Practical obstacles in this regime that must be overcome before net energy can be realized include the compression of the fuel to an ultra dense state and the creation of a hot spot.
Synthesis and properties of germanium nanowires

As a promising electronic material, Ge nanowire (GeNW) has attracted much at- tention for its low band gaps, high mobilities, and unprecedented dimensions. This article re- views recent research and advancement on this topic and summarizes many aspects of GeNWs, including preparation, surface chemistry, physical properties, functional devices, and controlled assembly. It is shown that GeNWs can be readily synthesized by chemical methods and their electronic properties are comparable or superior to that of the bulk coun- terparts. Studies of surface chemistry have revealed dominant roles of surfaces on nanowires, and this result led to successful passivations toward air-stable, high-performance functional devices. Finally, controlled assembly to organize chemically synthesized nanowires into functional structures is discussed. Doors are opened up to widely utilize this novel material as excellent electronic building blocks.
Object-oriented programming: Some history, and challenges for the next fifty years

Object-oriented programming is inextricably linked to the pioneering work of Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard on the design of the Simula language, which started at the Norwegian Computing Centre in the Spring of 1961. However, object-orientation, as we think of it today-fifty years later-is the result of a complex interplay of ideas, constraints and people. Dahl and Nygaard would certainly recognise it as their progeny, but might also be amazed at how much it has grown up. This article is based on a lecture given on 22nd August 2011, on the occasion of the scientific opening of the Ole-Johan Dahl hus at the University of Oslo. It looks at the foundational ideas from Simula that stand behind object-orientation, how those ideas have evolved to become the dominant programming paradigm, and what they have to offer as we approach the challenges of the next fifty years of informatics.
Voting to Tell Others

Why do people vote? We argue that signaling utility plays a significant role in explaining voting behavior: people vote because others might ask. We construct a model in which individuals may derive pride from signaling to others that they voted and, conversely, feel shame or guilt from admitting that they did not vote. We design a field experiment that is tightly linked to this model and allows us to estimate the key parameters of the theory. In three inter-related treatments, we study the cost voters and non-voters of the 2010 congressional election are willing to incur to sort into and out of situations in which they might be asked whether they voted. We find that signaling utility significantly affects the sorting of non-voters. For a broad range of plausible values of lying cost, we estimate a value of voting ‘just because others will ask’ of $10-$15. This value is sizeable enough to explain election turnout.
Fast position measurements with scanning line optical tweezers.

Scanning line optical tweezers are a powerful tool for the study of colloidal or biomolecular systems in the low-force regime. We present a fast, high-resolution particle position measurement scheme that extends the capabilities of these instruments into the realm of dynamic measurements. The technique is based on synchronous detection of forward-scattered laser light during a line scan. We demonstrate a position resolution of better than 50 nm for bandwidths of as much as 40 kHz for pairs of microspheres trapped in a flat line potential at center-to-center separations of 1.7–6 µm.
Nitrogen deposition: a component of global change analyses

The global cycles of carbon and nitrogen are being perturbed by human activities that increase the transfer from large pools of non-reactive forms of the elements to reactive forms that are essential to the functioning of the terrestrial biosphere. The cycles are closely linked at all scales, and global change analyses must consider C and N cycles together. The increasing amount of N originating from fossil fuel combustion and deposited to terrestrial ecosystems as nitrogen oxides could increase the capacity of ecosystems to sequester C, thereby removing some of the excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and slowing the development of greenhouse warming. Several global and ecosystem models have calculated the amount of C sequestration that can be attributed to N deposition, based on assumptions about the allocation of N among ecosystem components with different C:N ratios. They support the premise that, since industrialization began, N deposition has been responsible for an increasing terrestrial C sink, but there is great uncertainty whether ecosystems will continue to retain exogenous N. Whether terrestrial ecosystems continue to sequester additional C will depend in part on their response to increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, widely thought to be constrained by limited N availability. Ecosystem models generally support the conclusion that responses to increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide will be greater, and the range of possible responses will be wider, in ecosystems where increased N inputs originate as atmospheric deposition. The interactions between N deposition and increasing carbon dioxide concentrations could be altered considerably, however, by additional factors, including N saturation of ecosystems, changes in community composition, and climate change. Nitrogen deposition is also linked to global change issues through the volatile losses of nitrous oxide, which is a potent greenhouse gas, and the role of nitrogen oxides in the production of tropospheric ozone, which could interact with plant responses to elevated carbon dioxide. Any consideration of the role of N deposition in global change issues must also balance the projected responses against the serious detrimental impact of excess N on the environment.
Natural resource abundance and economic growth revisited

Abstract An analysis using reserves as a measure of resource abundance suggests that natural resource abundance has not been a significant structural determinant of economic growth in the seventies and eighties. The story behind the effect of natural resources on economic growth is a complex one that typical growth regressions do not capture well. Preliminary evidence suggests that natural resources may affect economic growth through both ‘positive’ and ‘negative channels.’ Potential reverse causality running from these ‘channels’ to fuel and mineral reserves further complicates the analysis. I conjecture that, as economic historians suggest, the ability of a country to exploit its resource base depends critically on the nature of the learning process involved.
Efficient parallel hierarchical clustering algorithms

Clustering of data has numerous applications and has been studied extensively. Though most of the algorithms in the literature are sequential, many parallel algorithms have also been designed. In this paper, we present parallel algorithms with better performance than known algorithms. We consider algorithms that work well in the worst case as well as algorithms with good expected performance.
The cartography of responses to state crime: understanding the linkages among state abuses/crimes/deviance/harms/illegalities/wrongs, resistance/control, and state organizational reactions

Although a considerable amount of thoughtful scholarly research on state crime has been conducted and published, researchers have failed to assemble a comprehensive model of the process and reactions that begin after state crime has occurred and been detected. This article outlines a heuristic model that presents the major political actors that participate in this process and the relationships that can develop among them. In order to create the model, research that has been conducted on state crime is reviewed and integrated, difficulties with this work are analyzed, and recommendations about future research that can be conducted using the model are made.
Reconciling patterns of interseismic strain accumulation with thermal observations across the Carrizo segment of the San Andreas Fault

article i nfo The Carrizo segment of the San Andreas Fault separates rocks of the Salinian Block southwest of the fault characterized by high heat flow (~75-95 mW/m 2 ) and shallow seismicity (b~10 km depth), from rocks of the FranciscanComplexandGreatValleyGroupnortheastofthefaultassociatedwithlowheat flow(50-60 mW/m 2 ) and deeper seismicity (b~20 km depth). GPS data from this region suggest that the northeast side of the fault accommodates more interseismic strain than the southwest side. We show that by incorporating variations in depthtothebrittleductiletransitioninferredbasedonheat flowandseismicitydata,we fitthegeodeticdatawell and achieve agreement with geologically accepted long-term average slip rates with a ~20 km wide zone with lowYoung'smodulusNEofthefault.Thiswidecompliantzoneisconsistentwithobservationssuggestingthatthe presence of large overpressures may be decreasing the elastic moduli in this region.
Incorporating Domain Knowledge in Matching Problems via Harmonic Analysis

Matching one set of objects to another is a ubiquitous task in machine learning and computer vision that often reduces to some form of the quadratic assignment problem (QAP). The QAP is known to be notoriously hard, both in theory and in practice. Here, we investigate if this difficulty can be mitigated when some additional piece of information is available: (a) that all QAP instances of interest come from the same application, and (b) the correct solution for a set of such QAP instances is given. We propose a new approach to accelerate the solution of QAPs based on learning parameters for a modified objective function from prior QAP instances. A key feature of our approach is that it takes advantage of the algebraic structure of permutations, in conjunction with special methods for optimizing functions over the symmetric group Sn in Fourier space. Experiments show that in practical domains the new method can outperform existing approaches.
Understanding the varied response of the extratropical storm tracks to climate change

Transient eddies in the extratropical storm tracks are a primary mechanism for the transport of momentum, energy, and water in the atmosphere, and as such are a major component of the climate system. Changes in the extratropical storm tracks under global warming would impact these transports, the ocean circulation and carbon cycle, and society through changing weather patterns. I show that the southern storm track intensifies in the multimodel mean of simulations of 21st century climate change, and that the seasonal cycle of storm-track intensity increases in amplitude in both hemispheres. I use observations of the present-day seasonal cycle to confirm the relationship between storm-track intensity and the mean available potential energy of the atmosphere, and show how this quantitative relationship can be used to account for much of the varied response in storm-track intensity to global warming, including substantially different responses in simulations with different climate models. The results suggest that storm-track intensity is not related in a simple way to global-mean surface temperature, so that, for example, a stronger southern storm track in response to present-day global warming does not imply it was also stronger in hothouse climates of the past.
MIMO Diversity in the Presence of Double Scattering

The potential benefits of multiple-antenna systems may be limited by two types of channel degradations-rank deficiency and spatial fading correlation of the channel. In this paper, we assess the effects of these degradations on the diversity performance of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, with an emphasis on orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBC), in terms of the symbol error probability (SEP), the effective fading figure (EFF), and the capacity at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In particular, we consider a general family of MIMO channels known as double-scattering channels-i.e., Rayleigh product MIMO channels-which encompasses a variety of propagation environments from independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) Rayleigh to degenerate keyhole or pinhole cases by embracing both rank-deficient and spatial correlation effects. It is shown that a MIMO system with transmit and receive antennas achieves the diversity of order in a double-scattering channel with effective scatterers. We also quantify the combined effect of the spatial correlation and the lack of scattering richness on the EFF and the low-SNR capacity in terms of the correlation figures of transmit, receive, and scatterer correlation matrices. We further show the monotonicity properties of these performance measures with respect to the strength of spatial correlation, characterized by the eigenvalue majorization relations of the correlation matrices.
Post-route gate sizing for crosstalk noise reduction

Gate sizing is a practical and a feasible crosstalk noise repair technique in the post route design stage, especially for block level sea-of-gates designs. The difficulty in gate sizing for noise reduction is that by increasing a driver size, noise at the driver output is reduced, but noise injected by that driver on other nets is increased. This can create cyclical dependencies between nets in the circuit with noise violations. In this paper, we propose a fast and effective heuristic post-route gate sizing algorithm that uses a graph representation of the noise dependencies between nodes. Our method utilized gate sizing in both directions and works in linear time as a function of the number of gates. The effectiveness of the algorithm is shown on several industrial high performance designs.
A meshless method for variational nonrigid 2-D shape registration

We present a method for nonrigid registration of 2-D geometric shapes. Our contribution is twofold. First, we extend the classic chamfer-matching energy to a variational functional. Secondly, we introduce a meshless deformation model that can adapt computation to the shape boundary. In our method, 2-D shapes are implicitly represented by a distance transform, and the registration error is defined based on the shape contours' mutual distances. Additionally, we model global shape deformation as an approximation blended from local fields using partition-of-unity. The deformation field is regularized by penalizing inconsistencies between local fields. This representation can be adaptive to the shape's contour, leading to registration that is both flexible and efficient. Finally, shape registration is achieved by minimizing a variational chamfer-energy functional combined with the consistency regularizer using an efficient quasi-Newton algorithm. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our registration method on a number of experiments.
Supervised Grammar Induction using Training Data with Limited Constituent Information

Corpus-based grammar induction generally relies on hand-parsed training data to learn the structure of the language. Unfortunately, the cost of building large annotated corpora is prohibitively expensive. This work aims to improve the induction strategy when there are few labels in the training data. We show that the most informative linguistic constituents are the higher nodes in the parse trees, typically denoting complex noun phrases and sentential clauses. They account for only 20% of all constituents. For inducing grammars from sparsely labeled training data (e.g., only higher-level constituent labels), we propose an adaptation strategy, which produces grammars that parse almost as well as grammars induced from fully labeled corpora. Our results suggest that for a partial parser to replace human annotators, it must be able to automatically extract higher-level constituents rather than base noun phrases.
Two-Point Coordinate Rings for GK-Curves

Giulietti and Korchmaros presented new curves with the maximal number of points over a field of size q6. Garcia, Guneri, and Stichtenoth extended the construction to curves that are maximal over fields of size q2n, for odd n ≥ 3. The generalized GK-curves have affine equations xq+x = yq+1 and yq2-y = zr, for r=(qn+1)/(q+1). We give a new proof for the maximality of the generalized GK-curves and we outline methods to efficiently obtain their two-point coordinate ring.
A Task and Resource Scheduling System for Automated Planning

Planning is done at both the strategic and tactical levels. This paper classifies some previous planning techniques into these different levels, and details some of their problems. A planning technique known as heuristic task scheduling is then presented along with a planner architecture that integrates task-scheduling with more traditional techniques to form a system that bridges the strategic/tactical deviation.
Freeway Speeds and Speed Variations Preceding Crashes, Within and Across Lanes

Relationships between speed choice and crash occurrence have been difficult to identify. This work examines vehicle speeds (and their variations) derived from single loop detectors for several Southern California freeways, within and across freeway lanes, together with corresponding crash data. While a variety of factors clearly influence speed and speed variance, there is no evidence in these crash data sets, and observations of their corresponding series of 30-second traffic conditions, that speeds or their variation trigger crashes.
Aerosol measurements from earth orbiting spacecraft

Since the fall of 1978, two Earth-orbiting spacecraft sensors, SAM II, for Stratospheric Aerosol Measurement II, and SAGE, for Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment have been monitoring the global stratospheric aerosol. These experiments use the Sun as a source to make Earth-limb extinction measurements during each spacecraft sunrise and sunset. This paper describes the global aerosol data base (climatology) that is evolving. Seasonal and hemispheric variations such as the springtime layer expansion with warming temperatures and the local wintertime polar stratospheric clouds (PSC's) will be described. The PSC's enhance extinction by up to two orders of magnitude and optical depths by as much as an order of magnitude over the background 1000 nm values of about 1.2 × 10−4 km−1 and 1.3 × 10−3, respectively. The detection and tracking of a number of volcanoes whose effluents penetrated the tropopause are also described. The mass of new aerosol injected into the stratosphere from each volcano is estimated. The May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, for example, produced about 0.32 × 109 kg of new stratospheric aerosol enhancing the Northern Hemispheric aerosol by more than 100 percent.
Flow-level state transition as a new switch primitive for SDN

In software-defined networking, the controller installs flow-based rules at switches either proactively or reactively. The reactive approach allows controller applications to make dynamic decisions about incoming traffic, but performs worse than the proactive one due to the controller involvement. To support dynamic applications with better performance, we propose FAST (Flow-level State Transitions) as a new switch primitive for software-defined networks. With FAST, the controller simply preinstalls a state machine and switches can automatically record flow state transitions by matching incoming packets to installed filters. FAST can support a variety of dynamic applications, and can be readily implemented with today's commodity switch components and software switches.