cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Chemical Vapor Deposition of Carbon Nanotubes on Monolayer Graphene Substrates: Reduced Etching via Suppressed Catalytic Hydrogenation Using C2H4

In most envisioned applications, the full utilization of a graphene-carbon nanotube (CNT) construct requires maintaining the integrity of the graphene layer during the CNT growth step. In this work, we exhibit an approach toward controlled CNT growth atop graphene substrates where the reaction equilibrium between the source hydrocarbon decomposition and carbon saturation into and precipitation from the catalyst nanoparticles shifts toward CNT growth rather than graphene consumption. By utilizing C2H4 feedstock, we demonstrate that the low-temperature growth permissible with this gas suppresses undesirable catalytic hydrogenation and dramatically reduces the etching of the graphene layer to exhibit graphene-CNT hybrids with continuous, undamaged structures.
Fish Oil and Neurovascular Reactivity to Mental Stress in Humans

Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil have been suggested to protect against cardiovascular disease, yet underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Despite the well-documented link between mental stress...
Three‐arm, randomized, phase 2 study of carboplatin and paclitaxel in combination with cetuximab, cixutumumab, or both for advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who will not receive bevacizumab‐based therapy: An Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) study (E4508)

BACKGROUND Preclinical evidence supports the clinical investigation of inhibitors to the insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGFR) and the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) either alone or in combination as treatment for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS Patients with chemotherapy-naive, advanced NSCLC who had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1 were eligible. Patients were randomized to receive carboplatin intravenously at an area under the plasma drug concentration-time curve of 6.0 plus paclitaxel 200 mg/m2 intravenously on day 1 every 3 weeks combined with either intravenous cetuximab weekly (arm A), intravenous cixutumumab every 2 weeks (arm B), or both (arm C). Patients who had nonprogessing disease after 12 weeks of therapy were permitted to continue on maintenance antibody therapy until they developed progressive disease. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). The study design required 180 eligible patients and had 88% power to detect a 60% increase in median PFS for either comparison (arm A vs arm C or arm B vs arm C) using the log-rank test. RESULTS From September 2009 to December 2010, 140 patients were accrued. The study was closed to accrual early because of an excessive number of grade 5 events reported on arms A and C. Thirteen patients died during treatment (6 patients on arm A, 2 patients on arm B, and 5 patients on arm C), including 9 within approximately 1 month of starting therapy. The estimated median PFS for arms A, B, and C were similar at 3.4 months, 4.2 months, and 4 months, respectively. CONCLUSIONS On the basis of the apparent lack of efficacy and excessive premature deaths, the current results do not support the continued investigation of carboplatin, paclitaxel, and cixutumumab either alone or in combination with cetuximab for patients with advanced NSCLC. Cancer 2015;121:2253–2261. © 2015 American Cancer Society.
Fatigue Crack Delay and Arrest Due to Single Peak Tensile Overloads

The effect of single peak overloads on fatigue crack growth was investigated using center crack sheet specimens of 2024-T3 aluminum alloy. The magnitudes of the overload stress intensity values were selected to provide ratios of the overload plastic zone size to the fatigue plastic zone size (r0/r/max = #*) equal to 5, 10, 15, and 20. To provide a constant fatigue plastic zone size, quasi-constant stress intensity tests were run by means of a load shedding technique. The delaying effect due to a single peak overload was found to increase as the value of R* and consequently as r0, increased. The higher values of R* were large enough to produce an overload plastic zone that would result in nonpropagating fatigue cracks after 1.5 x 10 cycles. A "zeroing in" technique was used to determine the size of the plastic zone required to arrest a crack at any particular fatigue stress intensity level. From the experimental data, a relationship was developed for approximating the amount of fatigue crack delay incurred due to overloading.
General Anesthesia and Altered States of Arousal: A Systems Neuroscience Analysis

Placing a patient in a state of general anesthesia is crucial for safely and humanely performing most surgical and many nonsurgical procedures. How anesthetic drugs create the state of general anesthesia is considered a major mystery of modern medicine. Unconsciousness, induced by altered arousal and/or cognition, is perhaps the most fascinating behavioral state of general anesthesia. We perform a systems neuroscience analysis of the altered arousal states induced by five classes of intravenous anesthetics by relating their behavioral and physiological features to the molecular targets and neural circuits at which these drugs are purported to act. The altered states of arousal are sedation-unconsciousness, sedation-analgesia, dissociative anesthesia, pharmacologic non-REM sleep, and neuroleptic anesthesia. Each altered arousal state results from the anesthetic drugs acting at multiple targets in the central nervous system. Our analysis shows that general anesthesia is less mysterious than currently believed.
Drop Formation in a One-Dimensional Approximation of the Navier-Stokes Equation

We consider the viscous motion of a thin axisymmetric column of fluid with a free surface. A one-dimensional equation of motion for the velocity and the radius is derived from the Navier–Strokes equation. We compare our results with recent experiments on the breakup of a liquid jet and on the bifurcation of a drop suspended from an orifice. The equations form singularities as the fluid neck is pinching off. The nature of the singularities is investigated in detail.
On the existence of a common quadratic Lyapunov function for a rank one difference

Abstract Suppose that A and B are real Hurwitz matrices, and that their difference A − B is rank one. Then A and B have a common quadratic Lyapunov function if and only if the product AB has no real negative eigenvalue. This result is due to Shorten and Narendra, who showed that it follows as a consequence of the Kalman–Yacubovich–Popov lemma and the solution of the Lur’e problem. Here we present a new and independent proof based on results from convex analysis and the theory of moments.
A correlative investigation of the human rectovaginal septum.

Anatomists and gynecologists have debated the existence of a rectovaginal septum in the human female. In this investigation the connective tissue between the vagina and rectum has been reexamined by both dissection and light microscopy in four specimen types. Specimens studied and compared totaled 143 and represent an age range of from eight fetal weeks to 100 years. Included were specimens from patients with different degrees of parity and both normal and abnormal pelvic visceral support. It has been shown that a definite rectovaginal septum exists in the human female and it is probably the homologue of the male rectovesical septum. The septum is well formed by the fourteenth fetal week and consists of a thin vertical sheet of dense connective tissue which is translucent in the fresh state. In the coronal plane the septum parallels the sacral curvature. It also curves posterolaterally to become fused with the parietal endopelvic fascia. The septum extends inferiorly from the rectouterine peritoneal pouch to the perineal body. It is usually adherent to the posterior aspect of the vaginal connective tissue, capsule. This adherence, together with the difficulty in identifying it histologically may explain why the existence of the rectovaginal septum has been denied.
Microscopic origin of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy

Abstract The Bekenstein-Hawking area-entropy relation S BH = A 4 is derived for a class of five-dimensional extremal black holes in string theory by counting the degeneracy of BPS solition bound states.
'The Wit in the Dungeon': Leigh Hunt and the Insolent Politics of Cockney Coteries

(1999). “The wit in the dungeon”: Leigh Hunt and the insolent politics of cockney coteries. European Romantic Review: Vol. 10, No. 1-4, pp. 242-253.
US policy towards Africa: The Bush legacy and the Obama administration

This article discusses the Bush administration’s African policy legacy and its implications for the Obama administration. Many have argued that the events of 9/11 led the administration to view the African subcontinent differently, and that the US has altered its conception of national interests in the region. The tripling of American foreign aid to the region is noteworthy. AFRICOM’s creation also suggests a policy shift. The article is nonetheless sceptical that these changes represent a paradigmatic shift in policy towards Africa, rather than a partial and inconsistent adjustment made possible by a conjunction of quite specific circumstances. Indeed, these circumstances provided an opportunity to redefine US foreign policy towards the region, which the Bush administration largely failed to do. The article argues that the weight of the American diplomatic presence in the region has continued to decline, because of the worsening institutional fragmentation in the foreign policy apparatus, contradictions in policy, and the decline in the State Department’s institutional capacity. As the Obama administration defines US policy in the region, it must address most of the same conundrums as its predecessors, but with less leverage than past administrations and constrained by the fiscal effects of the worst recession in sixty years.
Preparation and Characterization of Some Substituted Benzyl N-Nitrosocarbamates Containing an N-2-(Methylthio)ethyl or a Bis(2-aminoethyl)sulfide Functionality

The synthesis and characterization of some substituted benzyl N-nitrosocarbamates with an N-2-(methylthio)ethyl or a bis(2-aminoethyl)sulfide functionality is reported, as a part of a long-term goal to design and prepare novel photolabile structures that could be used as substances for controlled release of alkylating and/or crosslinking agents. The synthesis was accomplished by reaction of benzyl chloroformates with the corresponding amines, resulting in the preparation of carbamates. The latter were subsequently nitrosated, utilizing two different N-nitrosation methods, to yield the target structures.
Palestinian Refugees and the Syrian Uprising: Filling the Protection Gap during Secondary Forced Displacement

Palestinian refugees in the Middle East constitute a protracted refugee situation. In response to political considerations by multiple state actors, they are denied return to their homes of habitual residence and are refused meaningful legal protection in their host countries. Palestinians are therefore suspended between their political objectification in a prolonged conflict on the one hand, and the vulnerability of their humanitarian condition, like all other refugees, on the other. Unlike their refugee counterparts who are persons of concern to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Palestinian refugees endure an uneven legal regime. Since the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP) fell into abeyance, no international agency has searched for durable solutions on behalf of Palestinian refugees, thus exposing them to a protection gap. Instead, the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), established to furnish Palestinian refugees with aid and relief, has provided them with incremental protection, which, however significant, has been insufficient to close the gap. The extent of this protection gap has been vividly demonstrated during several epi sodes of secondary forced displacement in the Middle East. In response to their mass expulsion from Kuwait in 1991, Libya in 1996, and Iraq in 2003, UNRWA and UNHCR have closely collaborated in order to bridge this gap and provide Palestinian refugees with adequate protection. These incidents of inter-agency collaboration constitute de facto policies between the two agencies, which demonstrate the flexibility of otherwise rigid delineations between their existing mandates. In particular, past practice makes clear that UNRWA and UNCHR can have overlapping geographic and operational mandates. During the most recent crisis in Syria, these de facto policies have proven inadequate to protect Palestinian refugees. To overcome this challenge, UNHCR and UNRWA should formalize their inter-agency collaboration on behalf of Palestinian refugees during times of calm as well as crisis, in conformity with the spirit of the UNHCR Statute and the 1951 Refugee Convention as well as with past practice. Beyond crisis, the agencies should consider innovative approaches to definitively close the protection gap.
Accruals Quality and Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We examine the relation between accruals quality and internal controls using 705 firms that disclosed at least one material weakness from August 2002 to November 2005 and find that weaknesses are generally associated with poorly estimated accruals that are not realized as cash flows. Further, we find that this relation between weak internal controls and lower accruals quality is driven by weakness disclosures that relate to overall company‐level controls, which may be more difficult to “audit around.” We find no such relation for more auditable, account‐specific weaknesses. We find similar results using four additional measures of accruals quality: discretionary accruals, average accruals quality, historical accounting restatements, and earnings persistence. Our results are robust to the inclusion of firm characteristics that proxy for difficulty in accrual estimation, known determinants of material weaknesses, and corrections for self‐selection bias.
SCTP: state of the art in research, products, and technical challenges

The stream control transmission protocol (STCP) is being standardized by the IEFT as a reliable transport protocol to transport SS7signaling messages over IP networks. Due to its attractive features such as multistreaming and multihoming, SCTP has received much attention from the network community, in terms of both research and development. This article introduces the main features of SCTP, and discusses the state of the art in SCTP research and development activities. We also provide a survey of the available products that use SCTP. Finally with a view to stimulating further research in this area, the challenges faced by the SCTP research community are identified.
Video display terminal fringing magnetic field measurements

Possible occupational health or public health risks due to video display terminals (VDTs) are addressed. The authors note the errors of current jargon and correctly define the terms needed to describe the fringing magnetic flux density near any magnetically deflected, raster scan, cathode ray tube display. Theory and preliminary measurements have shown that the ELF AC electric field related to VDT display electronics is small, and the electromagnetic field strength at any frequency is truly negligible as an occupational health risk near any cathode ray tube display. Application of Maxwell's equations shows that the commonly used pickup coil responds to the derivative of magnetic flux density. The transducer needs an integrator to respond properly to the sawtooth waveforms of deflection fields. Correct measurements of VDT fringing magnetic fields are presented. A Swedish test method is briefly discussed. The conclusion from this work is strong. Theory and these measurements show there is not a verifiable occupational health risk from the fringing ELF electric or magnetic fields or any frequency electromagnetic fields near VDTs. >
Postoperative blood transfusion is an independent predictor of acute kidney injury in cardiac surgery patients.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious complication of cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) which increases postoperative morbidity and mortality. Objectives: The study was designed to assess the incidence of AKI and associated risk factors in patients undergoing CPB ancillary to coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), valve surgery, and combined CABG and valve surgery. Patients and Methods: This Intuitional Review Board (IRB) approved retrospective study included patients with normal preoperative kidney function (Serum creatinine [sCr] 2 mg/dl with a minimal doubling of baseline sCr) and group II: Patients with a normal postoperative kidney function. Demographic data, body mass index (BMI), co-morbidities, hematologic/biochemical profiles, preoperative ejection fraction (%EF), blood transfusion history, and operative data were compared between the groups. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) was recorded during the operation and in the postoperative period. Δ-MAP was defined as the difference between pre-CPB-MAP and the CPB-MAP. Results: 241 patients matched the inclusion criteria (CS-AKI incidence = 8.29%). Age, gender, BMI, %EF, and co-morbidities were not predictors of CS-AKI (P > 0.05). High preoperative sCr (P = 0.047), type of procedure (P = 0.04), clamp time (P = 0.003), pump time (P = 0.005) and history of blood transfusion within 14 days postsurgery (P = 0.0004) were associated with risk of CS-AKI. Pre-CPB-MAP, CPB-MAP, Δ-MAP, and ICU-MAP were not significantly different between the 2 groups. Male gender (OR: 5.53; P = 0.048), age>60 (OR: 4.54; P = 0.027) and blood transfusion after surgery (OR: 5.25; P = 0.0054) were independent predictors for postoperative AKI. Conclusions: Age, gender and blood transfusion were independent predictors of cardiac surgery associated AKI.
Smog Reduction’s Impact on California County Growth

Over the last twenty years, environmental regulation has sharply reduced pollution levels in the Los Angeles region. Population growth has soared in the Los Angeles suburbs that have experienced the largest pollution reductions. This paper posits that regulation has increased local quality of life which has encouraged in-migration. I explore alternative explanations for this growth.
The Power of Convex Relaxation: Near-Optimal Matrix Completion

This paper is concerned with the problem of recovering an unknown matrix from a small fraction of its entries. This is known as the matrix completion problem, and comes up in a great number of applications, including the famous Netflix Prize and other similar questions in collaborative filtering. In general, accurate recovery of a matrix from a small number of entries is impossible, but the knowledge that the unknown matrix has low rank radically changes this premise, making the search for solutions meaningful. This paper presents optimality results quantifying the minimum number of entries needed to recover a matrix of rank r exactly by any method whatsoever (the information theoretic limit). More importantly, the paper shows that, under certain incoherence assumptions on the singular vectors of the matrix, recovery is possible by solving a convenient convex program as soon as the number of entries is on the order of the information theoretic limit (up to logarithmic factors). This convex program simply finds, among all matrices consistent with the observed entries, that with minimum nuclear norm. As an example, we show that on the order of nr log(n) samples are needed to recover a random n x n matrix of rank r by any method, and to be sure, nuclear norm minimization succeeds as soon as the number of entries is of the form nr polylog(n).
Close-packed dimers on nonorientable surfaces

Abstract The problem of enumerating dimers on an M × N net embedded on nonorientable surfaces is considered. We solve both the Mobius strip and Klein bottle problems for all M and N with the aid of imaginary dimer weights. The use of imaginary weights simplifies the analysis, and as a result we obtain new compact solutions in the form of double products. The compact expressions also permit us to establish a general reciprocity theorem.
Should you eat breakfast? Estimates from health production functions

This paper uses an econometric specification based on the health production function approach to examine the importance of lifestyles for adult health. The approach treats health practices such as eating breakfast, smoking, and exercise as inputs into the production of good health; several output measures are explored. The econometric models estimated with data from the 1985 Health Interview Survey show broad agreement with conventional wisdom about the importance of healthy lifestyles. This paper also investigates the role schooling plays in the production of good health. Schooling is found to be related to good health even after controlling for differences in observable health inputs. However, lack of support for a plausible specification of the productive efficiency hypothesis casts some doubt on the interpretation that schooling increases the efficiency of the household production of health.
Measuring Agency Attributes with Attitudes Across Time: A Method and Examples Using Large-Scale Federal Surveys

Public management researchers are interested in many characteristics of organizations that cannot be directly captured, making aggregated attitudes from surveys an attractive proxy. Yet difficulties in measuring meaningful attributes over time and across organizations have frequently limited statistical designs to a single organization or time. We offer a method for creating such statistical measures across agencies and time using item response theory. Focusing our attention on U.S. federal administrative agencies, we marshal a variety of questions from surveys commissioned by the Office of Personnel Management and Merit Systems Protection Board and employ statistical models to measure three important attributes — autonomy, job satisfaction, and intrinsic motivation — for 71 agencies between 1998-2010. Our study provides a wealth of data for quantitative public management research designs as well as an adaptable framework for measuring a wide range of concepts.
Radio-Frequency Inverters With Transmission-Line Input Networks

A soft-switching inverter topology (the Class Phi ) is presented which draws dc source current through a transmission line or a lumped-network approximation of a distributed line. By aligning the inverter switching frequency just below the line's lambda/4-wave resonance, the Class Phi topology enforces odd-and even-harmonic content in its drain voltage and input current, respectively. The symmetrizing action of the transmission-line dynamics results in natural square-wave operation of the switch, reducing the inverter stresses (relative to a Class E) for a given power throughput. The inverter waveforms and normalized power-output capability are analyzed in simple terms, and supported by measurements of an inverter built around a length of distributed line, and an inverter incorporating a lumped L-C ladder network. The latter implementation is constructed with air-core magnetics and inter-layer capacitances that are integrated into the thickness of a printed-circuit board. A comparison with a Class E inverter of similar size and ratings demonstrates the small passive-component values and manufacturing advantages afforded by the Class Phi topology.
Interdependency, Competition, and the Distribution of Firm and Industry Profits

Coordination of interdependencies among firms productive activities has been advanced as a promising explanation for sustained heterogeneity in capabilities among firms. In this paper, we extend this line of research to determine the industry structures and patterns of expected firm profits for the case when difficulty optimizing interdependent activities does, in fact, generate and sustain capability heterogeneity among firms. We combine a widely used agent-based model where firms search to discover sets of activities that complement one another (reducing overall costs or raising product quality) with traditional economic models of competition among profit-maximizing firms. The agent-based model produces a distribution of performance (interpreted as variable cost or product quality) among firms and the competition models determine resulting industry outcomes including patterns of entry, exit, and profits. The integration of economic models of competition among firms with an agent-based model of search for improvement by firms reveals a rich relationship between interdependencies in production functions and industry structure, firm profits, and industry average profitability.
An automated approach to improve communication-computation overlap in clusters

Applications that execute on parallel clusters face scalability concerns due to the high communication overhead that is usually associated with such environments. Modern network technologies that support remote direct memory access (RDMA) can offer true zero copy communication and reduce communication overhead by overlapping it with computation. For this approach to be effective the parallel application using the cluster must be structured in a way that enables communication computation overlapping. Unfortunately, the trade-off between maintainability and performance often leads to a structure that prevents exploiting the potential for communication computation overlapping. This paper describes a source-to-source optimizing transformation that can be performed by an automatic (or semi-automatic) system in order to restructure MPI codes towards maximizing communication-computation overlapping.
Virtual Knot Invariants from Group Biquandles and Their Cocycles

A group-theoretical method, via Wada’s representations, is presented to distinguish Kishino’s virtual knot from the unknot. Biquandles are constructed for any group using Wada’s braid group representations. Cocycle invariants for these biquandles are studied. These invariants are applied to show the non-existence of Alexander numberings and checkerboard colorings. The purposes of this paper include defining biquandle structures on groups, and giving a grouptheoretic proof that Kishino’s virtual knot is non-trivial. A biquandle structure or a birack structure is related to solutions to the set-theoretic Yang-Baxter equation (SYBE). Given an invertible solution that satisfies an additional condition (corresponding to a Reidemeister type I move), we obtain a biquandle, and every biquandle gives a solution to the SYBE. Most examples that were known up to this point came from generalizations of the Burau representation. The principal examples that we consider in this paper come from Wada’s representations of braid groups as free group automorphisms. Our first example indicates that one of these representations can be used to distinguish Kishino’s virtual knot from the unknot. By abelianizing such groups, we recover an analog of Burau matrix. Using these examples, we construct and calculate cocycle invariants that come from the homology theory of biquandles. As applications we give obstructions to checkerboard colorability and (mod 2)-Alexander numberings of arcs of virtual knots. In Section 2 we examine Wada’s group invariants for virtual knots. The biquandle structures are defined on any group in Section 3 using Wada’s representations, and colorings of virtual knot diagrams by such biquandles are studied. Cocycle invariants are constructed and applied in Section 4.
Joint Training of a Convolutional Network and a Graphical Model for Human Pose Estimation

This paper proposes a new hybrid architecture that consists of a deep Convolu-tional Network and a Markov Random Field. We show how this architecture is successfully applied to the challenging problem of articulated human pose estimation in monocular images. The architecture can exploit structural domain constraints such as geometric relationships between body joint locations. We show that joint training of these two model paradigms improves performance and allows us to significantly outperform existing state-of-the-art techniques.
Extracting Kolmogorov complexity with applications to dimension zero-one laws

We apply results on extracting randomness from independent sources to ''extract'' Kolmogorov complexity. For any @a,@e>0, given a string x with K(x)>@a|x|, we show how to use a constant number of advice bits to efficiently compute another string y, |y|=@W(|x|), with K(y)>(1-@e)|y|. This result holds for both unbounded and space-bounded Kolmogorov complexity. We use the extraction procedure for space-bounded complexity to establish zero-one laws for the strong dimensions of complexity classes within ESPACE. The unbounded extraction procedure yields a zero-one law for the constructive strong dimensions of Turing degrees.
Fixed Costs, Efficient Resource Management, and Conservation

This article develops a framework to analyze the impacts on resource development of efficient management practices that account for possible resource conserving technological changes. Compared with the traditional management practice ignoring these changes, efficient management may not delay or reduce resource development, depending on the level of the changes. Under efficient management, a higher probability of resource conserving technologies may not delay or reduce resource development. These ambiguities are due to the existence of fixed and increasing marginal costs in resource development.
Atmospheric tau neutrinos in a multikiloton liquid argon detector

An ultralarge liquid argon time projection chamber based neutrino detector will have the uncommon ability to detect atmospheric ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}}/{\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}}$ events. This paper discusses the most promising modes for identifying charged current ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}}/{\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}}$, and shows that, with simple kinematic cuts, $\ensuremath{\sim}30\text{ }{\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}}+{\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}}$ interactions can be isolated in a $100\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{kt}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\mathrm{yr}$ exposure, with greater than $4\ensuremath{\sigma}$ significance. This sample is sufficient to perform flux-averaged total cross-section and cross-section shape parametrization measurements---the first steps toward using ${\ensuremath{\nu}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}}/{\overline{\ensuremath{\nu}}}_{\ensuremath{\tau}}$ to search for physics beyond the standard model.
A case for measuring individuals’ access to private-vehicle travel as a matter of degrees: lessons from focus groups with Mexican immigrants in California

In auto-oriented communities, access to an automobile is essential for good mobility, but not everyone owns a car or is able to drive. Little is known about how individuals in these circumstances might still use vehicles for transportation. To provide insight on the nature of vehicle use by those with potentially limited vehicle access, we present qualitative findings from focus groups with recent Mexican immigrants living in California, half of whom owned no cars. Our results demonstrate varying degrees of participants’ access to vehicle travel not always corresponding to auto ownership, with extensive sharing of cars, borrowing of cars, and getting rides. We describe the different dimensions of vehicle access that participants experienced and identify specific factors that seemed to influence their access levels. We discuss the implications of our findings for transportation policy and future research.
Total Synthesis of Myceliothermophins C, D, and E

The total synthesis of cytotoxic polyketides myceliothermophins E (1), C (2), and D (3) through a cascade-based cyclization to form the trans-fused decalin system is described. The convergent synthesis delivered all three natural products through late-stage divergence and facilitated unambiguous C21 structural assignments for 2 and 3 through X-ray crystallographic analysis, which revealed an interesting dimeric structure between its enantiomeric forms.
How effective are macroprudential policies? An empirical investigation

Abstract In recent years, policymakers have generally relied on macroprudential policies to address financial stability concerns. However, our understanding of these policies and their efficacy is limited. In this paper, we construct a novel index of macroprudential policies in 57 advanced and emerging economies covering the period from 2000:Q1 to 2013:Q4, with tightenings and easings recorded separately. The effectiveness of these policies in curbing credit growth and house price appreciation is then assessed using a dynamic panel data model. The main findings of the paper are: (1) Macroprudential policies have been used far more actively after the global financial crisis in both advanced and emerging economies. (2) These policies have primarily targeted the housing sector, especially in the advanced economies. (3) Macroprudential policies are usually changed in tandem with bank reserve requirements, capital flow restrictions, and monetary policy. (4) Our analysis suggests that macroprudential tightening is associated with lower bank credit growth, housing credit growth, and house price appreciation. (5) Targeted policies – for example, those specifically intended to limit house price appreciation – seem to be more effective, especially in economies where bank finance is important.
Effect of various anesthetic induction agents on blood magnesium and calcium concentration.

Background: Decrease in blood magnesium and calcium concentration is associated with an increase in the incidence of arrhythmia, especially during the induction period. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the effects of propofol, pentothal sodium, and sevoflurane on calcium and magnesium concentration. Methods: Thirty-six premedicated, ASA gradeⅠpatients were selected and randomly allocated into 3 groups. Six percent sevoflurane inhalation (sevo group), propofol 1.5 mg/kg (propofol group), and 5 mg/kg of pentothal sodium (pento group) were administered for anesthetic induction and anesthetic maintenance was done with end-tidal sevoflurane concentration at 3.5%. Blood sampling was performed during the pre-induction period (pre-induction), just before tracheal intubation (pre-intubation), and 2 min after intubation (post-intubation). pH corrected ionized magnesium and calcium were calculated and analyzed simultaneously. Results: Both total calcium and magnesium concentrations decreased significantly in all groups during the pre-intubation and post-intubation periods compared with the pre-induction period. Ionized calcium only decreased significantly during pre-intubation and post-intubation in the pento group, and did not change throughout the study period in the sevo and propofol groups. Ionized magnesium did not change throughout the study period in any of the groups. pH corrected ionized calcium decreased significantly only at post-intubation in the pento group. Conclusions: All anesthetic induction agents administered in this study can be used safely in terms of magnesium-associated arrhythmia. However, ionized calcium concentration decreased in the pento group, but all values were within normal limits. This finding indicated that it is safe to use propofol, pentothal sodium, and sevoflurane for anesthetic induction. (Korean J Anesthesiol 2009; 56: 254∼8)
V–O thermochemistry from the pure metal to the monoxide

Abstract Thermodynamic constraints together with Sieverts law were utilized to evaluate the partial thermodynamic functions of the V–O system from V to VO in the temperature range 800–1800 K. The p – C – T relationships for each phase region obtained in the literature were reassessed and new p – C – T relationships were proposed in the regions where data were scarce in the literature. The results are presented as the oxygen isobars superimposed on the phase diagram to characterize the system.
Robust TCP congestion recovery

This paper presents a new robust TCP congestion-recovery scheme to (1) handle bursty packet losses while preserving the self-clocking capability; (2) detect a TCP connection's new equilibrium during congestion recovery, thus improving both link utilization and effective throughput; and (3) make the TCP behavior during congestion recovery very close to that during congestion avoidance, thus “extending” the performance model for congestion avoidance to that for TCP loss recovery. Moreover, the new recovery scheme requires only a slight modification to the sender side of TCP implementation, thus making it widely deployable. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated for scenarios with many TCP flows under the drop-tail and RED gateways in the presence of bursty packet losses. The evaluation results show that the new scheme achieves at least as much performance improvements as TCP SACK and consistently outperforms TCP New-Reno. Furthermore, its steady-state TCP behavior is close to the ideal TCP congestion behavior. Since the proposed scheme does not require selective acknowledgments nor receiver modifications, its implementation is simpler than SACK, and only the servers in the Internet need to be modified while keeping intact millions of clients scattered in the Internet.
Mesoporous silica anchored Ru catalysts for highly enantioselective hydrogenation of β-ketoesters

Recyclable and reusable mesoporous silica anchored Ru catalysts based on 4,4′-substituted BINAPs were synthesized and used for the hydrogenation of β-alkyl β-ketoesters with up to 98.6% e.e. and β-aryl β-ketoesters with up to 95.2% e.e.
Solving Combinatorial Exchanges: Optimality via a Few Partial Bids

Auctions have been studied in economics and game theory for a long time as important resource allocation mechanisms in distributed environments. In recent years, their role has grown with the emergence of Internet and electronic commerce, as businesses and corporations leverage the new medium to streamline their procurement process. Many businesses are moving to an auction-based purchase method where they issue a request for quotes for the goods and services needed, and let the suppliers bid for a piece of the business. Driven by these fundamentals, auctions and algorithms related to them have become important and popular research topics in computer science. An exchange generalizes the auction mechanism to the setting with multiple buyers and sellers. Some familiar examples are the exchanges for equities and commodities, transportation, electricity, and the businessto-business exchanges. A combinatorial exchange is an exchange where buyers and sellers can bid on bundles (subsets) of goods. Combinatorial markets are desirable because items often have complementarity, and combinatorial bidding minimizes bidders’ risk of getting stuck with only a partial subset. It also improves the overall economic efficiency.
Invertibility of random matrices: norm of the inverse

Let A be an n × n matrix, whose entries are independent copies of a centered random variable satisfying the subgaussian tail estimate. We prove that the operator norm of A-1 does not exceed Cn3 / 2 with probability close to 1.
Instanton-based techniques for analysis and reduction of error floors of LDPC codes

We describe a family of instanton-based optimization methods developed recently for the analysis of the error floors of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. Instantons are the most probable configurations of the channel noise which result in decoding failures. We show that the general idea and the respective optimization technique are applicable broadly to a variety of channels, discrete or continuous, and variety of sub-optimal decoders. Specifically, we consider: iterative belief propagation (BP) decoders, Gallager type decoders, and linear programming (LP) decoders performing over the additive white Gaussian noise channel (AWGNC) and the binary symmetric channel (BSC). The instanton analysis suggests that the underlying topological structures of the most probable instanton of the same code but different channels and decoders are related to each other. Armed with this understanding of the graphical structure of the instanton and its relation to the decoding failures, we suggest a method to construct codes whose Tanner graphs are free of these structures, and thus have less significant error floors.
Mechanisms of Jet Formation on the Giant Planets

The giant planet atmospheres exhibit alternating prograde (eastward) and retrograde (westward) jets of different speeds and widths, with an equatorial jet that is prograde on Jupiter and Saturn and retrograde on Uranus and Neptune. The jets are variouslythought to be drivenby differential radiativeheating of the upper atmosphere or by intrinsic heat fluxes emanating from the deep interior. However, existing models cannot account for the different flow configurations on the giant planets in an energetically consistent manner. Here a three-dimensional general circulation model is used to show that the different flow configurations can be reproduced by mechanisms universal across the giant planets if differences in their radiative heating and intrinsic heat fluxes are taken into account. Whether the equatorial jet is prograde or retrograde depends on whether the deep intrinsic heat fluxes are strong enough that convection penetrates into the upper troposphere and generates strong equatorial Rossby waves there. Prograde equatorial jets result if convective Rossby wave generation is strong and low-latitude angular momentum flux divergence owing to baroclinic eddies generated off the equator is sufficiently weak (Jupiter and Saturn). Retrograde equatorial jets result if eitherconvectiveRossbywave generationis weakor absent(Uranus) orlow-latitudeangularmomentumflux divergence owing to baroclinic eddies is sufficiently strong (Neptune). The different speeds and widths of the off-equatorial jets depend, among other factors, on the differential radiative heating of the atmosphere and the altitude of the jets, which are vertically sheared. The simulations have closed energy and angular momentum balances thatareconsistentwithobservations ofthegiantplanets. Theyexhibit temperaturestructures closely resembling those observed and make predictions about as yet unobserved aspects of flow and temperature structures.
The Solar Cycle

The Solar Cycle is reviewed. The 11-year cycle of solar activity is characterized by the rise and fall in the numbers and surface area of sunspots. We examine a number of other solar activity indicators including the 10.7 cm radio flux, the total solar irradiance, the magnetic field, flares and coronal mass ejections, geomagnetic activity, galactic cosmic ray fluxes, and radioisotopes in tree rings and ice cores that vary in association with the sunspots. We examine the characteristics of individual solar cycles including their maxima and minima, cycle periods and amplitudes, cycle shape, and the nature of active latitudes, hemispheres, and longitudes. We examine long-term variability including the Maunder Minimum, the Gleissberg Cycle, and the Gnevyshev-Ohl Rule. Short-term variability includes the 154-day periodicity, quasi-biennial variations, and double peaked maxima. We conclude with an examination of prediction techniques for the solar cycle.
Advanced Carbon-based Material as Space Radiation Shields

Carbon-based materials including microcrystalline diamond, nanocrystalline diamond, and carbon nanotubes films were prepared by microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (MWCVD) technique. While the former were submitted to gamma radiation doses of 1, 5, and 20 Mrad, the latter to low energy electron beam of 30 keV or to 30 GeV/cm2) to study the radiation-induced structural transformation. The characterizations were performed prior to and after irradiation using Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction, techniques. Microcrystalline diamond showed a dramatic modification in the structural properties only after a cumulative dose of 26 Mrad (2 Grad/cm2), while nanocrystalline carbon showed a relatively small but systematic transformation with increasing gamma radiation dose. The results indicate that nanocrystalline carbon tends to reach a state of saturation when submitted to 26 Mrad doses of gamma radiation, suggesting the possibility of fabricating radiation buffer materials that would undergo internal sp3 ⇔ sp2 inter-conversion while absorbing ionizing radiation without changing their average microstructure and protecting the device/material underneath. Single- and multi-walled nanotubes exhibited structural modifications after 5.5-8 hrs of continuous exposure to electron beam. The variation in the characteristic X-ray peaks for multi-walled and single-walled corresponding to intertube spacing and the high frequency Raman band around 1580 cm−1 (G band) are reflected in their corresponding spectra. The results indicate that there is an increase in the intertube spacing for multi-walled nanotubes due to electron irradiation. While single-wall nanotubes tends to ‘collapse’ after > 8 hours of exposure forming multi-wall nanotubes analyzed using scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. These C materials can be employed for preventing space radiation from reaching sensitive materials and electronic devices at least for short term experiments and entitled them as ‘space radiation shields’.
On factorizations in perturbative quantum gravity

Some features of Einstein gravity are most easily understood from string theory but are not manifest at the level of the usual Lagrangian formulation. One example is the factorization of gravity amplitudes into gauge theory amplitudes. Based on the recently constructed ‘double field theory’ and a geometrical frame-like formalism developed by Siegel, we provide a framework of perturbative Einstein gravity coupled to a 2-form and a dilaton in which, as a consequence of T-duality, the Feynman rules factorize to all orders in perturbation theory. We thereby establish the precise relation between the field variables in different formulations and discuss the Lagrangian that, when written in terms of these variables, makes a left-right factorization manifest.
The role of the business model in capturing value from innovation: evidence from Xerox Corporation's technology spin‐off companies

This paper explores the role of the business model in capturing value from early stage technology. A successful business model creates a heuristic logic that connects technical potential with the realization of economic value. The business model unlocks latent value from a technology, but its logic constrains the subsequent search for new, alternative models for other technologies later on—an implicit cognitive dimension overlooked in most discourse on the topic. We explore the intellectual roots of the concept, offer a working definition and show how the Xerox Corporation arose by employing an effective business model to commercialize a technology rejected by other leading companies of the day. We then show the long shadow that this model cast upon Xerox’s later management of selected spin-off companies from Xerox PARC. Xerox evaluated the technical potential of these spin-offs through its own business model, while those spin-offs that became successful did so through evolving business models that came to differ substantially from that of Xerox. The search and learning for an effective business model in failed ventures, by contrast, were quite limited.
Emittance growth due to beam-beam effect in RHIC

The beam-beam interaction has a significant impact on the beam emittance growth and the luminosity lifetime in RHIC. A simulation study of the emittance growth was performed using the LIFETRAC code. The operational conditions of RHIC 2006 100GeV polarized proton run were used in the study. In this paper, the result of this study is presented and compared to the experimental measurements.