cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Unpacking the causal chain of financial literacy

A growing body of literature examines the causal impact of financial literacy on individual, household, and firm level outcomes. This paper unpacks the mechanism of impact by focusing on the first link in the causal chain. Specifically, it studies the experimental impact of financial literacy on three distinct dimensions of financial knowledge. The analysis finds that financial literacy does not immediately enable individuals to discern costs and rewards that require high numeracy skills, but it does significantly improve basic awareness of financial choices and attitudes toward financial decisions. Monetary incentives do not induce better performance, suggesting cognitive constraints rather than lack of attention are a key barrier to improving financial knowledge. These results illuminate the strengths and limitations of financial literacy training, which can inform the design and anticipated effects of such programs.
Who is exposed to gas prices? How gasoline prices affect automobile manufacturers and dealerships

Many consumers are keenly aware of gasoline prices, and consumer responses to gasoline prices have been well studied. In this paper, by contrast, we investigate how gasoline prices affect the automobile industry: manufacturers and dealerships. We estimate how changes in gasoline prices affect equilibrium prices and sales of both new and used vehicles of different fuel economies. We investigate the implications of these effects for individual auto manufacturers, taking into account differences in manufacturers’ vehicle portfolios. We also investigate effects on manufacturers’ affiliated dealership networks, including effects implied by the changes in used vehicle market outcomes.
ISS of Polarized Compact Extragalactic Radio Sources

It is shown that the detailed inter-relations of the 8.6 GHz mv in Stokes’ parameters I,Qand U of the quasar 0405-385, as quantified by their auto and cross correlations, can be successfullymodelled by interstellar scintil1ation (ISS) of a double source with two components separated byabout 10 micro-arc seconds. Though this is not a unique source model it confirms that ISS can explainquantitatively the rapid variations in both flux and linear polarization. Thus there is no evidence insupport of an intrinsic component in the IDV.
Package-based description logics – preliminary results

Many representative applications on the semantic web, including collaborative ontology building, partial ontology reuse, selective knowledge hiding and distributed data management, call for modular ontologies,. However, although OWL allows using owl:imports to connect multiple ontologies, its current semantics requires all involved ontologies to have a single global semantics, thus providing only a syntactical solution to modularity. As a result, there is a growing interest in modular ontology languages such as Distributed Description Logics (DDL) [7] and ${\mathcal{E}}$-connections [8]. However, these proposals are also limited in expressivity and reasoning soundness [2,3].
Resonant scattering and resultant pitch angle evolution of relativistic electrons by plasmaspheric hiss

[1] We perform a comprehensive analysis to evaluate hiss-induced scattering effect on the pitch angle evolution and associated decay processes of relativistic electrons. The results show that scattering by the equatorial, highly oblique hiss component is negligible. Quasi-parallel approximation is good for evaluation of hiss-driven electron scattering rates ≤ 2 MeV. However, realistic wave propagation angles as a function of latitude must be considered to accurately quantify hiss scattering rates above 2 MeV, and ambient plasma density is also a critical parameter. While the first-order cyclotron and the Landau resonances are dominant for hiss scattering 100 days for 500 keV, 2 MeV, and 5 MeV electrons, respectively, consistent with recent observations from the Van Allen Probes and indicating that scattering by hiss can realistically account for the long-term loss process and the pitch angle evolution of relativistic electrons in the plasmasphere following storm time injections.
Dynamic co-allocation of level one caches

The effectiveness of level one (L1) caches is of great importance to the processor performance. We have observed that programs exhibit varying demands in the L1 instruction cache (I-cache) and data cache (D-cache) during execution, and such demands are notably different across programs. We propose to co-allocate the cache ways between the I- and D-cache in responses to the program’s need on-the-fly. Resources are re-allocated based on the potential performance benefit. Using this scheme, a 32KB co-allocation L1 can gain 10% performance improvement on average, which is comparable to a 64KB traditional L1.
The communicative multiagent team decision problem: analyzing teamwork theories and models

Despite the significant progress in multiagent teamwork, existing research does not address the optimality of its prescriptions nor the complexity of the teamwork problem. Without a characterization of the optimality-complexity tradeoffs, it is impossible to determine whether the assumptions and approximations made by a particular theory gain enough efficiency to justify the losses in overall performance. To provide a tool for use by multiagent researchers in evaluating this tradeoff, we present a unified framework, the COMmunicative Multiagent Team Decision Problem (COM-MTDP). The COM-MTDP model combines and extends existing multiagent theories, such as decentralized partially observable Markov decision processes and economic team theory. In addition to their generality of representation, COM-MTDPs also support the analysis of both the optimality of team performance and the computational complexity of the agents' decision problem. In analyzing complexity, we present a breakdown of the computational complexity of constructing optimal teams under various classes of problem domains, along the dimensions of observability and communication cost. In analyzing optimality, we exploit the COM-MTDP's ability to encode existing teamwork theories and models to encode two instantiations of joint intentions theory taken from the literature. Furthermore, the COM-MTDP model provides a basis for the development of novel team coordination algorithms. We derive a domain-independent criterion for optimal communication and provide a comparative analysis of the two joint intentions instantiations with respect to this optimal policy. We have implemented a reusable, domain-independent software package based on COM-MTDPs to analyze teamwork coordination strategies, and we demonstrate its use by encoding and evaluating the two joint intentions strategies within an example domain.
Counterfactual probabilities: computational methods, bounds and applications

Evaluation of counterfactual queries (e.g., "If A were true, would C have been true?") is important to fault diagnosis, planning, and determination of liability. In this paper we present methods for computing the probabilities of such queries using the formulation proposed in [Balke and Pearl, 1994], where the antecedent of the query is interpreted as an external action that forces the proposition A to be true. When a prior probability is available on the causal mechanisms governing the domain, counterfactual probabilities can be evaluated precisely. However, when causal knowledge is specified as conditional probabilities on the observables, only bounds can computed. This paper develops techniques for evaluating these bounds, and demonstrates their use in two applications: (1) the determination of treatment efficacy from studies in which subjects may choose their own treatment, and (2) the determination of liability in product-safety litigation.
Did Unilateral Divorce Laws Raise Divorce Rates? A Reconciliation and New Results

Application of the Coase Theorem to marital bargaining suggests that shifting from a consent divorce regime to no-fault unilateral divorce laws should not affect divorce rates. Each iteration of the empirical literature examining the evolution of divorce rates across US states has yielded different conclusions about the effects of divorce law liberalization. I show that these results reflect a failure to jointly consider both the political endogeneity of these divorce laws and the dynamic response of divorce rates to a shock to the political regime. Taking explicit account of the dynamic response of divorce rates to the policy shock, I find that liberalized divorce laws caused a discernible rise in divorce rates for about a decade, but that this increase was substantially reversed over the next decade. That said, this increase explains very little of the rise in the divorce rate over the past half century. Both administrative data on the flow of new divorces, and measures of the stock of divorcees from the census support this conclusion. These results are suggestive of spouses bargaining within marriage, with an eye to their partner's divorce threat.
ADsafety: type-based verification of JavaScript Sandboxing

Web sites routinely incorporate JavaScript programs from several sources into a single page. These sources must be protected from one another, which requires robust sandboxing. The many entry-points of sandboxes and the subtleties of JavaScript demand robust verification of the actual sandbox source. We use a novel type system for JavaScript to encode and verify sandboxing properties. The resulting verifier is lightweight and efficient, and operates on actual source. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our technique by applying it to ADsafe, which revealed several bugs and other weaknesses.
Space vehicle approach velocity judgments under simulated visual space conditions

There were 35 volunteers who responded when they first perceived an increase in apparent size of a collimated, two-dimensional perspective image of an Orbiter vehicle. The variables of interest included the presence (or absence) of a fixed reticle within the field of view (FOV), background starfield velocity, initial range to the vehicle and vehicle closure velocity. It was found that: 1) increasing vehicle approach velocity yielded a very small (but significant) effect of faster detection of vehicle movement, nevertheless, response variability was relatively large; 2) including the fixed reticle in the FOV produced significantly slower detection of vehicle radial movement, however this occurred only at the largest range and the magnitude of the effect was only about 15% of the one sigma value; and 3) increasing background star velocity during this judgment led to slower detection of vehicle movement. While statistically significant, this effect was small and occurred primarily at the largest range. A possible explanation for the last two findings is that other static and dynamic objects within the visual field may compete for available attention which otherwise would be available for judging image expansion; thus, the target's retinal image has to expand more than otherwise for its movement to be detected. This study also showed that the Proximity Operations Research Mockup at NASA/Ames can be used effectively to investigate a variety of visual judgment questions related to future space operations. These findings are discussed in relation to previous research and possible underlying mechanisms.
Modeling the dissipation rate in rotating turbulent flows

A variety of modifications to the modeled dissipation rate transport equation that have been proposed during the past two decades to account for rotational strains are examined. The models are subjected to two crucial test cases: the decay of isotropic turbulence in a rotating frame and homogeneous shear flow in a rotating frame. It is demonstrated that these modifications do not yield substantially improved predictions for these two test cases and in many instances give rise to unphysical behavior. An alternative proposal, based on the use of the tensor dissipation rate, is made for the development of improved models.
Psychophysiological States: The Ultradian Dynamics of Mind-Body Interactions

Publisher Summary This chapter examines new insights on how the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and hypothalamus play a central role in the modulation of the ultradian rhythms of cognition, behavior, physiological functions that support psychophysiological states during both waking and sleep, mechanisms of hypothalamic integration and regulation of the body's major systems, and the translational neuroscience that can now help exploit these new discoveries. It has been known for almost one century that the ANS and the hypothalamus play a critical role, at the most elementary levels, in the regulation of vital physiological functions that help insure both the survival and reproduction of the species. Electrical stimulation of specific regions in the hypothalamus evoked classical autonomic responses in papillary diameter, salivation, heart rate, sweating, defacation, and bladder contractions. Electrical stimulation in the medial parts of the tuberal region produced parasympathetic effects on heart rate, gastric motility, and bladder tone. These early findings led to the seminal studies and conclusions that the anterior region of the hypothalamus is more concerned with parasympathetic mechanisms and that the posterior region is more concerned with the sympathetic mechanisms.
Fusion of luma and chroma GMMs for HMM-Based object detection

A spatial-temporal method is proposed for video object detection. The first stage is temporal segmentation which is comprised of GMM on luma and GMM on chroma. An efficient fusion method is proposed to combine the two GMM segmentation results such that the object mask can be improved to some extent. In the second stage, the mask produced in the first stage is statistically analyzed in spatial domain. HMM is employed to refine the segmentation result by estimating the foreground-background state such that the false detection in foreground and background area can be decreased and lead to robust and satisfactory detection results.
Measurement of electron neutrino CCQE-like cross-section in MINERvA

The electron-neutrino charged-current quasi-elastic (CCQE) cross-section on nuclei is an important input parameter to appearance-type neutrino oscillation experiments. Current experiments typically work from the muon neutrino cross-section and apply corrections from theoretical arguments to obtain a prediction for the electron neutrino cross-section, but to date there has been no experimental verification of the estimates for this channel at an energy scale appropriate to such experiments. We present a preliminary result from the MINERvA experiment on the first measurement of an exclusive reaction in few-GeV electron neutrino interactions, namely, the cross-section for a CCQE-like process. The result is given both as differential cross-sections vs. the electron energy, electron angle, and Q 2 , as well as a total cross-section vs. neutrino energy.
Comparing land reform and land markets in colombia: impacts on equity and efficiency

Based on a large survey to compare the effectiveness of land markets and land reform in Colombia, the authors find that rental and sales markets were more effective in transferring land to poor but productive producers than was administrative land reform. The fact that land transactions were all of a short-term nature and that little land was transferred from very large to small land owners or the landless suggests that there may be scope for policies both to improve the functioning of land markets and to facilitate greater land access by the most disadvantaged. Analysis of the factors associated with success in a sample of land transfers from large to small producers helps to identify key elements for policies in both respects.
A Dedekind-Mertens theorem for power series rings

We prove a power series ring analogue of the Dedekind-Mertens lemma. Along the way, we give limiting counterexamples, we note an application to integrality, and we correct an error in the literature.
Estimation and control with cubic nonlinearities

The nonlinearities in a dynamic system and its measurement equations are assumed to be cubic and "small," i.e., all proportional to a single scalar small paramter ?. The optimal digital nonlinear feedback control law, in the case of perfect state knowledge, as well as in the case of noisy measurements, are carried through the first power of ?. In the first case the control law involves cubic as well as linear terms in the state. In the second case it is necessary to take into account the non-Gaussian character of the conditional distribution of the state, given the measurements at any stage. The optimal control law now involves higher moments of the conditional state distribution as well as terms linear and cubic in the maximum likelihood state estimate.
Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Antidepressants

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) can play an important role in use of a number of antidepressants and other psychotropic medications (e.g., tricyclic antidepressants). However, the field of psychiatry has been slow to adopt such monitoring as a routine part of care. Research supporting the clinical benefit and cost-effectiveness of TDM with newer antidepressants has also been limited. However, an increasing awareness of how significant inter- and intra-patient variability in pharmacokinetics may affect response to antidepressant therapy is creating growing interest in the use of TDM to optimize antidepressant treatment response. To interpret the results of TDM, it is important to understand the relationship between plasma and tissue concentrations of drugs and the factors that can cause variations in drug concentration. There is a correlation between plasma concentrations of psychotropic drugs and tissue concentrations. Thus, TDM provides an indirect measurement of drug concentration at effector sites in tissue compartments of interest (i.e., the central nervous system for psychotropic medications). Plasma drug concentrations of a given dose of drug may be affected by the pharmacokinetics of the individual patient (e.g., drug absorption, metabolism, elimination). TDM can be used to increase the safety of antidepressant pharmacotherapy with certain agents (e.g., tricyclic antidepressants) by enabling clinicians to avoid toxic levels of medication resulting from variations in patient pharmacokinetics. TDM can also be used to enhance therapeutic response. For those antidepressants with established concentration:response relationships, TDM has the potential to speed antidepressant response by providing a basis for more efficient dose adjustment and can also help clinicians monitor/confirm medication compliance. Recommendations for the use of TDM in clinical practice and directions for future research are provided.
A Framework for Using Knowledge in Tableau Proofs

The problem of automatically reasoning using a knowledge base containing axioms, definitions and theorems from a first-order theory is recurrent in automated reasoning research. Here we present a sound and complete method for reasoning over an arbitrary first-order theory using the tableau calculus. A natural, well-motivated and simple restriction (implemented in IPR) to the method provides a powerful framework for the automation of the selection of theorems from a knowledge base for use in theorem proving [22]. The restrictions are related to semantic resolution restrictions and the set-of-support restriction in resolution, and to hyper-tableaux and the weak connection condition in tableaux. We also present additional tableau rules used by the IPR prover for handling some equality which is not complete but is sufficient for handling the problems in its intended domain of problem solving.
Carbon—Heteroatom Bond‐Forming Reductive Elimination from Palladium(IV) Complexes

This work provides a comprehensive review (1986–2010) of the synthesis, characterization, and reactivity of palladium(IV) complexes that undergo carbon–heteroatom bond-forming reductive elimination reactions. In cases where mechanistic information is available, the molecular pathway for C–X bond formation is described in detail. Examples of catalytic transformations that may involve this mechanistic manifold are also presented.
The power of food

In the developmentalist era,industrialization has simultaneously transformedagriculture and degraded its natural and culturalbase. Food production and consumption embodies thecontradictory aspects of this transformation. Thispaper argues that the crisis of development hasgenerated two basic responses: (1) the attempt toredefine development as a global project, includingharnessing biotechnology to resolve the food securityquestion, and (2) a series of countermovementsattempting to simultaneously reassert the value oflocal, organic foods, and challenge the attempt on thepart of food corporations and national and globalinstitutions to subject the food question to marketsolutions. It is proposed that the power of food liesin its material and symbolic functions of linkingnature, human survival, health, culture and livelihoodas a focus of resistance to corporate takeover of lifeitself.
Candidate Multilinear Maps from Ideal Lattices

We describe plausible lattice-based constructions with properties that approximate the sought-after multilinear maps in hard-discrete-logarithm groups, and show an example application of such multi-linear maps that can be realized using our approximation. The security of our constructions relies on seemingly hard problems in ideal lattices, which can be viewed as extensions of the assumed hardness of the NTRU function.
Comparison of observed and simulated tropical cumuliform clouds by CloudSat and NICAM

[1] We use CloudSat observations of boreal summer tropical ocean cumuliform clouds to evaluate the behavior of the non-parameterized cumuliform clouds in the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM), with a particular emphasis on deep convective clouds (DCCs). The CloudSat cloud mask and radar reflectivity profiles for cumuliform clouds are sorted by large-scale environmental variables taken from the Aqua satellite and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. The variables are total precipitable water (TPW), sea surface temperature (SST), and 500 hPa vertical velocity (W500), representing the dynamical and thermodynamical environment in which the clouds form. The sorted CloudSat profiles are then compared with NICAM profiles simulated with the Quickbeam CloudSat simulator. We first use the cloud mask to examine the transition between shallow clouds and deep clouds rooted in the planetary boundary layer. We find that NICAM simulates this transition fairly realistically. However, the transition occurs at slightly higher TPW and W500 values than the observations show. This may be indication of NICAM's inability to represent the formation of isolated narrow DCCs in marginally favorable environments. We then use simple metrics of the DCC-only radar reflectivity profiles (cloud top height, cloud top reflectivity gradient, maximum reflectivity) to quantitatively compare the observations with NICAM. The results show that while the observed and simulated results agree generally, there are some disagreements in key respects. There is disagreement on the sensitivity of cloud top height to environmental conditions and on the transition between shallow and deep clouds in environments marginally suitable for deep convection.
Resolving underconstrained and overconstrained systems of conjunctive constraints for service requests

Given a service request such as scheduling an appointment or purchasing a product, it is possible that the invocation of the service results in too many solutions that all satisfy the constraints of the request or in no solution that satisfies all the constraints. When the invocation results in too many solutions or no solution, a resolution process becomes necessary for agreeing on one of the solutions or finding some agreeable resolution. We address this problem by imposing an ordering over all solutions and over all near solutions. This ordering provides a way to select the best-m with dominated solutions or dominated near solutions eliminated. Further, we provide an expectation-based resolution process that can take the initiative and either elicit additional constraints or suggest which constraints should be relaxed. Experiments with our prototype implementation show that this resolution process correlates substantially with human behavior and thus can be effective in helping users reach an acceptable resolution for their service requests.
Attendee-Sourcing: Exploring The Design Space of Community-Informed Conference Scheduling

Constructing a good conference schedule for a large multi-track conference needs to take into account the preferences and constraints of organizers, authors, and attendees. Creating a schedule which has fewer conflicts for authors and attendees, and thematically coherent sessions is a challenging task. Cobi introduced an alternative approach to conference scheduling by engaging the community to play an active role in the planning process. The current Cobi pipeline consists of committee-sourcing and author-sourcing to plan a conference schedule. We further explore the design space of community-sourcing by introducing attendee-sourcing -- a process that collects input from conference attendees and encodes them as preferences and constraints for creating sessions and schedule. For CHI 2014, a large multi-track conference in human-computer interaction with more than 3,000 attendees and 1,000 authors, we collected attendees’ preferences by making available all the accepted papers at the conference on a paper recommendation tool we built called Confer, for a period of 45 days before announcing the conference program (sessions and schedule). We compare the preferences marked on Confer with the preferences collected from Cobi’s author-sourcing approach. We show that attendee-sourcing can provide insights beyond what can be discovered by author-sourcing. For CHI 2014, the results show value in the method and attendees’ participation. It produces data that provides more alternatives in scheduling and complements data collected from other methods for creating coherent sessions and reducing conflicts.
CMB Observational Techniques and Recent Results

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) consists of photons that were last created about 2 months after the Big Bang, and last scattered about 380,000 years after the Big Bang. The spectrum of the CMB is very close to a blackbody at 2.725 K, and upper limits on any deviations from of the CMB from a blackbody place strong constraints on energy transfer between the CMB and matter at all redshifts less than 2 million. The CMB is very nearly isotropic, but a dipole anisotropy of ±3.346(17) mK shows that the Solar System barycenter is moving at 368 ±2 km/sec relative to the observable Universe. The dipole corresponds to a spherical harmonic index l = 1. The higher indices l≥ 2 indicate intrinsic inhomogeneities in the Universe that existed at the time of last scattering. While the photons have traveled freely only since the time of last scattering, the inhomogeneities traced by the CMB photons have been in place since the in- flationary epoch only 10−35 sec after the Big Bang. These intrinsic anisotropies are much smaller in amplitude than the dipole anisotropy, with ΔT ≤ 100 µK. Electron scattering of the anisotropic radiation field produces an anisotropic linear polarization in the CMB with amplitudes ≤ 5 µK. Detailed studies of the angular power spectrum of the temperature and linear polarization anisotropies have yielded precise values for many cosmological parameters. This paper will discuss the techniques necessary to measure signals that are 100 million times smaller than the emission from the instrument and briefly describe results from experiments up to WMAP.
Status of the LCLS x-ray FEL program

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) program involves a collaboration of several US National Laboratories and universities with the goal of designing and building the first 4th-generation hard x-ray source, an x-ray free-electron laser (FEL). This FEL will utilize extremely short, intense, low-emittance electron pulses created by the high-energy linear accelerator at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The FEL radiation produced will feature unprecedented peak brightness, short pulse length, and spatial coherence, tunable over an energy range of 0.8-8 keV. With favorable funding, major construction will begin by 2004 and the LCLS will be operating late in 2006. The LCLS facility will include experimental stations for carrying out groundbreaking experiments in several scientific fields. Current R&D efforts are directed at experimentally studying the physics of high-gain FELs, and refining the details of the plan for the LCLS facility. The FEL experiments, at Argonne and Brookhaven National Labs (along with experiments carried out at the German laboratory DESY), have confirmed the basic physical concepts upon which LCLS is based, and have demonstrated that many of the stringent technical requirements can already be met.
Acoustic Spectroscopy of Superfluid 3He in Aerogel

We have designed an experiment to study the role of global anisotropic quasiparticle scattering on the dirty aerogel superfluid 3He system. We observe significant regions of two stable phases at temperatures below the superfluid transition at a pressure of 25 bar for a 98% aerogel.
Analyzing intrinsic motion textures created from naturalistic video captures

This paper presents an initial exploration of the plausibility of incorporating subtle motions as a useful modality for encoding (or augmenting the encoding of) data for information visualization tasks. Psychophysics research indicates that the human visual system is highly responsive to identifying and differentiating even the subtlest motions intrinsic to an object. We examine aspects of this intrinsic motion, whereby an object stays in one place while a texture applied to that object changes in subtle but perceptible ways. We hypothesize that the use of subtle intrinsic motions (as opposed to more obvious extrinsic motion) will avoid the clutter and visual fatigue that often discourages visualization designers from incorporating motion. Using transformed video captures of naturalistic motions gathered from the world, we conduct a preliminary user study that attempts ascertains the minimum amount of motion that is easily perceptible to a viewer. We introduce metrics which allow us to categorize these motions in terms of flicker (local amplitude and frequency), flutter (global amplitude and frequency), and average maximum contrast between a pixel and its immediate neighbors. Using these metrics (and a few others), we identify plausible ranges of motion that might be appropriate for visualization tasks, either on their own or in conjunction with other modalities (such as color or shape), without increasing visual fatigue. Based on an analysis of these initial preliminary results, we propose that the use of what we term “intrinsic motion textures” may be a promising modality appropriate for a range of visualization tasks.
Taxes and benefits in a non-linear wage equation

This paper estimates a structural non-linear wage bargaining model for the Netherlands. The estimation results show a significant positive long-term impact of the average tax rate on wages. The marginal tax rate exerts a small negative impact on wages. The impact of benefits rises with the unemployment rate.
Towards a practice-based view of strategy

Many studies in strategic management attempt to explain macro-level firm behaviors or characteristics and/or the influence of such behaviors or characteristics on firm performance. Current strategy scholarship, however, rarely considers specific, actual techniques that managers might use to develop strategies or generally applicable firm practices. We propose a practice-based view (PBV) of strategy scholarship to address this gap. In contrast with the resource-based view emphasis on things that other firms cannot imitate, the PBV examines publicly known, imitable activities, or practices amenable to transfer across firms. We provide evidence for the PBV and discuss its contribution to strategy. The PBV has two important implications, one relating to potential explanations for performance and the other relating to the kinds of prescription strategy that scholars might offer. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Monetary Policy, Financial Conditions, and Financial Stability

We review a growing literature that incorporates endogenous risk premiums and risk-taking in the conduct of monetary policy. Accommodative policy can create an intertemporal tradeoff between improving current financial conditions at a cost of increasing future financial vulnerabilities. In the United States, structural and cyclical macroprudential tools to reduce vulnerabilities at banks are being implemented, but may not be sufficient because activities can migrate and there are limited tools for non-bank intermediaries or for borrowers. While monetary policy itself can influence vulnerabilities, its efficacy as a tool will depend on the costs of tighter policy on activity and inflation. We highlight how adding a risk-taking channel to traditional transmission channels could significantly alter a cost-benefit calculation for using monetary policy, and that considering risks to financial stabilityas downside risks to employmentis consistent with the dual mandate.
MCNP6 simulation of light and medium nuclei fragmentation at intermediate energies

MCNP6, the latest and most advanced LANL Monte Carlo transport code, representing a merger of MCNP5 and MCNPX, is actually much more than the sum of those two computer codes; MCNP6 is available to the public via RSICC at Oak Ridge, TN, USA. In the present work, MCNP6 was validated and verified (V&V) against different experimental data on intermediate-energy fragmentation reactions, and results by several other codes, using mainly the latest modifications of the Cascade-Exciton Model (CEM) and of the Los Alamos version of the Quark-Gluon String Model (LAQGSM) event generators CEM03.03 and LAQGSM03.03. It was found that MCNP6 using CEM03.03 and LAQGSM03.03 describes well fragmentation reactions induced on light and medium target nuclei by protons and light nuclei of energies around 1 GeV/nucleon and below, and can serve as a reliable simulation tool for different applications, like cosmic-ray-induced single event upsets (SEU’s), radiation protection, and cancer therapy with proton and ion beams, to name just a few. Future improvements of the predicting capabilities of MCNP6 for such reactions are possible, and are discussed in this work.
The SOX 404 internal control audit: Key regulatory events

Abstract Section 404b of the 2002 Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) requires auditors to attest to the effectiveness of a client's internal control over financial reporting (ICFR). In this paper, we provide an overview of key regulatory events in the implementation of the 404 internal control audit. We discuss the early years (under Auditing Standard No. 2) as well as the later years (under Auditing Standard No. 5) of the 404 audit, emphasizing areas of improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of the audit as well as the remaining problems and challenges highlighted in PCAOB inspection reports and practice alerts. Finally, we address recent regulatory developments pertinent to the 404 audit such as Auditing Standard No. 12 and the recent 2013 update to the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission's (COSO) internal control framework.
A manifold structure for the group of orbifold diffeomorphisms of a smooth orbifold

Our goal in this paper is to determine the topological structure of the orbifold diffeomorphism group of a smooth compact orbifold. It is well known that in the r r case of a closed smooth C manifold, the group of C diffeomorphisms (1 ≤ r ≤ ∞) r is a smooth manifold whose local model is D(M), the space of C tangent vector fields on M . See, for example [Ban97] or [Nit71]. D(M) is a separable Banach space for 1 ≤ r < ∞ and a separable Frechet space for r = ∞. One might naively think that the orbifold diffeomorphism group is itself an infinite dimensional orbifold, but one only need remember that the orbifold diffeomorphism group is a (topological) group and hence must be homogeneous. As such, it cannot be a non­ trivial orbifold. In fact, in the case of a smooth compact orbifold, the structure of the orbifold diffeomorphism group holds no surprises, and we have the following
A Film Thickness Analysis for Line Contacts Under Pure Rolling Conditions With a Non-Newtonian Rheological Model

The non-Newtonian constitutive equation proposed by Winer and Bair [1] is applied in a conventional isothermal film thickness analysis of line contact lubrication of rolling elements. The present analysis provides four different dimensionless film thickness equations for four different regimes of lubrication. Due to the formulation technique used in deriving the governing pressure-gradient equation, the present study is recommended for high viscosity, high rolling speed, and low limiting shear stress cases where Newtonian models fail to match the experimental data. Comparison of the present film thickness equations with the Newtonian correspondences in each lubrication regime shows a considerable difference, but the analysis suffers from the fact that the limiting shear stress parameters of these high viscosity lubricants need to be determined experimentally. The present analysis assumes a reasonable range of limiting shear stress which is smaller than the corresponding values for low viscosity lubricants which are predominantly Newtonian in behavior (unless severe rolling and/or sliding with high loads is applied).
Resonant tidal excitations of rotating neutron stars in coalescing binaries

In a coalescing neutron star–neutron star or neutron star–black hole binary, oscillation modes of the neutron star can be resonantly excited by the companion during the final minutes of the binary inspiral, when the orbital frequency sweeps up from a few Hz to a few thousand Hz. The resulting resonant energy transfer between the orbit and the neutron star speeds up or slows down the inspiral, depending on whether the resonant mode has positive or negative energy, and induces a phase change in the emitted gravitational waves from the binary. While only g-modes can be excited for a non-rotating neutron star, f-modes and r-modes can also be excited when the neutron star is spinning. A tidal resonance, designated by the index ( jk, m) ({ jk} specifies the angular order of the mode, as in the spherical harmonic Yjk), occurs when the mode frequency equals m times the orbital frequency. For the f-mode resonance to occur before coalescence, the neutron star must have rapid rotation, with spin frequency νs≳710 Hz for the (22,2)-resonance and νs≳570 Hz for the (33,3)-resonance (assuming canonical neutron star mass, M=1.4 M⊙, and radius, R=10 km; however, for R=15 km, these critical spin frequencies become 330 and 260 Hz, respectively). Although current observations suggest that such high rotation rates may be unlikely for coalescing binary neutron stars, these rates are physically allowed. Because of their strong tidal coupling, the f-mode resonances induce a large change in the number of orbital cycles of coalescence, ΔNorb, with the maximum ΔNorb∼10–1000 for the (22,2)-resonance and ΔNorb∼1 for the (33,3)-resonance. Such f-mode resonant effects, if present, must be included in constructing the templates of waveforms used in searching for gravitational wave signals. Higher order f-mode resonances can occur at slower rotation rates, but the induced orbital change is much smaller (ΔNorb≲0.1). For the dominant g-mode (22,2)-resonance, even modest rotation (νs≲100 Hz) can enhance the resonant effect on the orbit by shifting the resonance to a smaller orbital frequency. However, because of the weak coupling between the g-mode and the tidal potential, ΔNorb lies in the range 10−3–10−2 (depending strongly on the neutron star equation of state) and is probably negligible for the purpose of detecting gravitational waves. Resonant excitations of r-modes require misaligned spin–orbit inclinations, and the dominant resonances correspond to octopolar excitations of the jk=2 mode, with (jk, m)=(22,3) and (22,1). Since the tidal coupling of the r-mode depends strongly on rotation rate, ΔNorb≲10−2(R/10 km)10(M/1.4 M⊙)−20/3 is negligible for canonical neutron star parameters, but can be appreciable if the neutron star radius is larger.
Fabrication of a full-size EUV pellicle based on silicon nitride

In this paper, the fabrication and initial characterization of an unsupported membrane composed of a single ultrathin silicon nitride (SiNx) layer with potential application as a EUV pellicle is described in detail. A full size free-standing pellicle with inner film area equal to 113x145mm and champion EUV transparency equal to 89.5% (single pass) is demonstrated utilizing the methodology presented in this study. The exemplary EUV transparency of the reported pellicle was achieved by limiting the membrane thickness to 16nm, while the intrinsic mechanical stability for the silicon nitride film was realized by adjusting the Si:N ratio to provide a non-stoichiometric layer featuring low tensile stress. The pellicle thickness, elemental composition and mass density were used to calculate the expected EUV transparency, which was found to be in good agreement with experimental EUV transmission measurements. Additionally, careful consideration was given to process-induced mechanical instabilities exerted on the ultrathin pellicle during the wet etch, rinsing and drying fabrication steps, and a unique yet simple set of ancillary hardware, materials and processing techniques was introduced to minimize such disturbances and yield large-area pellicles that are free of visible defects and wrinkles. In the absence of commercially available actinic inspection tools, a distinctive advantage of the SiNx membrane versus a Silicon-based EUV pellicle solution is the demonstrated ArF transmission, making it attractive for through-pellicle mask defect inspection and advanced metrology work utilizing available 193nm excimer laser and detection systems. A preliminary heat load test indicates that the SiNx-based EUV pellicle would be marginally compatible with an equivalent 80W EUV source.
Radiation effects testing at the 88-inch cyclotron

The 88-inch cyclotron at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory provides radiation effects test facilities for both heavy ions and protons. The wide range of ions available, and the use of "cocktail" beams, allowing users to switch back and forth between several heavy ion beams without a retune of the accelerator, makes this facility a very versatile and economical choice for radiation effects testing.
Distributed event-triggered communication for dynamic average consensus in networked systems

This paper presents distributed algorithmic solutions that employ opportunistic inter-agent communication to achieve dynamic average consensus. In our solutions each agent is endowed with a local criterion that enables it to determine whether to broadcast its state to its neighbors. Our starting point is a continuous-time distributed coordination strategy that, under continuous-time communication, achieves practical asymptotic tracking of the dynamic average of the time-varying agents' reference inputs. Then, for this algorithm, depending on the directed or undirected nature of the time-varying interactions and under suitable connectivity conditions, we propose two different distributed event-triggered communication laws that prescribe agent communications at discrete time instants in an opportunistic fashion. In both cases, we establish positive lower bounds on the inter-event times of each agent and characterize their dependence on the algorithm design parameters. This analysis allows us to rule out the presence of Zeno behavior and characterize the asymptotic correctness of the resulting implementations. Several simulations illustrate the results.
On the Chromatic Number of the Erdős-Rényi Orthogonal Polarity Graph

For a prime power $q$, let $ER_q$ denote the Erdős-Renyi orthogonal polarity graph. We prove that if $q$ is an even power of an odd prime, then $\chi ( ER_{q}) \leq 2 \sqrt{q} + O ( \sqrt{q} / \log q)$. This upper bound is best possible up to a constant factor of at most 2. If $q$ is an odd power of an odd prime and satisfies some condition on irreducible polynomials, then we improve the best known upper bound for $\chi(ER_{q})$ substantially. We also show that for sufficiently large $q$, every $ER_q$ contains a subgraph that is not 3-chromatic and has at most 36 vertices.
On the role of stochastic Fermi acceleration in setting the dissipation scale of turbulence in the interstellar medium

We consider the dissipation by Fermi acceleration of magnetosonic turbulence in the Reynolds layer of the interstellar medium. The scale in the cascade at which electron acceleration via stochastic Fermi acceleration (STFA) becomes comparable to further cascade of the turbulence defines the inner scale. For any magnetic turbulent spectra equal to or shallower than Goldreich-Sridhar this turns out to be ≥10 12 cm, which is much larger than the shortest length-scales observed in radio scintillation measurements. While STFA for such spectra then contradict models of scintillation which appeal directly to an extended, continuous turbulent cascade, such a separation of scales is consistent with the recent work of Boldyrev & Gwinn and Boldyrev & Konigl suggesting that interstellar scintillation may result from the passage of radio waves through the Galactic distribution of thin ionized boundary surfaces of H II regions, rather than density variations from cascading turbulence. The presence of STFA dissipation also provides a mechanism for the non-ionizing heat source observed in the Reynolds layer of the interstellar medium. STFA accommodates the proper heating power, and the input energy is rapidly thermalized within the low-density Reynolds layer plasma.
Abelian varieties over large algebraic fields with infinite torsion

Let A be a non-zero abelian variety defined over a number field K and let \(\overline K \) be a fixed algebraic closure of K. For each element σ of the absolute Galois group \({\text{Gal}}(\overline K /K)\), let \(\overline K (\sigma )\) be the fixed field in \(\overline K \) of σ. We show that the torsion subgroup of \(A(\overline K (\sigma ))\) is infinite for all \(\sigma \in {\text{Gal}}(\overline K /K)\) outside of some set of Haar measure zero. This proves the number field case of a conjecture of W.-D. Geyer and M. Jarden.
SME contributions to employment, job creation, and growth in the Arab world

Recent economic and political developments have highlighted a challenge shared across the Arab region of generating employment, promoting inclusive growth, and improving competitiveness. In the short run, weakened macroeconomic fundamentals in the developing economies of the Middle East and North Africa are a key challenge. The region's main challenge is to achieve sustainable growth that delivers the quantity and quality of jobs needed. An inclusive and competitive private sector has proven to be one of the most effective and long-term solutions for this challenge. This paper provides an analytical framework to diagnose and identify key challenges to the growth of small and medium enterprises that is supported by a quantitative model based on the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys database. The findings reconfirm that the route to a sustained role for small and medium enterprises in job creation requires improving the credibility of reforms, the effectiveness of policies, and equitable enforcement. Although one size fits all is infeasible for Arab countries, it is important to design policies across sectors to create productive employment and promote economic growth. Supporting innovation and enhancing access to finance are central to the development agenda for small and medium enterprises. And creating an enabling environment and setting up accountable institutions are key to ensure equal opportunity and inclusive growth.