cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A joint flexible econometric model system of household residential location and vehicle fleet composition/usage choices

Modeling the interaction between the built environment and travel behavior is of much interest to transportation planning professionals due to the desire to curb vehicular travel demand through modifications to built environment attributes. However, such models need to take into account self-selection effects in residential location choice, wherein households choose to reside in neighborhoods and built environments that are conducive to their lifestyle preferences and attitudes. This phenomenon, well-recognized in the literature, calls for the specification and estimation of joint models of multi-dimensional land use and travel choice processes. However, the estimation of such model systems that explicitly account for the presence of unobserved factors that jointly impact multiple choice dimensions is extremely complex and computationally intensive. This paper presents a joint GEV-based logit regression model of residential location choice, vehicle count by type choice, and vehicle usage (vehicle miles of travel) using a copula-based framework that facilitates the estimation of joint equations systems with error dependence structures within a simple and flexible closed-form analytic framework. The model system is estimated on a sample derived from the 2000 San Francisco Bay Area Household Travel Survey. Estimation results show that there is significant dependency among the choice dimensions and that self-selection effects cannot be ignored when modeling land use-travel behavior interactions.
Clustering Based on Pairwise Distances When the Data is of Mixed Dimensions

In the context of clustering, we consider a generative model in a Euclidean ambient space with clusters of different shapes, dimensions, sizes, and densities. In an asymptotic setting where the number of points becomes large, we obtain theoretical guaranties for some emblematic methods based on pairwise distances: a simple algorithm based on the extraction of connected components in a neighborhood graph; hierarchical clustering with single linkage; and the spectral clustering method of Ng, Jordan, and Weiss. The methods are shown to enjoy some near-optimal properties in terms of separation between clusters and robustness to outliers. The local scaling method of Zelnik-Manor and Perona is shown to lead to a near-optimal choice for the scale in the first and third methods. We also provide a lower bound on the spectral gap to consistently choose the correct number of clusters in the spectral method.
How Consumer Decision Making Process Differ From Youngster to Older Consumer Generation

The vital moment for most, if not all marketers, is when the consumers decide on whether or not the particular product or service would be paid for. That indicates whether the intended marketing strategies have been wise, insightful, and effective, or otherwise poorly done and have lost the target. By understanding how consumers make purchase decisions is important to every marketer in order to develop a marketing strategy to meet their targeted consumer’s needs, wants, and desires. This research focuses to review how consumer decision making differ from younger and older consumer generations.
Estimation of displacement vectors and strain tensors in elastography using angular insonifications

In current practice, only one out of three components of the tissue displacement vector and one of nine components of the strain tensor are accurately estimated and imaged in ultrasound elastography. Since, only the axial component of both the displacement and strain are imaged, other important elastic parameters, such as shear strains and the Poisson's ratio, also are not imaged. Moreover, reconstruction of the Young's modulus would be significantly improved if all components of the strain tensor were available. In this paper, we describe a new method for estimating all the components of the tissue displacement vector following a quasi-static compression. The method uses displacements estimated from radiofrequency echo-signals along multiple ultrasound beam insonification directions. At each spatial location in the compressed medium, orthogonal tissue displacements in both the axial and lateral direction with respect to the direction of the applied compression are estimated by curve fitting angular displacement vector data calculated for all insonification directions. Following displacement estimation in orthogonal directions, components of the corresponding normal and shear strain tensors are estimated. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the utility of this technique for the computation of the normal and shear strain tensors.
On the Number of Tilings of a Square by Rectangles

We develop a recursive formula for counting the number of rectangulations of a square, i.e., the number of combinatorially distinct tilings of a square by rectangles. Our formula specializes to give a formula counting generic rectangulations, as analyzed by Reading in [5]. Our computations agree with [5] as far as was calculated and extend to the non-generic case. An interesting feature of the number of rectangulations is that it appears to have an 8-fold periodicity modulo 2. We verify this periodicity for small values of n, but the general result remains elusive, perhaps hinting at some unseen structure on the space of rectangulations, analogous to Reading’s discovery that generic rectangulations are in 1–1 correspondence with a certain class of permutations. Finally, we use discrete Morse theory to show that the space of tilings by ≤ n rectangles is homotopy-equivalent to a wedge of some number of (n−1)-dimensional spheres. Combining this result with the formulae for the number of tilings, the exact homotopy type is computed for n ≤ 28.
Linking Weather and Climate

Historically, the atmospheric sciences have tended to treat problems of weather and climate separately. The real physical system, however, is a continuum, with short-term (minutes to days) “weather” fluctuations influencing climate variations and change, and, conversely, more slowly varying aspects of the system (typical time scales of a season or longer) affecting the weather that is experienced. While this past approach has served important purposes, it is becoming increasingly apparent that in order to make progress in addressing many socially important problems, an improved understanding of the connections between weather and climate is required.
Utility Green Pricing Programs: A Statistical Analysis of Program Effectiveness:

Utility green pricing programs represent one way in which consumers can voluntarily support the development of renewable energy. The design features and effectiveness of these programs varies considerably. Based on a survey of utility program managers in the United States, this article provides insight into which program features might help maximize both customer participation in green pricing programs and the amount of renewable energy purchased by customers in those programs. We find that program length has a substantial impact on customer participation and purchases; to achieve higher levels of success, utilities will need to remain committed to their product offering for some time. Our findings also suggest that utilities should consider higher renewable energy purchase thresholds for residential customers in order to maximize renewable energy sales. Smaller utilities are found to be more successful than larger utilities, and we find some evidence that providing private benefits to nonresidential part...
Commercial Real Estate Return Performance: A Cross-Country Analysis

This paper investigates the return performance of publicly traded real estate companies. The analysis spans the 1984–1999 time period and includes return data on over 600 companies in 28 countries. The return data reveal a substantial amount of variation in mean real estate returns and standard deviations across countries. Moreover, standard Treynor ratios, which scale country excess returns by the estimated beta on the world wealth portfolio, also reveal substantial variation across countries in excess real estate returns per unit of systematic risk. However, when we estimate Jensen’s alphas using both single and multifactor specifications, we detect little evidence of abnormal, risk-adjusted returns at the country level. We do, however, find evidence of a strong world-wide factor in international real estate returns. Furthermore, even after controlling for the effects of world-wide systematic risk, an orthogonalized country-specific factor is highly significant. This suggests that real estate securities may provide international diversification opportunities.
Impact of Railroad Contracts on Grain Bids to Farmers

The deregulation of railroads by the Staggers Rail Act of 1980 reversed nearly a century of prohibition of contracts between railroads shippers/receivers. This paper presents an analysis of the impact that railroad contracts have on grain bids to corn, wheat, and soybean farmers. The empirical results indicate that destination contracts had significant impacts on prices bid to corn and soybean farmers, while origin contracts had significant and large impacts on prices bid to wheat farmers.
Variational Relevance Vector Machines

The Support Vector Machine (SVM) of Vapnik [9] has become widely established as one of the leading approaches to pattern recognition and machine learning. It expresses predictions in terms of a linear combination of kernel functions centred on a subset of the training data, known as support vectors. Despite its widespread success, the SVM suffers from some important limitations, one of the most significant being that it makes point predictions rather than generating predictive distributions. Recently Tipping [8] has formulated the Relevance Vector Machine (RVM), a probabilistic model whose functional form is equivalent to the SVM. It achieves comparable recognition accuracy to the SVM, yet provides a full predictive distribution, and also requires substantially fewer kernel functions. The original treatment of the RVM relied on the use of type II maximum likelihood (the 'evidence framework') to provide point estimates of the hyperparameters which govern model sparsity. In this paper we show how the RVM can be formulated and solved within a completely Bayesian paradigm through the use of variational inference, thereby giving a posterior distribution over both parameters and hyperparameters. We demonstrate the practicality and performance of the variational RVM using both synthetic and real world examples.
Dicarboxylic acids, an alternate fuel substrate in parenteral nutrition: an update

Dicarboxylic acids (DA) are formed from the omega-oxidation of monocarboxylic acids when the beta-oxidation of free fatty acids is impaired. Medium-chain DA have the peculiar characteristic of being water soluble due to the presence of two carboxylic terminal groups in the molecule. Contrary to both long- and medium-chain triglycerides which are administered as emulsions, they can be given by a peripheral vein as inorganic salts. DA are beta-oxidized at level of both peroxisomes and mitochondria via carnitine-independent pathway. The products of beta-oxidation of odd-chain DA are acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA, which cannot be oxidized further, are used in lipogenesis. Moreover even-chain DA produce acetyl-CoA and succinyl-CoA, which is a gluconeogenetic precursor. Azelaic acid (C9), does not show acute or chronic toxicity effects in animals but much of it is lost in urine (more than 50% of the given dose). Sebacic acid (C10) is lost in urine to a smaller extent (about 12% of the administered dose) and its energy density (6.64 kcal/g) is greater than that of C9 (4.97 kcal/g). Dodecanedioic acid (C12) seems to be the best candidate for parenteral nutrition, because it is eliminated in the urine only in minimal amounts (3.90% of the given dose), it is rapidly utilized by tissues, and it has a high energy density (7.20 kcal/g).
Proportional Navigation with Adaptive Terminal Guidance for Aircraft Rendezvous

Af = acceleration command at rendezvous RTR = distance from receiver to tanker s = distance from receiver to target Vc = closing velocity Vf = final velocity constraint VR = receiver velocity, airspeed VRg = receiver velocity, groundspeed VT = tanker velocity, airspeed VTg = tanker velocity, groundspeed xR = receiver east position xRZ = rendezvous east position xT = tanker east position yR = receiver north position yRZ = rendezvous north position yT = tanker north position yRFE = distance from receiver to tanker in downtrack direction f = final line-of-sight constraint f = final heading constraint R = receiver heading RZ = desired heading at rendezvous T = tanker heading _ = derivative with respect to time
Initializing Mutually Referential Abstract Objects: The Value Recursion Challenge

Mutual dependencies between objects arise frequently in programs, and programmers must typically solve this value recursion by manually filling ''initialization holes'' to help construct the corresponding object graphs, i.e. null values and/or explicitly mutable locations. This paper aims to augment ongoing theoretical work on value recursion with a description of a semi-safe mechanism for a generalized form of value recursion in an ML-like language, where initialization corresponds to a graph of lazy computations whose nodes are sequentially forced, requiring runtime checks for soundness during initialization in the style of Russo. Our primary contribution is to use the mechanism to develop compelling examples of how the absence of value recursion leads to real problems in the presence of abstraction boundaries, and give micro-examples that characterize how initialization graphs permit more programs to be expressed in the mutation-free fragment of ML. Finally we argue that in heterogeneous programming environments semi-safe variations on value-recursion may be appropriate for ML-like languages, because initialization effects from external libraries are difficult to characterize, document and control.
Nanoscale plasmonic circulator

Breaking time reversal symmetry of the light flow, implying optical wave isolation and directional light guiding, is crucial for signal handling and integrated optics. Such signal isolation is possible with an optical circulator—a three-port magneto-active nonreciprocal device, which transmits light from any of its input ports into the next port in a circular order, isolating the remaining port. Small magneto-optical activity at optical frequencies challenges the miniaturization and further on-chip integration of this key fundamental component. Here we demonstrate theoretically that by employing principles of plasmonic mode engineering it is possible to enhance significantly magneto-optical response in a deep subwavelength regime and suggest a conceptual approach for a design of an ultracompact nanoscale passive optical circulator. This work paves the way for future generation of nonreciprocal integrated optics with a nanoscale on-chip compatibility.
Databases in MS research: Pitfalls and promises

A database is an organized repository of data. Prospective collection of patient information in a database ('databasing') has been attempted by a few consortia of MS investigators over the past 10 years. This approach promises to facilitate epidemiologic research in MS and investigation of the natural history of the disease and how it might be altered by long-term treatments such as interferon beta. Databasing has some advantages over clinical trials in assessing new therapies, primarily because the focus is on long-term effectiveness in an entire population rather than short-term statistical significance in a highly selected population. The limitations of databasing and strategies to overcome these limitations are addressed.
Dynamic Coherent Acceptability Indices and their Applications to Finance

In this paper, we present a theoretical framework for studying coherent acceptability indices (CAIs) in a dynamic setup. We study dynamic CAIs (DCAIs) and dynamic coherent risk measures (DCRMs), and we establish a duality between them. We derive a representation theorem for DCRMs in terms of a so-called dynamically consistent sequence of sets of probability measures. Based on these results, we give a specific construction of DCAIs. We also provide examples of DCAIs, both abstract and also some that generalize selected classical financial measures of portfolio performance.
Unsupervised Learning of Object Deformation Models

The aim of this work is to learn generative models of object deformations in an unsupervised manner. Initially, we introduce an Expectation Maximization approach to estimate a linear basis for deformations by maximizing the likelihood of the training set under an Active Appearance Model (AAM). This approach is shown to successfully capture the global shape variations of objects like faces, cars and hands. However the AAM representation cannot deal with articulated objects, like cows and horses. We therefore extend our approach to a representation that allows for multiple parts with the relationships between them modeled by a Markov Random Field (MRF). Finally, we propose an algorithm for efficiently performing inference on part-based MRF object models by speeding up the estimation of observation potentials. We use manually collected landmarks to compare the alternative models and quantify learning performance.
YOUTH TRANSITIONS TO EMPLOYMENT AND MARRIAGE IN IRAN: EVIDENCE FROM THE SCHOOL TO WORK TRANSITION SURVEY

Iran’s young men and women face serious challenges in their transitions to employment and marriage. We study the factors that affect these transitions using the 2005 School-to-Work Transition Survey (SWTS). As this survey contains detailed retrospective data of education, employment, and marital outcomes for youth ages 15–29, it provides a new and valuable tool for exploring the challenges facing these youth. In our analysis of the transition to employment, which employs discrete-time hazard models and probit models of women’s desire and actual labor force participation, we find that (1) the duration of unemployment increases secularly with men’s but not women’s education, (2) parental background significantly affects men but not women, and (3) labor force participation of a mother is the strongest predictor of a daughter’s labor force participation. For the transition to marriage, we find that job stability is the most important determinant of the age of marriage, as both years of employment and high qua...
Trade Liberalization in Egypt

A computable general equilibrium model of Egypt is developed to analyze proposed reforms in its trade policies, including a partnership agreement with the European Union. The model has multiple trading regions and allows for administrative trade barriers and tariffs. The paper reports computations of the revenue impacts of trade liberalization and the required changes in distortionary commodity taxes to maintain a fixed real government budget. Egypt’s greatest potential gains come from removing its administrative trade barriers while adopting globally free trade. The partnership agreement with the EU could lower or raise Egypt’s welfare, depending on prior trade reform.
Cow-calf producer perceptions regarding individual animal traceability.

This study provides valuable insights into cow-calf producer voluntary participation in the National Animal Identification System and producers’ perceptions of several issues critically impacting the success of voluntary traceability systems. Cow-calf producers believe that the most important issues to the U.S. beef industry in designing a national, individual animal traceability system are monitoring/managing disease, maintaining current foreign markets, accessing foreign markets, and increasing consumer confidence. Furthermore, producers are concerned with cost, liability, reliability of technology, failure of system to meet stated goals, and confidentiality of information associated with these systems.
Lost in Transit: Product Replacement Bias and Pricing to Market †

In the microdata underlying US trade price indexes, 40 percent of products are replaced before a single price change is observed and 70 percent are replaced after two price changes or fewer. A price index that focuses on price changes for identical items may, therefore, miss an important component of price adjustment occurring at the time of product replacements. We provide a model of this “product replacement bias” and quantify its importance using US data. Accounting for product replacement bias, long-run exchange rate “pass-through” is substantially higher than conventional estimates suggest, and the terms of trade are substantially more volatile. (JEL F14, F31) Despite large swings in the US dollar nominal exchange rate, US import and export prices appear remarkably stable in US dollar terms. Conventional measures of aggregate exchange rate “pass-through” imply that a 1 percent depreciation of the dollar leads to roughly a 0.2–0.4 percent long-run increase in nonoil import prices, and roughly a 0.1 percent long-run fall in export prices in US dollar terms (Campa and Goldberg 2005; Marazzi and Sheets 2007; Gopinath, Itskhoki, and Rigobon 2010). As a consequence, the ratio of export to import prices—the terms of trade—are much less volatile than the exchange rate. Low pass-through of exchange rates into aggregate price indexes persists at long horizons, despite highly persistent exchange rate movements, implying that it cannot be explained as a mechanical consequence of temporarily rigid prices alone. 1 We argue, however, that conventional measures of exchange rate pass-through based on aggregate price indexes are seriously biased—both in the short run and in the long run—due to two pervasive features of the underlying micro-data: highly
All multipliers for repeated monotone nonlinearities

We have derived the largest class of bounded linear time-invariant operators that preserve positivity of repeated monotone nonlinearities. It reduces conservativeness of integral quadratic constraint (IQC) stability analysis of systems having repeated monotone nonlinearities to the minimum possible. Utility of this characterization stems from the fact that such nonlinearities are typically encountered in stability analysis of anti windup schemes among other applications. We have also derived the time varying counterpart of this class of operators.
Banality, book publishing and the everyday life of cultural studies:

• This article explores the institutionalization of cultural studies relative to changes taking place in North American universities and the global book publishing industry. Assuming that the publishing industry is a key site in which cultural studies gets negotiated and defined, I ask: what are the politics of publishing cultural studies? I argue that the demands of contemporary university life and current publishing practices potentially lend themselves to a banal and depoliticized, or worse yet a politically retrograde, `global' cultural studies, in which the important work of many scholars working outside the field's Anglophone centers ironically becomes marginalized. I conclude by exploring how those who practice and publish cultural studies might approach publishing projects in a manner more sensitive to the field's own global information flows. •
DEFERRED ITEM AND VEHICLE ROUTING WITHIN INTEGRATED NETWORKS

Abstract This paper studies the possible integration of long-haul operations by transportation mode and service level (defined by guaranteed delivery time) for package delivery carriers. Specifically, we consider the allocation of deferred items to excess capacity on alternative modes in ways that allow all transportation modes to be utilized better. Model formulation and solution techniques are discussed. The solution techniques presented produce solutions for large-scale problem instances with up to 141 consolidation terminals and 17 breakbulk terminals. Allowing deferred items to travel by air reduces long-haul transportation costs. These savings increase with the amount of excess air capacity.
Noise-gain tradeoff in RF SiGe HBTs

Abstract A new analytical expression of associated gain is derived using linear noisy two-port theory, and used to explain a previous experimental observation of lower (worse) associated gain in SiGe HBTs featuring lower (better) noise. For present RF applications of SiGe HBTs operating at frequencies comparable to or smaller than f T / β , β must be increased through SiGe profile optimization to further reduce noise. This noise improvement, however, necessarily results in a degradation of associated gain, as experimentally observed. The implications of the noise-gain tradeoff on RF integrated circuit design are discussed.
Newer beta-lactam antibiotics: doripenem, ceftobiprole, ceftaroline, and cefepime.

This article reviews the new beta-lactam (β-lactam) antibiotics doripenem, ceftobiprole, and ceftaroline. It covers pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties, dosing, in vitro activities, safety, and clinical trial results. Doripenem (Doribax) has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of complicated intra-abdominal and urinary tract infections. Ceftaroline has received FDA approval for the treatment of skin and soft tissue infections and community acquired pneumonia. Ceftobiprole has not received FDA approval. The article also reviews recent data suggesting increased overall mortality with Cefepime (Maxipime) use compared with other beta-lactam antibiotics and the potential risk for neurotoxicity in the setting of renal failure.
Modeling Bottom Mixed Layer Variability on the Mid-Oregon Shelf during Summer Upwelling

Abstract Results from a model of wind-driven circulation are analyzed to study spatial and temporal variability in the bottom mixed layer (BML) on the mid-Oregon shelf in summer 2001. The model assimilates acoustic Doppler profiler velocities from two cross-shore lines of moorings 90 km apart to provide improved accuracy of near-bottom velocities and turbulence variables in the area between the mooring lines. Model results suggest that the response of the BML thickness to upwelling- and downwelling-favorable winds differs qualitatively between an area of “simple” bathymetric slope at 45°N and a wider shelf area east of Stonewall Bank (44.5°N). At 45°N, the BML grows in response to downwelling-favorable conditions, in agreement with known theories. East of Stonewall Bank, the BML thickness is increased following upwelling events. In this area, the southward upwelling jet detaches from the coast and flows over a wider part of the Oregon shelf, creating conditions for Ekman pumping near the bottom. Based on ...
Rebate subsidies, matching subsidies and isolation effects

In a series of recent experiments (Davis, Millner and Reilly, 2005, Eckel and Grossman, 2003, 2005a-c, 2006), matching subsidies generate significantly higher charity receipts than do theoretically equivalent rebate subsidies. This paper reports a laboratory experiment conducted to examine whether the higher receipts are attributable to a relative preference for matching subsidies or to an “isolation effect” (McCaffery and Baron, 2003, 2006). Some potential policy implications of isolation effects on charitable contributions are also considered.
Prediction of transient loading on a propeller from an approaching ice block

An unsteady 3D surface panel method has been developed to predict hydrodynamic load fluctuations on an ice class propeller induced by continuous variation of proximity to an ice block. The low order, time domain, combined doublet and source panel method approximates the doublet and source distribution uniformly over each panel on the propeller blades. For non-lifting bodies, i.e., the hub and ice block, only sources are distributed over the body surfaces. The simulation model is contrived in such a manner that the ice block and surrounding fluid remain stationary; and at each time step, the propeller rotates and advances forward in the inertial reference frame. This numerical model is validated with previous fixed-proximity experimental measurements and good agreement is obtained. Prediction of the fluctuating hydrodynamic load is carried out as a full dynamic interaction between the ice block and the propeller. Results for this study are compared with previous fixed-proximity numerical models and experiments. The new dynamic model establishes a basis for analysis of a more realistic fluid-structure interaction, which could, in the future, include ice block acceleration due to suction force and ice block impact loading on the propeller blade and shaft. Keywords: Marine Propulsion, Panel Methods, Unsteady Loading, Ice-Propeller Interaction doi: 10.3329/jname.v2i1.2026 Journal of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering 2(1)(2005) 15-20
Inside-out Galaxy Formation

Current theories of galaxy formation have tended to focus on hierarchical structure formation, which is the most likely scenario for cosmological models with a good deal of power at small scales (e.g., standard cold dark matter). Models with little small-scale power lead to scenarios closer to spherical collapse. Recently favored power spectra (e.g., CDM+Λ) lie somewhere in between, which suggests that both types of processes are important and may vary over time owing to gaseous reheating. From this viewpoint this paper explores a very simple inside-out scenario for galaxy formation. This scenario is a natural result of synthesizing earlier work on dark matter halos, spherical collapse, and gas redistribution via angular momentum. Although this model is highly simplified and is not designed to describe the detailed formation of any individual galaxy accurately, it does (by design) predict the overall features of galaxies. In addition, old bulges and young disks are almost unavoidable results of these very simple models. This scenario may provide a useful framework for both observers and theoreticians to think about galaxy formation.
Visually controlled locomotion and visual orientation in animals

A general theory of locomotor behaviour in relation to physical objects is presented. Since the controlling stimulation for such behaviour is mainly optical, this involves novel assumptions about object perception and about what is called ‘visual kinaesthesis’. Evidence for these assumptions is cited. On the basis of this theory it is possible to suppose that animals are visually oriented to the surfaces of their environment, not merely to light as such. In short, it is possible to explain why they seem to have space perception. Implications of this approach for maze-learning are pointed out.
The Social Processes of Civil War: The Wartime Transformation of Social Networks

Little attention has been paid to the social processes of civil war—the transformation of social actors, structures, norms, and practices—that sometimes leave enduring legacies for the postwar period. In this article, I explore the changes wrought by six social processes: political mobilization, military socialization, polarization of social identities, militarization of local authority, transformation of gender roles, and fragmentation of the local political economy. Some of these social processes occur in peacetime, but war may radically change their pace, direction, or consequences, with perhaps irreversible effects. I trace the wide variation in these processes during the wars in four countries: Peru, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, and Sierra Leone. I analyze the effects of these processes as transformations in social networks. These processes reconfigure social networks in a variety of ways, creating new networks, dissolving some, and changing the structure of others.
Single-photon detection by rod cells of the retina

At low light levels, the visual system detects and counts photon absorptions with a reliability close to limits set by statistical fluctuations in the number of absorbed photons. Thus the rod photoreceptors that provide the input signals to the dark-adapted visual system act as nearly perfect photon counters. This elegant performance is possible because light detection in the rods satisfies four functional requirements: high quantum efficiency, sufficient amplification to produce a measurable response, low dark noise, and low trial-to-trial variability in the elementary response. The rod meets these requirements using biochemical reactions rather than the solid-state reactions of silicon detectors, yet its performance equals or exceeds that of man-made detectors in several ways.
Earthing-grounding methods: a primer

Grounding and its design is a complex subject encompassing personnel safety, lightning or static protection, electrical power system earthing and computer system grounding. One must define the purpose to be achieved, as each system may accomplish the objective by different means. The paper lists and defines the more common earthing-grounding terms. A brief history of early attempts at grounding electrical and computer systems is covered. The paper answers the questions of why and how an electrical connection is made to earth. It details the methods of connecting the various types of electrical systems to earth. Personal safety with respect to electricity is covered. Misconceptions concerning grounding and earthing are disclosed.
The pluralism problem in cross-border reproductive care

Outlawing well established forms of assisted reproduction places obstacles in the path of couples who wish to attain their reproductive goals with medical assistance. One effect of restrictive reproductive laws that has received widespread attention is cross-border reproductive travel. In Europe, such travel is permitted by the policy of free movement of persons that is a cornerstone of the democratic and economic stability of the European Union. Cross-border reproductive travel fails to promote moral and political pluralism in democratic states for three primary reasons. First, the opportunity for patients to go abroad for treatment tempers organized resistance to the law and allows government to pass stricter regulations than it otherwise might. Second, cross-border reproductive care has been shown to have deleterious extraterritorial effects that undermine the articulated rationales behind restrictive reproductive laws. Third, laws that generate demand for cross-border reproductive care often fail to satisfy the standard of proportionality that restrictions on human reproduction must meet.
Marine-derived fungi: a chemically and biologically diverse group of microorganisms

A diverse array of secondary metabolites have been isolated and characterized from marine-derived fungi. The structures and biological activities of these metabolites are presented. Additionally, some basic principles of mycology are covered. Overall, 273 structures are presented and the review contains 162 references
Models for computer simulation of complete IC fabrication process

The structure of a complete process simulator for modelling IC technologies is described. Multiple-step sequences which include ion implantation, oxidation, diffusion, epitaxy, and etching can be simulated. Features of individual process models for each of the steps are described in detail. Special emphasis is given to extrinsic diffusion phenomena for arsenic and phosphorus including coupling to boron. The kinetics of oxidation including concentration dependence and interaction of oxide growth with impurity migration are considered as well as the segregation phenomena. The problem of segregation for moving boundary problems in general is reviewed. As example, a bipolar process development using both surface deposition and implanted-phosphorus emitters is presented. Experimental results show that profile shapes, junction depths, and integrated base doping are extremely sensitive to the emitter diffusion as predicted by simulation.
The Baryon Density through the (Cosmological) Ages

The light element abundances probe the baryon density of the universe within a few minutes of the Big Bang. Of these relics from the earliest universe, deuterium is the baryometer of choice. By comparing its primordial abundance inferred from observations with that predicted by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), the early universe baryon density is derived. This is then compared to independent estimates of the baryon density several hundred thousand years after the Big Bang and at present, more than 10 billion years later. The excellent agreement among these values represents an impressive confirmation of the standard model of cosmology.
Spectral Experts for Estimating Mixtures of Linear Regressions

Discriminative latent-variable models are typically learned using EM or gradient-based optimization, which suffer from local optima. In this paper, we develop a new computationally efficient and provably consistent estimator for a mixture of linear regressions, a simple instance of a discriminative latent-variable model. Our approach relies on a low-rank linear regression to recover a symmetric tensor, which can be factorized into the parameters using a tensor power method. We prove rates of convergence for our estimator and provide an empirical evaluation illustrating its strengths relative to local optimization (EM).
Political Decentralization and Technological Innovation: Testing the Innovative Advantages of Decentralized States

Although never rigorously tested, it has become a sort of accepted wisdom amongst social scientists that government decentralization offers key advantages for innovators. Decentralized governments are widely seen as agile, competitive, and well structured to adapt to innovation’s gale of creative destruction. Meanwhile, centralized states, even when democratic, have come to be viewed as rigid and thus hostile to the risks, costs, and change associated with new technology; or are subject to capture by status-quo interest groups which use their influence to promote policies which ultimately restrict technological change. Therefore decentralized government is often perceived as a necessary institutional foundation for encouraging long-run technological innovation. In the following article, this wisdom is tested using data on international patent activity, scientific publications, and high-technology exports. The results suggest that the supposed technological advantages of decentralized states are a fiction, and that international pressures may be more important.
A semantics for concurrent separation logic

We present a trace semantics for a language of parallel programs which share access to mutable data. We introduce a resource-sensitive logic for partial correctness, based on a recent proposal of O'Hearn, adapting separation logic to the concurrent setting. The logic allows proofs of parallel programs in which ''ownership'' of critical data, such as the right to access, update or deallocate a pointer, is transferred dynamically between concurrent processes. We prove soundness of the logic, using a novel ''local'' interpretation of traces which allows accurate reasoning about ownership. We show that every provable program is race-free.
Discretionary Risk Disclosures

We model managers' equilibrium strategies for voluntarily disclosing information about their firm's risk. We consider a multifirm setting in which the variance of each firm's future cash flow is uncertain. A manager can disclose, at a cost, this variance before offering the firm for sale in a competitive stock market with risk‐averse investors. In our partial disclosure equilibrium, managers voluntarily disclose if their firm has a low variance of future cash flows, but withhold the information if their firm has highly variable future cash flows. We establish how the manager's discretionary risk disclosure affects the firm's share price, expected stock returns, and beta, within the framework of the Capital Asset Pricing Model. We show that whereas one manager's discretionary disclosure of his firm's risk does not affect other firms' share prices, it does affect the other firms' betas. Also, we demonstrate that a disclosing firm has lower risk premium and beta ex post than a nondisclosing firm. Finally, we...
Structural dependence of the electrical conductivity of polyethylene terephthalate

The direct current conductivity of three different forms of polyethylene terephthalate was studied over a wide temperature and voltage range to determine the structural dependence of the conduction process. From the films in the amorphous, crystallized, and oriented and crystallized forms it was determined that crystallization reduces the conductivity by more than one order of magnitude. Orientation results in a sixfold decrease in conductivity. The conductivity does not change over a wide range of molecular weight or carboxyl end group concentration. As shown from model polymers and copolymers, disruption of chain symmetry and molecular packing, introduction of side chains, or any other modification which reduces the crystallinity and order, results in greater conductivity. The structural dependence of conductivity, the temperature dependence, and the current–voltage relationships of polyethylene terephthalate are consistent with a proposed ionic mechanism for the conduction process.
A local criterion for Tverberg graphs

The topological Tverberg theorem states that for any prime power q and continuous map from a (d+1)(q−1)-simplex to ℝd , there are q disjoint faces F i of the simplex whose images intersect. It is possible to put conditions on which pairs of vertices of the simplex that are allowed to be in the same face F i . A graph with the same vertex set as the simplex, and with two vertices adjacent if they should not be in the same F i , is called a Tverberg graph if the topological Tverberg theorem still work. These graphs have been studied by Hell, Schoneborn and Ziegler, and it is known that disjoint unions of small paths, cycles, and complete graphs are Tverberg graphs. We find many new examples by establishing a local criterion for a graph to be Tverberg. An easily stated corollary of our main theorem is that if the maximal degree of a graph is D, and D(D+1)<q, then it is a Tverberg graph. We state the affine versions of our results and also describe how they can be used to enumerate Tverberg partitions.
Automated Design for Automotive Structures

The application of mathematical structural optimization methods to automotive structures is discussed. The global structures are typically simultaneously frequency and stress constrained. In addition, bending effects in the components cannot be ignored. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a very general approach while still retaining computational efficiencies. It has been found that approximation techniques coupled with mathematical programming allow the optimization of moderately realistic structures. In addition, there is a class of problems which must be characterized in terms of their boundary shape. This imposes a new set of difficulties primarily of insuring model integrity during the optimization.
Dimension Expanders via Rank Condensers

An emerging theory of "linear algebraic pseudorandomness: aims to understand the linear algebraic analogs of fundamental Boolean pseudorandom objects where the rank of subspaces plays the role of the size of subsets. In this work, we study and highlight the interrelationships between several such algebraic objects such as subspace designs, dimension expanders, seeded rank condensers, two-source rank condensers, and rank-metric codes. In particular, with the recent construction of near-optimal subspace designs by Guruswami and Kopparty as a starting point, we construct good (seeded) rank condensers (both lossless and lossy versions), which are a small collection of linear maps F^n to F^t for t<<n such that for every subset of F^n of small rank, its rank is preserved (up to a constant factor in the lossy case) by at least one of the maps. We then compose a tensoring operation with our lossy rank condenser to construct constant-degree dimension expanders over polynomially large fields. That is, we give a constant number of explicit linear maps A_i from F^n to F^n such that for any subspace V of F^n of dimension at most n/2, the dimension of the span of the A_i(V) is at least (1+Omega(1)) times the dimension of V. Previous constructions of such constant-degree dimension expanders were based on Kazhdan's property T (for the case when F has characteristic zero) or monotone expanders (for every field F); in either case the construction was harder than that of usual vertex expanders. Our construction, on the other hand, is simpler. For two-source rank condensers, we observe that the lossless variant (where the output rank is the product of the ranks of the two sources) is equivalent to the notion of a linear rank-metric code. For the lossy case, using our seeded rank condensers, we give a reduction of the general problem to the case when the sources have high (n^Omega(1)) rank. When the sources have constant rank, combining this with an "inner condenser" found by brute-force leads to a two-source rank condenser with output length nearly matching the probabilistic constructions.
High-resolution genetic mapping with pooled sequencing

Modern genetics has been transformed by high-throughput sequencing. New experimental designs in model organisms involve analyzing many individuals, pooled and sequenced in groups for increased efficiency. However, the uncertainty from pooling and the challenge of noisy sequencing data demand advanced computational methods. We present MULTI POOL, a computational method for genetic mapping in model organism crosses that are analyzed by pooled genotyping. Unlike other methods for the analysis of pooled sequence data, we simultaneously consider information from all linked chromosomal markers when estimating the location of a causal variant. Our use of informative sequencing reads is formulated as a discrete dynamic Bayesian network, which we extend with a continuous approximation that allows for rapid inference without a dependence on the pool size. MULTI POOL generalizes to include biological replicates and case-only or case-control designs for binary and quantitative traits. Our increased information sharing and principled inclusion of relevant error sources improve resolution and accuracy when compared to existing methods, localizing associations to single genes in several cases. MULTI POOL is freely available at http://cgs.csail.mit.edu/multipool/ .
Deadlock avoidance algorithm for flexible manufacturing systems by calculating effective free space of circuits

Modern flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) are highly automated and flexible in which raw parts of various types are processed concurrently. Deadlock issue arises easily in these systems due to shared equipment usage and high production flexibility. It was indicated in Wysk et al . (Wysk, R., Yang, N. and Joshi, S., Detection of deadlocks in flexible manufacturing cells. IEEE Trans. Rob. Auto., 1991, 7, 853–859.) that when a manufacturing system is modelled by a digraph, existence of circuits in such a graph is a necessary condition for deadlock. Deadlock avoidance for systems with free choice in part routing has been well studied in the Petri net formalism, however, we have not found that it has been studied systematically in the digraph formalism. Because of choices introduced, part flow dynamics become much more complex. Based on our previous work Zhang et al . (Zhang, W., Judd, R.P. and Paul P., Evaluating order of circuits for deadlock avoidance in a flexible manufacturing system. Int. J. Prod. Res....