cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
As the Current Account Turns: Disaggregating the Effects of Current Account Reversals in Industrial Countries

This paper extends the study of current account (CA) reversals by considering the implications for the composition of output and employment. It is shown that decreases in CA deficits imply increases in tradable relative to non-tradable output and/or declines in investment. The impact of CA ‘rebalancing’ should therefore be expected to vary considerably across sectors of an economy. This intersectoral variation is studied by examining the dynamics of output, employment and prices using data for 55 sectors of the economy during 14 industrial country reversal episodes. The output and employment declines associated with CA reversals are most clearly evident in investment-related sectors, while sectors related to primary commodities generally perform relatively well following reversals. Reversals are also followed by increases in relative inflation for tradable goods sectors.
Robust tracking of migrating cells using four-color level set segmentation

Understanding behavior of migrating cells is becoming an emerging research area with many important applications. Segmentation and tracking constitute vital steps of this research. In this paper, we present an automated cell segmentation and tracking system designed to study migration of cells imaged with a phase contrast microscope. For segmentation the system uses active contour level set methods with a novel extension that efficiently prevents false-merge problem. Tracking is done by resolving frame to frame correspondences between multiple cells using a multi-distance, multi-hypothesis algorithm. Cells that move into the field-of-view, arise from cell division or disappear due to apoptosis are reliably segmented and tracked by the system. Robust tracking of cells, imaged with a phase contrast microscope is a challenging problem due to difficulties in segmenting dense clusters of cells. As cells being imaged have vague borders, close neighboring cells may appear to merge. These false-merges lead to incorrect trajectories being generated during the tracking process. Current level-set based approaches to solve the false-merge problem require a unique level set per object (the N-level set paradigm). The proposed approach uses evidence from previous frames and graph coloring principles and solves the same problem with only four level sets for any arbitrary number of similar objects, like cells.
FEATURES OF THE TEDM OBJECT MODEL

We present the object model of TEDM, a data model devised using concepts from both object-oriented systems and deductive reasoning systems. Each of of following topics is briefly discussed in this paper: 1) basic concepts of the model, 2) its complex object space, 3) its extension with abstract objects to the object space, 4) its data manipulation facilities, 5) its notion of rules and deductive reasoning on complex objects, 6) its approach to object representation of types and commands, and 7) its idea of dynamic construction of database programs.
Characterizing the effects of free carriers in fully etched, dielectric-clad silicon waveguides

We theoretically characterize the free-carrier plasma dispersion effect in fully etched silicon waveguides, with various dielectric material claddings, due to fixed interface charges and trap states at the silicon-dielectric interfaces. The values used for these charges are obtained from the measured capacitance-voltage characteristics of SiO2, SiNx, and Al2O3 thin films deposited on silicon substrates. The effect of the charges on the properties of silicon waveguides is then calculated using the semiconductor physics tool Silvaco in combination with the finite-difference time-domain method solver Lumerical. Our results show that, in addition to being a critical factor in the analysis of such active devices as capacitively driven silicon modulators, this effect should also be taken into account when considering the propagation losses of passive silicon waveguides.
Weighted sets of probabilities and minimax weighted expected regret: new approaches for representing uncertainty and making decisions

We consider a setting where an agent's uncertainty is represented by a set of probability measures, rather than a single measure. Measure-by-measure updating of such a set of measures upon acquiring new information is well-known to suffer from problems; agents are not always able to learn appropriately. To deal with these problems, we propose using weighted sets of probabilities: a representation where each measure is associated with a weight, which denotes its significance. We describe a natural approach to updating in such a situation and a natural approach to determining the weights. We then show how this representation can be used in decision-making, by modifying a standard approach to decision making—minimizing expected regret—to obtain minimax weighted expected regret (MWER). We provide an axiomatization that characterizes preferences induced by MWER both in the static and dynamic case.
Refined topological amplitudes in N = 1 flux compactification

We study the implication of refined topological string amplitudes in the supersymmetric $ \mathcal{N} = 1 $ flux compactification. They generate higher derivative couplings among the vector multiplets and graviphoton with generically non-holomorphic moduli dependence. For a particular term, we can compute them by assuming the geometric engineering. We claim that the Dijkgraaf-Vafa large N matrix model with the β-ensemble measure directly computes the higher derivative corrections to the supersymmetric effective action of the supersymmetric $ \mathcal{N} = 1 $ gauge theory.
Hands-Free Operation of a Small Mobile Robot

The Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center of Sandia National Laboratories has an ongoing research program in advanced user interfaces. As part of this research, promising new transduction devices, particularly hands-free devices, are being explored for the control of mobile and floor-mounted robotic systems. Brainwave control has been successfully demonstrated by other researchers in a variety of fields. In the research described here, Sandia developed and demonstrated a proof-of-concept brainwave-controlled mobile robot system. Preliminary results were encouraging. Additional work required to turn this into a reliable, fieldable system for mobile robotic control is identified. Used in conjunction with other controls, brainwave control could be an effective control method in certain circumstances.
Real-time terascale implementation of tele-immersion

Tele-immersion is a new medium that enables a user to share a virtual space with remote participants, by creating the illusion that users at geographically dispersed locations reside at the same physical space. A person is immersed in a remote world, whose 3D representation is acquired remotely, then transmitted and displayed in the viewer's environment. Tele-immersion is effective only when the three components, computation, transmission, and rendering - all operate in real time . In this paper, we describe the real-time implementation of scene reconstruction on the Terascale Computing System at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.
Effects of maternal depression on family food insecurity.

Abstract We use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Birth Cohort to estimate the effects of maternal depression, a condition that is fairly common and can be severe, on food insecurity, a hardship that has increased substantially in the U.S. Using various model specifications, we find convincing evidence that severe maternal depression increases the likelihood that young children experience food insecurity by 23–79%, with estimates depending on model specification and measures of depression and food insecurity. For household food insecurity, the corresponding estimates are 11–69%. We also find that maternal depression increases reliance on several types of public programs, suggesting that the programs play a buffering role.
Unified treatment of solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillations

Abstract We present an ansatz for the quark and lepton mass matrices, derivable from SO(10) type GUTs, which accomodates a heavy (>92GeV) top quark and permits large mixings in the vμ → vτ sector (as suggested by the recent Kamiokande and IMB data on the atmospheric neutrinos). The well known asymptotic relations m b = m τ , m s = 2 3 mμ and m d m s = m e mμ all hold to a good approximation. Depending on vμ → vτ mixing which can be maximal, the mixing the angle rate for solar neutrino oscillations lies in the range 7.8 × 10 −3 ≳sin 2 2 θ egm ≳ 2.1 × 10 −2 . For the 71 Ga experiment the event rate, normalized against the standard solar model prediction of 132 SNU, is estimated to be between 80 and 20 SNU.
The Territorial Raider game and graph derangements

A derangement of a graph G = ( V , E ) is an injective function f : V ź V such that for all v ź V , f ( v ) ź v and ( v , f ( v ) ) ź E . Not all graphs admit a derangement and previous results have characterized graphs with derangements using neighborhood conditions for subsets of V . We establish an alternative criterion for the existence of derangements on a graph. We analyze strict Nash equilibria of the biologically motivated Territorial Raider game, a multi-player competition for resources in a spatially structured population based on animal raiding and defending behavior. We find that a graph G admits a derangement if and only if there is a strict Nash equilibrium of the Territorial Raider game on G .
Distanciamiento estético, literatura en la literatura y nueva narrativa hispanoamericana

Resumen es: Este articulo revisa el concepto de «literatura en la literatura» sobre la base de la practica de narradores hispanoamericanos de los ultimos tres lustro...
Consumer Self-Generation and Monopoly Limit-Pricing under Timing Uncertainty of Deregulation in the Electricity Market

Due to uncertainty in the timing of deregulation for electric power generation, large and potentially self-generating consumers should consider a lost option value as part of the cost of any investment they consider. This paper uses a simple two-period model to analyze the role played by the timing anticipation of deregulation in the decision making of potential self-generators (PSGs) and for limit-contract pricing of local utilities. We develop an effective limit-pricing rule and conclude that a higher-probability of early deregulation will lead utilities to retain more consumers and to set higher limit prices before deregulation. A possible early deregulation might not harm utilities; it could even benefit utilities in finite lifetime periods. Finally, a simulation is provided which supports our main results and shows that the effects on utilities' expected profits of uncertainty about the coming deregulation will depend on the distribution of consumer types.
Cluster Size Distributions of Heterogeneous Economic Agents : Are there non-self-averaging phenomena in economics?

This paper outlines the applications of one-and two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet distributions to describe stationary statistical distributions of clus-ters of agents by types. We discuss how the notion of residudal allocation processes in statistics and population genetics literature also arises as stick-breaking processes in the physics literature. The phenomena of self-(non-) averaging in the physics literature are analogous to long-run non-vanishing of profits or variances of capital sizes in some disequilibrium economic dy-namics. We offer an economic interpretation of the physical notion of non-self-averaging as something that refers to the existence of long-run dise-quilibrium phenomena in economics, rather than thermodynamic limits in statistical physics, since both involve non-vanishing of variances as the size or the time goes to infinity.
POLLEN RECORDS, POSTGLACIAL | Southwestern North America

Pollen, spore, and algae records from a variety of depositional contexts provide 12 ka of paleoclimatic proxy data for southwestern North America. Macrofossils and pollen from ancient woodrat nests in the drier interior provide species-level identification and exact spatial and chronometric information. Occasionally, charcoal counts from pollen slides provide fire history data. Vegetation dynamics are primarily recorded on century to millennial timescales, though in a few cases to the near-decade level. During the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, conifer forests were replaced by oak-dominated deciduous forests in more mesic (moister) areas, and in the drier interior, subalpine woodlands retreated upslope and were replaced by juniper woodlands. In some areas, sagebrush steppe was replaced by chaparral and oak woodlands. In the Great Basin and northern desert southwest, retreating sagebrush steppe and juniper woodlands were replaced by drought-tolerant shrub communities. As Mojave and Sonoran desert species became established near their current limits during the early Holocene, pinon pine began its northward expansion from the lower Colorado River area, reaching its northern limits during the middle to late Holocene. During the middle Holocene, more xerophytic plant species dominated the interior, though more mesophytic species were common in southern California. After 6360 cal BP (5500 rcyr BP), more moisture-loving species reexpanded in the region, with their distribution climaxing about 4090 cal BP (3700 rcyr BP). Current plant distributions were established by about 1980 cal BP (2000 rcyr BP) following extensive periods of fire which consumed much of the lower-elevation Neopluvial forest.
Baire Category and Nowhere Differentiability for Feasible Real Functions

A notion of resource-bounded Baire category is developed for the class P C[0,1] of all polynomial-time computable real-valued functions on the unit interval. The meager subsets of P C[0,1] are characterized in terms of resource-bounded Banach-Mazur games. This characterization is used to prove that, in the sense of Baire category, almost every function in P C[0,1] is nowhere differentiable. This is a complexity-theoretic extension of the analogous classical result that Banach proved for the class C[0, 1] in 1931.
The Economic Dynamics of Law

1. Introduction 2. Neoclassical law and economics 3. The economic collapse of 2008 4. Economic dynamic theory 5. Financial regulation 6. Contract law's inefficiency 7. Property law: a macroeconomic view 8. Intellectual property: economic dynamic scholarship and neoclassical law 9. Size matters: antitrust, empowerment, and systemic risk 10. On the dangers of ignoring the economic dynamics of national security 11. Climate disruption: an economic dynamic approach 12. Conclusion.
Graphical representations of consensus belief

Graphical models based on conditional independence support concise encodings of the subjective belief of a single agent. A natural question is whether the consensus belief of a group of agents can be represented with equal parsimony. We prove, under relatively mild assumptions, that even if everyone agrees on a common graph topology, no method of combining beliefs can maintain that structure. Even weaker conditions rule out local aggregation within conditional probability tables. On a more positive note, we show that if probabilities are combined with the logarithmic opinion pool (LogOP), then commonly held Markov independencies are maintained. This suggests a straightforward procedure for constructing a consensus Markov network. We describe an algorithm for computing the LogOP with time complexity comparable to that of exact Bayesian inference.
A doubling measure on R^d can charge a rectifiable curve

For d > 2, we construct a doubling measure v on ℝ d and a rectifiable curve Γ such that ν(Γ) > 0.
Quasars and Their Host Galaxies

This review attempts to describe developments in the fields of quasar and quasar host galaxies in the past five years. In this time period, the Sloan and 2dF quasar surveys have added several tens of thousands of quasars, with Sloan quasars being found to z > 6. Obscured, or partially obscured quasars have begun to be found in significant numbers. Black hole mass estimates for quasars, and our confidence in them, have improved significantly, allowing a start on relating quasar properties such as radio jet power to fundamental parameters of the quasar such as black hole mass and accretion rate. Quasar host galaxy studies have allowed us to find and characterize the host galaxies of quasars to z > 2. Despite these developments, many questions remain unresolved, in particular the origin of the close relationship between black hole mass and galaxy bulge mass/velocity dispersion seen in local galaxies.
Properties of outflow‐driven sawtooth substorms

[1] The mechanisms by which ionospheric O+ stretches the plasma sheet causing variations in polar cap flux during magnetospheric sawtooth substorms are investigated using the multi-fluid Lyon-Fedder-Mobarry simulation code. O+ outflow is induced in the simulation by Alfvenic Poynting flux flowing to low altitude during the sawtooth expansion and growth phases. The O+ fluid populates the plasma sheet and causes it to stretch tailward in response to the increased mass density. The ionospheric outflow thus functions as a feedback loop in the magnetosphere-ionosphere system wherein O+ ions released during the expansion phase alter the magnetospheric configuration and enable the development of the next substorm. We also find that the nightside reconnection rate is strongly dependent on the position of the tail merging line. As the x-line moves tailward, the inflow speed and magnetic field strength are reduced, creating an imbalance between dayside and nightside merging. This imbalance is responsible for the buildup and release of open magnetic flux in the magnetosphere during the sawtooth cycle.
Isosynchronous Paths on a Rotating Surface

AbstractIn special relativity, clock networks may be self-consistently synchronized in an inertial frame by slowly transporting clocks, or by exchanging electromagnetic signals between network node...
Induced beam oscillations from quadrupole vibrations in the SLC linac

Linac beams in the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) were driven into oscillation by transverse vibration of lattice quadrupoles at about 7 Hz. These quadrupoles are centered on 12-meter support girders located early in the linac. The vibrations were caused by ground motion at the 0.06 /spl mu/m level which was amplified in the accelerator supports up to 5 /spl mu/m. Seismic and support vibration measurements were Fourier analyzed and a strong correlation with beam observations was observed. Subsequent modifications of the supports have eliminated these oscillations. >
System identification using a wavelet-based approach

In this paper, an approach to system identification using the wavelet transform is outlined. The method is based on system identification algorithms that belong to the class of modulating function methods. In particular, the Pearson-Lee (1985) method is modified to make use of wavelet basis functions which provide a more precise time window to process the plant input-output data. It is proposed here that replacing these modulating functions with wavelet basis functions will provide data filtering which is less sensitive to noise and initial conditions. >
The US Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment Study

The US Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment Study was commissioned jointly by Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) to investigate the potential for future U.S. based long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments using MW class conventional neutrino beams that can be produced at FNAL. The experimental baselines are based on two possible detector locations: 1) off‐axis to the existing FNAL NuMI beamline at baselines of 700 to 810 km and 2) NSF's proposed future Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) at baselines greater than 1000 km. Two detector technologies are considered: a megaton class Water Cherenkov detector deployed deep underground at a DUSEL site, or a 100 kT Liquid Argon Time‐Projection Chamber (TPC) deployed on the surface at any of the proposed sites. The physics sensitivities of the proposed experiments are summarized. We find that conventional horn focused wide‐band neutrino beam options from FNAL aimed at a massive detector w...
DMVP: Foremost Waypoint Coverage of Time-Varying Graphs

We consider the Dynamic Map Visitation Problem (DMVP), in which a team of agents must visit a collection of critical locations as quickly as possible, in an environment that may change rapidly and unpredictably during the agents’ navigation. We apply recent formulations of time-varying graphs (TVGs) to DMVP, shedding new light on the computational hierarchy \(\mathcal {R} \supset \mathcal {B} \supset \mathcal {P}\) of TVG classes by analyzing them in the context of graph navigation. We provide hardness results for all three classes, and for several restricted topologies, we show a separation between the classes by showing severe inapproximability in \(\mathcal {R}\), limited approximability in \(\mathcal {B}\), and tractability in \(\mathcal {P}\). We also give topologies in which DMVP in \(\mathcal {R}\) is fixed parameter tractable, which may serve as a first step toward fully characterizing the features that make DMVP difficult.
Design of large aperture, low mass vacuum windows

Large vacuum vessels are employed downstream of fixed targets in High Energy Physics experiments to provide a long path for particles to traverse without interacting with air molecules. These vessels generally have a large aperture opening known as a "vacuum window" which employs a thin membrane to preserve the vacuum environment yet allows the particles to pass through with a minimal effect on them. Several large windows have been built using a composite of Kevlar/Mylar including circular windows to a diameter of 96.5 cm and rectangular windows up to 193 cm/spl times/86 cm. This paper describes the design, fabrication, testing and operating experience with these windows and relates the actual performance to theoretical predictions. >
Explaining positive deviance in public sector reforms in development

Summary Public sector reforms are commonplace in developing countries. Much of the literature about these reforms reflects on their failures. This paper asks about the successes and investigates which of two competing theories best explain why some reforms are positive deviants: “solution- and leader-driven change” (SLDC) and “problem-driven iterative adaptation” (PDIA). The theories are used to analyze data emerging from a case survey involving thirty cases from Princeton University’s Innovations for Successful Society (ISS) program. The bulk of evidence from this study supports a PDIA explanation, but there is reason to believe that SLDC hypotheses also have value.
Contractual Relations, Control, and Quality in the Hog Sector

Agricultural production, especially hog production, is undergoing brisk reorganization. Production and marketing contracts are attenuating the control and property rights of growers. In seeking reasons for the restructuring, this paper surveys the opinions of industry participants. It then places these opinions in the context of existing theories on the nature of the firm subject to vertical production/processing inter dependencies. Special attention is devoted to contract specifications and their relationships with control and quality.
Aggregate estimation over dynamic hidden web databases

Many databases on the web are "hidden" behind (i.e., accessible only through) their restrictive, form-like, search interfaces. Recent studies have shown that it is possible to estimate aggregate query answers over such hidden web databases by issuing a small number of carefully designed search queries through the restrictive web interface. A problem with these existing work, however, is that they all assume the underlying database to be static, while most real-world web databases (e.g., Amazon, eBay) are frequently updated. In this paper, we study the novel problem of estimating/tracking aggregates over dynamic hidden web databases while adhering to the stringent query-cost limitation they enforce (e.g., at most 1,000 search queries per day). Theoretical analysis and extensive real-world experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithms and their superiority over baseline solutions (e.g., the repeated execution of algorithms designed for static web databases).
Constraints on the Coupling of Weakly-Interacting Particles to Matter from Stellar Evolution

Axions couple to nucleons in both the KSVZ and DFSZ models.1 The matrix elements for nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung (nn → nna, pp → ppa, and np → npa) are calculated and the energy loss rates from these processes have been obtained in the case where the nucleons are degenerate with different neutron and proton Fermi momenta.2 The neutron-proton bremsstrahlung rate thus obtained differs from the previous results3,4: The phase space integrals are carried out explicitly for different neutron and proton Fermi momenta as compared with the approximate expression in Ref. 3. Furthermore, the rate vanishes when the proton concentration approaches zero, which is to be contrasted with the results in Ref. 4. The neutron-proton rate is found to be larger than the neutron-neutron rate by a factor 2–5 for typical values of the proton concentration in neutron star matter. Requiring the energy loss rate due to axion emission to be less than that of neutrino emission, one obtains the upper bound on the axion-nucleon coupling. This upper bound is slightly lower than the previous bound5 due to the enhanced axion energy loss rate, which results from the inclusion of the neutron-proton process.
Egyptian Women Workers and Entrepreneurs: Maximizing Opportunities in the Economic Sphere

Women are a powerful force for sustainable economic growth. A growing body of microeconomic empirical evidence and emerging macroeconomic analysis shows that gender inequality limits economic growth in developing economies. Research also shows that considerable potential for economic growth could be realized if countries support women's full economic participation. Increases in women's income tend to correlate with greater expenditure on family welfare and children, because women often spend a greater share of their income on their children's nutrition, health care, and education. From an economic perspective, removing gender biases and maintaining a level playing field reduces possible market distortions or malfunctioning. Moreover, promoting women's participation in business may bolster women's overall participation in the labor market, because women-owned businesses are more likely to employ other women. This report analyzes the main reasons for this disparity in the Arab Republic of Egypt and proposes solutions to level the playing field and enable women's full economic contributions. The Investment Climate Survey (ICS) of 1,156 enterprises from the manufacturing sector was carried out in October 2008, using the World Bank standard methodology. The recall questionnaire of 566 enterprises was conducted in October 2008. The gender workers module was conducted in August 2005. It sampled about 15 full-time workers from each firm covered by the ICS recall survey. About 70 percent of the ICS sample is made up of small and medium firms, about 85 percent of which are owned by individuals or families. Large firms employing more than 150 workers account for about 30 percent of the sample. In about 35 percent of the sample, a woman is a main shareholder; in 15 percent of these firms, women own the majority of the firm.
Four-electron alkyne ligands in molybdenum(II) and tungsten(II) complexes

Publisher Summary This chapter explores that the term “four-electron donor,” which is used to describe the alkyne ligand in circumstances where alkyne π ⊥ donation supplements classic metal–olefin bonding. The utility of this scheme lies in its simplicity, and with some reluctance is relied on the “four-electron donor” terminology to suggest global properties of metal alkyne monomers. The general implications and specific hazards characterizing these descriptors are typical of broad classification schemes in chemistry—they are often conceptually helpful but seldom specifically correct. Criteria for recognizing four-electron alkyne donation encompass stoichiometry, structure, spectra, and reactivity. The chapter reviews that the chemistry that has been developed for molybdenum (II) and tungsten (II) alkyne monomers encompasses syntheses, structures, spectra, molecular orbital descriptions, and reactions. The Mo (II) and W (II) complexes addressed in the chapter are not unique in terms of alkyne π ⊥ donation. Related alkyne chemistry is appearing for d4 metals other than molybdenum and tungsten, as well as for d 2 complexes in general. The chapter also examines that chromium alkyne chemistry and reflects the importance of π ⊥ donation, but the stoichiometries differ from those of heavier Group VI monomers.
Robustness of the Extensive Margin in the Helpman, Melitz and Rubinstein (HMR) Model

The HMR model extends the classical gravity model of trade to correct for the large number of zeros in the world trade matrix (export selection) and for the unobservable fraction of exporting fi�rms (extensive margin). They �find that, while omission of both of these corrections result in the biased estimates of the gravity model, the extensive margin correction is the most signi�ficant of the two when estimating the trade flows. I test the robustness of this conclusion by splitting the world trade data into OECD and non-OECD countries. The extensive margin should be both economically and statistically more signi�ficant for the OECD exporters, while export selection should play a larger in the trade flows for the non-OECD exporters. I �find that the extensive margin is not signi�ficant for the OECD trade flows, but the export selection is important regardless of the exporter location. These �ndings call into question the conclusions of the HMR model. I posit and test possible hypothesis to explain them.
Synthesis of mono-substituted 2,2′-bipyridines

The rapid synthesis of 4-aryl-2,2′-bipyridines is described leading to some previously reported compounds in good yields in addition to some new functionalized bipyridines.
Prompt Tidal Disruption of Stars as an Electromagnetic Signature of Supermassive Black Hole Coalescence

In the last decade, a series of breakthroughs in numerical relativity made it possible to simulate black hole binary coalescence on the computer, in fully dynamical spacetime (Pretorius 2005; Baker et al. 2006; Campanelli et al. 2006). The most important astrophysical result of these new techniques has been a self-consistent calculation of gravitational wave (GW) kicks: the recoil imparted via momentum conservation to a newly merged black hole. The final stages of black hole inspiral and merger are accompanied by anisotropic GW emission, which has been numerically demonstrated to produce typical recoil kicks \(\sim\!\!10^{2-3}~{\rm km~s}^{-1}\). The magnitude of the kick depends most sensitively on the initial binary mass ratio and on the spin vectors of the black holes.
How Poor are the Old? A Survey of Evidence from 44 Countries

This paper surveys 11 international comparative studies of poverty, income distribution, and the elderly. Although it focuses on OECD economies, some 44 countries are covered. The paper addresses a series of questions. What level are the incomes of the elderly relative to the population as a whole? How has this changed over the past two decades? How many of the old are poor? How many of the poor are old? Are the oldest old poorer than younger pensioners? How do widows fare? What is the mix between public and private sources of income? Do the elderly poor remain poor? There is also a discussion of methodological issues. The results show that the incomes of the elderly are typically around 80 per cent of incomes of the populations as a whole. In most countries, this ratio has been increasing over the past two decades. Although there remain pockets of poverty among the elderly, most studies show that the old are represented proportionally or under-represented among the poor.
First-principles equation of state and electronic properties of warm dense oxygen.

We perform all-electron path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) and density functional theory molecular dynamics (DFT-MD) calculations to explore warm dense matter states of oxygen. Our simulations cover a wide density-temperature range of 1–100 g cm−3 and 104–109 K. By combining results from PIMC and DFT-MD, we are able to compute pressures and internal energies from first-principles at all temperatures and provide a coherent equation of state. We compare our first-principles calculations with analytic equations of state, which tend to agree for temperatures above 8 × 106 K. Pair-correlation functions and the electronic density of states reveal an evolving plasma structure and ionization process that is driven by temperature and density. As we increase the density at constant temperature, we find that the ionization fraction of the 1s state decreases while the other electronic states move towards the continuum. Finally, the computed shock Hugoniot curves show an increase in compression as the first and second shells are ionized.
Structural change, dualism and economic development : the role of the vulnerable poor on marginal lands

Empirical evidence indicates that in many developing regions, the extreme poor in more marginal land areas form a "residual" pool of rural labor. Structural transformation in such developing economies depends crucially on labor and land use decisions of these most-vulnerable populations located on abundant but marginal agricultural land. Although the modern sector may be the source of dynamic growth through learning-by-doing and knowledge spillovers, patterns of labor, land and other natural resources use in the rural economy matter in the overall dynamics of structural change. The concentration of the rural poor on marginal lands is essentially a barometer of economy-wide development. As long as there are abundant marginal lands for cultivation, they serve to absorb rural migrants, increased population, and displaced unskilled labor from elsewhere in the economy. Moreover, the economy is vulnerable to the "Dutch disease" effects of a booming primary products sector. As a consequence, productivity increases and expansion in the commercial primary production sector will cause manufacturing employment and output to contract, until complete specialization occurs. Avoiding such an outcome and combating the inherent dualism of the economy requires both targeted polices for the modern sector and traditional agriculture on marginal lands.
Use of fruit bait traps for monitoring of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

There exisls great interest in using fruit-feeding adult nymphalid butterflies to monitor changes in tropical forest ecosystems. We intensively sampled the butterfly fauna of mid-elevation tropical moisl forest in southem Costa Rica with fruit bait traps to address a series of practical issues eonceming the development of a robust, efficient sampling programo Variation in the number of captures and escapes of butterflies at the traps was better explained by the time of day than by the age of bait. Species' escape rates varied widely, suggesting that short term, less intensive surveys aimed at determining presence or absence of species may be biased. Individuals did not appear 10 become "traphappy" of a recognize the traps as food sources. Considering the tradeoff between numbers of traps and frequency of trap servicing, Ihe most efficient sampling regime appears to be baiting and sampling the traps once every other day
Fully convolutional networks for semantic segmentation

Convolutional networks are powerful visual models that yield hierarchies of features. We show that convolutional networks by themselves, trained end-to-end, pixels-to-pixels, exceed the state-of-the-art in semantic segmentation. Our key insight is to build “fully convolutional” networks that take input of arbitrary size and produce correspondingly-sized output with efficient inference and learning. We define and detail the space of fully convolutional networks, explain their application to spatially dense prediction tasks, and draw connections to prior models. We adapt contemporary classification networks (AlexNet [20], the VGG net [31], and GoogLeNet [32]) into fully convolutional networks and transfer their learned representations by fine-tuning [3] to the segmentation task. We then define a skip architecture that combines semantic information from a deep, coarse layer with appearance information from a shallow, fine layer to produce accurate and detailed segmentations. Our fully convolutional network achieves state-of-the-art segmentation of PASCAL VOC (20% relative improvement to 62.2% mean IU on 2012), NYUDv2, and SIFT Flow, while inference takes less than one fifth of a second for a typical image.
Counterexamples to Mercat’s conjecture

In this paper, we provide counterexamples to Mercat’s conjecture on vector bundles on algebraic curves. For any \({n \geq 4}\), we provide examples of curves lying on K3 surfaces and vector bundles on those curves which invalidate Mercat’s conjecture in rank n.
The African Growth and Opportunity Act, exports, and development in Sub-Saharan Africa

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is the flagship of U.S. commercial and development policy with Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper looks at the impact of the trade preferences that are the central element of AGOA on African countries' exports to the U.S. and puts them in the perspective of the development of the region. The paper finds that, while stimulating export diversification in a few countries, AGOA has fallen short of the potential impetus that preferences could otherwise provide African exporters. The impact of AGOA would be enhanced if preferences were extended to all products. This means removing tariff barriers to a range of agricultural products and to textiles and a number of other manufactured goods. There also needs to be a fundamental change in approach to the rules of origin. Given the stage of development and economic size of Sub-Saharan Africa, nonrestrictive rules of origin are crucial. For all countries in Africa, those that have and those that have not benefited from preferences, there are enormous infrastructure weaknesses and often extremely poor policy environments that raise trade costs and push African producers further away from international markets. Effective trade preferences (those with nonrestrictive rules of origin) can provide a limited window of opportunity to exports while these key barriers to trade are addressed. But dealing with the barriers is the priority.
Learning visual biases from human imagination

Although the human visual system can recognize many concepts under challenging conditions, it still has some biases. In this paper, we investigate whether we can extract these biases and transfer them into a machine recognition system. We introduce a novel method that, inspired by well-known tools in human psychophysics, estimates the biases that the human visual system might use for recognition, but in computer vision feature spaces. Our experiments are surprising, and suggest that classifiers from the human visual system can be transferred into a machine with some success. Since these classifiers seem to capture favorable biases in the human visual system, we further present an SVM formulation that constrains the orientation of the SVM hyperplane to agree with the bias from human visual system. Our results suggest that transferring this human bias into machines may help object recognition systems generalize across datasets and perform better when very little training data is available.
Modeling and simulation of the effects of cyclic loading on articular cartilage lesion formation

SUMMARY We present a model of articular cartilage lesion formation to simulate the effects of cyclic loading. This model extends and modifies the reaction-diffusion-delay model by Graham et al., 2012 for the spread of a lesion formed though a single traumatic event. Our model represents ‘implicitly’ the effects of loading, meaning through a cyclic sink term in the equations for live cells. Our model forms the basis for in silico studies of cartilage damage relevant to questions in osteoarthritis, for example, that may not be easily answered through in vivo or in vitro studies. Computational results are presented that indicate the impact of differing levels of erythropoietin on articular cartilage lesion abatement. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
China Is Poorer Than We Thought, But No Less Successful in the Fight Against Poverty

In 2005, China participated for the first time in the International Comparison Program (ICP), which collects primary data across countries on the prices for an internationally comparable list of goods and services. This paper examines the implications of the new Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) rate (derived by the ICP) for China's poverty rate (by international standards) and how it has changed over time. We provide estimates with and without adjustment for a likely sampling bias in the ICP data. Using an international poverty line of USD 1.25 at 2005 PPP, we find a substantially higher poverty rate for China than past estimates, with about 15% of the population living in consumption poverty, implying about 130 million more poor by this standard. The income poverty rate in 2005 is 10%, implying about 65 million more people living in poverty. However, the new ICP data suggest an even larger reduction in the number of poor since 1981.
A Poisson Regression Examination of the Relationship between Website Traffic and Search Engine Queries

A new area of research involves the use of normalized and scaled Google search volume data to predict economic activity. This new source of data holds both many advantages as well as disadvantages. Daily and weekly data are employed to show the effect of aggregation in Google data, which can lead to contradictory findings. In this paper, Poisson regressions are used to explore the relationship between the online traffic to a specific website and the search volumes for certain search queries, along with the rankings of that website for those queries. The purpose of this paper is to point out the benefits and the pitfalls of a potential new source of data that lacks transparency in regards to the raw data, which is due to the normalization and scaling procedures utilized by Google.
Out of Context: ‘Undercover’ Operations and IHL Advocacy in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

In this article I explore how international humanitarian law (IHL) is used in advocacy on ‘undercover’ operations-the wearing of civilian clothes by Israel's security forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Assessing applicable legal standards-the duty of combatants to distinguish themselves from the civilian population, and the rule prohibiting perfidy-I show that legal claims, reporting practices and strategies comprising the advocacy on ‘undercover’ operations in the OPT make inadequate and inefficient use of IHL. Advocacy on ‘undercover’ operations does not reference and utilize appropriate legal standards; nor does it ground allegations and strategies in the normative and factual inquiries these standards entail. Such advocacy is insensitive to highly relevant factual, legal and policy specificities of the OPT. Decontextualized, advocacy on ‘undercover’ operations presents neither a coherent legal argument nor cogent compliance-inducing strategies. It generates inefficient, unpersuasive discourse that more likely undermines than supports the prospects of changing the practices it challenges.
Total factor productivity growth in East Asia : a critical survey

This article surveys the recent empirical literature on total factor productivity (TFP) growth in East Asia, and the debate about the sources of growth in the region. It is concluded that: (i) the main merit of this literature is that it has helped focus the attention of scholars on the growth process of East Asia; (ii) the theoretical problems underlying the notion of TFP are so significant that the whole concept should be seriously questioned; (Hi) the TFP growth estimates for the region vary significantly, even for the same country and time period; and (iv) research on growth in East Asia based on the estimation of TFP growth is an activity subject to decreasing returns. If we are to advance in understanding how East Asia grew during the last 30 years we need new avenues of research.
Regiochemistry of molybdenum-catalyzed O–H insertions of vinylcarbenoids

Abstract Molybdenum-catalyzed decomposition of vinyldiazoacetates generates vinylcarbenoids that preferentially react with alcohols at the vinylogous position of the vinylcarbenoid rather than at the carbenoid site.
Off-road vehicle locomotion using Bekker's model

Bekker's Derived Terramechanics Model (BDTM) is an analytical tool for evaluating vehicle off-road mobility. BDTM has been developed using Bekker's equations for vehicle soil interactions. He developed the bevameter technique to measure mechanical strength characteristics for many soil and snow conditions. BDTM is in a spreadsheet format, and its primary purpose is to compare mobility characteristics for robotic track and wheeled vehicles under different terrain conditions. Bekker's model is a simple, linear one degree-of-freedom (1-DOF) model, which assumes that in a perfectly cohesive soil (i.e. clay), soil thrust is only a function of contact surfacearea. The model also assumes that for a perfection cohesionless or frictional soil (i.e. dry sand), soil thrust is a function of vehicular weight. This paper attempts to compare the mobility characteristics of wheeled vs. track vehicles for different size, weight and terrain conditions.
Acoustic characteristics of two hybrid inlets at forward speed

A wind tunnel investigation of the acoustic and aerodynamic characteristics of two hybrid inlets installed on a JT15D-1 turbofan engine was performed. The hybrid inlets combined moderate throat Mach number and wall acoustic treatment to suppress the fan inlet noise. Acoustic and aerodynamic data were recorded over a range of flight and engine operating conditions. In a simulated flight environment, the hybrid inlets provided significant levels of suppression at both design and off-design throat Mach numbers with good aerodynamic performance. A comparison of inlet noise at quasi-static and forward-speed conditions in the wind tunnel showed a reduction in the fan tones, demonstrating the flight cleanup effect. High angles of attack produced slight increases in fan noise at the high acoustic directivity angles.
Extracting Knowledge from Dynamics in Gene Expression

Most investigations of coordinated gene expression have focused on identifying correlated expression patterns between genes by examining their normalized static expression levels. In this study, we focus on the dynamics of gene expression by seeking to identify correlated patterns of changes in genetic expression level. In doing so, we build upon methods developed in clinical informatics to detect temporal trends of laboratory and other clinical data. We construct relevance networks from Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene-expression dynamics data and find genes with related functional annotations grouped together. While some of these associations are also found using a standard expression level analysis, many are identified exclusively through the dynamic analysis. These results strongly suggest that the analysis of gene expression dynamics is a necessary and important tool for studying regulatory and other functional relationships among genes. The source code developed for this investigation is freely available to all noncommercial investigators by contacting the authors.
Catalytic enantioselective indium-mediated allylation of hydrazones.

A facile and highly selective indium-mediated allylation of hydrazones utilizing BINOL ligands is described. Chiral (R)-3,3‘-bistrifluoromethylBINOL afforded homoallylic amines in up to 97% ee with stoichiometric ligand. Employing only 10 mol % ligand afforded selectivity of up to 92% ee.