cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Monte Carlo simulation of stoquastic hamiltonians

Stoquastic Hamiltonians are characterized by the property that their off-diagonal matrix elements in the standard product basis are real and non-positive. Many interesting quantum models fall into this class including the Transverse field Ising Model (TIM), the Heisenberg model on bipartite graphs, and the bosonic Hubbard model. Here we consider the problem of estimating the ground state energy of a local stoquastic Hamiltonian H with a promise that the ground state of H has a non-negligible correlation with some 'guiding' state that admits a concise classical description. A formalized version of this problem called Guided Stoquastic Hamiltonian is shown to be complete for the complexity class MA (a probabilistic analogue of NP). To prove this result we employ the Projection Monte Carlo algorithm with a variable number of walkers. Secondly, we show that the ground state and thermal equilibrium properties of the ferromagnetic TIM can be simulated in polynomial time on a classical probabilistic computer. This result is based on the approximation algorithm for the classical ferromagnetic Ising model due to Jerrum and Sinclair (1993).
Brudzinski's Sign

Described by Jozef Brundzinski in the early twentieth century, Brundzinski’s sign or signs are used as indications of meningitis in children. The most famous sign is the nape-of-the-neck sign in which flexion of the neck produces hip and knee flexion. This is a protective reflex to protect inflamed or irritated nerves and tissues.
Taylor rule deviations and out-of-sample exchange rate predictability

Abstract The Taylor rule has become the dominant model for academic evaluation of out-of-sample exchange rate predictability. Two versions of the Taylor rule model are the Taylor rule fundamentals model, where the variables that enter the Taylor rule are used to forecast exchange rate changes, and the Taylor rule differentials model, where a Taylor rule with postulated coefficients is used in the forecasting regression. We use data from 1973 to 2014 to evaluate short-run out-of-sample predictability for eight exchange rates vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar, and find strong evidence in favor of the Taylor rule fundamentals model alternative against the random walk null. The evidence of predictability is weaker with the Taylor rule differentials model, and still weaker with the traditional interest rate differential, purchasing power parity, and monetary models. The evidence of predictability for the fundamentals model is not related to deviations from the original Taylor rule for the U.S., but is related to deviations from a modified Taylor rule for the U.S. with a higher coefficient on the output gap. The evidence of predictability is also unrelated to deviations from Taylor rules for the foreign countries and adherence to the Taylor principle for the U.S.
Synthesis of substituted pyridinones from the combination of Fe2(μ-CH2)(CO)8 with phosphinimines and alkynes

The pyridinone ring is an integral unit of many important molecules. 2-Pyridinones in particular have therapeutic value and are versatile synthetic intermediates for many alkaloids. A continuing need exists for improved synthetic routes to pyridinones that tolerate a wide variety of substituents with a high degree of regiospecificity in ring substitution. Previous organometallic routes to 2-pyridinones have generally involved regiospecific coupling of two alkynes with an isocyanate, yielding tri- or pentasubstituted products. Reported herein is a complementary but mechanistically different metal-assisted route to mono-, di-, and trisubstituted 2-pyridinones involving reaction of Fe{sub 2}({mu}-CH{sub 2})(CO){sub 8} with phosphinimines and alkynes.
Caffeine Consumption and Heart Rate and Blood Pressure Response to Regadenoson.

Background Current guidelines recommend that caffeinated products should be avoided for at least 12 hours prior to regadenoson administration. We intended to examine the effect of caffeine consumption and of timing of last dose on hemodynamic effects after regadenoson administration for cardiac stress testing.
Who Benefits from State Corporate Tax Cuts? A Local Labor Markets Approach with Heterogeneous Firms

This paper estimates the incidence of state corporate taxes on the welfare of workers, landowners, and firm owners using variation in state corporate tax rates and apportionment rules. We develop a spatial equilibrium model with imperfectly mobile firms and workers. Firm owners may earn profits and be inframarginal in their location choices due to differences in location-specific productivities. We use the reduced-form effects of tax changes to identify and estimate incidence as well as the structural parameters governing these impacts. In contrast to standard open economy models, firm owners bear roughly 40 percent of the incidence, while workers and landowners bear 30-35 percent and 25-30 percent, respectively.
Hybrid issuance regimes for corporate bonds in emerging market countries : analysis, impact and policy choices

Securities regulators in many developing countries are looking for ways to help grow their nongovernment bond markets to finance development. A common challenge is onerous regulations for issuance of bonds, which tend to discourage companies from coming to market. This paper explains and analyzes an issuance framework—a hybrid offer regime (HBOR)—that is particularly suitable for bonds and could help encourage greater issuance and market growth. The HBOR reduces issuance requirements and approval times for bond issuers but maintains certain protections to ensure investor comfort. While certain aspects of this type of issuance have been covered in literature on private placements, the review of hybrid offer regimes, as discussed in this paper, is new and has been evaluated by the WBG. Drawing on the experience of eight countries, the paper identifies key features of HBORs and highlights important issues for policymakers to consider in their implementation. The findings conclude that the most salient features of HBORs are: i) investment limited to qualified investors, usually institutional and/or high net worth; ii) reduced initial and ongoing disclosures, including exemption from a full prospectus; iii) limited role of the regulator, if any, in the approval process; iv) unrestricted access to secondary market trading for eligible investors; and v) continued provision of antifraud protections against false/misleading statements in disclosures. The paper also looks at issuance trends in three countries and finds that the HBOR may have had a positive impact on encouraging new, less established issuers to come to the bond market.
Viewing scenes occluded by smoke

In this paper, we focus on the problem of reconstructing images of scenes occluded by thick smoke. We propose a simple and effective algorithm that creates a single clear image of the scene given only a video sequence as input. Our method is based on two key observations. First, an increase in smoke density induces a decrease in both image contrast and color saturation. Measuring the decay of the high-frequency content in each video frame provides an effective way of quantifying the amount of contrast reduction. Secondly, the dynamic nature of the smoke causes the scene to be partially visible at times. By dividing the video sequence into subregions, our method is able to select the subregion-frame containing the least amount of smoke occlusion over time. Current experiments on different data sets show very promising results.
Efficient Broadcasting by Selective Forwarding

A major challenge faced in MANETs is locating devices for communication, especially in the case of high node mobility and sparse node density. We propose to develop a strategy to reduce the redundant transmission of packets in normal flooding used in broadcasting and we describe strategies for choosing only a minimal set of nodes to re-broadcast in grid networks. Our strategies reduce the redundant transmission of packets, thus packets are forwarded with a minimal number of transmissions. To determine theminimal set of nodeswe propose a new algorithm called Efficient Broadcasting by Selective Forwarding (EBSF) that uses a distancebased approach in selecting the nodes among all the nodes in a grid network.
Contracting with Externalities

The paper studies inefficiencies arising in contracting between one principal and N agents when the utility of each agent depends on all agents' trades with the principal. When the principal commits to a set of publicly observable bilateral contract offers, the arising inefficiency is due entirely to the externalities imposed on non-signers. In contrast, when the principal's offers are privately observed, the distortion is due to the externalities given agents' equilibrium trades. Comparison of the two externalities determines the relative efficiency of the two contracting regimes. In both cases, we show that when N is large, each agent can be treated as non-pivotal, provided that appropriate continuity assumptions are satisfied. We also study the case in which the principal can condition each agent's trade on other agents' messages. We characterize the set of such mechanisms in which each agent's participation is voluntary. When the principal can commit to any such mechanism, she implements the first-best outcome, while threatening each deviator with the harshest possible punishment. However, in the presence of noise that goes to zero slower than N goes to infinity, in the limit we obtain a (generally inefficient) outcome in which each agent feels non-pivotal.
Is the Unemployment Insurance System a Safety Net for Welfare Recipients Who Exit Welfare for Work

Uses recent data from NJ to examine the extent to which recipients who left welfare for work during the strong economy are eligible for unemployment insurance. Finds that between 50 and 60 percent are monetarily eligible in an average quarter. However, notes that TANF leavers are more likely than other workers to quit their jobs, making them ineligible.
Heart cavity detection in ultrasound images with SOM

Ultrasound images are characterized by high level of speckle noise causing undefined contours and difficulties during the segmentation process. This paper presents a novel method to detect heart cavities in ultrasound images. The method is based on a Self Organizing Map and the use of the variance of images. Successful application of our approach to detect heart cavities on real images is presented.
Observations of Type Ia Supernovae and Challenges for Cosmology

Observations of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) reveal correlations between their luminosities and light-curve shapes, and between their spectral sequence and photometric sequence. Assuming SNe Ia do not evolve at different redshifts, the Hubble diagram of SNe Ia may indicate an accelerating Universe, the signature of a cosmological constant or other forms of dark energy. Several studies raise concerns about the evolution of SNe Ia (e.g., the peculiarity rate, the rise time, and the color of SNe Ia at different redshifts), but all these studies suffer from the difficulties of obtaining high-quality spectroscopy and photometry for SNe Ia at high redshifts. There are also some troubling cases of SNe Ia that provide counterexamples to the observed correlations, suggesting that a secondary parameter is necessary to describe the whole SN Ia family. Understanding SNe Ia both observationally and theoretically will be the key to boosting confidence in the SN Ia cosmological results.
Ocular Complications After Anti-vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Therapy In Medicare Patients With Age-related Macular Degeneration

Purpose To determine longitudinal rates of ocular complications after anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in a nationally representative longitudinal sample. Design Retrospective, longitudinal case-control study. Methods Using the Medicare 5% claims database, diagnoses of neovascular AMD and anti-VEGF injections of ranibizumab, bevacizumab, or pegaptanib were identified from International Classification of Diseases and Current Procedural Terminology procedure codes. Six thousand one hundred fifty-four individuals undergoing anti-VEGF treatment for neovascular AMD (total of 40 903 injections) were compared with 6154 matched controls with neovascular AMD who did not undergo anti-VEGF treatment. Propensity score matching was used to match individuals receiving anti-VEGF injections with controls. Rates of postinjection adverse outcomes (endophthalmitis, rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, retinal tear, uveitis, and vitreous hemorrhage) were analyzed by cumulative incidence and Cox proportional hazards model to control for demographic factors and ocular comorbidities. Results At the 2-year follow-up, the rates of endophthalmitis per injection (0.09%; P P P P Conclusions Rates of endophthalmitis, uveitis, and vitreous hemorrhage were higher in the group treated with anti-VEGF injection than in the control group, although these nevertheless were rare in both groups. The overall risk of severe ocular complications was significantly higher in the anti-VEGF treatment group.
Cross-Reactivity in HIV-infected Patients Switched from Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole to Dapsone

Study Objective. To evaluate the cross-reactivity of dapsone after a documented hypersensitivity reaction to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) during prophylaxis for Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Design. Retrospective, chart review, cohort study. Setting. Two university-affiliated teaching hospitals. Patients. Sixty patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. Measurements and Main Results. Thirteen patients (21.7%) had cross-reactivity to dapsone after the reaction to TMP-SMX. No significant risk factors for this response were identified. Most reactions were of mild or moderate severity and rated as possibly or probably caused by one of the agents. Of the 13 patients, 4 (30.8%) continued therapy. Conclusions. Although cross-reactivity can occur, dapsone may be considered in patients with mild hypersensitivity reactions to TMP-SMX.
Uncertain Price Competition in a Duopoly With Heterogeneous Availability

We study the price competition in a duopoly with an arbitrary number of buyers. Each seller can offer multiple units of a commodity depending on the availability of the commodity which is random and may be different for different sellers. Sellers seek to select a price that will be attractive to the buyers and also fetch adequate profits. The selection will in general depend on the number of units available with the seller and also that of its competitor - the seller may only know the statistics of the latter. The setting captures a secondary spectrum access network, a non-neutral Internet, or a microgrid network in which unused spectrum bands, resources of ISPs, and excess power units constitute the respective commodities of sale. We analyze this price competition as a game, and identify a set of necessary and sufficient properties for the Nash Equilibrium (NE). The properties reveal that sellers randomize their price using probability distributions whose support sets are mutually disjoint and in decreasing order of the number of availability. We prove the uniqueness of a symmetric NE in a symmetric market, and explicitly compute the price distribution in the symmetric NE.
Neutralino Proton Cross Sections for Dark Matter in SUGRA and D-BRANE Models

Neutralino proton cross sections are examined for models with R-parity invariance with universal soft breaking (mSUGRA) models, nonuniversal SUGRA models, and D-brane models. The region of parameter space where current dark matter detectors are sensitive, i. e. 1 × 10−6 pb. is examined. For in SUGRA models, detectors are sampling parts of the parametr space for tanβ ≳ 25. The nonuniversal models can achieve cross sections that are a factor of 10–100 bigger or smaller then the universal one and in the former case sample regions tanβ ≳ 4. The D-brane models considered require tanβ ≳ 15. The inclusion of CP violating phases reduces the cross section by a factor of ∼ 2–3 (but also requires considerable fine tuning at the GUT scale). The expected particle spectra at accelerators are examined and seen to differ for each model. Three new regions of possible coannihilation are noted.
Effect of Irradiation on the Quality of Turkey Ham During Storage

Effect of electron-beam irradiation on the quality of ready-to-eat (RTE) turkey ham was studied.Turkey hams were purchased from local stores and sliced into 0.5 cmthick pieces and vacuum packaged.The ham samples were randomly separated into three groups and irradiated at 0, 1, or 2 kGy, and stored at 4°C for up to 14 d.Volatiles, color, TBARS values and sensory characteristics were determined. Irradiation had little effects on color and TBARS values of RTE turkey hams. Sensory analysis indicated that sulfury odor increased as irradiation dose increased, and the contents of sulfur compounds in irradiated RTE turkey hams were higher than those in nonirradiated samples.Irradiation increased (P < 0.05) the production of acetaldehyde, which could be related to a metal-like flavor in irradiated hams. However, overall quality changes in RTE turkey hams by irradiation up to 2 kGy were minor.
Modulation of Pulmonary Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotype in Hypoxia: Role of cGMP-Dependent Protein Kinase

Chronic hypoxia triggers pulmonary vascular remodeling, which is associated with a modulation of the vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC) phenotype from a contractile, differentiated to a synthetic, d...
An importance sampling algorithm based on evidence pre-propagation

Precision achieved by stochastic sampling algorithms for Bayesian networks typically deteriorates in face of extremely unlikely evidence. To address this problem, we propose the Evidence Pre-propagation Importance Sampling algorithm (EPIS-BN), an importance sampling algorithm that computes an approximate importance function using two techniques: loopy belief propagation [19, 25] and e-cutoff heuristic [2]. We tested the performance of EPIS-BN on three large real Bayesian networks: ANDES [3], CPCS [21], and PATHFINDER[11]. We observed that on each of these networks the EPIS-BN algorithm outperforms AISBN [2], the current state of the art algorithm, while avoiding its costly learning stage.
Moduli Spaces of Singular Yamabe Metrics

Complete, conformally flat metrics of constant positive scalar cur- vature on the complement of k points in the n-sphere, k ≥ 2, n ≥ 3, were constructed by R. Schoen in 1988. We consider the problem of determining the moduli space of all such metrics. All such metrics are asymptotically peri- odic, and we develop the linear analysis necessary to understand the nonlinear problem. This includes a Fredholm theory and asymptotic regularity theory for the Laplacian on asymptotically periodic manifolds, which is of indepen- dent interest. The main result is that the moduli space is a locally real analytic variety of dimension k. For a generic set of nearby conformal classes the mod- uli space is shown to be a k-dimensional real analytic manifold. The structure as a real analytic variety is obtained by writing the space as an intersection of a Fredholm pair of infinite dimensional real analytic manifolds. Department of Mathematics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 E-mail address: mazzeo@math.stanford.edu Department of Mathematics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 E-mail address: pollack@math.uchicago.edu Department of Mathematics, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712 E-mail address: uhlen@math.utexas.edu License or copyright restrictions may apply to redistribution; see http://www.ams.org/journal-terms-of-use
Unconventional monetary policy normalization in high-income countries : implications for emerging market capital flows and crisis risks

As the recovery in high-income countries firms amid a gradual withdrawal of extraordinary monetary stimulus, developing countries can expect stronger demand for their exports as global trade regains momentum, but also rising interest rates and potentially weaker capital inflows. This paper assesses the implications of a normalization of policy and activity in high-income countries for financial flows and crisis risks in developing countries. In the most likely scenario, a relatively orderly process of normalization would imply a slowdown in capital inflows amounting to 0.6 percent of developing-country GDP between 2013 and 2016, driven in particular by weaker portfolio investments. However, the risk of more abrupt adjustments remains significant, especially if increased market volatility accompanies the unwinding of unprecedented central bank interventions. According to simulations, abrupt changes in market expectations, resulting in global bond yields increasing by 100 to 200 basis points within a couple of quarters, could lead to a sharp reduction in capital inflows to developing countries by between 50 and 80 percent for several months. Evidence from past banking crises suggests that countries having seen a substantial expansion of domestic credit over the past five years, deteriorating current account balances, high levels of foreign and short-term debt, and over-valued exchange rates could be more at risk in current circumstances. Countries with adequate policy buffers and investor confidence may be able to rely on market mechanisms and countercyclical macroeconomic and prudential policies to deal with a retrenchment of foreign capital. In other cases, where the scope for maneuver is more limited, countries may be forced to tighten fiscal and monetary policy to reduce financing needs and attract additional inflows.
A Post Keynesian view of the Washington consensus and how to improve it

John Williamson coined the term “Washington Consensus” in 1989. This term, however, means different things to different people1 — and apparently even different things to Williamson at different times. Williamson (2002) states that this consensus requires ten reforms: 1. Fiscal Discipline. This was in the context of a region where almost all the countries had run large deficits that led to balance of payments crises and high inflation that hit mainly the poor because the rich could park their money abroad. 2. Reordering Public Expenditure Priorities. ... from things like indiscriminate subsidies to basic health and education. 3. Tax reform. Constructing a tax system that would combine a broad tax base with moderate marginal tax rates. 4. Liberalizing Interest Rates. In retrospect I wish I had formulated this in a broader way as financial liberalization, and stressed that views differed on how fast it should be achieved.2 5. A Competitive Exchange Rate. I fear I indulged in wishful thinking in asserting that there was a consensus in favor of ensuring that the exchange rate would be competitive, which implies an intermediate regime; in fact Washington was already beginning to subscribe to the two-corner doctrine. (Williamson has championed the establishment of FEER [a Fundamental Equilibrium Exchange Rate] target zone for the exchange rate, i.e., a zone based on a fixed competitive rate plus or minus ten percent. He has argued that FEER would simultaneously achieve internal and external balance.3)
Criterion setting and the dynamics of recognition memory.

Models of recognition memory have traditionally struggled with the puzzle of criterion setting, a problem that is particularly acute in cases in which items for study and test are of widely varying types, with differing degrees of baseline familiarity and experience (e.g., words vs. random dot patterns). We present a dynamic model of the recognition process that addresses the criterion setting problem and produces joint predictions for choice and reaction time. In this model, recognition decisions are based not on the absolute value of familiarity, but on how familiarity changes over time as features are sampled from the test item. Decisions are the outcome of a race between two parallel accumulators: one that accumulates positive changes in familiarity (leading to an ‘‘old’’ decision) and another that accumulates negative changes (leading to a ‘‘new’’ decision). Simulations with this model make realistic predictions for recognition performance and latency regardless of the baseline familiarity of study and test items.
Are cells asynchronous circuits

Cells do not seem to have “clocks” in the same sense as synchronous sequential digital circuits. But cells must operate extremely reliably in spite of large amounts of noise and environmental variations which would result in timing variation in a Boolean model of cellular control.
A Domain-Specific Language for Programming in the Tile Assembly Model

We introduce a domain-specific language (DSL) for creating sets of tile types for simulations of the abstract Tile Assembly Model. The language defines objects known as tile templates, which represent related groups of tiles, and a small number of basic operations on tile templates that help to eliminate the error-prone drudgery of enumerating such tile types manually or with low-level constructs of general-purpose programming languages. The language is implemented as a class library in Python (a so-called internal DSL), but is presented independently of Python or object-oriented programming, with emphasis on support for a visual editing tool for creating large sets of complex tile types.
The Rentier State at Work: Comparative Experiences of the Resource Curse in East Asia and the Pacific

Countries rich in natural resources do not all experience the resource curse in the same way. The rentier state logic holds that the main political–economic impacts of resource dependence rest on how the state handles windfall resource rents. I differentiate how countries experience the resource curse by disaggregating the rentier effect into how governments generate and distribute resource rents. A simple typology of variation in rentier state experiences explains how the overall credibility of intertemporal commitment and degree of political inclusiveness in a country determine its distinct experience of the resource curse. Four brief country cases—comparing the micro political economy of natural resource governance in Laos, Papua New Guinea, Mongolia, and Timor-Leste—illustrate how intertemporal credibility and political inclusiveness affect patterns of resource rent generation and rent distribution. Different countries experience the resource curse in different ways, with implications for policy attempts at mitigation.
Environmental Benefits from Reduced Pesticide Use and Returns to Research: An Application to the U.S. Cotton Industry

Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, February 6-9, 2010 Copyright 2010 by Sande, D., Mullen, J. and Matekole, A. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies.
High intensity focused ultrasound-induced bubbles stimulate the release of nucleic acid cancer biomarkers

Prostate biopsy for prostate cancer (PCa) is invasive with associated morbidity and several diagnostic limitations, suggesting the need for a new approach. Recently, several nucleic acid cancer biomarkers (e.g., microRNA and mutant DNA) have been identified and shown promise for improving cancer diagnostics. However, the abundance of these biomarker classes in the circulation is low, impeding reliable detection and adoption into clinical practice. In order to stimulate the release of these intracellular biomarkers, the exposures optimized for mechanical disruption of cells may be desirable. Here, two approaches based on HIFU-induced bubble activity were tested for their ability to stimulate release of cancer-associated microRNAs in a heterotopic syngeneic rat prostate cancer model. In the first approach, tumor tissue was locally liquefied with boiling histotripsy (BH) - a HIFU technique utilizing millisecond-long pulses to create boiling bubbles via rapid shockwave heating. The interaction of shocks with the ensuing vapor cavity fractionates tissue with negligible thermal effect. In the second approach HIFU-induced inertial cavitation was used for permeabilization of tumor tissue and vasculature.
Discount Point Concessions: Comment

This article comments on a recent article by Asabere and Hoffman. It addresses calculation and econometric measurement issues of their work and offers an explanation for their (anomalous) findings.
A Typology for U.S. Farms from National Survey Data

Classification systems for U.S. farms are not new. National data collections and the literature in agricultural economics and rural sociology have included efforts to categorize farms for over a century. Whether a classification system is used as a system for national data collections, such as the Census of Agriculture, or a proposal for a new system that arises from research or changes in the policy agenda, the primary intent has been to describe characteristics of farming establishments. Only a limited amount of attention has been given to the people who operate farms. Households typically have not been included in classifications developed to represent sector-wide structure and economic activities. Changes in classification systems have arisen out of the need to better reflect adjustments that have occurred in how the farm sector is organized and in how businesses operate to produce a wide range of goods and services. The principle of reflecting change in farms, the farm sector and, in especially our case, the role and importance of the household underlies work that the Economic Research Service (ERS) has undertaken to develop a typology of farms from its national survey of farms and farm-operator households. Classification of Farms: A Perspective from the U.S. Census of Agriculture
What goes up must come down -- cyclicality in public wage bill spending

This paper analyzes the cyclicality of public sector wage bill spending in Europe and Central Asia and assesses the impact of wage bill spending on fiscal discipline before, during, and after the global financial crisis of 2008/09. While there are important differences across countries, the results show that public sector wage bill spending tends to behave strongly pro-cyclically, especially in transition economies. Moreover, while wage bill spending is pro-cyclical during both good and bad times, adjustments during economic downturns tend to be sharper than expansions during periods of economic booms. In addition, there is evidence of political cycles, with stronger wage bill growth in pre-election periods. Finally, the analysis reveals that while the size of the wage bill does not seem to systematically affect fiscal discipline across countries, expansions within countries over time are associated with deteriorating fiscal positions. These findings provide a strong impetus for public wage and employment policies that aim to restrain excessive growth of the wage bill during boom periods. This prospective management of the wage bill would not only reduce the need for painful adjustments during periods of fiscal consolidation, but also contribute to strengthening the overall countercyclical and stabilizing impact of fiscal policies.
Infrastructure's contribution to aggregate output

Using panel data for a cross-section of countries, the author estimates an aggregate production function that includes infrastructure capital. He finds that: 1) The productivity of physical and human capital is close to the levels suggested by microeconomic evidence on their private returns. 2) Electricity generating capacity and transportation networks have roughly the same marginal productivity as capital as a whole. 3) Telephone networks appear to show higher marginal productivity than other types of capital. Panel data co-integration methods used in estimation take account of the non-stationary nature of the data, are robust to reverse causation, and allow for different levels of productivity and different short-run business-cycle and multiplier relationships across countries.
Development of beam lead RF integrated circuits

This paper describes the design and development of a set of multifunction VHF/UHF integrated circuits aimed at providing a major improvement in spacecraft radio reliability through low stress operation and the processing of these circuits in beam-lead form. The methods evolved for the high frequency characterization of the devices are discussed together with the design of suitable test fixtures. Typical test results and the distribution of test parameters are presented. A unique carrier for beam-lead devices is described, and the need for such a device is discussed. The application of the carrier to device screening, burn-in and drift measurements is discussed together with the incentives for providing these capabilities. An overview of the integration of the devices into the spacecraft radio is given and candidate assembly processes are discussed. The technology impact of this approach upon future spacecraft radio systems is qualitatively examined.
A “Paradoxical” Solution to The Signature Problem

We present a general signature scheme which uses any pair of trap-door permutations (f0, f1) for which it is infeasible to find any x, y with f0(x) = f1(y). The scheme possesses the novel property of being robust against an adaptive chosen message attack: no adversary who first asks for and then receives sgnatures for messages of his choice (which may depend on previous signatures seen) can later forge the signature of even a singl additional message.
How Economic Growth and Rational Decisions Can Make Disaster Losses Grow Faster Than Wealth

Assuming that capital productivity is higher in areas at risk from natural hazards (such as coastal zones or flood plains), this paper shows that rapid development in these areas -- and the resulting increase in disaster losses -- may be the consequence of a rational and well-informed trade-off between lower disaster losses and higher productivity. With disasters possibly becoming less frequent but increasingly destructive in the future, average disaster losses may grow faster than wealth. Myopic expectations, lack of information, moral hazard, and externalities reinforce the likelihood of this scenario. These results have consequences on how to design risk management and climate change policies.
Latvia's macroeconomic options in the medium term : Fiscal and monetary challenges of European Union membership

Latvia's experience over the past decade shows that economic growth and real convergence can no longer be assumed to be exogenously driven processes determined by given technological improvements and relatively higher factor returns. Instead, it is an endogenously driven process led by many variables, including policy variables. European Union membership clearly brings enormous economic benefits to Latvia. However, it also brings important challenges on the macroeconomic front, especially prior to the adoption of the euro. Substantial progress has been made toward fiscal consolidation since the mid-1990s but several risks remain. Given the facts that domestic demand remains buoyant and that Latvia will have to accommodate the expenditure commitments associated with NATO and EU membership while simultaneously aiming to fulfill the medium-term goal of a balanced budget, a more prudent fiscal policy should be the main short-term policy objective. The authorities should therefore reassess their current medium-term budget framework and strengthen their fiscal rules so that off-budget spending is eliminated and controls over spending ministries and local government finances are reinforced. They should also rethink any further tax reductions until a clear strategy is designed for compensating for projected losses in government revenues. Monetary policy can contribute to sustainable growth and job creation in Latvia in the medium and long term by providing an environment for price stability. It will have to be complemented by further microeconomic reforms and prudent wage developments aligned with productivity growth.
Contract Designs and Participation in the Conservation Reserve Program in the Era of Biofuel Production

This article has presented a farmer decision making model of participation in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) under the current rising bio-fuel production. The decision is specified as an optimal stopping problem and farming return is assumed following stochastic process with the uncertainty of growth rate. Nonliear Kalman filter approach is used to continuously upgrade the new information and estimate the random growth rate with the minimum error. The problem is formulated as a linear complementarity problem that is solved numerically using a fully implicit finite difference method. It is found that participation in the CRP is sensitive to financial incentive, and shortening contract length is also an effective method to promote land enrollment in the CRP. These results have implications for the design and implementation of conservation programs.
Optimal Capital Taxation Under Limited Commitment

We study optimal capital taxation under limited commitment. We prove that the optimal tax rate on capital income should be positive in steady state provided that full risk-sharing is not feasible. In a limited commitment environment, a one unit increase of capital investment by an agent increases all individuals’ autarky values in the economy and generates externality costs in the economy. This externality cost provides a rationale for positive capital taxation even in the absence of government expenditure. Moreover, we show that both this externality cost of capital investment and the optimal tax rate are potentially much bigger than one might expect.
Potential heat exchange fluids for use in sulfuric acid vaporizers

A series of perhalocarbons are proposed as candidate heat exchange fluids for service in thermochemical cycles for hydrogen production that involve direct contact of the fluid with sulfuric acid and vaporization of the acid. The required chemical and physical criteria of the liquids are described and the results of some preliminary high temperature test data are presented.
The Importance of Helium and Metals Diffusion in Stars

Comparisons between models of the solar interior and sound speed profiles derived from inversions of helioseismic data have demonstrated that it is essential to include the effects of gravitational settling when calculating the structure and evolution of the Sun. Including settling should also be necessary for models of metal poor main-sequence stars and results in a substantial reduction in the ages derived for globular clusters.
Aspects of Heterotic/M-Theory Duality in D=3

We study the duality between M-theory compactified on Calabi-Yau fourfolds and the heterotic string compactified on Calabi-Yau threefolds times a circle. Our analysis is based on a comparison of the low energy effective actions in three dimensions.
A bicriteria approximation for the reordering buffer problem

In the reordering buffer problem (RBP), a server is asked to process a sequence of requests lying in a metric space. To process a request the server must move to the corresponding point in the metric. The requests can be processed slightly out of order; in particular, the server has a buffer of capacity k which can store up to k requests as it reads in the sequence. The goal is to reorder the requests in such a manner that the buffer constraint is satisfied and the total travel cost of the server is minimized. The RBP arises in many applications that require scheduling with a limited buffer capacity, such as scheduling a disk arm in storage systems, switching colors in paint shops of a car manufacturing plant, and rendering 3D images in computer graphics. We study the offline version of RBP and develop bicriteria approximations. When the underlying metric is a tree, we obtain a solution of cost no more than 9 OPT using a buffer of capacity 4k+1 where OPT is the cost of an optimal solution with buffer capacity k. Via randomized tree embeddings, this implies an O(logn) approximation to cost and O(1) approximation to buffer size for general metrics. In contrast, when the buffer constraint is strictly enforced, constant-factor approximations are known only for the uniform metric (Avigdor-Elgrabli et al., 2012); the best known approximation ratio for arbitrary metrics is O(log2k logn) (Englert et al., 2007).
Management of uncertainty in the multi-level monitoring and diagnosis of the time of flight scintillation array

We present a general architecture for the monitoring and diagnosis of large scale sensor-based systems with real time diagnostic constraints. This architecture is multileveled, combining a single monitoring level based on statistical methods with two model based diagnostic levels. At each level, sources of uncertainty are identified, and integrated methodologies for uncertainty management are developed. The general architecture was applied to the monitoring and diagnosis of a specific nuclear physics detector at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that contained approximately 5000 components and produced over 500 channels of output data. The general architecture is scalable, and work is ongoing to apply it to detector systems one and two orders of magnitude more complex.
Approximation algorithm for sparsest k-partitioning

Given a graph G, the sparsest-cut problem asks to find the set of vertices S which has the least expansion defined as[EQUATION]where w is the total edge weight of a subset. Here we study the natural generalization of this problem: given an integer k, compute a k-partition {P1, ..., Pk} of the vertex set so as to minimize[EQUATION]Our main result is a polynomial time bi-criteria approximation algorithm which outputs a (1 -- e)k-partition of the vertex set such that each piece has expansion at most [EQUATION] times OPT. We also study balanced versions of this problem.
Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning

Probability Distributions.- Linear Models for Regression.- Linear Models for Classification.- Neural Networks.- Kernel Methods.- Sparse Kernel Machines.- Graphical Models.- Mixture Models and EM.- Approximate Inference.- Sampling Methods.- Continuous Latent Variables.- Sequential Data.- Combining Models.
Cross Language Text Classification via Subspace Co-Regularized Multi-View Learning

In many multilingual text classification problems, the documents in different languages often share the same set of categories. To reduce the labeling cost of training a classification model for each individual language, it is important to transfer the label knowledge gained from one language to another language by conducting cross language classification. In this paper we develop a novel subspace co-regularized multi-view learning method for cross language text classification. This method is built on parallel corpora produced by machine translation. It jointly minimizes the training error of each classifier in each language while penalizing the distance between the subspace representations of parallel documents. Our empirical study on a large set of cross language text classification tasks shows the proposed method consistently outperforms a number of inductive methods, domain adaptation methods, and multi-view learning methods.
The Role of Financial Development for Economic Growth in Caribbean Islands

Aghion, Howitt and Mayer Foulkes postulate that one mechanism by which financial development enhances economic growth is by increasing a nation’s ability to obtain frontier technology, which then increases the rate at which productive activity expands. This study empirically tests this hypothesis for a sample of 12 small island open economies of the Caribbean between 1980 and 2004. Possible simultaneity in the relationship between financial development and economic growth is accounted for by introducing a new proxy for financial development, for which its determination is uncorrelated with economic growth. The results of the empirical analysis shows that financial development enhances economic growth in the Caribbean by increasing country’s steady state level of income per capita, and not by the mechanism put forward by Aghion, Howitt, and Mayer Foulkes (2006).
The Asymptotic Dirichlet Problems on manifolds with unbounded negative curvature

Elton P. Hsu used probabilistic method to show that the asymptotic Dirichlet problem is uniquely solvable under the curvature condition −Ce(2−η)r(x) ≤ KM(x) ≤ −1 with η > 0. We give an analytical proof of the same statement. In addition, using this new approach we are able to establish two boundary Harnack inequalities under the curvature condition −Ce(2/3−η)r(x) ≤ KM(x) ≤ −1 with η > 0. This implies that there is a natural homeomorphism between the Martin boundary and the geometric boundary of M. As far as we know, this is the first result of this kind under unbounded curvature conditions. Our proof is a modification of an argument due to M. T. Anderson and R. Schoen.
An assessment of reform options for the public service pension fund in Uganda

This paper analyzes the future liabilities that the Ugandan Public Service Pensions Fund might accumulate under the provisions of the Pensions Act (CAP 286) unless it is reformed. It then discusses alternative reform options that can be used in designing an educated homegrown reform of the fund. The paper supports a hybrid (two-pillar) reform option composed of a small defined benefit scheme and a complementary defined contribution scheme, instead of a pure defined contribution (monopillar) reform option discussed by policymakers in the country. The main reason for this is related to the fact that hybrid and pure defined contribution reforms will have the same impact on reducing pension expenditure (for the same grandfathering rules and surplus in the first pillar). In addition, everything else being equal, the hybrid reform is likely to produce higher average replacement rates due to the redistributive and pooling properties of the small defined benefit pillar.
Unnatural Acts: Unphysical Consequences of Imposing Boundary Conditions on Quantum Fields

I examine the effect of trying to impose a Dirichlet boundary condition on a scalar field by coupling it to a static background. The zero point — or Casimir — energy of the field diverges in the limit that the background forces the field to vanish. This divergence cannot be absorbed into a renormalization of the parameters of the theory. As a result, the Casimir energy of a surface on which a Dirichlet boundary condition is imposed, and other quantities like the surface tension, which are obtained by deforming the surface, depend on the physical cutoffs that characterize the coupling between the field and the matter on the surface. In contrast, the energy density away from the surface and forces between rigid surfaces are finite and independent of these complications.
Substituted Spiro[isoxazolidine-3,2′-tricyclo[3.3.1.13,7]decane] Derivatives

The preparation and potential anti-inflammatory activity of a series of novel substituted spiro[isoxazolidine-3,2′-tricyclo[3.3.1.13,7]decanes] (7, 11–30) are reported. The synthesis of the title compounds was accomplished via a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrones with appropriate olefins.