cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The P2P war: Someone is monitoring your activities

In an effort to legally prosecute P2P users, the RIAA and MPAA have reportedly started to create decoy users: they participate in P2P networks in order to identify illegal sharing of content. This has reportedly scared some users who are afraid of being caught and prosecuted. The question we would like to answer is how prevalent is this phenomenon: how likely is it that a user will run into such a ''fake user'' and thus run the risk of a lawsuit? The first challenge is identifying these ''fake users''. We collect this information from a number of free open-source software projects which are trying to identify such addresses by forming the, so-called, blocklists. The second challenge is to quantify the probability of a user contacting such a fake user by conducting a large scale experiment in order to obtain reliable statistics. Using PlanetLab, we conduct active measurements, spanning a period of 90 days, from January to March 2006, spread over three continents. Analyzing over 100GB of TCP header data, we quantify the probability of a P2P user contacting fake users. We observe that 100% of our peers run into entities in these lists. In fact, 12-17% of all distinct IPs contacted by any node were listed on blocklists. Interestingly, a little caution can have significant effect: the top five most prevalent blocklisted IP ranges contribute to nearly 94% of all blocklisted IPs we ran into. Avoiding these can reduce the probability of a user being tracked to about 1%. In addition, we examine the identity of these blocklisted IPs. The majority of blocklisted IPs belong to the commercial and government domains and are nearly 2.5 times more than IPs belonging to educational, spyware or adware entities. Interestingly, less than 0.5% of all unique IPs contacted, belong explicitly to media companies. However, this may not be reassuring for P2P users, since the other blocklist users (government or commercial) could be collaborating with media companies.
Random Access Compressed Sensing over Fading and Noisy Communication Channels

Random Access Compressed Sensing (RACS) is an efficient method for data gathering from a network of distributed sensors with limited resources. RACS relies on integrating random sensing with the communication architecture, and achieves overall efficiency in terms of the energy per bit of information successfully delivered. To address realistic deployment conditions, we consider data gathering over a fading and noisy communication channel. We provide a framework for system design under various fading conditions, and quantify the bandwidth and energy requirements of RACS in fading. We show that for most practical values of the signal to noise ratio, energy utilization is higher in a fading channel than it is in a non-fading channel, while the minimum required bandwidth is lower. Finally, we demonstrate the savings in the overall energy and the bandwidth requirements of RACS compared to a conventional TDMA scheme. We show that considerable gains in energy -on the order of 10 dB- are achievable, as well as a reduction in the required bandwidth, e.g., 2.5-fold decrease in the bandwidth for a network of 4000 nodes.
LARGE PAIRING JAHN-TELLER DISTORTIONS AROUND DIVACANCIES IN CRYSTALLINE SILICON

Ab initio atomic and electronic structures of neutral $({V}_{2}^{0})$ and charged $({V}_{2}^{\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}+}{,V}_{2}^{\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}\ensuremath{-}}{,V}_{2}^{\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}2\ensuremath{-}})$ Si divacancies are investigated using bulk-terminated clusters with up to $\ensuremath{\approx}320$ Si atoms. For the first time, the relaxed structures for ${V}_{2}^{\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}+}$, ${V}_{2}^{0}$, and ${V}_{2}^{\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}\ensuremath{-}}$ are found to exhibit large pairing Jahn-Teller distortions consistent with electron paramagnetic resonance experiments. Atomic relaxations, Jahn-Teller and relaxation energies, and hyperfine parameters are calculated for various charge states and compared with available experimental data. The cluster size and the anisotropic nature of the relaxations play key roles in establishing the stability of the structures with large pairing distortions.
Formation of Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries. III. A New Formation Mechanism: Direct Supernova

We propose a new formation mechanism (direct-supernova) for low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) that does not involve any prior phase of mass transfer. Survival through the supernova (SN) explosion and shrinkage of the orbit is achieved by a kick velocity of appropriate magnitude and direction imparted to the neutron star at its birth. We present analytical population synthesis calculations of LMXBs forming via both the direct-SN and the helium star SN mechanisms and compare the results. We find that the direct-SN channel contributes a nonnegligible fraction of the total LMXB population, depending strongly on the rms magnitude of the kick velocity. More importantly, the direct-SN mechanism provides a natural way for the formation of low-mass binary pulsars in nearly circular orbits with orbital periods in excess of ~100d, which cannot have been formed via the helium star SN mechanism.
Optical Spectroscopy of Galactic Cirrus Clouds: Extended Red Emission in the Diffuse Interstellar Medium

We present initial results from the first optical spectroscopic survey of high-latitude Galactic cirrus clouds. The observed shape of the cirrus spectrum does not agree with that of scattered ambient Galactic starlight. This mismatch can be explained by the presence of extended red emission (ERE) in the diffuse interstellar medium, as found in many other astronomical objects, probably caused by photoluminescence of hydrocarbons. The integrated ERE intensity, IERE ≈ 1.2×10−5 ergs s−1 cm−2 sr−1, is roughly one-third of the scattered light intensity, consistent with recent color measurements of diffuse Galactic light. The peak of the cirrus ERE (λ0 ~ 6000 A) is shifted toward short (bluer) wavelengths compared with the ERE in sources excited by intense ultraviolet radiation, such as H II regions (λ0~8000 A); such a trend is seen in laboratory experiments on hydrogenated amorphous carbon films.
Direct observation of time-temperature-transformation curves for crystallization of ice from solutions by a homogeneous mechanism

Abstract : Emulsified samples of aqueous solutions of lithium chloride have been rapidly cooled to temperatures in the vicinity of the homogeneous nucleation temperature Tg and observed isothermally in a differential calorimeter to identify the time delay before the maximum crystallization rate (detected by the release of the heat of crystallization) is achieved. The locus of the time tp to reach the maximum rate at different temperatures has the classic form of the time-temperature-transformation TTT curve described in theories of homogeneous nucleation and growth. The displacement of this TTT curve to longer times and lower temperatures can be observed by increasing solution concentration. The results correlate well with much longer time observations made recently using electrical conductivity studies of thin bulk samples near their glass transition temperatures.
Mechanics, Structure and Evolution of Fault Zones

The brittle portion of the Earth’s lithosphere contains a distribution of joints, faults and cataclastic zones that exist on a wide range of scale-lengths and usually have complex geometries including bends, jogs, and intersections. The material around these complexities is subjected to large stress concentrations, which lead during continuing deformation to the generation of new fracture and granular damage with an associated evolution of the elasticity, permeability and geometry of the actively deforming regions. The evolving material and geometrical properties within and around the fault zone can lead, in turn, to evolution of various aspects of earthquake and fault mechanics.
Building volumetric appearance models of fabric using micro CT imaging

Cloth is essential to our everyday lives; consequently, visualizing and rendering cloth has been an important area of research in graphics for decades. One important aspect contributing to the rich appearance of cloth is its complex 3D structure. Volumetric algorithms that model this 3D structure can correctly simulate the interaction of light with cloth to produce highly realistic images of cloth. But creating volumetric models of cloth is difficult: writing specialized procedures for each type of material is onerous, and requires significant programmer effort and intuition. Further, the resulting models look unrealistically "perfect" because they lack visually important features like naturally occurring irregularities.This paper proposes a new approach to acquiring volume models, based on density data from X-ray computed tomography (CT) scans and appearance data from photographs under uncontrolled illumination. To model a material, a CT scan is made, yielding a scalar density volume. This 3D data has micron resolution details about the structure of cloth but lacks all optical information. So we combine this density data with a reference photograph of the cloth sample to infer its optical properties. We show that this approach can easily produce volume appearance models with extreme detail, and at larger scales the distinctive textures and highlights of a range of very different fabrics such as satin and velvet emerge automatically---all based simply on having accurate mesoscale geometry.
New vector transform for image coding

Vector quantization (VQ) always outperforms scalar quantization. Recently, vector transform coding (VTC) has been introduced to better take advantage of signal processing for vector quantization and shown to achieve better performance in image coding. How much performance advantage in terms of rate-distortion can a vector transform coding scheme gain over the other coding schemes? What is the optimal vector transform (VT) with complexity constraint on VQ? These are the questions we try to answer in this paper. Based on the results from high-resolution or asymptotic (in rate) quantization theory, we obtain a general rate- distortion formula for signal processing combined with vector quantization for first-order Gaussian-Markov source. We prove that VTC indeed has better performance than other existing coding schemes with the same or less complexity based on the rate-distortion measurement. A new mirror-sampling based vector transform which only involves additions and subtractions is proposed. For high rate case, we show that the new VTC scheme achieves the optimal performance under the complexity constraint. A 2D version of the new vector transform is applied to image coding, and the results show that the new vector transform consistently outperforms the subsampling-based vector transform.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Ultralow-power four-wave mixing with Rb in a hollow-core photonic band-gap fiber.

We demonstrate extremely efficient four-wave mixing with gains greater than 100 at microwatt pump powers and signal-to-idler conversion of 50% in Rb vapor confined to a hollow-core photonic band-gap fiber. We present a theoretical model that demonstrates such efficiency is consistent with the dimensions of the fiber and the optical depths attained. This is, to our knowledge, the largest four-wave mixing gain observed at such low total pump powers and the first demonstrated example of four-wave mixing in an alkali-metal vapor system with a large ($\ensuremath{\sim}30\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MHz}$) ground state decoherence rate.
Effects of Nonlinearities on Subsonic Aerodynamic Center

A refined mathematical definition for the aerodynamic center of a wing or complete airplane is presented, which allows for inclusion of the trigonometric and aerodynamic nonlinearities. From this definition, analytical relations are developed for both the axial and vertical positions of the aerodynamic center at any angle of attack, independent of whether or not the nonlinearities are included. Results show that, when all nonlinearities are included, the position of the aerodynamic center can change with angle of attack. Because the traditional approximation provides only a fixed axial coordinate, this analysis provides two additional pieces of information about the aerodynamic center, that is, its vertical coordinate and its movement. Two examples are presented, which separate these two effects. The first example uses computational fluid dynamics to show that, when the effects of the nonlinearities are combined with wing sweep at high angles of attack below stall, the aerodynamic center of a planar wing moves significantly aft and below the wing. The second example, which uses an approximate closed-form solution for two lifting surfaces, emphasizes the importance of knowing the vertical position of the aerodynamic center and shows that, in the absence of sweep, its movement with angle of attack is slight.
A general dynamic synthesis for structures with discrete substructures

Abstract This paper presents a substructure synthesis method for the dynamic simulation of complex structures, where the structures consist of an assemblage of discrete substructures. An analogy between distributed and discrete structures is extensively invoked. To stimulate the motion of discrete substructures, the concept of “admissible vectors” is introduced, where admissible vectors represent the discrete counterpart of admissible functions for distributed substructures. The individual substructures are forced to act as a whole structure by imposing certain geometric compatibility on internal boundaries shared by any two substructures. A numerical example illustrating the method is presented.
Investigation of the Effects of Initial Fluid Film Profile on Pumping Ring Operation

The effect of the initial fluid film profile on the pumping capacity of a pumping ring shaft seal has been investigated numerically. Linear, concave, convex and compound film shapes were considered. It was found that initial film shape has a pronounced effect on both the amount of fluid pumped and on the character of the flow pattern and pressure distribution within the film.
POWER RESIDUES OF FOURIER COEFFICIENTS OF ELLIPTIC CURVES WITH COMPLEX MULTIPLICATION

Fix m greater than one and let E be an elliptic curve over Q with complex multiplication. We formulate conjectures on the density of primes p (congruent to one modulo m) for which the pth Fourier coefficient of E is an mth power modulo p; often these densities differ from the naive expectation of 1/m. We also prove our conjectures for m dividing the number of roots of unity lying in the CM field of E; the most involved case is m = 4 and complex multiplication by Q(i).
Two Species Evolutionary Game Model of User and Moderator Dynamics

We construct a two species evolutionary game model of an online society consisting of ordinary users and behavior enforcers (moderators). Among themselves, moderators play a coordination game choosing between being “positive” or ”negative” (or harsh) while ordinary users play prisoner's dilemma. When interacting, moderators motivate good behavior (cooperation) among the users through punitive actions while the moderators themselves are encouraged or discouraged in their strategic choice by these interactions. We show the following results: (i) We show that the ω-limit set of the proposed system is sensitive both to the degree of punishment and the proportion of moderators in closed form. (ii) We demonstrate that the basin of attraction for the Pareto optimal strategy (Cooperate, Positive) can be computed exactly. (iii) We demonstrate that for certain initial conditions the system is self-regulating. These results partially explain the stability of many online users communities such as Reddit. We illustrate our results with examples from this online system.
Integrated systems health management to achieve autonomy in complex systems

Abstract Integrated Systems Health Management (ISHM) provides the ability to maintain system health and performance over the life of a system. For safety-critical systems, ISHM must maintain safe operations while increasing availability by preserving functionality and minimizing downtime. This paper discusses a model-based approach to ISHM that combines fault detection, isolation and identification, fault-adaptive control, and prognosis into a common framework. At the core of this framework are a set of component oriented physical system models. By incorporating physics of failure models into component models the dynamic behavior of a failing or degrading system can be derived by simulation. Current state information predicts future behavior and performance of the system to guide decision making on system operation and maintenance. We demonstrate our approach on a pump that is part of a Water Recovery System used for NASA applications.
The morphology and crystallography of diesel particulate emissions

Abstract The morphology and crystallography of particulate emissions from indirect injection diesel engines has been studied using transmission electron microscopy. Samples were collected in a diluted exhaust stream directly onto amorphous carbon films supported on electron microscope grids. Diesel particles closely resemble carbon blacks and consist of chains or clusters of quasispherical subunits. Diffraction patterns were quantified using a microdensitometer and a graphical background correction. Peak intensity was then normalized to background to eliminate exposure variations. Small clusters were found to be less crystalline than large clusters and the centers of two chain-like particulates were more crystalline than the ends. By analogy with the crystallinity studies of heat treated carbon blacks, these differences were interpreted as differences in the time/temperature histories of the particles.
Eccentric inflation and WMAP

For uniform arrangements of magnetic fields, strings, or domain walls (together with the cosmological constant and non-relativistic matter), exact solutions to the Einstein equations are shown to lead to a universe with ellipsoidal expansion. We argue the results can be used to explain some features in the WMAP data. The magnetic field case is the easiest to motivate and has the highest possibility of yielding reliable constraints on observational cosmology.
Vector radiative transfer equation for arbitrarily shaped and arbitrarily oriented particles: a microphysical derivation from statistical electromagnetics

The concepts of statistical electromagnetics are used to derive the general radiative transfer equation (RTE) that describes multiple scattering of polarized light by sparse discrete random media consisting of arbitrarily shaped and arbitrarily oriented particles. The derivation starts with the volume integral and Lippmann-Schwinger equations for the electric field scattered by a fixed N-particle system and proceeds to the vector form of the Foldy-Lax equations and their approximate far-field version. I then assume that particle positions are completely random and derive the vector RTE by applying the Twersky approximation to the coherent electric field and the Twersky and ladder approximations to the coherency dyad of the diffuse field in the limit N → ∞. The concluding section discusses the physical meaning of the quantities that enter the general vector RTE and the assumptions made in its derivation.
Identification of nonlinear systems with stable oscillations

We propose a convex optimization procedure for identification of nonlinear systems that exhibit stable limit cycles. It extends the “robust identification error” framework in which a convex upper bound on simulation error is optimized to fit rational polynomial models with a strong stability guarantee. In this work, we relax the stability constraint using the concepts of transverse dynamics and orbital stability, thus allowing systems with autonomous oscillations to be identified. The resulting optimization problem is convex. The method is illustrated by identifying a high-fidelity model from experimental recordings of a live rat hippocampal neuron in culture.
The appraisal of investment projects: A teaching approach†

The ultimate outcome of a public or a private investment is determined by the financial, economic, managerial and political parameters associated with the project. A financial or economic net present value (NPV) calculated on a few sets of input variables tells one very little about the potential of a project if its managerial capability is weak and its political support is fickle. While any analysis has its limitations, a project evaluation that closely links the financial and economic analysis, and in turn identifies the distribution of benefits and costs over the various interest groups, will be far more likely to identify fatal flaws in the design of a project than will an appraisal that segments the analysis and does not address the interdependencies of the components. A key outcome of the appraisal of a project is the identification of the aspects of the project that have the potential to inflict great damage to its performance. With this information the next step is to see if the project can be redesigned (organizationally, financially or physically) so that it becomes more robust and resistant to external or internal shocks. In order to have project evaluations carried out in this way the project analysts should be comfortable with the skills of financial analysis, welfare economics, the evaluation of alternative sources of project uncertainty and estimation of the distribution of costs and benefits across interest groups.
Findings from a Cross-Sectional Housing Risk-Factor Model

Housing data from the last 25 years show that returns to residential real estate in the U.S. can be volatile and vary significantly among locations. The variations in returns are driven by economically as well as geographically and psychologically motivated factors, but so far, no asset pricing model that adequately explains systematic risks in cross-sectional housing returns is widely accepted. This paper proposes an asset pricing model for housing returns that includes a market-wide return factor, an economically motivated factor derived from income growth, a geographically based factor derived from land supply elasticity and a momentum factor, which is psychological in nature. The model explains well the systematic risks in housing returns and is robust to different portfolio segmentations. Moreover, the model illustrates that local risk factors indirectly capture the risk previously attributed to market-wide price changes. While housing is not actively traded when compared to other financial assets, understanding the risk-factors that explain housing return in cross-section provides important insight for real estate investors, builders, real estate future traders, homeowners, banks and other mortgage lenders.
Archaeology of Mammoth Cave and Vicinity: A Preliminary Report.

American anthropology appears to have arrived at something like a turning point in its history. The continent has now been covered more or less intensively and on the basis of the collected data both the ethnologists and the archaeologists are beginning to publish maps outlining in a tentative way the boundaries respectively of the historic and the prehistoric culture centers. (See W. H. Holmes, also Clark Wissler, Amer. Anthrop., New York, 16, No. 3, 1914; and Wissler in the Holmes Anniversary Volume, 1916.) These two maps, as would be expected, while not identical show a noteworthy correspondence. The question at once arises: how came these centers of cultural intensification to be? Thus far we have no scientific answer. We may say either that they were originated and developed in place or that they were transmitted from without, or finally-and what is most likelythat they are the products partly of transmission and partly of local origination. In any event the given culture complex did not drop out of the heavens in its perfected form: it has a history and what that history has been is for the archaeologist to determine. That the archaeologist can do this service need not be questioned. He has done it-or at least so it appears-in Europe. To some of us his performance is not entirely satisfactory as yet and when he insists that by searching in the New World we shall find the identical state of things which he himself has found in the Old World we openly rebel. But having said this we must still allow the European to point with pride to his chronological series and at the same time admit the justice of his criticism to the effect, viz., that our own investigations are almost totally deficient in this respect. Our museums abound in choice collections from this and that type locality but we possess little knowledge of how the diversified cultural traits of which these collections bear testimony came about or what are their antecedent relationships. In so far as we mentally arrange these cultures in order of their complexity beginning, let us say, with the shellmound peoples and ending with the Mayas or the Incas it is a purely selective procedure, perhaps essentially true but .nevertheless devoid of real scientific merit. It is true that some sporadic efforts at chronological determinations of different sorts have been made, as, for example, by Dr. Uhle in Peru,
Removable singularities in Yang-Mills fields

We show that a field satisfying the Yang-Mills equations in dimension 4 with a point singularity is gauge equivalent to a smooth field if the functional is finite. We obtain the result that every Yang-Mills field overR 4 with bounded functional (L 2 norm) may be obtained from a field onS 4=R 4∪{∞}. Hodge (or Coulomb) gauges are constructed for general small fields in arbitrary dimensions including 4.
Supporting read/write applications in embedded real-time systems via suspension-aware analysis

In many embedded real-time systems, applications often interact with I/O devices via read/write operations, which may incur considerable suspension delays. Unfortunately, prior analysis methods for validating timing correctness in embedded systems become quite pessimistic when suspension delays are present. In this paper, we consider the problem of supporting two common types of I/O applications in a multiprocessor system, that is, write-only applications and read-write applications. For the write-only application model, we present a much improved analysis technique that results in only O(m) suspension-related utilization loss, where m is the number of processors. For the second application model, we present a flexible I/O placement strategy and a corresponding new scheduling algorithm, which can completely circumvent the negative impact due to read- and write-induced suspension delays. We illustrate the feasibility of the proposed I/O-placement-based schedule via a case study implementation. Furthermore, experiments presented herein show that the improvement with respect to system utilization over prior methods is often significant.
DOES RURAL LOCATION MATTER? THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A RURAL SETTING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Rural settings in the United States have characteristics that present a unique context for small business, often portrayed as adverse. Studies of rural entrepreneurs and small businesses, however, frequently fail to provide data on the rural context and its potential relationship to small business, taking for granted presumed attributes and adverse effects. To develop a better understanding of a rural setting's importance, this research investigated effects of rural geo-demographic and socio-cultural features on 76 small businesses. Results demonstrate that rural geo-demography adversely affects marketability of products and services although there is little adversity for small businesses due to constrained resources (financing, technology, and transportation) or labor issues. Business owners manage their businesses consistent with rural socio-cultural values by relying on strong social ties and word of mouth reputation. However, women-owned businesses experience little adversity due to gender stereotypes. The rural setting considered in the study has varying implications for different types of businesses and for business owners according to how long they have lived in the community. Its effects are neither adverse in all respects nor universal for all small businesses.
Symmetries and structure of skewed and double distributions

Extending the concept of parton densities onto nonforward matrix elements of quark and gluon light-cone operators, one can use two types of nonperturbative functions: double distributions (DDs) f(x,{alpha};t), F(x,y;t) and skewed (off & nonforward) parton distributions (SPDs) H(x,{xi};t), F{sub {zeta}}(X,t). The authors treat DDs as primary objects producing SPDs after integration. They emphasize the role of DDs in understanding interplay between (x) and {zeta} ({xi}) dependences of SPDs. In particular, the use of DDs is crucial to secure the polynomiality condition: Nth moments of SPDs are Nth degree polynomials in the relevant skewedness parameter {zeta} or {xi}. They propose simple ansaetze for DDs having correct spectral and symmetry properties and derive model expressions for SPDs satisfying all known constraints. Finally, they argue that for small skewedness, one can obtain SPDs from the usual parton densities by averaging the latter with an appropriate weight over the region [X{minus}{zeta},X] (or [ x {minus} {xi}, x + {xi}]).
Metal-CNT contacts

To realize carbon nanotube (CNT) as on-chip interconnect materials, the contact resistance stemming from the metal-CNT interface must be well understood and minimized. In this study, we compile existing published results and understanding for two metal-CNT contact geometries, sidewall or side contact and end contact, and address their key performance characteristics. Side contacts typically result in contact resistances > 1 kΩ, whereas end contacts, such as that for as-grown vertically aligned CNTs on a metal underlayer, can be substantially lower. The lower contact resistance for the latter is due largely to strong bonding between edge carbon atoms with atoms on the metal surface, while carrier transport across a side-contacted interface via tunneling is generally associated with high contact resistance. Analyses of high-resolution images of interface nanostructures for various metal-CNT structures, along with their measured electrical characteristics, provide the necessary knowledge for continuous improvements of techniques to reduce contact resistance. Such contact engineering approach is described for both side and end-contacted structures.
Computer formulation of the equations of motion using tensor notation

Computer formulation of motion equations using tensor calculus to extend area of application of digital computers
Synthesis of allylsilanes and β-(trimethylsilyl)ketones via lithium 1-alkynyltrialkylborates

Abstract Allylsilanes or β-(trimethylsilyl)ketones were prepared by treating lithium 1-alkynyltrialkylborates with (trimethylsilyl)methyl trifluoromethanesulfonate followed by protonolysis or oxidation, respectively.
Adaptive Structures for Precision Controlled Large Space Systems

Future space missions, such as Optical Interferometers and Space Telescopes place very stringent functional requirements upon the structural sub-system. Current approaches to structural design, analysis, and testing cannot assure project man agers that such systems will meet the dimensional stability requirements of nanometers over tens of meters or more. The concept of adaptive structures, structures that can vary their geometric configurations as well as their physical characteristics, is most promising for meeting the requirements of future missions. Adaptive structures are intended to relax ground test requirements, to enable static shape adjustment, to provide a mechanism for linearizing the structure by preloading nonlinear joints, to provide the required excitation forces for performing on-orbit system identification, and to attenuate dynamic response by substantially increasing passive and active structural damping.
Versatility of heterogeneous photocatalysis: synthetic methodologies epitomizing the role of silica support in TiO2 based mixed oxides

Heterogeneous photocatalysis continues to be an active area of research with focus on developing catalytic systems that can degrade toxic pollutants in the gas and aqueous phase, and split water to generate hydrogen and oxygen. In this review, the incorporation of silica phases in titanium dioxide based photocatalysts is reviewed.
Solutions to a quantal gravity-matter field theory on a line

Abstract Solutions to a scalar-tensor (dilaton) quantum gravity theory, interacting with quantized matter, are described. Dirac quantization is frustrated by quantal anomalies in the constraint algebra. Progress is made only after the Wheeler-DeWitt equation is modified by quantal terms, which eliminate the anomaly. More than one modification is possible, resulting in more than one ‘physical’ spectrum in the quantum theory, corresponding to the given classical model.
Compactified NCOS and duality

We study four-dimensional U(1) on a non-commutative T2 with rational Θ. This theory has dual descriptions as ordinary SYM or as NCOS. We identify a set of massive non-interacting KK states in the SYM theory and track them through the various dualities. They appear as stretched strings in the non-commutative U(1) providing another example of the IR/UV mixing in non-commutative field theories. In the NCOS these states appear as D-strings with winding and momentum. They form an unconventional type of 1/4 BPS state with the 3-brane. To obtain a consistent picture of S-duality for compactified theories it is essential to keep track of both the NS and the RR B-fields.
First Test of High Frequency Gravity Waves from Inflation using ADVANCED LIGO

Inflation models ending in a first order phase transition produce gravitational waves (GW) via bubble collisions of the true vacuum phase. We demonstrate that these bubble collisions can leave an observable signature in Advanced LIGO, an upcoming ground-based GW experiment. These GW are dependent on two parameters of the inflationary model: e represents the energy difference between the false vacuum and the true vacuum of the inflaton potential, and χ measures how fast the phase transition ends (χ ~ the number of e-folds during the actual phase transition). Advanced LIGO will be able to test the validity of single-phase transition models within the parameter space 107 GeV e1/4 1010 GeV and 0.19 χ 1. If inflation occurred through a first order phase transition, then Advanced LIGO could be the first to discover high frequency GW from inflation.
Natural Products Synthesis: Enabling Tools To Penetrate Nature’s Secrets of Biogenesis and Biomechanism

Selected examples from our laboratory of how synthetic technology platforms developed for the total synthesis of several disparate families of natural products was harnessed to penetrate biomechanistic and/or biosynthetic queries is discussed. Unexpected discoveries of biomechanistic reactivity and/or penetrating the biogenesis of naturally occurring substances were made possible through access to substances available only through chemical synthesis. Hypothesis-driven total synthesis programs are emerging as very useful conceptual templates for penetrating and exploiting the inherent reactivity of biologically active natural substances. In many instances, new enabling synthetic technologies were required to be developed. The examples demonstrate the often untapped richness of complex molecule synthesis to provide powerful tools to understand, manipulate and exploit Nature's vast and creative palette of secondary metabolites.
A bias correction for the minimum error rate in cross-validation

Tuning parameters in supervised learning problems are often estimated by cross-validation. The minimum value of the cross-validation error can be biased downward as an estimate of the test error at that same value of the tuning parameter. We propose a simple method for the estimation of this bias that uses information from the cross-validation process. As a result, it requires essentially no additional computation. We apply our bias estimate to a number of popular classifiers in various settings, and examine its performance.
Resonantly-paired fermionic superfluids

Abstract We present a theory of a degenerate atomic Fermi gas, interacting through a narrow Feshbach resonance, whose position and therefore strength can be tuned experimentally, as demonstrated recently in ultracold trapped atomic gases. The distinguishing feature of the theory is that its accuracy is controlled by a dimensionless parameter proportional to the ratio of the width of the resonance to Fermi energy. The theory is therefore quantitatively accurate for a narrow Feshbach resonance. In the case of a narrow s-wave resonance, our analysis leads to a quantitative description of the crossover between a weakly paired BCS superconductor of overlapping Cooper pairs and a strongly paired molecular Bose–Einstein condensate of diatomic molecules. In the case of pairing via a p-wave resonance, that we show is always narrow for a sufficiently low density, we predict a detuning-temperature phase diagram, that in the course of a BCS–BEC crossover can exhibit a host of thermodynamically distinct phases separated by quantum and classical phase transitions. For an intermediate strength of the dipolar anisotropy, the system exhibits a px + ipy paired superfluidity that undergoes a topological phase transition between a weakly coupled gapless ground state at large positive detuning and a strongly paired fully gapped molecular superfluid for a negative detuning. In two dimensions the former state is characterized by a Pfaffian ground state exhibiting topological order and non-Abelian vortex excitations familiar from fractional quantum Hall systems.
A Global Interpretation of the Rise of the East Asian Food Import Complex

Abstract The last quarter century explosion of consumer affluence in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China, accompanied a new phase in the organization of the global food economy. It also conditioned the increasingly speculative capital investments in the region. This paper argues that the restructuring of production and consumption relations involved a movement away from the US-centered bilateral food surplus regime, and toward a multilateral food regime based in WTO-led agricultural liberalization, and the corporate restructuring of agriculture. The East Asian food import complex advances the neoliberal project of global free trade, spawning agro-export zones throughout Southeast Asia.
Outcome Measurement Issues in Drug Abuse Prevention Studies

This chapter focuses on several statistical and methodological issues that arise in the measurement of drug use and predictors of drug use in prevention studies. The primary focus is on experimental and quasi-experimental studies in which the intervention impact is of primary interest. Many of the issues raised are also relevant to population studies.
General Hubbard model for strongly interacting fermions in an optical lattice and its phase detection

Based on the consideration of the system symmetry and its Hilbert space, we show that strongly interacting fermions near a wide Feshbach resonance in an optical lattice or superlattice can be generically described by a lattice resonance Hamiltonian. The latter can be mapped to a general Hubbard model with particle-assisted tunnelling rates. We investigate the model under population imbalance and show that the attractive and the repulsive models have the same complexity in the phase diagram under the particle-hole mapping. Using this mapping, we propose an experimental method to detect possible exotic superfluid/magnetic phases for this system.
Sequential equilibria of asymmetric ascending auctions: The case of log-normal distributions

The sequential equilibrium of an ascending-price auction of a single item is derived explicitly for the case of log-normal distributions and a multiplicative valuation model comprising both common and private factors, and allowing asymmetries. If the prior distribution on the common factors is diffuse, or of the form obtained by Bayesian updating from a diffuse prior distribution, then the equilibrium strategies are log-linear with coefficients obtained by solving a set of linear equations. A similar construction applies to normal distributions and additive terms in the valuation model. An example illustrates the predictions derived from the model.
Comparing self-regulation and statutory regulation: Evidence from the accounting profession

Abstract The accounting profession in the United States recently shifted from self-regulation by peer review to statutory regulation by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). Using this shift, I compare outcomes from self-regulation and statutory regulation for the same group of firms. I find that firms choosing their own reviewers, and firms choosing reviewers likely to be connected through prior relationships, tend to receive peer review opinions more favourable than their subsequent PCAOB reports, suggesting that some firms obtained ‘friendly’ reviews in the peer review era. On the other hand, reviewers with relevant industry knowledge are less likely to give such favourable reviews. Further, reviewers from the same geographic area are likely to give peer reviews that are more negative than the subsequent PCAOB reports. Additional analysis suggests that peer reviewers from similar industry or geographic areas bring greater firm-specific expertise to the reviewing process. In the PCAOB regime, I find that firms inspected later tend to receive PCAOB reports more favourable than their peer reviews, suggesting some trends over time in PCAOB reporting. Overall, the findings help in understanding the influences on each approach to regulation, and suggest a nuanced understanding of both approaches as having strengths as well as weaknesses.
Highly Effective Chiral Ortho-Substituted BINAPO Ligands (o-BINAPO): Applications in Ru-Catalyzed Asymmetric Hydrogenations of β-Aryl-Substituted β-(Acylamino)acrylates and β-Keto Esters

A novel family of chiral ortho-substituted BINAPO ligands (o-BINAPO) were synthesized from BINOL, and their Ru complexes were highly efficient catalysts for asymmetric hydrogenation of beta-aryl-substituted beta-(acylamino)acrylates and beta-aryl-substituted beta-keto esters. The Ru-bisphosphinite catalysts can tolerate an E/Z mixture of beta-aryl-substituted beta-(acylamino)acrylates. These highly enantioselective hydrogenations provide a useful way to prepare beta-aryl-substituted beta-amino acids and beta-hydroxyl acids.
Electrical and thermal modeling of railguns

Electrical and thermal modeling of railguns at Los Alamos has been done for two purposes: (1) to obtain detailed information about the behavior of specific railgun components such as the rails, and (2) to predict overall performance of railgun tests. Detailed electrical and thermal modeling has concentrated on calculations of the inductance and surface current distribution of long parallel conductors in the high-frequency limit and on calculations of current and thermal diffusion in rails. Inductance calculations for various rail cross sections and for magnetic flux compression generators (MFCG) have been done. Inductance and current distribution results were compared with experimental measurements. Two-dimensional calculations of current and thermal diffusion in rail cross sections have been done; predictions of rail heating and melting as a function of rail size and total current have been made. An overall performance model of a railgun and power supply has been developed and used to design tests at Los Alamos. The lumped-parameter circuit model uses results from the detailed inductance and current diffusion calculations along with other circuit component models to predict rail current and projectile acceleration, velocity, and position as a function of time.
Synthesis of the vancomycin CDE ring system.

Abstract A first generation synthesis of 22 is described constituting the first disclosure of the preparation of an appropriately protected and fully functionalized vancomycin CDE ring system complete with the C and E ring monochloro substitution pattern. The approach, which is based on two aromatic nucleophilic substitution reactions for sequential CD and DE macrocyclization, provided the opportunity to define an indirect solution to the control of the CDE atropisomer stereochemistry through selective thermal equilibration of the DE versus unaltered CD ring system. Its success provides a rationale for a preferred order to the CD and DE ring system introductions.
An adaptable, modular data - collection system suitable for scientific experimentation: analog to digital transformation, short - term digital storage, formatted digital tape - recording, and computer entry of experimental data

This paper describes an adaptable, modular data acquisition system suitable for the collection of experimental data in a form readily adapted to subsequent digital computer entry and analysis. The system utilizes voltage-to-frequency conversion of an input analog signal over precisely regulated timing intervals. The digitized data is initially stored in shift-registers and later digitally formatted and digitally tape-recorded. The recorded data is read by a complimentary tape reading system and entered into a mini-computer for subsequent analysis and long-term storage. The digital formatting technique permits unambiguous definition and recovery of each data word as the tape is read.Adaptations of this system necessary to accommodate variations in the length of each data-word and the number of words per message block are discussed.Commercially available TTL integrated circuits and modular components are used in the design of this system.
GRANULAR-SCALE MAGNETIC FLUX CANCELLATIONS IN THE PHOTOSPHERE

We investigate the evolution of five granular-scale magnetic flux cancellations just outside the moat region of a sunspot by using accurate spectropolarimetric measurements and G-band images with the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) aboard Hinode. The opposite-polarity magnetic elements approach a junction of the intergranular lanes and then collide with each other there. The intergranular junction has strong redshifts, darker intensities than the regular intergranular lanes, and surface converging flows. This clearly confirms that the converging and downward convective motions are essential for the approaching process of the opposite-polarity magnetic elements. However, the motion of the approaching magnetic elements does not always match with their surrounding surface flow patterns in our observations. This suggests that, in addition to the surface flows, subsurface downward convective motions and subsurface magnetic connectivities are important for understanding the approach and collision of the opposite-polarity elements observed in the photosphere. We find that the horizontal magnetic field appears between the canceling opposite-polarity elements in only one event. The horizontal fields are observed along the intergranular lanes with Doppler redshifts. This cancellation is most probably a result of the submergence (retraction) of low-lying photospheric magnetic flux. In the other four events, the horizontal field is not observed between the opposite-polarity elements at any time when they approach and cancel each other. These approaching magnetic elements are more concentrated rather than gradually diffused, and they have nearly vertical fields even while they are in contact each other. We thus infer that the actual flux cancellations are highly time-dependent events at scales less than a pixel of Hinode SOT (about 200 km) near the solar surface.