cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Chandra Detects Relativistic Broad Absorption Lines from APM 08279+5255

We report the discovery of X-ray broad absorption lines (BALs) from the BAL quasar APM 08279+5255 originating from material moving at relativistic velocities with respect to the central source. The large flux magnification by a factor of ~100 provided by the gravitational lens effect combined with the large redshift (z = 3.91) of the quasar have facilitated the acquisition of the first high signal-to-noise X-ray spectrum of a quasar containing X-ray BALs. Our analysis of the X-ray spectrum of APM 08279+5255 places the rest-frame energies of the two observed absorption lines at 8.1 and 9.8 keV. The detection of each of these lines is significant at a greater than 99.9% confidence level based on the F-test. Assuming that the absorption lines are from Fe XXV Kα, the implied bulk velocities of the X-ray BALs are ~0.2c and ~0.4c, respectively. The observed high bulk velocities of the X-ray BALs combined with the relatively short recombination timescales of the X-ray-absorbing gas imply that the absorbers responsible for the X-ray BALs are located at radii of 2 × 1017 cm, within the expected location of the UV absorber. With this implied geometry, the X-ray gas could provide the necessary shielding to prevent the UV absorber from being completely ionized by the central X-ray source, consistent with hydrodynamical simulations of line-driven disk winds. Estimated mass-outflow rates for the gas creating the X-ray BALs are typically less than a solar mass per year. Our spectral analysis also indicates that the continuum X-ray emission of APM 08279+5255 is consistent with that of a typical radio-quiet quasar with a spectral slope of Γ = 1.72.
Incentives versus standards: properties of accounting income in four East Asian countries $

The East Asian countries Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand provide rare insight into the interaction between accounting standards and the incentives of managers and auditors. Their standards derive from common law sources (UK, US, and IAS) that are widely viewed as higher quality than code law standards. However, their preparers’ incentives imply low quality. We show their financial reporting quality is not higher than under code law, with quality operationalized as timely recognition of economic income (particularly losses). It is
Quantum Computation and the Localization of Modular Functors

The mathematical problem of localizing modular functors to neighborhoods of points is shown to be closely related to the physical problem of engineering a local Hamiltonian for a computationally universal quantum medium. For genus =0 surfaces, such a local Hamiltonian is mathematically defined. Braiding defects of this medium implements a representation associated to the Jones polynomial and this representation is known to be universal for quantum computation.
Interactive machine language programming

The problems of machine language programming, in the broad sense of coding in which it is possible to write each instruction out explicitly, have been curiously neglected in the literature. Granted that less than half of the binary instructions generated in the past year had their origin in assembly language, it remains likely that much more than half the instructions executed originated in this way. There are still many problems which must be coded in the hardware language of the computer on which they are to run, either because of stringent time and space requirements or because no suitable higher level language is available.
Particle Conjugation and the $1/N_C$ Corrections to $g_A$

We impose the requirement that the isovector axial vector current for the soliton sector of the chiral quark model transforms correctly under particle conjugation. This forces us to choose an otherwise arbitrary ordering of collective space operators in such a way that the next-to-leading 1/Nc correction to gA computed in the usual cranking model vanishes.
The cooling of shock-compressed primordial gas

We find that at redshifts z? 10, HD line cooling allows strongly shocked primordial gas to cool to the temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This temperature is the minimum value attainable via radiative cooling. Provided that the abundance of HD, normalized to the total number density, exceeds a critical level of ∼10 -8 , the CMB temperature floor is reached in a time which is short in comparison to the Hubble time. We estimate the characteristic masses of stars formed out of shocked primordial gas in the wake of the first supernovae, and resulting from the virialization of dark matter haloes during hierarchical structure formation to be ∼ 10 M ⊙ . In addition, we show that cooling by HD enables the primordial gas in relic H II regions to cool to temperatures considerably lower than those reached via H 2 cooling alone. We confirm that HD cooling is unimportant in cases where the primordial gas does not go through an ionized phase, as in the formation process of the very first stars in z? 20 minihaloes of mass ∼10 6 M ⊙ .
Molecular mechanisms of taxane resistance

B58 Treatment with the taxanes (Paclitaxel or Docetaxel) is often the therapy of choice for women with breast cancer. In most cases, the taxanes can arrest cell proliferation at the G2/M phase and cause cell death. However, some tumors develop resistance during the course of treatment, which is a major concern for both patients and physicians. Several mechanisms of resistance have been proposed to explain how resistance to the taxanes occurs, but this phenomenon remains incompletely understood. Our preliminary gene expression microarray and western blot data in sensitive and resistant MDA-MB-231 cell lines suggest that the expression of apoptotic genes are not significantly altered between sensitive and taxane resistant cells. Western blots specifically for Bcl-2, caspase-7, and Bcl-xL in our sensitive and resistant cell lines showed remarkably little difference, suggesting that alternative non-apoptotic death pathways may be used to support the resistance phenotype. We have also found that cross resistance occurs for Docetaxel resistant cells (these cells are also resistant to Paclitaxel) but full cross resistance does not occur for Paclitaxel resistant cells (retain sensitivity to Docetaxel drug). This suggests that the resistance pathways used by each drug may not be redundant. Finally, our preliminary microarray data show significant differential upregulation of CDC25C (2-fold; p=0.001) in Paclitaxel resistant vs. Docetaxel resistant cells. CDC25C is important in cell cycle progression, particularly through the G2/M phase. In addition, initial exploration of the data from the comparison of genes expressed in Paclitaxel and Docetaxel resistant MDA-MB-231 cells and those that are sensitive to either taxane showed increased expression of both CDK2 and Cyclin B (1.56-fold; p=0.031 and 1.50-fold; p=0.007, respectively), genes also implicated in the cell cycle. From these preliminary data, we propose to further investigate the various alternative cell death pathways seen in breast cancer cells and compare them to levels seen in clinical samples of human breast cancer tissue from responsive and non-responsive patients. We also propose to determine to what extent CDC25C can confer resistance, and whether inhibiting this gene can reverse resistance. Our studies will not only help reveal how cell cycle genes and pathways may contribute to taxane resistance in breast cancer, but will also assist in our understanding of how alternative cell death pathways contribute to the resistance phenotype. Ultimately our studies aim not only to improve our understanding of taxane resistance on the bench but may also provide the framework for formulation of novel therapies that may improve the success of taxane therapy in women with breast cancer in the clinic.
Bismuth Nitrate-Catalyzed Versatile Michael Reactions†

Bismuth nitrate-catalyzed versatile Michael reaction was developed to reduce the complications that characterize the current standard Michael reaction and used for facile preparation of organic compounds of widely different structures. For example, several substituted amines, imidazoles, thio compounds, indoles, and carbamates were prepared at room temperature by following this method. In contrast with the existing methods using many acidic catalysts, this method is very general, simple, high-yielding, environmentally friendly, and oxygen and moisture tolerant. However, the promoting role of bismuth nitrate in this reaction is not understood at this time.
Robust computational vision

This paper presents a paradigm for formulating reliable machine vision algorithms using methods from robust statistics. Machine vision is the process of estimating features from images by fitting a model to visual data. Computer graphics programs can produce realistic renderings of artificial scenes, so our understanding of image formation must be quite good. We have good models for visual phenomena, but can do a better job of applying the models to images. Vision computations must be robust to the kinds of errors that occur in visual signals. This paper argues that vision algorithms should be formulated using robust regression methods. The nature of errors in visual signals will be discussed, and a prescription for formulating robust algorithms will be described. To illustrate the concepts, robust methods have been applied to three problems: surface reconstruction, image flow estimation, and dynamic stereo.
Impact of Pharmacists’ Interventions and Simvastatin Dose Restrictions

Background: On June 8, 2011, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported safety concerns regarding statin-related myopathies and advised further restrictions on simvastatin dosing. These restrictions reduced the maximum dose for specific patient characteristics, primarily certain concomitant medications. Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of 2 different pharmacist-conducted educational interventions on appropriate simvastatin use in the primary care setting. Methods: This retrospective cohort analysis was conducted in 2 academic medical center clinics. Patients prescribed simvastatin before June 8, 2011, requiring dosage adjustment based on labeling changes were evaluated for study inclusion. The pharmacists’ interventions included: 30-minute didactic session for prescribers or patient-specific recommendation communicated with the physician during the patient’s follow-up visit. Primary outcomes were the number of patients prescribed FDA-recommended simv...
Nanocrystal-micelle: synthesis, self-assembly and application

Nanocrystals (NCs) are one of the important building blocks for fabrication of nanostructured arrays for wide range of optical, electronic, magnetic, catalytic and biosensing applications. Here, our recent advances in the synthesis, self-assembly and application of NC-micelles are highlighted. The NCs are encapsulated inside the core of surfactant micelles in a rapid, interfacially driven micro-emulsion process. The flexible surface chemistry of the NC-micelles causes them to be water-soluble and allows further self-assembly into two- and three-dimensional ordered arrays. The NC-micelles are biocompatible, of interest for bio-labeling. Finally, integration of the ordered arrays and charge transport property are discussed.
Laboratory evaluation of a field-portable dielectric/soil-moisture probe

An evaluation of an L-band dielectric soil-moisture probe conducted to examine its capabilities, calibration, and performance under laboratory conditions is discussed. Results indicated that the probe can estimate the real part of the dielectric constant over a wide range of values. The imaginary part of the dielectric constant was overestimated. Since the soil moisture estimate is made using only the real part of the dielectric constant, the probe should produce reliable estimates of soil moisture. Studies utilizing a variety of soils, ranging from a loamy sand to a clay loam, produced results which were not as variable as those predicted by the dielectric models. >
Bond risk premiums and optimal monetary policy

Abstract The bond yield dynamics implied by a welfare-maximizing monetary policy and its credibility are explored in general equilibrium. Credibility is captured by a regime change from discretion to commitment. The policy determines the optimal output and inflation responses to a source of inflation risk. Bond yields contain compensations for this risk that depend on the policy. Credibility improvements reduce the exposure to inflation risk and bond risk premiums decline. A model calibration implies lower yield spreads, less volatile yields, and reduced deviations from the expectations hypothesis under commitment. The model suggests an explanation for changes in yield dynamics in the U.S. across different policy regimes.
Rapid Adaptation of POS Tagging for Domain Specific Uses

Part-of-speech (POS) tagging is a fundamental component for performing natural language tasks such as parsing, information extraction, and question answering. When POS taggers are trained in one domain and applied in significantly different domains, their performance can degrade dramatically. We present a methodology for rapid adaptation of POS taggers to new domains. Our technique is unsupervised in that a manually annotated corpus for the new domain is not necessary. We use suffix information gathered from large amounts of raw text as well as orthographic information to increase the lexical coverage. We present an experiment in the Biological domain where our POS tagger achieves results comparable to POS taggers specifically trained to this domain.
Hybrid BDI-POMDP framework for multiagent teaming

Many current large-scale multiagent team implementations can be characterized as following the "belief-desire-intention" (BDI) paradigm, with explicit representation of team plans. Despite their promise, current BDI team approaches lack tools for quantitative performance analysis under uncertainty. Distributed partially observable Markov decision problems (POMDPs) are well suited for such analysis, but the complexity of finding optimal policies in such models is highly intractable. The key contribution of this article is a hybrid BDI-POMDP approach, where BDI team plans are exploited to improve POMDP tractability and POMDP analysis improves BDI team plan performance. Concretely, we focus on role allocation, a fundamental problem in BDI teams: which agents to allocate to the different roles in the team. The article provides three key contributions. First, we describe a role allocation technique that takes into account future uncertainties in the domain; prior work in multiagent role allocation has failed to address such uncertainties. To that end, we introduce RMTDP (Role-based Markov Team Decision Problem), a new distributed POMDP model for analysis of role allocations. Our technique gains in tractability by significantly curtailing RMTDP policy search; in particular, BDI team plans provide incomplete RMTDP policies, and the RMTDP policy search fills the gaps in such incomplete policies by searching for the best role allocation. Our second key contribution is a novel decomposition technique to further improve RMTDP policy search efficiency. Even though limited to searching role allocations, there are still combinatorially many role allocations, and evaluating each in RMTDP to identify the best is extremely difficult. Our decomposition technique exploits the structure in the BDI team plans to significantly prune the search space of role allocations. Our third key contribution is a significantly faster policy evaluation algorithm suited for our BDI-POMDP hybrid approach. Finally, we also present experimental results from two domains: mission rehearsal simulation and RoboCupRescue disaster rescue simulation.
Using Transaction Prices to Re-Examine Price Dispersion in Electronic Markets

Price dispersion is an important indicator of market efficiency. Internet-based electronic markets have the potential to reduce transaction and search costs, thereby creating more efficient, “frictionless” markets, as predicted by theories in information economics. However, earlier work has reported significant levels of price dispersion on the Internet, which is in contrast to theoretical predictions. A key feature of the existing stream of work has been its use of posted prices to estimate price dispersion. In theory, this can lead to an overestimation of price dispersion because a sale may not have occurred at the posted price. In this research, we use a unique data set of actual transaction prices collected from both the electronic and offline markets of buyers in a business-to-business market to evaluate the extent of price dispersion. We find that price dispersion in the electronic market is as low as 0.22%, which is substantially less than that reported in the existing literature. This near-zero price dispersion suggests that in some electronic markets the “law of one price” can prevail when we consider transaction prices, instead of posted prices. We further develop a theoretical framework that identifies several new drivers of price dispersion using transaction data. In particular, we focus on four product-level and market-level attributes---product cost, order cycle time, own price elasticity, and transaction quantity, and we estimate their impact on price dispersion. We also examine the electronic market's moderating role in the relationship between these drivers and price dispersion. Finally, we estimate the efficiency gains that accrue from transactions in the relatively friction-free market and find that the electronic market can enhance consumer surplus by as much as $97.92 million per year.
Going Bunkers: The Joint Route Selection and Refueling Problem

Managing shipping vessel profitability is a central problem in marine transportation. We consider two commonly used types of vessels---“liners” (ships whose routes are fixed in advance) and “trampers” (ships for which future route components are selected based on available shipping jobs)---and formulate a vessel profit maximization problem as a stochastic dynamic program. For liner vessels, the profit maximization reduces to the problem of minimizing refueling costs over a given route subject to random fuel prices and limited vessel fuel capacity. Under mild assumptions about the stochastic dynamics of fuel prices at different ports, we provide a characterization of the structural properties of the optimal liner refueling policies. For trampers, the vessel profit maximization combines refueling decisions and route selection, which adds a combinatorial aspect to the problem. We characterize the optimal policy in special cases where prices are constant through time and do not differ across ports and prices are constant through time and differ across ports. The structure of the optimal policy in such special cases yields insights on the complexity of the problem and also guides the construction of heuristics for the general problem setting.
Which is the Fair Sex? Gender Differences in Altruism

We study gender differences in altruism by examining a modieed dictator game with varying incomes and prices. Our results indicate that the question “which is the fair sex?” has a complicated answer—when altruism is expensive, women are kinder, but when it is cheap, men are more altruistic. That is, we end that the male and female “demand curves for altruism” cross, and that men are more responsive to price changes. Furthermore, men are more likely to be either perfectly selesh or perfectly seleess, whereas women tend to be “equalitarians” who prefer to share evenly.
The components of elections: district heterogeneity, district-time effects, and volatility

Abstract The quality and stability of democracy are often considered products of particular traits of parties or party systems. Studies of the ‘personal vote’ or ‘district effects’, the ‘nationalization of elections’, and ‘electoral volatility’, however, have generally conflated the different concepts at both the theoretical and empirical levels, thus raising questions about the independent relationship of each trait to democratic functioning. In response, we decompose district-level electoral data for parties in 20 countries from Europe and the Americas to clarify the conceptual dimensions along which parties and party systems may be compared. We show that what we term the ‘district-time effect’, ‘district heterogeneity’, and ‘electoral volatility’ are theoretically and empirically distinct properties of political parties with separable impacts on democracy, and we draw on this analysis to offer a new classification of political parties.
The wakefield effects of pulsed crab cavities at the Advanced Photon Source for short-x-ray pulse generation

In recent years we have explored the application to the Advanced Photon Source (APS) of Zholents' crab-cavity- based scheme for production of short x-ray pulses [1]. As a near-term project, the APS has elected to pursue a pulsed system using room-temperature cavities [2]. The cavity design has been optimized to heavily damp parasitic modes while maintaining large shunt impedance for the deflecting dipole mode [3]. We evaluated a system consisting of three crab cavities as an impedance source and determined their effect on the single- and multi-bunch instabilities. In the single-bunch instability we used the APS impedance model as the reference system in order to predict the overall performance of the ring when the crab cavities are installed in the future. For multi-bunch instabilities we used a realistic fill pattern, including hybrid-fill, and tracked multiple bunches where each bunch was treated as soft in distribution.
How to search a social network

We address the question of how participants in a small world experiment are able to find short paths in a social network using only local information about their immediate contacts. We simulate such experiments on a network of actual email contacts within an organization as well as on a student social networking website. On the email network we find that small world search strategies using a contact’s position in physical space or in an organizational hierarchy relative to the target can effectively be used to locate most individuals. However, we find that in the online student network, where the data is incomplete and hierarchical structures are not well defined, local search strategies are less effective. We compare our findings to recent theoretical hypotheses about underlying social structure that would enable these simple search strategies to succeed and discuss the implications to social software design.
JERK LIMITED TIME OPTIMAL CONTROL OF FLEXIBLE STRUCTURES

This paper deals with the design of jerk-limited time-optimal control sequences for rest-to-rest maneuvers of flexible structures. The resulting jerk profiles will be either bang-bang or bang-off-bang. To ensure quiescent states at the end of the maneuver, a pole cancellation technique will be used. Further constraints account for the geometric boundary conditions. This paper will also investigate the development of the control profile upon variation of the maximum allowable amount of jerk. The last section presents numerical results. The proposed control algorithm is implemented for the Floating Oscillator benchmark problem.
Mercatus: A Toolkit for the Simulation of Market-Based Resource Allocation Protocols in Grids

Grid technologies enable the sharing and coordinated use of diverse resources distributed all over the world. These resources are owned by different organizations having different policies and objectives, which need to be considered in making the resource allocation decisions. In such complex environments, market-based resource allocation protocols are a better alternative to the classical ones because they take into consideration the policies and preferences of both users and resource owners. The only suitable solution for investigating the effectiveness of these resource allocation protocols over a wide range of scenarios with reproducible results is to consider simulations. Thus, in this paper we present Mercatus, a simulation toolkit that facilitates the simulation of market-based resource allocation protocols. We describe the model and the structure of Mercatus, and present experimental results obtained by simulating five types of auction-based resource allocation protocols.
“Small Miracles” — Behavioral Insights to Improve Development Policy: The World Development Report 2015

Rational actor models dominate much modern economic thinking. But rational choice theory cannot explain the striking effects of the policies discussed in the World Bank’s latest World Development Report (World Bank Group 2015). In his review of the report in The New York Times, David Brooks celebrates the behavioral approach to development because it creates opportunities for policy interventions that produce “small miracles” from the perspective of traditional economics.
Research Methods as a Situated Response: Towards a First Nations' Methodology

In this paper the author writes in retrospect about her experience of researching the creation of a culture-based curriculum in a tribal community. She is situated in the community as both an insider and an outsider, represented in this article through the use of an academic voice spliced with a narrative voice. Both her research problem and methodology emerged as a response to the community. The methodology she used was inspired by a wide range of cultural and academic traditions. Finally, rather than prescribing a particular formula for research in Native communities, she is suggesting that the model of a ''situated response,'' particular and dependent on context, would ground research in community, as well as academic, concerns.
LMFBR Loss of Flow Simulations in the Sodium Loop Safety Facility

A series of three LMFBR unprotected loss of flow (LOF) accidents has been simulated in the Sodium Loop Safety Facility (SLSF). The results of these inreactor experiments verify that the dynamics of sodium voiding are, in general, well represented by current single channel slug expulsion models. Some refinement in the models in the early stages of voiding would be desirable to account for minor two dimensional effects. Two of the three experiments produced partial rather than complete upper blockages as had been predicted. Predictions of time of fuel melting appear relatively accurate. In general, the sequence of events is correctly predicted and the timing of these events is relatively accurate. Reactivity measurements and post-test examinations indicate that no significant fuel compaction occurred. This behavior would prevent an energetic recriticality in an LOF accident. 3 refs.
Global petrologic variations on the Moon: A ternary‐diagram approach

An improved method for global petrologic mapping of the moon is presented, which uses a color-coded ternary diagram whose apexes are assigned the average Fe and Th/Ti ratio (normalized to chondrites) compositions of KREEP/Mg-suite rocks, mare basalts, and ferroan anorthosites. The composition of each pixel within these Apollo orbital gamma ray data bases is used to determine its position within the ternary diagram. The color corresponding to this ternary position is then placed on a classification map at that pixel's position within the orbital data bases. The resultant classification map shows spatial transitions among petrologic units, allows direct determination of the relative proportions of each end-member composition in a pixel, and provides more geologic information than can be obtained by using only the elemental data. The map units correspond remarkably well to previously delineated geologic provinces.
Voronoi diagrams of polygons: a framework for shape representation

This paper describes an efficient shape representation framework for planar shapes using Voronoi skeletons. This paper makes the following significant contributions. First a new algorithm for the construction of the Voronoi diagram of a polygon with holes is described. The main features of this algorithm are its robustness in handling the standard degenerate cases (colinearity of more than two points; co-circularity of more than three points), and its ease of implementation. It also features a robust numerical scheme to compute non-linear parabolic edges that avoids having to solve equations of degree greater than two. The algorithm has been fully implemented and tested in a variety of test inputs. Second, the Voronoi diagram of a polygon is used to derive accurate and robust skeletons for planar shapes. The shape representation scheme using Voronoi skeletons possesses the important properties of connectivity as well as Euclidean metrics. Redundant skeletal edges are deleted in a pruning step which guarantees that connectivity of the skeleton will be preserved. The resultant representation is stable with respect to being invariant to perturbations along the boundary of the shape. A number of examples of shapes with and without holes are presented to demonstrate the features of this approach.
Hydroxy‐Directed Cyclopropanation of Esters: Synthesis of Trisubstituted Cyclopropanols

The Kulinkovich cyclopropanation of esters with disubstituted homoallylic alcohols is described for the preparation of 1,2,3-trisubstituted cyclopropanols. Central to the successful implementation is the generation in situ of a temporary alkoxy tether between a homoallylic alcohol and an alkoxytitanium species to override unfavorable steric factors.
Getting the most out of giving: Concretely framing a prosocial goal maximizes happiness

Abstract Across six field and laboratory experiments, participants assigned a more concretely-framed prosocial goal (e.g., making someone smile or increasing recycling) felt happier and reported creating greater personal happiness after performing a goal-directed act of kindness than did those who were assigned a functionally similar, but more abstractly-framed, prosocial goal (e.g., making someone happy or saving the environment). Moreover, mediation analyses revealed that this effect was driven by differences in the size of the gap between participants' expectations and reality. Compared to those who pursued an abstractly-framed prosocial goal, those who pursued a concretely-framed goal perceived that the actual outcome of their goal-directed efforts more accurately matched their expectations, causing them to experience a greater boost in happiness. Evidence that participants are unable to predict this effect, believing that pursuing abstractly-framed prosocial goals would have either an equal or greater positive impact on their own happiness, is also presented.
Bounded refinement types

We present a notion of bounded quantification for refinement types and show how it expands the expressiveness of refinement typing by using it to develop typed combinators for: (1) relational algebra and safe database access, (2) Floyd-Hoare logic within a state transformer monad equipped with combinators for branching and looping, and (3) using the above to implement a refined IO monad that tracks capabilities and resource usage. This leap in expressiveness comes via a translation to ``ghost" functions, which lets us retain the automated and decidable SMT based checking and inference that makes refinement typing effective in practice.
Evolutionarily conserved recognition and innate immunity to fungal pathogens by the scavenger receptors SCARF1 and CD36

Receptors involved in innate immunity to fungal pathogens have not been fully elucidated. We show that the Caenorhabditis elegans receptors CED-1 and C03F11.3, and their mammalian orthologues, the scavenger receptors SCARF1 and CD36, mediate host defense against two prototypic fungal pathogens, Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans. CED-1 and C03F11.1 mediated antimicrobial peptide production and were necessary for nematode survival after C. neoformans infection. SCARF1 and CD36 mediated cytokine production and were required for macrophage binding to C. neoformans, and control of the infection in mice. Binding of these pathogens to SCARF1 and CD36 was beta-glucan dependent. Thus, CED-1/SCARF1 and C03F11.3/CD36 are beta-glucan binding receptors and define an evolutionarily conserved pathway for the innate sensing of fungal pathogens.
Topologies on types

We de…ne and analyze a "strategic topology" on types in the Harsanyi-Mertens- Zamir universal type space, where two types are close if their strategic behavior is similar in all strategic situations. For a …xed game and action de…ne the distance be- tween a pair of types as the dierence between the smallest " for which the action is " interim correlated rationalizable. We de…ne a strategic topology in which a sequence of types converges if and only if this distance tends to zero for any action and game. Thus a sequence of types converges in the strategic topology if that smallest " does not jump either up or down in the limit. As applied to sequences, the upper-semicontinuity prop- erty is equivalent to convergence in the product topology, but the lower-semicontinuity property is a strictly stronger requirement, as shown by the electronic mail game. In the strategic topology, the set of "…nite types" (types describable by …nite type spaces) is dense but the set of …nite common-prior types is not. JEL classi…cation and keywords: C70, C72, rationalizability, incomplete informa- tion, common knowledge, universal type space, strategic topology.
An expert system for automated highway driving

The applicability of expert systems to the task of guiding an automobile on a limited-access highway is studied. The vehicle is assumed to be equipped with sensors detecting the surrounding traffic, road signs, and road geometry as well as control logic and actuators governing the throttle, steering angle, and brakes. The goal of the expert system is to issue commands to the controllers, given the traffic situation, traffic signals, road signs, and the strategy chosen by the driver. The system presented consists of a rule base providing the required driving knowledge, a backward chaining inference engine that performs the reasoning, a knowledge-base compiler that optimizes the reasoning process, and a highway-traffic simulator that simulates vehicles on a highway, either controlled by a preset strategy or by instance of the expert system. The implementation and the testing environment, including the highway traffic simulator and simulation results, is described. The benefits associated with the use of the system are summarized. >
The people problem: computers can help

Each day tens of millions of people parade in and out of our academic and industrial facilities in search of their daily bread. Of these, many find their work challenging and stimulating. Countless others, however, are reduced to vestiges of human spirit by the frustrations of their environment, boredom with lack of responsibility, or misdirection of their talents. Consequently, they approach their assignments with something less than a maximum of enthusiasm.
High-efficiency GaInP/GaAs tandem solar cells

GaInP/GaAs tandem solar cells have achieved efficiencies between 25.7-30.2%, depending on illumination conditions. The efficiencies are the highest confirmed two-terminal values measured for any solar cell within each standard illumination category. The monolithic, series-connected design of the tandem cells allows them to be substituted for silicon or gallium arsenide cells in photovoltaic panel systems with minimal design changes. The advantages of using GaInP/GaAs tandem solar cells in space and terrestrial applications are discussed primarily in terms of the reduction in balance-of-system costs that accrues when using a higher efficiency cell. The new efficiency values represent a significant improvement over previous efficiencies for this materials system, and we identify grid design, back interface passivation, and top interface passivation as the three key factors leading to this improvement. In producing the high-efficiency cells, we have addressed nondestructive diagnostics and materials growth reproducibility as well as peak cell performance.
When does education matter? The protective effect of education for cohorts graduating in bad times

Using Eurobarometer data, we document large variation across European countries in education gradients in income, self-reported health, life satisfaction, obesity, smoking and drinking. While this variation has been documented previously, the reasons why the effect of education on income, health and health behaviors varies is not well understood. We build on previous literature documenting that cohorts graduating in bad times have lower wages and poorer health for many years after graduation, compared to those graduating in good times. We investigate whether more educated individuals suffer smaller income and health losses as a result of poor labor market conditions upon labor market entry. We confirm that a higher unemployment rate at graduation is associated with lower income, lower life satisfaction, greater obesity, more smoking and drinking later in life. Further, education plays a protective role for these outcomes, especially when unemployment rates are high: the losses associated with poor labor market outcomes are substantially lower for more educated individuals. Variation in unemployment rates upon graduation can potentially explain a large fraction of the variance in gradients across different countries.
The synthesis and attempted polymerization of an α,β,β-trifluorostyrene disubstituted by hexafluoro-2-propanol groups

Abstract The preparation of [(5-(trifluoroethenyl)-1,3-phenylene)bis[2,2,2-trifluoro-1- trifluoromethylethylidene]oxy]-bis[trimethylsilane] 2 in excellent isolated yield from the corresponding aryl iodide 4 is described. The synthesis features conversion of the known dialcohol 3 to the trimethylsilyl ether 4 which gave excellent protection against organometallic reagents and allowed the Pd(PPh 3 ) 4 catalyzed coupling with trifluoroethenylzinc bromide. Compound 2 exhibited good thermal stability with little propensity to form the corresponding F -cyclobutane dimer at room temperature.
Semiclassical decay of near extremal fivebranes

We argue that a near-extremal charge-k type II NS fivebrane can be reliably described in semiclassical string perturbation theory as long as both k and μ/k are large, where μ is the energy density in string units. For a small value of the asymptotic string coupling g, the dynamics in the throat surrounding the fivebrane reduces to the CGHS model with massive fields. We find that the energy density leaks off the brane in the form of Hawking radiation at a rate of order 1/k7/2 in string units independently of g to leading order. In the g→0 limit the radiation persists but never reaches asymptotic infinity because the throat becomes infinitely long.
Cutting Corners and Working Overtime: Quality Erosion in the Service Industry

The erosion of service quality throughout the economy is a frequent concern in the popular press. The American Customer Satisfaction Index for services fell in 2000 to 69.4%, down 5 percentage points from 1994. We hypothesize that the characteristics of services--inseparability, intangibility, and labor intensity--interact with management practices to bias service providers toward reducing the level of service they deliver, often locking entire industries into a vicious cycle of eroding service standards. To explore this proposition we develop a formal model that integrates the structural elements of service delivery. We use econometric estimation, interviews, observations, and archival data to calibrate the model for a consumer-lending service center in a major bank in the United Kingdom. We find that temporary imbalances between service capacity and demand interact with decision rules for effort allocation, capacity management, overtime, and quality aspirations to yield permanent erosion of the service standards and loss of revenue. We explore policies to improve performance and implications for organizational design in the service sector.
The Gravity Equation in International Trade: An Explanation

The gravity equation in international trade states that bilateral exports are proportional to economic size and inversely proportional to geographic distance. While the role of size is well understood, that of distance remains mysterious. I offer an explanation for the role of distance: If (i) the distribution of firm sizes is Pareto, (ii) the average squared distance of a firm’s exports is an increasing power function of its size, and (iii) a parameter restriction holds, then the distance elasticity of trade is constant for long distances. When the firm size distribution follows Zipf’s law, trade is inversely proportional to distance.
Multistage Tests of Multiple Hypotheses

Conventional multiple hypothesis tests use step-up, step-down, or closed testing methods to control the overall error rates. We will discuss marrying these methods with adaptive multistage sampling rules and stopping rules to perform efficient multiple hypothesis testing in sequential experimental designs. The result is a multistage step-down procedure that adaptively tests multiple hypotheses while preserving the family-wise error rate and extends Holm's (1979) step-down procedure to the sequential setting, yielding substantial savings in sample size with small loss in power.
Competition for double growth-limiting nutrients in continuous culture

Competition between two microorganisms in continuous culture for multiple substrates is examined. The competitive elimination principle of Gauss applies when two organisms compete for one growth-limiting substrate. If two substrates are present, and microbial growth depends on both (double substrate limitation), then both organisms may coexist in a stable steady state. The range of microbial parameters over which this steady state occurs is examined.
Integral models of certain PEL Shimura varieties with \({\Gamma_1(p)}\)-type level structure

We study p-adic integral models of certain PEL Shimura varieties with level subgroup at p related to the $${\Gamma_1(p)}$$ -level subgroup in the case of modular curves. We will consider two cases: the case of Shimura varieties associated with unitary groups that split over an unramified extension of $${\mathbb{Q}_p}$$ and the case of Siegel modular varieties. We construct local models, i.e. simpler schemes which are etale locally isomorphic to the integral models. Our integral models are defined by a moduli scheme using the notion of an Oort–Tate generator of a group scheme. We use these local models to find a resolution of the integral model in the case of the Siegel modular variety of genus 2. The resolution is regular with special fiber a nonreduced divisor with normal crossings.
Revisiting the Meerwein–Ponndorf–Verley reduction: a sustainable protocol for transfer hydrogenation of aldehydes and ketones

An economical and sustainable transfer hydrogenation for aldehydes and ketones is described. The general protocol is mild, chemo-selective and, importantly, uses neither precious nor non-precious metals and even no ligands.
The Testis Isoform of the Phosphorylase Kinase Catalytic Subunit (PhK-T) Plays a Critical Role in Regulation of Glycogen Mobilization in Developing Lung

Abstract In order to identify the form of phosphorylase kinase catalytic subunit expressed in developing lung, degenerate polymerase chain reaction primers were designed based on conserved domains of the two known catalytic subunits, expressed primarily in muscle and testis. Amplification of cDNA from day 19 fetal rat lung followed by cloning and sequence analyses indicated that only the testis isoform of phosphorylase kinase (PhK-T) was detectable in fetal lung. In situ hybridization analyses indicated that expression of PhK-T RNA in developing lung tissue was widespread and not restricted to Type II epithelial cells; PhK-T protein expression was temporally and spatially correlated with expression of PhK-T RNA. PhK-T RNA and protein expression was also characterized in the PhK-deficient glycogen storage disease (gsd) rat. PhK-T RNA levels were similar in Type II cells isolated from wild type and gsd/gsd fetuses; in contrast, PhK-T protein was virtually undetectable in gsd/gsd Type II cells and enzyme activity was very low. These results suggest that PhK-T plays a critical role in mobilization of glycogen during fetal lung development and that failure to catabolize glycogen in the gsd/gsd rat is related to an untranslatable PhK-T RNA or unstable protein.
NULLIFICATION OF KNOTS AND LINKS

It is known that a knot/link can be nullified, i.e. can be made into the trivial knot/link, by smoothing some crossings in a projection diagram of the knot/link. The nullification of knots/links is believed to be biologically relevant. For example, in DNA topology, the nullification process may be the pathway for a knotted circular DNA to unknot itself (through recombination of its DNA strands). The minimum number of such crossings to be smoothed in order to nullify the knot/link is called the nullification number. It turns out that there are several different ways to define such a number, since different conditions may be applied in the nullification process. We show that these definitions are not equivalent, thus they lead to different nullification numbers for a knot/link in general, not just one single nullification number. Our aim is to explore some mathematical properties of these nullification numbers. First, we give specific examples to show that the nullification numbers we defined are different....
Chaperone-mediated copper handling in the periplasm

Covering: up to the end of 2009 Metal transport systems are broadly utilized to maintain low levels of metals to prevent cellular malfunction caused by an overabundance of metals. The CusCFBA Cu(I)/Ag(I) resistance system, commonly found in Gram-negative organisms, typically consists of a tripartite CBA transport complex that spans both the inner and outer membranes as well as a small periplasmic protein, CusF. In the CusCFBA system, CusF functions as a metallochaperone which transfers metal to the tripartite complex to aid in metal resistance. However, CusF-like proteins have also been observed in genomic contexts apart from the CBA-type transport systems, suggesting it could either play a role as a metallochaperone to other systems or have other roles than that of a metallochaperone. In this review, we focus on the molecular function of CusF in the CusCFBA transport system and discuss the metal transport pathway through this system. In addition we briefly discuss the potential functions of CusF-like proteins in other contexts.
Relationship Banking, Liquidity, and Investment in the German Industrialization

Close bank relationships are thought to ameliorate firms' liquidity constraints--a phenomenon frequently measured by liquidity sensitivity of investment. Using German firms during the formative years of universal banking (1903-1913), this paper shows that, even controlling for selection bias, investment is more sensitive to internal liquidity for bank-networked firms than unattached firms. The firm exhibiting the greatest liquidity sensitivity, however, faced no apparent liquidity constraint. The findings yield two implications: they support recent research rejecting a linear relationship between liquidity sensitivity and financing constraints, and they suggest that relationship banking provides no consistent lessening of firms' liquidity sensitivity.
Nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling of unactivated neopentyl iodides with Grignard reagents

Abstract Primary neopentyl iodides react with aryl Grignard reagents in the presence of 10 mol% (dppf)NiCl 2 to give the cross-coupled product.