cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Variation in SBIRT delivery among acute care facilities.

Abstract Background Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an evidence-based process to recognize and intervene with people who use substances. Despite evidence to support the SBIRT effectiveness, this process is rarely used in acute care. To facilitate use of SBIRT in acute care, it is important to first understand the implementation processes. Purpose To describe SBIRT processes across 14 acute care facilities. Methods A phone interview was conducted with site coordinators at 14 facilities to describe their SBIRT process and clinicians involved in each step. Findings Seven different SBIRT processes were identified for people that use alcohol and/or drugs, and five different processes were identified for people that use tobacco. The function of SBIRT was consistent throughout facilities, but the form of implementation varied based on organizational context. Discussion Future SBIRT dissemination efforts will need to first understand the local processes and clinicians involved within each facility to tailor implementation to local context.
Schools and the digital challenge: Evolution and perspectives

This paper proposes a reflection on the evolution of educational technologies and on its impact on school education. Over time, even though with different approaches, methods and tools, educational technology as a field of research has followed substantially two main directions. The first direction has resulted in studies on the new technical and conceptual skills required by digital technologies, the second has focused on the use of ICT to change teaching and learning environments and the way in which curricular subjects are taught. In this paper the evolution of research in educational technology is briefly outlined considering these two orientations. The paper then considers how policy issues influence the large-scale implementation of plans for digital schools with a brief examination of the specific case of Italy.
Guest Editorial: Special Section on Resilience, Reliability, and Security in Cyber–Physical Systems

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) refers to the integrative system consisting of interconnected computing and control devices interacting with the physical infrastructure via sensors and actuators. Recently, there is a swift growth of CPSs ranging from smart grids to smart buildings, robotics, and other industrial control systems. They have formed the keystone of the sustainable growth of the economy, manufacturing, and smart and connected communities. Due to extensive applications of CPSs, their resilience, reliability, and security are paramount. Many factors, however, pose significant threats to CPSs and lead to high economic losses and social impacts. Software defects also make CPSs vulnerable to security attacks and coordinated cyber and physical attacks. To address this issue, emerging technologies and methods for understanding and improving the resilience, reliability, and security of CPSs are needed. This Special Section aims to provide a platform to help define, understand, and quantify the resilience, reliability, and security of CPSs.
Texas is not a human evolution desert! Presenting human evolution to the public through museum displays

Texas is home to four of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. As would be expected, several large universities in Texas, public and private, offer courses in which the topic of human evolution is covered. What might be more surprising to some, given the politics of the state, is that two major Texas public museums (the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas) display substantial human evolution content. Here I review content related to human evolution in five major science museums in Texas and explore the reasons for the differences among these museums. Among the most important factors are money, museum location, museum history and mission, and what can be called “intentionality.” Unsurprisingly, if we want to see more human evolution museum displays, we must convince museum administrators that adding this content is consistent with their mission and will attract more visitors. We (and our students) can, in addition, be more proactive in reaching out to our local museums.
Vacancy ordering during selective oxidation of β-NiAl

Abstract β-NiAl is widely used as a protective coating for high-temperature corrosion, where the selective oxidation of Al leads to the formation of a thin alumina scale to prevent further oxidation. However, understanding how the selective oxidation couples to the structural and chemical evolution of the base alloy remains largely unexplored. Here, by using in-situ environmental transmission electron microscopy and density functional theory calculations, we reveal at the atomic scale that the selective oxidation of Al is accompanied by injection of vacancies into the bulk lattice. In particular, we discovered that during the layer-by-layer oxidation process, the injected vacancies preferentially cluster along directions on the (0 0 1) planes of β-NiAl, leading to the formation of band-like structural features. This finding sheds lights on the atomic mechanism of oxidation in β-NiAl, which may also extend to the selective oxidation of other ordered intermetallic alloys.
Online education as a “Mental Institution”

Work on situated cognition and affectivity holds that cognitive and affective processes always occur within, depend upon, and, perhaps, are even partially constituted by the surrounding social and ...
A 77.1-dB-SNDR 6.25-MHz-BW Pipeline SAR ADC With Enhanced Interstage Gain Error Shaping and Quantization Noise Shaping

This article presents an enhanced interstage gain error shaping (GES) technique that adopts a digital error feedback (DEF) method to address the truncation error in the prior implementation, which can extend the interstage gain error tolerance by five times. The proposed DEF technique does not introduce additional errors as it operates purely in the digital domain. This article also proposes a first-order passive quantization noise shaping (NS) technique that reduces the input-pair ratio of the two-input-pair comparator by 2.7 times, thus alleviating the noise penalty caused by using a multiple-input-pair comparator. A prototype analog-to-digital converter (ADC) equipped with the proposed techniques in a 40-nm CMOS technology achieves a 77.1-dB signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) over 6.25-MHz bandwidth while operating at 100 MS/s and consuming 1.38 mW. It achieves a 173.7-dB Schreier figure of merit (FoM).
Living Donor Nephrectomy: Approaches, Innovations, and Outcomes

Living donation serves an important role in enhancing access to kidney transplantation with superior long-term outcomes compared to allografts from deceased donors. While surgical risks for the living donor are generally low, the safety of living donor nephrectomy relies upon careful preoperative planning and evaluation. Living donor nephrectomy has been transformed by advances in laparoscopy and surgical technique, which have minimized risks for donors while improving outcomes for organ recipients. Surgical approaches are continually evolving in the era of robotic and single-port surgery, although at this time these approaches should only be performed by surgeons with adequate training and experience, and after informed consent. Herein, surgical considerations, approaches, new innovations, and outcomes for living kidney donation are described.
Single organelle measurements of melanosome pH using the novel ratiometric indicator RpHiMEL.

Abstract Melanocytes are specialized cells that produce melanin pigments responsible for skin, hair, and eye pigmentation. The synthesis and storage of melanin occurs in unique lysosome-related organelles called melanosomes, which regulate melanin production via complex regulatory mechanisms. Maintenance of the melanosome luminal ionic environment and pH is crucial for proper function of the main melanogenic enzymes. Defects in genes encoding pH-regulating melanosomal proteins result in oculocutaneous albinism, which is characterized by hypopigmentation, impaired vision, and increased susceptibility to skin and eye cancers. We recently uncovered several ion channels and transporters that modulate melanin synthesis by acidifying or neutralizing the luminal pH of melanosomes. However, our understanding of how melanosomes and other related organelles maintain their luminal pH is far from complete. The study of melanosome pH regulation requires robust imaging and quantification tools. Despite recent advances in the development of such methods, many limitations remain, particularly for quantitative analysis of individual organelle pH. In this chapter, we will provide an overview of the available methods used for melanosome pH determination, including their advantages, limitations, and challenges. To address the critical, unmet need for reliable melanosome pH quantification tools, we engineered a novel genetically encoded, ratiometric pH sensor for melanosomes that we named RpHiMEL. Here, we describe the design and optimization of RpHiMEL, and provide a pH quantification method for individual melanosomes in live cells. We demonstrate that RpHiMEL is a highly versatile tool with the potential to advance our understanding of pH regulation in melanosomes and related organelles.
Towards CMOS-Compatible Negative-Index Metastructures

We design and analyze the optical properties of multilayered metal-dielectric fishnet metastructures using fullwave numerical simulations. We report negative refraction at the infrared spectral range with low loss. Most previous studies reported negative refraction in this range using stack fishnet design with either gold or silver metal. Our metastructure is made up of copper/SiO 2 /copper stack fishnet, which is CMOS-compatible and features losses comparable to those in metastructures utilizing noble metals.
Testing the Psychometric Characteristics of the Revised Mastery of Stress Instrument in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE A promising, yet lengthy measure to identify mastery of patient-identified stress is Younger's (1991, 1993) Mastery of Stress Instrument (MSI). With a goal for a parsimonious and valid measure, this study determined the psychometric properties of a reduced item instrument with adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. METHODS First, an expert content analysis was completed. Second, item and confirmatory factor analysis were completed with a sample of 200 adults with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. RESULTS Eight items were removed through content validity and seven items were removed with Item analysis. Factor analysis supported Younger's four sub-concepts. CONCLUSIONS Future research with this revised MSI scale is advocated to identify those who may need strategies to increase their mastery of stress.
Desert, Utility, and Minimum Contacts: Toward a Mixed Theory of Personal Jurisdiction

In this Essay, I suggest several steps to improve the Supreme Court's approach to minimum contacts analysis. Though they necessitate some modification of current doctrine, these steps require neither radical alteration of the test's current factors nor abandonment of any of its purposes. I propose a new way of looking at the Court's minimum contacts analysis that better explains and integrates the factors, temporal perspectives, and purposes that presently figure in the analysis. My approach draws on criminal law, analogizing a state's imposition of the burdens of jurisdiction to its imposition of a criminal sanction. It sees the minimum contacts doctrine as driven by two goals-individual desert and social utility-with quite different temporal orientations and criteria. This approach uses one group of factors that adopts an ex post viewpoint looking back to the time before initiation of litigation (for example, the defendant's past conduct and mental state) to assess whether the defendant deserves imposition of the burden of the forum's exercise of jurisdiction. It collects in a second group factors that adopt an ex ante viewpoint looking forward to the time after initiation of the litigation (for example, efficiency and party convenience) and uses them to determine whether the forum's exercise of jurisdiction will prove socially useful.
IL-27 inhibits HIV-1 infection in human macrophages by down-regulating host factor SPTBN1 during monocyte to macrophage differentiation

Macrophages represent a major target and viral reservoir of HIV-1 infection. The susceptibility of macrophages to HIV-1 infection is modulated during monocyte differentiation. IL-27 is an antiviral cytokine which also plays a role in monocyte activation. Here, we present new evidence that IL-27 promotes monocyte differentiation into macrophages that are non-permissive for HIV-1 infection. While IL-27 treatment does not affect expression of macrophage differentiation markers or macrophage biological functions, it confers HIV resistance by down-regulating SPTBN1, a required host factor for HIV-1 infection. IL-27 down-regulates SPTBN1 during monocyte differentiation through a TAK-1-mediated MAPK signaling pathway. Knockdown of SPTBN1 strongly inhibits HIV-1 infection of macrophages; conversely, overexpression of SPTBN1 markedly increases HIV susceptibility of IL-27 treated macrophages. Moreover, we demonstrate that SPTBN1 associates with HIV-1 gag proteins. Collectively, our results underscore the ability of IL-27 to protect macrophages from HIV-1 infection by down-regulating SPTBN1 during monocyte to macrophage differentiation without altering other macrophage biological functions, thus indicating IL-27 as a potential immunotherapeutic reagent to prevent HIV-1 infection.
Brain surface parameterization using riemann surface structure

We develop a general approach that uses holomorphic 1- forms to parameterize anatomical surfaces with complex (possibly branching) topology. Rather than evolve the surface geometry to a plane or sphere, we instead use the fact that all orientable surfaces are Riemann surfaces and admit conformal structures, which induce special curvilinear coordinate systems on the surfaces. Based on Riemann surface structure, we can then canonically partition the surface into patches. Each of these patches can be conformally mapped to a parallelogram. The resulting surface subdivision and the parameterizations of the components are intrinsic and stable. To illustrate the technique, we computed conformal structures for several types of anatomical surfaces in MRI scans of the brain, including the cortex, hippocampus, and lateral ventricles. We found that the resulting parameterizations were consistent across subjects, even for branching structures such as the ventricles, which are otherwise difficult to parameterize. Compared with other variational approaches based on surface inflation, our technique works on surfaces with arbitrary complexity while guaranteeing minimal distortion in the parameterization. It also offers a way to explicitly match landmark curves in anatomical surfaces such as the cortex, providing a surface-based framework to compare anatomy statistically and to generate grids on surfaces for PDE-based signal processing.
Comments on the evaluation of policy models

This paper examines the evaluation of models claimed to be relevant for policy making purposes. A number of tests are proposed to determine the usefulness of such models in the policy making process. These tests are applied to three empirical examples.
The Effect of Skin Disinfection Materials on Reducing Blood Culture Contamination

Contaminated blood cultures may cause results to be misinterpreted, create unnecessary work for the laboratory, and increase costs. Disinfection of the venipuncture site is considered to be necessary for preventing contamination, although there is little information about the effectiveness of using different disinfection materials. The use of 70% isopropyl pads and povidone iodine saturated swabs (conventional method) was compared with the use of a 70% isopropyl/10% acetone scrub and povidone iodine dispenser (PREP method) for skin disinfection. Blood culture "kits" were prepared--bags containing collection tubes, instructions, and either conventional or PREP materials and were distributed randomly. The contents were concealed by a cover to prevent the user from selecting a specific type of decontamination kit. The kits were identified in the laboratory by color-coded labels on the collection tubes. Among 1,546 specimens evaluated, the contamination rate observed with conventional disinfection was significantly higher (4.6%; N = 763) than with PREP materials (2.2%; N = 783, P = 0.011) and was equivalent to the preceding 6-month contamination rate (4.7%). The lower contamination rate may be associated with greater effectiveness of a scrub or isopropyl/acetone solution, or both. Decontamination materials may have a significant impact on reducing blood culture contaminants from skin flora.
Muscle glycogen remodeling and glycogen phosphate metabolism following exhaustive exercise of wild type and laforin knockout mice

Glycogen, the repository of glucose in many cell types, contains small amounts of covalent phosphate, of uncertain function and poorly understood metabolism. Loss-of-function mutations in the laforin gene cause the fatal neurodegenerative disorder, Lafora disease, characterized by increased glycogen phosphorylation and the formation of abnormal deposits of glycogen-like material called Lafora bodies. It is generally accepted that the phosphate is removed by the laforin phosphatase. To study the dynamics of skeletal muscle glycogen phosphorylation in vivo under physiological conditions, mice were subjected to glycogen-depleting exercise and then monitored while they resynthesized glycogen. Depletion of glycogen by exercise was associated with a substantial reduction in total glycogen phosphate and the newly resynthesized glycogen was less branched and less phosphorylated. Branching returned to normal on a time frame of days, whereas phosphorylation remained suppressed over a longer period of time. We observed no change in markers of autophagy. Exercise of 3-month-old laforin knock-out mice caused a similar depletion of glycogen but no loss of glycogen phosphate. Furthermore, remodeling of glycogen to restore the basal branching pattern was delayed in the knock-out animals. From these results, we infer that 1) laforin is responsible for glycogen dephosphorylation during exercise and acts during the cytosolic degradation of glycogen, 2) excess glycogen phosphorylation in the absence of laforin delays the normal remodeling of the branching structure, and 3) the accumulation of glycogen phosphate is a relatively slow process involving multiple cycles of glycogen synthesis-degradation, consistent with the slow onset of the symptoms of Lafora disease.
Bandwidth Exchange for Fair Secondary Coexistence in TV White Space

The recent ruling by the FCC has mandated a geo-location database approach to regulate the coexistence of primary and secondary users in TV white space. However, mechanisms for secondary coexistence have been left unspecified and prompts the design and study of the same. In this paper, we propose a mechanism to incentivize fair and efficient secondary user cooperation. Specifically, we assume the existence of cognitive radio equipped secondary users capable of OFDMA with the ability to dynamically exchange subcarriers among themselves. Based on a previously proposed incentive mechanism called Bandwidth Exchange (BE), we further leverage the capability of the mandatory geo-location database to enable fast negotiation between potential cooperation partners to realize a Nash Bargaining Solution (NBS) for secondary coexistence. We illustrate how this mechanism works when secondary users in an OFDMA access network form cooperation through BE for which the NBS is calculated based on information obtained from the database.
A transformer-based poly-phase network for ultra-broadband quadrature signal generation

This paper presents a novel transformer-based poly-phase passive network for generating high-quality fully differential quadrature signals with low-loss, ultra-broad bandwidth, and high compactness. A differential folded transformer quadrature coupler serves as the building block in the proposed poly-phase network. The poly-phase network can be readily extended to high-order configurations for broadband operation. Unlike the RC-CR poly-phase network, the transformer-based design offers inherently low loss and compatibility with output loading. As a proof-of-concept design, a 3-stage transformer poly-phase network is implemented in a standard 65 nm bulk CMOS process and achieves high-quality differential quadrature generation over a decade bandwidth. Measurements demonstrate the maximum differential quadrature outputs phase error within ±2° from 2 GHz to 20 GHz, maximum magnitude mismatch within ±1 dB from 2.6 GHz to 25 GHz, and a worst-case image rejection ratio of 25 dB. The measured passive loss is 3.5 dB at 6.4 GHz.
Inequality in Latin America : Determinants and Consequences

Latin America is together with Sub-Saharan Africa the most unequal region of the world. This paper documents recent inequality trends in the Latin American region, going beyond traditional measures of income inequality. The paper also reviews some of the explanations that have been put forward to understand the current situation, and discusses why reducing income inequality should be an important policy priority. In particular, the authors discuss channels through which inequality can affect growth and output volatility. On the whole, the analysis suggests a two-pronged approach to reduce inequality in the region that combines policies aimed at improving the distribution of assets (especially education) with elements aimed at improving the capacity of the state to redistribute income through taxes and transfers.
Independent Counsel and Vigorous Investigation and Prosecution

While the debate about the merits of the Independent Counsel has proceeded fiercely for over twenty years, there is one point about which participants on both sides of the controversy agree: The Independent Counsel is uniquely likely to investigate and prosecute high-level wrongdoing vigorously. For the supporters of the office, this is its primary merit: Because she is not appointed by or answerable to the President or the Attorney General, the Independent Counsel will be able to pursue potential criminality fearlessly. For the critics of the office, this is its fatal weakness: Named by unelected judges, virtually unremovable, lavishly funded, solely focused on one matter, the Independent Counsel will continue to investigate after any other government lawyer would have stopped and will prosecute when any other government lawyer would have concluded that prosecution was inappropriate.1 The purpose of this essay is to complicate this conventional wisdom by examining the two completed investigations into allegations of presidential wrongdoing: Watergate, in which the lead government attorney was a Special Prosecutor named by the Attorney General, rather than an Independent Counsel, and Iran-Contra, in which the lead government attorney was an Independ-
A Multidimensional Aggregation Object (MAO) Framework for Computing Distributive Aggregations

Multidimensional aggregation plays an important role in decisionmaking systems. A conceptual Multidimensional Aggregation Object (MAO), which consists of measures, scopes and aggregation function, is introduced to represent relationships among aggregators on addressable subsets of data. In the MAO model, aggregations of low-level (intermediate) data can be reused for aggregations on high-level data along the same dimension. Experimental results show that caching intermediate aggregated data can significantly improve performance. Incremental compensating and full recomputing cache-updating approaches are proposed. Execution plans for deriving the aggregations from MAOs are presented. The proposed data aggregation technique can be applied to data-warehousing, OLAP, and data mining tasks.
Competitiveness and Marketability of Vegetable Oils, Oilmeals, and Plant Equipment for Processing of Oilseeds and Oils in the Baltic States

This paper offers an assessment of the competitiveness and marketability of vegetable oils and oatmeals, and evaluates plants and processing equipment used for oilseeds in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The analysis will aid midwestern firms in the oilseed industry by providing comprehensive information about technological and market opportunities in the Baltic States.
Reexamining the Impact of Employee Relocation Assistance on Housing Prices

In this paper, we reexamine the issue of whether corporate relocation assistance programs for transferred employees significantly affect sale prices of single-family homes. We estimate a hedonic price equation that includes physical housing characteristics, location factors, occupancy status, and type of seller for a sample of 2,441 transactions. Seller types include (a) transferred employees who were given direct relocation assistance, (b) transferred employees who were not given direct relocation assistance, and (c) sellers who were not facing an employment transfer. After controlling for vacancy and tenant occupancy, we find that houses sold by transferred employees who receive direct relocation assistance exhibit no significant price differential, but that houses sold by transferred employees who do not receive direct relocation assistance sell at a discount of approximately 3%.
PR-OWL 2.0 - bridging the gap to OWL semantics

The past few years have witnessed an increasingly mature body of research on the Semantic Web, with new standards being developed and more complex use cases being proposed and explored. As complexity increases in SW applications, so does the need for principled means to cope with uncertainty inherent to real world SW applications. Not surprisingly, several approaches addressing uncertainty representation and reasoning on the Semantic Web have emerged [3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14]. For example, PR-OWL [3] provides OWL constructs for representing Multi-Entity Bayesian Network (MEBN) [8] theories. This paper reviews some shortcomings of PR-OWL 1 [2] and describes how they will be addressed in PR-OWL 2. A method is presented for mapping back and forth from triples into random variables (RV). The method applies to triples representing both predicates and functions. A complex example is given for mapping an n-ary relation using the proposed schematic.
Spatial Patterns of Headquarters

This study of the spatial concentration of the headquarters of exchange-listed companies suggests that the relevancy of the “efficiency parameter” of agglomeration theory still holds in explaining ...
Incubation Period of Infectious Diseases

The incubation period of an infectious disease is the time interval between the exposure to a disease-causing infectious agent and the onset of symptomatic (clinical) disease. The incubation period of a disease can be very variable among individuals and a single number, such as the mean or median incubation period, does not reveal the significant heterogeneity in incubation periods in a population. Estimating the distribution of incubation periods is important for a multitude of reasons including modeling the current and future scope of epidemics and evaluating disease control strategies. Important statistical issues arise in estimating incubation period distributions because of incomplete data and selection biases in epidemiological studies. Statistical methods for censored and truncated data are important for addressing those issues in the analyses of incubation periods. Syntheses of data from multiple studies of incubation periods can help overcome the limitations of any single study. Keywords: censoring; epidemic; incubation period; infectious disease modeling; truncation
On the definition of cyber-physical resilience in power systems

Modern society relies heavily upon complex and widespread electric grids. In recent years, advanced sensors, intelligent automation, communication networks, and information technologies (IT) have been integrated into the electric grid to enhance its performance and efficiency. Integrating these new technologies has resulted in more interconnections and interdependencies between the physical and cyber components of the grid. Natural disasters and man-made perturbations have begun to threaten grid integrity more often. Urban infrastructure networks are highly reliant on the electric grid and consequently, the vulnerability of infrastructure networks to electric grid outages is becoming a major global concern. In order to minimize the economic, social, and political impacts of large-scale power system outages, the grid must be resilient in addition of being robust and reliable. The concept of a power system’s cyber-physical resilience centers around maintaining critical functionality of the system backbone in the presence of unexpected extreme disturbances. Resilience is a multidimensional property of the electric grid; it requires managing disturbances originating from physical component failures, cyber component malfunctions, and human attacks. In the electric grid community, there is not a clear and universally accepted definition of cyber-physical resilience. This paper focuses on the definition of resilience for the electric grid and reviews key concepts related to system resilience. This paper aims to advance the field not only by adding cyber-physical resilience concepts to power systems vocabulary, but also by proposing a new way of thinking about grid operation with unexpected extreme disturbances and hazards and leveraging distributed energy resources. The concepts of service availability and quality are not new, but many recognize the need of resilience in maintaining essential services to critical loads, for example to allow home refrigerators to operate for food conservation in the aftermath of a hurricane landfall. By providing a comprehensive definition of power system resilience, this paper paves the way for creating appropriate and effective resilience standards and metrics.
Approaches to liberalizing services

Inly since completion of the Uruguay Round have developing countries in East AsOnly since completion of the Uruguay Round have developing countries in East Asia and the Western Hemisphere shown interest in liberalizing services. Ambitious efforts are now being made to incorporate services in liberalization objectives of both sub-regional and regional integration efforts, including in the Asia-Pacific region under APEC and in the Western Hemisphere under the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) process. At the sub-regional level, member countries of both ASEAN (in East Asia) and MERCOSUR (in Latin America) have chosen to follow the liberalization model set forth in the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and to open their services markets gradually and piecemeal. In the Western Hemisphere, Mexico has successfully promoted the NAFTA model of a more comprehensive liberalization of services markets - and several Latin American countries have adopted the same approach. Regionally, APEC has chosen a concerted voluntary approach to liberalizing services markets. Within the Western Hemisphere, participants are defining which approach they will use in the negotiations on services launched as part of the FTAA in April 1998. In all these efforts, a stated desire to promote more efficient services markets is often hindered by reluctance to open services markets rapidly or comprehensively because of historically entrenched protectionism in the sector and ignorance of the regulatory measures that impede trade in services. Presumably it would be easier to liberalize services at the sub-regional level, among countries at similar stages of development (although the liberalization's economic value there might be questioned). Liberalizing services at the broader regional level is a difficult and ambitious goal, given the diversity of countries involved in such efforts. Thus liberalization will probably move more slowly at the regional than at the sub-regional level - perhaps even more slowly than at the multilateral level. It is possible that the new round of multilateral talks on services scheduled to begin under the WTO in 2000 may well eclipse the recently begun regional efforts.
Large Deviation Principles and Complete Equivalence and Nonequivalence Results for Pure and Mixed Ensembles

We consider a general class of statistical mechanical models of coherent structures in turbulence, which includes models of two-dimensional fluid motion, quasigeostrophic flows, and dispersive waves. First, large deviation principles are proved for the canonical ensemble and the microcanonical ensemble. For each ensemble the set of equilibrium macrostates is defined as the set on which the corresponding rate function attains its minimum of 0. We then present complete equivalence and nonequivalence results at the level of equilibrium macrostates for the two ensembles. Microcanonical equilibrium macrostates are characterized as the solutions of a certain constrained minimization problem, while canonical equilibrium macrostates are characterized as the solutions of an unconstrained minimization problem in which the constraint in the first problem is replaced by a Lagrange multiplier. The analysis of equivalence and nonequivalence of ensembles reduces to the following question in global optimization. What are the relationships between the set of solutions of the constrained minimization problem that characterizes microcanonical equilibrium macrostates and the set of solutions of the unconstrained minimization problem that characterizes canonical equilibrium macrostates? In general terms, our main result is that a necessary and sufficient condition for equivalence of ensembles to hold at the level of equilibrium macrostates is that it holds at the level of thermodynamic functions, which is the case if and only if the
The Financial Performance of REITs Following Initial Public Offerings

This study examines changes in operating performance among real estate investment trusts following an initial public offering (IPO). The purpose is to determine whether there is an enhancement in t...
The minimax sphere eversion

We consider an eversion of a sphere driven by a gradient flow for elastic bending energy. We start with a halfway model which is an unstable Willmore sphere with 4-fold orientation-reversing rotational symmetry. The regular homotopy is automatically generated by flowing down the gradient of the energy from the halfway model to a round sphere, using the Surface Evolver. This flow is not yet fully understood; however, our numerical simulations give evidence that the resulting eversion is isotopic to one of Morin’s classical sphere eversions. These simulations were presented as real-time interactive animations in the CAVE TM automatic virtual environment at Supercomputing’95, as part of an experiment in distributed, parallel computing and broad-band, asynchronous networking.
The Transnational and Sub-National in Global Crimes

At the heart of the globalization debate lies the market and its relation to the nation state. The global economy has made it easier for multinational companies to engage in transnational economic activities thus freeing companies from the restraints and “factor endowment of a single nation” and allowing them access to resources and markets across national boundaries. This shift has resulted in a fundamental transformation of the relationship between market power and state authority, in which the state is increasingly unable or unwilling to regulate the activities of non-state actors. As this Article explains, criminal alliances are both transnational and sub-national; although they operate transnationally, many are organized around common ethnic ties. Furthermore, the proceeds from such illicit operations may be laundered through the use of transnational offshore banks but also through traditional modes of money transfers, also organized along sub-national ethnic lines. This article assesses the relationship between the market and the state, the rise of both transnationalism and sub-nationalism, and provides some observations about how the relationship between law and norms may facilitate or impede the effectiveness of anti-money laundering efforts.
Modeling Country Risk and Capital Flows in GTAP

This paper describes how the standard GTAP framework may be used to assess the short-run impacts of changes in international capital market conditions. It describes a technique that can be used to examine the short-run effects of changes in country risk. In the standard GTAP model investment demand is spread across regions according to a simple rate-of-return-equalizing rule. By making the risk premium in this rule explicit, we are able to examine the effects of changes in these risk premium. This work was originally developed as part of the course material for the South African GTAP short course in January 1998. South Africa has experienced a series of dramatic changes during the last decade, and these have had very significant effects on the capital account. Thus, this paper also contains an application of the technique developed to the recent South African experience, and an assessment of how well the simulated changes in this application match actual outcomes. Technical Paper Number 13 can be downloaded in PDF format. To print this you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Replication of the results in this technical paper may be readily accomplished using the latest version of the RunGTAP software. For those interested in further analysis of the implications of the capital inflow for the South African economy, as well as for the rest of Southern Africa, please download this file in MS Word format.
Why does health share of income increase over time

This paper deals with the view that income elasticity of health care is larger than one, as argued by empirical results on the literature. We build a theoretical model that shows that endogenous demographic transition may play a fundamental role on this result. It is argued that families must choose the number and the life expectancy of their members. Due to limited resources, there is a trade-o. between those two variables though. It is shown that increases on income may produce a demographic transition that allows a larger allocation of resources to health care.
Defect Clustering and Nano‐Phase Structure Characterization of Multi‐Component Rare Earth Oxide Doped Zirconia‐Yttria Thermal Barrier Coatings

Advanced thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) have been developed by incorporating multicomponent rare earth oxide dopants into zirconia-based thermal barrier coatings to promote the creation of the thermodynamically stable, immobile oxide defect clusters and/or nanophases within the coating systems. In this paper, the defect clusters, induced by Nd, Gd, and Yb rare earth dopants in the zirconia-yttria thermal barrier coatings, were characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The TEM lattice imaging, selected area diffraction (SAD), and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) analyses demonstrated that the extensive nanoscale rare earth dopant segregation exists in the plasma-sprayed and electron-physical-vapor-deposited (EB PVD) thermal barrier coatings. The nanoscale concentration heterogeneity and the resulting large lattice distortion promoted the formation of parallel and rotational defective lattice clusters in the coating systems. The presence of the 5-to 100-nm-sized defect clusters and nanophases is believed to be responsible for the significant reduction of thermal conductivity, improved sintering resistance, and long-term high temperature stability of the advanced thermal barrier coating systems.
Impacts of e-Commerce and Enhanced Information Endowments on Financial Services: A Quantitative Analysis of Transparency, Differential Pricing, and Disintermediation

Some implications of e-Commerce financial services firms are becoming clear. The web drives transparency, and increases the information endowment of all market participants. It is harder to manipulate customers' behavior, or to overcharge them. Transparency drives differential pricing. Not all customers can or should be charged the same prices. Transparency reduces the viability of cross-subsidies between customers can or between products. The differential pricing enabled by the web transforms distribution channels, and enables direct distribution and alternative forms of distribution. Some intermediateraries may be bypassed altogether, while others may rapidly lose their best, most profitable, and previously most loyal customers.
The Recurrent Nature of Central Starbursts

New hydrodynamic models with feedback show that feedback-driven turbulence and subsequent relaxation can drive recurrent starbursts, although most of these bursts fizzle due to premature, asymmetric ignition. Strong bursts are terminated when the turbulence inflates the multiphase central disk. The period between bursts is about twice a free-fall time onto the central disk. Transient spirals and bars are common through the burst cycle.
Effect of Controlled Potential on SCC of Nuclear Waste Package Container Materials

The slow-strain-rate (SSR) test technique was used to evaluate the susceptibility of Titanium (Ti) Gr-7 (UNS R52400) and Ti Gr-12 (UNS R53400) to stress corrosion cracking (SCC). Ti Gr-7 and Ti Gr-12 are two candidate container materials for the multi-barrier package for nuclear waste. The tests were done in a deaerated 90 C acidic brine (pH {approx} 2.7) containing 5 weight percent (wt%) sodium chloride (NaCl) using a strain rate of 3.3 x 10{sup -6} sec{sup -1}. Before being tested in the acidic brine, specimens of each alloy were pulled inside the test chamber in the dry condition at ambient temperature. Then while in the test solution, specimens were strained under different cathodic (negative) controlled electrochemical potentials. These controlled potentials were selected based on the corrosion potential measured in the test solution before the specimens were strained. Results indicate that the times to failure (TTF) for Ti Gr-12 were much shorter than those for Ti Gr-7. Furthermore, as the applied potential became more cathodic, Ti Gr-12 showed reduced ductility in terms of percent reduction in area (%RA) and true fracture stress ({sigma}{sub f}). In addition, TTF and percent elongation (%El) reached the minimum values when Ti Gr-12 was tested undermore » an impressed potential of -1162 mV. However, for Ti Gr-7, all these ductility parameters were not significantly influenced by the changes in applied potential. In general, the results of hydrogen analysis by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) showed increased hydrogen concentration at more cathodic controlled potentials. Optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to evaluate the morphology of cracking both at the primary fracture face and the secondary cracks along the gage section of the broken tensile specimen. Transgranular secondary cracks were observed in both alloys possibly resulting from the formation of brittle titanium hydrides due to cathodic charging. The primary fracture face was characterized by dimpled microstructure indicating ductile failure.« less
Allocating priority with auctions An experimental analysis

There are many examples of markets where resources that were allocated ex ante must be rationed ex post. Two alternative methods of rationing are considered in this paper: Priority Service [see Chao and Wilson (American Economic Review 77, 1987) and Wilson (Econometrica 57, 1989)] and Proportional Rationing [see Spulber (International Economic Review 33, 1992)]. An experimental environment is developed in which the two rules are implemented within two well known institutions, the English and the Uniform Price Sealed Bid Auctions, under two different information conditions. We find that Priority Service generates more efficient allocations than Proportional Rationing, and the Sealed Bid Auction performs better than the English. Both mechanisms and rationing rules are more efficient when there is a lack of common information.
3D photography using shadows

A simple and inexpensive approach for extracting the three-dimensional shape of objects is presented. It is based on ‘weak structured lighting;’ and requires little hardware besides the camera: a light source (a desk-lamp or the sun), a stick and a checkerboard. The object, illuminated by the light source, is placed on a stage composed of a ground plane and a back plane; the camera faces the object. The user moves the stick in front of the light source, casting a moving shadow on the scene. The 3D shape of the object is extracted from the spatial and temporal location of the observed shadow. Experimental results are presented on three different scenes (indoor with a desk lamp and outdoor with the sun) demonstrating that the error in reconstructing the surface is less than 0.5% of the size of the object.
Recent advances in the understanding of genetic causes of congenital heart defects.

The clinical approach to children with congenital heart dejects (CHD) has been revolutionized during the past four decades ly developments in diagnostics and therapeutics. In contrast, a profound understanding of the causes of the majority of CHD has only begun to emerge within the past fewyears. Prior epidemiological studies suggested that Mendelian disorders constituted a very small percentage of CHD and that polygenic inheritance was responsible for the majority of cases. Recent discoveries, largely achieved with molecular genetic studies, have provided new insights into the genetic basis of heart malformations. These studies have shown that CHD caused single gene or single locus dejects is more common than had been suspected. In addition, a higher percentage of heart malformations occur in the context of familial disease than was evident previously. In this review, molecular genetic studies of specijic heart lesions and syndromes with CHD are reviewed. Progress on the Human Genome Project has accelerated identzjcation of genes for Mendelian traits with heart defects, and it is anticipated that disease genes for most single gene traits will be known within a few -years. Future challenges include utilizing this emerging genetic information to improve diagnosis and treatment of children with CHD, and harnessing the power ofgenomics to analyze isolated heart defects with complex inheritance patterns.
A Heuristic Prover for Real Inequalities

We describe a general method for verifying inequalities between real-valued expressions, especially the kinds of straightforward inferences that arise in interactive theorem proving. In contrast to approaches that aim to be complete with respect to a particular language or class of formulas, our method establishes claims that require heterogeneous forms of reasoning, relying on a Nelson-Oppen-style architecture in which special-purpose modules collaborate and share information. The framework is thus modular and extensible. A prototype implementation shows that the method works well on a variety of examples, and complements techniques that are used by contemporary interactive provers.
Distinguishable patterns of competition, collusion, and parallel action

Alternative market structures are distinguishable by the degree of parallel action exhibited by producers. We show that the correlation between output levels varies systematically with the degree of interdependence among firms, and establish an ordering among alternative behavioral hypotheses (Cournot, Stackelberg, Edgeworth/Bertrand, collusion, and perfect competition). Because the ordering is invariant to the values of background parameters, statistical tests of market conduct may be possible even when the slopes of the demand curve and marginal cost curves are unknown. An application to the world oil market finds strong evidence of collusive behavior among OPEC members, but not elsewhere. (JEL: D43, L11, L13, Q41)