cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Leaded Gasoline on Elderly Mortality: Evidence from Regulatory Exemptions

Leaded gasoline is still used globally for aviation and automotive racing. Exploiting regulatory exemptions and a novel quasi-experiment, we find that leaded gasoline use in racing increases ambient lead, elevated blood lead rates, and elderly mortality. The mortality estimates indicate that each gram of lead added to gasoline exceeds $1,100 in damages. Our setting allows us to rule out potential confounders, such as correlated pollutants or socioeconomic status. We provide the first causal estimates linking adult mortality to leaded gasoline, highlight the value of banning on-road leaded gasoline, and present policy-relevant cost estimates at the lowest ambient levels to date.
Conditions of Contact: Reexamining the Relationship between Prison Visitation and Recidivism

While in prison, incarcerated persons can be subjected to qualitatively different conditions of confinement ranging from minimum to maximum security settings. In this study, we use data on 17,542 i...
A Yaglom type asymptotic result for subcritical branching Brownian motion with absorption

Abstract We consider a slightly subcritical branching Brownian motion with absorption, where particles move as Brownian motions with drift − 2 + 2 ɛ , undergo dyadic fission at rate 1, and are killed when they reach the origin. We obtain a Yaglom type asymptotic result, showing that the long run expected number of particles conditioned on survival grows exponentially as 1 / ɛ as the process approaches criticality.
Perelman's entropy on ancient Ricci flows

Abstract In [33] , the second author proved Perelman's assertion, namely, for an ancient Ricci flow with bounded and nonnegative curvature operator, bounded entropy is equivalent to noncollapsing on all scales. In this paper, we continue this discussion. It turns out that the curvature operator nonnegativity is not a necessary condition, and we need only to assume a consequence of Hamilton's trace Harnack. Furthermore, we show that this condition holds for steady Ricci solitons with nonnegative Ricci curvature.
Signatures of the effects of defects on the bulk moduli of crystalline solids

Abstract The small atomic region containing a defect in a crystalline solid is nonlinear elastic. In this paper, we consider a solid containing defects as a composite wherein the defected regions have a bulk modulus, K , different from that of the perfect crystal. If the volume fraction of the defected regions is sufficiently small, a rule of mixtures should apply so that K of the composite depends linearly on the volume fraction of the defected region. We identify the slope of that linear dependence as the signature, denoted S . We further show that S is related to a property of the linear elastic fields of point defects described by elastic dipole tensors, P ij . To first order, the P ij of such defects depend linearly on external strain and the strength of that dependence is the diaelastic polarizability tensor, α . We show that S is simply related to α . Atomistic models of EAM Ni were used to compute K versus reciprocal volume for several kinds of defects, namely single, di-, and tri-vacancies and interstitials, dislocations, and grain boundaries. The results show 1) when the volume fraction of the defected region is small, a rule of mixtures applies, and 2) S has a distinct value for each defect and is negative for vacancies but positive for the other defects. Thus, S depends on the effective modulus of the nonlinear region and its size. The effective bulk modulus of a spherical ball-in-hole composite model derived in the Appendix predicts that the variation of K with volume fraction is very nearly linear. The magnitudes of S , although quite small, are discussed as a potential means of monitoring defect changes in their concentration via sensitive experimental measurements of the bulk modulus.
Graph-Free Knowledge Distillation for Graph Neural Networks.

Knowledge distillation (KD) transfers knowledge from a teacher network to a student by enforcing the student to mimic the outputs of the pretrained teacher on training data. However, data samples are not always accessible in many cases due to large data sizes, privacy, or confidentiality. Many efforts have been made on addressing this problem for convolutional neural networks (CNNs) whose inputs lie in a grid domain within a continuous space such as images and videos, but largely overlook graph neural networks (GNNs) that handle non-grid data with different topology structures within a discrete space. The inherent differences between their inputs make these CNN-based approaches not applicable to GNNs. In this paper, we propose to our best knowledge the first dedicated approach to distilling knowledge from a GNN without graph data. The proposed graph-free KD (GFKD) learns graph topology structures for knowledge transfer by modeling them with multinomial distribution. We then introduce a gradient estimator to optimize this framework. Essentially, the gradients w.r.t. graph structures are obtained by only using GNN forward-propagation without back-propagation, which means that GFKD is compatible with modern GNN libraries such as DGL and Geometric. Moreover, we provide the strategies for handling different types of prior knowledge in the graph data or the GNNs. Extensive experiments demonstrate that GFKD achieves the state-of-the-art performance for distilling knowledge from GNNs without training data.
Universal Features of Higher-Form Symmetries at Phase Transitions

We investigate the behavior of higher-form symmetries at various quantum phase transitions. We consider discrete 1-form symmetries, which can be either part of the generalized concept "categorical symmetry" (labelled as $\tilde{Z}_N^{(1)}$) introduced recently, or an explicit $Z_N^{(1)}$ 1-form symmetry. We demonstrate that for many quantum phase transitions involving a $Z_N^{(1)}$ or $\tilde{Z}_N^{(1)}$ symmetry, the following expectation value $ \langle \left( \log O_\mathcal{C} \right)^2 \rangle$ takes the form $\langle \left( \log O_\mathcal{C} \right)^2 \rangle \sim - \frac{A}{\epsilon} P+ b \log P $, where $O_\mathcal{C}$ is an operator defined associated with loop $\mathcal{C}$ (or its interior $\mathcal{A}$), which reduces to the Wilson loop operator for cases with an explicit $Z_N^{(1)}$ 1-form symmetry. $P$ is the perimeter of $\mathcal{C}$, and the $b \log P$ term arises from the sharp corners of the loop $\mathcal{C}$, which is consistent with recent numerics on a particular example. $b$ is a universal microscopic-independent number, which in (2+1)d is related to the universal conductivity at the quantum phase transition. $b$ can be computed exactly for certain transitions using the dualities between (2+1)d conformal field theories developed in recent years. We also compute the "strange correlator" of $O_\mathcal{C}$: $S_{\mathcal{C}} = \langle 0 | O_\mathcal{C} | 1 \rangle / \langle 0 | 1 \rangle$ where $|0\rangle$ and $|1\rangle$ are many-body states with different topological nature.
Spectrally Simple Zeros of Zeon Polynomials

Combinatorial properties of zeons have been applied to graph enumeration problems, graph colorings, routing problems in communication networks, partition-dependent stochastic integrals, and Boolean satisfiability. Power series of elementary zeon functions are naturally reduced to finite sums by virtue of the nilpotent properties of zeons. Further, the zeon extension of any analytic complex function has zeon polynomial representations on associated equivalence classes of zeons. In this paper, zeros of polynomials over complex zeons are considered. Existing results for real zeon polynomials are extended to the complex case and new results are established. In particular, a fundamental theorem of zeon algebra is established for spectrally simple zeros of complex zeon polynomials, and an algorithm is presented that allows one to find spectrally simple zeros when they exist. As an application, inverses of zeon extensions of analytic functions are computed using polynomial methods.
Direct and inverse scattering problems for the first-order discrete system associated with the derivative NLS system

The direct and inverse scattering problems are analyzed for a first-order discrete system associated with the semi-discrete version of the derivative NLS system. The Jost solutions, the scattering coefficients, the bound-state dependency and norming constants are investigated and related to the corresponding quantities for two particular discrete linear systems associated with the semi-discrete version of the NLS system. The bound-state data set with any multiplicities is described in an elegant manner in terms of a pair of constant matrix triplets. Several methods are presented to the solve the inverse problem. One of these methods involves a discrete Marchenko system using as input the scattering data set consisting of the scattering coefficients and the bound-state information, and this method is presented in a way generalizable to other first-order systems both in the discrete and continuous cases for which a Marchenko system is not yet available. Finally, using the time-evolved scattering data set, the inverse scattering transform is applied on the corresponding semi-discrete derivative NLS system, and in the reflectionless case certain explicit solution formulas are presented in closed form expressed in terms of the two matrix triplets.
Biermann battery magnetic fields in ICF capsules: Total magnetic flux generation

This paper focuses on the process of magnetic flux generation in inertial confinement fusion implosions. Hot-spots are shown to be dominated by fields generated during stagnation when the temperature and density gradients are largest. A scaling of hot-spot magnetic flux is derived and compared with simulations, revealing that perturbations with both larger amplitudes and higher mode numbers generate more magnetic flux. The model allows for greater understanding of which target designs will be susceptible to magnetohydrodynamic effects. For example, the model can be used to ascertain the time when most magnetic flux is generated. If generation is weighted more toward early times, then more high-mode magnetic field loops will be present. A hot-spot with no high-mode perturbations at time of peak neutron production can still contain significant magnetic flux on those scales. By assuming that magnetic flux is deposited at the hot-spot edge by Nernst advection, the model can be used to post-process radiation-hydrodynamics data to estimate magnetic field strengths and magnetizations.
A distributed continuous-time modified Newton–Raphson algorithm

Abstract We propose a continuous-time second-order optimization algorithm for solving unconstrained convex optimization problems with bounded Hessian. We show that this alternative algorithm has a comparable convergence rate to that of the continuous-time Newton–Raphson method, however structurally, it is amenable to a more efficient distributed implementation. We present a distributed implementation of our proposed optimization algorithm and prove its convergence via Lyapunov analysis. A numerical example demonstrates our results.
Identification of maternal-effect genes in zebrafish using maternal crispants.

In animals, early development is dependent on a pool of maternal factors, both RNA and proteins, which are required for basic cellular process and cell differentiation until zygotic genome activation. The role of a majority of these maternally expressed factors is not fully understood. By exploiting the biallelic editing ability of CRISPR-Cas9, we identify and characterize maternal-effect genes in a single generation, using a maternal crispant technique. We validated the ability to generate biallelic mutations in the germline by creating maternal crispants that phenocopied previously characterized maternal-effect genes: motley/birc5b, tmi/prc1l, and aura/mid1ip1. Additionally, by targeting maternally expressed genes of unknown function in zebrafish, we identified two new maternal-effect zebrafish genes, kpna7 and fhdc3. The genetic identity of these maternal crispants was confirmed by sequencing haploid progeny from F0 females, which allowed the analysis of newly induced lesions in the maternal germ line. Our studies show that maternal crispants allow for the effective identification and primary characterization of maternal-effect genes in a single generation, facilitating the reverse genetics analysis of maternal factors that drive embryonic development.
Solving and learning nonlinear PDEs with Gaussian processes

Abstract We introduce a simple, rigorous, and unified framework for solving nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs), and for solving inverse problems (IPs) involving the identification of parameters in PDEs, using the framework of Gaussian processes. The proposed approach: (1) provides a natural generalization of collocation kernel methods to nonlinear PDEs and IPs; (2) has guaranteed convergence for a very general class of PDEs, and comes equipped with a path to compute error bounds for specific PDE approximations; (3) inherits the state-of-the-art computational complexity of linear solvers for dense kernel matrices. The main idea of our method is to approximate the solution of a given PDE as the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator of a Gaussian process conditioned on solving the PDE at a finite number of collocation points. Although this optimization problem is infinite-dimensional, it can be reduced to a finite-dimensional one by introducing additional variables corresponding to the values of the derivatives of the solution at collocation points; this generalizes the representer theorem arising in Gaussian process regression. The reduced optimization problem has the form of a quadratic objective function subject to nonlinear constraints; it is solved with a variant of the Gauss–Newton method. The resulting algorithm (a) can be interpreted as solving successive linearizations of the nonlinear PDE, and (b) in practice is found to converge in a small number of iterations (2 to 10), for a wide range of PDEs. Most traditional approaches to IPs interleave parameter updates with numerical solution of the PDE; our algorithm solves for both parameter and PDE solution simultaneously. Experiments on nonlinear elliptic PDEs, Burgers' equation, a regularized Eikonal equation, and an IP for permeability identification in Darcy flow illustrate the efficacy and scope of our framework.
Efficient Computation of Spatially-Discrete Traveling-Wave Modulated Structures

Traveling-wave modulation is a form of space-time modulation which has been shown to enable unique electromagnetic phenomena such as non-reciprocity, beam-steering, frequency conversion, and amplification. In practice, traveling-wave modulation is achieved by applying staggered time-modulation signals to a spatially-discrete array of unit cells. Therefore, the capability to accurately simulate spatially-discrete traveling-wave modulated structures is critical to design. However, simulating these structures is challenging due to the complex space-time dependence of the constituent unit cells. In this paper, a field relation (referred to as the interpath relation) is derived for spatially-discrete traveling-wave modulated structures. The interpath relation reveals that the field within a single time-modulated unit cell (rather than an entire spatial period) is sufficient to determine the field solution throughout space. It will be shown that the interpath relation can be incorporated into existing periodic method of moments solvers simply by modifying the source basis functions. As a result, the computational domain is reduced from an entire spatial period to a single time-modulated unit cell, dramatically reducing the number of unknowns. In the context of traveling-wave modulation, this enables researchers to efficiently simulate both complex structures with patterned unit cells in addition to continuous structures with infinitesimal unit cells.
An Autonomous Driving System - Dedicated Vehicle for People with ASD and their Caregivers

Automated driving system - dedicated vehicles (ADS-DVs), specially designed for people with various disabilities, can be beneficial to improve their mobility. However, research related to autonomous vehicles (AVs) for people with cognitive disabilities, especially Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is limited. Thus, in this study, we focused on the challenge that we framed: “How might we design an ADS-DV that benefits people with ASD and their caregivers?”. In order to address the design challenge, we followed the human-centered design process. First, we conducted user research with caregivers of people with ASD. Second, we identified their user needs, including safety, monitoring and updates, individual preferences, comfort, trust, and reliability. Third, we generated a large number of ideas with brainstorming and affinity diagrams, based on which we proposed an ADS-DV prototype with a mobile application and an interior design. Fourth, we tested both the low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes to fix the possible issues. Our preliminary results showed that such an ASD-DV would potentially improve the mobility of those with ASD without worries.
The cost-effectiveness of common strategies for the prevention of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in universities.

Background Most universities that re-open in the United States (US) for in-person instruction have implemented the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) guidelines. The value of additional interventions to prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is unclear. We calculated the cost-effectiveness and cases averted of each intervention in combination with implementing the CDC guidelines. Methods We built a decision-analytic model to examine the cost-effectiveness of interventions to re-open universities. The interventions included implementing the CDC guidelines alone and in combination with 1) a symptom-checking mobile application, 2) university-provided standardized, high filtration masks, 3) thermal cameras for temperature screening, 4) one-time entry (‘gateway’) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, and 5) weekly PCR testing. We also modeled a package of interventions (‘package intervention’) that combines the CDC guidelines with using the symptom-checking mobile application, standardized masks, gateway PCR testing, and weekly PCR testing. The direct and indirect costs were calculated in 2020 US dollars. We also provided an online interface that allows the user to change model parameters. Results All interventions averted cases of COVID-19. When the prevalence of actively infectious cases reached 0.1%, providing standardized, high filtration masks saved money and improved health relative to implementing the CDC guidelines alone and in combination with using the symptom-checking mobile application, thermal cameras, and gateway testing. Compared with standardized masks, weekly PCR testing cost $9.27 million (95% Credible Interval [CrI]: cost-saving-$77.36 million)/QALY gained. Compared with weekly PCR testing, the ‘package’ intervention cost $137,877 (95% CrI: $3,108-$19.11 million)/QALY gained. At both a prevalence of 1% and 2%, the ‘package’ intervention saved money and improved health compared to all the other interventions. Conclusions All interventions were effective at averting infection from COVID-19. However, when the prevalence of actively infectious cases in the community was low, only standardized, high filtration masks clearly provided value.
Representation of Long-Time Creep in a Pure-Gum Rubber Vulcanizate

Creep may be expressed as ΔE/E1 = A log t + B(t-1) where ΔE is the increase of elongation above E1 the one-minute value, during the time t. The initial slope of a plot of ΔE/E1 against log t is A, a measure of physical creep. The limit of the final slope of a plot of ΔE/E1 against (t-1) is B, a measure of chemical creep. The validity of the equation is determined by the linearity of a plot of (ΔE/E1 - A log t) against (t-1) after A has been determined by the first plot. B is obtained as the slope. The equation is almost always valid and simultaneous equations can be used to determine A and B from only three observations, if desired. A, usually between 1 and 10 per cent/unit log t, is strongly dependent on cross-linking and nearly independent of temperature. B, ranging from 0.1 × 10-5 to 10,000 × 10-5 per cent/min is nearly independent of cross-linking and strongly dependent on temperature and specimen thickness. With an activation energy of 84-125 kJ (mol)-1 (20-30 kcal (mol)-1) it probably reflects oxidative degradation of the network, often initiated by ozone. The appearance time at which the creep is first observed to exceed A log t can be taken as equal to B-1. At high temperatures B is drastically increased with a corresponding strong reduction in appearance time. Creep in excess of that given by the equation is sometimes observed during a period immediately before rupture.
The neuroscience of advanced scientific concepts.

Cognitive neuroscience methods can identify the fMRI-measured neural representation of familiar individual concepts, such as apple, and decompose them into meaningful neural and semantic components. This approach was applied here to determine the neural representations and underlying dimensions of representation of far more abstract physics concepts related to matter and energy, such as fermion and dark matter, in the brains of 10 Carnegie Mellon physics faculty members who thought about the main properties of each of the concepts. One novel dimension coded the measurability vs. immeasurability of a concept. Another novel dimension of representation evoked particularly by post-classical concepts was associated with four types of cognitive processes, each linked to particular brain regions: (1) Reasoning about intangibles, taking into account their separation from direct experience and observability; (2) Assessing consilience with other, firmer knowledge; (3) Causal reasoning about relations that are not apparent or observable; and (4) Knowledge management of a large knowledge organization consisting of a multi-level structure of other concepts. Two other underlying dimensions, previously found in physics students, periodicity, and mathematical formulation, were also present in this faculty sample. The data were analyzed using factor analysis of stably responding voxels, a Gaussian-naive Bayes machine-learning classification of the activation patterns associated with each concept, and a regression model that predicted activation patterns associated with each concept based on independent ratings of the dimensions of the concepts. The findings indicate that the human brain systematically organizes novel scientific concepts in terms of new dimensions of neural representation.
The Role of Biofilms, Bacterial Phenotypes, and Innate Immune Response in Mycobacterium avium Colonization to Infection.

Abstract Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), is known for colonizing and infecting humans following inhalation of the bacteria. MAC pulmonary disease is notoriously difficult to treat and prone to recurrence. Both the incidence and prevalence MAC pulmonary disease have been increasing globally. MAC is well known to form biofilms in the environment, and in vitro, these biofilms have been shown to aid MAC in epithelial cell invasion, protect MAC from phagocytosis, and cause premature apoptosis in macrophages. In vivo, the system of interactions between MAC, biofilms and host macrophages is complex, difficult to replicate in vitro and in animal models, has not been fully characterized. Here we present a three-dimensional agent-based model of a lung airway to help understand how these interactions evolve in the first 14 days post-bacterial inhalation. We parameterized the model using published data and performed uncertainty analysis to characterize outcomes and parameters’ effects on those outcomes. Model results show diverse outcomes, including wide ranges of macrophage recruitment levels, and bacterial loads and phenotype distribution. Though most bacteria are phagocytosed by macrophages and remain intracellular, there are also many simulations in which extracellular bacteria continue to drive the colonization and infection. Initial parameters dictating host immune levels, bacterial loads introduced to the airway, and biofilm conditions have significant and lasting impacts on the course of these results. Additionally, though macrophage recruitment is key for suppressing bacterial loads, there is evidence of significant excess recruitment that fail to impact bacterial numbers. These results highlight a need and identify a path for further exploration into the inhalation events in MAC infection. Early infection dynamics could have lasting impacts on the development of nodular bronchiectatic or fibrocavitary disease as well as inform possible preventative and treatment intervention targeting biofilm-macrophage interactions.
Optimization of the Growth of the Van der Waals Materials Bi2Se3 and (Bi0.5In0.5)2Se3 by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

The naturally existing chalcogenide Bi2Se3 is topologically nontrivial due to the band inversion caused by strong spin-orbit coupling inside the bulk of the material. The surface states are spin polarized, protected by the time-inversion symmetry, and thus robust to the scattering caused by non-magnetic defects. A high purity topological insulator thin film can be easily grown via molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on various substrates to enable novel electronics, optics, and spintronics applications. However, the unique surface state properties have historically been limited by the film quality, which is evaluated by crystallinity, surface morphology, and transport data. Here we propose and investigate different MBE growth strategies to improve the quality of Bi2Se3 thin films grown by MBE. In addition, growths of topological trivial insulator (Bi0.5In0.5)2Se3 (BIS) are also investigated. BIS is often used as a buffer layer or separation layer for topological insulator heterostructures. Based on the surface passivation status, we have classified the substrates into two categories, self-passivated or unpassivated, and determine the optimal growth mechanisms on the representative sapphire and GaAs, respectively. Growth temperature is a crucial control parameter for the van der Waals epitaxy for both types of substrates. For Bi2Se3 on GaAs, the surface passivation status determines the dominant growth mechanism.
A compendium of covariances and correlation coefficients of coalescent tree properties.

Abstract Gene genealogies are frequently studied by measuring properties such as their height ( H ), length ( L ), sum of external branches ( E ), sum of internal branches ( I ), and mean of their two basal branches ( B ), and the coalescence times that contribute to the other genealogical features ( T ). These tree properties and their relationships can provide insight into the effects of population-genetic processes on genealogies and genetic sequences. Here, under the coalescent model, we study the 15 correlations among pairs of features of genealogical trees: H n , L n , E n , I n , B n , and T k for a sample of size n , with 2 ≤ k ≤ n . We report high correlations among H n , L n , I n , and B n , with all pairwise correlations of these quantities having values greater than or equal to 6 [ 6 ζ ( 3 ) + 6 − π 2 ] / ( π 18 + 9 π 2 − π 4 ) ≈ 0 . 84930 in the limit as n → ∞ , where ζ is the Riemann zeta function. Although E n has expectation 2 for all n and H n has expectation 2 in the n → ∞ limit, their limiting correlation is 0. The results contribute toward understanding features of the shapes of coalescent trees.
Empirical performance bounds for quantum approximate optimization

The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) has been put forth as a method for near-term quantum computers to solve optimization problems. However, assessments of QAOA performance have mostly focused on small structured problem instances while performance on more general instances is less clear. Here, we numerically simulate QAOA pure state dynamics for every instance of MaxCut on non-isomorphic unweighted graphs with nine or fewer vertices with depth parameters $$p\le 3$$ . We find the approximation ratios and optimized circuit parameters concentrate across graphs of a given size and empirically show increases in concentration as graph size increases. The parameter concentration leads to two median-angle heuristics that overcome difficulties in QAOA parameter optimization and obtain mean approximation ratios within 3% and 0.2% of the optimal. We also analyze the probability to measure an optimal solution and find increasing variations between graphs as depth increases, in stark contrast to the approximation ratios which concentrate as depth increases. The resulting benchmark data set gives empirical bounds for on-going experimental realizations and lays groundwork for theoretical extensions to greater problem sizes and depths where QAOA may prove important for practically relevant problems.
Weighted multiplier ideals of reduced divisors

We use methods from birational geometry to study the Hodge and weight filtrations on the localization along a hypersurface. We focus on the lowest piece of the Hodge filtration of the submodules arising from the weight filtration. This leads to a sequence of ideal sheaves called weighted multiplier ideals. The last ideal of this sequence is a multiplier ideal (and a Hodge ideal), and we prove that the first is the adjoint ideal. We also study the local and global properties of weighted multiplier ideals and their applications to singularities of hypersurfaces of smooth varieties.
Changing Classes: School Reform and the New Economy

How do schools help to create the kind of person a child becomes? Changing Classes tells the story of a small, poor, ethnically-mixed school district in Michigan's rust-belt, a community in turmoil over the announced closing of a nearby auto assembly plant. As teachers and administrators found ways to make schooling more relevant to working-class children, two large-scale school reform initiatives swept into town: the Governor's 'market-place' reforms and the National Science Foundation's 'state systemic initiative'. All this is set against the backdrop of the transformation to a global, post-Fordist economy. The result is an account of the complex linkages at work as society structures the development of children to adulthood.
Sizing of Near-Surface Fatigue Cracks in Cladded Pressure Vessels by the Multiple Beam-Satellite Pulse Technique

The stainless steel cladding of the inside surface of a reactor pressure vessel makes ultrasonic inspection for detection and sizing of cracks immediately under the cladding significantly harder. One solution to the inspection difficulty has been found in the multiple beam-satellite pulse technique. (While this technique both detects and sizes, only sizing is addressed in this paper.) The technique employs a multiple-beam transducer, which produces both longitudinal and shear waves. Novel waveform-processing and pattern-recognition methods are used in conjunction with this transducer design. The longitudinal-wave component is diffracted mainly by the upper extremity of the crack at or near the clad-base material interface, and its shear-wave components are diffracted mainly by the lower extremity of the crack in the base material. Proof-of-principle sizing results, based on the observance of a pair of satellite pulses from the diffracted beams, were obtained for three sets of planar flaws. They were (1) six side-milled underclad notches ranging in throughwall dimension from 3.1 to 12.9 mm, (2) fatigue cracks implanted in three cladded pressure vessel blocks and ranging in depth from 3.7 to 27.9 mm, and (3) six underclad fatigue cracks in the 2.7 to 8.5 mm depth range.
Increased 5α-reductase activity in idiopathic hirsutism*†

In vitro, genital skin 5 alpha-reductase activity (5 alpha-RA) was measured in ten hirsute women with normal androgen levels (idiopathic hirsutism [IH]) and in ten hirsute women with elevated androgen levels (polycystic ovary syndrome [PCO]) in order to determine the influence of secreted androgens on 5 alpha-RA. In vitro 5 alpha-RA was assessed by incubations of skin with 14C-testosterone (T) for 2 hours, after which steroids were separated and the radioactivity of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and 5 alpha-androstane 3 alpha-17 beta-estradiol (3 alpha-diol) in specific eluates were determined. All androgens were normal in IH with the exception of higher levels of 3 alpha-diol glucuronide which were similar to the levels of PCO. The conversion ratio (CR) of T to DHT in IH (17.18% +/- 4.6%) and PCO (17.86% +/- 5.2%) were similar, yet significantly greater than the CR of control subjects (4.48% +/- 0.36% P less than 0.01). The CR of T to 3 alpha-diol in IH (8.00% +/- 1.38%) and PCO (10.36% +/- 1.0%) were similar, yet higher than in control subjects (2.96% +/- 0.32%; P less than 0.05). Serum androgens showed no correlation with 5 alpha-RA, while the CR of T to DHT showed a significant positive correlation with the Ferriman and Gallwey score (r = 0.61; P less than 0.01). The increased 5 alpha-RA in IH appears to be independent of serum androgen levels and is, therefore, an inherent abnormality. The term "idiopathic" is a misnomer, because hirsutism in these patients may be explained on the basis of increased skin 5 alpha-RA.
Adenofibrosis in the rat liver, with persistence of polychlorinated biphenyls in adipose tissue.

Fifty male Sherman strain rats were fed 500 ppm of a polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) (Aroclor 1254) for six months. Five each were killed zero, one, two, three, four, six, eight, and ten months after exposure to Aroclor had ceased. The livers of these rats were examined by light and electron microscopy. Liver lesions persisted although exposure to PCBs ceased. Ten months after exposure ceased, 1,192 ppm PCBs were still present in the rats’ adipose tissue and 22.65 ppm in the rat livers. Aroclor patterns found in the tissues by electron capture gas chromatography differed from patterns of dietary Aroclors. Mass spectral analysis of liver and adipose tissue revealed three major Aroclor components with masses of 324, 358, and 392. These contained isotopic clusters indicative of the presence of C15, C16, and C17, respectively.
Living Donor Intestinal Transplantation

Living donor intestinal transplantation (LDIT) has been improved leading to results comparable to those obtained with deceased donors. LDIT should be limited to specific indications and patient selection. The best indication is combined living donor intestinal/liver transplantation in pediatric recipients with intestinal and hepatic failure; the virtual elimination of waiting time may avoid the high mortality experienced by candidates on the deceased waiting list. Potentially, LDIT could be used in highly sensitized recipients to allow the application of de-sensitization protocols. In the case of available identical twins or HLA-identical sibling, LDIT has a significant immunologic advantage and should be offered.
Systematic comparison of adeno-associated virus and biotinylated dextran amine reveals equivalent sensitivity between tracers and novel projection targets in the mouse brain.

As an anterograde neuronal tracer, recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) has distinct advantages over the widely used biotinylated dextran amine (BDA). However, the sensitivity and selectivity of AAV remain uncharacterized for many brain regions and species. To validate this tracing method further, AAV (serotype 1) was systematically compared with BDA as an anterograde tracer by injecting both tracers into three cortical and 15 subcortical regions in C57BL/6J mice. Identical parameters were used for our sequential iontophoretic injections, producing injections of AAV that were more robust in size and in density of neurons infected compared with those of BDA. However, these differences did not preclude further comparison between the tracers, because the pairs of injections were suitably colocalized and contained some percentage of double-labeled neurons. A qualitative analysis of projection patterns showed that the two tracers behave very similarly when injection sites are well matched. Additionally, a quantitative analysis of relative projection intensity for cases targeting primary motor cortex (MOp), primary somatosensory cortex (SSp), and caudoputamen (CP) showed strong agreement in the ranked order of projection intensities between the two tracers. A detailed analysis of the projections of two brain regions (SSp and MOp) revealed many targets that have not previously been described in the mouse or rat. Minor retrograde labeling of neurons was observed in all cases examined, for both AAV and BDA. Our results show that AAV has actions equivalent to those of BDA as an anterograde tracer and is suitable for analysis of neural circuitry throughout the mouse brain. J. Comp. Neurol. 522:1989–2012, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Discussion of: “On the Aggregation and Valuation of Deferred Taxes”

The proper accounting for deferred taxes has long been a source of regulatory debate, and has produced a steady stream of accounting pronouncements. Perhaps because of the inherent difficulty of accounting for deferred taxes, financial statement analysis texts frequently propose adjustments to the recorded amounts (see, for example, Bernstein and Wild 1997, p. 126). The Amir, Kirschenheiter and Willard (AKW) paper offers a welcome dose of structured thinking in this area by providing a formal evaluation of deferred tax accounting. They add deferred taxes to the Feltham-Ohlson (1996) valuation framework and examine how different ways to account for taxes give rise to different valuation expressions. In this discussion I will summarize their main results, re-writing some of them in a way that highlights the simplicity of the resulting valuation expression. I also suggest some paths for future research.
Thiosine-resistant mutants of Escherichia coli K-12 with growth-medium-dependent lysyl-tRNA synthetase activity: II. Evidence for an altered lysyl-tRNA synthetase

Abstract Studies on the lysyl-tRNA synthetase ( l -lysine : tRNA ligase (AMP), EC 6.1.1.6) from the thiosine-resistant mutants of Escherichia coli K-12 with growth-medium-dependent lysyl-tRNA synthetase activity have shown that the enzyme is an altered protein. The mutant protein is more resistant to thermal and urea denaturation than the wild-type protein. A Sephadex G-200 profile of crude extracts of the wild-type strain has revealed two forms: a major form (mol. wt. 135 000) and a minor form (mol. wt. 95 000). The profile of a mutant strain revealed a third form with a mol. wt. of 195 000, in addition to the other two.
Efficiently Retrieving Function Dependencies in the Linux Kernel Using XSB.

In this paper we investigate XSB-Prolog as a static analysis engine for data represented by medium-sized graphs. We use XSB-Prolog to automatically identify function dependencies in the Linux Kernel---queries that are difficult to implement efficiently in a commodity database and that developers often have to identify manually. This project illustrates that Prolog systems are ideal for building tools for use in other disciplines that require sophisticated inferences, because Prolog is both declarative and can efficiently implement complex problem specifications through tabling and indexing.
Higher-Order Intensional Type Analysis

Intensional type analysis provides the ability to analyze abstracted types at run time. In this paper, we extend that ability to higher-order and kind-polymorphic type constructors. The resulting language is elegant and expressive. We show through examples how it extends the repertoire of polytypic definitions and the domain of valid types for those definitions.
Incentive contracting with asymmetric and imperfect precontractual knowledge

Abstract The Pareto optimal contract between principal and risk-neutral agent is analyzed for the case in which the agent's information is initially imperfect but better than that of the principal. In contrast to the case where precontractual information is symmetric, the final contract between principal and agent will not always guarantee an efficient outcome. However, in contrast to the case where the agent's information is initially perfect, the agent may be unable to command rents from his superior information, and the outcome will always be efficient. The conditions under which efficient or inefficient outcomes are guaranteed differ qualitatively according to whether the random stete of nature follows a continuous or a discrete distribution. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: 022, 026, 611.
Spontaneous fluctuations of a temperature filament in a magnetized plasma

This experiment illustrates the spatiotemporal pattern of the fluctuations that spontaneously develop in a magnetized temperature filament whose transverse scale is comparable to the electron skin depth. A high-frequency mode exhibits a striking spiral structure and is identified as a drift-Alfv\'en eigenmode. A low-frequency mode is found to be localized near the center of the filament. It is documented that the fluctuations significantly increase the transport of heat beyond the prediction of classical theory based on Coulomb collisions.
Application of laser-induced thermal acoustics to a high-lift configuration

Laser-Induced Thermal Acoustics (LITA) has been used to measure the flow field in the slat region of a two-dimensional, high-lift system in the NASA Langley Basic Aerodynamics Research Tunnel (BART). Unlike other point-wise, non-intrusive measurement techniques, LITA does not require the addition of molecular or particulate seed to the flow. This provides an opportunity to obtain additional insight and detailed flow-field information in complex flows where seeding may be insufficient or detection is problematic. Based on the successful use of LITA to measure the flow over a backward-facing step, the goal of this study was to further evaluate the technique by applying it to a more relevant and challenging flow field such as the slat wake on a high-lift system. Streamwise velocities were measured in the slat wake and over the main element at 11.3 degrees angle of attack and a freestream Mach Number of 0.17. The single-component LITA system is described and velocity profiles obtained using LITA are compared to profiles obtained using two-dimensional, Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) and a steady, Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) flow solver for the same configuration. The normalized data show good agreement where the number of measurement locations had sufficient density to capture the pertinent flow phenomena.
ASYMMETRIC PHOTOREFRACTIVE FABRY-PEROT ETALONS

We theoretically analyze the properties of Fabry-Perot etalons which consist of photorefractive-crystal plates with asymmetric mirror reflectance. Peak transmissions and non-reciprocities are enhanced significantly compared with the symmetric photorefractive etalons. The effect of material absorption is also considered.
‘One Pack = One Vaccine’ = one global motherhood? A feminist analysis of ethical consumption

This article is inspired by a recent television commercial for Pampers (a brand of disposable diapers) which announces that by buying this brand of diapers ‘you can help the world's babies in need, because one pack of Pampers equals one life saving vaccine’. This commercial promotes the ‘One Pack = One Vaccine’ initiative between Pampers and UNICEF, a cause-related marketing (CRM) campaign that supplies a tetanus vaccine to a woman in the South with each purchase of Pampers in North America. This article critically examines the way that CRM (and the One Pack initiative in particular) links individual consumption choices to development while simultaneously delinking consumption from environmental degradation, health risks and global inequalities. Taking this argument further, it uses a feminist perspective to examine the ways in which the narratives of ‘first world women’ and ‘third world women’ are depicted and used in the One Pack initiative, to make certain North–South power dynamics invisible while hig...
Adaptive phenotypic plasticity and the successful colonization of a novel environment.

Abstract: Behavior and other forms of phenotypic plasticity potentially enable individuals to deal with novel situations. This implies that establishment of a population in a new environment is aided by plastic responses, as first suggested by Baldwin (1896). In the early 1980s, a small population of dark‐eyed juncos from a temperate, montane environment became established in a Mediterranean climate in coastal San Diego. The breeding season of coastal juncos is more than twice as long as that of the ancestral population, and they fledge approximately twice as many young. We investigated the adaptive significance of the longer breeding season and its consequences for population persistence. Within the coastal population, individuals with longer breeding seasons have higher offspring production and recruitment, with no measured detrimental effects such as higher mortality or lower reproductive success the following year. Population size has remained approximately constant during the 6 years of study (1998–2...
On first-order equations for multidimensional filters

A construction is given to obtain first-order equation representations of a multidimensional filter, whose dimension is of the order of the degree of the transfer function.
Nitrogen-Aluminium elastic scattering

Abstract The differential cross section for elastic scattering of 27.3-MeV nitrogen ions from aluminium was measured from 36° to 134° in the centre-of-mass system. A coincidence system detecting both the nitrogen and the aluminium ions was used to identify the elastic events. The angular resolution was about ±1 degree. The ratio of the elastic cross section to the Coulomb cross section exhibits a small rise above unity near 50° (c.m.), then drops almost exponentially from 60° to 134° (c.m.), where it has a value of 0.0265. The results of the experiment are compared with the predictions of a sharp cutoff calculation. Reasonably good agreement is obtained from 36° to 96° (c.m.) with an interaction radius R = 9.07 × 10−13 cm. If we define R = r0(A1⅓+(A2⅓), the value of r0 is 1.68 × 10−13 cm. Beyond 96° (c.m.) the sharp cutoff calculation displays increasing oscillations and no longer fits the data. The results of a semi-classical scattering theory due to Ford and Wheeler are also compared with the experimental data. The best fit is obtained for a rainbow angle θr = 94°, corresponding to r0 = 1.59 × 10−13 cm, and a surface thickness parameter ΔR = 0.83 × 10−13 cm. Quite good agreement between this theory and experiment is obtained from about 94° to 134° (c.m.).
Factors related to duration of counseling in a university counseling center.

A review of the literature concerning factors predictive of duration in counseling indicates, on the whole, inconsistent and often conflicting results. The present study examined the relationship between selected variables related to clients, therapists, and system and duration of counseling with a sample of 428 clients of a university counseling center. The initial interview data indicated that six variables were significantly related to duration but collectively only accounted for 23% of the variance. It is argued that efforts to delineate factors relating to duration of treatment might profitably consider variables pertaining to other phases of the counseling process.