cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
On the immersed boundary method: Finite element versus finite volume approach

Abstract Two immersed boundary methods (IBM) for the simulation of fluid flow problems with complex geometries are introduced: a direct-forcing immersed finite element method (IFEM) and a direct-forcing immersed finite volume method (IFVM). In the IFEM a projection approach is presented for the coupled system of time-dependent incompressible Navier–Stokes equations (NSEs) in conjunction with the IBM for solving fluid flow problems in the presence of rigid objects not represented by the underlying mesh. The IBM allows solving the flow for geometries with complex objects without the need of generating a body-fitted mesh. Dirichlet boundary constraints are satisfied applying a boundary force at the immersed body surface. Using projection and interpolation operators from the fluid volume mesh to the solid surface/volume mesh (i.e., the “immersed” boundary) and vice versa, it is possible to impose the extra constraint to the NSEs as a Lagrange multiplier in a fashion very similar to the effect that pressure has on the momentum equations to satisfy the divergence-free constraint. The IFEM approach presented shows third order accuracy in space and second order accuracy in time when the simulation results for the Taylor–Green decaying vortex are compared to the analytical solution. For the IFVM presented, a ghost-cell approach with sharp interface scheme is used to enforce the boundary condition at the fluid/solid interface. The interpolation procedure at the immersed boundary preserves the overall second order accuracy of the base solver. The developed ghost-cell method is applied on a staggered configuration with the Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure-Linked Equations Revised algorithm. Second order accuracy in space and first order accuracy in time are obtained when the Taylor–Green decaying vortex test case computed with the IFVM is compared to the analytical solution. Computations were performed using the IFEM and IFVM approaches for the two-dimensional flow over a backward-facing step, two-dimensional flow past a stationary circular cylinder, three-dimensional flow past a sphere and two-dimensional oscillating circular cylinder in a stationary square domain. The numerical results obtained with the discussed IFEM and IFVM were compared against other IBMs available in literature and simulations performed with the commercial computational fluid dynamics code STAR-CCM+/V7.04.006. The benchmark test cases showed that the numerical results obtained with the implemented immersed boundary methods are in good agreement with the predictions from STAR-CCM+ and the numerical data from the other IBMs. The immersed boundary method based on finite element approach is numerically more accurate than the IBM based on finite volume discretization. In contrast, the latter is computationally more efficient than the former.
Interoperating DNA Gene Sequences and Nutrition Provisions for Personalized Wellness

The last decade has seen a large explosion of health-related human centered computing research and practice focused on wellness such as provisioning good nutrition. Human genome projects become successfully recognized and DNA sequencing technologies become affordable. While Health Informatics may appear to be the obvious home for these activities, interoperability between DNA gene sequence analysis and nutrition support is less satisfactorily achieved. To promote humans health and wellness, this paper describes two-tied nutrition support system: rule-based and case-based reasoning about gene sequences and nutrients. In addition, this paper also protects human information from unauthorized accesses while preserving its privacy.
Immigrant Group Size and Political Mobilization: Evidence from European Migration to the United States

Immigration to democratic nations generates new groups of potential voters. This paper investigates how the electorate share of immigrant groups influences their likelihood of becoming politically mobilized, focusing on the mechanism of coalition formation with the Democratic Party. Using newly assembled data on ethnic enclaves in American cities at the start of the twentieth century, I show immigrants were more likely to mobilize politically as their share of the local electorate grew larger. This effect is driven by political mobilization in voting districts where the Democratic Party likely needed an immigrant group's vote to win elections. I also consider the shape of the electorate share effect, showing it is nonlinear and consistent with a political economy model of coalition formation.
HEAO-1 observations of X-ray fluorescent emission lines from the earth's sunlit atmosphere.

ABSTRACT A low energy (0.15-3 keV) proportional counter of the A-2 experiment flown on the HEAO-1 satellite has been used to observe x-radiation from the earth's sunlit atmosphere. Observations made in August and September, 1977 have resulted in the first definitive measurements of the x-ray lines of oxygen (525 eV) and nitrogen (392 eV) fluorescently excited by solar x-rays incident on the earth's atmosphere. In addition a lower energy x-ray component, the result of Thomson scattering of the solar radiation by the atmosphere, has been observed. Limb brightening of the x-ray intensity is observed as expected. Calculations, using solar x-ray spectral models and earth atmospheric models, give reasonable agreement with the measured intensities. Possible applications of albedo x-ray measurements are discussed briefly.
An interface model for parallel components

Component architectures promote cross-project code reuse by facilitating composition of large applications using off-the-shelf software components. Existing component architectures are not geared towards building efficient parallel software applications that require tighter runtime integration of largely independent parallel modules. We have developed a component architecture based on Converse, a message-driven multiparadigm runtime system that allows concurrent composition. In this paper, we describe an interface model for this component architecture, which allows reusable component modules to be developed independently of each other, and mediates, monitors, and optimizes interactions between such components.
A Model of the Optimal Complexity of Legal Rules

Legal rules often are complex in order to distinguish different types of behavior that may have different consequences. Greater complexity thus allows better control of behavior. But more complex rules are more costly for individuals to understand ex ante and for a court to apply ex post. Also, because of the cost, some individuals will choose not to learn complex rules. This article models the effects of complexity on individuals' decisions to acquire information, choices about whether to act, and reports of their actions to an enforcement authority. It determines when more complex rules improve welfare and how this depends on whether enforcement involves self-reporting of behavior.
Microwave‐Assisted Synthesis of Tetrahydro‐β‐carbolines and β‐Carbolines

A microwave-mediated Pictet–Spengler procedure utilizing 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) and trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) was developed to provide tetrahydro-β-carboline salts in high yields. Reactions are complete in 20 minutes or less and the product precipitates from solution in high yields and purity, negating the need for liquid–liquid extraction or column chromatography. This method tolerates a wide range of functionality and can be performed on milligram to gram scales. A subsequent microwave-mediated aromatization of the synthesized tetrahydro-β-carbolines to β-carbolines was also developed utilizing catalytic Pd/C. The aromatization is complete in 60 min or less with most substrates requiring minimal purification.
Land Use and Watershed Health in the United States: An Empirical Assessment

This nation-scale, watershed-level analysis focuses on the major trends and the spatial pattern of land use and the impact on watershed health. We estimate a simultaneous equation system to analyze the impact of land use on aquatic health in watersheds across the United States. (JEL: Q240, Q530, Q570)
Universally composable security: a new paradigm for cryptographic protocols

We propose a novel paradigm for defining security of cryptographic protocols, called universally composable security. The salient property of universally composable definitions of security is that they guarantee security even when a secure protocol is composed of an arbitrary set of protocols, or more generally when the protocol is used as a component of an arbitrary system. This is an essential property for maintaining security of cryptographic protocols in complex and unpredictable environments such as the Internet. In particular, universally composable definitions guarantee security even when an unbounded number of protocol instances are executed concurrently in an adversarially controlled manner, they guarantee non-malleability with respect to arbitrary protocols, and more. We show how to formulate universally composable definitions of security for practically any cryptographic task. Furthermore, we demonstrate that practically any such definition can be realized using known techniques, as long as only a minority of the participants are corrupted. We then proceed to formulate universally composable definitions of a wide array of cryptographic tasks, including authenticated and secure communication, key-exchange, public-key encryption, signature, commitment, oblivious transfer, zero knowledge and more. We also make initial steps towards studying the realizability of the proposed definitions in various settings.
Graphical Models for Probabilistic and Causal Reasoning

This chapter surveys the development of graphical models known as Bayesian networks, summarizes their semantical basis and assesses their properties and applications to reasoning and planning.
The New Economics of Accelerated Depreciation

The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 included the largest business tax cut in U.S. history, embodied in the Accelerated Cost Recovery System. This paper describes in detail the provisions of the new treatment of depreciable property ,and analyzes in a fairly nontechnical way its economic impact. Particular attention is paid to a novel part of ACRS that creates a "safe harbor" for a wide range of sale-leaseback arrangements, effectively permitting the sale of depreciation deductions by investors without taxable income.
The Optimal Deployment of Filters to Limit Forged Address Attacks in Communication Networks

We consider forged address attacks in communication networks, wherein an attacking node forges the address of communication requests sent to a victim node. Unless the victim can ascertain the origin of the attack, it must cease to respond to communication requests until the attack subsides. We examine the problem of identifying a minimum cardinality subset of nodes on a network, such that placing route-based filters on these nodes provides a prescribed level of security. We model the problem as an integer program and illustrate its performance on randomly generated networks. Next, we develop a greedy heuristic to deploy filters in these networks, and compare its solution quality to that of the integer programming approach. These findings are then used to motivate both the importance of addressing this problem by optimal techniques and to motivate future research approaches for solving such problems.
Estimating the effects of credit constraints on productivity of Peruvian agriculture

This paper proposes an estimator for the endogenous switching regression models with fixed effects. The estimator allows for endogenous selection and for conditional heteroscedasticity in the outcome equation. Applying the estimator to a dataset on the productivity in agriculture substantially changes the conclusions compared to earlier analysis of the same dataset. This paper proposes an estimator for the endogenous switching re-gression models with fixed effects. The estimator allows for endogenous selection and for conditional heteroscedasticity in the outcome equation. Applying the estimator to a dataset on the productivity in agriculture substantially changes the conclusions compared to earlier analysis of the same dataset.
The Cost of Red Dawn to the NSW Economy

On September 23, 2009 much of New South Wales awoke to a strange phenomenon, a huge cloud of red dust, “Red Dawn” the name given by the media to the event. This dust was sourced from the far west and northwest of the state and the Lake Eyre basin, and was lifted by a concurrence of weather events including strong frontal winds, that brought the effects of the dry winter of 2009 in central Australia to the city of Sydney and north-eastern New South Wales. Dust density caused disruptions to transport networks, and to commercial and domestic activities. These activities and disruptions imposed costs to the economy of the state and, based on data from primary and secondary sources and information from previous research in Australia and overseas, an estimate was made as to the costs of the dust storm on the economy. This estimate is $425 million with the major component imposed on households due to cleaning premises and cars, and other associated costs. The impacts on commercial activity varied across sectors, with construction and retail/services sectors incurring costs due to loss of production and productivity, and cleaning, totalling approximately $44 million. The transport sector suffered losses in the region of $10 million. Further losses in productivity and production across all other sectors of the economy through absenteeism imposed a further cost of $7.5 million dollars. Contrary to previous research the impacts on health and emergency services were negligible. Some benefits were also generated by the dust storm. One of which was the deposition of soil and soil nutrients on land used for production, this led to an estimated benefit to the economy of approximately $1.1 million. A benefit that was not measured was that of nutrient deposition on the ocean and the subsequent increase in algal blooms and increases in fish stocks.
Radioimmunoassay of erythropoietin: circulating levels in normal and polycythemic human beings.

Techniques are described in detail for the RIA of human Ep in unextracted plasma or serum. With 100 ..mu..l of sample, the assay is sensitive at an Ep concentration of approximately 4 mU/ml, and when required, the sensitivity can be increased to 0.4 mU/ml, a range considerably less than the concentration observed in normal human beings. This is approximately 100 times more sensitive than existing in vivo bioassays for this hormone. Studies concerned with the validation of the Ep RIA show a high degree of correlation with the polycythemic mouse bioassay. Dilutions of a variety of human serum samples show a parallel relationship with the standard reference preparation for Ep. Validation of the RIA is further confirmed by observations of appropriate increases or decreases of circulating Ep levels in physiological and clinical conditions known to be associated with stimulation or suppression of Ep secretion. Significantly different mean serum concentrations of 17.2 mU/ml for normal male subjects and 18.8 mU/ml for normal female subjects were observed. Mean plasma Ep concentrations in patients with polycythemia vera are significantly decreased, and those of patients with secondary polycythemia are significantly increased as compared to plasma levels in normal subjects. These results demonstrate an initialmore » practical value of the Ep RA in the hematology clinic, which will most certainly be expanded with its more extensive use.« less
Violations of Present-Value Maximization in Income Choice

We report results of an experiment testing for present-value maximization in intertemporal income choice. Two-thirds of subjects did not maximize present value. Through a series of experimental manipulations that impose costs on non-present value maximizers, we are able to reduce the level of violations substantially. We find, however, that a sizeable proportion of subjects continue to systematically violate present-value principles. Our interpretation is that these subjects either cannot or choose not to distinguish between t income and t expenditure in making their choices. Self-management, bounded rationality, and sequence preference are suggested as possible explanations for such behavior.
A Continuation Semantics of Interrogatives That Accounts for Baker's Ambiguity

Wh-phrases in English can appear both raised and in-situ . However, only in-situ wh-phrases can take semantic scope beyond the immediately enclosing clause. I present a denotational semantics of interrogatives that naturally accounts for these two properties . It neither invokes movement or economy, nor posits lexical ambi­ guity between raised and in-situ occurrences of the same wh-phrase . My analysis is based on the concept of CONTINUATIONS. It uses a novel type system for higher-order continuations to handle wide-scope wh-phrases while remaining strictly composi­ tional . This treatment sheds l ight on the combinatorics of interrogatives as well as other kinds of so-called A.-movement.
Measuring Personality and Psychopathology

This chapter provides an overview of important issues and procedures in the construction and implementation of measures of personality and psychopathology. The majority of examples used to illustrate various principles described in this chapter involve the use of objective or self-report methods of personality, as this approach has historically served as the basis for many of the most important theoretical psychometric developments in the field of personality assessment. The chapter reviews different approaches to test construction and procedures used to develop and evaluate indicators included on these instruments. Subsequent sections discuss approaches and considerations in evaluating the usefulness of an assessment measure, such as reliability and validity. In addition, the chapter discusses the impact of the nature of the constructs being measured on the development and evaluation of indicators of that construct. Finally, a number of the pitfalls confronting the scale developer are described, with an emphasis on the understanding that different assessment problems reflect unique challenges with diverse solutions. Keywords: personality assessment; psychopathology assessment; test construction; psychometrics
Predicate abstraction of programs with non-linear computation

Verification of programs relies on reasoning about the computations they perform. In engineering programs, many of these computations are non-linear. Although predicate abstraction enables model checking of programs with large state spaces, the decision procedures that currently support predicate abstraction are not able to handle such non-linear computations. In this paper, we propose an approach to model checking a class of data-flow properties for engineering programs that contain non-linear products and transcendental functions. The novelty of our approach is the integration of interval constraint solving techniques into the automated predicate discovery/predicate abstraction process, which extends the expressive power of predicate abstraction-based model checking. Using this approach, we construct a prototype model checker for C programs called VISA (Verification of Industrial-Strength Applications). VISA is built on top of Berkeley's BLAST and University of Nantes' Realpaver. We successfully apply VISA to scientific computation libraries and avionics applications to verify the absence of certain runtime arithmetic errors.
Efficient multidimensional data redistribution for resizable parallel computations

Traditional parallel schedulers running on cluster supercomputers support only static scheduling, where the number of processors allocated to an application remains fixed throughout the execution of the job. This results in underutilization of idle system resources thereby decreasing overall system throughput. In our research, we have developed a prototype framework called ReSHAPE, which supports dynamic resizing of parallel MPI applications executing on distributed memory platforms. The resizing library in ReSHAPE includes support for releasing and acquiring processors and efficiently redistributing application state to a new set of processors. In this paper, we derive an algorithm for redistributing two-dimensional block-cyclic arrays from P to Q processors, organized as 2-D processor grids. The algorithm ensures a contention-free communication schedule for data redistribution if Pr ≤ Qr and Pc ≤ Qc. In other cases, the algorithm implements circular row and column shifts on the communication schedule to minimize node contention.
Channels of transmission of the 2007/09 global crisis to international bank lending in developing countries

During a financial crisis, credit provision by international banks may be stymied by three distinct, but related, channels: changes in lending standards as a result of increased economic uncertainty, changes in funding availability from interbank liquidity markets, and changes in solvency due to effects on bank balance sheets. This paper illuminates the manner by which each of these channels independently operated to affect developed-country bank lending in developing countries during the global financial crisis of 2007/09. It quantifies how changes in banks' uncertainty about the value of their asset holdings, access to interbank liquidity, and internal balance sheet considerations altered their supply of credit in the run-up, during, and in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, both in terms of their relative magnitudes, as well as the sensitivity of these magnitudes to the crisis.
AAV Mediated Expression of Human PRELP inhibits Complement Activation, Choroidal Neovascularization and Deposition of Membrane Attack Complex in Mice

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness among the elderly. Approximately 50% of AMD patients have a polymorphism in the negative regulator of complement known as Factor H. Individuals homozygous for a Y402H polymorphism in Factor H have elevated levels of membrane attack complex (MAC) in their choroid and retinal pigment epithelium relative to individuals homozygous for the wild-type allele. An inability to form MAC due to a polymorphism in C9 is protective against the formation of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in AMD patients. Hence, blocking MAC in AMD patients may be protective against CNV. Here we investigate the potential of human proline/arginine-rich end leucine-rich repeat protein (PRELP) as an inhibitor of complement-mediated damage when delivered via the subretinal route using an AAV2/8 vector. In a fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) lysis assay, PRELP inhibited normal human serum-mediated lysis of Hepa-1c1c7 cells by 18.7%. Unexpectedly, PRELP enhanced the formation of tubes by human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) by approximately 240%, but, when delivered via an AAV vector to the retina of mice, PRELP inhibited laser-induced CNV by 60%. PRELP reduced deposition of MAC in vivo by 25.5%. Our results have implications for the development of complement inhibitors as a therapy for AMD.
Activation of mTOR pathway in myeloid-derived suppressor cells stimulates cancer cell proliferation and metastasis in lal −/− mice

Activation of mTOR pathway in myeloid-derived suppressor cells stimulates cancer cell proliferation and metastasis in lal −/− mice
Dust absorption and emission in galaxies at high and low redshifts

This article reviews three related topics: the extragalactic background l ight and its sources, evolution models for the dust absorption and emission in galaxies, and empirical constraints on these transfer pr ocesses in nearby starburst galaxies. It is intended that the material presented here will serve as an introduction to this Joint Discussion.
Does Employment Protection Create Its Own Political Support? The Role of Wage Determination

The stringency of employment protection regulations varies substantially across countries. In this paper I explore a parsimonious explanation for the extent and persistence of this variation: the ability of employment protection to generate its own political support. Using a version of the Mortensen-Pissarides model of job creation and destruction, I show that the presence or absence of this ability depends crucially on the features of wage determination. Under the standard assumption of continuous time Nash bargaining, workers value employment protection because it strengthens their hand in bargaining. Workers in high productivity matches see their bargaining position enhanced most significantly. Furthermore, their low likelihood of becoming unemployed shelters them from the adverse consequences of employment protection. Yet by reducing turnover employment protection shifts the distribution of match-specific productivity toward lower values. This is a shift toward workers that have little taste for employment protection. Bilaterally inefficient separations are a feature of wage setting that can partially reverse this negative result. Now workers value employment protection because it delays involuntary dismissals. Workers in low productivity matches stand to gain the most since they face the highest risk of layoff. Again employment protection shifts the productivity distribution toward lower values. However, now this is a shift toward ardent supporters of employment protection.
Easy EZ in DSGE

Epstein-Zin preferences (or “EZ” preferences) have become increasingly popular in recent asset pricing work. Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models which feature Epstein-Zin preferences are typically considered technically challenging, often thought to require sophisticated numerical solution methods to solve them and considerable additional thought to understand them. The purpose of this paper is to make DSGE modeling with Epstein-Zin preferences easy, relying on log-linearization to the equations characterizing the equilibrium dynamics and exploiting log-normality for asset pricing.
Restoring economic growth in Argentina

The author reviews the debate on the causes of Argentina�s economic collapse in late 2001 and 2002 and examines the measures needed to help restore sustainable growth. Some analysts stress fiscal imbalances, others overvaluation of the peso under the convertibility plan, and others external shocks. Cline judges that all three contributed substantially, but that it was their inflammatory interaction with domestic political unraveling that forced the bad-equilibrium outcome. He reviews the nascent recovery since the second half of 2002 and the important success of avoiding hyperinflation. Looking forward, the author�s analysis underscores the importance of strengthening fiscal performance, in part by increasing relatively low collections of value added taxes. He stresses the need for reform of the system of revenue sharing with the provinces; the importance of strengthening the banking system, which was severely weakened by asymmetric conversion of assets and liabilities from dollars to pesos; and the need to arrive at equitable restructuring of utility tariffs to reestablish confidence of foreign direct investors in the rules of the game. Restructuring government debt is also central to restoring growth. A simple model indicates that a relatively ambitious target for the primary fiscal surplus and a restricted set of senior-status debt will be needed to limit the haircut on junior debt to amounts compatible with longer-term creditor perceptions of fairness. The author also considers the new dynamics of bargaining with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He judges that although conditionality is arguably appropriately less stringent as only rollover is involved, and despite the large outstanding debt to the IMF, there are limits to how lenient the Fund can and should be in key areas with potential for setting international precedents.
Option Pricing without Price Dynamics: A Probabilistic Approach

Employing probabilistic techniques we compute best possible upper and lower bounds on the price of an option on one or two assets with continuous piecewise linear payoff function based on prices of simple call options of possibly distinct maturities and the no-arbitrage condition, but without any assumption on the price dynamics of underlying assets. We show that the problem reduces to solving linear optimization problems that we explicitly characterize. We report numerical results that illustrate the effectiveness of the algorithms we develop.
Fundamental Limits of Caching in Wireless D2D Networks

We consider a wireless device-to-device (D2D) network where communication is restricted to be single-hop. Users make arbitrary requests from a finite library of files and have pre-cached information on their devices, subject to a per-node storage capacity constraint. A similar problem has already been considered in an infrastructure setting, where all users receive a common multicast (coded) message from a single omniscient server (e.g., a base station having all the files in the library) through a shared bottleneck link. In this paper, we consider a D2D infrastructureless version of the problem. We propose a caching strategy based on deterministic assignment of subpackets of the library files, and a coded delivery strategy where the users send linearly coded messages to each other in order to collectively satisfy their demands. We also consider a random caching strategy, which is more suitable to a fully decentralized implementation. Under certain conditions, both approaches can achieve the information theoretic outer bound within a constant multiplicative factor. In our previous work, we showed that a caching D2D wireless network with one-hop communication, random caching, and uncoded delivery (direct file transmissions) achieves the same throughput scaling law of the infrastructure-based coded multicasting scheme, in the regime of large number of users and files in the library. This shows that the spatial reuse gain of the D2D network is order-equivalent to the coded multicasting gain of single base station transmission. It is, therefore, natural to ask whether these two gains are cumulative, i.e., if a D2D network with both local communication (spatial reuse) and coded multicasting can provide an improved scaling law. Somewhat counterintuitively, we show that these gains do not cumulate (in terms of throughput scaling law). This fact can be explained by noticing that the coded delivery scheme creates messages that are useful to multiple nodes, such that it benefits from broadcasting to as many nodes as possible, while spatial reuse capitalizes on the fact that the communication is local, such that the same time slot can be reused in space across the network. Unfortunately, these two issues are in contrast with each other.
Characterization of the Si: As Blocked Impurity Band (BIB) Detector in Keck’s Long Wavelength Spectrometer (LWS)

Keck's Long Wavelength Spectrometer (LWS), is the facility instrument used for imaging and spectroscopy in the wavelength range of 3–28 μm at the Keck Observatory. LWS uses an 128 × 128 Si:As blocked impurity band (BIB) array manufactured by the Boeing Corporation. This paper discusses the method used for optimizing the detector's operating parameters at a temperature of 8.5 K and bias voltage of 1.2 V. A process for characterizing detective quantum efficiency of BIB detectors is also presented.
Modeling aerosols and their interactions with shallow cumuli during the 2007 CHAPS field study

[1] The Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with chemistry, using 2 km horizontal grid spacing, is used to simulate two important relationships between aerosols and clouds in the vicinity of Oklahoma City during the June 2007 Cumulus Humilis Aerosol Processing Study (CHAPS). First, the model reproduces the trends of higher nitrate volume fractions in cloud droplet residuals compared to interstitial nonactivated aerosols, as measured using an aerosol mass spectrometer. Comparing simulations with cloud chemistry turned on and off, we show that nitric acid vapor uptake by cloud droplets explains the higher nitrate content of cloud droplet residuals. Second, the model reasonably represents the observations of the first aerosol indirect effect where pollutants in the vicinity of Oklahoma City increase cloud droplet number concentrations and decrease the droplet effective radius. In addition, as documented using an offline optical code, simulated aerosol optical properties depend on several compensating effects including aerosol water content, size-resolved chemical composition, and refractory index of various particle chemical species. All of our four sensitivity test cases clearly show an increase in simulated absorption and a decrease in single scattering albedo within the Oklahoma City plume relative to conditions outside the plume. While previous studies have often focused on cloud–aerosol interactions in stratiform and deep convective clouds, this study highlights the ability of regional-scale models to represent some of the important aspects of cloud–aerosol interactions associated with fields of short-lived shallow cumuli.
Code complete: a practical handbook of software construction

"Code complete" is the phrase used by programmers to announce the completion of a software program. Drawing its examples from a variety of computer languages, this book focuses on programming technique rather than the requirements of a specific programming language or environment. Steve McConnell developed True Type and Windows for the Microsoft Corporation. Topics include: front-end planning, applying good design techniques to construction, using data effectively, using common and advanced control structures, secrets of self-documenting code, testing and debugging techniques, improving performance with code tuning, managing construction activities, and relating personal character to the development of superior software.
HUT Observations of the Lyman Limit in AGN: Implications for Unified Models

We observed a total of 13 low-redshift AGN with the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) during the course of the Astro-1 and Astro-2 missions. Of these, 4 show intrinsic Lyman-limit absorption — NGC 1068, NGC 4151, NGC 3516 and NGC 3227. AU galaxies with optically thick Lyman limits have extended narrow-line regions with bi-polar morphologies. All AGN with no absorption are Seyfert Is with compact NLRs. These observations support geometrical shadowing as the means for collimating the ionizing radiation in unified models of AGN, most likely in a photoionized atmosphere above the obscuring torus.
From Threebranes to Large N Gauge Theories

This is a brief introductory review of the AdS/CFT correspondence and of the ideas that led to its formulation. Emphasis is placed on dualities between conformal large N gauge theories in 4 dimensions and string backgrounds of the form AdS 5 ×X 5. Attempts to generalize this correspondence to asymptotically free theories are also included.
State analysis and aggregation study for multicast-based micro mobility

We propose intra-domain multicast-based mobility as a solution for IP mobility. Our architecture addresses problems with existing IP mobility proposals; mainly scalability and handoff performance. In our scheme mobility proxies are used to allocate per-domain multicast addresses to mobiles for use in micro mobility. State aggregation is studied as an essential element to improve scalability of our approach. We introduce a simple, yet very efficient aggregation algorithm, based on bitwise lossy aggregation. An important result obtained indicates that state tends to be concentrated in less than 20% of the nodes and that our scheme is extremely efficient in reducing the state in those nodes. We show that our scheme achieves much higher aggregation gain than conventional prefix-based aggregation.
On the infeasibility of modeling polymorphic shellcode

Current trends demonstrate an increasing use of polymorphism by attackers to disguise their exploits. The ability for malicious code to be easily, and automatically, transformed into semantically equivalent variants frustrates attempts to construct simple, easily verifiable representations for use in security sensors. In this paper, we present a quantitative analysis of the strengths and limitations of shellcode polymorphism, and describe the impact that these techniques have in the context of learning-based IDS systems. Our examination focuses on dual problems: shellcode encryption-based evasion methods and targeted "blending" attacks. Both techniques are currently being used in the wild, allowing real exploits to evade IDS sensors. This paper provides metrics to measure the effectiveness of modern polymorphic engines and provide insights into their designs. We describe methods to evade statistics-based IDS sensors and present suggestions on how to defend against them. Our experimental results illustrate that the challenge of modeling self-modifying shellcode by signature-based methods, and certain classes of statistical models, is likely an intractable problem.
Global Lorentz and Lorentz–Morrey estimates below the natural exponent for quasilinear equations

Lorentz and Lorentz–Morrey estimates are obtained for gradients of very weak solutions to quasilinear equations of the form $$\begin{aligned} \text {div}\,\mathcal {A}(x, \nabla u)=\text {div}\, |\mathbf{f}|^{p-2}\mathbf{f}, \end{aligned}$$ where \(\text {div}\,\mathcal {A}(x, \nabla u)\) is modelled after the p-Laplacian, \(p>1\). The estimates are global over bounded domains that satisfy a mild exterior uniform thickness condition that involves the p-capacity. The vector field datum \(\mathbf{f}\) is allowed to have low degrees of integrability and thus solutions may not have finite \(L^p\) energy. A higher integrability result at the boundary of the ground domain is also obtained for infinite energy solutions to the associated homogeneous equations.
Exploration trees and conformal loop ensembles

We construct and study the conformal loop ensembles CLE(κ), defined for 8/3≤κ≤8, using branching variants of SLE(κ) called exploration trees. The CLE(κ) are random collections of countably many loops in a planar domain that are characterized by certain conformal invariance and Markov properties. We conjecture that they are the scaling limits of various random loop models from statistical physics, including the O(n) loop models
Spectrophotometric and Colorimetric Determination of Protein Concentration

Spectrophotometric and Colorimetric Determination of Protein Concentration (Michael H. Simonian, Beckman-Coulter, Inc., Fullerton, California, and John A. Smith, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama). Measuring absorbance at 280 nm (A280) is one of the oldest methods for determining protein concentration. This method is still widely used because it is simple and does not require incubating the sample with exogenous chromophores. Accordingly, the quantitation of proteins by peptide bond absorption at 205 nm (A205) is more universally applicable. Furthermore, the absorptivity for a given protein at 205 nm is several-fold greater than that at 280 nm. Thus, lower concentrations of protein can be quantitated with the A205 method. The disadvantage of this method is that some buffers and other components absorb at 205 nm. The aromatic amino acids also exhibit fluorescence emissions when excited by light in the UV range. Measurement of intrinsic fluorescence by aromatic amino acids is primarily used to obtain qualitative information. However, with a protein standard whose aromatic amino acid content is similar to that of the sample, intrinsic fluorescence can be used for quantitation. The most frequently employed colorimetric methods for determining protein concentration are those of Bradford and Lowry.
The Lu Qi-Keng Conjecture Fails Generically

The bounded domains of holomorphy in Cn whose Bergman kernel functions are zero-free form a nowhere dense subset (with respect to a variant of the Hausdorff distance) of all bounded domains of holomorphy. A domain in C' is called a Lu Qi-Keng domain if its Bergman kernel function has no zeroes. Lu Qi-Keng [11] raised the question of which domains, besides the ball and the polydisc, have this property. A motivation for the question is that the vanishing of the Bergman kernel function obstructs the global definition of Bergman representative coordinates. Over the years since Lu Qi-Keng's paper appeared, various versions of a Lu Qi-Keng conjecture have been mooted to the effect that all domains, or most domains, or all domains satisfying some geometrical hypothesis, are Lu Qi-Keng domains. In the complex plane C1, a bounded domain with smooth boundary is a Lu QiKeng domain if and only if it is simply connected [16] (and thus biholomorphically equivalent to the disc). I have given a counterexample [1] showing that no analogous topological characterization of Lu Qi-Keng domains can hold in higher dimensions: there exists (in C2, and similarly in C' for n > 2) a bounded, strongly pseudoconvex, contractible domain with C? regular boundary whose Bergman kernel function does have zeroes. In this note, I show that the Lu Qi-Keng domains of holomorphy may be viewed as exceptional: they form a nowhere dense set with respect to a suitable topology. Thus, contrary to former expectations, it is the normal situation for the Bergman kernel function of a domain to have zeroes. To formulate the result precisely, I need a metric on bounded open sets. Since I impose no restriction on the regularity of the boundaries of the sets, some variant of the Hausdorff metric will be appropriate. The Hausdorff distance Xis normally defined for nonempty, bounded, closed sets by the property that X-(A, B) < e if and only if each point of A has Euclidean distance less than e from some point of B, and vice versa. After the seminal paper of Ramadanov [12], it is clear in the context of the Bergman kernel function that if a sequence of open sets {Qj} is going to be said to converge to an open set Q, then every compact subset of Q should eventually be contained in Qj. It is less clear what requirement should be imposed if the Qj contain points outside of Q. The example [15, p. 39], [13, p. 280] of decreasing Received by the editors December 10, 1994. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 32H10. This research was partially supported by NSF grant number DMS-9203514. (?1996 American Mathematical Society
A Foundation of Programming a Multi-tape Quantum Turing Machine

The notion of quantum Turing machines is a basis of quantum complexity theory. We discuss a general model of multi-tape, multihead Quantum Turing machines with multi final states that also allow tape heads to stay still.
Joint discovery of haplotype blocks and complex trait associations from SNP sequences

Haplotypes, the global patterns of DNA sequence variation, have important implications for identifying complex traits. Recently, blocks of limited haplotype diversity have been discovered in human chromosomes, intensifying the research on modelling the block structure as well as the transitions or co-occurrence of the alleles in these blocks as a way to compress the variability and infer the associations more robustly. The haplotype block structure analysis is typically complicated by the fact that the phase information for each SNP is missing, i.e., the observed allele pairs are not given in a consistent order across the sequence. The techniques for circumventing this require additional information, such as family data, or a more complex sequencing procedure. In this paper we present a hierarchical statistical model and the associated learning and inference algorithms that simultaneously deal with the allele ambiguity per locus, missing data, block estimation, and the complex trait association. While the block structure may differ from the structures inferred by other methods, which use the pedigree information or previously known alleles, the parameters we estimate, including the learned block structure and the estimated block transitions per locus, define a good model of variability in the set. The method is completely data-driven and can detect Chron's disease from the SNP data taken from the human chromosome 5q31 with the detection rate of 80% and a small error variance.
Bollobás-Riordan and Relative Tutte Polynomials

We establish a relation between the Bollobas–Riordan polynomial of a ribbon graph with the relative Tutte polynomial of a plane graph obtained from the ribbon graph using its projection to the plane in a nontrivial way. Also we give a duality formula for the relative Tutte polynomial of dual plane graphs and an expression of the Kauffman bracket of a virtual link as a specialization of the relative Tutte polynomial.
Does extreme precipitation intensity depend on the emissions scenario

The rate of increase of global-mean precipitation per degree global-mean surface temperature increase differs for greenhouse gas and aerosol forcings and across emissions scenarios with differing composition of change in forcing. We investigate whether or not the rate of change of extreme precipitation also varies across the four emissions scenarios that force the CMIP5 multi-model ensemble. In most models, the rate of increase of maximum annual daily precipitation per degree global warming in the multi-model ensemble is statistically indistinguishable across the four scenarios, whether this extreme precipitation is calculated globally, over all land, or over extra-tropical land. These results indicate that, in contrast to mean precipitation, extreme precipitation depends on the total amount of warming and does not depend on emissions scenario in most models.
REGULATION, IMPERFECT COMPETITION, AND THE U.S. ABORTION MARKET

The U.S. abortion market has grown increasingly concentrated recently, while many states tightened abortion laws. Using data on abortion providers, I estimate an equilibrium model of demand, price competition, entry and exit, to capture the effect of regulation on industry dynamics. Estimates show regulations played an important role in determining the abortion market structure and evolution. Counterfactual simulations reveal increases in demand-aimed regulation were the most important observed factor in explaining recent abortion declines. Simulating Utah's regulatory regime nationally shows tightening abortion restrictions can increase abortions in equilibrium, mainly through tilting the competitive landscape toward low-price providers