974 research outputs found
China's economic reforms : pointers for other economies in transition?
No full textChina's two main economic problems before reform were low incentives to workers and the misallocation of resources among sectors. These problems were theresult of a development strategy oriented toward heavy industry. By improving material incentives, China's reforms created a flow of new resources and allowed them to be allocated to sectors suppressed under pre-reform strategies. The onset of reform in China was not allowed to disrupt production from existing resources. Instead, the newly created resources were permitted to accrue and to flow into the more productive, often light industrial sectors, thus stimulating continuous growth of the national economy during reform. Low incentives and the suppression of nonpriority sectors are common features of the legacy of economies in transition from central planning that based their development on the rapid growth of heavy industry. China's approach may be of interest to them. Among lessons China learned are that: (a) Autonomy must be granted to micromanagement units and preserved to improve the incentive structure and create a new flow of resources. (b) While maintaining essential minimum levels of production in the pre-reform priority sectors, autonomous enterprises must be permitted and encouraged to allocate new incremental resource flows to the previously suppressed sectors. (c) In parallel, the distorted policy environment and planned-allocation system must be progressively reformed to bring them into line with the new system of incentives and modus operandi of autonomous enterprises.Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Water and Industry,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies
Soil physicochemical data at Two New England Farms with and without Basalt Rock Dust Application
No full textSoil physical and chemical data were collected from Cedar Circle Farm and Education Center in Thetford Vermont and Many Hands Farm in Barre, Massachusetts collected in Spring 2021. At each farm, two field were sampled. One with basalt rock dust application of 1.1 tonnes per hectare and an adjacent field without.
Included in this data set are CSV files of:
1) ‘pH’ = Soil pH data for each soil horizon averaged for the three soil pit replicates
2) ‘Texture’ = Soil Texture for select horizons averaged for the three soil pit replicates
3) ‘SOC’ = Soil organic carbon concentrations and pool data for each soil horizon average among the three soil pit replicates
4) ‘Aggregates’ = Soil aggregate mass fraction data for each soil horizon average among the three soil pit replicates
4) ‘Inorganic concentrations’ = Plant-available soil concentrations for each soil horizon average among the three soil pit replicates
4) ‘Inorganic pools’ = Plant-available soil pools for each soil horizon average among the three soil pit replicates
Elements include are aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), calcium (Ca), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), phosphorus (P), sulfur (S), boron (B), barium (Ba), copper (Cu), sodium (Na), strontium (Sr), and zinc (Zn)
Palindromic richness
No full textIn this paper, we study combinatorial and structural properties of a new class of finite and infinite words that are 'rich' in palindromes in the utmost sense. A characteristic property of the so-called rich words is that all complete returns to any palindromic factor are themselves palindromes. These words encompass the well-known episturmian words, originally introduced by the second author together with Droubay and Pirillo in 2001 [X. Droubay, J. Justin, G. Pirillo, Episturmian words and some constructions of de Luca and Rauzy, Theoret. Comput. Sci. 255 (2001) 539-553]. Other examples of rich words have appeared in many different contexts. Here we present the first unified approach to the study of this intriguing family of words. Amongst our main results, we give an explicit description of the periodic rich infinite words and show that the recurrent balanced rich infinite words coincide with the balanced episturmian words. We also consider two wider classes of infinite words, namely weakly rich words and almost rich words (both strictly contain all rich words, but neither one is contained in the other). In particular, we classify all recurrent balanced weakly rich words. As a consequence, we show that any such word on at least three letters is necessarily episturmian; hence weakly rich words obey Fraenkel's conjecture. Likewise, we prove that a certain class of almost rich words obeys Fraenkel's conjecture by showing that the recurrent balanced ones are episturmian or contain at least two distinct letters with the same frequency. Lastly, we study the action of morphisms on (almost) rich words with particular interest in morphisms that preserve (almost) richness. Such morphisms belong to the class of P-morphisms that was introduced by Hof, Knill, and Simon in 1995 [A. Hof, O. Knill, B. Simon, Singular continuous spectrum for palindromic Schrödinger operators, Comm. Math. Phys. 174 (1995) 149-159]
Modeling of SBS Phase Conjugation in Multimode Step Index Fibers
No full textStimulated Brillouin scattering in a multimode step-index fiber can be used to generate a counter-propagating, phase-conjugate beam that would prove useful in many applications, such as near diffraction limited, double-pass high-power amplifiers or coherent beam combination. Relatively little modeling of such a fiber-based phase-conjugator has been done, making design decisions regarding type and length of fiber largely guesswork. A numerical model was constructed with the aim of providing educated predictions about the phase conjugate fidelity that could be expected from a given pump intensity input coupled into a specific fiber. A numerical perturba-tion algorithm was constructed to search for the Stokes modal arrangement with the highest gain for a given pump input. The gain was calculated from the differential equation for the Stokes power under the assumption that all pump/Stokes modes decay/grow at the same rate, and that the fiber was lossless. The model proves to be much more accurate in predicting experimentally observed phase conjugate fidelities than previous efforts. In addition, the phenomenon of beam cleanup to higher orde
A Recording, Performance Guide, and Composer Interviews: Six New Original Works for Trios Involving Saxophone, Commissioned for the Rogue Trio and Lotus
No full textabstract: This project includes a recording, composer biographies, performance guides, and composer questionnaires for seven original works commissioned for either the Rogue Trio or Lotus. The members of the Rogue Trio are violinist Kathleen Strahm, saxophonist Justin Rollefson, and pianist Mary Cota. Lotus’s members include Samuel Detweiler, Justin Rollefson, and Kristen Zelenak on saxophone. Both ensembles are based in Tempe, Arizona. All seven original compositions were recorded at Tempest Recording in February of 2018.
The first piece, Four Impersonations (2016), was commissioned by the Rogue Trio and written by Theo Chandler (b.1992) for violin, soprano saxophone and piano. The second piece was written by Spencer Arias (b. 1990) titled He Said There Was No Sound (2015) for violin, alto saxophone, and piano. The final work is titled Cabinet Meeting (2017), composed by Zachary Green (b. 1993) for violin, alto and tenor saxophone, and piano.
The first piece commissioned by Lotus and composed by Spencer Arias is titled As I escape, the water calms (2017) for soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, and tenor saxophone. The second piece was composed by Graham Cohen (b. 1999), titled Introduction and Toccata (2017), written for soprano, alto, and baritone saxophones. The third piece, titled Everything that rises, was written by David “Clay” Mettens (b. 1990) in 2014 for three soprano saxophones. Samuel Detweiler, Justin Rollefson and Tyler Flowers originally commissioned this piece. The final piece commissioned by Lotus was written by Matthew Kennedy (b. 1987) titled Triceratops: tasty grooves for saxophone trio (2017) for alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones.Dissertation/ThesisFour Impersonations, Movement I: An outwardly-confident adolescent demanding recognition - Theo ChandlerFour Impersonations, Movement II: A grumpy hermit ignoring the attention of a suitor - Theo ChandlerFour Impersonations, Movement III: A skinny, shy boy standing in the rain - Theo ChandlerFour Impersonations, Movement IV: Subordinates mocking an authority figure - Theo ChandlerHe Said There Was No Sound - Spencer AriasCabinet Meeting, Movement I: Introduction - Zachary GreenCabinet Meeting, Movement II: Jared Kushner, mysterious robot - Zachary GreenCabinet Meeting, Movement III: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, lonesome cowboy - Zachary GreenCabinet Meeting, Movement IV: Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci, in candid conversation with the New Yorker - Zachary GreenCabinet Meeting, Movement V: Betsy DeVos Secretary of Education - Zachary GreenCabinet Meeting, Movement VI: Ben Carson Secretary of Housing and Urban Development - Zachary GreenCabinet Meeting, Movement VII: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, responding to questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee - Zachary GreenAs I escape, the water calms - Spencer AriasIntroduction and Toccata - Graham CohenEverything that rises - David “Clay” MettensTriceratops - Matthew KennedyDoctoral Dissertation Music 201
KDS2010, a Newly Developed Reversible MAO-B Inhibitor, as an Effective Therapeutic Candidate for Parkinson’s Disease
No full text© 2021, The Author(s).Monoamine oxidase-B (MAO-B) is a well-established therapeutic target for Parkinson’s disease (PD); however, previous clinical studies on currently available irreversible MAO-B inhibitors have yielded disappointing neuroprotective effects. Here, we tested the therapeutic potential of KDS2010, a recently synthesized potent, selective, and reversible MAO-B inhibitor in multiple animal models of PD. We designed and synthesized a series of α-aminoamide derivatives and found that derivative KDS2010 exhibited the highest potency, specificity, reversibility, and bioavailability (> 100%). In addition, KDS2010 demonstrated significant neuroprotective and anti-neuroinflammatory efficacy against nigrostriatal pathway destruction in the mouse MPTP model of parkinsonism. Treatment with KDS2010 also alleviated parkinsonian motor dysfunction in 6-hydroxydopamine-induced and A53T mutant α-synuclein overexpression rat models of PD. Moreover, KDS2010 showed virtually no toxicity or side effects in non-human primates. KDS2010 could be a next-generation therapeutic candidate for PD.11Nsciescopu
Constraining Inflationary B-modes with the BICEP/Keck Array Telescopes
No full textUniversity of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation.November 2019. Major: Physics. Advisor: Clement Pryke. 1 computer file (PDF); xiv, 250 pages.The standard cosmological model is an impressive theory that explains well the observed evolution and structure of the Universe, but we know the theory has to be incomplete since it does not explain the initial conditions of the Big Bang. Inflation is an extension to the model that hypothesizes an incredibly brief period of accelerating expansion in the first moments after the Big Bang to explain how the required initial conditions were met. Most theories of Inflation predict a stochastic background of gravitational waves would have been produced, which would have imprinted a characteristic curl-like B-mode pattern into the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and finding these B-modes would provide direct evidence for Inflation, opening a new window into the high-energy physics of the early Universe. The BICEP/Keck Array telescopes are a series of small aperture, polarization-sensitive microwave telescopes expressly optimized for observing the degree-angular scale CMB where the B-mode signal is predicted to peak. Continuous mapping since 2010 of ~1% of the low-foreground sky from the South Pole has produced maps in multiple frequencies bands which result in the tightest constraint on Inflationary gravitational waves to date: r < 0.072 using data through the end of 2015. In this dissertation we review the end-to-end analysis of the BICEP/Keck Array data, from timestreams to cosmological parameter estimation. Along the way, we will detail two specific contributions the author has made for the upcoming analysis results. The first concerns a correction made to the low-level timestream processing, discovered while analyzing the data from the newest telescope for the first time. The second topic is the introduction of new algorithms and parameter choices for the E/B purification process that improves the purification quality. Finally, we conclude by previewing the anticipated result of including three additional years of previously unreported data which has the potential to improve current cosmological parameter constraints on r by a factor of two.Willmert, Justin. (2019). Constraining Inflationary B-modes with the BICEP/Keck Array Telescopes. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/211821
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