Citizen coproduction and efficient public good provision: Theory and evidence from local public libraries

In both public administration and economics, efficiency is brought forward as an important criterion for evaluating administrative actions. Clearly, its value as an assessment principle depends on our ability to adequately measure efficiency. This article argues that citizen’s coproduction in public services requires a careful reassessment of how we approach the measurement of productive efficiency in public service delivery. Theoretically, we illustrate that using observable outcomes (e.g., library circulation, school results, health outcomes, fires extinguished, and crimes solved) as output indicators is inappropriate and leads to biased estimates of public service providers’ productive efficiency. This bias arises because citizens co-determine final outputs, leaving them at least partly beyond the service providers’ control. Empirically, we find supportive evidence of both the existence and importance of such ‘demand-induced’ bias.     

低成本吸附剂稻壳灰对Cr(Ⅵ)去除机制的谱学表征

以低成本稻壳灰作为吸附剂,使用FTIR,SEM,XPS,XRD,XRF等分析手段,研究稻壳灰对Cr(Ⅵ)的去除机制。FTIR研究表明酰胺Ⅱ带,Si—O—Si,O—Si—O等在Cr(Ⅵ)去除过程中有一定贡献。由SEM图片清晰可见：吸附Cr(Ⅵ)后,稻壳灰表面分布有众多的光亮沉积物。XPS图谱证明：稻壳灰的主要组成元素为C,N,O,P和Si;C元素的存在状态以醛酮类为主,含C官能团与Cr(Ⅵ)发生了配位反应;N元素以—NH₂形态为主,Cr(Ⅵ)可能以静电作用与含N基团结合,并以物理吸附为主;Si的存在以Si—O为主,含Si官能团可能与Cr(Ⅵ)发生了配位反应。XRD分析结果表明：谱图中出现的峰是典型的SiO2特征峰;稻壳灰的结晶度增加,表明稻壳灰与Cr(Ⅵ)形成了具有晶体结构的金属化合物。XRF研究发现,K,Na,Mg和Ca的元素含量在吸附前后有所变化,另有两种新元素出现,这说明吸附过程存在离子交换机制。所有这些皆表明：各种官能团在Cr(Ⅵ)去除过程中的角色各不相同,无机微沉淀机制、氧化还原机制、表面络合机制、离子交换机制等是稻壳灰去除Cr(Ⅵ)的主要途径。这可以为吸附技术的实际应用提供理论支持。     

Multifunctional Hybrids Based on 2D Fluorinated Graphene Oxide and Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

Carbon‐based nanomaterials have garnered a lot of attention in the research of yesteryear. Here this study reports a composite based on fluorinated graphene oxide—a multifunctional subsidiary of graphene; and iron oxide nanoparticles as a contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Extensive structural and functional characterization is carried out to understand composite behavior toward biotoxicity and its performance as a contrast agent. The electron withdrawing fluorine group decreases the charge transfer to iron oxide increasing the magnetic saturation of the composite thus enhancing the contrast. The interaction of paramagnetic and superparamagnetic systems yields a superior contrast agent for MRI and fluorescent imaging.     

High coordination chemically bound compounds of noble gases with hydrocarbons: Ng(CCH)4 and Ng(CCH)6, (Ng=Xe or Kr)

Ab initio calculations predict the existence of the compounds Ng(-C[triple bond]CH)4 and Ng(-C[triple bond]CH)6, where Ng=Xe or Kr. Presently known organic noble gas compounds have a coordination number of two at most. The Ng(-C[triple bond]CH)(4) molecules have D(4h) symmetry, and Ng(-C[triple bond]CH)(6) molecules have O(h) symmetry. The bonding in all these compounds is partly ionic and partly covalent, with significant contributions from both types of bonding. The relatively high vibrational frequencies and the substantial Ng-(C[triple bond]CH) binding energy in these species indicate that these compounds should be fairly stable, at least in cryogenic conditions. These compounds could be a very interesting addition to the range of known organic noble gas compounds. Suggestions are made on possible approaches to their preparation.     

An Approximate Version of Sidorenko’s Conjecture

A beautiful conjecture of Erdős-Simonovits and Sidorenko states that, if H is a bipartite graph, then the random graph with edge density p has in expectation asymptotically the minimum number of copies of H over all graphs of the same order and edge density. This conjecture also has an equivalent analytic form and has connections to a broad range of topics, such as matrix theory, Markov chains, graph limits, and quasirandomness. Here we prove the conjecture if H has a vertex complete to the other part, and deduce an approximate version of the conjecture for all H. Furthermore, for a large class of bipartite graphs, we prove a stronger stability result which answers a question of Chung, Graham, and Wilson on quasirandomness for these graphs.     

On the Largest Eigenvalue of a Random Subgraph of the Hypercube

Let G be a random subgraph of the n-cube where each edge appears randomly and independently with probability p. We prove that the largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of G is almost surely where (G) is the maximum degree of G and the o(1) term tends to zero as max(^1/2(G),np) tends to infinity.Research was supported in part by the NSF grant DMS-0103948.Research was supported in part by NSF grants DMS-0106589, CCR-9987845 and by the State of New Jersey.     

Dynamics of conformal maps for a class of non-Laplacian growth phenomena

Time-dependent conformal maps are used to model a class of growth phenomena limited by coupled non-Laplacian transport processes, such as nonlinear diffusion, advection, and electromigration. Both continuous and stochastic dynamics are described by generalizing conformal-mapping techniques for viscous fingering and diffusion-limited aggregation, respectively. The theory is applied to simulations of advection-diffusion-limited aggregation in a background potential flow. A universal crossover in morphology is observed from diffusion-limited to advection-limited fractal patterns with an associated crossover in the growth rate, controlled by a time-dependent effective Péclet number. Remarkably, the fractal dimension is not affected by advection, in spite of dramatic increases in anisotropy and growth rate, due to the persistence of diffusion limitation at small scales.     

Whole blood analysis for medical diagnostics by GC-MS with Cold EI

This study covers a new method and related instrumentation for whole blood analysis for medical diagnostics. Two-μL whole blood samples were collected using “minimal invasive” diabetes lancet and placed on a thin glass rod mounted on a newly designed BloodProbe. The BloodProbe with the whole blood sample was inserted directly into a ChromatoProbe mounted on the GC inlet, and thus, no sample preparation was involved. The analysis was performed within 10 min using a GC-MS with Cold EI that is based on interfacing GC and MS with supersonic molecular beams (SMB) along with electron ionization of vibrationally cold sample compounds in the SMB (hence the name Cold EI). Our blood analysis revealed several observations: (1) Detailed mass chromatograms were generated with full range of all the nonpolar lipids in blood including fatty acids, cholesterol, cholesteryl esters, vitamin E, monoglycerides, diglycerides, and triglycerides. (2) The analysis of whole blood was found to be as informative as the conventional clinical analysis of blood serum. (3) Cholesteryl esters were more sensitive than free cholesterol alone to the effect of diet of obese people. (4) Major enhancement of several fatty acid methyl esters was found in the blood of a cancer patient with liver dysfunction. (5) Vitamin E as both α- and β-tocopherol was found with person-dependent ratio of these two compounds. (6) Elemental sulfur S₈ was identified in blood. (7) Several drugs and other compounds were found and need further study of their correlation to medical issues.     

Finding paths in sparse random graphs requires many queries

We discuss a new algorithmic type of problem in random graphs studying the minimum number of queries one has to ask about adjacency between pairs of vertices of a random graph in order to find a subgraph which possesses some target property with high probability. In this paper we focus on finding long paths in when for some fixed constant . This random graph is known to have typically linearly long paths. To have edges with high probability in one clearly needs to query at least pairs of vertices. Can we find a path of length economically, i.e., by querying roughly that many pairs? We argue that this is not possible and one needs to query significantly more pairs. We prove that any randomised algorithm which finds a path of length with at least constant probability in with must query at least pairs of vertices. This is tight up to the factor. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 50, 71–85, 2017     

On graphs with subgraphs having large independence numbers

Let G be a graph on n vertices in which every induced subgraph on vertices has an independent set of size at least . What is the largest so that every such G must contain an independent set of size at least q? This is one of the several related questions raised by Erd?s and Hajnal. We show that , investigate the more general problem obtained by changing the parameters s and t, and discuss the connection to a related Ramsey‐type problem. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 56: 149–157, 2007