cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Small-Scale Markets for Bilateral Resource Trading in the Sharing Economy

We consider a general small-scale market for agent-to-agent resource sharing, in which each agent could either be a server (seller) or a client (buyer) in each time period. In every time period, a server has a certain amount of resources that any client could consume, and randomly gets matched with a client. Our target is to maximize the resource utilization in such an agent-to-agent market, where the agents are strategic. During each transaction, the server gets money and the client gets resources. Hence, trade ratio maximization implies efficiency maximization of our system. We model the proposed market system through a Mean Field Game approach and prove the existence of the Mean Field Equilibrium, which can achieve an almost 100% trade ratio. Finally, we carry out a simulation study motivated by an agent-to-agent computing market, and a case study on a proposed photovoltaic market, and show the designed market benefits both individuals and the system as a whole.
Optimizing Query Evaluations Using Reinforcement Learning for Web Search

In web search, typically a candidate generation step selects a small set of documents---from collections containing as many as billions of web pages---that are subsequently ranked and pruned before being presented to the user. In Bing, the candidate generation involves scanning the index using statically designed match plans that prescribe sequences of different match criteria and stopping conditions. In this work, we pose match planning as a reinforcement learning task and observe up to 20% reduction in index blocks accessed, with small or no degradation in the quality of the candidate sets.
Non-Hermiticity-Induced Flat Bands

We show increasing the non-Hermiticity in PT-symmetric Lieb lattices results in generating a robust entire flat band at the exceptional point. The obtained flat band is embedded in between dispersive bands and can be considered as BIC [1].
The Fourier Transform and the Wave Equation

We solve the Cauchy problem for the n-dimensional wave equation using elementary properties of the Fourier transform.
Numerical Study on Mechanism of Small Vortex Generation in Boundary Layer Transition

The small vortex generation is a key issue of the mechanism for late flow transition and turbulence generation. It was widely accepted that small length vortices were generated by large vortex breakdown. According to our recent DNS, we find that the hairpin vortex structure is very stable and never breaks down to small pieces. On the other hand, we recognize that there are strong positive spikes besides the ring neck in the spanwise direction. The strongly positive spikes are caused by second sweeps which are generated by perfectly circular and perpendicularly standing vortex rings. The second sweep brings energy from the invisid region downdraft to the bottom of the boundary layers, which generates high shear layers around the positive spikes. Since the high shear layer is not stable, all small length scales (turbulence) are generated around high shear layers especially near the wall surface (bottom of boundary layers). This happens near the ring neck in the streamwise direction and besides the original vortex legs in the spanwise direction. The small length scales then rise up from the wall surface and convect to the upper boundary layer. Therefore, the small length scales (turbulence) are not generated by “large vortex breakdown”, but by “high shear layers” produced by the positive spikes and the wall surface.
Topologically Distinct Lagrangian and Symplectic Fillings

We construct infinitely many Legendrian links in the standard contact $\mathbb{R}^3$ with arbitrarily many topologically distinct Lagrangian fillings. The construction is used to find links in $S^3$ that bound topologically distinct pieces of algebraic curves in $B^4 \subset \mathbb{C}^2$, is applied to find contact 3-manifolds with topologically distinct symplectic fillings, and is generalized to higher dimensions.
A Unified View of Large-Scale Zero-Sum Equilibrium Computation.

The task of computing approximate Nash equilibria in large zero-sum extensive-form games has received a tremendous amount of attention due mainly to the Annual Computer Poker Competition. Immediately after its inception, two competing and seemingly different approaches emerged—one an application of noregret online learning, the other a sophisticated gradient method applied to a convex-concave saddle-point formulation. Since then, both approaches have grown in relative isolation with advancements on one side not effecting the other. In this paper, we rectify this by dissecting and, in a sense, unify the two views.
Generalized Laminar Matroids

Abstract Nested matroids were introduced by Crapo in 1965 and have appeared frequently in the literature since then. A flat of a matroid M is Hamiltonian if it has a spanning circuit. A matroid M is nested if and only if its Hamiltonian flats form a chain under inclusion; M is laminar if and only if, for every 1-element independent set X , the Hamiltonian flats of M containing X form a chain under inclusion. We generalize these notions to define the classes of k -closure-laminar and k -laminar matroids. This paper focuses on structural properties of these classes noting that, while the second class is always minor-closed, the first is if and only if k ≤ 3 . The main results are excluded-minor characterizations of the classes of 2-laminar and 2-closure-laminar matroids.
Tenurial security and agricultural investment: Evidence from Vietnam

Abstract In Vietnam, all lands belong to the state, which assigns usufruct rights to those lands to individuals and households. In 1993, the state gave 20-year usufruct rights to growers of annual crops, and 50-year usufruct rights to growers of perennial crops. In 2013, as the usufruct rights of growers of annual crops were about to expire, the Vietnamese government passed a law—the Land Law of 2013—that extended the usufruct rights of all landowners by 50 years. We exploit this largely unanticipated shock to study the effect of tenurial security on agricultural investment. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that the Land Law of 2013 is associated with a higher likelihood of investment by growers of annual crops in irrigation technology or soil and water conservation, but not other types of investment. Our results are robust to controlling for endogenous switching from annual to perennial crops, and our data support the parallel trends assumption.
Tool Macgyvering: Tool Construction Using Geometric Reasoning

MacGyvering is defined as creating or repairing something in an inventive or improvised way by utilizing objects that are available at hand. In this paper, we explore a subset of Macgyvering problems involving tool construction, i.e., creating tools from parts available in the environment. We formalize the overall problem domain of tool Macgyvering, introducing three levels of complexity for tool construction and substitution problems, and presenting a novel computational framework aimed at solving one level of the tool Macgyvering problem, specifically contributing a novel algorithm for tool construction based on geometric reasoning. We validate our approach by constructing three tools using a 7-DOF robot arm.
Online Continuous Submodular Maximization: From Full-Information to Bandit Feedback

In this paper, we propose three online algorithms for submodular maximization. The first one, Mono-Frank-Wolfe, reduces the number of per-function gradient evaluations from $T^{1/2}$ [Chen2018Online] and $T^{3/2}$ [chen2018projection] to 1, and achieves a $(1-1/e)$-regret bound of $O(T^{4/5})$. The second one, Bandit-Frank-Wolfe, is the first bandit algorithm for continuous DR-submodular maximization, which achieves a $(1-1/e)$-regret bound of $O(T^{8/9})$. Finally, we extend Bandit-Frank-Wolfe to a bandit algorithm for discrete submodular maximization, Responsive-Frank-Wolfe, which attains a $(1-1/e)$-regret bound of $O(T^{8/9})$ in the responsive bandit setting.
Sequential Synthesis of Distributed Controllers for Cascade Interconnected Systems

We consider the problem of designing distributed controllers to ensure passivity of a large-scale interconnection of linear subsystems connected in a cascade topology. The control design process needs to be carried out at the subsystem-level with no direct knowledge of the dynamics of other subsystems in the interconnection. We present a distributed approach to solve this problem, where subsystem-level controllers are locally designed in a sequence starting at one end of the cascade using only the dynamics of the particular subsystem, coupling with the immediately preceding subsystem and limited information from the preceding subsystem in the cascade to ensure passivity of the interconnected system up to that point. We demonstrate that this design framework also allows for new subsystems to be compositionally added to the interconnection without requiring redesign of the pre-existing controllers.
The Role of Pre-Algebraic Reasoning within a Word-Problem Intervention for Third-Grade Students with Mathematics Difficulty.

Students in the elementary grades often experience difficulty setting up and solving word problems. Using an equation to represent the structure of the problem serves as an effective tool for solving word problems, but students may require specific pre-algebraic reasoning instruction about the equal sign as a relational symbol to set up and solve such equations successfully. We identified students with mathematics difficulty (n = 138) from a sample of 916 third-grade students. We randomly assigned students to a word-problem intervention with a pre-algebraic reasoning component, a word-problem intervention without pre-algebraic reasoning, or the business-as-usual. Students in the 2 active intervention conditions participated in 45 individual sessions and learned about 3 additive word-problem schemas. Students who received word-problem intervention with a pre-algebraic reasoning component demonstrated improved nonstandard equation solving, equal sign understanding, and word-problem solving compared to students in the other two conditions.
A unifying convex analysis and switching system approach to consensus with undirected communication graphs

Switching between finitely many continuous-time autonomous steepest descent dynamics for convex functions is considered. Convergence of complete solutions to common minimizers of the convex functions, if such minimizers exist, is shown. The convex functions need not be smooth and the dynamics may be subject to constraints. Since the common minimizers may represent consensus in a multi-agent system modeled by an undirected communication graph, several known results about asymptotic consensus are deduced as special cases. Extension to a time-varying case is included.
Ctf4 organizes sister replisomes and Pol alpha into a replication factory.

The current view is that eukaryotic replisomes are independent. Here we show that Ctf4 tightly dimerizes CMG helicase, with an extensive interface involving Psf2, Cdc45, and Sld5. Interestingly, Ctf4 binds only one Pol α-primase. Thus, Ctf4 may have evolved as a trimer to organize two helicases and one Pol α-primase into a replication factory. In the 2CMG-Ctf43-1Pol α-primase factory model, the two CMGs nearly face each other, placing the two lagging strands toward the center and two leading strands out the sides. The single Pol α-primase is centrally located and may prime both sister replisomes. The Ctf4-coupled-sister replisome model is consistent with cellular microscopy studies revealing two sister forks of an origin remain attached and are pushed forward from a protein platform. The replication factory model may facilitate parental nucleosome transfer during replication.
Effects of Spatial Confinement on Nonlinear Light Emission from Plasmonic Nanostructures

Photoluminescence measurements from spatially confined resonant gap-mode plasmons in a metal-dielectric-metal geometry is performed. The PL signal is nonlinear and broadband in character, and the nonlinear power dependence is seen to deviate from spatially random systems such as rough metal films.
Cutaneous nevi and internal cancer risk: Results from two large prospective cohorts of US women

Elevated cutaneous nevus number has been linked to longer telomeres. Recently, a large systematic Mendelian randomization study identified a significant positive association between telomere length and risk of cancer. Here, we hypothesized that higher nevus count, as a phenotypic marker of longer telomere, may be associated with increased risk of internal cancer, and prospectively examined the association between nevus count and total as well as site-specific cancer risk among participants in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS, 1986-2012) and the Nurses' Health Study 2 (NHS2, 1989-2013) using Cox proportional hazards models. During 3,900,264 person-years of follow-up, we documented a total of 23,004 internal cancer cases (15,484 in the NHS and 7,520 in the NHS2). Compared to participants who had no nevi, the multivariate hazard ratios of total cancer (excluding skin cancer) were 1.06 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-1.09) for women with 1-5 nevi, 1.08 (95% CI, 1.03-1.15) for those who had 6-14 nevi and 1.19 (95% CI, 1.05-1.35) for those with 15 or more nevi (p trend <0.0001). Moreover, because nevus count has been associated with risk of breast cancer previously, we conducted a secondary analysis by excluding breast cancer from the outcomes of interest. The results were very similar to those of our primary analysis. For individual cancer, most of the associations with nevus count were positive but not statistically significant. In conclusion, we identified the number of cutaneous nevi as a phenotypic marker associated with internal cancer risk, which may be explained by telomere biology.
Robust generation of erythroid and multilineage hematopoietic progenitors from human iPSCs using a scalable monolayer culture system.

Abstract One of the most promising objectives of clinical hematology is to derive engraftable autologous hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Progress in translating iPSC technologies to the clinic relies on the availability of scalable differentiation methodologies. In this study, human iPSCs were differentiated for 21 days using STEMdiff™, a monolayer-based approach for hematopoietic differentiation of human iPSCs that requires no replating, co-culture or embryoid body formation. Both hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic cells were functionally characterized throughout differentiation. In the hematopoietic fraction, an early transient population of primitive CD235a+ erythroid progenitor cells first emerged, followed by hematopoietic progenitors with multilineage differentiation activity in vitro but no long-term engraftment potential in vivo. In later stages of differentiation, a nearly exclusive production of definitive erythroid progenitors was observed. In the non-hematopoietic fraction, we identified a prevalent population of mesenchymal stromal cells and limited arterial vascular endothelium (VE), suggesting that the cellular constitution of the monolayer may be inadequate to support the generation of HSCs with durable repopulating potential. Quantitative modulation of WNT/β-catenin and activin/nodal/TGFβ signaling pathways with CHIR/SB molecules during differentiation enhanced formation of arterial VE, definitive multilineage and erythroid progenitors, but was insufficient to orchestrate the generation of engrafting HSCs. Overall, STEMdiff™ provides a clinically-relevant and readily adaptable platform for the generation of erythroid and multilineage hematopoietic progenitors from human pluripotent stem cells.
Tight Bounds for Single-Pass Streaming Complexity of the Set Cover Problem

We resolve the space complexity of single-pass streaming algorithms for approximating the classic set cover problem. For finding an $\alpha$-approximate set cover (for any $\alpha=o(\sqrt{n}/\log n...
Long‐run impacts of trade shocks and export competitiveness: evidence from the U.S. BSE event

This paper examines how comparative advantages of major beef exporters changed following the 2003 bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak, which significantly disrupted the U.S. beef trade until approximately 2007. Using longitudinal data on beef export values and constructed revealed comparative advantage measures, we show that while some measures of the long‐run impacts of BSE on U.S. beef export competitiveness have returned to pre‐2003 levels, the U.S.’s comparative advantage has not. We also examine a hypothetical scenario of no BSE event in 2003 and predict that in the absence of the BSE outbreak, the U.S. beef sector would have been increasingly more competitive by 2017 than it actually was. Long‐term trade competitiveness may not simply return to normal even after a short‐term disruption.
Linearly Converging Quasi Branch and Bound Algorithms for Global Rigid Registration

In recent years, several branch-and-bound (BnB) algorithms have been proposed to globally optimize rigid registration problems. In this paper, we suggest a general framework to improve upon the BnB approach, which we name \emph{Quasi BnB}. Quasi BnB replaces the linear lower bounds used in BnB algorithms with quadratic quasi-lower bounds which are based on the quadratic behavior of the energy in the vicinity of the global minimum. While quasi-lower bounds are not truly lower bounds, the Quasi-BnB algorithm is globally optimal. In fact we prove that it exhibits linear convergence -- it achieves epsilon accuracy in O(log(1/epsilon)) time while the time complexity of other rigid registration BnB algorithms is polynomial in 1/epsilon. Our experiments verify that Quasi-BnB is significantly more efficient than state-of-the-art BnB algorithms, especially for problems where high accuracy is desired.
Energy Harvesting in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Networks with 3D Antenna Radiation Patterns

In this paper, an analytical framework is provided to analyze the energy coverage performance of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) energy harvesting networks with clustered user equipments (UEs). Locations of UAVs are modeled as a Poison Point Process (PPP), while locations of UEs are modeled as a Poisson Cluster Process (PCP). Two different models are considered for the line-of-sight (LOS) probability function to compare their effect on the network performance. Moreover, ultra-wideband (UWB) antennas with doughnut-shaped radiation patterns are employed in both UAVs and UEs, and the impact of practical 3D antenna radiation patterns on the network performance is also investigated. Initially, the complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF) and probability density function (PDF) of path losses for each tier are derived. Subsequently, association probabilities with each tier are obtained. Energy coverage probability is derived for the entire network using tools from stochastic geometry. Via numerical results, we show that UAV height and antenna orientation play crucial roles on the energy coverage performance.
Bijective proofs of shuffle compatibility results

Abstract Define a permutation to be any sequence of distinct positive integers. Given two permutations π and σ on disjoint underlying sets, we denote by π ⧢ σ the set of shuffles of π and σ (the set of all permutations obtained by interleaving the two permutations). A permutation statistic is a function St whose domain is the set of permutations such that St ( π ) only depends on the relative order of the elements of π. A permutation statistic is shuffle compatible if the distribution of St on π ⧢ σ depends only on St ( π ) and St ( σ ) and their lengths rather than on the individual permutations themselves. This notion is implicit in the work of Stanley in his theory of P-partitions. The definition was explicitly given by Gessel and Zhuang who proved that various permutation statistics were shuffle compatible using mainly algebraic means. This work was continued by Grinberg. The purpose of the present article is to use bijective techniques to give demonstrations of shuffle compatibility. In particular, we show how a large number of permutation statistics can be shown to be shuffle compatible using a few simple bijections. Our approach also leads to a method for constructing such bijective proofs rather than having to treat each one in an ad hoc manner. Finally, we are able to prove a conjecture of Gessel and Zhuang about the shuffle compatibility of a particular statistic.
Propagator identities, holographic conformal blocks, and higher-point AdS diagrams

Conformal blocks are the fundamental, theory-independent building blocks in any CFT, so it is important to understand their holographic representation in the context of AdS/CFT. We describe how to systematically extract the holographic objects which compute higher-point global (scalar) conformal blocks in arbitrary spacetime dimensions, extending the result for the four-point block, known in the literature as a geodesic Witten diagram, to five- and six-point blocks. The main new tools which allow us to obtain such representations are various higher-point propagator identities, which can be interpreted as generalizations of the well-known flat space star-triangle identity, and which compute integrals over products of three bulk-to-bulk and/or bulk-to-boundary propagators in negatively curved spacetime. Using the holographic representation of the higher-point conformal blocks and higher-point propagator identities, we develop geodesic diagram techniques to obtain the explicit direct-channel conformal block decomposition of a broad class of higher-point AdS diagrams in a scalar effective bulk theory, with closed-form expressions for the decomposition coefficients. These methods require only certain elementary manipulations and no bulk integration, and furthermore provide quite trivially a simple algebraic origin of the logarithmic singularities of higher-point tree-level AdS diagrams. We also provide a more compact repackaging in terms of the spectral decomposition of the same diagrams, as well as an independent discussion on the closely related but computationally simpler framework over p-adics which admits comparable statements for all previously mentioned results.
Two-factor risk preference for investment market and credit card risk

This study proposes a new “two‐factor” risk preference metric and assesses its effectiveness in predicting financial satisfaction under two risk domains: investment market risk and credit card risk. The factors in our two‐factor assessment are risk tolerance and financial self‐efficacy (FSE), both of which have other theoretical and empirical support as measures of risk attitudes. We explore a range of specifications for the two‐factor risk preference (TRP) metric and find it to be effective in predicting financial satisfaction under uncertainty. Within the TRP framework, FSE emerged as a robust predictor of the financial satisfaction of credit card users regardless of respondents' risk tolerance level; similar results were found for investment market equity owners. Overall, this study presents evidence that suggests risk tolerance and FSE capture different aspects of risk attitudes and are more effective at predicting financial satisfaction together than either one alone. Results suggest that financial planners can more accurately predict client emotional responses to risky situations by assessing client FSE and risk tolerance levels, with FSE effects dominating risk tolerance effects in most cases. Financial planners can then improve client service by using the assessment results as a basis for investment portfolio allocation and credit market participation recommendations. Full Text Available Here: https://doi.org/10.1002/cfp2.1062
Nontraditional hypsometric equation

This study corrects the hypsometric equation by restoring the nontraditional terms to relax the hydrostatic approximation. The nontraditional terms include one Coriolis term and two metric terms in the vertical momentum equation. The hypsometric equations with and without the nontraditional correction are used to calculate the geopotential height of pressure levels using more than 300,000 selected tropical rawinsonde profiles. With westerlies between two pressure levels, the thickness of the layer increases, which reduces the upward pressure gradient forces to balance the upward nontraditional Coriolis forces; the opposite is true for easterlies. Hence, zonal winds are negatively correlated with traditional geopotential height biases aloft. At 500 hPa, for example, traditional geopotential height error in the tropical troposphere is on the order of at least 0.5 m, which is considerable with respect to geopotential height variability in tropical large-scale flow, on the order of 10 m to 15 m.
Big Qual: Defining and Debating Qualitative Inquiry for Large Data Sets:

Big qualitative data (Big Qual), or research involving large qualitative data sets, has introduced many newly evolving conventions that have begun to change the fundamental nature of some qualitati...
A Subcutaneous Implant of Tenofovir Alafenamide Fumarate Causes Local Inflammation and Tissue Necrosis in Rabbits and Macaques.

We describe the in vitro and in vivo evaluation of a subcutaneous reservoir implant delivering tenofovir alafenamide hemifumarate (TAF) for the prevention of HIV infection. These long-acting reservoir implants were able to deliver antiretroviral drug for over 90 days in vitro and in vivo. We evaluated the implants for implantation site histopathology and pharmacokinetics in plasma and tissues for up to 12 weeks in New Zealand White rabbit and rhesus macaque models. A dose-ranging study in rabbits demonstrated dose-dependent pharmacokinetics and local inflammation up to severe necrosis around the active implants. The matched placebos showed normal wound healing and fibrous tissue encapsulation of the implant. We designed a second implant with a lower release rate and flux of TAF and achieved a median cellular level of tenofovir diphosphate of 42 fmol per 106 rhesus macaque peripheral blood mononuclear cells at a TAF dose of 10 μg/kg/day. This dose and flux of TAF also resulted in adverse local inflammation and necrosis near the implant in rhesus macaques. The level of inflammation in the primates was markedly lower in the placebo group than in the active-implant group. The histological inflammatory response to the TAF implant at 4 and 12 weeks in primates was graded as a severe reaction. Thus, while we were able to achieve a sustained target dose, we observed an unacceptable inflammatory response locally at the implant tissue interface.
The genomic diversification of grapevine clones

Vegetatively propagated clones accumulate somatic mutations. The purpose of this study was to better appreciate clone diversity and involved defining the nature of somatic mutations throughout the genome. Fifteen Zinfandel winegrape clone genomes were sequenced and compared to one another using a highly contiguous genome reference produced from one of the clones, Zinfandel 03. Though most heterozygous variants were shared, somatic mutations accumulated in individual and subsets of clones. Overall, heterozygous mutations were most frequent in intergenic space and more frequent in introns than exons. A significantly larger percentage of CpG, CHG, and CHH sites in repetitive intergenic space experienced transition mutations than in genic and non-repetitive intergenic spaces, likely because of higher levels of methylation in the region and because methylated cytosines often spontaneously deaminate. Of the minority of mutations that occurred in exons, larger proportions of these were putatively deleterious when they occurred in relatively few clones. These data support three major conclusions. First, repetitive intergenic space is a major driver of clone genome diversification. Second, clones accumulate putatively deleterious mutations. Third, the data suggest selection against deleterious variants in coding regions or some mechanism by which mutations are less frequent in coding than noncoding regions of the genome.
What You See Is What You Get? The Impact of Representation Criteria on Human Bias in Hiring

Although systematic biases in decision-making are widely documented, the ways in which they emerge from different sources is less understood. We present a controlled experimental platform to study gender bias in hiring by decoupling the effect of world distribution (the gender breakdown of candidates in a specific profession) from bias in human decision-making. We explore the effectiveness of representation criteria, fixed proportional display of candidates, as an intervention strategy for mitigation of gender bias by conducting experiments measuring human decision-makers’ rankings for who they would recommend as potential hires. Experiments across professions with varying gender proportions show that balancing gender representation in candidate slates can correct biases for some professions where the world distribution is skewed, although doing so has no impact on other professions where human persistent preferences are at play. We show that the gender of the decision-maker, complexity of the decision-making task and over- and under-representation of genders in the candidate slate can all impact the final decision. By decoupling sources of bias, we can better isolate strategies for bias mitigation in human-in-the-loop systems.
GLAD: Learning Sparse Graph Recovery

Recovering sparse conditional independence graphs from data is a fundamental problem in machine learning with wide applications. A popular formulation of the problem is an $\ell_1$ regularized maximum likelihood estimation. Many convex optimization algorithms have been designed to solve this formulation to recover the graph structure. Recently, there is a surge of interest to learn algorithms directly based on data, and in this case, learn to map empirical covariance to the sparse precision matrix. However, it is a challenging task in this case, since the symmetric positive definiteness (SPD) and sparsity of the matrix are not easy to enforce in learned algorithms, and a direct mapping from data to precision matrix may contain many parameters. We propose a deep learning architecture, GLAD, which uses an Alternating Minimization (AM) algorithm as our model inductive bias, and learns the model parameters via supervised learning. We show that GLAD learns a very compact and effective model for recovering sparse graphs from data.
Linear factorization of hypercyclic functions for differential operators

Abstract On the Frechet space of entire functions H ( C ) , we show that every nonscalar continuous linear operator L : H ( C ) → H ( C ) which commutes with differentiation has a hypercyclic vector f ( z ) in the form of the infinite product of linear polynomials: f ( z ) = ∏ j = 1 ∞ ( 1 − z a j ) , where each a j is a nonzero complex number.
Effective equidistribution of the horocycle flow on geometrically finite hyperbolic surfaces

We prove effective equidistribution of non-closed horocycles in the unit tangent bundle of infinite-volume geometrically finite hyperbolic surfaces.
Voting behavior under proportional representation

Understanding voter preferences in proportional representation (PR) systems is an essential first step towards understanding candidate selection and behavior. We unearth conceptual challenges of co...
Nonsingularity of Flat Robertson–Walker Models in the Special Relativistic Approach to Einstein's Equations

Recently the neglected issue of the causal structure in the flat space-time approach to Einstein's theory of gravity has been substantially resolved. Consistency requires that the flat metric's null cone be respected by the null cone of the effective curved metric. While consistency is not automatic, thoughtful use of the naive gauge freedom resolves the problem. After briefly recapitulating how consistent causality is achieved, we consider the flat Robertson–Walker Big Bang model. The Big Bang singularity in the spatially flat Robertson–Walker cosmological model is banished to past infinity in Minkowski space-time. A modified notion of singularity is proposed to fit the special relativistic approach, so that the Big Bang becomes nonsingular.
Superconvergence of High Order Finite Difference Schemes Based on Variational Formulation for Elliptic Equations

The classical continuous finite element method with Lagrangian $$Q^k$$ basis reduces to a finite difference scheme when all the integrals are replaced by the $$(k+1)\times (k+1)$$ Gauss–Lobatto quadrature. We prove that this finite difference scheme is $$(k+2)$$th order accurate in the discrete 2-norm for an elliptic equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions, which is a superconvergence result of function values. We also give a convenient implementation for the case $$k=2$$, which is a simple fourth order accurate elliptic solver on a rectangular domain.
Current-induced spin-orbit field in permalloy interfaced with ultrathin Ti and Cu

How spin–orbit torques emerge from materials with weak spin–orbit coupling (e.g., light metals) is an open question in spintronics. Here, we report on a field-like spin–orbit torque (i.e., in-plane spin–orbit field transverse to the current axis) in SiO2-sandwiched Permalloy (Py), with the top Py-SiO2 interface incorporating ultrathin Ti or Cu. In both SiO2/Py/Ti/SiO2 and SiO2/Py/Cu/SiO2, this spin–orbit field opposes the classical Oersted field. While the magnitude of the spin–orbit field is at least a factor of 3 greater than the Oersted field, we do not observe evidence for a significant damping-like torque in SiO2/Py/Ti/SiO2 or SiO2/Py/Cu/SiO2. Our findings point to contributions from a Rashba-Edelstein effect or spin–orbit precession at the (Ti, Cu)-inserted interface.How spin–orbit torques emerge from materials with weak spin–orbit coupling (e.g., light metals) is an open question in spintronics. Here, we report on a field-like spin–orbit torque (i.e., in-plane spin–orbit field transverse to the current axis) in SiO2-sandwiched Permalloy (Py), with the top Py-SiO2 interface incorporating ultrathin Ti or Cu. In both SiO2/Py/Ti/SiO2 and SiO2/Py/Cu/SiO2, this spin–orbit field opposes the classical Oersted field. While the magnitude of the spin–orbit field is at least a factor of 3 greater than the Oersted field, we do not observe evidence for a significant damping-like torque in SiO2/Py/Ti/SiO2 or SiO2/Py/Cu/SiO2. Our findings point to contributions from a Rashba-Edelstein effect or spin–orbit precession at the (Ti, Cu)-inserted interface.
Is Corporate Social Responsibility Performance Related to Conditional Accounting Conservatism

We examine the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and conditional accounting conservatism. Drawing upon the stakeholder-engaging and information-enhancing perspectiv...
Control-Stopping Games for Market Microstructure and Beyond

In this paper, we present a family of control-stopping games that arise naturally in equilibrium-based models of market microstructure as well as in other models with strategic buyers and sellers. ...
The Potential Gains of Macrodiversity in mmWave Cellular Networks with Correlated Blocking

At millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies, signals are prone to blocking by objects in the environment, which causes paths to go from line-of-sight (LOS) to non-LOS (NLOS). We consider macrodiversity as a strategy to improve the performance of mmWave cellular systems, where the user attempts to connect with two or more base stations. An accurate analysis of macrodiversity must account for the possibility of correlated blocking, which occurs when a single blockage simultaneously blocks the paths to two base stations. In this paper, we analyze the macrodiverity gain in the presence of correlated random blocking and interference. To do so, we develop a framework to determine distributions for the LOS probability, SNR, and SINR by taking into account correlated blocking. We consider a cellular uplink with both diversity combining and selection combining schemes. We also study the impact of blockage size and blockage density. We show that blocking can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, the signal from the source transmitter could be blocked, and on the other hand, interfering signals tend to also be blocked, which leads to a completely different effect on macrodiversity gains. We also show that the assumption of independent blocking can lead to an incorrect evaluation of macrodiversity gain, as the correlation tends to decrease macrodiversity gain.
Grove Arctic Curves from Periodic Cluster Modular Transformations

Groves are spanning forests of a finite region of the triangular lattice that are in bijection with Laurent monomials that arise in solutions of the cube recurrence. We introduce a large class of probability measures on groves for which we can compute exact generating functions for edge probabilities. Using the machinery of asymptotics of multivariate generating functions, this lets us explicitly compute arctic curves, generalizing the arctic circle theorem of Petersen and Speyer. Our class of probability measures is sufficiently general that the limit shapes exhibit all solid and gaseous phases expected from the classification of EGMs in the resistor network model.
Assessment of Panfacial Fractures in the Pediatric Population.

Purpose Management of panfacial fractures is critical and often difficult in adults; however, there is little to no literature regarding these fractures in the pediatric population. In this study, we present our experience to provide insight and further investigation regarding prevention and management strategies within the pediatric population. Patients and Methods We performed a retrospective chart review of all panfacial fractures in the pediatric population between 2002 and 2014 treated at an urban, level 1 trauma center (University Hospital, Newark, NJ). Data including patient demographic characteristics, mechanisms of injury, locations of fractures, concomitant injuries, and surgical management strategies were collected. Results We identified 82 patients aged 18 years or younger who had sustained a panfacial fracture. The mean age at the time of injury was 12.9 years, with a male predominance of 64.9%. A total of 335 fractures were identified on radiologic imaging. The most common etiologies were motor vehicle accidents and pedestrians being struck. Orbital, frontal sinus, nasal, and zygoma fractures were the most common fractures. The mean score on the Glasgow Coma Scale on arrival was 12.0. A total of 29 patients were intubated on arrival—or before arrival—at the trauma bay. A surgical airway was required in 9 patients. The most common concomitant injuries were traumatic brain injury, intracranial hemorrhage, and skull fracture. Surgical repair was required in 38 patients. The cephalic-to-caudal approach was used most, followed by caudal to cephalic, medial to lateral, and lateral to medial. Within a year of the initial surgical procedure, 4 patients underwent reoperations for complications. Four patients died. Conclusions Pediatric panfacial fractures are rare occurrences; however, the impact of these injuries can be devastating, with concomitant life-threatening injuries and complications. Given the lack of literature, as well as the preventable nature of these injuries, we hope this study can address primary prevention strategies and provide insight toward the management and characteristics of these fractures.
Velocity correlations in driven two-dimensional granular media

Simulations of volumetrically forced granular media in two dimensions produce states with nearly homogeneous density. In these states, long-range velocity correlations with a characteristic vortex structure develop; given sufficient time, the correlations fill the entire simulated area. These velocity correlations reduce the rate and violence of collisions, so that pressure is smaller for driven inelastic particles than for undriven elastic particles in the same thermodynamic state. As the simulation box size increases, the effects of velocity correlations on the pressure are enhanced rather than reduced.
Finding and extending ancient simple sequence repeat-derived regions in the human genome.

Previously, 3% of the human genome has been annotated as simple sequence repeats (SSRs), similar to the proportion annotated as protein coding. The origin of much of the genome is not well annotated, however, and some of the unidentified regions are likely to be ancient SSR-derived regions not identified by current methods. The identification of these regions is complicated because SSRs appear to evolve through complex cycles of expansion and contraction, often interrupted by mutations that alter both the repeated motif and mutation rate. We applied an empirical, kmer-based, approach to identify genome regions that are likely derived from SSRs. The sequences flanking annotated SSRs are enriched for similar sequences and for SSRs with similar motifs, suggesting that the evolutionary remains of SSR activity abound in regions near obvious SSRs. Using our previously described P-clouds approach, we identified ‘SSR-clouds’, groups of similar kmers (or ‘oligos’) that are enriched near a training set of unbroken SSR loci, and then used the SSR-clouds to detect likely SSR-derived regions throughout the genome. Our analysis indicates that the amount of likely SSR-derived sequence in the human genome is 6.77%, over twice as much as previous estimates, including millions of newly identified ancient SSR-derived loci. SSR-clouds identified poly-A sequences adjacent to transposable element termini in over 74% of the oldest class of Alu (roughly, AluJ), validating the sensitivity of the approach. Poly-A’s annotated by SSR-clouds also had a length distribution that was more consistent with their poly-A origins, with mean about 35 bp even in older Alus. This work demonstrates that the high sensitivity provided by SSR-Clouds improves the detection of SSR-derived regions and will enable deeper analysis of how decaying repeats contribute to genome structure.
Effect of thermal and high-pressure processing on the thermo-rheological and functional properties of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) flours

Abstract The effect of hydrothermal (HT) (boiling for 15 or 120 min) and high-hydrostatic pressure (HHP) (150, 300, 450, and 600 MPa for 5, 10 or 15 min) processing on the rheological, pasting, thermal and functional properties of bean flours was investigated. HT and HHP treatments differently affected these properties. HT120 led to maximum values of elastic and viscous moduli (G′, G″), and gel strength of bean flours. HHP enhanced G′, G″ and gel strength as the pressure and holding time increased. The viscoelastic properties of HT120 and HHP600/5-treated bean flours correlated with the increased viscosity of these samples. The pasting profiles and thermograms indicated a full, partial, and limited starch gelatinization in HT120, HHP600/5 and HHP ≤ 450 MPa samples, respectively. Enthalpy values showed that HT120 caused a higher degree of protein denaturation than HHP, with protein denaturation increasing as pressurization and time increased. This had an impact on protein solubility and emulsifying activity of flours which were significantly diminished by HT15/HT120, but maintained or slightly decreased by HHP. Nevertheless, HHP-treated samples showed enhanced emulsifying stability with increased pressure and holding time. These results demonstrate that HHP has the technological potential to manufacture bean flours with a range of functionalities into diverse food products.
Breaking Out of Carbon Lock-In: Malaysia’s Path to Decarbonization

Malaysia has made an ambitious commitment to reduce the intensity of its carbon emissions, notably a 40% reduction (compared to 2005 levels) by 2020 and a 45% reduction (compared to 2005 levels) by 2030. As with other developing countries, Malaysia’s challenge is to decarbonize its energy-centric economy in the face of population growth pressures and substantial levels of poverty. Drawing on extensive interviews with both public and private stakeholders, we examine how Malaysia has launched its transition to a decarbonized development path. Based on our multi-year analysis, we identify key breakout factors, including behavioral transformations, institutional shifts, and action by a broad network of actors that have allowed Malaysia to begin decarbonizing its economy. At the same time, we note that federal-state friction, limited government capacity, the absence of a centralized management agency, the lack of international funding, incipient environmental awareness, and numerous barriers to investment in renewable energy reinforce carbon lock-in. Our analysis suggests ways in which other developing countries can learn from Malaysia’s initial successes and challenges.
Local soldier fatalities and war profiteers: New tests of the political cost hypothesis

Abstract We test the political cost hypothesis using local soldier fatalities as a source of as-if-random variation in the threat of political costs for local defense firms. Soldier fatalities vary the threat of political costs for defense firms because the U.S. tradition of shared sacrifice during war vulgarizes war profits amid dead soldiers. Local defense firms record more income-decreasing accruals, equal to 1.17 percent of total assets, in response to a one standard deviation increase in local soldier fatalities (an additional 29 soldier fatalities in the average state-year). A wide variety of robustness tests corroborate our inferences.
Multitask prediction of site selectivity in aromatic C–H functionalization reactions

Aromatic C–H functionalization reactions are an important part of the synthetic chemistry toolbox. Accurate prediction of site selectivity can be crucial for prioritizing target compounds and synthetic routes in both drug discovery and process chemistry. However, selectivity may be highly dependent on subtle electronic and steric features of the substrate. We report a generalizable approach to prediction of site selectivity that is accomplished using a graph-convolutional neural network for the multitask prediction of 123 C–H functionalization tasks. In an 80/10/10 training/validation/testing pseudo-time split of about 58 000 aromatic C–H functionalization reactions from the Reaxys database, the model achieves a mean reciprocal rank of 92%. Once trained, inference requires approximately 200 ms per compound to provide quantitative likelihood scores for each task. This approach and model allow a chemist to quickly determine which C–H functionalization reactions – if any – might proceed with high selectivity.