cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The effects of DAT1 genotype on fMRI activation in an emotional go/no-go task

Dopaminergic brain circuits participate in emotional processing and impulsivity. The dopamine transporter (DAT) modulates dopamine reuptake. A variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) in the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) affects DAT expression. The influence of DAT1 genotype on neural activation during emotional processing and impulse inhibition has not been examined. Forty-two healthy subjects were classified as 9DAT (n = 17) or 10DAT (n = 25) based on DAT1 genotype (9DAT = 9R/9R and 9R/10R; 10DAT = 10R/10R). Subjects underwent fMRI during non-emotional and emotional go/no-go tasks. Subjects were instructed to inhibit responses to letters, happy faces, or sad faces in separate blocks. Accuracy and reaction time did not differ between groups. Within group results showed activation in regions previously implicated in emotional processing and response inhibition. Between groups results showed increased activation in 9DAT individuals during inhibition. During letter inhibition, 9DAT individuals exhibited greater activation in right inferior parietal regions. During sad inhibition, 9DAT Individuals exhibited greater activation in frontal, posterior cingulate, precuneus, right cerebellar, left paracentral, and right occipital brain regions. The interaction between DAT genotype and response type in sad versus letter stimuli showed increased activation in 9DAT individuals during sad no-go responses in the anterior cingulate cortex, extending into frontal-orbital regions. 9DAT individuals have greater activation than 10DAT individuals during neutral and sad inhibition, showing that genotypic variation influencing basal dopamine levels can alter the neural basis of emotional processing and response inhibition. This may indicate that 9R carriers exert more effort to overcome increased basal dopamine activation when inhibiting responses in emotional contexts.
Joint Estimation of Quantile Planes Over Arbitrary Predictor Spaces

ABSTRACTIn spite of the recent surge of interest in quantile regression, joint estimation of linear quantile planes remains a great challenge in statistics and econometrics. We propose a novel parameterization that characterizes any collection of noncrossing quantile planes over arbitrarily shaped convex predictor domains in any dimension by means of unconstrained scalar, vector and function valued parameters. Statistical models based on this parameterization inherit a fast computation of the likelihood function, enabling penalized likelihood or Bayesian approaches to model fitting. We introduce a complete Bayesian methodology by using Gaussian process prior distributions on the function valued parameters and develop a robust and efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo parameter estimation. The resulting method is shown to offer posterior consistency under mild tail and regularity conditions. We present several illustrative examples where the new method is compared against existing approaches and is found to o...
How do African households adapt to climate change? Evidence from Malawi

We use three waves of national representative household level panel data from Malawi to employ a structural model to estimate how households make land and labor allocation decisions in response to climate change. We first model the allocation of land to improved maize varieties as a function of precipitation history, input and output prices, household characteristics and extension advice and then estimate the welfare benefits associated with this decision in a household net income equation. This second stage also reveals the extent to which the household shift labor off-farm as total growing season precipitation fluctuates. We find that a 1% increase in intra-seasonal precipitation variability reduces household income by 1.5%. This effect falls to 1.3% after we account for the expected adjustment in improved maize adoption.
Beliefs About the Causal Structure of the Self-Concept Determine Which Changes Disrupt Personal Identity

Personal identity is an important determinant of behavior, yet how people mentally represent their self-concepts and their concepts of other people is not well understood. In the current studies, we examined the age-old question of what makes people who they are. We propose a novel approach to identity that suggests that the answer lies in people’s beliefs about how the features of identity (e.g., memories, moral qualities, personality traits) are causally related to each other. We examined the impact of the causal centrality of a feature, a key determinant of the extent to which a feature defines a concept, on judgments of identity continuity. We found support for this approach in three experiments using both measured and manipulated causal centrality. For judgments both of one’s self and of others, we found that some features are perceived to be more causally central than others and that changes in such causally central features are believed to be more disruptive to identity.
Dynamic Effects of Earthquakes

Principal factors controlling dynamic response of structures to earthquakes are summarized and related to lateral force provisions recommended for inclusion in Uniform Building Code by Structural Engineers Assn of California.
Intrinsic Scene Properties from a Single RGB-D Image

In this paper, we present a technique for recovering a model of shape, illumination, reflectance, and shading from a single image taken from an RGB-D sensor. To do this, we extend the SIRFS (“shape, illumination and reflectance from shading”) model, which recovers intrinsic scene properties from a single image [1] . Though SIRFS works well on neatly segmented images of objects, it performs poorly on images of natural scenes which often contain occlusion and spatially-varying illumination. We therefore present Scene-SIRFS, a generalization of SIRFS in which we model a scene using a mixture of shapes and a mixture of illuminations, where those mixture components are embedded in a “soft” segmentation-like representation of the input image. We use the noisy depth maps provided by RGB-D sensors (such as the Microsoft Kinect) to guide and improve shape estimation. Our model takes as input a single RGB-D image and produces as output an improved depth map, a set of surface normals, a reflectance image, a shading image, and a spatially varying model of illumination. The output of our model can be used for graphics applications such as relighting and retargeting, or for more broad applications (recognition, segmentation) involving RGB-D images.
Disordered quivers and cold horizons

We analyze the low temperature structure of a supersymmetric quiver quantum mechanics with randomized superpotential coefficients, treating them as quenched disorder. These theories describe features of the low energy dynamics of wrapped branes, which in large number backreact into extremal black holes. We show that the low temperature theory, in the limit of a large number of bifundamentals, exhibits a time reparametrization symmetry as well as a specific heat linear in the temperature. Both these features resemble the behavior of black hole horizons in the zero temperature limit. We demonstrate similarities between the low temperature physics of the random quiver model and a theory of large N free fermions with random masses.
Eyeriss: An Energy-Efficient Reconfigurable Accelerator for Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

Eyeriss is an accelerator for state-of-the-art deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs). It optimizes for the energy efficiency of the entire system, including the accelerator chip and off-chip DRAM, for various CNN shapes by reconfiguring the architecture. CNNs are widely used in modern AI systems but also bring challenges on throughput and energy efficiency to the underlying hardware. This is because its computation requires a large amount of data, creating significant data movement from on-chip and off-chip that is more energy-consuming than computation. Minimizing data movement energy cost for any CNN shape, therefore, is the key to high throughput and energy efficiency. Eyeriss achieves these goals by using a proposed processing dataflow, called row stationary (RS), on a spatial architecture with 168 processing elements. RS dataflow reconfigures the computation mapping of a given shape, which optimizes energy efficiency by maximally reusing data locally to reduce expensive data movement, such as DRAM accesses. Compression and data gating are also applied to further improve energy efficiency. Eyeriss processes the convolutional layers at 35 frames/s and 0.0029 DRAM access/multiply and accumulation (MAC) for AlexNet at 278 mW (batch size $N = 4$ ), and 0.7 frames/s and 0.0035 DRAM access/MAC for VGG-16 at 236 mW ( $N = 3$ ).
Understanding the Relation between Financial Reporting Quality and Audit Quality

SUMMARY: A primary goal of both financial reporting research and audit research is to understand the determinants of quality, and researchers in both areas have identified a wide set of variables ...
Buried object detection using handheld WEMI with task-driven extended functions of multiple instances

Many effective supervised discriminative dictionary learning methods have been developed in the literature. However, when training these algorithms, precise ground-truth of the training data is required to provide very accurate point-wise labels. Yet, in many applications, accurate labels are not always feasible. This is especially true in the case of buried object detection in which the size of the objects are not consistent. In this paper, a new multiple instance dictionary learning algorithm for detecting buried objects using a handheld WEMI sensor is detailed. The new algorithm, Task Driven Extended Functions of Multiple Instances, can overcome data that does not have very precise point-wise labels and still learn a highly discriminative dictionary. Results are presented and discussed on measured WEMI data.
Positivity in Kähler-Einstein theory

Tian initiated the study of incomplete Kahler–Einstein metrics on quasi–projective varieties with cone-edge type singularities along a divisor, described by the cone-angle 2π(1-α) for α∈ (0, 1). In this paper we study how the existence of such Kahler–Einstein metrics depends on α. We show that in the negative scalar curvature case, if such Kahler–Einstein metrics exist for all small cone-angles then they exist for every α∈((n+1)/(n+2), 1), where n is the dimension. We also give a characterisation of the pairs that admit negatively curved cone-edge Kahler–Einstein metrics with cone angle close to 2π. Again if these metrics exist for all cone-angles close to 2π, then they exist in a uniform interval of angles depending on the dimension only. Finally, we show how in the positive scalar curvature case the existence of such uniform bounds is obstructed.
All-Inorganic Networks and Tetramer Based on Tin(II)-Containing Polyoxometalates: Tuning Structural and Spectral Properties with Lone-Pairs

Two MOF-like but all-inorganic polyoxometalate-based networks, [Na7X2W18Sn9Cl5O68·(H2O)m]n (1, X = Si, m = 35; 2, X = Ge, m = 41), and the molecular tetramer Na6[{Na(μ-OH2)(OH2)2}6{Sn6(B-SbW9O33)2}2]·50H2O (3) have been prepared and characterized by X-ray diffraction and spectroscopic methods. All three compounds exhibit unique structural features, and networks 1 and 2 incorporate the highest nuclearity of Sn(II)-containing POMs to date. Tetramer 3 comprises bridging Sn(II) ions with [B-SbW9O33]9– units and exhibits two highly unusual features, a long-range Sb···Sb interaction and an intramolecular charge-transfer transition involving donation of the lone-pair electron density on both Sb(III) and Sn(II) to the POM. The electronic structure and excited-state dynamics have been studied by transient spectroscopy, spectroelectrochemistry, DFT calculations, and resonance Raman spectroscopy. The synergistic effect of two types of stereoactive lone-pairs on Sb(III) and Sn(II) is critical for the charge-transfer ...
Perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic Acid Diimides: Synthesis, Physical Properties, and Use in Organic Electronics

Perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid diimides (perylene diimides, PDIs) have been used as industrial pigments for many years. More recently, new applications for PDI derivatives have emerged in areas including organic photovoltaic devices and field-effect transistors. This Perspective discusses the synthesis and physical properties of PDI derivatives and their applications in organic electronics.
Molecular Dynamics of the Proline Switch and Its Role in Crk Signaling

The Crk adaptor proteins play a central role as a molecular timer for the formation of protein complexes including various growth and differentiation factors. The loss of regulation of Crk results in many kinds of cancers. A self-regulatory mechanism for Crk was recently proposed, which involves domain–domain rearrangement. It is initiated by a cis–trans isomerization of a specific proline residue (Pro238 in chicken Crk II) and can be accelerated by Cyclophilin A. To understand how the proline switch controls the autoinhibition at the molecular level, we performed large-scale molecular dynamics and metadynamics simulations in the context of short peptides and multidomain constructs of chicken Crk II. We found that the equilibrium and kinetic properties of the macrostates are regulated not only by the local environments of specified prolines but also by the global organization of multiple domains. We observe the two macrostates (cis closed/autoinhibited and trans open/uninhibited) consistent with NMR exper...
Designer HF-Based Fluorination Reagent: Highly Regioselective Synthesis of Fluoroalkenes and gem-Difluoromethylene Compounds from Alkynes

Hydrogen fluoride (HF) and selected nonbasic and weakly coordinating (toward cationic metal) hydrogen-bond acceptors (e.g., DMPU) can form stable complexes through hydrogen bonding. The DMPU/HF complex is a new nucleophilic fluorination reagent that has high acidity and is compatible with cationic metal catalysts. The gold-catalyzed mono- and dihydrofluorination of alkynes using the DMPU/HF complex yields synthetically important fluoroalkenes and gem-difluoromethlylene compounds regioselectively.
Diels–Alder Cycloaddition of Chiral Nonracemic 2,5-Diketopiperazine Dienes

Preparation of a chiral, nonracemic 2,5-diketopiperazine diene has enabled the investigation of intermolecular hetero-Diels–Alder cycloadditions. The diketopiperazine diene is reactive with both electron-rich and -deficient alkene substrates. Diastereofacial control in the cycloaddition is enforced with a removable aminal substituent. This study partly illuminates the regiochemical, stereoelectronic, and reactivity preferences of the diketopiperazine cycloaddition as well as provides a direct diastereoselective synthetic route to bicyclo[2.2.2]diazaoctane structures.
Stress as a Reduced Variable: Stress Relaxation of SBR Rubber at Large Strains

Stress relaxation measurements on SBR were carried out at temperatures from −5 to +60°C and at initial strains of up to 550%. The effects of strain and time were found to be factorable, so that the isochronal stress‐strain curve may be written as a modified Hooke's law with a time dependent modulus: S = E(t)ef(α), where f(α) is an appropriate function of the strain. By defining a strain‐reduced stress S* = S / f(α), i.e., a strain‐reduced modulus E*(t) = E(t)f(α), it can be shown that Ferry's method of reduced variables may be extended to large deformations. An appropriate strain function was obtained from the empirical Martin‐Roth‐Stiehler equation [Trans. Inst. Rubber Ind. 32, 189 (1956)] as f(α) = α−2 expA (α−α−1) with A =0.40. Although it cannot yet be certain that A is truly a constant and the same for all elastomers, this equation has the advantage of being valid right out to the breaking strain.
Unexpected hydrolytic instability of N-acylated amino acid amides and peptides.

Remote amide bonds in simple N-acyl amino acid amide or peptide derivatives 1 can be surprisingly unstable hydrolytically, affording, in solution, variable amounts of 3 under mild acidic conditions, such as trifluoroacetic acid/water mixtures at room temperature. This observation has important implications for the synthesis of this class of compounds, which includes N-terminal-acylated peptides. We describe the factors contributing to this instability and how to predict and control it. The instability is a function of the remote acyl group, R2CO, four bonds away from the site of hydrolysis. Electron-rich acyl R2 groups accelerate this reaction. In the case of acyl groups derived from substituted aromatic carboxylic acids, the acceleration is predictable from the substituent’s Hammett σ value. N-Acyl dipeptides are also hydrolyzed under typical cleavage conditions. This suggests that unwanted peptide truncation may occur during synthesis or prolonged standing in solution when dipeptides or longer peptides ...
The Duty to Desire: Love, Friendship, and Sexuality in Some Puritan Theories of Marriage

When philosophers or political scientists look for early statements of some modern Western ideas of marriage, they are likely to turn to Locke's Two Treatises of Government, for there we find elements or hints of the modern view that marriage is a contractual relation between two autonomous and equal partners. Husband and wife jointly set the terms of their relationship; their particular interests determine its character; they retain the freedom to leave when the terms of the contract are no longer satisfied. In this search of forerunners, however, it is a mistake to limit one's reading of seventeenth-century texts to Locke's. In the following pages, I hope to persuade you that a number of seventeenthcentury English theologians and preachers, for the most part Puritan, deserve equal attention. I shall consider William Ames and Richard Baxter, two of the most important casuists for seventeenth-century Puritans; Thomas Gataker, William Gouge, and Daniel Rogers, three Puritan clergymen who distinguished themselves particularly in their writings on marriage; and Jeremy Taylor, who was no Puritan, but whose attitudes toward marriage were in many respects like those of the Puritan casuists and theologians.
The Distribution of Olefinic Linkages in Elastomers

Abstract A method for determining the distribution of olefinic bonds in elastomers has been developed using dual-detector gpc analysis of the polymer after derivatization with 2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfenyl chloride. The method is particularly useful for determining the distribution of olefinic bonds in hydrocarbon copolymers having small levels of unsaturation.
Tumor cells proliferation and migration under the influence of their microenvironment.

It is well known that tumor microenvironment affects tumor growth and metastasis: Tumor cells may proliferate at different rates and migrate in different patterns depending on the microenvironment in which they are embedded. There is a huge literature that deals with mathematical models of tumor growth and proliferation, in both the avascular and vascular phases. In particular, a review of the literature of avascular tumor growth (up to 2006) can be found in Lolas [8] (G. Lolas, Lecture Notes in Mathematics, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 1872, 77 (2006)). In this article we report on some of our recent work. We consider two aspects, proliferation and of migration, and describe mathematical models based on in vitro experiments. Simulations of the models are in agreement with experimental results. The models can be used to generate hypotheses regarding the development of drugs which will confine tumor growth.
Electrostatic Tuning of the Proximity-Induced Exchange Field in EuS / Al Bilayers

We demonstrate that the proximity-induced exchange field H(ex) in ferromagnetic-paramagnetic bilayers can be modulated with an electric field. An electrostatic gate arrangement is used to tune the magnitude of H(ex) in the Al component of EuS/Al bilayers. In samples with H(ex)~2 T, we were able to produce modulations of ±10 mT with the application of perpendicular electric fields of the order of ±10(6) V/cm. We discuss several possible mechanisms accounting for the electric field's influence on the interfacial coupling between the Al layer and the ferromagnetic insulator EuS, along with the prospects of producing a superconducting field-effect transistor.
The Extent of Implicit Taxes at the Corporate Level and the Effect of TRA86

We examine the extent of implicit taxes at the corporate level and the effect on implicit taxes of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) in the United States. Using a variety of specifications, we find consistent evidence that implicit taxes eliminate virtually all of the cross-sectional differences in explicit tax preferences prior to TRA86, and then abruptly decline and eliminate only about one-third of the crosssectional differences in tax preferences in years following TRA86. We triangulate this evidence that implicit taxes declined following TRA86 by also providing evidence (a) of a decline in the relation between changes in tax preferences and changes in pre-tax returns, (b) of an increase in the persistence of tax-related earnings changes, (c) that these dramatic economic changes are priced by investors. Finally, we provide evidence suggesting that the decline in implicit taxes after TRA86 is driven at least in part by expansion of aggressive tax planning and use of tax shelters. Taken together these results indicate that TRA86 had a profound and lasting effect on implicit taxes at the corporate level. JEL classification : M41, H25
Simple Access to Elusive α-Boryl Carbanions and Their Alkylation: An Umpolung Construction for Organic Synthesis

The reaction of 1,1-bis(pinacolboronate) esters with alkyl halides can be effected by metal alkoxides and provides a strategy for the construction of organoboronate compounds. The reaction is found to occur by alkoxide-induced deborylation and generation of a boron-stabilized carbanion.
Stereoselective Synthesis of Substituted Oxocene Cores by Lewis Acid Promoted Cyclization

Substituted oxocene derivatives have been synthesized by Lewis acid catalyzed reactions of e-hydroxyalkene and substituted aromatic aldehydes. The Cu(OTf)2-bis-phosphine catalyzed reaction typically provides substituted dihydropyran derivatives through an olefin migration followed by a Prins cyclization. The corresponding reaction catalyzed by TMSOTf or BF3·OEt2 provided eight-membered cyclic ethers (oxocenes), selectively. This methodology provides convenient access to a variety of 2,4,8-trisubstituted oxocenes in good yields and excellent diastereoselectivities.
A local hidden-variable model for experimental tests of the GHZ puzzle

The Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) puzzle has been used to study quantum nonlocality and provide an all-or-nothing, no-go theorem for local hidden-variable models. Recent experiments using coincident-detected entangled photons prepared in a three-particle GHZ state have been used to test quantum nonlocality, but fail to rule out local realism due to a reliance on the fair-sampling hypothesis and insufficient detection efficiency. This paper describes a physically motivated local hidden-variable model based on amplitude-threshold detection that is capable of producing similar results. Detection efficiencies for the model are within the bounds permitted for local realism and, interestingly, exhibit statistical correlations between detectors, even when the detection events are spacelike separated. Increasing the detection threshold improves agreement with the ideal quantum predictions at the cost of decreased detection efficiency. A curious emergent feature of the model is that detection efficiencies may depend upon which observables are chosen for measurement.
Determinants of CEO compensation: Generalist–specialist versus insider–outsider attributes

Abstract We examine the distinct effects of generalist–specialist versus insider–outsider attributes on Chief Executive Officer (CEO) compensation patterns. Our cross-sectional results show that each attribute has a significant impact on both the level and structure of CEO compensation. CEOs with a high generalist–outsider combination receive the highest total compensation, followed by generalist–insiders, specialist–outsiders, and finally specialist–insiders. Our time-series results show that the generalist–specialist effect remains constant through time while the insider–outsider effect diminishes over time. These findings suggest that the generalist premium is the result of a fundamental shift in the need for generalist skills to manage increasingly-complex enterprises. In contrast, the outsider premium is more likely caused by a temporary increase in bargaining power during contract negotiations. Overall, our study disentangles generalist–specialist attributes from insider–outsider attributes and then identifies the specific channels through which each attribute affects executive compensation.
Synthesis of 2-Aryl- and 2-Vinylpyrrolidines via Copper-Catalyzed Coupling of Styrenes and Dienes with Potassium β-Aminoethyl Trifluoroborates

2-Arylpyrrolidines occur frequently in bioactive compounds, and thus, methods to access them from readily available reagents are valuable. We report a copper-catalyzed intermolecular carboamination of vinylarenes with potassium N-carbamoyl-β-aminoethyltrifluoroborates. The reaction occurs with terminal, 1,2-disubstituted, and 1,1-disubstituted vinylarenes bearing a number of functional groups. 1,3-Dienes are also good substrates, and their reactions give 2-vinylpyrrolidines. Radical clock mechanistic experiments are consistent with the presence of carbon radical intermediates and do not support participation of carbocations.
Action language BC +: preliminary report

Action languages are formal models of parts of natural language that are designed to describe effects of actions. Many of these languages can be viewed as high level notations of answer set programs structured to represent transition systems. However, the form of answer set programs considered in the earlier work is quite limited in comparison with the modern Answer Set Programming (ASP) language, which allows several useful constructs for knowledge representation, such as choice rules, aggregates, and abstract constraint atoms. We propose a new action language called BC+, which closes the gap between action languages and the modern ASP language. Language BC+ is defined as a high level notation of propositional formulas under the stable model semantics. Due to the generality of the underlying language, BC+ is expressive enough to encompass many modern ASP language constructs and the best features of several other action languages, such as B, C, C+ and BC. Computational methods available in ASP solvers are readily applicable to compute BC+, which led us to implement the language by extending system CPLUS2ASP.
Neural evidence of the strategic choice between working memory and episodic memory in prospective remembering

Theories of prospective memory (PM) posit that it can be subserved either by working memory (WM) or episodic memory (EM). Testing and refining these multiprocess theories of PM requires a way of tracking participants' reliance on WM versus EM. Here we use multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to derive a trial-by-trial measure of WM use in prospective memory. We manipulated strategy demands by varying the degree of proactive interference (which impairs EM) and the memory load required to perform the secondary task (which impairs WM). For the condition in which participants were pushed to rely more on WM, our MVPA measures showed 1) greater WM use and 2) a trial-by-trial correlation between WM use and PM behavior. Finally, we also showed that MVPA measures of WM use are not redundant with other behavioral measures: in the condition in which participants were pushed more to rely on WM, using neural and behavioral measures together led to better prediction of PM accuracy than either measure on its own.
Short-Term and Working Memory Impairments in Early-Implanted, Long-Term Cochlear Implant Users Are Independent of Audibility and Speech Production.

Objective: To determine whether early-implanted, long-term cochlear implant (CI) users display delays in verbal short-term and working memory capacity when processes related to audibility and speech production are eliminated. Design: Twenty-three long-term CI users and 23 normal-hearing controls each completed forward and backward digit span tasks under testing conditions that differed in presentation modality (auditory or visual) and response output (spoken recall or manual pointing). Results: Normal-hearing controls reproduced more lists of digits than the CI users, even when the test items were presented visually and the responses were made manually via touchscreen response. Conclusions: Short-term and working memory delays observed in CI users are not due to greater demands from peripheral sensory processes such as audibility or from overt speech-motor planning and response output organization. Instead, CI users are less efficient at encoding and maintaining phonological representations in verbal short-term memory using phonological and linguistic strategies during memory tasks.
Pruning Algorithms for Pretropisms of Newton Polytopes

Pretropisms are candidates for the leading exponents of Puiseux series that represent positive dimensional solution sets of polynomial systems. We propose a new algorithm to both horizontally and vertically prune the tree of edges of a tuple of Newton polytopes. We provide experimental results with our preliminary implementation in Sage that demonstrates that our algorithm compares favorably to the definitional algorithm.
Prosocial behavior following immortality priming: experimental tests of factors with implications for CVE interventions

ABSTRACTAs the field of countering violent extremism (CVE) evolves, increased emphasis has been placed on the development of interventions intended to be individually tailored to the needs of intervention program participants. Despite such emphasis, there is scant empirical research, much less experimental research, regarding psychological mechanisms that either bolster, or hinder, the effectiveness of such interventions. The present study experimentally tested two factors, in addition to accounting for a third, for their effects on an outcome potentially germane to a wide range of tailored CVE interventions: participants’ voluntary, unsupervised behavior toward out-group members.Specifically, based upon Terror Management Theory, the present study answered the following questions. (1) Might priming individuals with notions of immortality (vs. controls) tend to cause them to increase their generosity and decrease their in-group bias, as demonstrated in a behavioral outcome (monetary donations)?(2) If so, i...
Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis of Dihydropyrido[1,2‐a]indoles from Nitrones and Allenoates

An asymmetric method for the synthesis of dihydropyrido[1,2-a]indoles from mixtures of nitrones and allenoates has been developed. This transformation showcases the use of squaramide catalysis in a complicated cascade system that has been shown to be highly sensitive to reaction conditions and substituent effects. The new method provides access to enantiomerically enriched dihydropyridoindoles from modular, non-indole reagents. The optimization and scope of the new transformation is discussed in addition to initial mechanistic experiments that indicate the role of the catalyst.
Costs of Mandatory Periodic Audit Partner Rotation: Evidence from Audit Fees and Audit Timeliness

SUMMARY: The constricted mandatory audit partner rotation rules for U.S. public companies have fueled intense debate among the profession, regulators, and policymakers. This topic remains controversial, but neither side has provided evidence of the consequential benefits and costs of mandatory rotation. While rotation effects on audit quality have been examined, we empirically examine its effects on two audit production costs: audit fees and audit timeliness. We find significantly higher audit fees and significantly longer audit report lags in the period immediately following mandatory audit partner rotation. These effects are more pronounced for non-Big 4 auditors, larger clients, and audit offices that are not industry specialists. Moreover, the audit fee and audit timeliness effects persist in successive audit partner rotations, suggesting that client-specific knowledge gained through longer audit firm engagement does not completely mitigate loss of client-specific knowledge at the partner level. Our f...
Bayesian nitrate source apportionment to individual groundwater wells in the Central Valley by use of elemental and isotopic tracers

Groundwater quality is a concern in alluvial aquifers that underlie agricultural areas, such as in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Shallow domestic wells (less than 150 m deep) in agricultural areas are often contaminated by nitrate. Agricultural and rural nitrate sources include dairy manure, synthetic fertilizers, and septic waste. Knowledge of the relative proportion that each of these sources contributes to nitrate concentration in individual wells can aid future regulatory and land management decisions. We show that nitrogen and oxygen isotopes of nitrate, boron isotopes, and iodine concentrations are a useful, novel combination of groundwater tracers to differentiate between manure, fertilizers, septic waste, and natural sources of nitrate. Furthermore, in this work, we develop a new Bayesian mixing model in which these isotopic and elemental tracers were used to estimate the probability distribution of the fractional contributions of manure, fertilizers, septic waste, and natural sources to the nitrate concentration found in an individual well. The approach was applied to 56 nitrate-impacted private domestic wells located in the San Joaquin Valley. Model analysis found that some domestic wells were clearly dominated by the manure source and suggests evidence for majority contributions from either the septic or fertilizer source for other wells. But, predictions of fractional contributions for septic and fertilizer sources were often of similar magnitude, perhaps because modeled uncertainty about the fraction of each was large. For validation of the Bayesian model, fractional estimates were compared to surrounding land use and estimated source contributions were broadly consistent with nearby land use types.
Interesting and impactful research: on phenomena, theory, and writing

Interesting research is impactful. It can emerge from deep immersion in a phenomenon yielding a premise that refutes the assumption of the audience. Theory should follow rather than precede the immersion in a phenomenon to explain it simply. The best writing is short, simple, and idea packed.
Single-cell analysis of mixed-lineage states leading to a binary cell fate choice

Delineating hierarchical cellular states, including rare intermediates and the networks of regulatory genes that orchestrate cell-type specification, are continuing challenges for developmental biology. Single-cell RNA sequencing is greatly accelerating such research, given its power to provide comprehensive descriptions of genomic states and their presumptive regulators. Haematopoietic multipotential progenitor cells, as well as bipotential intermediates, manifest mixed-lineage patterns of gene expression at a single-cell level. Such mixed-lineage states may reflect the molecular priming of different developmental potentials by co-expressed alternative-lineage determinants, namely transcription factors. Although a bistable gene regulatory network has been proposed to regulate the specification of either neutrophils or macrophages, the nature of the transition states manifested in vivo, and the underlying dynamics of the cell-fate determinants, have remained elusive. Here we use single-cell RNA sequencing coupled with a new analytic tool, iterative clustering and guide-gene selection, and clonogenic assays to delineate hierarchical genomic and regulatory states that culminate in neutrophil or macrophage specification in mice. We show that this analysis captured prevalent mixed-lineage intermediates that manifested concurrent expression of haematopoietic stem cell/progenitor and myeloid progenitor cell genes. It also revealed rare metastable intermediates that had collapsed the haematopoietic stem cell/progenitor gene expression programme, instead expressing low levels of the myeloid determinants, Irf8 and Gfi1 (refs 9, 10, 11, 12, 13). Genetic perturbations and chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing revealed Irf8 and Gfi1 as key components of counteracting myeloid-gene-regulatory networks. Combined loss of these two determinants 'trapped' the metastable intermediate. We propose that mixed-lineage states are obligatory during cell-fate specification, manifest differing frequencies because of their dynamic instability and are dictated by counteracting gene-regulatory networks.
Transverse Surgery on Knots in Contact 3-Manifolds

We study the effect of surgery on transverse knots in contact 3-manifolds. In particular, we investigate the effect of such surgery on open books, the Heegaard Floer contact invariant, and tightness. The overarching theme of this paper is to show that in many contexts, surgery on transverse knots is more natural than surgery on Legendrian knots. Besides reinterpreting surgery on Legendrian knots in terms of transverse knots, our main results on are in two complementary directions: conditions under which inadmissible transverse surgery (\textit{cf.\@} positive contact surgery on Legendrian knots) preserves tightness, and conditions under which it creates overtwistedness. In the first direction, we give the first result on the tightness of inadmissible transverse surgery for contact manifolds with vanishing Heegaard Floer contact invariant. In particular, inadmissible transverse surgery on the connected binding of a genus $g$ open book that supports a tight contact structure preserves tightness if the surgery coefficient is greater than $2g-1$. In the second direction, along with more general statements, we deduce a partial generalisation to a result of Lisca and Stipsicz: when $L$ is a Legendrian knot with $tb(L) \leq -2$, and $|rot(L)| \geq 2g(L)+tb(L)$, then contact $(+1)$-surgery on $L$ is overtwisted.
The effect of a country's name in the title of a publication on its visibility and citability

The objective of this research is to determine if the reference to a country in the title, keywords or abstract of a publication can influence its visibility (measured by the impact factor of the publishing journal) and citability (measured by the citations received). The study is based on Italian scientific production indexed in the Web of Science over the period 2004---2011. The analysis is conducted by comparing the values of four impact indicators for two subsets: (1) the indexed publications with a country's name in the title, keywords or abstract; (2) the remainder of the population, with no country' name. The results obtained both at the general level and by subject category show that publications with a country name systematically receive lower impact values, with the exception of a limited number of subject categories, Also, the incidence of highly-cited articles is lower for the first subset.
Advertising and Competition for Market Share between a New Good Producer and a Remanufacturer

We study the strategic interaction between a new good producer and a remanufacturer who use advertising campaigns to compete for a dominant share of the market for a certain good. Each firm chooses one of three possible strategies for running its advertising campaign. The two rival firms care only about capturing a dominant share of the relevant market. Hence, if a firm expects to capture dominant market share with probability p ∈ [0,1] then its payoff in the game we study is also p. Our analysis leads to four results. First, we provide the normal form representation of the game between the new good producer and the remanufacturer. Second, we specify the game in matrix form. Third, we indicate what happens at each stage of the elimination of strictly dominated strategies. Finally, we show that the iterated elimination of strictly dominated strategies yields a clear and unique prediction about the outcome of the advertising game.
Resonant tidal excitation of superfluid neutron stars in coalescing binaries

We study the resonant tidal excitation of g modes in coalescing superfluid neutron star (NS) binaries and investigate how such tidal driving impacts the gravitational-wave (GW) signal of the inspiral. Previous studies of this type treated the NS core as a normal fluid and thus did not account for its expected superfluidity. The source of buoyancy that supports the g modes is fundamentally different in the two cases: in a normal fluid core the buoyancy is due to gradients in the proton-to-neutron fraction whereas in a superfluid core it is due to gradients in the muon-to-electron fraction. The latter yields a stronger stratification and a superfluid NS therefore has a denser spectrum of g modes with frequencies above 10 Hz. As a result, many more g modes undergo resonant tidal excitation as the binary sweeps through the bandwidth of GW detectors such as LIGO. We find that roughly 10 times more orbital energy is transferred into g mode oscillations if the NS has a superfluid core rather than a normal fluid core. However, because this energy is transferred later in the inspiral when the orbital decay is faster, the accumulated phase error in the gravitational waveform is comparable for a superfluid and a normal fluid NS (about 0.001-0.01 rad). A phase error of this magnitude is too small to be measured from a single event with the current generation of GW detectors.
Informality in the process of development and growth

‘Informality’ is a term used to describe the collection of firms, workers and activities that operate outside the legal and regulatory systems. It is widespread in the majority of developing countries – in a typical developing economy, the informal sector produces about 35 per cent of GDP and employs 70 per cent of the labour force. This paper studies informality in the context of economic development by presenting a model and projections that link informality, regulations, migration and economic growth. This analytical framework highlights the trade-offs between formality and informality, the relationship between the different types of informality, and the connection between them and the forces of labour, capital and productivity growth. The paper models the behaviour of the informal sector based on the following fundamental asymmetry: formal firms confront higher labour costs, while informal firms face higher capital costs and lower productivity. Using mandated minimum wages as the policy-induced distortion, the model first studies the static allocation of formal and informal capital and labour in a modern economy. Second, it opens the possibility of labour migration from a rudimentary economy with ample supply of labour (e.g. rural areas or less advanced neighbouring countries). Third, the model analyses the dynamic behaviour of the formal and informal sectors, considering how they affect and are affected by economic growth and labour migration. Then, the paper presents projections for the size of labour informality, in the modern and rudimentary economies, in the next two decades for a large group of countries representing all regions of the world. The projections are based on the calibration and simulation of the model and serve to discuss its usefulness and limitations.
Relating Chromophoric and Structural Disorder in Conjugated Polymers.

The optoelectronic properties of amorphous conjugated polymers are sensitive to the details of the conformational disorder, and spectroscopy provides the means for structural characterization of the fragments of the chain that interact with light—“chromophores”. A faithful interpretation of spectroscopic conformational signatures, however, presents a theoretical challenge. Here we investigate the relationship between the ground-state optical gaps, the properties of the excited states, and the structural features of chromophores of a single molecule poly(3-hexyl)-thiophene (P3HT) using quantum–classical atomistic simulations. Our results demonstrate that chromophoric disorder arises through the interplay between excited-state delocalization and electron–hole polarization, controlled by the torsional disorder introduced by side chains. Within this conceptual framework, we predict and explain the counterintuitive spectral behavior of P3HT, a red-shifted absorption, despite shortening of chromophores, with in...
Intrinsic optimization using stochastic nanomagnets

This paper draws attention to a hardware system which can be engineered so that its intrinsic physics is described by the generalized Ising model and can encode the solution to many important NP-hard problems as its ground state. The basic constituents are stochastic nanomagnets which switch randomly between the ±1 Ising states and can be monitored continuously with standard electronics. Their mutual interactions can be short or long range, and their strengths can be reconfigured as needed to solve specific problems and to anneal the system at room temperature. The natural laws of statistical mechanics guide the network of stochastic nanomagnets at GHz speeds through the collective states with an emphasis on the low energy states that represent optimal solutions. As proof-of-concept, we present simulation results for standard NP-complete examples including a 16-city traveling salesman problem using experimentally benchmarked models for spin-transfer torque driven stochastic nanomagnets.
Investigation of SILC via energy resolved spin dependent tunneling spectroscopy

Stress induced leakage currents (SILC) are one of the most important reliability problems in present day CMOS technology [1]. Aggressive gate oxide scaling has exacerbated SILC in recent years and poses a serious limitation for MOSFET power efficiency as well as non-volatile memory retention times [1]. Despite a large amount of work, the atomic scale nature of the defects responsible for SILC in ultra thin MOS devices is not yet fully understood.
Finding street gang members on Twitter

Most street gang members use Twitter to intimidate others, to present outrageous images and statements to the world, and to share recent illegal activities. Their tweets may thus be useful to law enforcement agencies to discover clues about recent crimes or to anticipate ones that may occur. Finding these posts, however, requires a method to discover gang member Twitter profiles. This is a challenging task since gang members represent a very small population of the 320 million Twitter users. This paper studies the problem of automatically finding gang members on Twitter. It outlines a process to curate one of the largest sets of verifiable gang member profiles that have ever been studied. A review of these profiles establishes differences in the language, images, YouTube links, and emojis gang members use compared to the rest of the Twitter population. Features from this review are used to train a series of supervised classifiers. Our classifier achieves a promising F 1 score with a low false positive rate.
Strengthening Post‐Crisis Fiscal Credibility—Fiscal Councils on the Rise. A New Dataset

Institutions that aim to constrain policy discretion in order to promote sound fiscal policies are once again at the forefront of the policy debate. Interest in fiscal councils – independent watchdogs active in the public debate – has grown rapidly in recent years. In this paper, we present the first cross-country dataset summarising key characteristics of fiscal councils among International Monetary Fund members. The data document a surge in the number of fiscal councils since the 2008–09 economic and financial crisis, and also illustrate that well-designed fiscal councils are associated with stronger fiscal performance and better macro-economic and budgetary forecasts. Key features of effective fiscal councils include operational independence from politics, the provision or public assessment of budgetary forecasts, a strong presence in the public debate and the monitoring of compliance with fiscal policy rules.