cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the instantaneous and medium-run impact of mergers and acquisitions on firm values

Abstract This paper contributes to the literature investigating the impact of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity on an acquirer's firm value. To do so, we exploit a large sample of 65,521 M&A deals globally from the Communications, Technology, Energy and Utilities sectors in the years of 2000–2010. We focus on an enterprise value multiple, the ratio of EV/EBITDA, as a measure of firm value. Using the difference-in-differences (DID) strategy with and without propensity score matching, we find significant evidence of negative medium-run M&A effects and positive instantaneous M&A impact on firm value potentially because EV moves faster relative to a slow moving EBITDA.
Spatial econometric Monte Carlo studies: raising the bar

We discuss Monte Carlo methodology that can be used to explore alternative approaches to estimating spatial regression models. Our focus is on models that include spatial lags of the dependent variable, e.g., the SAR specification. A major point is that practitioners rely on scalar summary measures of direct and indirect effects estimates to interpret the impact of changes in explanatory variables on the dependent variable of interest. We argue that these should be the focus of Monte Carlo experiments. Since effects estimates reflect a nonlinear function of both $$\beta $$ and $$\rho $$ , past studies’ focus exclusively on $$\beta $$ and $$\rho $$ parameter estimates may not provide useful information regarding statistical properties of effects estimates produced by alternative estimators. Since effects estimates have recently become the focus of inference regarding the significance of (scalar summary) direct and indirect impacts arising from changes in the explanatory variables, empirical measures of dispersion produced by simulating draws from the (estimated) variance–covariance matrix of the parameters $$\beta $$ and $$\rho $$ should be part of the Monte Carlo study. An implication is that differences in the quality of estimated variance–covariance matrices arising from alternative estimators also plays a role in determining the accuracy of inference. An applied illustration is used to demonstrate how these issues can impact conclusions regarding the performance of alternative estimators.
Broadband focusing of underwater sound using a transparent pentamode lens

An inhomogeneous acoustic metamaterial lens based on spatial variation of refractive index for broadband focusing of underwater sound is reported. The index gradient follows a modified hyperbolic secant profile designed to reduce aberration and suppress side lobes. The gradient index (GRIN) lens is comprised of transversely isotropic hexagonal microstructures with tunable quasi-static bulk modulus and mass density. In addition, the unit cells are impedance-matched to water and have in-plane shear modulus negligible compared to the effective bulk modulus. The flat GRIN lens is fabricated by cutting hexagonal centimeter scale hollow microstructures in aluminum plates, which are then stacked and sealed from the exterior water. Broadband focusing effects are observed within the homogenization regime of the lattice in both finite element simulations and underwater measurements (20–40 kHz). This design approach has potential applications in medical ultrasound imaging and underwater acoustic communications.
Electronic Structure Calculations and the Ising Hamiltonian

Obtaining exact solutions to the Schrodinger equation for atoms, molecules, and extended systems continues to be a “Holy Grail” problem which the fields of theoretical chemistry and physics have been striving to solve since inception. Recent breakthroughs have been made in the development of hardware-efficient quantum optimizers and coherent Ising machines capable of simulating hundreds of interacting spins with an Ising-type Hamiltonian. One of the most vital questions pertaining to these new devices is, “Can these machines be used to perform electronic structure calculations?” Within this work, we review the general procedure used by these devices and prove that there is an exact mapping between the electronic structure Hamiltonian and the Ising Hamiltonian. Additionally, we provide simulation results of the transformed Ising Hamiltonian for H2 , He2 , HeH+, and LiH molecules, which match the exact numerical calculations. This demonstrates that one can map the molecular Hamiltonian to an Ising-type Hami...
Grants-R-Us: Inside a Federal Grant-Making Research Agency

In this article, the author reviews the process by which the National Institute of Justice, the largest funder of criminological and criminal justice research in the United States, operates in the adjudication, dissemination, and monitoring of research grants. I also analyze the functions of social science analysts/grant managers and the role of potential and actual grantees. By funding the bulk of research on criminal justice, the institute plays a key role in linking research to current policy issues and in shaping the direction that the field takes. This analysis is based on my experience working in the agency for the Office of Research and Evaluation, as well as a review of relevant academic research.
The relevance of health literacy to mHealth

This chapter examines the importance of health literacy to the design and use of mobile digital health information technology (mHealth) applications. Over the past two decades mHealth has evolved to become a major health communication channel for delivering health care, promoting health, and tracking health behaviors. Yet, there are serious communication challenges that must be addressed concerning the best way to design and utilize mHealth application to achieve key health promotion goals, including assuring the appropriateness and effectiveness of mHealth messaging for audiences with different communication competencies, styles, and health literacy levels, to ensure that mHealth applications are truly effective tools for health promotion. Health literacy is one of the major communication issues relevant to the effective use of mHealth. To be effective, mHealth applications need to match the messages conveyed via these mobile media to the specific health communication needs, orientations, and competencies of intended audience members. Unfortunately, current evidence suggests that many mHealth applications are difficult for audiences to utilize because they provide health information that is not easy for many consumers to understand and apply. Health literacy refers to the ability of participants within the health care system to accurately interpret and utilize relevant health information and resources to achieve their health goals. Evidence suggests that many consumers possess limited levels of health literacy to adequately understand health information, especially when they are feeling ill, since health literacy is both a trait (limited education, language facility, etc.), and a state condition (based on how their current physical and mental states influence their abilities to communicate effectively). Therefore, it is incumbent upon mHealth developers to design and utilize message systems. Strategies for designing and implementing mHealth applications to meet the health literacy levels of different audiences are described in this chapter.
A Factor-Impact-Driven Graphical Analysis Approach for Output Analysis of Simulation Experiments

Abstract The standard statistical output analysis for simulation studies involving more than 2 factors often produces conclusions that are counter-intuitive. Presenting such conclusions merely from a statistical perspective can be difficult to convince an audience that has little statistical background. This paper introduces the factor-impact-driven graphical analysis approach (FIDGA) to support statistically-derived conclusions. In this approach, charts are plotted for output variables against the serial numbers of the experiments that are systematically sequenced according to the relative impact of the factors. This sequence is obtained by first performing F -test for each factor, then ranking each factor in the order of relative importance, and finally using this ranking to perform a multi-level sortation on the serial numbers. Finally, this paper also presents the output analysis performed on a simulation study at an Alcoa plant. In this study, the FIDGA approach produced a final analysis that not only supported the conclusions reached by the statistical analysis but was also better able to explain them in terms of system processes. This graphical approach was successful in convincing skeptical team members of some counter-intuitive conclusions.
Alleged Resection of the Vas Deferens: Medicolegal Implications

New York state law requires that significant complications be reported by telephone within 24 hours, followed by a full written report within five days with the names of the alleged involved physicians. This case illustrates the potential medicolegal consequences following the mandated immediate nonsubstantiated report of an alleged bilateral vas deferens injury during a bilateral inguinal herniorrhaphy in a 7-month-old male. Review of the surgical pathologic specimen showed that both hernial sacs did indeed contain segments of vas deferens structures, which based on the findings at reexploration, were consistent with duplication or embryonic remnants of the vas deferens. The vas deferens was found to be normal and uninjured bilaterally. The legal ramifications remain unclear. Since there is no clear cut method to retract the allegation, the physician's profile may be permanently damaged.
Optimal Washout for Control of a Moving Base Simulator

Abstract A general form of an optimal washout filter for moving base motion simulators is derived, based on state space linear optimal control theory. The optimal washout filters have the same forms as those obtained empirically for a single translational and rotational channel. Optimal washout filters for several simulators, including the Vertical Motion Simulator at NASA Ames Research Center, are proposed.
Antagonistic Effect of Androgen on Prostatic Cell Death

Androgen, besides having the well-established agonistic ability to stimulate prostate cell proliferation, also has an antagonistic ability to inhibit prostatic cell death. This statement is based upon the observations that 1) only 2.1% of the total prostatic cells die per day when serum testosterone level is sufficient for chronic maintenance of the gland; 2) 3 days following castration, when serum testosterone level is less than 10% of the intact value, the percentage of total prostatic cells now dying per day is increased tenfold to a value of 20.8%; and 3) this high rate of prostatic cell death can be inhibited following castration if serum androgen level is appropriately maintained by exogenous testosterone treatment. The serum testosterone level needed to antagonistically inhibit prostatic cell death (ie, 1.4 +/- 0.1 ng/ml) is more than twofold lower than that needed to antagonistically stimulate prostatic cell proliferation (3.3 +/- 0.4 ng/ml). Due to this dose difference, it is experimentally possible in castrated rats to inhibit prostatic cell death selectively without simultaneously stimulating cell proliferation and still completely prevent the rapid involution of the prostate following castration. These results suggest that the rapid involution of the prostate following castration is predominantly due to a decreased antagonistic effect of androgen on prostatic cell death rather than to a decreased agonistic effect of androgen on prostatic cell proliferation and that these two androgenic effects are distinct processes in the prostate.
Capturing species-level drought responses in a temperate deciduous forest using ratios of photochemical reflectance indices between sunlit and shaded canopies

To classify trees along a spectrum of isohydric to anisohydric behavior is a promising new framework for identifying tree species' sensitivities to drought stress, directly related to the vulnerability of carbon uptake of terrestrial ecosystems with increased hydroclimate variability. Trees with isohydric strategies regulate stomatal conductance to maintain stationary leaf water potential, while trees with anisohydric strategies allow leaf water potential to fall, which in the absence of significant hydraulic cavitation will facilitate greater rates of carbon uptake. Despite the recognition of the gas exchange consequences of isohydric and anisohydric strategies for individual tree species, there have been few studies regarding whether isohydric trees produces distinct spectral signatures under drought stress that can be remotely sensed. Here, we examined the capability of four vegetation indices (PRI, NDVI, NDVI705, and EVI) to capture the differences in spectral responses between isohydric and anisohydric trees within a deciduous forest in central Indiana, USA. Both leaf-level spectral measurements and canopy-scale satellite observations were used to compare peak growing-season spectral signatures between a drought and a non-drought year. At the leaf scale, two vegetation indices (NDVI and NDVI705) failed to capture the drought signal or the divergent isohydric/anisohydric behavior. EVI successfully captured the drought signal at both leaf and canopy scales, but failed to capture the divergent behavior between isohydric and anisohydric tree species during the drought. PRI captured both drought signals and divergent isohydric/anisohydric behavior at both leaf and canopy scales once normalized between sunlit (backward direction images) and shaded (forward direction images) portions of canopy, which indicates drought stress and subsequent photosynthetic downregulation are greater in the sunlit portion of canopy. This study presents a significant step forward in our ability to directly mapping emergent isohydricity at different scales based on divergent spectral signatures between sunlit and shaded canopies.
SIMILAR REGULAR PLANS FOR MOBILE CLIENTS

The broadcast problem including the plan design is considered. The data are inserted and numbered into customized size relations at a predefined order. The server ability to create a full, regular Broadcast Plan (RBP) with single and multiple channels, after some data transformations, is examined. The Basic Regular Algorithm (BRA) prepares an RBP and enables users to catch their items avoiding wasting energy of their devices. In the case of multiple channels, a dynamic grouping solution is proposed, called Full Partition Value Algorithm (FPVA) under a multiplicity constraint. The Similar Regular Plan Algorithm (SRPA) provides faster service of the supreme sets with the use of fewer channels. The combination of FPVA and SRPA provides flexibility for finding desired solutions. This last property, can be offered by servers today providing channel availability and lower energy consumption. Simulation results are provided.
Incremental Program Obfuscation

Recent advances in program obfuscation suggest that it is possible to create software that can provably safeguard secret information. However, software systems usually contain large executable code that is updated multiple times and sometimes very frequently. Freshly obfuscating the program for every small update will lead to a considerable efficiency loss. Thus, an extremely desirable property for obfuscation algorithms is incrementality: small changes to the underlying program translate into small changes to the corresponding obfuscated program.
Anisotropic Radial Layout for Visualizing Centrality and Structure in Graphs

This paper presents a novel method for layout of undirected graphs, where nodes (vertices) are constrained to lie on a set of nested, simple, closed curves. Such a layout is useful to simultaneously display the structural centrality and vertex distance information for graphs in many domains, including social networks. Closed curves are a more general constraint than the previously proposed circles, and afford our method more flexibility to preserve vertex relationships compared to existing radial layout methods. The proposed approach modifies the multidimensional scaling (MDS) stress to include the estimation of a vertex depth or centrality field as well as a term that penalizes discord between structural centrality of vertices and their alignment with this carefully estimated field. We also propose a visualization strategy for the proposed layout and demonstrate its effectiveness using three social network datasets.
Antenna Design and SAR Analysis on Human Head Phantom Simulation for Future Clinical Applications

Background: The rapid development of a variety of devices that emit Radiofrequency Electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) has sparked growing interest in their interaction with biological systems and the beneficial effects on human health. As a result, investigations have been driven by the potential for therapeutic applications, as well as concern for any possible negative health implications of these EM energies [1-4]. Recent results have indicated specific tuning of experimental and clinical RF exposure may lead to their clinical application toward beneficial health outcomes [5]. Method: In the current study, a mathematical and computer simulation model to analyze a specific RF-EMF exposure on a human head model was developed. Impetus for this research was derived from results of our previous experiments which revealed that Repeated Electromagnetic Field Stimulation (REMFS) decreased the toxic levels of beta amyloid (Aβ) in neuronal cells, thereby suggesting a new potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Throughout development of the proposed device, experimental variables such as the EM frequency range, specific absorption rate (SAR), penetration depth, and innate properties of different tissues have been carefully considered. Results: RF-EMF exposure to the human head phantom was performed utilizing a Yagi-Uda antenna type possessing high gain (in the order of 10 dbs) at a frequency of 64 MHz and SAR of 0.6 W/Kg. In order to maximize the EM power transmission in one direction, directors were placed in front of the driven element and reflectors were placed behind the driven element. So as to strategically direct the EM field into the center of the brain tissue, while providing field linearity, our analysis considered the field distribution for one versus four antennas. Within the provided dimensions of a typical human brain, results of the Bioheat equation within COMSOL Multiphysics version 5.2a software demonstrated less than a 1 m°K increase from the absorbed EM power.
Working memory predicts children’s analogical reasoning

Analogical reasoning is the cognitive skill of drawing relationships between representations, often between prior knowledge and new representations, that allows for bootstrapping cognitive and language development. Analogical reasoning proficiency develops substantially during childhood, although the mechanisms underlying this development have been debated, with developing cognitive resources as one proposed mechanism. We explored the role of executive function (EF) in supporting children's analogical reasoning development, with the goal of determining whether predicted aspects of EF were related to analogical development at the level of individual differences. We assessed 5- to 11-year-old children's working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility using measures from the National Institutes of Health Toolbox Cognition battery. Individual differences in children's working memory best predicted performance on an analogical mapping task, even when controlling for age, suggesting a fundamental interrelationship between analogical reasoning and working memory development. These findings underscore the need to consider cognitive capacities in comprehensive theories of children's reasoning development.
The effects of environmental structure on the evolution of modularity in a pattern classifier

We examine hierarchical modularity - modularity on multiple levels, in which the modules at a lower level of abstraction can serve as nodes in a network at a higher level of abstraction that also h...
Magnetic field tunability of spin-polarized excitations in a high-temperature magnet

We bring together magnetic circular dichroism, photoconductivity, and complementary first-principles calculations in order to unravel spin-charge interactions in the high Curie temperature magnet ${\mathrm{NiFe}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{4}$. Analysis uncovers a massive set of well-isolated spin-down states, a metamagnetic transition involving spin on the Ni center that switches the electronic structure of this system, and photoconductivity that depends on the magnetic field. These findings open the door for the creation and control of spin-polarized excitations from minority channel charge transfer in spinel ferrites.
BECA: A Software Tool for Integrated Visualization of Human Brain Data

Visualization plays an important role in helping neuroscientist understanding human brain data. Most publicly available software focuses on visualizing a specific brain imaging modality. Here we present an extensible visualization platform, BECA, which employ a plugin architecture to facilitate rapid development and deployment of visualization for human brain data. This paper will introduce the architecture and discuss some important design decisions in implementing the BECA platform and its visualization plugins.
Comparison between chloral hydrate and propofol-ketamine as sedation regimens for pediatric auditory brainstem response testing

Abstract Introduction The use of diagnostic auditory brainstem response testing under sedation is currently the “gold standard” in infants and young children who are not developmentally capable of completing the test. Objective The aim of the study is to compare a propofol-ketamine regimen to an oral chloral hydrate regimen for sedating children undergoing auditory brainstem response testing. Methods Patients between 4 months and 6 years who required sedation for auditory brainstem response testing were included in this retrospective study. Drugs doses, adverse effects, sedation times, and the effectiveness of the sedative regimens were reviewed. Results 73 patients underwent oral chloral hydrate sedation, while 117 received propofol-ketamine sedation. 12% of the patients in the chloral hydrate group failed to achieve desired sedation level. The average procedure, recovery and total nursing times were significantly lower in the propofol-ketamine group. Propofol-ketamine group experienced higher incidence of transient hypoxemia. Conclusion Both sedation regimens can be successfully used for sedating children undergoing auditory brainstem response testing. While deep sedation using propofol-ketamine regimen offers more efficiency than moderate sedation using chloral hydrate, it does carry a higher incidence of transient hypoxemia, which warrants the use of a highly skilled team trained in pediatric cardio-respiratory monitoring and airway management.
Cortical Interneurons Differentially Shape Frequency Tuning following Adaptation.

Summary Neuronal stimulus selectivity is shaped by feedforward and recurrent excitatory-inhibitory interactions. In the auditory cortex (AC), parvalbumin- (PV) and somatostatin-positive (SOM) inhibitory interneurons differentially modulate frequency-dependent responses of excitatory neurons. Responsiveness of neurons in the AC to sound is also dependent on stimulus history. We found that the inhibitory effects of SOMs and PVs diverged as a function of adaptation to temporal repetition of tones. Prior to adaptation, suppressing either SOM or PV inhibition drove both increases and decreases in excitatory spiking activity. After adaptation, suppressing SOM activity caused predominantly disinhibitory effects, whereas suppressing PV activity still evoked bi-directional changes. SOM, but not PV-driven inhibition, dynamically modulated frequency tuning with adaptation. Unlike PV-driven inhibition, SOM-driven inhibition elicited gain-like increases in frequency tuning reflective of adaptation. Our findings suggest that distinct cortical interneurons differentially shape tuning to sensory stimuli across the neuronal receptive field, altering frequency selectivity of excitatory neurons during adaptation.
Competing Principals? Legislative Representation in List Proportional Representation Systems

We develop a new framework to study legislative representation in list proportional representation (PR) systems. Our model studies a legislator’s incentives to balance the competing interests of party leaders and local voters under a variety of list PR systems. We consider open and closed lists, as well as flexible lists—in which both rank assignments and preference votes determine the order in which seats are filled. We find that more flexibility can worsen local representation. List flexibility also acts as a key mediator of the effect of voter partisanship on party cohesion. And, our analysis reveals that higher district magnitude encourages representatives to toe the party line under all ballot systems.
The thickness of the post-lens tear film measured by interferometry.

Lin et al.1 measured the thickness of the tear film behind a soft contact lens by combining pachometry and mechanical measurement of contact lens thickness. They found an average thickness of 11.5 µm. Fogt et al.2 measured the thickness of the tear film in front of a soft contact lens by analyzing oscillations in the reflectance spectrum from the front of the eye. These “spectral oscillations” are caused by interference of light waves reflected from different surfaces. This method has also been used to measure the thickness of the precorneal tear film, the corneal epithelium, Bowman’s layer and the complete cornea.3 The purpose of this study is to determine whether this method can also be used to measure the post-lens tear thickness, and, if so, to compare our results with those of Linet al. 1
Efficient and Low-cost Localization of Radio Signals with a Multirotor UAV

Localizing radio frequency (RF) sources with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has many important applications. As a result, UAV-based localization has been the focus of much research. However, previous approaches rely heavily on custom electronics and specialized knowledge, are not robust and require extensive calibration, or are inefficient with measurements and waste energy on a battery-constrained platform. In this work, we present a system based on a multirotor UAV that addresses these shortcomings. Our system measures signal strength received by two antennas to update a probability distribution over possible transmitter locations. An information-theoretic controller is used to direct the UAV's search. Signal strength is measured with low-cost, commercial-off-the-shelf components. We demonstrate our system using three transmitters: a continuous signal in the UHF band, a wildlife collar pulsing in the VHF band, and a cell phone making a voice call over LTE. Our system significantly outperforms previous methods, localizing the RF source in the same time it takes previous methods to make a single measurement.
Cluster analysis as a tool for evaluating the exploration potential of Known Geothermal Resource Areas

Abstract Although many Known Geothermal Resource Areas in Oregon and Idaho were identified during the 1970s and 1980s, few were subsequently developed commercially. Because of advances in power plant design and energy conversion efficiency since the 1980s, some previously identified KGRAs may now be economically viable prospects. Unfortunately, available characterization data vary widely in accuracy, precision, and granularity, making assessments problematic. Here we suggest a procedure for comparing test areas against proven resources using Principal Component Analysis and cluster identification. The result is a low-cost tool for evaluating potential exploration targets using uncertain or incomplete data.
The structure of patulin.

Die Erwagungen, welche die Autoren zu der Struktur I fur Patulin fuhrten, werden kurz beschrieben, und es wird gezeigt, das das chemische Verhalten des Naturstoffes in jeder Hinsicht durch diese Strukturformel zu erklaren ist.
A Bayesian approach to chiral extrapolations

The determination of low-energy constants from data is an important component of most effective field theory programs, including that of chiral perturbation theory. We propose a novel method based on Bayesian probability theory which allows us to address several shortcomings of the standard approach to parameter extraction. Using a toy-model we argue that the Bayesian approach is ideally suited for the application in effective field theories. We also discuss the application to lattice QCD data.
Indefinitely repeated contests: An experimental study

We experimentally explore indefinitely repeated contests. Theory predicts more cooperation, in the form of lower expenditures, in indefinitely repeated contests with a longer expected time horizon. Our data support this prediction, although this result attenuates with contest experience. Theory also predicts more cooperation in indefinitely repeated contests compared to finitely repeated contests of the same expected length, and we find empirical support for this. Finally, theory predicts no difference in cooperation across indefinitely repeated winner-take-all and proportional-prize contests, yet we find evidence of less cooperation in the latter, though only in longer treatments with more contests played. Our paper extends the experimental literature on indefinitely repeated games to contests and, more generally, contributes to an infant empirical literature on behavior in indefinitely repeated games with “large” strategy spaces.
Boys Do Cry: Adam Smith on Wealth and Expressing Emotions

Recent studies on crying show that crying is more common in happier, freer, and richer countries than in poorer and less free countries. These results can sound counterintuitive and contradict the hypothesis that crying is more observable in countries where people experience more distress. Adam Smith may offer an explanation: In the severe hardship of poverty, showing emotion and distress can be read as a sign of weakness, attracting no sympathy and compromising survival. As a result, emotional displays are avoided. Instead, wealthier commercial societies offer ease and tranquility which allows individuals to express their emotions with fewer negative consequences.
Control of connected and automated vehicles: State of the art and future challenges

Abstract Autonomous driving technology pledges safety, convenience, and energy efficiency. Its challenges include the unknown intentions of other road users: communication between vehicles and with the road infrastructure is a possible approach to enhance awareness and enable cooperation. Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) have the potential to disrupt mobility, extending what is possible with driving automation and connectivity alone. Applications include real-time control and planning with increased awareness, routing with micro-scale traffic information, coordinated platooning using traffic signals information, and eco-mobility on demand with guaranteed parking. This paper introduces a control and planning architecture for CAVs, and surveys the state of the art on each functional block therein; the main focus is on techniques to improve energy efficiency. We provide an overview of existing algorithms and their mutual interactions, we present promising optimization-based approaches to CAVs control and identify future challenges.
Statistical Considerations in the Analysis of Solar Oscillation Data by the Superposed Epoch Method

Although the method of superposed epochs (Chree analysis) has been utilized for seven decades, a procedure to determine the statistical significance of the results has not been available heretofore. Consequently, various subjective methods have been utilized in the interpretation of Chree analysis results in several fields. The major problem in the statistical treatment of Chree analysis results arises from the fact that in most studies of natural phenomena, data are neither random nor sequentially independent. In this paper, a statistical procedure which takes this factor into account is developed.
On the importance of Chinese investment in Africa

Abstract With the growing presence of China in Africa over the last two decades, this paper investigates the impact of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic performance in Africa, which we compare to that of the traditional economic partners of African countries, including the U.S., France, and Germany. Also, we explore whether China’s new relationship with Africa has somehow altered the preexisting relationship between Africa and its traditional partners. Our results, using the fixed-effects and instrumental variable approaches to 36 countries over the period 2003–2012, indicate that Chinese FDI improves income in Africa. We also find that the impact is more pronounced for U.S. and German investment. Moreover, there is evidence that Chinese investment crowds out U.S. investment in Africa, whereas France seems to be competing with China. These results imply that as the Chinese economy grows, the demand for resources has increased its intensive competition with the U.S. rather than with France.
Multiplex Conductance and Gossip Based Information Spreading in Multiplex Networks

In this network era, not only people are connected, different networks are also coupled through various interconnections. This kind of network of networks, or multilayer networks, has attracted research interest recently, and many beneficial features have been discovered. However, quantitative study of information spreading in such networks is essentially lacking. Despite some existing results in single networks, the layer heterogeneity and complicated interconnections among the layers make the study of information spreading in this type of networks challenging. In this work, we study the information spreading time in multiplex networks, adopting the gossip (random-walk) based information spreading model. A new metric called multiplex conductance is defined based on the multiplex network structure and used to quantify the information spreading time in a general multiplex network in the idealized setting. Multiplex conductance is then evaluated for some interesting multiplex networks to facilitate understanding in this new area. Finally, the tradeoff between the information spreading efficiency improvement and the layer cost is examined to explain the user's social behavior and motivate effective multiplex network designs.
Prediction of response to drug therapy in psychiatric disorders

Personalized medicine has become increasingly relevant to many medical fields, promising more efficient drug therapies and earlier intervention. The development of personalized medicine is coupled with the identification of biomarkers and classification algorithms that help predict the responses of different patients to different drugs. In the last 10 years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved several genetically pre-screened drugs labelled as pharmacogenomics in the fields of oncology, pulmonary medicine, gastroenterology, haematology, neurology, rheumatology and even psychiatry. Clinicians have long cautioned that what may appear to be similar patient-reported symptoms may actually arise from different biological causes. With growing populations being diagnosed with different psychiatric conditions, it is critical for scientists and clinicians to develop precision medication tailored to individual conditions. Genome-wide association studies have highlighted the complicated nature of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression and autism spectrum disorder. Following these studies, association studies are needed to look for genomic markers of responsiveness to available drugs of individual patients within the population of a specific disorder. In addition to GWAS, the advent of new technologies such as brain imaging, cell reprogramming, sequencing and gene editing has given us the opportunity to look for more biomarkers that characterize a therapeutic response to a drug and to use all these biomarkers for determining treatment options. In this review, we discuss studies that were performed to find biomarkers of responsiveness to different available drugs for four brain disorders: bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, major depression and autism spectrum disorder. We provide recommendations for using an integrated method that will use available techniques for a better prediction of the most suitable drug.
Communication With Crystal-Free Radios

We consider a communication channel where there is no common clock between the transmitter and the receiver. This is motivated by the recent interest in building system-on-chip radios for Internet of Things applications, which cannot rely on crystal oscillators for accurate timing. We identify two types of clock uncertainty in such systems: timing jitter, which occurs at a time scale faster than the communication duration (or equivalently blocklength), and clock drift, which occurs at a slower time scale. We study the zero-error capacity under both types of timing imperfections and obtain optimal zero-error codes for some cases. Our results show that, as opposed to common practice, in the presence of clock drift, it is highly suboptimal to try to learn and track the clock frequency at the receiver; rather, one can design codes that come close to the performance of perfectly synchronous communication systems without any clock synchronization at the receiver.
Fine-Grained Secure Computation

This paper initiates a study of Fine Grained Secure Computation: i.e. the construction of secure computation primitives against “moderately complex” adversaries. We present definitions and constructions for compact Fully Homomorphic Encryption and Verifiable Computation secure against (non-uniform) \(\mathsf {NC}^1\) adversaries. Our results do not require the existence of one-way functions and hold under a widely believed separation assumption, namely \(\mathsf {NC}^{1}\subsetneq \oplus \mathsf {L}/ {\mathsf {poly}}\). We also present two application scenarios for our model: (i) hardware chips that prove their own correctness, and (ii) protocols against rational adversaries potentially relevant to the Verifier’s Dilemma in smart-contracts transactions such as Ethereum.
Genomic profiling of lymph node metastases in endometrial cancer and association with volume of metastasis

5586Background: Lymph node (LN) metastasis and genomic profiles are important prognostic factors in endometrial cancer (EC). However, the prognostic significance of the volume of metastatic disease...
Male mice with large inversions or deletions of X-chromosome palindrome arms are fertile and express their associated genes during post-meiosis

Large (>10 kb) palindromic sequences are enriched on mammalian sex chromosomes. In mice, these palindromes harbor gene families (≥2 gene copies) expressed exclusively in post-meiotic testicular germ cells, a time when most single-copy sex-linked genes are transcriptionally repressed. This observation led to the hypothesis that palindromic structures or having ≥2 gene copies enable post-meiotic gene expression. We tested these hypotheses by using CRISPR to precisely engineer large (10’s of kb) inversions and deletions of X-chromosome palindrome arms for two regions that carry the mouse 4930567H17Rik and Mageb5 palindrome gene families. We found that 4930567H17Rik and Mageb5 gene expression is unaffected in mice carrying palindrome arm inversions and halved in mice carrying palindrome arm deletions. We assessed whether palindrome-associated genes were sensitive to reduced expression in mice carrying palindrome arm deletions. Male mice carrying palindrome arm deletions are fertile and show no defects in post-meiotic spermatogenesis. Together, these findings suggest palindromic structures on the sex chromosomes are not necessary for their associated genes to evade post-meiotic transcriptional repression and that these genes are not sensitive to reduced expression levels. Large sex chromosome palindromes may be important for other reasons, such as promoting gene conversion between palindrome arms.
Imaging of Solid Renal Masses

The increase in serendipitous detection of solid renal masses on imaging has not resulted in a reduction in mortality from renal cell carcinoma. Consequently, efforts for improved lesion characterization have been pursued and incorporated into management algorithms for distinguishing clinically significant tumors from those with favorable histology or benign conditions. Although diagnostic imaging strategies have evolved for optimized lesion detection, distinction between benign tumors and both indolent and aggressive malignant neoplasms remain an important diagnostic challenge. Recent advances in cross-sectional imaging have expanded the role of these tests in the noninvasive characterization of solid renal tumors.
Humanistic Management – Sucks Less and Better for your Health

In this piece I point out the strength of the various narratives about business and introduce the important contributions of the humanistic management journal issue 3.1. I suggest that humanistic management perspectives can remedy the "business sucks" narrative and provide a basis for a more constructive role of business within society.
An Information Geometric Perspective on the Complexity of Macroscopic Predictions Arising from Incomplete Information

Motivated by the presence of deep connections among dynamical equations, experimental data, physical systems, and statistical modeling, we report on a series of findings uncovered by the authors and collaborators during the last decade within the framework of the so-called Information Geometric Approach to Chaos (IGAC). The IGAC is a theoretical modeling scheme that combines methods of information geometry with inductive inference techniques to furnish probabilistic descriptions of complex systems in presence of limited information. In addition to relying on curvature and Jacobi field computations, a suitable indicator of complexity within the IGAC framework is given by the so-called information geometric entropy (IGE). The IGE is an information geometric measure of complexity of geodesic paths on curved statistical manifolds underlying the entropic dynamics of systems specified in terms of probability distributions. In this manuscript, we discuss several illustrative examples wherein our modeling scheme is employed to infer macroscopic predictions when only partial knowledge of the microscopic nature of a given system is available. Finally, we include comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the current version of our proposed theoretical scheme in our concluding remarks.
PIR with Compressed Queries and Amortized Query Processing

Private information retrieval (PIR) is a key building block in many privacy-preserving systems. Unfortunately, existing constructions remain very expensive. This paper introduces two techniques that make the computational variant of PIR (CPIR) more efficient in practice. The first technique targets a recent class of CPU-efficient CPIR protocols where the query sent by the client contains a number of ciphertexts proportional to the size of the database. We show how to compresses this query, achieving size reductions of up to 274X. The second technique is a new data encoding called probabilistic batch codes (PBCs). We use PBCs to build a multi query PIR scheme that allows the server to amortize its computational cost when processing a batch of requests from the same client. This technique achieves up to 40× speedup over processing queries one at a time, and is significantly more efficient than related encodings. We apply our techniques to the Pung private communication system, which relies on a custom multi-query CPIR protocol for its privacy guarantees. By porting our techniques to Pung, we find that we can simultaneously reduce network costs by 36× and increase throughput by 3X.
Connexin 43 K63-polyubiquitylation on lysines 264 and 303 regulates gap junction internalization

Gap junctions (GJs) assembled from connexin (Cx) proteins allow direct cell-cell communication. While phosphorylation is known to regulate multiple GJ functions, much less is known about the role of ubiquitin in these processes. Using ubiquitylation-type-specific antibodies and Cx43 lysine-to-arginine mutants we show that ∼8% of a GJ, localized in central plaque domains, is K63-polyubiquitylated on K264 and K303. Levels and localization of ubiquitylation correlated well with: (1) the short turnover rate of Cxs and GJs; (2) removal of older channels from the plaque center; and (3) the fact that not all Cxs in an internalizing GJ channel need to be ubiquitylated. Connexins mutated at these two sites assembled significantly larger GJs, exhibited much longer protein half-lives and were internalization impaired. Interestingly, these ubiquitin-deficient Cx43 mutants accumulated as hyper-phosphorylated polypeptides in the plasma membrane, suggesting that K63-polyubiquitylation is triggered by phosphorylation. Phospho-specific anti-Cx43 antibodies revealed that upregulated phosphorylation affected serines 368, 279/282 and 255, which are well-known regulatory PKC and MAPK sites. Together, these novel findings suggest that the internalizing portion of channels in a GJ is K63-polyubiquitylated, ubiquitylation is critical for GJ internalization and that phosphorylation induces Cx K63-polyubiquitylation.This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.
Inside the mind of the client: An analysis of litigants' decision criteria for choosing procedures

This article presents findings from the first longitudinal study to ask civil litigants prospectively what criteria they plan to consider when selecting legal procedures and then retroactively assess the criteria used to make those decisions. The most commonly referenced ex ante criteria are lawyer's advice, cost, and time. The retrospective reasons also include these factors, but the list is narrower and more practical. Litigants who initially listed a desire to reduce costs or follow their lawyers' advice were later significantly more likely to report using procedures for these reasons, suggesting the stability of these criteria. However, the same stability did not manifest for other criteria. Implications for improving protocols for counseling litigants about procedure are discussed.
Producing High Concentrations of Hydrogen in Palladium via Electrochemical Insertion from Aqueous and Solid Electrolytes

Metal hydrides are critical materials in numerous technologies including hydrogen storage, gas separation, and electrocatalysis. Here, using Pd–H as a model metal hydride, we perform studies of ele...
Synthesis of Different Autonomous Vehicles Test Approaches

Currently, the most prevalent way to evaluate an autonomous vehicle is to directly test it on the public road. However, because of recent accidents caused by autonomous vehicles, it becomes controversial about whether on-road tests should be the best approach. Alternatively, people use test tracks or simulation to assess the safety of autonomous vehicles. These approaches are time-efficient and less costly, however, their credibility varies. In this paper, we propose to use a co-Kriging model to synthesize the results from different evaluation approaches, which allows us to fully utilize the information and provides an accurate, affordable, and safe way to assess a design of an autonomous vehicle.