cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Long-Lived Staus and Displaced Leptons at the LHC

As the majority of LHC searches are focused on prompt signatures, specific long-lived particles have the potential to be overlooked by the otherwise systematic new physics programs at ATLAS and CMS. While in many cases long-lived superparticles are now stringently constrained by existing exotic searches, we point out that the highly motivated model of gauge mediation with staus as the next-to-lightest superparticle (NLSP) is relatively far less tested. We recast LHC searches for heavy stable charged particles, disappearing tracks, and opposite-flavor leptons with large impact parameters to assess current constraints on a variety of spectra that contain an NLSP stau, and find that portions of the parameter space motivated by naturalness are still experimentally unexplored. We additionally note a gap in the current experimental search program: same-flavor leptons with large impact parameters evade the suite of existing searches for long-lived objects. This gap is especially noteworthy as vetoes on displaced leptons in prompt new physics searches could be systematically discarding such events. We discuss several motivated models that can exhibit same-flavor displaced leptons: gauge mediation with co-NLSP sleptons, extended gauge mediation, R-parity violation, and lepton-flavored dark matter that freezes in during a matter-dominated era of the early universe. To address this gap, we propose a straightforward extension of the CMS search for leptons with large impact parameters, and project sensitivity to these scenarios at 13 TeV. Throughout this analysis, we highlight several methods whereby LHC searches for exotic long-lived objects could potentially improve their sensitivity to the displaced leptons originating from gauge mediation and beyond.
The costs of increased localization for a multiple-product food supply chain: Dairy in the United States

Abstract There is increased interest in greater localization of food supply chains but little evidence about the effects of localization on supply-chain costs. Assessing these effects is complex in multiple-product, multi-process supply chains such as the dairy industry. In this study, we develop a spatially-disaggregated transshipment model for the US dairy sector that minimizes total supply-chain costs, including assembly, processing, interplant transportation and final product distribution. We employ the cost-minimizing solution as benchmark to compare alternative scenarios of increased supply chain localization. Our results indicate: (1) short-run limits to increased localization, (2) modest impacts on overall supply-chain costs, and (3) large cost re-allocations across supply chain segments, regions and products. We find that increased localization reduces assembly costs while increase processing and distribution costs. Cost increases are larger in regions with smaller raw milk supplies and during the season when less raw milk is produced. Minimizing distances traveled by all dairy products results in tradeoffs across products in terms of cost and distance traveled. The relationship between increased localization and costs appears to be nonlinear.
Multilocus Sex Determination Revealed in Two Populations of Gynodioecious Wild Strawberry, Fragaria vesca subsp. bracteata

Gynodioecy, the coexistence of females and hermaphrodites, occurs in 20% of angiosperm families and often enables transitions between hermaphroditism and dioecy. Clarifying mechanisms of sex determination in gynodioecious species can thus illuminate sexual system evolution. Genetic determination of gynodioecy, however, can be complex and is not fully characterized in any wild species. We used targeted sequence capture to genetically map a novel nuclear contributor to male sterility in a self-pollinated hermaphrodite of Fragaria vesca subsp. bracteata from the southern portion of its range. To understand its interaction with another identified locus and possibly additional loci, we performed crosses within and between two populations separated by 2000 km, phenotyped the progeny and sequenced candidate markers at both sex-determining loci. The newly mapped locus contains a high density of pentatricopeptide repeat genes, a class commonly involved in restoration of fertility caused by cytoplasmic male sterility. Examination of all crosses revealed three unlinked epistatically interacting loci that determine sexual phenotype and vary in frequency between populations. Fragaria vesca subsp. bracteata represents the first wild gynodioecious species with genomic evidence of both cytoplasmic and nuclear genes in sex determination. We propose a model for the interactions between these loci and new hypotheses for the evolution of sex determining chromosomes in the subdioecious and dioecious Fragaria.
Capacity constraint and spatial competition in agricultural markets

We adopt a game theoretic framework to model key features of agricultural procurement markets in order to explore the interaction between capacity constraints and spatial competition and the implications for input pricing by processing plants. A key finding is that the Lofgren’s (1986) equivalence between uniform delivery and FOB pricing for profit-maximizing firms extends to a capacity-constrained monopsonist. Our results also show that the relative dominance of alternative pricing strategies and the efficacy of capacity constraints as a collusion mechanism is not impervious to market structure asymmetries. When plants can procure inputs from areas with different market structures, capacity constraints greatly influence the optimal pricing strategy, the total surplus, and the fraction of such surplus appropriated by processing firms. In particular, when operating under binding constraints, firms “escape” competition by procuring more inputs from less competitive areas, while still benefiting from the “collusion-like” benefits of fixed output. Therefore binding constraints and asymmetric market structures reinforce each other to increase the fraction of total surplus appropriated by processing firms.
Quantifying comparison of large detrital geochronology data sets

The increase in detrital geochronological data presents challenges to existing approaches to data visualization and comparison, and highlights the need for quantitative techniques able to evaluate and compare multiple large data sets. We test five metrics commonly used as quantitative descriptors of sample similarity in detrital geochronology: the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) and Kuiper tests, as well as Cross-correlation, Likeness, and Similarity coefficients of probability density plots (PDPs), kernel density estimates (KDEs), and locally adaptive, variable-bandwidth KDEs (LA-KDEs). We assess these metrics by applying them to 20 large synthetic data sets and one large empirical data set, and evaluate their utility in terms of sample similarity based on the following three criteria. (1) Similarity of samples from the same population should systematically increase with increasing sample size. (2) Metrics should maximize sensitivity by using the full range of possible coefficients. (3) Metrics should minimize artifacts resulting from sample-specific complexity. K-S and Kuiper test p-values passed only one criterion, indicating that they are poorly suited as quantitative descriptors of sample similarity. Likeness and Similarity coefficients of PDPs, as well as K-S and Kuiper test D and V values, performed better by passing two of the criteria. Cross-correlation of PDPs passed all three criteria. All coefficients calculated from KDEs and LA-KDEs failed at least two of the criteria. As hypothesis tests of derivation from a common source, individual K-S and Kuiper p-values too frequently reject the null hypothesis that samples come from a common source when they are identical. However, mean p-values calculated by repeated subsampling and comparison (minimum of 4 trials) consistently yield a binary discrimination of identical versus different source populations. Cross-correlation and Likeness of PDPs and Cross-correlation of KDEs yield the widest divergence in coefficients and thus a consistent discrimination between identical and different source populations, with Cross-correlation of PDPs requiring the smallest sample size. In light of this, we recommend acquisition of large detrital geochronology data sets for quantitative comparison. We also recommend repeated subsampling of detrital geochronology data sets and calculation of the mean and standard deviation of the comparison metric in order to capture the variability inherent in sampling a multimodal population. These statistical tools are implemented using DZstats, a MATLAB-based code that can be accessed via an executable file graphical user interface. It implements all of the statistical tests discussed in this paper, and exports the results both as spreadsheets and as graphic files.
Subgroup of interval exchanges generated by torsion elements and rotations

Denote by G the group of interval exchange transformations (IETs) on the unit interval. Let Gper ⊂ G be the subgroup generated by torsion elements in G (periodic IETs), and let Grot ⊂ G be the subset of 2-IETs (rotations). The elements of the subgroup G1 = hGper,Groti ⊂ G (generated by the sets Gper and Grot) are characterized constructively in terms of their Sah-Arnoux-Fathi (SAF) invariant. The characterization implies that a non-rotation type 3-IET lies in G1 if and only if the lengths of its exchanged intervals are linearly dependent over Q. In particular, G1 ( G. The main tools used in the paper are the SAF invariant and a recent result by Y. Vorobets that Gper coincides with the commutator subgroup of G. 1. A group of IETs Denote by R, Q, N the sets of real, rational and natural numbers. By a standard interval we mean a finite interval of the form X = (a,b) ⊂ R (left closed - right open). We write |X| = b − a for its length. By an IET (interval exchange transformation) we mean a pair (X,f) where X = (a,b) is a standard interval and f is a right continuous bijection f : X → X with a finite set D of discontinuities and such that the translation function γ(x) = f(x)−x is piecewise constant. The map f itself is often referred to as IET, and then X = domain(f) and D = disc(f) denote the domain (also the range) of f and the discontinuity set of f, respectively. Given an IET f : X → X, the set disc(f) partitions X into a finite number of subintervals Xk in such a way that f restricted to each Xk is a translation
Parallel Multi-Block ADMM with o(1 / k) Convergence

This paper introduces a parallel and distributed algorithm for solving the following minimization problem with linear constraints: $$\begin{aligned} \text {minimize} ~~&f_1(\mathbf{x}_1) + \cdots + f_N(\mathbf{x}_N)\\ \text {subject to}~~&A_1 \mathbf{x}_1 ~+ \cdots + A_N\mathbf{x}_N =c,\\&\mathbf{x}_1\in {\mathcal {X}}_1,~\ldots , ~\mathbf{x}_N\in {\mathcal {X}}_N, \end{aligned}$$minimizef1(x1)+ź+fN(xN)subject toA1x1+ź+ANxN=c,x1źX1,ź,xNźXN,where $$N \ge 2$$Nź2, $$f_i$$fi are convex functions, $$A_i$$Ai are matrices, and $${\mathcal {X}}_i$$Xi are feasible sets for variable $$\mathbf{x}_i$$xi. Our algorithm extends the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) and decomposes the original problem into N smaller subproblems and solves them in parallel at each iteration. This paper shows that the classic ADMM can be extended to the N-block Jacobi fashion and preserve convergence in the following two cases: (i) matrices $$A_i$$Ai are mutually near-orthogonal and have full column-rank, or (ii) proximal terms are added to the N subproblems (but without any assumption on matrices $$A_i$$Ai). In the latter case, certain proximal terms can let the subproblem be solved in more flexible and efficient ways. We show that $$\Vert {\mathbf {x}}^{k+1} - {\mathbf {x}}^k\Vert _M^2$$źxk+1-xkźM2 converges at a rate of o(1 / k) where M is a symmetric positive semi-definte matrix. Since the parameters used in the convergence analysis are conservative, we introduce a strategy for automatically tuning the parameters to substantially accelerate our algorithm in practice. We implemented our algorithm (for the case ii above) on Amazon EC2 and tested it on basis pursuit problems with >300 GB of distributed data. This is the first time that successfully solving a compressive sensing problem of such a large scale is reported.
Logger Perceptions of Seasonal Environmental Challenges Facing Timber Operations in the Upper Midwest, USA

ABSTRACTLoggers and other natural-resource-dependent workers are impacted by variable environmental conditions. This research shares logger perceptions of the impacts of seasonal environmental factors on their operations, which are important for informing forest management and policy. We conducted in-depth interviews with 17 professional loggers and 15 other forestry stakeholders to assess the challenges faced in forest operations in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We analyzed interviews and documents to create one representative seasonal calendar, which shows the multiple, overlapping factors affecting timber operations. Many loggers identified impacts from seasonal variability and restrictions related to transportation, environmental conditions, and recreation. Seasonal environmental challenges are intertwined with and inseparable from economic challenges. Spring break-up used to be the time for rest, but increasingly, loggers do not stop working because of financial pressures to continue logg...
The equivalence of three latent class models and ML estimators

The purpose of this letter is to show the equivalence of three latent class models; the switching regression model with endogenous switching and a latent outcome (the binary Roy model), the probit model with a systematically misclassified dependent variable, and a trivariate probit model with partial observability. The probit model with measurement error is an enhanced version of existing models which allows for the potential correlation between error terms. Establishing this connection, we hope, will help a researcher working on one of these classes of estimators to benefit from the literature and software related to other families.
Web3D graphics enabled through sensor networks for cost-effective assessment and management of energy efficiency in buildings

The past decade has seen the advent of numerous building energy efficiency visualization and simulation systems; however, most of them rely on theoretical thermal models to suggest building structural design for new constructions and modifications for existing ones. Sustainable methods of construction have made tremendous progress. The example of the German Energy-Plus-House technology uses a combination of (almost) zero-carbon passive heating technologies. A web-enabled X3D visualization and simulation system coupled with a cost-effective set of temperature/humidity sensors can provide valuable insights into building design, materials and construction that can lead to significant energy savings and an improved thermal comfort for residents, resulting in superior building energy efficiency. A cost-effective hardware-software prototype system is proposed in this paper that can provide real-time data driven visualization or offline simulation of 3D thermal maps for residential and/or commercial buildings on the Web. Display Omitted
2,2,2-Trichloroethyl aryldiazoacetates as robust reagents for the enantioselective C-H functionalization of methyl ethers.

A new class of reagents is described for C–H functionalization by means of C–H insertion using donor/acceptor-substituted rhodium(II) carbene intermediates. The 2,2,2-trichloroethyl aryl and heteroaryl diazoacetates, together with the dirhodium triarylcyclopropane carboxylate catalyst Rh2(R-BPCP)4, enabled the enantioselective intermolecular C–H functionalization of a range of methyl ethers with high levels of site selectivity and enantioselectivity.
Ga(OTf)3-Catalyzed Direct Substitution of Alcohols with Sulfur Nucleophiles

It is reported that Ga(OTf)3 catalyzes the direct displacement of alcohols with sulfur nucleophiles. The products are versatile intermediates that can be utilized in carbon−carbon, carbon−sulfur bond formation or used in modified Julia olefination reactions. The only byproduct generated is water.
Iron(II)-catalyzed asymmetric intramolecular aminohydroxylation of indoles.

An enantioselective intramolecular indole aminohydroxylation reaction is catalyzed by iron(II)–chiral bisoxazoline (BOX) complexes (ee up to 99%, dr > 20:1). This discovery enables expedient asymmetric synthesis of a series of biologically active 3-amino oxindoles and 3-amino indolanes.
Arousal Frequency Is Associated with Increased Fatigue in Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Objective Fatigue is an important and often underemphasized symptom in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Sleep fragmentation, i.e., arousals and disruptions in sleep architecture, is common in patients with OSA and may potentially contribute to their fatigue. We hypothesized that arousal frequency and changes in sleep architecture contribute to the fatigue experienced by patients with OSA.
Devil's Slide: An Evolving Feature of California's Coastal Landscape

Coastal landslides in the United States remain a persistent threat to human life and urban development. The focus of this study is a landslide-prone section of the central California coastline, approximately 20 km south of San Francisco, known as Devil9s Slide. This investigation employs an extensive aerial image inventory, digital elevation models (DEMs), and a water balance/limit-equilibrium approach to better understand the spatial and temporal characteristics of deep-seated bedrock slides at the site. Photographic surveys of the area reveal nearly 3 km of headscarp and a complex network of slope failures that respond to hydrologic, seismic, and anthropogenic perturbations. DEM analysis suggests that for a 145-year period (1866 to 2010), the study area experienced an average coastal retreat rate of 0.14 m/yr and an average volumetric loss of 11,216 m 3 /yr. At least 38 percent of the landscape evolution in the steep coastal terrain has been driven by slope failure events. A loosely coupled water balance/limit-equilibrium analysis quantitatively illustrates the precarious nature of the active landslide zone at the site. The slope is shown to be unstable for a large suite of equally likely scenarios. The analyses presented herein suggest that future work should include a rigorous characterization of pore-water pressure development, driven by comprehensive simulations of subsurface hydrologic response, to improve our understanding of slope failure initiation at the Devil9s Slide site.
Packing efficiency and accessible surface area of crumpled graphene

Graphene holds promise as an ultracapacitor due to its high specific surface area and intrinsic capacitance. To exploit both, a maximum surface area must be accessible while the two-dimensional (2D) graphene is deformed to fill volume. Here, we study stable crumpled graphene sheets of different lengths, $L$, using full atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) and determine a fractal dimension of $D\ensuremath{\cong}2.36\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.12$, indicating efficient spatial packing. Introduction of defects inducing a transition from membrane-like to amorphous carbon further enhances packing efficiency. Further, variation of self-adhesion energy indicates a predominant role in randomly folded graphene. We determine that approximately 60% of the specific surface area of graphene is solvent accessible once crumpled and can be tuned with applied compression and crumpling. We analyze the solvent accessible surface area (SASA) and approximate the upper bound of free crumpled graphene capacitance to \ensuremath{\approx}329 F/g. Once crumpled, the achievable capacitance is highly dependent on the confined volume.
Order Flow and Expected Option Returns

I show that the inventory risk faced by market-makers has a first-order effect on option prices. I introduce a simple approach that decomposes the price impact of trades into inventory risk and asymmetric information components. While both components are large for option trades, the inventory risk component is larger. Using the full panel of daily option returns, I find that option order imbalances attributable to inventory risk have five times larger impact on option prices than previously thought. Finally, I find that past order imbalances have greater predictive power than any other commonly used predictor of option returns.
Broadband acquisition, deblending, and imaging employing dispersed source arrays

With the latest advancements and improvements in recording equipment, field management systems, and vibrator mechanical and hydraulic systems, along with lighter detector/channel receiver station distributions, the quest for broadband acquisition, processing, and interpretation is more intense than ever. In an effort to reduce the acquisition cycle time and improve seismic imaging and resolution while optimizing costs, a number of unique land acquisition experiments were conducted, employing aggressive and nonaggressive blended source effort rules. The acquired data were used to demonstrate the effectiveness of source deblending technologies and full-waveform inversion (FWI) capabilities in such a unique data set. These experiments were unique in that the key field parameters needed for FWI, such as low frequencies (1.5–6 Hz), were recorded in combination with mid- and high-sweep frequency bandwidths and variable sweep lengths. This concept is described in the industry as a dispersed source array field ac...
Regiodivergent synthesis of functionalized indene derivatives via Pt-catalyzed Rautenstrauch reaction of propargyl carbonates.

A regiodivergent synthesis of functionalized indene derivatives from a Pt-catalyzed Rautenstrauch reaction of propargyl carbonate is described. A one-pot Rautenstrauch/Tsuji–Trost reaction delivering 2-indanones was realized efficiently using this methodology.
Myocardial infarction and nitric oxide

The report deals with the induction of the inducible form of nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in infarcted heart muscle of rabbit and man. In the rabbit, nitric oxide synthase was significantly increased in the infarcted area beginning on the third day following ligation of a coronary artery. iNOS induction occured primarily in macrophages. In man, iNOS immunoreactivity was also primarily localized in macrophages on the seventh day following death from myocardial infarction. Of the specific inhibitors of iNOS in infarcted heart muscle, S-methylisothiourea (SMT) was the most potent. Its greatest effect occured in the normal non-affected area of the heart. Dexamethasone and cyclosporin A failed to inhibit iNOS. Apoptosis of macrophages commenced two days following ligation of a coronary artery. (Mol Cell Biochem 160/161:303–306, 1996)
Nipah virus infection

Nipah virus (NiV), emerged in Peninsular Malaysia, caused an outbreak of severe febrile encephalitis in humans and respiratory diseases in pigs between 1998 and 1999. By May of 1999, the death of 105 humans and the culling of about 1.1 million pigs were reported. Fruitbats of Pteropid species were identified as the natural reservoir hosts. The epidemiological studies suggested that NiV was introduced into pig farms by fruitbats, and was than transmitted to humans (mainly pig farmers) and other animals such as dogs, cats and horses. In 2004, NiV reappeared in Bangladesh with greater lethality. In contrast to the Malaysia case, epidemiologic characteristics of this outbreak suggested the possibility of fruitbats-to-person, or person-to-person transmission. In this article, the epidemiological comparison between two outbreaks in Malaysia and Bangladesh, and the new-trends of virological studies of NiV will be discussed.
Aerobic copper-catalyzed decarboxylative thiolation

Copper-catalyzed decarboxylative thiolation using molecular oxygen as the sole oxidant was developed. A variety of aromatic carboxylic acids including 2-nitrobenzoic acids, pentafluorobenzoic acid and several heteroaromatic carboxylic acids undergo efficient thiolation to furnish the aryl sulfides in moderate to excellent yields.
The genetics of alcoholism.

ABSTRACT The three main approaches to studying the genetics of alcoholism have been twin studies, adoption and half-sibling studies, and genetic marker studies. Twin studies have demonstrated differences between monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs in regard to alcohol use and abuse, but tend to be contradictory with regard to alcoholism. However, most adoption studies have confirmed the author's evidence that alcoholism runs in families, or is “familial.” While this is not synonymous with “hereditary” it may provide certain clues for future research. Genetic marker studies can help afford support for a biological factor in the etiology of alcoholism. Studies such as the one on sex-linked color-blindness in alcoholics should be replicated. Confirming data might indicate that at least certain types of alcoholism are associated with a genetic factor.
Generalized Electromagnetism of Subdimensional Particles: A Spin Liquid Story

It has recently been shown that there exists a class of stable gapless spin liquids in 3+1 dimensions described by higher-rank tensor U(1) gauge fields, giving rise to an emergent tensor electromagnetism. The tensor gauge field of these theories couples naturally to subdimensional particles (such as fractons), which are restricted by gauge invariance to move only along lower-dimensional subspaces of the system. Here we work out some of the basic generalized electromagnetic properties of subdimensional particles coupled to tensor electromagnetism, such as generalized electrostatic fields, potential formulations, Lorentz forces, Maxwell equations, and Biot-Savart laws. Some concepts from conventional electromagnetism will carry over directly, while others require significant modification.
Liberalization Agreements in the GATT/WTO and the Terms‐of‐trade Externality Theory: Evidence from Three Developing Countries

The terms-of-trade theory suggests that governments engage in trade negotiations with their trade partners in an effort to escape from a terms-of-trade prisoner's dilemma by mutually internalizing externalities that they impose on each other. In this paper, I use predictions of the terms-of-trade relationship to provide support for the theory based on the negotiating patterns of three developing countries during the Uruguay Round of the Generalized Agreements on Tariff and Trade. I use industry level import value as well as tariff schedules from these contracting party states that were graduated from the US Generalized System of Preferences list during the Uruguay Round. I exploit the rapid change in their tariff schedules from the best response to the optimal level within a single negotiation round to empirically test the terms-of-trade theory. I find that my estimates are consistent with the predictions of the theory as applied to these three developing countries that were compelled to negotiate for tariff concessions during the Uruguay Round.
A Guide to Learning Arithmetic Circuits

An arithmetic circuit is a directed acyclic graph in which the operations aref+;g . In this paper, we exhibit several connections between learning algorithms for arithmetic circuits and other problems. In particular, we show that: Ecient learning algorithms for arithmetic circuit classes imply explicit exponential lower bounds. General circuits and formulas can be learned eciently with membership and equivalence queries i they can be learned eciently with membership queries only. Low-query learning algorithms for certain classes of circuits imply explicit rigid matrices. Learning algorithms for multilinear depth-3 and depth-4 circuits must compute square roots.
Blow-up phenomena for the Yamabe equation

It is well known that the PDE (1) has at least one positive solution for any choice of (M, g). If n > 6 and (M, g) is not locally conformally flat, this follows from results of T. Aubin [3]. The remaining cases were solved by R. Schoen using the positive mass theorem [16]. Solutions to (1) are not usually unique. As an example, consider the product metric on 51(L) x 5n_1(l). If L is sufficiently small, then the Yamabe PDE has a unique solution. On the other hand, there are many non-minimizing solutions if L is large. D. Pollack [14] has used gluing techniques to construct high energy solutions on more general background manifolds: given any conformai class with positive Yamabe constant and any positive integer iV, there exists a new conformai class which is close to the original one in the C?-norm and contains at least N metrics of constant scalar curvature (see [14], Theorem 0.1). It is an interesting question whether the set of all solutions to the Yamabe PDE is compact (in the C2-topology, say). A well-known conjecture states that this should be true unless (M, p) is conformally equivalent to the round sphere (see [17], [18], [19]). This conjecture has been verified in low dimensions and in the locally conformally flat case: if (M, g) is locally conformally flat, compactness follows from work of R. Schoen [17], [18]. Moreover, Schoen proposed a strategy for proving the conjecture in the non-locally conformally flat case based on the Pohozaev identity.
Models and algorithms for optical and optoelectronic parallel computers

This paper briefly reviews some of the more popular parallel-computer models-pipelined optical bus, optical transpose interconnect system (OTIS), and partitioned optical passive stars (POPS) network-that employ optical interconnect. The interconnect topology and some simple algorithms for each model are also described.
A Mild meta-Selective C–H Alkylation of Catechol Mono-Ethers

Catechol mono-ethers are an important class of phenols. They are found in a number of pharmaceuticals, flavoring agents, perfumes, and are used for the preparation of numerous drugs. Herein, we report a mild meta-selective C–H alkylation of these phenols, which is enabled by a cascade of oxidative dearomatization – radical addition – rearomatization process. The method is compatible with reactive functional groups on the parent arenol, such as olefins and halides. Primary, secondary, and teriary alkyl groups can be used, the source of which is most commonly an alkylborane. This process is operationally simple, does not require heating and generally proceeds in good yields.
Synaptonemal Complex Components Are Required for Meiotic Checkpoint Function in Caenorhabditis elegans

Synapsis involves the assembly of a proteinaceous structure, the synaptonemal complex (SC), between paired homologous chromosomes, and is essential for proper meiotic chromosome segregation. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the synapsis checkpoint selectively removes nuclei with unsynapsed chromosomes by inducing apoptosis. This checkpoint depends on pairing centers (PCs), cis-acting sites that promote pairing and synapsis. We have hypothesized that the stability of homolog pairing at PCs is monitored by this checkpoint. Here, we report that SC components SYP-3, HTP-3, HIM-3, and HTP-1 are required for a functional synapsis checkpoint. Mutation of these components does not abolish PC function, demonstrating they are bona fide checkpoint components. Further, we identify mutant backgrounds in which the instability of homolog pairing at PCs does not correlate with the synapsis checkpoint response. Altogether, these data suggest that, in addition to homolog pairing, SC assembly may be monitored by the synapsis checkpoint.
Understanding the role of transport velocity in biomotor-powered microtubule spool assembly

We examined the sensitivity of microtubule spools to transport velocity. Perhaps surprisingly, we determined that the steady-state number and size of spools remained constant over a seven-fold range of velocities. Our data on the kinetics of spool assembly further suggest that the main mechanisms underlying spool growth vary during assembly.
Reach and Implementation of Physical Activity Breaks and Active Lessons in Elementary School Classrooms

The integration of physical activity into elementary school classrooms, through brief activity breaks (ABs) and lessons that incorporate movement into instruction as active lessons (ALs), are key parts of school physical activity programming and can improve children's health and academic outcomes. With nationally representative survey data from 640 public elementary schools in the United States, we examined the use of these practices and the extent of implementation within classrooms. ALs were used in 71.7% of schools, and ABs were used in 75.6% of schools. In multivariate models, ALs were significantly less likely to be used in majority-Latino schools (adjusted odds ratio = 0.48, 95% confidence interval [0.25, 0.93], p < .05) than in predominantly White schools. ABs were significantly less likely to be used in lower socioeconomic schools (adjusted odds ratio = 0.57, 95% confidence interval [0.34, 0.95], p < .05) than in higher socioeconomic schools. At schools where ABs were ever used, they were used by 45.6% of teachers, but fewer teachers used them at larger schools (β = -.08, p < .01) and at lower socioeconomic schools (β = -.09, p < .05). The reach of ALs and ABs is modest and classroom-level implementation is quite low. Additional dissemination and support is warranted to improve the reach and implementation of these strategies in elementary schools. Such efforts could improve the school-day experience in ways that benefit millions of young children.
Trends of farms restructuring in Bulgaria

The question for the restructuring is extremely comprehensive, as an important part of it is the organization-economic restructuring of agriculture. The outgoing farm changes are very significant. The implementation of European policy, destined for higher economic, technologic and market level of agriculture than ours, generates some positive trends, but also a lot of problems. Without answer remains the question about the reflection of structural changes on farms’ economic state.
How the Strictness of the Minimal Criterion Impacts Open-Ended Evolution

Because the kind of open-ended complexity explosion seen on Earth remains beyond the observed dynamics of current artificial life worlds, it has become critical to isolate and investigate specific factors that may contribute to open-endedness. This paper focuses on one such factor that has previously received little attention in research on open-endedness: the minimal criterion (MC) for reproduction. Originally proposed as an enhancement to novelty search, the MC is in effect a different abstraction of evolution than the more conventional competition-focused fitness-based paradigm, instead focusing on the minimal task that must be completed for an organism to be allowed to produce offspring. The MC is interesting for studying open-endedness because in principle its strictness (i.e. how hard it is to satisfy) can be varied on a continuum to observe its effects. While in many artificial life worlds the MC strictness is implicit and therefore difficult to vary systematically, in the previously-introduced Chromaria world, the MC is designed to be set explicitly by the experimenter, making possible the systematic study of different levels of MC strictness in this paper. The main result, supported by visual, quantitative, and qualitative observations, is that the strictness of the MC can profoundly affect open- ended dynamics, ultimately deciding between complete stagnation (both with extreme strictness or complete relaxation) and orderly divergence. This result offers a lesson of particular importance to worlds whose MCs are not explicit by exposing an area of sensitivity within open-ended systems that is easy to overlook because of its implicit nature.
Implementing CommonGround in a community mental health center: Lessons in a computerized decision support system.

OBJECTIVE Although shared decision making (SDM) is a key element of client-centered care, it has not been widely adopted. Accordingly, interventions have been developed to promote SDM. The aim of this study was to explore the implementation process of one SDM intervention, CommonGround, which utilizes peer specialists and a computerized decision support center to promote SDM. METHOD As part of a larger study, CommonGround was implemented in 4 treatment teams in a community mental health center. The implementation process was examined by conducting semistructured interviews with 12 staff members that were integral to the CommonGround implementation. Responses were analyzed using content analysis. Program fidelity and client program use were also examined. RESULTS Although key informants identified several client and staff benefits to using CommonGround, including improved treatment engagement and availability of peer specialists, most clients did not use CommonGround consistently throughout the implementation. Key informants and fidelity reports indicated a number of program (e.g., technological difficulties, increased staff burden) and contextual barriers (e.g., poor fit with service structure, decision support center location, low staff investment and high turnover) to the successful implementation of CommonGround. Strategies to maximize the implementation by increasing awareness, buy-in, and utilization are also reported. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE This implementation of CommonGround was limited in its success partly as a result of program and contextual barriers. Future implementations may benefit from incorporating the strategies identified to maximize implementation in order to obtain the full program benefits. (PsycINFO Database Record
Inequality of opportunity in adult health in Colombia

This paper measures inequality of opportunity in adult health in Colombia using the 2010 Living Standards and Social Mobility Survey, a rich dataset that provides unique information about individual childhood circumstances in that country. Dissimilarity and Gini-opportunity indexes are calculated to provide different measures of inequality of opportunity using a self-reported variable for health status. The Shapley-value decomposition is then used to estimate the contribution of early-life circumstances such as parental background, region of origin and ethnicity to inequality of opportunity. The findings suggest that 8 % to 10 % of the circumstance-driven opportunities distinctively enjoyed by those who are healthier should be redistributed or otherwise compensated in order to achieve equality of opportunity. Differences in household socio-economic status during childhood and parental educational attainment appear to be the most salient dimensions of inequality of opportunity in adult health.
An Analysis of the Literature on International Unconventional Monetary Policy

This paper reviews and critically evaluates the empirical literature on the effects of U.S. unconventional monetary policy on both financial markets and the real economy. In order to understand how such policies could work, we also briefly review the literature on the theory of such policies. We show that event studies provide very strong evidence that U.S. unconventional policy announcements have strongly influenced international bond yields, exchange rates, and equity prices in the desired manner. In addition, such studies indicate that such policies curtailed market perceptions of extreme events. Calibrated modeling and vector autoregressive (VAR) exercises strongly suggest that these policies significantly improved macroeconomic outcomes, raising U.S. GDP and CPI, through these changes in asset prices. Both event studies and VARs imply positive international spillovers of such policies.
Perceptions, intentions, and cheating

Abstract We report data from a laboratory experiment demonstrating that having to announce one’s own future possibly dishonest actions can deter misconduct. Further, results from independent evaluators suggest that a possibly dishonest action taken after it is announced is more likely to be perceived as dishonest than an equivalent action absent the announcement. Consequently, requiring announcements promotes honest actions among people who care about maintaining an honest self-image. Finally, a type-classification analysis shows that the mixture of “maximum cheating” and “honest” types best characterize the cheating behavior, suggesting that “incomplete cheating” reported in the literature is not an intrinsic preference for being honest, but may rather be due to a preference for appearing honest.
Leveraging Sparsity for Efficient Submodular Data Summarization

The facility location problem is widely used for summarizing large datasets and has additional applications in sensor placement, image retrieval, and clustering. One difficulty of this problem is that submodular optimization algorithms require the calculation of pairwise benefits for all items in the dataset. This is infeasible for large problems, so recent work proposed to only calculate nearest neighbor benefits. One limitation is that several strong assumptions were invoked to obtain provable approximation guarantees. In this paper we establish that these extra assumptions are not necessary—solving the sparsified problem will be almost optimal under the standard assumptions of the problem. We then analyze a different method of sparsification that is a better model for methods such as Locality Sensitive Hashing to accelerate the nearest neighbor computations and extend the use of the problem to a broader family of similarities. We validate our approach by demonstrating that it rapidly generates interpretable summaries.
Evaluation of antibacterial and antifungal compounds for selective inhibition of denitrification in soils

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an atmospheric constituent implicated in climate warming and stratospheric ozone depletion. Both bacteria and fungi participate in N2O production, but information is lacking with regard to the relative contribution of bacterial and fungal denitrifiers to the denitrification process in agricultural soils. The selective inhibition (SI) technique is widely used to assess the contribution of different groups of microbes to soil processes, but success of the technique depends on the effectiveness of the inhibitors. In this study, laboratory experiments were conducted to assess the contribution of bacteria and fungi to denitrification using soils from a woodlot, agricultural fields under conventional plowing (PT), and no-till for either 50 years (long-term) or 11 years (medium-term). A selective inhibition (SI) technique was developed using two bactericides (streptomycin and bronopol) and two fungicides (cycloheximide and captan) applied at different rates (0–32 mg per g soil). Regardless of the application rate, streptomycin and cycloheximide were not effective inhibitors of denitrification, with a degree of inhibition only between 2 and 20% relative to controls. These results are significant given the wide use of these products in SI studies. However, the bactericide bronopol and the fungicide captan effectively inhibited denitrification, with the strongest inhibition observed at an application rate of 16 mg per g soil. The ratio of fungal to bacterial denitrification activity (F : B) was generally less than 1, indicating a dominance of bacteria in denitrification activity in the soils investigated. However, an increase in the F : B ratio from 0.24 in medium-term NT to 0.87 in long-term NT soils was noted, suggesting perhaps a progressive increase in the role of fungal denitrifiers with a longer duration of NT farming.
A Weak Galerkin Finite Element Method for the Maxwell Equations

This paper introduces a numerical scheme for the time-harmonic Maxwell equations by using weak Galerkin (WG) finite element methods. The WG finite element method is based on two operators: discrete weak curl and discrete weak gradient, with appropriately defined stabilizations that enforce a weak continuity of the approximating functions. This WG method is highly flexible by allowing the use of discontinuous approximating functions on arbitrary shape of polyhedra and, at the same time, is parameter free. Optimal-order of convergence is established for the WG approximations in various discrete norms which are either $$H^1$$H1-like or $$L^2$$L2 and $$L^2$$L2-like. An effective implementation of the WG method is developed through variable reduction by following a Schur-complement approach, yielding a system of linear equations involving unknowns associated with element boundaries only. Numerical results are presented to confirm the theory of convergence.
Identifying the minor set cover of dense connected bipartite graphs via random matching edge sets

Using quantum annealing to solve an optimization problem requires minor embedding a logic graph into a known hardware graph. In an effort to reduce the complexity of the minor embedding problem, we introduce the minor set cover (MSC) of a known graph $${\mathcal {G}}$$G: a subset of graph minors which contain any remaining minor of the graph as a subgraph. Any graph that can be embedded into $${\mathcal {G}}$$G will be embeddable into a member of the MSC. Focusing on embedding into the hardware graph of commercially available quantum annealers, we establish the MSC for a particular known virtual hardware, which is a complete bipartite graph. We show that the complete bipartite graph $$K_{N,N}$$KN,N has a MSC of N minors, from which $$K_{N+1}$$KN+1 is identified as the largest clique minor of $$K_{N,N}$$KN,N. The case of determining the largest clique minor of hardware with faults is briefly discussed but remains an open question.
Departure queue prediction for strategic and tactical surface scheduler integration

A departure metering concept to be demonstrated at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) will integrate strategic and tactical surface scheduling components to enable the respective collaborative decision making and improved efficiency benefits these two methods of scheduling provide. This study analyzes the effect of tactical scheduling on strategic scheduler predictability. Strategic queue predictions and target gate pushback times to achieve a desired queue length are compared between fast time simulations of CLT surface operations with and without tactical scheduling. The use of variable departure rates as a strategic scheduler input was shown to substantially improve queue predictions over static departure rates. With target queue length calibration, the strategic scheduler can be tuned to produce average delays within one minute of the tactical scheduler. However, root mean square differences between strategic and tactical delays were between 12 and 15 minutes due to the different methods the strategic and tactical schedulers use to predict takeoff times and generate gate pushback clearances. This demonstrates how difficult it is for the strategic scheduler to predict tactical scheduler assigned gate delays on an individual flight basis as the tactical scheduler adjusts departure sequence to accommodate arrival interactions. Strategic/tactical scheduler compatibility may be improved by providing more arrival information to the strategic scheduler and stabilizing tactical scheduler changes to runway sequence in response to arrivals.
Uncertainty Quantification of Microstructural Properties due to Experimental Variations

Electron backscatter diffraction scans are an important experimental input for microstructure generation and homogenization. Multiple electron backscatter diffraction scans can be used to sample th...
On the Chvátal---Gomory closure of a compact convex set

In this paper, we show that the Chvatal---Gomory closure of any compact convex set is a rational polytope. This resolves an open question of Schrijver (Ann Discret Math 9:291---296, 1980) for irrational polytopes, and generalizes the same result for the case of rational polytopes (Schrijver in Ann Discret Math 9:291---296, 1980), rational ellipsoids (Dey and Vielma in IPCO XIV, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6080. Springer, Berlin, pp 327---340, 2010) and strictly convex bodies (Dadush et al. in Math Oper Res 36:227---239, 2011).