cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A study of conductor modeling using the surface integral equation

A rigorous method to solve conductor problems using the surface integral equation is introduced. This formulation is based on the augmented electric field integral equation. In order to model conductors and accurately capture the losses, some integration techniques are analyzed and compared. The line integral method will be an optimal option for conductor problems. After incorporating this technique, this method can be applied to interconnect and packaging problems.
Predicting forest floor and woody fuel consumption from prescribed burns in southern and western pine ecosystems of the United States

Abstract Reliable estimates of pre-burn biomass and fuel consumption are important to estimate wildland fire emissions and assist in prescribed burn planning. We present empirical models for predicting fuel consumption in natural fuels from 60 prescribed fires in ponderosa pine-dominated forests in the western US and 60 prescribed fires in long-needle pine forests in the southeastern US. There was high variability across sites, but total surface fuel biomass was generally much lower on southern sites (23.0 ± 11.6 Mg ha −1 ) than western sites (61.5 ± 35.8 Mg ha −1 ). Differences in surface fuel composition, pre-burn loading and fuel consumption between the southern and western pine consumption datasets justify the development of regional models for predicting fuel consumption. Southern pine models of herb, shrub and 1-h consumption have close model fit with narrow prediction intervals across the range of sampled values. Relationships between 10-h and 100-h pre-burn loading and consumption produced models with reasonable fit but with no significant correlation with fuel moisture. Model fit of litter and duff consumption models was relatively poor compared to the other southern fuel categories. Western models were developed for 1-h, 10-h and 100-h fine wood, sound coarse wood, rotten coarse wood, litter and duff. All western models had high coefficients of variability, and model residuals indicate higher uncertainty with increasing pre-burn biomass. Although empirical models are widely used, they have limitations in that they are constrained by burning conditions and ranges of predictor variables.
Position-based elastic rods

We present a novel method to simulate complex bending and twisting of elastic rods. Elastic rods are commonly simulated using force based methods, such as the finite element method. These methods are accurate, but do not directly fit into the more efficient position-based dynamics framework, since the definition of material frames are not entirely based on positions. We introduce ghost points, which are additional points defined on edges, to naturally endow continuous material frames on discretized rods. We achieve robustness by a novel discretization of the Cosserat theory. The method supports coupling with a frame, a triangle, and a rigid body at the rod's end point. Our formulation is highly efficient, capable of simulating hundreds of strands in real-time.
Anticipated Earnings Announcements and the Customer–Supplier Anomaly

I test whether the anticipation of earnings news stimulates acquisition of customer information and mitigates returns to the customer–supplier anomaly documented by Cohen and Frazzini (“Economic Links and Predictable Returns.” The Journal of Finance 63 (2008): 1977–2011). I find that attention to a firm's publicly disclosed customers increases shortly before the firm announces earnings, and that customer stock returns predict supplier stock returns shortly before, but not after, the supplier's earnings announcement. I further find some evidence that these predictable returns are increasing in the level of customer information acquisition. These results are unique to anticipated disclosure events and suggest that anticipation of supplier earnings announcements resolves investor limited attention to customer information and accelerates price discovery of customer news.
Institutions, parental selection, and locus of control

ABSTRACTLocus of control, that is, people’s perception of how much influence they have over their lives, is an important predictor for economic outcomes – earnings, health and education, to name a few. This article uses difference-in-differences analysis to investigate the importance of the institutional environment for the development of locus of control, using the fall of the Berlin Wall as exogenous shock to the educational system in East Germany. Using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP), we find that women showed less external locus of control following the fall of the Berlin Wall but less clear results for men.
When Is an Algorithm Transparent? Predictive Analytics, Privacy, and Public Policy

The problem of algorithmic transparency is pressing. Predictive systems are transparent for consumers if they can ascertain the risks and benefits associated with the predictive systems to which they are subject. We examine three ways to meet this condition: disclosing source code, transparency without disclosing source code, and informational norms.
Correcting soft errors online in fast fourier transform

While many algorithm-based fault tolerance (ABFT) schemes have been proposed to detect soft errors offline in the fast Fourier transform (FFT) after computation finishes, none of the existing ABFT schemes detect soft errors online before the computation finishes. This paper presents an online ABFT scheme for FFT so that soft errors can be detected online and the corrupted computation can be terminated in a much more timely manner. We also extend our scheme to tolerate both arithmetic errors and memory errors, develop strategies to reduce its fault tolerance overhead and improve its numerical stability and fault coverage, and finally incorporate it into the widely used FFTW library - one of the today's fastest FFT software implementations. Experimental results demonstrate that: (1) the proposed online ABFT scheme introduces much lower overhead than the existing offline ABFT schemes; (2) it detects errors in a much more timely manner; and (3) it also has higher numerical stability and better fault coverage.
Diagnosing and Monitoring Endocrine Dysfunction, Diabetes, and Obesity in a Cohort of Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer

ABSTRACT Objective: The 5-year survival rate for childhood cancer has increased to 80%, resulting in a growing population of adult survivors of childhood cancer (ASOCC). Long-term endocrine dysfunction is as high as 63% when screened in research protocols. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of endocrine testing, endocrine dysfunction, diabetes, obesity, and endocrinologist visits outside of a research screening protocol. Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed for 176 ASOCC who were diagnosed with cancer before age 18, followed at least 10 years, were now at least 18, and had survived to the time of chart review. Results: After a mean follow-up of 15.2 years (range 10–21 years), 33.5% of ASOCC had endocrine dysfunction, excluding obesity and diabetes. These outcomes were more common in those with any radiation (64.8%, P<.0001) or cranial radiation (73.1%, P<.0001). Many subjects had never had certain endocrine tests. Over half (54.6%) of subjects were either overweight or...
A time dependent relation between EUV solar flare light-curves from lines with differing formation temperatures

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) solar flare emissions evolve in time as the emitting plasma heats and then cools. Although accurately modeling this evolution has been historically difficult, especially for empirical relationships, it is important for understanding processes at the Sun, as well as for their influence on planetary atmospheres. With a goal to improve empirical flare models, a new simple empirical expression is derived to predict how cool emissions evolve based on the evolution of a hotter emission. This technique is initially developed by studying 12 flares in detail observed by the EUV variability experiment (EVE) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Then, over 1100 flares observed by EVE are analyzed to validate these relationships. The Cargill and Enthalpy Based Thermal Evolution of Loops (EBTEL) flare cooling models are used to show that this empirical relationship implies the energy radiated by a population of hotter formed ions is approximately proportional to the energy exciting a population of cooler formed ions emitting when the peak formation temperatures of the two lines are up to 72% of each other and above 2 MK. These results have practical implications for improving flare irradiance empirical modeling and for identifying key emission lines for future monitoring of flares for space weather operations; and also provide insight into the cooling processes of flare plasma.
Protein Stability and Avoidance of Toxic Misfolding Do Not Explain the Sequence Constraints of Highly Expressed Proteins

The avoidance of cytotoxic effects associated with protein misfolding has been proposed as a dominant constraint on the sequence evolution and molecular clock of highly expressed proteins. Recently, Leuenberger et al. developed an elegant experimental approach to measure protein thermal stability at the proteome scale. The collected data allow us to rigorously test the predictions of the misfolding avoidance hypothesis that highly expressed proteins have evolved to be more stable, and that maintaining thermodynamic stability significantly constrains their evolution. Notably, reanalysis of the Leuenberger et al. data across four different organisms reveals no substantial correlation between protein stability and protein abundance. Therefore, the key predictions of the misfolding toxicity and related hypotheses are not supported by available empirical data. The data also suggest that, regardless of protein expression, protein stability does not substantially affect the protein molecular clock across organisms.
History of Marijuana Use Does Not Affect Outcomes on the Liver Transplant Waitlist

BackgroundData are limited on marijuana use and its impact on liver transplant (LT) waitlist outcomes. We aimed to assess the risk of waitlist mortality/delisting and likelihood of LT among prior marijuana users and to determine the prevalence and factors associated with marijuana use.MethodsRetrosp
Generalized Pseudospectral Method and Zeros of Orthogonal Polynomials

Via a generalization of the pseudospectral method for numerical solution of differential equations, a family of nonlinear algebraic identities satisfied by the zeros of a wide class of orthogonal polynomials is derived. The generalization is based on a modification of pseudospectral matrix representations of linear differential operators proposed in the paper, which allows these representations to depend on two, rather than one, sets of interpolation nodes. The identities hold for every polynomial family $\{p_\nu(x)\}_{\nu=0}^\infty$ orthogonal with respect to a measure supported on the real line that satisfies some standard assumptions, as long as the polynomials in the family satisfy differential equations $\mathcal{A} p_\nu(x) =q_\nu(x) p_\nu(x)$, where $\mathcal{A}$ is a linear differential operator and each $q_\nu(x)$ is a polynomial of degree at most $n_0 \in \mathbb{N}$; $n_0$ does not depend on $\nu$. The proposed identities generalize known identities for classical and Krall orthogonal polynomials, to the case of the nonclassical orthogonal polynomials that belong to the class described above. The generalized pseudospectral representations of the differential operator $\mathcal{A}$ for the case of the Sonin-Markov orthogonal polynomials, also known as generalized Hermite polynomials, are presented. The general result is illustrated by new algebraic relations satisfied by the zeros of the Sonin-Markov polynomials.
Large-Scale Study of Perceptual Video Quality

The great variations of videographic skills in videography, camera designs, compression and processing protocols, communication and bandwidth environments, and displays leads to an enormous variety of video impairments. Current no-reference (NR) video quality models are unable to handle this diversity of distortions. This is true in part because available video quality assessment databases contain very limited content, fixed resolutions, were captured using a small number of camera devices by a few videographers and have been subjected to a modest number of distortions. As such, these databases fail to adequately represent real world videos, which contain very different kinds of content obtained under highly diverse imaging conditions and are subject to authentic, complex, and often commingled distortions that are difficult or impossible to simulate. As a result, NR video quality predictors tested on real-world video data often perform poorly. Toward advancing NR video quality prediction, we have constructed a large-scale video quality assessment database containing 585 videos of unique content, captured by a large number of users, with wide ranges of levels of complex, authentic distortions. We collected a large number of subjective video quality scores via crowdsourcing. A total of 4776 unique participants took part in the study, yielding over 205 000 opinion scores, resulting in an average of 240 recorded human opinions per video. We demonstrate the value of the new resource, which we call the live video quality challenge database (LIVE-VQC), by conducting a comparison with leading NR video quality predictors on it. This paper is the largest video quality assessment study ever conducted along several key dimensions: number of unique contents, capture devices, distortion types and combinations of distortions, study participants, and recorded subjective scores. The database is available for download on this link: http://live.ece.utexas.edu/research/LIVEVQC/index.html .
Scientific Literature Text Mining and the Case for Open Access

"Open access" has become a central theme of journal reform in academic publishing. In this article, I examine the relationship between open access publishing and an important infrastructural element of a modern research enterprise, scientific literature text mining, or the use of data analytic techniques to conduct meta-analyses and investigations into the scientific corpus. I give a brief history of the open access movement, discuss novel journalistic practices, and an overview of data-driven investigation of the scientific corpus. I argue that particularly in an era where the veracity of many research studies has been called into question, scientific literature text mining should be one of the key motivations for open access publishing, not only in the basic sciences, but in the engineering and applied sciences as well. The enormous benefits of unrestricted access to the research literature should prompt scholars from all disciplines to lend their vocal support to enabling legal, wholesale access to the scientific literature as part of a data science pipeline.
Enhanced Platelet-Activating Factor Synthesis Facilitates Acute and Delayed Effects of Ethanol-Intoxicated Thermal Burn Injury

Thermal burn injuries in patients who are alcohol-intoxicated result in greater morbidity and mortality. Murine models combining ethanol and localized thermal burn injury reproduce the systemic toxicity seen in human subjects, which consists of both acute systemic cytokine production with multiple organ dysfunction, as well as a delayed systemic immunosuppression. However, the exact mechanisms for these acute and delayed effects are unclear. These studies sought to define the role of the lipid mediator platelet-activating factor in the acute and delayed effects of intoxicated burn injury. Combining ethanol and thermal burn injury resulted in increased enzymatic platelet-activating factor generation in a keratinocyte cell line in vitro, human skin explants ex vivo, as well as in murine skin in vivo. Further, the acute increase in inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-6, and the systemic immunosuppressive effects of intoxicated thermal burn injury were suppressed in mice lacking platelet-activating factor receptors. Together, these studies provide a potential mechanism and treatment strategies for the augmented toxicity and immunosuppressive effects of thermal burn injury in the setting of acute ethanol exposure, which involves the pleotropic lipid mediator platelet-activating factor.
High Levels of Copy Number Variation of Ampliconic Genes across Major Human Y Haplogroups.

Because of its highly repetitive nature, the human male-specific Y chromosome remains understudied. It is important to investigate variation on the Y chromosome to understand its evolution and contribution to phenotypic variation, including infertility. Approximately 20% of the human Y chromosome consists of ampliconic regions which include nine multi-copy gene families. These gene families are expressed exclusively in testes and usually implicated in spermatogenesis. Here, to gain a better understanding of the role of the Y chromosome in human evolution and in determining sexually dimorphic traits, we studied ampliconic gene copy number variation in 100 males representing ten major Y haplogroups world-wide. Copy number was estimated with droplet digital PCR. In contrast to low nucleotide diversity observed on the Y in previous studies, here we show that ampliconic gene copy number diversity is very high. A total of 98 copy-number-based haplotypes were observed among 100 individuals, and haplotypes were sometimes shared by males from very different haplogroups, suggesting homoplasies. The resulting haplotypes did not cluster according to major Y haplogroups. Overall, only two gene families (RBMY and TSPY) showed significant differences in copy number among major Y haplogroups, and the haplogroup of a male could not be predicted based on his ampliconic gene copy numbers. Finally, we did not find significant correlations either between copy number variation and individual’s height, or between the former and facial masculinity/femininity. Our results suggest rapid evolution of ampliconic gene copy numbers on the human Y, and we discuss its causes.
Surgical Simulation: Markers of Proficiency.

Objective Surgical simulation has become an integral component of surgical training. Simulation proficiency determination has been traditionally based upon time to completion of various simulated tasks. We aimed to determine objective markers of proficiency in surgical simulation by comparing novel assessments with conventional evaluations of technical skill. Design Categorical general surgery residents completed 10 laparoscopic cholecystectomy modules using a high-fidelity simulator. We recorded and analyzed simulation task times, as well as number of hand movements, instrument path length, instrument acceleration, and participant affective engagement during each simulation. Comparisons were made to Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skill (OSATS) and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Milestones, as well as previous laparoscopic experience, duration of laparoscopic cholecystectomies performed by participants, and postgraduate year. Comparisons were also made to Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery task times. Spearman's rho was utilized for comparisons, significance set at >0.50. Setting University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, an academic tertiary care facility. Participants Fourteen categorical general surgery residents (postgraduate year 1-5) were prospectively enrolled. Results One hundred forty simulations were included. The number of hand movements and instrument path lengths strongly correlated with simulation task times (ρ 0.62-0.87, p Conclusions Simulation proficiency, measured by instrument and hand motion, is more representative of simulation skill than simulation task time, instrument acceleration, or participant engagement.
Energy Efficient Resource Allocation in EH-Enabled CR Networks for IoT

Cognitive radio (CR) can be leveraged to mitigate the spectrum scarcity problem of Internet of Things (IoT) applications while wireless energy harvesting (WEH) can help reduce recharging/replacing batteries for IoT and CR networks. To this end, we propose to utilize WEH for CR networks in which the CR devices are not only capable of sensing the available radio frequencies in a collaborative manner but also harvesting the wireless energy transferred by an access point. More importantly, we design an optimization framework that captures a fundamental tradeoff between energy efficiency (EE) and spectral efficiency of the network. In particular, we formulate a mixed integer nonlinear programming problem that maximizes EE while taking into consideration of user buffer occupancy, data rate fairness, energy causality constraints, and interference constraints. We further prove that the proposed optimization framework is an NP-hard problem. Thus, we propose a low complexity heuristic algorithm, to solve the resource allocation and energy harvesting optimization problem. The proposed algorithm is shown to be capable of achieving near optimal solution with high accuracy while having polynomial complexity. The efficiency of our proposal is validated through well designed simulations.
A Synthetic Bacterial Cell-Cell Adhesion Toolbox for Programming Multicellular Morphologies and Patterns

Synthetic multicellular systems hold promise as models for understanding natural development of biofilms and higher organisms and as tools for engineering complex multi-component metabolic pathways and materials. However, such efforts require tools to adhere cells into defined morphologies and patterns, and these tools are currently lacking. Here, we report a 100% genetically encoded synthetic platform for modular cell-cell adhesion in Escherichia coli, which provides control over multicellular self-assembly. Adhesive selectivity is provided by a library of outer membrane-displayed nanobodies and antigens with orthogonal intra-library specificities, while affinity is controlled by intrinsic adhesin affinity, competitive inhibition, and inducible expression. We demonstrate the resulting capabilities for quantitative rational design of well-defined morphologies and patterns through homophilic and heterophilic interactions, lattice-like self-assembly, phase separation, differential adhesion, and sequential layering. Compatible with synthetic biology standards, this adhesion toolbox will enable construction of high-level multicellular designs and shed light on the evolutionary transition to multicellularity.
Optimal Channel Security Against Fine-Grained State Compromise: The Safety of Messaging

We aim to understand the best possible security of a (bidirectional) cryptographic channel against an adversary that may arbitrarily and repeatedly learn the secret state of either communicating party. We give a formal security definition and a proven-secure construction. This construction provides better security against state compromise than the Signal Double Ratchet Algorithm or any other known channel construction. To facilitate this we define and construct new forms of public-key encryption and digital signatures that update their keys over time.
Analyzing Patterns of Literature-Based Phenotyping Definitions for Text Mining Applications

Phenotyping definitions are widely used in observational studies that utilize population data from Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Biomedical text mining supports biomedical knowledge discovery. Therefore, we believe that mining phenotyping definitions from the literature can support EHR-based clinical research. However, information about these definitions presented in the literature is inconsistent, diverse, and unknown, especially for text mining usage. Therefore, we aim to analyze patterns of phenotyping definitions as a first step toward developing a text mining application to improve phenotype definition. A set random of observational studies was used for this analysis. Term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) and Term Frequency (TF) were used to rank the terms in the 3958 sentences. Finally, we present preliminary results analyzing phenotyping definitions patterns.
CO 2 Laser Heating Of Silicon And Applications

CO2 laser heating of silicon and applicationsH.S. KwokDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, State University of New York at BuffaloAmherst, New York 14260AbstractPulsed CO2 laser interaction with doped silicon can produce significant heating of thesemiconductor. This heating is studied and two major applications are explored. Fast CO2laser detection due to the rapid thermal generation of carriers is demonstrated.IntroductionPulsed laser interaction with semiconductors has been pursued for a variety of reasons:to study the nonlinear properties of the semiconductors and more recently to process thesemiconductor via heating and melting. For the CO2 laser with its relatively small photonenergy, the interaction with most semiconductors is mostly via nonlinear interaction withvalence electrons, and free carrier excitation with the conduction band electrons. Both ofthese interactions are relatively weak as compared to the interband excitations allowablewith visible photons.In a recent study of the avalanche ionization in silicon by a CO2 laser, we found thatfree carrier absorption (FCA) can actually be very significant at this long wavelength.This effect is actually strong enough so that the lattice could be melted simply vi4 FCA.1CO2 laser annealing of ion implanted silicon has actually been explored previously.4
HERMENEUTICS OF EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE LIFE-WORLD

Natural science, familiarly called “science,” has a pervading presence and influence in our culture because it, more than any other form of knowledge, seems effectively to lay claim to the rigor, objectivity, permanence and universality that the Greeks sought as their emancipatory goal 1 and the search for which, Husserl claims,2 is the special teleology of the Western community. Natural science, then, developed within the total cultural and philosophical perspective of the West, which gave it impetus and which in turn derived sustenance from its achievements. As an element of our total culture, I shall call this “historical science.” The critique of historical science, then, is a critique of a total cultural milieu.
Components of Water Use Efficiency Have Unique Genetic Signatures in the Model C4 Grass Setaria

Plant growth and water use are interrelated processes influenced by genetically controlled morphological and biochemical characteristics. Improving plant water use efficiency (WUE) to sustain growth in different environments is an important breeding objective that can improve crop yields and enhance agricultural sustainability. However, genetic improvement of WUE using traditional methods has proven difficult due to the low throughput and environmental heterogeneity of field settings. To overcome these limitations, this study utilizes a high-throughput phenotyping platform to quantify plant size and water use of an interspecific Setaria italica × Setaria viridis recombinant inbred line population at daily intervals in both well-watered and water-limited conditions. Our findings indicate that measurements of plant size and water use are correlated strongly in this system; therefore, a linear modeling approach was used to partition this relationship into predicted values of plant size given water use and deviations from this relationship at the genotype level. The resulting traits describing plant size, water use, and WUE all were heritable and responsive to soil water availability, allowing for a genetic dissection of the components of plant WUE under different watering treatments. Linkage mapping identified major loci underlying two different pleiotropic components of WUE. This study indicates that alleles controlling WUE derived from both wild and domesticated accessions can be utilized to predictably modulate trait values given a specified precipitation regime in the model C4 genus Setaria.
Vanishing Estimates for Fully Bubbling Solutions of SU (n + 1) Toda Systems at a Singular Source

For Gauss curvature equation (or more general Toda systems) defined on two dimensional spaces, the vanishing rate of certain curvature functions on blowup points is a key estimate for numerous applications. However, if these equations have singular sources, very few vanishing estimates can be found. In this article we consider a Toda system with singular sources defined on a Riemann surface and we prove a very surprising vanishing estimates and a reflection phenomenon for certain functions involving the Gauss curvature.
Downlink Precoding for Massive MIMO Systems Exploiting Virtual Channel Model Sparsity

In this paper, the problem of designing a forward link linear precoder for Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems in conjunction with Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) is addressed. A challenge in such system design is to consider finite alphabet inputs, especially with larger constellation sizes such as $M\geq 16$. First, we employ a novel and efficient methodology that allows for a sparse representation of multiple users and groups in a fashion similar to Joint Spatial Division and Multiplexing (JSDM), thus offering an extension of JSDM to finite alphabet data symbols. We term the new approach JSDM for finite alphabets (JSDM-FA). We show that similarly to ordinary JSDM, the optimal pre-beamforming matrix for Massive MIMO in JSDM-FA becomes the DFT matrix. The proposed methodology is next applied jointly with the complexity-reducing Per-Group Processing within groups (PGP-WG) technique, on a per user group basis, in conjunction with QAM modulation and in simulations, for constellation size up to $M=64$. We show by numerical results that the precoders developed offer significantly better performance than the configuration with no precoder or the plain beamformer and with $M\geq 16$.
Do the Golden State Warriors Have Hot Hands

Star Golden State Warriors Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Kevin Durant are great shooters but they are not streak shooters. Only rarely do they show signs of a hot hand. This conclusion is based on an empirical analysis of field goal and free throw data from the 82 regular season and 17 postseason games played by the Warriors in 2016-2017. Our analysis is inspired by the iconic 1985 hot-hand study by Thomas Gilovitch, Robert Vallone and Amos Tversky, but uses a permutation test to automatically account for Josh Miller and Adam Sanjurjo’s recent small sample correction. In this study we show how long standing problems can be reexamined using nonparametric statistics to avoid faulty hypothesis tests due to misspecified distributions.
Symplectic curvature flow revisited

Abstract We continue studying a parabolic flow of almost Kahler structures introduced by Streets and Tian which naturally extends Kahler–Ricci flow onto symplectic manifolds. In the system of primarily the symplectic form, almost complex structure, Chern torsion and Chern connection, we establish new formulas for the evolutions of canonical quantities, in particular those related to the Chern connection. Using this, we give an extended characterization of fixed points of the flow originally performed in [12] .
Preferential sampling for presence/absence data and for fusion of presence/absence data with presence-only data

Presence/absence data and presence‐only data are the two customary sources for learning about species distributions over a region. We present an ambitious agenda with regard to the analysis of such data. We illuminate the fundamental modeling differences between the two types of data. Most simply, locations are considered to be fixed under presence/absence data; locations are random under presence‐only data. The definition of “probability of presence” is incompatible between the two. We are not comfortable with modeling strategies in the literature that ignore this incompatibility and that assume that presence/absence modeling can be induced from presence‐only specifications and, therefore, that fusion of presence‐only and presence/absence data sources is routine. While, in some cases, data collection may not support this, we propose that, since, in nature, presence/absence is seen at the point locations, presence/absence data should be modeled at point level. If so, we need to specify two surfaces. The first provides the probability of presence at any location in the region. The second provides a realization from this surface in the form of a binary map yielding the results of Bernoulli trials across all locations; this surface is only partially observed. On the other hand, presence‐only data should be modeled as a (partially observed) point pattern, arising from a random number of individuals seen at random locations, driven by specification of an intensity function. There is no notion of Bernoulli trials; events are associated with areas. We further suggest that, with just presence/absence data, preferential sampling of locations may arise. Accounting for this, using a shared process perspective, can improve our estimated presence/absence surface as well as prediction of presence. We further propose that preferential sampling can enable a probabilistically coherent fusion of the two data types. We illustrate with two real data sets, one presence/absence, one presence‐only, for invasive species presence in New England in the United States. We demonstrate that potential bias in sampling locations can affect inference with regard to presence/absence and show that inference can be improved with preferential sampling ideas. We also provide a probabilistically coherent fusion of the two data sets again with the goal of improving inference for presence/absence. The importance of our work is to encourage more careful modeling when studying species distributions. Ignoring incompatibility between data types and adopting nongenerative modeling specifications results in invalid inference; the quantitative ecological community should benefit from this recognition.
Publishing and Promotion in Economics: The Tyranny of the Top Five

This paper examines the relationship between placement of publications in top five (T5) journals and receipt of tenure in academic economics departments. Analyzing the job histories of tenure-track economists hired by the top 35 US economics departments, we find that T5 publications have a powerful influence on tenure decisions and rates of transition to tenure. A survey of the perceptions of young economists supports the formal statistical analysis. Pursuit of T5 publications has become the obsession of the next generation of economists. However, the T5 screen is far from reliable. A substantial share of influential publications appear in non-T5 outlets. Reliance on the T5 to screen talent incentivizes careerism over creativity.
A Stochastic Trust Region Algorithm Based on Careful Step Normalization

An algorithm is proposed for solving stochastic and finite-sum minimization problems. Based on a trust region methodology, the algorithm employs normalized steps, at least as long as the norms of t...
Housing: A Case for The Medicalization of Poverty.

“Medicalization” has been a contentious notion since its introduction centuries ago. While some scholars lamented a medical overreach into social domains, others hailed its promise for social justi...
Counting Dependent and Independent Strings

We derive quantitative results regarding sets of n-bit strings that have different dependency or independency properties. Let Cx be the Kolmogorov complexity of the string x. A string y has α dependency with a string x if Cy-Cy | x ≥ α. A set of strings {x1,..., xt} is pairwise α-independent if for all i ≠ j, Cxi-Cxi | xj Cx1+...+Cxt-α, for every permutation π of [t]. We show that: • For every n-bit string x with complexity Cx ≥ α + 7 log n, the set of n-bit strings that have α dependency with x has size at least 1/polyn2n-α. In case α is computable from n and Cx ≥ α + 12 log n, the size of the same set is at least 1/C2n-α-polyn2α, for some positive constant C. • There exists a set of n-bit strings A of size polyn2α such that any n-bit string has α-dependency with some string in A. • If the set of n-bit strings {x1,..., xt} is pairwise α-independent, then t ≤ polyn2α. This bound is tight within a polyn factor, because, for every n, there exists a set of n-bit strings {x1,..., xt} that is pairwise α-dependent with t = 1/polyn · 2α for all α ≥ 5 log n. • If the tuple of n-bit strings x1,..., xt is mutually α-independent, then t ≤ polyn2α for all α ≥ 7 log n + 6.
Asymptotics of determinants for finite sections of operators with almost periodic diagonals

Abstract Let A = ( a j , k ) j , k = − ∞ ∞ be a bounded linear operator on l 2 ( Z ) whose diagonals D n ( A ) = ( a j , j − n ) j = − ∞ ∞ ∈ l ∞ ( Z ) are almost periodic sequences. For certain classes of such operators and under certain conditions, we are going to determine the asymptotics of the determinants det ⁡ A n 1 , n 2 of the finite sections A n 1 , n 2 = ( a j , k ) j , k = n 1 n 2 − 1 as their size n 2 − n 1 tends to infinity. Examples of such operators include block Toeplitz operators and the almost Mathieu operator.
Disordered breathing in a mouse model of Dravet syndrome.

Dravet syndrome (DS) is a form of epilepsy with a high incidence of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). Respiratory failure is a leading cause of SUDEP, and DS patients' frequently exhibit disordered breathing. Despite this, mechanisms underlying respiratory dysfunction in DS are unknown. We found that mice expressing a DS-associated Scn1a missense mutation (A1783V) conditionally in inhibitory neurons (Slc32a1cre/+::Scn1aA1783V fl/+; defined as Scn1aΔE26) exhibit spontaneous seizures, die prematurely and present a respiratory phenotype including hypoventilation, apnea, and a diminished ventilatory response to CO2. At the cellular level in the retrotrapezoid nucleus (RTN), we found inhibitory neurons expressing the Scn1a A1783V variant are less excitable, whereas glutamatergic chemosensitive RTN neurons, which are a key source of the CO2/H+-dependent drive to breathe, are hyper-excitable in slices from Scn1aΔE26 mice. These results show loss of Scn1a function can disrupt respiratory control at the cellular and whole animal levels.
Toward Human-Centered Simulation Modeling for Critical Infrastructure Disaster Recovery Planning

Critical infrastructure is vulnerable to a broad range of hazards. Timely and effective recovery of critical infrastructure after extreme events is crucial. However, critical infrastructure disaster recovery planning is complicated and involves both domain-and user-centered characteristics and complexities. Recovery planning currently uses few quantitative computer-based tools and instead largely relies on expert judgment. Simulation modeling can simplify domain-centered complexities but not the human factors. Conversely, human-centered design places end-users at the center of design. We discuss the benefits of combining simulation modeling with human-centered design and refer it as human-centered simulation modeling. Human-centered simulation modeling has the capability to make recovery planning simpler and more understandable for critical infrastructure and emergency management experts and other recovery planning decision-makers. We qualitatively analyzed several resilience planning initiatives, post-disaster recovery assessments, and relevant journal articles to understand experts and decision-makers' perspectives. We propose a conceptual design framework for creating human-centered simulation models for critical infrastructure disaster recovery planning. This framework consists of three constructs: 1) user interaction with design features that end-users interact with, including model parameters assignment, decision-making support, task queries, and usability; 2) system representation that refers to system components, system interactions, and system state variables; and 3) computation core that represents computational methods required to perform processes.
Pathological Voice Classification Using Mel-Cepstrum Vectors and Support Vector Machine

Vocal disorders have affected several patients all over the world. Due to the inherent difficulty of diagnosing vocal disorders without sophisticated equipment and trained personnel, a number of patients remain undiagnosed. To alleviate the monetary cost of diagnosis, there has been a recent growth in the use of data analysis to accurately detect and diagnose individuals for a fraction of the cost. We propose a cheap, efficient and accurate model to diagnose whether a patient suffers from one of three vocal disorders on the FEMH 2018 challenge.
What Makes a Decision Strategic? Strategic Representations

This paper delves into the effects that strategic representations have on firm performance. It does so in four ways. First, it describes different types of representations—internal, external, and d...
The inverse relationship between farm size and productivity: Refocusing the debate

Abstract The relationship between farm size and productivity is a recurrent topic in development economics, almost as old as the discipline itself. This paper emphasizes the importance of choice of productivity measures in the inverse relationship literature. First, we seek to clarify the common measures, their relationships, and advantages and limitations in empirical work. Second, we argue that total factor productivity (TFP), not land productivity, is the appropriate indicator for most policy questions. Lastly, using a pseudo-panel of Brazilian farms that are aggregated at the farm size and municipality levels over the period 1985–2006, we provide new evidence on the inverse relationship between farm size and both land productivity and TFP. The inverse relationship between size and land productivity is alive and well. The relationship between TFP and size, in contrast, has evolved with modernization during this period, becoming increasingly U-shaped or even positive. Policy implications are discussed.
The interplay of structural and cellular biophysics controls clustering of multivalent molecules

Dynamic molecular clusters are assembled through weak multivalent interactions and are platforms for cellular functions, especially receptor-mediated signaling. Clustering is also a prerequisite for liquid-liquid phase separation. It is not well understood, however, how molecular structure and cellular organization control clustering. Using coarse-grained kinetic Langevin dynamics, we performed computational experiments on a prototypical ternary system modeled after membrane-bound nephrin, the adaptor Nck1, and the actin nucleation promoting factor NWASP. Steady-state cluster size distributions favored stoichiometries that optimized binding (stoichiometry matching) but still were quite broad. At high concentrations, the system can be driven beyond the saturation boundary such that cluster size is limited only by the number of available molecules. This behavior would be predictive of phase separation. Domains close to binding sites sterically inhibited clustering much less than terminal domains because the latter effectively restrict access to the cluster interior. Increased flexibility of interacting molecules diminished clustering by shielding binding sites within compact conformations. Membrane association of nephrin increased the cluster size distribution in a density-dependent manner. These properties provide insights into how molecular ensembles function to localize and amplify cell signaling.
Emergency Department Ophthalmology Consultations in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Objective The main objective of this article is to characterize ophthalmology consultations in the emergency department (ED) of a tertiary care hospital and identify specific ways to modify the curriculum for ophthalmology and emergency medicine residency programs to train residents to effectively manage eye-related consultations. Design This is a retrospective chart review study of ED encounters between January 1, 2008 and January 1, 2017 during which ophthalmology was consulted. Setting Single-center urban tertiary care center. Participants All adult patients who were seen by the ophthalmology consultation service in the ED during the study time period. Main Outcome Measured We identified the reason for and timing of ophthalmology consultation; diagnoses made in the ED and follow-up ophthalmology clinic visit; procedures resulting from consultation; and communication with a senior resident, fellow, or attending. Results We identified 3,583 consecutive ED encounters with an ophthalmology consultation over a 9-year period. About 51.1% of patients were female and mean age of patients was 49 years. Blurry vision/vision loss was the most common reason for consultation (24.8%) and posterior vitreous detachment was the most common diagnosis made in the ED by the ophthalmology team (11.0%). Of the patients with documented follow-up ophthalmology clinic visits, 96.7% of diagnoses made at the first ophthalmology clinic visit were the same as those determined in the ED. About 12.7% of visits resulted in a procedure with the most common being eyelid laceration repairs, pars plana vitrectomy, and laser retinopexy. Overall, 40.4% of visits required communication with a senior resident, fellow, or attending. The frequency of residents seeking assistance from more senior ophthalmologists decreased over the course of the academic year (p Conclusions This study provides data that ophthalmology residency training programs can use to more effectively prepare residents for consultations in the ED. Furthermore, identifying the reasons for consultation and subsequent diagnoses can guide the education of emergency medicine physicians to improve their ability to diagnose and triage ophthalmologic presentations.
Youden Squares and Row–Column Designs †

Often several other factors potentially contribute to the variability of the observed response in addition to the treatments or factors under investigation. For example, gender, age, and center may also affect the blood pressure of patients in a placebo-controlled hypertensive clinical trial. The technique of blocking is used to control the experimental error variation due to these types of extraneous sources. Two sources can be controlled using a Youden square or a row–column design, the rows and columns comprising two different systems of blocking. This article provides the details for the least squares analysis of these designs. Designs having variance balance, supplemented balance, row-orthogonality, adjusted-orthogonality, designs for factorial experiments, and computer algorithms for constructing designs are also briefly discussed. Keywords: balanced incomplete block design; block design; complete block design; incomplete block design; Latin square design; row–column design; variance balance; Youden square design
On Structural Changes in the Holiday Effect

From 1926 to 2016, the average stock return on the day before holiday market closings is up to 15 times the average return on all the other days of the year. We study whether this holiday effect is contingent on the subperiod over which it is estimated and locate the critical break dates that delineate each subperiod. We find the holiday effect is critically dependent on the sample period over which it is estimated and that there is no statistically consistent set of results in each subperiod. Nevertheless, the holiday effect is statistically significant in the CRSP value-weight stock market portfolio and in the low-size stock portfolio in every subperiod from 1926 to 2016.