cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The role of reforestation in carbon sequestration

In the United States (U.S.), the maintenance of forest cover is a legal mandate for federally managed forest lands. More broadly, reforestation following harvesting, recent or historic disturbances can enhance numerous carbon (C)-based ecosystem services and functions. These include production of woody biomass for forest products, and mitigation of atmospheric CO2 pollution and climate change by sequestering C into ecosystem pools where it can be stored for long timescales. Nonetheless, a range of assessments and analyses indicate that reforestation in the U.S. lags behind its potential, with the continuation of ecosystem services and functions at risk if reforestation is not increased. In this context, there is need for multiple independent analyses that quantify the role of reforestation in C sequestration, from ecosystems up to regional and national levels. Here, we describe the methods and report the findings of a large-scale data synthesis aimed at four objectives: (1) estimate C storage in major ecosystem pools in forest and other land cover types; (2) quantify sources of variation in ecosystem C pools; (3) compare the impacts of reforestation and afforestation on C pools; (4) assess whether these results hold or diverge across ecoregions. The results of our synthesis support four overarching inferences regarding reforestation and other land use impacts on C sequestration. First, in the bigger picture, soils are the dominant C pool in all ecosystems and land cover types in the U.S., and soil C pool sizes vary less by land cover than by other factors, such as spatial variation or soil wetness. Second, where historically cultivated lands are being reforested, topsoils are sequestering significant amounts of C, with the majority of reforested lands yet to reach their capacity relative to the potential indicated by natural forest soils. Third, the establishment of woody vegetation delivers immediate to multi-decadal C sequestration benefits in aboveground woody biomass and coarse woody debris pools, with two- to three-fold C sequestration benefits in biomass during the first several decades following planting. Fourth, opportunities to enhance C sequestration through reforestation vary among the ecoregions, according to current levels of planting, typical forest growth rates, and past land uses (especially cultivation). Altogether, our results suggest that an immediate, but phased and spatially targeted approach to reforestation can enhance C sequestration in forest biomass and soils in the U.S. for decades to centuries to come.
Plausible vs. Implausible Tensile Price Claim: Selective Accessibility Model Approach

Given three types of tensile price claims (TPCs; Save 30% or more, Save up to Y%, and Save 30-Y%), when Y is a plausible discount (60%), the results showed that max expected price discount (EPD) was lower and perceived savings and price fairness were higher for the TPC stating a min savings than one that states a max or a range of savings. In contrast, when the Y% is implausible (90%), the consumers' EPD was not adjusted depending on the TPC, resulting in no difference in perceptions of price discount across the different types of TPCs. If high and plausible discount percentages are used in a TPC and only a few products are discounted at that high level, this may decrease overall sales per customer for the majority of the products with lower discounts. Thus, marketers should select appropriate price promotion ads carefully.
Layer-structured 3D Scene Inference via View Synthesis

We present an approach to infer a layer-structured 3D representation of a scene from a single input image. This allows us to infer not only the depth of the visible pixels, but also to capture the texture and depth for content in the scene that is not directly visible. We overcome the challenge posed by the lack of direct supervision by instead leveraging a more naturally available multi-view supervisory signal. Our insight is to use view synthesis as a proxy task: we enforce that our representation (inferred from a single image), when rendered from a novel perspective, matches the true observed image. We present a learning framework that operationalizes this insight using a new, differentiable novel view renderer. We provide qualitative and quantitative validation of our approach in two different settings, and demonstrate that we can learn to capture the hidden aspects of a scene. The project website can be found at https://shubhtuls.github.io/lsi/.
LPG as a Clean Cooking Fuel: Adoption, Use, and Impact in Rural India.

Abstract Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is by far the most popular clean cooking fuel in rural India, but how rural households use it remains poorly understood. Using the 2014–2015 ACCESS survey with over 8500 households from six energy-poor Indian states, our study reports on results from a comprehensive survey of LPG use in rural India using a holistic approach to understanding the integration of a clean cooking fuel into rural household's energy mixes. There are three principal findings: (i) fuel costs are a critical obstacle to widespread adoption, (ii) fuel stacking is the prevailing norm as few households stop using firewood when adopting LPG, and (iii) both users and non-users have highly positive views of LPG as a convenient and clean cooking fuel. These findings show that expanding LPG use offers great promise in rural India, but affordability prevents a complete transition from traditional biomass to clean cooking fuels.
Chorded Pancyclicity in k-Partite Graphs

We prove that for any integers $$p\ge k\ge 3$$ and any k-tuple of positive integers $$(n_1,\ldots ,n_k)$$ such that $$p=\sum _{i=1}^k{n_i}$$ and $$n_1\ge n_2\ge \cdots \ge n_k$$ , the condition $$n_1\le {p\over 2}$$ is necessary and sufficient for every subgraph of the complete k-partite graph $$K(n_1,\ldots ,n_k)$$ with at least $$\begin{aligned} {{4 -2p+2n_1+\sum _{i=1}^{k} n_i(p-n_i)}\over 2} \end{aligned}$$ edges to be chorded pancyclic. Removing all but one edge incident with any vertex of minimum degree in $$K(n_1,\ldots ,n_k)$$ shows that this result is best possible. Our result implies that for any integers, $$k\ge 3$$ and $$n\ge 1$$ , a balanced k-partite graph of order kn with has at least $${{(k^2-k)n^2-2n(k-1)+4}\over 2}$$ edges is chorded pancyclic. In the case $$k=3$$ , this result strengthens a previous one by Adamus, who in 2009 showed that a balanced tripartite graph of order 3n, $$n \ge 2$$ , with at least $$3n^2 - 2n + 2$$ edges is pancyclic.
Training Deeper Neural Machine Translation Models with Transparent Attention

While current state-of-the-art NMT models, such as RNN seq2seq and Transformers, possess a large number of parameters, they are still shallow in comparison to convolutional models used for both text and vision applications. In this work we attempt to train significantly (2-3x) deeper Transformer and Bi-RNN encoders for machine translation. We propose a simple modification to the attention mechanism that eases the optimization of deeper models, and results in consistent gains of 0.7-1.1 BLEU on the benchmark WMT’14 English-German and WMT’15 Czech-English tasks for both architectures.
Robust LM tests for spatial dynamic panel data models

Abstract In this study, we introduce adjusted Rao's score test statistics (Lagrange multiplier (LM) tests) for a spatial dynamic panel data (SDPD) model that includes a contemporaneous spatial lag, a time lag and a spatial-time lag. The maximum likelihood estimator for the estimation of SDPD models can have asymptotic bias because of individual and time fixed effects. Bias arises since the limiting distributions of the score functions derived from the corresponding concentrated log-likelihood functions are not centered on zero. First, we show how the score functions should be adjusted to avoid the effect of asymptotic bias on the standard LM test statistics. Second, we further adjust score functions such that the resulting LM test statistics are valid when there is local parametric misspecification in the alternative model. Our adjusted LM test statistics can be used to test the presence of the contemporaneous spatial lag, time lag and spatial-time lag in an SDPD model. In a Monte Carlo study, we demonstrate that our suggested test statistics have good finite sample size and power properties. Finally, we illustrate implementation of these tests in an application on public capital productivity in 48 contiguous US states.
Ownership structure and corporate performance in Japan

Abstract We test several hypotheses regarding the relationship between ownership structure and corporate performance. Our findings support the proposition that equity ownership by financial institutions in Japan may effectively substitute for the missing external takeover market by resulting in monitoring and intervention which minimizes the danger of lapses in productivity. In contrast, we also find evidence that high levels of intercorporate shareholding insulate firms from their own problems, at the expense of firm performance. Further, we find a notable positive influence of insider ownership, but see no evidence that the influence of financial institutions has diminished in the globalization and prosperity of the 1980s.
A fast adaptive algorithm for computing whole-genome homology maps.

Motivation Whole-genome alignment is an important problem in genomics for comparing different species, mapping draft assemblies to reference genomes and identifying repeats. However, for large plant and animal genomes, this task remains compute and memory intensive. In addition, current practical methods lack any guarantee on the characteristics of output alignments, thus making them hard to tune for different application requirements. Results We introduce an approximate algorithm for computing local alignment boundaries between long DNA sequences. Given a minimum alignment length and an identity threshold, our algorithm computes the desired alignment boundaries and identity estimates using kmer-based statistics, and maintains sufficient probabilistic guarantees on the output sensitivity. Further, to prioritize higher scoring alignment intervals, we develop a plane-sweep based filtering technique which is theoretically optimal and practically efficient. Implementation of these ideas resulted in a fast and accurate assembly-to-genome and genome-to-genome mapper. As a result, we were able to map an error-corrected whole-genome NA12878 human assembly to the hg38 human reference genome in about 1 min total execution time and 97% on multiple datasets. Finally, we performed a sensitive self-alignment of the human genome to compute all duplications of length ≥1 Kbp and ≥90% identity. The reported output achieves good recall and covers twice the number of bases than the current UCSC browser's segmental duplication annotation. Availability and implementation https://github.com/marbl/MashMap.
Virtual Battery Parameter Identification Using Transfer Learning Based Stacked Autoencoder

Recent studies have shown that the aggregated dynamic flexibility of an ensemble of thermostatic loads can be modeled in the form of a virtual battery. The existing methods for computing the virtual battery parameters require the knowledge of the first-principle models and parameter values of the loads in the ensemble. In real-world applications, however, it is likely that the only available information are end-use measurements such as power consumption, room temperature, device on/off status, etc., while very little about the individual load models and parameters are known. We propose a transfer learning based deep network framework for calculating virtual battery state of a given ensemble of flexible thermostatic loads, from the available end-use measurements. This proposed framework extracts first order virtual battery model parameters for the given ensemble. We illustrate the effectiveness of this novel framework on different ensembles of ACs and WHs.
Ideological diversity in standard setting

I compare voting positions taken by Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) members on standards to positions taken by constituent sponsors in comment letters both before and after the emergence of the FASB’s conceptual framework. I find that, relative to the Pre-CF regime (1973–1986), FASB members in the CF regime (1987–2007) take positions that are (i) less like their constituent sponsors and (ii) more like one another. Both shifts are associated with standards increasing accounting relevance; in the CF regime, such standards are likely a product of the framework’s broad focus on decision usefulness. From 1996 to 2007, all but one dissenting vote on fair value standards explicitly argues for an even greater use of fair values, while none argue for less use. To the extent standard-setters’ idiosyncratic ideologies influence their voting positions, the evidence is consistent with a decline in the level of ideological diversity among FASB members.
Reverse the Curse of the Top-5

SYNOPSIS Faculty have increased the number of articles submitted to journals ranked in the top-5 of their discipline. This is their rational response to the overweighting of publications in top-5 j...
Whole-Genome Sequencing to Characterize Monogenic and Polygenic Contributions in Patients Hospitalized With Early-Onset Myocardial Infarction

Background: The relative prevalence and clinical importance of monogenic mutations related to familial hypercholesterolemia and of high polygenic score (cumulative impact of many common variants) p...
Rift Valley fever virus induces fetal demise in Sprague-Dawley rats through direct placental infection

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) infections in pregnant livestock cause high rates of fetal demise; miscarriage in pregnant women has also been associated with RVFV infection. To address how RVFV infection during pregnancy causes detrimental effects on the fetus, we developed a pregnant rodent model of RVFV infection. We found that pregnant rats were more susceptible to RVFV-induced death than their nonpregnant counterparts and that RVFV infection resulted in intrauterine fetal death and severe congenital abnormalities, even in pups from infected asymptomatic pregnant rats. Virus distribution in infected dams was widespread, with a previously unrecognized preference for infection, replication, and tissue damage in the placenta. In human mid-gestation placental tissue, RVFV directly infected placental chorionic villi, with replication detected in the outermost syncytial layer. Our work identifies direct placental infection by RVFV as a mechanism for vertical transmission. This is the first study to show vertical transmission of RVFV with a lethal outcome in a species other than livestock. This study highlights the potential impact of a future epidemic of this emerging mosquito-borne virus.
Increase in survival for patients with mantle cell lymphoma in the era of novel agents in 1995-2013: Findings from Texas and national SEER areas.

Abstract Background Over the past 20 years, many novel agents and treatment regimens have been developed to treat mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). This study aimed to determine the impact of these new regimens on the survival of MCL patients from 1995 to 2013. Methods All newly diagnosed adult MCL patients in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) and Texas Cancer Registry (TCR) databases were included. Patients were grouped into 4 calendar periods based on the time when new novel agents became available: chemotherapy-only (1995–1998, P1), rituximab + chemotherapy (1999–2004, P2), bortezomib and HyperCVAD (2005–2008, P3), bendamustine and Nordic regimen (2009–2013, P4). Associations between these time periods and survival outcomes were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard regressions. Results A total of 7,555 SEER patients and 2,055 TCR patients were identified. All-cause mortality rates decreased significantly from 1995 to 2013 (SEER, P Conclusion Survival outcome for MCL patients improved from 1995 to 2013, especially for patients with advanced-stage tumors, potentially reflecting the impact of the introduction of novel agents and new therapeutic regimens.
The Intergenerational Elasticity of What? The Case for Redefining the Workhorse Measure of Economic Mobility:

The intergenerational elasticity (IGE) has been assumed to refer to the expectation of children’s income when in fact it pertains to the geometric mean of children’s income. We show that mobility a...
Classification of radiology reports by modality and anatomy: A comparative study

Data labeling is currently a time-consuming task that often requires expert knowledge. In research settings, the availability of correctly labeled data is crucial to ensure that model predictions are accurate and useful. We propose relatively simple machine learning-based models that achieve high performance metrics in the binary and multiclass classification of radiology reports. We compare the performance of these algorithms to that of a data-driven approach based on NLP, and find that the logistic regression classifier outperforms all other models, in both the binary and multiclass classification tasks. We then choose the logistic regression binary classifier to predict chest X-ray (CXR)/ non-chest X-ray non-CXR) labels in reports from different datasets, unseen during any training phase of any of the models. Even in unseen report collections, the binary logistic regression classifier achieves average precision values of above 0.9. Based on the regression coefficient values, we also identify frequent tokens in CXR and non-CXR reports that are features with possibly high predictive power.
Improved state change estimation in dynamic functional connectivity using hidden semi-Markov models.

Abstract The study of functional brain networks has grown rapidly over the past decade. While most functional connectivity (FC) analyses estimate one static network structure for the entire length of the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) time series, recently there has been increased interest in studying time-varying changes in FC. Hidden Markov models (HMMs) have proven to be a useful modeling approach for discovering repeating graphs of interacting brain regions (brain states). However, a limitation lies in HMMs assuming that the sojourn time, the number of consecutive time points in a state, is geometrically distributed. This may encourage inaccurate estimation of the time spent in a state before switching to another state. We propose a hidden semi-Markov model (HSMM) approach for inferring time-varying brain networks from fMRI data, which explicitly models the sojourn distribution. Specifically, we propose using HSMMs to find each subject's most probable series of network states and the graphs associated with each state, while properly estimating and modeling the sojourn distribution for each state. We perform a simulation study, as well as an analysis on both task-based fMRI data from an anxiety-inducing experiment and resting-state fMRI data from the Human Connectome Project. Our results demonstrate the importance of model choice when estimating sojourn times and reveal their potential for understanding healthy and diseased brain mechanisms.
Sex differences in gene expression in response to ischemia in the human left ventricular myocardium.

Sex differences exist in the prevalence, presentation and outcomes of ischemic heart disease (IHD). Females have higher risk of heart failure post-myocardial infarction relative to males and are two to three times more likely to die after coronary artery bypass grafting surgery. We examined sex differences in human myocardial gene expression in response to ischemia. Left ventricular biopsies from 68 male/46 female patients undergoing aortic valve replacement surgery were obtained at baseline and after a median 74 min of cold cardioplegic arrest/ischemia. Transcriptomes were quantified by RNA-sequencing. Cell-type enrichment analysis was used to estimate the identity and relative proportions of different cell types in each sample. A sex-specific response to ischemia was observed for 271 genes. Notably, the expression FAM5C, PLA2G4E and CYP1A1 showed an increased expression in females compared to males due to ischemia and DIO3, MT1G and CMA1 showed a decreased expression in females compared to males due to ischemia. Functional annotation analysis revealed sex-specific modulation of the oxytocin signaling pathway and common pathway of fibrin clot formation. Expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analysis identified variant-by-sex interaction eQTLs, indicative of sex differences in the genotypic effects on gene expression. Cell-type enrichment analysis showed sex-bias in proportion of specific cell types. Common lymphoid progenitor cells and M2 macrophages were found to increase in female samples from pre- to post-ischemia, but no change was observed in male samples. These differences in response to myocardial ischemia provide insight into the sexual dimorphism of IHD and may aid in the development of sex-specific therapies that reduce myocardial injury.
A biopolymer-based 3D printable hydrogel for toxic metal adsorption from water

Herein, we describe a 3Dprintable hydrogel that is capable ofremoving toxic metal pollutants from watersolutions. To achieve this, shear-thinninghydrogels were prepared by blendingchitosan with diacrylated Pluronic F-127 (F127-DA) which allows for UV curing after printing. Several hydrogel compositions were tested for their ability to absorb common metal pollutants such as lead, copper, cadmium and mercury, as well as for their printability. These hydrogels displayed excellent metal adsorption with some examples capable of up to 95% metal removal within 30 min. We show that 3D printed hydrogel structures that would be difficult to fabricate by conventional manufacturing methods, can adsorb metal ions significantly faster than solid objects, owing to their higher accessible surface areas.
Rapid pathology of lumpectomy margins with open-top light-sheet (OTLS) microscopy

Open-top light-sheet microscopy is a technique that can potentially enable rapid ex vivo inspection of large tissue surfaces and volumes. Here, we have optimized an open-top light-sheet (OTLS) microscope and image-processing workflow for the comprehensive examination of surgical margin surfaces, and have also developed a novel fluorescent analog of H&E staining that is robust for staining fresh unfixed tissues. Our tissue-staining method can be achieved within 2.5 minutes followed by OTLS microscopy of lumpectomy surfaces at a rate of up to 1.5 cm2/minute. An image atlas is presented to show that OTLS image quality surpasses that of intraoperative frozen sectioning and can approximate that of gold-standard H&E histology of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues. Qualitative evidence indicates that these intraoperative methods do not interfere with downstream post-operative H&E histology and immunohistochemistry. These results should facilitate the translation of OTLS microscopy for intraoperative guidance of lumpectomy and other surgical oncology procedures.
Public receptivity in China towards wind energy generators: A survey experimental approach

Abstract China leads the world's wind energy market, but little has been written about public receptivity towards wind energy generators in China. To fill this gap, we pursue a survey experimental approach to examine explanations for receptivity based on evidence from OECD countries as well as the importance of public knowledge in augmenting public acceptance of wind energy generators in China. We find that Chinese respondents are sensitive to siting near their residences, to cost considerations when imposed on them directly, to wildlife externalities, and to noise from turbines. Interestingly, Chinese respondents seem to be concerned about radiation, a finding unprecedented in the literature, and are less assured by scientific assurances that radiation is not a problem. Instead, the Chinese central government is best suited to address concerns about this topic. Targeted information provision to the public can improve public knowledge about aspects of wind energy of concern. Hence, the Chinese central government can promote wind energy deployment not just because it is an authoritarian government determined to get things done, but also because it can provide relevant information to reduce potential public resistance.
The Declining Labor Market Prospects of Less-Educated Men.

Over the last half century, US wage growth stagnated, wage inequality rose, and the labor-force participation rate of prime-age men steadily declined. In this article, we examine these worrying labor market trends, focusing on outcomes for males without a college education. Though wages and participation have fallen in tandem for this population, we argue that the canonical neoclassical framework, which postulates a labor demand curve shifting inward across a stable labor supply curve, does not reasonably explain the data. Alternatives we discuss include adjustment frictions associated with labor demand shocks and effects of the changing marriage market—that is, the fact that fewer less-educated men are forming their own stable families—on male labor supply incentives. In the synthesis that emerges, the phenomenon of declining prime-age male labor-force participation is not coherently explained by a series of causal factors acting separately. A more reasonable interpretation, we argue, involves complex feedbacks between labor demand, family structure, and other factors that have disproportionately affected less-educated men.
Topology effects on protein–polymer block copolymer self-assembly

Bioconjugates made of the model red fluorescent protein mCherry and synthetic polymer blocks show that topology, i.e. the BA, BA2, ABA and ABC chain structure of the block copolymers, where B represents the protein and A and C represent polymers, has a significant effect on ordering transitions and the type and size of nanostructures formed during microphase separation. ABA and ABC type block copolymers were synthesized by using two site-specific bioconjugation reactions: the thiol–ene reaction with a cysteine on mCherry and maleimide functionalized polymers, and the sortase A ligation reaction with an LPETG sequence at the C-terminus on mCherry and a triglycine functionalized polymer. The phase behaviors of mCherry–poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and mCherry–(PNIPAM)2 show that the shapes of the phase diagrams are similar overall, but mCherry–(PNIPAM)2, i.e. BA2 type, yields a narrower domain spacing than mCherry–PNIPAM, i.e. BA type. PNIPAM–mCherry–PNIPAM (ABA type) shows only lamellar phases in the range of conditions under which ordered structures appear. PDMAPS–mCherry–PNIPAM (ABC type) shows an ordered structure across the widest range of conditions in the four bioconjugates and also the widest range of different nanodomain structures. The phase behavior of the ABC type implies that the repulsive interaction between two water-soluble coil polymers can be a key factor in enhancing the self-assembly of globular protein–polymer block copolymers.
A technical comparison of three low earth orbit satellite constellation systems to provide global broadband

Abstract The idea of providing Internet access from space has made a strong comeback in recent years. After a relatively quiet period following the setbacks suffered by the projects proposed in the ’90s, a new wave of proposals for large constellations of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to provide global broadband access emerged between 2014 and 2016. Compared to their predecessors, the main differences of these systems are: increased performance that results from the use of digital communication payloads, advanced modulation schemes, multi-beam antennas, and more sophisticated frequency reuse schemes, as well as the cost reductions from advanced manufacturing processes (such as assembly line, highly automated, and continuous testing) and reduced launch costs. This paper compares three such large LEO satellite constellations, namely SpaceX's 4425 satellites Ku-Ka-band system, OneWeb's 720 satellites Ku-Ka-band system, and Telesat's 117 satellites Ka-band system. First, we present the system architecture of each of the constellations (as described in their respective FCC filings as of September 2018), highlighting the similarities and differences amongst the three systems. Following that, we develop a statistical method to estimate the total system throughput (sellable capacity), considering both the orbital dynamics of the space-segment and the variability in performance induced by atmospheric conditions both for the user and feeder links. Given that the location and number of ground stations play a major role in determining the total system throughput, and since the characteristics of the ground segment are not described in the FCC applications, we then run an optimization procedure to minimize the total number of stations required to support the system throughput. Finally, we conclude by identifying some of the major technical challenges that the three systems will have to overcome before becoming operational.
Potential for Inward Foreign Direct Investment in Japan

Abstract Promotion of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) into Japan has been an important policy in the Abenomics growth strategy. This paper examines if we observe positive impacts of the policy in the data. We first estimate a gravity model of bilateral FDIs using data for 35 OECD countries as destination countries. In estimating the model, we handle zero values for FDI stock explicitly. The model includes (origin and destination) country-specific effects as well as destination-country specific time trends. We take the model prediction as a reasonable counterfactual and compare that to the actual inward FDI stock for Japan. Although the actual inward FDI stock has been growing and is likely to achieve the goal of 35 trillion yen by 2020, the growth under the Abe administration has been comparable to or slightly lower than the counterfactual suggested by the estimated model. We also estimate the model without Japan as a destination country and use the estimated model to calculate the counterfactual level of Japan's inward FDI. Although we expect the gap between the counterfactual and the actual become narrower if Abenomics policy has been successful, we fail to find that. These results cast a doubt on the effectiveness of the Abenomics policies to encourage inward FDI at least as of 2015.
Opposing contributions of GABAergic and glutamatergic ventral pallidal neurons to motivational behaviours

ABSTRACT The ventral pallidum (VP) is critical for invigorating reward seeking and is also involved in punishment avoidance, but how it contributes to such opposing behavioural actions remains unclear. Here we show that GABAergic and glutamatergic VP neurons selectively control behaviour in opposing motivational contexts. In vivo recording combined with optogenetics in mice revealed that these two populations oppositely encode positive and negative motivational value, are differentially modulated by animal’s internal state and determine the behavioural response during motivational conflict. Furthermore, GABAergic VP neurons are essential for movements towards reward in a positive motivational context, but suppress movements in an aversive context. In contrast, glutamatergic VP neurons are essential for movements to avoid a threat but suppress movements in an appetitive context. Our results indicate that GABAergic and glutamatergic VP neurons encode the drive for approach and avoidance, respectively, with the balance between their activities determining the type of motivational behaviour.
Identity and Access Management for Libraries

ABSTRACTLinked open data will cause libraries to transition from authority control creating text strings to identity and access management using identifiers to select a single identity. The key ste...
Spatial Pricing in Ride-Sharing Networks

Motivated by the prevalence of ride-sharing platforms, in “Spatial Pricing in Ride-Sharing Networks,” Bimpikis, Candogan, and Saban explore the impact of the demand pattern for rides across a netwo...
Computational Screening of Roles of Defects and Metal Substitution on Reactivity of Different Single- vs Double-Node Metal–Organic Frameworks for Sarin Decomposition

Understanding how different factors affect the electronic properties of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) is critical to understanding their potential for catalysis and to serve as catalyst supports. In this work, periodic dispersion-corrected quantum mechanical calculations are performed to assess the catalytic activity of different Zr6 vs Zr12 MOFs for the heterogeneous catalytic hydrolysis of the chemical warfare agent sarin. Using a comprehensive series of extended periodic models capable of capturing long-range sarin/water/framework interactions in both Zr6 and Zr12 MOFs, the effects of numbers and morphologies of defective sites, as well as ZrIV substitution with heavier CeIV, are thoroughly investigated. Our calculations show that hydrogen bonds involving both metal-oxide nodes and organic linkers can play important roles in the catalysis. Insights derived from this work should inform the design and realization of more effective and robust next-generation MOF-based heterogeneous catalysts.
Estimating Gene Expression and Codon-Specific Translational Efficiencies, Mutation Biases, and Selection Coefficients from Genomic Data Alone

Extracting biologically meaningful information from the continuing flood of genomic data is a major challenge in the life sciences. Codon usage bias (CUB) is a general feature of most genomes and is thought to reflect the effects of both natural selection for efficient translation and mutation bias. Here we present a mechanistically interpretable, Bayesian model (ribosome overhead costs Stochastic Evolutionary Model of Protein Production Rate [ROC SEMPPR]) to extract meaningful information from patterns of CUB within a genome. ROC SEMPPR is grounded in population genetics and allows us to separate the contributions of mutational biases and natural selection against translational inefficiency on a gene-by-gene and codon-by-codon basis. Until now, the primary disadvantage of similar approaches was the need for genome scale measurements of gene expression. Here, we demonstrate that it is possible to both extract accurate estimates of codon-specific mutation biases and translational efficiencies while simultaneously generating accurate estimates of gene expression, rather than requiring such information. We demonstrate the utility of ROC SEMPPR using the Saccharomyces cerevisiae S288c genome. When we compare our model fits with previous approaches we observe an exceptionally high agreement between estimates of both codon-specific parameters and gene expression levels (r > 0:99 in all cases). We also observe strong agreement between our parameter estimates and those derived from alternative data sets. For example, our estimates of mutation bias and those from mutational accumulation experiments are highly correlated (r ¼ 0:95). Our estimates of codonspecific translational inefficiencies and tRNA copy number-based estimates of ribosome pausing time (r ¼ 0:64), and mRNA and ribosome profiling footprint-based estimates of gene expression (r ¼ 0:53 � 0:74) are also highly correlated, thus supporting the hypothesis that selection against translational inefficiency is an important force driving the evolution of CUB. Surprisingly, we find that for particular amino acids, codon usage in highly expressed genes can still be largely driven by mutation bias and that failing to take mutation bias into account can lead to the misidentification of an amino acid’s “optimal” codon. In conclusion, our method demonstrates that an enormous amount of biologically important information is encoded within genome scale patterns of codon usage, accessing this information does not require gene expression measurements, but instead carefully formulated biologically interpretable models.
Nonlinear optical properties of magnetically aligned solid solutions of nematic polymers and dye molecules

We have studied the second-order nonlinear optical response of a solidified nematic polymer containing a photoactive organic dyes as a dissolved solute or as phase-separated crystals.
Rhodium-Mediated Intramolecular C−H Insertion: Probing the Geometry of the Transition State

The unsymmetrical α-diazo ester 1b, derived from the chiral naphthylborneol 5, was cyclized with a set of rhodium carboxylates (L = CF3CO2, CH3CO2, CH3(CH2)6CO2, (CH3)3CCO2). The ratio of the three major products ((R,R)-3b, (S,S)-3b, 4b) was determined. It was found that the rhodium catalyst derived from pivalic acid gave the highest ratio of 3b:4b. Lowering the temperature of the reaction (L = (CH3)3CCO2) increased both the yield and the diastereoselectivity of the cyclization. From these results and from our computational analysis, it is concluded that the ester carbonyl and the rhodium carbenoid are probably syn in the transition state leading to cyclization.
Side-chain length is important for shogaols in protecting neuronal cells from β-amyloid insult

Ten shogaols were synthesized to evaluate the importance of the side-chain length in protecting cells from βA(1-42) insult using PC12 rat pheochromocytoma and IMR-32 human neuroblastoma cells. The compounds cell protectivity against βA insult was demonstrated using 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) reduction assay. The efficacy of cell protection from βA insult by these shogaols was shown to improve as the length of the side chain increase.
ANTENNA, a Multi-Rank, Multi-Layered Recommender System for Inferring Reliable Drug-Gene-Disease Associations: Repurposing Diazoxide as a Targeted Anti-Cancer Therapy

Existing drug discovery processes follow a reductionist model of “one-drug-one-gene-one-disease,” which is inadequate to tackle complex diseases involving multiple malfunctioned genes. The availability of big omics data offers opportunities to transform drug discovery process into a new paradigm of systems pharmacology that focuses on designing drugs to target molecular interaction networks instead of a single gene. Here, we develop a reliable multi-rank, multi-layered recommender system, ANTENNA, to mine large-scale chemical genomics and disease association data for prediction of novel drug-gene-disease associations. ANTENNA integrates a novel tri-factorization based dual-regularized weighted and imputed One Class Collaborative Filtering (OCCF) algorithm, tREMAP, with a statistical framework based on Random Walk with Restart and assess the reliability of specific predictions. In the benchmark, tREMAP clearly outperforms the single-rank OCCF. We apply ANTENNA to a real-world problem: repurposing old drugs for new clinical indications without effective treatments. We discover that FDA-approved drug diazoxide can inhibit multiple kinase genes responsible for many diseases including cancer and kill triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells efficiently ${\text{(IC}}_{50} = {{0.87}}\,{{\mu}\text{M)}}$ . TNBC is a deadly disease without effective targeted therapies. Our finding demonstrates the power of big data analytics in drug discovery and developing a targeted therapy for TNBC.
Managing Market Mechanism Transitions: A Randomized Trial of Decentralized Pricing Versus Platform Control

We report on a randomized trial conducted during a market design transition on a sharing economy platform, where providers who formerly set rental prices for their assets were randomly assigned to groups with varying levels of pricing control. Even when faced with the prospect of significantly higher revenues, providers retaliate against the centralization of pricing by exiting the platform, reducing asset availability and cancelling transactions. Allowing providers to retain partial control lowers retaliation substantially even though providers do not frequently utilize this additional flexibility. We discuss information asymmetry, divergent incentives, and psychological contract violation as alternative explanations for our results.
Copper-catalyzed synthesis of unsymmetrical triarylphosphines

Various triarylphosphines have been prepared by coupling diphenylphosphine with aryl iodides with catalytic amounts of CuI in the presence of either K2CO3 or Cs2CO3, in good yields. This method can tolerate a variety of functional groups and does not require the use of expensive additives, or harsh reaction conditions, and is palladium free.
Hydrothermal Synthesis and Characterization of an Ethylenediamine-Templated Mixed-Valence Titanium Phosphate

The mixed-valence compound TiIIITiIV(HPO4)4·C2N2H9·H2O (1) is synthesized hydrothermally from titanium powder, phosphoric and boric acids, and ethylenediamine. The compound is structurally stable up to 650 °C. It loses the template and the water molecule above 250 °C, all titanium becomes TiIV at 600 °C, and the result is the new compound TiIVTiIV(HPO4)4 (2). The structures of the two compounds were determined ab initio from powder diffraction data. Crystal data: TiIIITiIV(HPO4)4·C2N2H9·H2O, I41, a = 6.371(2), c = 16.571(1) A, V = 672.5(1) A3, Z = 2; TiIVTiIV(HPO4)4, I41/a, a = 6.335(2), c = 16.389(1) A, V = 657.7(1) A3, Z = 2. Both structures are of the open type, and the frameworks are nearly identical. Compound 2, τ-Ti(HPO4)2, is the first three-dimensional titanium hydrogen phosphate. Results of magnetization, TGA, BET, X-ray thermodiffractometry, and density measurements are also presented.
The Elusive Antiaromaticity of Maleimides and Maleic Anhydride: Enthalpies of Formation of N-Methylmaleimide, N-Methylsuccinimide, N-Methylphthalimide, and N-Benzoyl-N-methylbenzamide.

In order to understand the antiaromaticity of maleimides, the enthalpies of formation and sublimation of N-methylmaleimide, N-methylsuccinimide, N-methylphthalimide, and N-benzoyl-N-methylbenzamide were measured. The numerical values of enthalpies of formation for these compounds in the solid state are −329.3 ± 1.4, −469.8 ± 1.6, −325.0 ± 2.1, and −239.6 ± 3.8 kJ mol-1, respectively, while the corresponding values in the gaseous state are −256.0 ± 1.5, −389.7 ± 1.6, −233.9 ± 2.2, and −119.5 ± 3.8 kJ mol-1, respectively. The values of enthalpies of sublimation for the same compounds are 73.3 ± 0.5, 80.1 ± 0.3, 91.1 ± 0.5, and 120.1 ± 0.4 kJ mol-1, respectively. We find that the antiaromaticity of maleimides is only modest.
Optimal pricing for tandem queues with finite buffers

We consider optimal pricing for a two-station tandem queueing system with finite buffers, communication blocking, and price-sensitive customers whose arrivals form a homogeneous Poisson process. The service provider quotes prices to incoming customers using either a static or dynamic pricing scheme. There may also be a holding cost for each customer in the system. The objective is to maximize either the discounted profit over an infinite planning horizon or the long-run average profit of the provider. We show that there exists an optimal dynamic policy that exhibits a monotone structure, in which the quoted price is non-decreasing in the queue length at either station and is non-increasing if a customer moves from station 1 to 2, for both the discounted and long-run average problems under certain conditions on the holding costs. We then focus on the long-run average problem and show that the optimal static policy performs as well as the optimal dynamic policy when the buffer size at station 1 becomes large, there are no holding costs, and the arrival rate is either small or large. We learn from numerical results that for systems with small arrival rates and no holding cost, the optimal static policy produces a gain quite close to the optimal gain even when the buffer at station 1 is small. On the other hand, for systems with arrival rates that are not small, there are cases where the optimal dynamic policy performs much better than the optimal static policy.
Neomangicols: Structures and Absolute Stereochemistries of Unprecedented Halogenated Sesterterpenes from a Marine Fungus of the Genus Fusarium

Three novel sesterterpenes, neomangicols A−C (1−3) were isolated from the mycelial extract of a marine fungus belonging within the genus Fusarium. The carbon skeleton of the neomangicols is undescribed and constitutes a new class of C25 rearranged sesterterpenes. The structures of the new metabolites were determined by 1D and 2D NMR methods, and the absolute configuration of 3 was determined by Mosher ester analysis of a diacetonide derivative. The configurations of the three stereocenters in the side-chain were assigned on the basis of molecular modeling and NOESY NMR correlations observed for several diacetonide derivatives of 3. Neomangicols A and B are cytotoxic against HCT-116 human colon carcinoma in in vitro evaluation, while neomangicol B inhibits the growth of the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilus with a potency similar to that of the antibiotic gentamycin.
Toward Capturing the Exposome: Exposure Biomarker Variability and Coexposure Patterns in the Shared Environment.

Many factors affect the variation in the exposome. We examined the influence of shared household and partner’s sex in relation to the variation in 128 endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) exposures among couples. In a cohort comprising of 501 couples trying for pregnancy, we measured 128 (13 chemical classes) persistent and nonpersistent EDCs and estimated 1) sex-specific differences; 2) variance explained by shared household; and 3) Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients (rs) for females, males, and couples’ exposures. Sex was correlated with 8 EDCs including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) (p < 0.05). Shared household explained 43% and 41% of the total variance for PFASs and blood metals, respectively, but less than 20% for the remaining 11 EDC classes. Coexposure patterns of the exposome were similar between females and males, with within-class rs higher for persistent than for nonpersistent chemicals. Median rss of polybrominated compounds and urine metalloids were 0.45 and 0.09, respecti...
Polar Open-Framework Structure, Optical Properties, and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance of the Mixed-Metal Uranyl Phosphate Cs2[UO2(VO2)2(PO4)2]·0.59H2O

Cs2[UO2(VO2)2(PO4)2]·0.59H2O consists of one-dimensional uranyl phosphate chains linked by chains of corner-sharing VO5 distorted square pyramids into a novel polar open-framework structure.
Azatides: Solution and liquid phase syntheses of a new peptidomimetic

An efficient method has been developed for the solution and liquid phase syntheses of a biopolymer mimetic consisting of “α-aza-amino acids” linked in a repetitive manner to form what we term an azatide oligomer. To construct this biopolymer mimetic, three stages of research were pursued as follows: (1) development of general synthetic procedures that allowed the synthesis of a wide variety of Boc-protected aza-amino acid monomers, (2) optimization of solution phase procedures for the coupling of aza-amino acids in a repetitive manner, and (3) design and synthesis of a linker that would support azatide synthesis using a liquid phase synthetic format. The successful completion of these three phases of research demonstrates that oligoazatides can now be rapidly assembled on a homogeneous polymeric support. The long term prospectus of this new biopolymer is the exploration of peptide structure as well as a potential source of new peptidomimetic libraries.
Catalytic Asymmetric Propionate Aldol Reactions via Acyl Halide-Aldehyde Cyclocondensations

Catalyzed asymmetric acyl halide-aldehyde cyclocondensation (AAC) reactions afford highly enantiomerically enriched 3,4-disubstituted-2-oxetanones. These reactions constitute catalytic asymmetric propionate aldol additions. An optically active Al(III)-triamine complex (10 mol %) catalyzes the di(isopropyl)ethylamine-mediated cyclocondensation of propionyl bromide and a variety of aldehydes to afford beta-lactone adducts with uniformly high enantioselection (90 --> 98% ee), diastereoselection (74 --> 98% de), and chemical yields (78-90%). Lactone ring opening reveals that the enantiomerically enriched beta-lactones act as surrogates for syn propionate aldol adducts.