cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Immuno-PET identifies the myeloid compartment as a key contributor to the outcome of the antitumor response under PD-1 blockade

Immunotherapy using checkpoint-blocking antibodies against PD-1 has produced impressive results in a wide range of cancers. However, the response remains heterogeneous among patients. We used noninvasive immuno-positron emission tomography (PET), using 89Zr-labeled PEGylated single-domain antibody fragments (nanobodies or VHHs), to explore the dynamics and distribution of intratumoral CD8+ T cells and CD11b+ myeloid cells in response to anti–PD-1 treatment in the MC38 colorectal mouse adenocarcinoma model. Responding and nonresponding tumors showed consistent differences in the distribution of CD8+ and CD11b+ cells. Anti–PD-1 treatment mobilized CD8+ T cells from the tumor periphery to a more central location. Only those tumors fully infiltrated by CD8+ T cells went on to complete resolution. All tumors contained CD11b+ myeloid cells from the outset of treatment, with later recruitment of additional CD11b+ cells. As tumors grew, the distribution of intratumoral CD11b+ cells became more heterogeneous. Shrinkage of tumors in responders correlated with an increase in the CD11b+ population in the center of the tumors. The changes in distribution of CD8+ and CD11b+ cells, as assessed by PET, served as biomarkers to gauge the efficacy of anti–PD-1 treatment. Single-cell RNA sequencing of RNA from intratumoral CD45+ cells showed that CD11b+ cells in responders and nonresponders were markedly different. The responders exhibited a dominant population of macrophages with an M1-like signature, while the CD45+ population in the nonresponders displayed an M2-like transcriptional signature. Thus, by using immuno-PET and single-cell RNA sequencing, we show that anti–PD-1 treatment not only affects interactions of CD8+ T cells with the tumor but also impacts the intratumoral myeloid compartment.
Cold-stored whole blood: A better method of trauma resuscitation?

BACKGROUND Cold-stored whole blood (CWB) provides a balance of red blood cells, plasma, and platelets in less anticoagulant volume than standard blood component therapy (BCT). We hypothesize that patients receiving CWB along with BCT have improved survival compared with patients receiving only BCT. METHODS We performed a dual-center case-match study of trauma patients who received CWB and BCT at two urban, Level-I Trauma Centers. Criteria to receive CWB included boys 16 years of older, women older than 50 years, SBP less than 90 mm Hg, and identifiable source of hemorrhage. We performed a 2:1 propensity match against any trauma patient who received 1 unit or greater of packed red cells during their initial trauma bay resuscitation. Endpoints included trauma bay mortality, 30-day mortality, laboratory values at 4 hours and 24 hours, and overall blood product utilization. Comparisons were made with Wilcoxon-ranked sum and Fisher's exact test, p less than 0.05 was significant. RESULTS Between both institutions, a total of 107 patients received CWB during the study period with 91 being matched to 182 BCT patients for analysis. Hemodynamic parameters of the patients in both groups at the time of presentation were similar. The CWB patients had higher mean hemoglobin (10 ± 2 g/dL vs. 11 ± 2 g/dL; p < 0.001) and hematocrit (29.2 ± 6.1% vs. 32.1 ± 5.8%; p < 0.001) at 24 hours. Importantly, trauma bay mortality was less in CWB patients (8.8% vs. 2.2%;p = 0.039). Thirty-day mortality was not different in CWB patients, and there were no differences in the total amount of blood products transfused at the 4-hour and 24-hour periods. CONCLUSION Cold-stored whole blood offers the benefit of a balanced resuscitation with improved trauma bay survival and higher mean hemoglobin at 24 hours. A larger, prospective study is needed to determine whether it has a longer-term survival benefit for severely injured patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Therapeutic, level III.
What Is the Old Testament

The significance of the Old Testament for human history and culture is undeniable. Whatever our personal convictions regarding its content, the OT contains the origins of nearly everything we think about God. Variously labeled as the Hebrew Bible, the Tanak, the First Testament, and the Old Testament, among others, this library of texts from ancient Israel has been preserved for more than two thousand years. Emerging from the polytheistic context of the ancient world, the enduring signifi cance of the OT is to be found in the concept of monotheism . Indeed, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share in this unique religious legacy. We will discover in this chapter what lies behind the terminology we use when we speak of monotheism, and how the OT perceives and develops the understanding of a singular God. Known to ancient Israel as Yahweh, Israel’s God came to be understood as Creator, source of all, and sovereign over all. Only in time would Israel come to believe that Yahweh was not only its God, and the God Israelites were called to worship, but the one and only God. What you think about God – if you think about God at all – affects nearly everything else you believe to be true. Wars have been fought and nations divided based on what people think about God. On a more individual level, important personal and ethical decisions are often made based on what we think about God.
Case- Versus Lecture-Based Learning in a Public Health Course for OptometryStudents: A Pretest–Posttest Design

Optometrists play a vital role in the prevention and management of many eye diseases The expansion of optometrists? prescribing and overall medical privileges has placed a burden on the optometric curriculum, limiting hours in professional topics courses such as practice management and public health While the overall objectives may differ, the pedagogical challenges would be similar in public health training programs That is, reduced hours and limited contact with students during the current COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic both place pedagogical demands on the optometric and public health educator alike to meet learning objectives and course outcomes using atypical methods As the current evidence about problem- or scenario-based versus lecture-based outcomes is equivocal, we randomly assigned half the students in an epidemiology/public health course to a case-based learning (CBL) group using three instructors naive to problem-based teaching The other half of the students attended lectures covering the same topics Performance gains?the differences between the pretest and posttest scores?were compared between the two learning groups The mean performance gain for the CBL group (M = 25 5%) was slightly higher than for the lecture-based learning group (M = 23 6%), but the difference was not statistically significant, t(56) = 0 71, p = 48 Inferences are discussed in the context of the study?s design and limitations Overall, we believe our results can be extended to public health and health professions programs needing creative methods to reach health promotion learning objectives with limited student contact
Jamming Skins that Control System Rigidity from the Surface

Numerous animals adapt their stiffness during natural motions to increase efficiency or environmental adaptability. For example, octopuses stiffen their tentacles to increase efficiency during reaching, and several species adjust their leg stiffness to maintain stability when running across varied terrain. Inspired by nature, variable‐stiffness machines can switch between rigid and soft states. However, existing variable‐stiffness systems are usually purpose‐built for a particular application and lack universal adaptability. Here, reconfigurable stiffness‐changing skins that can stretch and fold to create 3D structures or attach to the surface of objects to influence their rigidity are presented. These “jamming skins” employ vacuum‐powered jamming of interleaved, discrete planar elements, enabling 2D stretchability of the skin in its soft state. Stretching allows jamming skins to be reversibly shaped into load‐bearing, functional tools on‐demand. Additionally, they can be attached to host structures with complex curvatures, such as robot arms and portions of the human body, to provide support or create a mold. We also show how multiple skins can work together to modify the workspace of a continuum robot by creating instantaneous joints. Jamming skins thus serve as a reconfigurable approach to creating tools and adapting structural rigidity on‐demand.
Yangians and quantum loop algebras

Let $$\mathfrak{g }$$ be a complex, semisimple Lie algebra. Drinfeld showed that the quantum loop algebra $$U_\hbar (L\mathfrak g )$$ of $$\mathfrak{g }$$ degenerates to the Yangian $${Y_\hbar (\mathfrak g )}$$ . We strengthen this result by constructing an explicit algebra homomorphism $$\Phi $$ from $$U_\hbar (L\mathfrak g )$$ to the completion of $${Y_\hbar (\mathfrak g )}$$ with respect to its grading. We show moreover that $$\Phi $$ becomes an isomorphism when $${U_\hbar (L\mathfrak g )}$$ is completed with respect to its evaluation ideal. We construct a similar homomorphism for $$\mathfrak{g }=\mathfrak{gl }_n$$ and show that it intertwines the actions of $$U_\hbar (L\mathfrak gl _{n})$$ and $$Y_\hbar (\mathfrak gl _{n})$$ on the equivariant $$K$$ -theory and cohomology of the variety of $$n$$ -step flags in $${\mathbb{C }}^d$$ constructed by Ginzburg–Vasserot.
Flood Damage Assessment in HAZUS Using Various Resolution of Data and One-Dimensional and Two-Dimensional HEC-RAS Depth Grids

AbstractThe accurate assessment of flood damage in the aftermath of major flooding is crucial for studying flood vulnerability, risk mapping, and comparative risk analysis. However, the accuracy of...
Quantifying and correcting for pre-assay CO 2 loss in short-term carbon mineralization assays

Abstract. The active fraction of soil organic carbon is an important component of soil health and often is quickly assessed as the pulse of CO2 released by re-wetting dried soils in short-term (24–72 h ) assays. However, soils can lose carbon (C) as they dry and, if soil samples vary in moisture content at sampling, differential C loss during the pre-assay dry-down period may complicate the assay's interpretations. We examined the impact of pre-assay CO2 loss in a long-cultivated agricultural soil at initial moisture contents of 30 %, 50 %, and 70 % water-filled pore space (WFPS). We found that 50 % and 70 % WFPS treatments lost more C during drying than did those in the 30 % WFPS treatment and that dry-down losses led to a 26 %–32 % underestimate of their CO2 pulses. We developed a soil-specific correction factor to account for these initial soil moisture effects. Future C mineralization studies may benefit from similar corrections.
Gallium oxide based power and RF device technologies

Beta-Ga2O3 has emerged as a promising ultra-wide-bandgap semiconductor system for next generation power, and RF applications. In this talk, we will present our recent results on gallium oxide based high breakdown voltage MOSFETs and scaled gate length RF devices. The large bandgap of Ga2O3 leads to a high critical field strength. This high field strength in combination with high room temperature mobility and calculated electron velocity leads to a higher Baliga’s Figure of Merit (BFoM) and Johnston Figure of Merit (JFoM) than commercial widebandgap technologies. Additionally, the large bandgap also enables high temperature operation and radiation hardness making it attractive for harsh environment applications. We will present our work on the lateral MOSFETs with improved field plate design which show record high breakdown voltages. DC and pulsed I-V characteristics of 100 nm gate length Ga2O3 MOSFET will be reported. DC-RF dispersion and passivation technology will be discussed.
Recruitment of population-based controls for ALS cases from the National ALS Registry.

Objective: In 2010, the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) created the National ALS Registry (Registry) to examine the epidemiology of ALS and potential risk fac...
FedSens: A Federated Learning Approach for Smart Health Sensing with Class Imbalance in Resource Constrained Edge Computing

The advance of mobile sensing and edge computing has brought new opportunities for abnormal health detection (AHD) systems where edge devices such as smartphones and wearable sensors are used to collect people’s health information and provide early alerts for abnormal health conditions such as stroke and depression. The recent development of federated learning (FL) allows participants to collaboratively train powerful AHD models while keeping their health data private to local devices. This paper targets at addressing a critical challenge of adapting FL to train AHD models, where the participants’ health data is highly imbalanced and contains biased class distributions. Existing FL solutions fail to address the class imbalance issue due to the strict privacy requirements of participants as well as the heterogeneous resource constraints of their edge devices. In this work, we propose FedSens, a new FL framework dedicated to address the class imbalance problem in AHD applications with explicit considerations of participant privacy and device resource constraints. We evaluate FedSens using a real-world edge computing testbed on two real-world AHD applications. The results show that FedSens can significantly improve the accuracy of AHD models in the presence of severe class imbalance with low energy cost to the edge devices.
Theory of freezing point depression in charged porous media

Freezing in charged porous media can induce significant pressure and cause damage to tissues and functional materials. We formulate a thermodynamically consistent theory to model freezing phenomena inside charged heterogeneous porous space. Two regimes are distinguished: free ions in open pore space lead to negligible effects of freezing point depression and pressure. On the other hand, if nanofluidic salt trapping happens, subsequent ice formation is suppressed due to the high concentration of ions in the electrolyte. In this case our theory predicts that freezing starts at a significantly lower temperature compared to pure water. In one dimension, as the temperature goes even lower, ice continuously grows until the salt concentration reaches saturation, all ions precipitate to form salt crystals, and freezing completes. Enormous pressure can be generated if initial salt concentration is high before salt entrapment. We show modifications to the classical nucleation theory due to the trapped salt ions. Interestingly, although the freezing process is enormously changed by trapped salts, our analysis shows that the Gibbs-Thompson equation on confined melting point shift is not affected by the presence of the electrolyte.
Nonlinear nonplanar dynamics of parametrically excited cantilever beams

The nonlinear nonplanar response of cantilever inextensional metallic beams to a principal parametric excitation of two of its flexural modes, one in each plane, is investigated. The lowest torsional frequencies of the beams considered are much larger than the frequencies of the excited modes so that the torsional inertia can be neglected. Using this condition as well as the inextensionality condition, we develop a Lagrangian whose variation leads to two integro-partial-differential equations governing the motions of the beams. The method of time-averaged Lagrangian is used to derive four first-order nonlinear ordinary-differential equations governing the modulation of the amplitudes and phases of the two interacting modes. These modulation equations exhibit symmetry properties. A pseudo arclength scheme is used to trace the branches of the equilibrium solutions and an investigation of the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix is used to assess their stability. The equilibrium solutions experience pitchfork, saddle-node, Hopf, and codimension-2 bifurcations. A detailed bifurcation analysis of the dynamic solutions of the modulation equations is presented. Five branches of dynamic (periodic and chaotic) solutions were found. Two of these branches emerge from two Hopf bifurcations and the other three are isolated. The limit cycles undergo symmetry-breaking, cyclic-fold, and period-doubling bifurcations, whereas the chaotic attractors undergo attractor-merging and boundary crises.
Thinking About Custody and Support in Ambiguous-Father Families

I am delighted to be part of this symposium honoring Robert Levy. The official explanation for honoring him now is that he is retiring, but anyone who knows Bob knows that "retiring" is not the first adjective that comes to mind when you think of him, and I'm very glad of that. I have profited enormously over the past decade and longer from his counsel, sought and volunteered, in his official role as an Adviser to the American Law Institute project on Family Dissolution, and in his unofficial role as my friend. Bob is neither short on views, nor reluctant to express them, and so I have had lots of advice to profit from. I have enjoyed it all. Bob always has well-thought out reasons for his opinions, and he's interested in the argument as much as the result. He wants to know what the other person thinks, and why, and he wants to engage that "why." He has the ability to respect a view he doesn't share. For anyone interested in family law and family policy, he is a lot of fun to talk to.
Strategy selection in influence diagrams using imprecise probabilities

This paper describes a new algorithm to solve the decision making problem in Influence Diagrams based on algorithms for credal networks. Decision nodes are associated to imprecise probability distributions and a reformulation is introduced that finds the global maximum strategy with respect to the expected utility. We work with Limited Memory Influence Diagrams, which generalize most Influence Diagram proposals and handle simultaneous decisions. Besides the global optimum method, we explore an anytime approximate solution with a guaranteed maximum error and show that imprecise probabilities are handled in a straightforward way. Complexity issues and experiments with random diagrams and an effects-based military planning problem are discussed.
The structural topic model and applied social science

We develop the Structural Topic Model which provides a general way to incorporate corpus structure or document metadata into the standard topic model. Document-level covariates enter the model through a simple generalized linear model framework in the prior distributions controlling either topical prevalence or topical content. We demonstrate the model’s use in two applied problems: the analysis of open-ended responses in a survey experiment about immigration policy, and understanding differing media coverage of China’s rise. 1 Topic Models and Social Science Over the last decade probabilistic topic models, such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), have become a common tool for understanding large text corpora [1].1 Although originally developed for descriptive and exploratory purposes, social scientists are increasingly seeing the value of topic models as a tool for measurement of latent linguistic, political and psychological variables [2]. The defining element of this work is the presence of additional document-level information (e.g. author, partisan affiliation, date) on which variation in either topical prevalence or topical content is of theoretic interest.2 As a practical matter, this generally involves running an off-the-shelf implementation of LDA and then performing a post-hoc evaluation of variation with a covariate of interest. A better alternative to post-hoc comparisons is to build the additional information about the structure of the corpus into the model itself by altering the prior distributions to partially pool information amongst similar documents. Numerous special cases of this framework have been developed for particular types of corpus structure affecting both topic prevalence (e.g. time [3], author [4]) and topical content (e.g. ideology [5], geography [6]). Applied users have been slow to adopt these models because it is often difficult to find a model that exactly fits their specific corpus. We develop the Structural Topic Model (STM) which accommodates corpus structure through document-level covariates affecting topical prevalence and/or topical content. The central idea is to ∗Prepared for the NIPS 2013 Workshop on Topic Models: Computation, Application, and Evaluation. A forthcoming R package implements the methods described here. † These authors contributed equally. We assume a general familiarity with LDA throughout (see [1] for a review) By “topical prevalence” we mean the proportion of document devoted to a given topic. By “topical content” we mean the rate of word use within a given topic.
The Block Island workshop : Summary report

In the opening chapter, we outlined several areas of research in vision and control, and posed several related questions for discussion. During the Block Island workshop on Vision and Control, these and many related ideas were debated in the formal presentations and discussion periods. The summary reports of these discussions, which can be viewed as http://cvc.yale.edu/bi-workshop.html, portray a rich and diverse collection of views and opinions related to topics surrounding vision and control.
Discrete approximations of metric measure spaces of controlled geometry

Abstract We find a necessary and sufficient condition for a doubling metric space to carry a ( 1 , p ) -Poincare inequality. The condition involves discretizations of the metric space and Poincare inequalities on graphs.
REVIEW OF THE PLASTIC BEHAVIOR OF BEAMS AND PLATES

A review is made of the literature which has been published on the theoretical and experimental plastic behavior of laterally loaded beams and rectangular plates. This article focuses attention on these particular structures since they are used extensively in marine vehicles and structural designs in general. It is well known that investigations into the static and dynamic inelastic behavior of structures are simplified considerably when elastic effects can be disregarded. It is shown herein that quite reasonable agreement can be achieved between experimental results and the corresponding rigid-plastic predictions provided that both the influence of finite lateral deflections, or geometry changes, and the effect of material strain-rate sensitivity are retained when appropriate. The results of some recent studies are also reported which indicate that extremely small in-plane displacements at the supports of beams and plates can influence significantly the structural response.
A note on weighted rooted trees

Let T be a tree rooted at r . Two vertices of T are related if one is a descendant of the other; otherwise, they are unrelated. Two subsets A and B of V ( T ) are unrelated if, for any a ? A and b ? B , a and b are unrelated. Let ω be a nonnegative weight function defined on V ( T ) with ? v ? V ( T ) ω ( v ) = 1 . In this note, we prove that either there is an ( r , u ) -path P with ? v ? V ( P ) ω ( v ) ? 1 3 for some u ? V ( T ) , or there exist unrelated sets A , B ? V ( T ) such that ? a ? A ω ( a ) ? 1 3 and ? b ? B ω ( b ) ? 1 3 . The bound 1 3 is tight. This answers a question posed in a very recent paper of Bonamy, Bousquet and Thomasse.
A Fluorimetric Readout Reporting the Kinetics of Nucleotide-induced Human Ribonucleotide Reductase Oligomerization

Human ribonucleotide reductase (hRNR) is a target of nucleotide chemotherapeutics in clinical use. The nucleotide-induced oligomeric regulation of hRNR subunit α is increasingly being recognized as an innate and drug-relevant mechanism for enzyme activity modulation. In the presence of negative feedback inhibitor dATP and leukemia drug clofarabine nucleotides, hRNR-α assembles into catalytically inert hexameric complexes, whereas nucleotide effectors that govern substrate specificity typically trigger α-dimerization. Currently, both knowledge of and tools to interrogate the oligomeric assembly pathway of RNR in any species in real time are lacking. We therefore developed a fluorimetric assay that reliably reports on oligomeric state changes of α with high sensitivity. The oligomerization-directed fluorescence quenching of hRNR-α, covalently labeled with two fluorophores, allows for direct readout of hRNR dimeric and hexameric states. We applied the newly developed platform to reveal the timescales of α self-assembly, driven by the feedback regulator dATP. This information is currently unavailable, despite the pharmaceutical relevance of hRNR oligomeric regulation.
Induction, of and by probability

This paper examines some methods and ideas underlying the author's successful probabilistic learning systems (PLS). These systems have proven uniquely effective and efficient for generalization learning (induction) in heuristic search. Aspects of PLS include use of probabilities to guide both task performance and learning, incremental revision and normalization of probabilities, and localization and correction of their errors. Construction of new terms (features) for heuristic functions may be feasible.
Knowledge-based and database systems: enhancements, coupling or integration?

Position: The technologies in the areas of Knowledge Based or Expert Systems (KBS) and of Database Management Systems (DBMS) will play a major role in future Information Systems. Research issues present in a combined use of the two technologies have attracted researchers, both from Artificial Intelligence and Databases.
Public Report, Price, and Quality

A monopolist produces a good with two qualities. All consumers have the same valuation of the first quality, but their valuations of the second vary, and are their private information. A public agency can verify qualities, and make credible reports to consumers. In Full Quality Report, the public agency reports both qualities. In Average Quality Report, it reports a weighted average of qualities. The equilibrium prices and qualities in Full Quality Report can be implemented by Average Quality Report. Equilibrium prices and qualities in Average Quality Report give higher consumer surplus than Full Quality Report. Bertrand competition under Average Quality Report yields first-best prices and qualities.
Discovery of Red-selected Arcs at z = 4.04 behind Abell 2390

We describe the properties of three red arcs discovered at z=4.04 behind the cluster A2390 (z=0.23). We demonstrate that these arcs are images of a single galaxy where lensing is compounded by an elliptical cluster member near the critical curve of the cluster. The combined magnification is estimated to be ~20 using Hubble Space Telescope images, depending on the gradient of the model potentials, implying an unlensed magnitude for the source of IAB${r AB}$ -->$t SUBgt {r AB}t/SUBgt $ -->=25.5. Keck spectroscopy reveals a continuum that is well fitted by B stars and attenuated by the Lyman series forest with an opacity consistent with z ~4 QSO spectra, making the arcs relatively red. Damped Ly? absorption is observed at the source redshift corresponding to a high column density NH I=3 ? 10 -->21. Ly? emission is found to be spatially separated ( ~0.5 kpc) from the bright stellar continuum and lies ~300 km s-1 redward of interstellar absorption lines at z=4.04. Similar redward shifts are found in all high-redshift galaxies with good spectroscopy, indicating that outward flows of enriched gas are typical of young galaxies. Finally, we briefly comment on the notorious straight arc in A2390, which is resolved into two unrelated galaxies at z=0.913 and z=1.033.
The Impact of Representation on Coaching Argument Analysis

Graphical representations have long been associated with more efficient problem solving. More recently, researchers have begun looking at how representation may affect the information that students attend to and what they learn. In this paper we report on a study of how graphical representation may influence interaction between a human coach and a student engaged in analyzing argument texts. We compared coaching interaction with subjects working with a predefined graphical representation to subjects who developed their own representation. The predefined representation, with a better "cognitive fit", to the task, allowed subjects to do more work on their own. Coaching was more systematic and both more efficient and more effective.
Searches for Gravitational Waves from Binary Neutron Stars: A Review

A new generation of observatories is looking for gravitational waves. These waves, emitted by highly relativistic systems, will open a new window for observation of the cosmos when they are detected. Among the most promising sources of gravitational waves for these observatories are compact binaries in the final minutes before coalescence. In this article, we review in brief interferometric searches for gravitational waves emitted by neutron star binaries, including the theory, instrumentation and methods. No detections have been made to date. However, the best direct observational limits on coalescence rates have been set, and instrumentation and analysis methods continue to be refined toward the ultimate goal of defining the new field of gravitational wave astronomy.
Recent Results from the Spitzer Space Telescope:A New View of the Infrared Universe

The Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA’s Great Observatory for infrared exploration, was launched on August 25, 2003, and is returning excellent scientific data. Combining the intrinsic sensitivity obtained with a cooled telescope in space and the imaging and spectroscopic power of modern array detectors, huge gains have been achieved in exploring the infrared universe. This paper describes the Spitzer Space Telescope and its focal-plane instruments and summarizes some of the spectacular images and new scientific results that have been obtained.
Score distribution approach to automatic kernel selection for image retrieval systems

This paper introduces a kernel selection method to automatically choose the best kernel type for a query by using the score distributions of the relevant and non-relevant images given by user as feedback. When applied to our data, the method selects the same best kernel (out of the 12 tried kernels) for a particular query as the kernel obtained from our extensive experimental results.
Education, Information, and Smoking Decisions Evidence from Smoking Histories, 1940-2000

The author tests the hypothesis that education improves health and increases people's life expectancy. Smoking histories-reconstructed from retrospective data in the National Health Interview Surveys in the United States-show that after 1950, when information about the dangers associated with tobacco consumption started to diffuse, the prevalence of smoking declined earlier and most dramatically for college graduates. More educated individuals are also more likely to quit smoking: incidence analysis of smoking cessation shows a strong education effect. The instrumental variable approach, which relies on the fact that during the Vietnam War college attendance provided a strategy to avoid the draft, indicates that education does affect decisions about whether to smoke or stop smoking.
Gaussian Tests of "Extremal White Noise" for Dependent, Heterogeneous, Heavy Tailed Time Series with an Application ∗

We develop asymptotically chi-squared tests of tail specifi ce xtremal serial dependence for possibly heavy-tailed time series, including infinite variance and infinite mean processes. Our test statistics have a chi-squared limit distribution under the null of "extremal white-noise" for processes near-epoch-dependent on a mixing process; and obtain a power of one for extremal dependent processes under general conditions. We restrict the NED property to hold only in the extreme support of the distribution, and characterize a broad array of linear and GARCH processes with geometric or hypoberbolic memory that are extremal NED. We apply one-tailed, two-tailed, and difference in tails tests to stock market and exchange rate returns data, and find low levels of significant, persistent, symmetric extremal dependence in the Yen and British Pound, and except for the Shanghai Stock Exchange we find no evidence of extremal dependence in any absolute returns series. A limited study of bivariate volatility spillover in exchange rates reveals extremes in the daily returns of the Yen symmetrically spillover briefly into the Euro after a four day delay, and positive extreme returns in the Euro immediately, and persistently, spillover into the Yen.
Does the Community of Inquiry Framework Predict Outcomes in Online MBA Courses

While Garrison and colleagues’ (2000) Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework has generated substantial interest among online learning researchers, it has yet to be subjected to extensive quantitative verification or tested for external validity. Using a sample of students from 55 online MBA courses, the findings of this study suggest strong empirical support for the framework and its ability to predict both perceived learning and delivery medium satisfaction in online management education. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential implications for online management education researchers and those interested in further study of the CoI framework.
Going Beyond Heroic Leaders in Development

Summary Leadership is an under-studied topic in international development. When the topic is broached it is usually to support what might be called a “hero dependency”: One or other individual is identified as the hero of a past event (or the hero-to-be of a future event). This article argues that this dependency is problematic, however, because (i) heroes have not emerged in many contexts for long periods and individuals who may have been considered heroes in the past often turned out less than heroic, (ii) heroes are at least as much the product of their contexts as they turned out to be the shapers of such, and (iii) stories about hero-leaders doing special things mask the way such special things emerge from the complex interactions of many actors—some important and some mundane. Notions of hero-leadership in development are less convincing when one appreciates these arguments. Referencing broader work on leadership (and some in the development space itself) the article calls development theorists and practitioners to go beyond the heroic leader perspective in thinking about who leads development. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Segue between favorable and unfavorable solvation.

Solvation of small and large clusters are studied by simulation, considering a range of solvent-solute attractive energy strengths. Over a wide range of conditions, both for solvation in the Lennard-Jones liquid and in the SPC model of water, it is shown that the mean solvent density varies linearly with changes in solvent-solute adhesion or attractive energy strength. This behavior is understood from the perspective of Weeks theory of solvation [Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem. 2002, 53, 533] and supports theories based upon that perspective.
Self-stabilizing distributed algorithm for strong matching in a system graph

We present a new self-stabilizing algorithm for finding a maximal strong matching in an arbitrary distributed network. The algorithm is capable of working with multiple types of demons (schedulers) as is the most recent algorithm in [1,2]. The concepts behind the algorithm, using Ids in the network, promise to have applications for other graph theoretic primitives.
Innovations in Barge Transportation on Columbia River

Barge traffic on the Columbia River is dissimilar in may respects to that of the typical inland waterway. The average haul is short, less than 300 miles. Resources, population, and industrial activity of the tributary area restrict the volume and diversity of traffic. Effectiv utilization of barge transportation under these limitations has led to some significant innovations, both in equipment and terminal facilities developed to serve the traffic requirements of this particular economy. Several forest products plants move almost their entire output by water. This is accomplished in conjunction with a unique terminal and distribution facility in Portland, Oregon, which provides an interchange between barge and other transportation media. The combination barge, capable of carrying variety of commodities, was developed to better serve the needs of the upriver agricultural economy. Also in this category is the large ocean-river barge, the Kenai, which transports fertilizer materials from Alaska to the mid-Columbia area.
Tribal Sovereignty Over Water Quality

degree expected 2005; J.D. University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), 2004; M.S. in Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California at Berkeley, 2001; M.L.A. in Environmental Planning, University of California at Berkeley, 2000; B.A. Wellesley College, 1997. Many thanks to Professors Philip Frickey and Angela Harris for their helpful comments along with the Social Justice Writing Workshop Members: Guy Johnson, Lindsay Nako, Naomi Tsu, Kaja Tretjak, Olivia Horgan, Steve Lee, Erin Pitts, and Eliza Hersh. In addition, I am indebted to the Graduate Assembly at the University of California for providing research funding.
Mechanistic and evolutionary aspects of vitamin B12 biosynthesis

For the past 20 years our laboratory has been engaged in the elucidation of the vitamin B12 biosynthetic pathway and a previous Account1 described progress made in the first ten years of this endeavor. By that time (1977), it had been established that 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA), porphobilinogen (PBG) uro’gen III and three intermediates, Factors I–III, now known to be transformed as the precorrins 1–3, were sequentially formed on the way to the corrin nucleus as summarized in Scheme 1. The ensuing decade has witnessed an exponential increase in the rate of the acquisition of pure enzymes using recombinant DNA techniques and these methods together with the exploration of new NMR pulse sequences have not only cast light on the mechanisms of the B12 synthetic enzymes but have given us considerable optimism with regard to the discovery of the remaining intermediates and of the enzymes which produce them.
Mirage: Mitigating illicit inventorying in a RFID enabled retail environment

Given its low dollar and maintenance cost, RFID is poised to become the enabling technology for inventory control and supply chain management. However, as an outcome of its low cost, RFID based inventory control is susceptible to pernicious security and privacy threats. A deleterious attack on such a system is corporate espionage, where attackers through illicit inventorying infer sales and restocking trends for products. In this paper, we first present plausible aftermaths of corporate espionage using real data from online sources. Second, to mitigate corporate espionage in a retail store environment, we present a simple low-cost system called Mirage. Mirage uses additional programmable low cost passive RFID tags called honeytokens to inject noise in retail store inventorying. Using a simple history based algorithm that controls activation and de-activation of honeytokens, Mirage randomizes sales and restocking trends. We evaluate Mirage in a real warehouse environment using a commercial off-the-shelf Motorola MC9090 handheld RFID reader and over 450 Gen2 low cost RFID tags. We show that Mirage successfully flattens and randomizes sales and restocking trends while adding minimal cost to inventory control.
Frequency dependence of organic magnetoresistance

Organic magnetoresistive (OMAR) devices show a large enough magnetoresistive response (typically 10%) for potential applications as magnetic field sensors. However, applications often require sensing high frequency magnetic fields, and the examination of the frequency-dependent magnetoresistive response is therefore required. Analysis of time constants that limit the frequency response may also shed light on the mechanism behind the OMAR effect.
Conformally invariant scaling limits: an overview and a collection of problems

Many mathematical models of statistical physics in two dimensions are either known or conjectured to exhibit conformal invariance. Over the years, physicists proposed predictions of various exponents describing the behavior of these models. Only recently have some of these predictions become accessible to mathematical proof. One of the new developments is the discovery of a one-parameter family of random curves called stochastic Loewner evolution or SLE. The SLE curves appear as limits of interfaces or paths occurring in a variety of statistical physics models as the mesh of the grid on which the model is defined tends to zero. The main purpose of this article is to list a collection of open problems. Some of the open problems indicate aspects of the physics knowledge that have not yet been understood mathematically. Other problems are questions about the nature of the SLE curves themselves. Before we present the open problems, the definition of SLE will be motivated and explained, and a brief sketch of recent results will be presented.
Reelection Incentives and Political Corruption: Evidence from Brazilian Audit Reports

As part of a recent anti-corruption campaign, the Brazilian government began to audit the municipal expenditure of federally-transferred funds. Using these audit reports, we construct a unique data set of political corruption to test whether reelection incentives affect the level of corruption in a municipality. Consistent with a political economy agency model, we find that mayors who are in their second and final term are significantly more corrupt than first-term mayors. In particular, second-term mayors on average divert, R$188,431.4 more than first-term mayors, which is approximately 4 percent of the total amount transferred to municipalities. We also find much more pronounced effects among municipalities where the costs of rent-extraction are lower, and the density of pivotal voters is higher. Our results also illustrate an important trade-off: second-term mayors, while more corrupt, provide a higher level of public goods. As Brazil and other countries continue their decentralization process, our findings promote the need for a better understanding of how local institutions can help reduce the incentives for corruption.
The RHIC Beam Energy Scan Program: Results from the PHENIX Experiment

Abstract The PHENIX Experiment at RHIC has conducted a beam energy scan at several collision energies in order to search for signatures of the QCD critical point and the onset of deconfinement. PHENIX has conducted measurements of transverse energy production, muliplicity fluctuations, and the skewness and kurtosis of net charge distributions. The data analyzed to date show no significant indications of the presence of the critical point.
An Interval-based Method for Text Clustering

This paper describes a clustering approach for classifying texts where dynamic text are evaluated with intervals (interval-valued numbers or IVN) rather than numbers. This new interval measurement allows us to capture the text relevance by multiple keywords at the same time and thus can provide multi-dimension text ranking. We build several comparison mechanisms to rank the intervals based on interval multiple values, their distributions and relationships. Then, the dynamic texts in information systems can be pro-actively clustered into collections usingthis ranking results.
Farmland Investment Under Conditions of Certainty and Uncertainty

This study investigates the potential for farmland to improve mixed-asset portfolio efficiency. Three major conclusions are drawn from the research. First, in a world with certainty, farmland can be shown to statistically improve mixed-asset portfolio efficiency. Second, with the introduction of uncertainty into the portfolio allocation model, investors can justify small or no allocations of farmland in a mixed-asset portfolio, although it appears that even with uncertainty prudent investors should evaluate the asset class. Third, with respect to farmland investment and geographic diversification, the results question the ability of an optimized mean–variance portfolio to provide substantial improvement in comparison to a naive portfolio. The marginal improvement in portfolio efficiency of an optimized farmland portfolio versus a naive farmland portfolio is not statistically significant.
Escape Probability Methods

The physical foundations of escape probability methods, and methods derived from them, are briefly reviewed. First-order escape probability methods, the core saturation method, second-order escape probability methods, and Scharmer’s method are discussed.
A Regional and Industry Analysis of the Complexity of the Regulatory Environment Affecting Agricultural Producers in California

This paper provides results from a producers survey that enquired about the complexity of the regulatory environment in California. The primary objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between the complexity of the regulatory environment, agricultural industries in California, and different regions in California. This objective is achieved by taking information gathered from a producers survey and applying an ordered logit econometric model using complexity of the regulatory environment as the dependent variable. A secondary objective of this study is to develop a motivation why the complexity of the regulatory environment is important issue to consider. To achieve this goal, the perception of the complexity of the regulatory environment will be examined with potential management options that producers can take including increasing and decreasing their size of operation, leaving agricultural production, and moving out of the state.
The EPAC Architecture: An Expert Cell Approach to Field Programmable Analog Devices

This paper describes the architectural configuration and various design trade-offs of the Electrically Programmable Analog Circuit (EPAC^TM), an expert-cell approach to meeting the market needs for an analog counterpart to the digital FPGA. The paper provides an overview of the technology, discusses architectural issues, and describes the internal operation of the first commercial EPAC devices. The paper concludes with various application examples and performance measurements.
An integrated model of perennial and annual crop production for Sub-Saharan countries

Crop production in sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by smallholders who allocate household labor across annual and perennial crops and, in some cases, to wage labor markets. This paper develops a microeconomic model of household choice which is consistent with observed characteristics of sub-Saharan agricultural systems in terms of: integrated production of annual and perennial crops; price uncertainty in markets that may be affected by government intervention; the potential for off-farm employment; household consumption of crops produced on the farm; and household consumption of non-food goods, school fees and so on. The paper considers variations in the model to establish their implications. These variations include differential buying and selling prices, fixed subsistence consumption constraints, participation in wage market labor, smuggling in response to government price control, and parallel markets with penalties for smuggling.
International Observations of Monetary Policy Periods

The paper identifies 21 observations of monetary policy periods within six of the G7 countries,by adopting the Narrative Approach used by Romer and Romer (1989). Statistics are used to characterize the state of these economies from 1970 till 2001. Major historical events and narrative evidence are then used as guides to identify these monetary policy periods, which reflect the stance of monetary policy by Central Banks during those events. The significance of these monetary policy periods are then assessed using various approaches. The results overwhelmingly show that movements in interest rates during the policy periods are significant. Moreover, these identified periods are found to reflect exogenous policy actions undertaken by monetary authorities.