cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Endogenous market structure and the cooperative firm

When the threat of entry by followers includes cooperative firms, the maximum fixed cost that a profit maximizing leader can endure is endogenous. The aggressive strategy required for entry-deterrence curtails the leader’s expected profit and can discourage its initial entry. In such circumstances a cooperative firm may yet be viable, despite having a cost handicap and no first-mover advantage.
Dynamic Bidding in Second Price Auction

We consider equilibrium bidding behavior in a dynamic second price auction where agents have the option to increase bids at random times and values follow a Markov process. We prove that equilibrium exists and is unique and give an algorithm to solve for bids as a function of time and values. Equilibrium bids equal the expected final value conditional on the bid placed being the final one, meaning that either the agent doesn't get another opportunity to rebid or chooses not to increase this bid if given the option. This results in adverse selection with respect to a bidder's own future strategy, and as a result bids are shaded relative to the bidder's expected value. This is true in spite of values being independent across bidders. Under mild conditions, desired bids increase as time increases and the close of the auction is approached. Our results are consistent with repeated bidding and sniping, two puzzling observations in eBay auctions.
Metal-Catalyzed Directed Regio- and Enantioselective Ring-Opening of Epoxides

Control of regio- and stereoselectivity of chemical reactions is the central theme in synthetic chemistry. Regioselective and enantiospecific ring opening of readily available enantioenriched epoxides precursors provides a straightforward access to diverse highly functionalized molecules which can serve as chiral building blocks for synthesis of biologically active compounds. However, prior to our research work, the scope of catalytic highly regioselective ring opening of epoxides is limited to structurally or electronically biased epoxides, such as terminal and aromatic epoxides. Regioselective ring-opening of epoxides with substituents on both sides demonstrating similar steric and electronic effects is still a formidable challenge for organic chemists. To address this challenge, our approach is to use the readily available functional moiety incorporated in an epoxide as a directing group to realize the regioselective nucleophilic attack on the oxirane ring. Alternatively, asymmetric ring-opening of epoxides can also provide the ring-opening products in highly enantioenriched form. However, excellent results are usually obtained in the case of the kinetic resolution of terminal epoxides or the desymmetrization of meso-epoxides. In these cases, the issue of regiocontrol of the ring-opening is circumvented or minimized. Based on our successful results of regioselective ring-opening of functionalized epoxides by implementing the directed ring-opening strategy, we also investigated the enantioselective ring-opening of internal epoxides bearing a functional moiety as directing group. This Account summarizes our research on metal-catalyzed directed ring-opening reactions of epoxides, which encompasses the following breakthroughs: (1) highly regioselective ring-opening of various substrates including epoxy allylic alcohols, epoxy homoallylic alcohols and epoxy allylic sulfonamides with a variety of N-, O-, and halide-nucleophiles catalyzed by W-, Mo-, or Ni-salt; (2) first kinetic resolutions of epoxy allylic alcohols, epoxy homoallylic alcohols, and epoxy allylic sulfonamides with various amines as nucleophiles, which were catalyzed by W-bishydroxamic acid (W-BHA), nickel-BINAM, and Gd-N,N'-dioxide catalytic system, respectively; (3) successful implementation of the strategy of combined asymmetric syntheses by the combination of the enantioselective epoxidation and the enantioselective ring-opening of 2,3-epoxy alcohols establishing a new entry to prepare amino alcohols in regio-, diastereo-, and enantiomerically pure form.
The Impact of Transaction Costs and Differential BMP Adoption Rates on the Cost of Reducing Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution in Virginia

The cost estimates to meet agriculture reduction goals for the Bay run into the billions. Most cost models, however, are based on simplifying behavioral assumptions about public transaction costs, adoption rates, and implementation costs of agricultural nutrient-reducing practices (called best management practices or BMPs). Relatively little systematic research has been conducted on the transaction costs of implementing agricultural conservation programs. Similarly, watershed scale cost models typically assume constant and uniform costs for different BMPs. The objective of this paper is to examine the cost implications of including transaction costs and differential BMP costs and adoption rates associated with reducing nitrogen and phosphorus loads from agricultural sources in Virginia. The paper uses math programming to estimate the minimum cost of achieving agricultural nutrient reductions under a number of different cost scenarios that include transaction costs and differential adoption rates. Transaction costs are found to comprise between 13 and 27% of the total costs. The inclusion of plausible maximum BMP adoption rates increase costs substantially above conventional model estimates.
A Peculiar Sample: A Reply to Steckel and Ziebarth

Steckel and Ziebarth (2014) nd that biases in height by age imposed by traders versus non-traders were negligible. Importantly, their method of identifying traders diers from that of Pritchett and Freudenberger (1992). Using a sample of inward coastwise manifests for the port of New Orleans, we show that Steckel and Ziebarth made errors classifying shippers, that they underestimate the relative number of slaves shipped by traders, and that their empirical estimates of selection bias are attenuated towards zero.
Spectral and parametric averaging for integrable systems

We analyze two theoretical approaches to ensemble averaging for integrable systems in quantum chaos, spectral averaging (SA) and parametric averaging (PA). For SA, we introduce a new procedure, namely, rescaled spectral averaging (RSA). Unlike traditional SA, it can describe the correlation function of spectral staircase (CFSS) and produce persistent oscillations of the interval level number variance (IV). PA while not as accurate as RSA for the CFSS and IV, can also produce persistent oscillations of the global level number variance (GV) and better describes saturation level rigidity as a function of the running energy. Overall, it is the most reliable method for a wide range of statistics.
Bertrand networks

We study scenarios where multiple sellers of a homogeneous good compete on prices, where each seller can only sell to some subset of the buyers. Crucially, sellers cannot price-discriminate between buyers. We model the structure of the competition by a graph (or hyper-graph), with nodes representing the sellers and edges representing populations of buyers. We study equilibria in the game between the sellers, prove that they always exist, and present various structural, quantitative, and computational results about them. We also analyze the equilibria completely for a few cases. Many questions are left open.
The Columbia River Controlled

Study of changed conditions and needs since 1948 report of Corps of Engineers for development of water resources of Columbia River Basin; changes and problems encountered in providing extended long range plan for resource development are outlined.
BIFURCATIONS, INTERSECTIONS, AND HEIGHTS

In this article, we prove the equivalence of dynamical stability, preperiodicity, and canonical height 0, for algebraic families of rational maps ft : P 1 (C)! P 1 (C), parame- terized by t in a quasi-projective complex variety. We use this to prove one implication in the if-and-only-if statement of (BD2, Conjecture 1.10) on unlikely intersections in the moduli space of rational maps; we present the conjecture here in a more general form.
Learning Representations for Automatic Colorization

We develop a fully automatic image colorization system. Our approach leverages recent advances in deep networks, exploiting both low-level and semantic representations. As many scene elements naturally appear according to multimodal color distributions, we train our model to predict per-pixel color histograms. This intermediate output can be used to automatically generate a color image, or further manipulated prior to image formation. On both fully and partially automatic colorization tasks, we outperform existing methods. We also explore colorization as a vehicle for self-supervised visual representation learning.
Substrate binding mode and molecular basis of a specificity switch in oxalate decarboxylase

Oxalate decarboxylase (OxDC) catalyzes the conversion of oxalate into formate and carbon dioxide in a remarkable reaction that requires manganese and dioxygen. Previous studies have shown that replacing an active-site loop segment Ser161-Glu162-Asn163-Ser164 in the N-terminal domain of OxDC by the cognate residues Asp161-Ala162-Ser-163-Asn164 of an evolutionarily related, Mn-dependent oxalate oxidase gives a chimeric variant (DASN) that exhibits significantly increased oxidase activity. The mechanistic basis for this change in activity, however, has now been investigated using Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry (MIMS) and isotope effect (IE) measurements. Quantitative analysis of the reaction stoichiometry as a function of oxalate concentration, as determined by MIMS, suggests that the increased oxidase activity of the DASN OxDC variant is associated with only a small fraction of the enzyme molecules in solution. In addition, IE measurements show that C-C bond cleavage in the DASN OxDC variant proceeds via the same mechanism as in the wild type enzyme, even though the Glu162 side chain is absent. Thus, replacement of the loop residues does not modulate the chemistry of the enzyme-bound Mn (II) ion. Taken together, these results raise the possibility that the observed oxidase activity of the DASN OxDC variant arises from increased solvent access to the active site during catalysis, implying that the functional role of Glu162 is to control loop conformation. A 2.6 A resolution X-ray crystal structure of a complex between oxalate and the Co(II)-substituted ΔE162 OxDC variant, in which Glu162 has been deleted from the active site loop, reveals the likely mode by which substrate coordinates the catalytically active Mn ion prior to C-C bond cleavage. The “end-on” conformation of oxalate observed in the structure is consistent with the previously published V/K IE data and provides an empty coordination site for the dioxygen ligand that is thought to mediate the formation of Mn(III) for catalysis upon substrate binding.
Poultry Processing Work And Respiratory Health Of Latino Men And Women In North Carolina

Objective: To evaluate associations between poultry processing work and respiratory health among working Latino men and women in North Carolina. Methods: Between May 2009 and November 2010, 402 poultry processing workers and 339 workers in a comparison population completed interviewer-administered questionnaires. Of these participants, 279 poultry processing workers and 222 workers in the comparison population also completed spirometry testing to provide measurements of forced expiratory volume in 1 second and forced vital capacity. Results: Nine percent of poultry processing workers and 10% of workers in the comparison population reported current asthma. Relative to the comparison population, adjusted mean forced expiratory volume in 1 second and forced vital capacity were lower in the poultry processing population, particularly among men who reported sanitation job activities. Conclusions: Despite the low prevalence of respiratory symptoms reported, poultry processing work may affect lung function.
Food Store Choices of Poor Households: A Discrete Choice Analysis of the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS)

Policymakers are pursing initiatives to increase food access for low-income households. However, due in part to previous data deficiencies, there is still little evidence supporting the assumption that improved food store access will alter dietary habits, especially for the poorest of U.S. households. This article uses the new National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS) to estimate consumer food outlet choices as a function of outlet type and household attributes in a multinomial mixed logit model. In particular, we allow for the composition of the local retail food environment to play a role in explaining household store choice decisions and food acquisition patterns. We find that households are willing to pay more per week in distance traveled to shop at superstores, supermarkets, and fast food outlets than at farmers markets and smaller grocery stores, and that willingness to pay is heterogeneous across income group, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participation, and other household and food environment characteristics. Our results imply that policymakers should consider incentivizing the building of certain outlet types over others, and that Healthy Food Financing Initiatives should be designed to fit the sociodemographic composition of each identified low-income, low-access area in question.
The Consequences of Banking Crises for Public Debt

The aim of this paper is to assess the consequences of banking crises for public debt. Using an unbalanced panel of 154 countries from 1980 to 2006, the paper shows that banking crises are associated with a significant and long-lasting increase in government debt. The effect is a function of the severity of the crisis. In particular, for severe crises, comparable to the most recent one in terms of output losses, banking crises are followed by a medium-term increase of about 37 percentage points in the government gross debt-to-GDP ratio. Measuring the increase in debt in this manner seems more appropriate than some of the measures used in the literature that have provided off-quoted and very large numbers for the run-up in debt. In addition, the debt ratio increased more in countries with a higher initial gross debt-to-GDP ratio and with a higher initial foreign debt-to-GDP ratio.
Predicting Privacy Attitudes Using Phone Metadata

With the increasing usage of smartphones, there is a corresponding increase in the phone metadata generated by individuals using these devices. Managing the privacy of personal information on these devices can be a complex task. Recent research has suggested the use of social and behavioral data for automatically recommending privacy settings. This paper is the first effort to connect users’ phone use metadata with their privacy attitudes. Based on a 10-week long field study involving phone metadata collection via an app, and a survey on privacy attitudes, we report that an analysis of cell phone metadata may reveal vital clues to a person’s privacy attitudes. Specifically, a predictive model based on phone usage metadata significantly outperforms a comparable personality features-based model in predicting individual privacy attitudes. The results motivate a newer direction of automatically inferring a user’s privacy attitudes by looking at their phone usage characteristics.
Double C–H amination by consecutive SET oxidations

A new method for intramolecular C–H oxidative amination is based on a FeCl3-mediated oxidative reaction of anilines with activated sp3 C–H bonds. The amino group plays multiple roles in the reaction cascade: (1) as the activating group in single-electron-transfer (SET) oxidation process, (2) as a directing group in benzylic/allylic C–H activation at a remote position, and (3) internal nucleophile trapping reactive intermediates formed from the C–H activation steps. These multielectron oxidation reactions proceed with catalytic amounts of Fe(III) and inexpensive reagents.
Flow-Controlled Silicone Fluid Embolization

Flow-controlled silicone fluid embolization is a technique that can be useful in situations where selective injection cannot be achieved, but where the proximal part of the feeding vessel must be preserved. It consists of a modified double-lumen balloon catheter and silicone fluid made radiopaque with tantalum powder with a predetermined viscosity and vulcanization time. Flow control by manipulation of the balloon in the proximal artery permits the distribution of emboli to desired sites in distal arteries. A case is described and other details offered about this technique that may be valuable for special situations.
Saving Energy on WiFi with Required IPsec

The move to a pervasive computing environment, with the increasing use of laptops, netbooks, smartphones and tablets, means that we are more reliant on wireless networking and batteries for our daily computational needs. Specifically, this includes applications which have sensitive data that must be securely communicated over VPNs. However, the use of VPNs and mobile, wireless computing creates conflicting needs: VPNs traditionally assume a stable network connection, which is then secured; in contrast, wireless computing assumes a transitory network connection due to mobility or energy-saving protocols. In this work we study the ability to use traditional VPN protocols, specifically IPsec, in mobile environments while permitting for energy savings. Energy savings come from power-cycling the wireless radio when it is not in use.
Altered heme-mediated modulation of dendritic cell function in sickle cell alloimmunization

Transfusions are the main treatment for patients with sickle cell disease. However, alloimmunization remains a major life-threatening complication for these patients, but the mechanism underlying pathogenesis of alloimmunization is not known. Given the chronic hemolytic state characteristic of sickle cell disease, resulting in release of free heme and activation of inflammatory cascades, we tested the hypothesis that anti-inflammatory response to heme is compromised in alloimmunized sickle patients, increasing their risk of alloimmunization. Heme-exposed monocyte-derived dendritic cells from both non-alloimmunized sickle patients and healthy donors inhibited priming of pro-inflammatory CD4(+) type 1 T cells, and exhibited significantly reduced levels of the maturation marker CD83. In contrast, in alloimmunized patients, heme did not reverse priming of pro-inflammatory CD4(+) cells by monocyte-derived dendritic cells or their maturation. Furthermore, heme dampened NF-κB activation in non-alloimmunized, but not in alloimmunized monocyte-derived dendritic cells. Heme-mediated CD83 inhibition depended on Toll-like receptor 4 but not heme oxygenase 1. These data suggest that extracellular heme limits CD83 expression on dendritic cells in non-alloimmunized sickle patients through a Toll-like receptor 4-mediated pathway, involving NF-κB, resulting in dampening of pro-inflammatory responses, but that in alloimmunized patients this pathway is defective. This opens up the possibility of developing new therapeutic strategies to prevent sickle cell alloimmunization.
Case workers in family court: A therapeutic jurisprudence analysis

Abstract This study explores interactions between judges and caseworkers in child maltreatment cases. We examined the extent to which judges demonstrated therapeutic jurisprudence principles (TJ) in their courtroom interactions in light of past findings linking such practices with positive outcomes. Ninety-four child maltreatment proceedings were observed over a one-year period between 2012 and 2013. We found that while some judges created respectful, empathetic, and supportive environments that included caseworkers, other interactions were more negative. Although caseworkers had the most knowledge of, and experience with families, their participation was limited, and conversations were often directed through the attorneys. Shaming rituals also occurred, with judges criticizing workers for the quality of their work, the slowness of the bureaucracy, and other deficiencies. The findings highlight the importance of applying the principles of TJ to all court actors, especially in the family court milieu, where courtrooms are populated by a team of professionals who share the common goal of rehabilitating families when appropriate.
Diastereo- and Enantioselective Iridium Catalyzed Coupling of Vinyl Aziridines with Alcohols: Site-Selective Modification of Unprotected Diols and Synthesis of Substituted Piperidines

The chiral cyclometalated π-allyliridium ortho-C,O-benzoate complex (R)-Ir-VIb derived from [Ir(cod)Cl]2, allyl acetate, 4-cyano-3-nitro-benzoic acid, and (R)-MeO-BIPHEP catalyzes the coupling of N-(p-nitrophenylsulfonyl) protected vinyl aziridine 3a with primary alcohols 1a-1l to furnish branched products of C-C bond formation 4a-4l with good levels of anti-diastereo- and enantioselectivity. In the presence of 2-propanol, but under otherwise identical conditions, vinyl aziridine 3a and aldehydes 2a-2l engage in reductive coupling to furnish an equivalent set of adducts 4a-4l with roughly equivalent levels of anti-diastereo- and enantioselectivity. Using enantiomeric iridium catalysts, vinyl aziridine 3a reacts with unprotected chiral 1,3-diols 1m-1o in a site-selective manner to deliver the diastereomeric products of C-allylation syn-4m, -4n, -4o and anti-4m, -4n, -4o, respectively, with good isolated yields and excellent levels of catalyst-directed diastereoselectivity. These adducts were directly converted to the diastereomeric 2,4,5-trisubstituted piperidines syn-5m, -5n, -5o and anti-5m, -5n, -5o.
Modeling Evacuation Behavior Under Hurricane Conditions

The understanding of evacuation behavior is critical to establishing policies, procedures, and organizational structure for an effective response to emergencies. This study specifically investigated the evacuation behavioral responses under hurricane conditions. The study aimed to explore the association between contributing factors and the evacuation decision choices as well as evacuation destination choices. Unlike previous studies that modeled each response behavior separately, this study proposed to use the structural equation modeling approach to examine the interrelationship between response behaviors. A case study was performed with the data set from a survey conducted in New Jersey. With Bayesian estimation approaches, the proposed structural equation models were estimated, and the effect of each predictive variable was captured. An important finding is that individuals’ preference to evacuate did not significantly affect their choices of evacuation destinations. In addition, other socioeconomic a...
Plasma electron hole kinematics. II. Hole tracking Particle-In-Cell simulation

The kinematics of a 1-D electron hole is studied using a novel Particle-In-Cell simulation code. A hole tracking technique enables us to follow the trajectory of a fast-moving solitary hole and study quantitatively hole acceleration and coupling to ions. We observe a transient at the initial stage of hole formation when the hole accelerates to several times the cold-ion sound speed. Artificially imposing slow ion speed changes on a fully formed hole causes its velocity to change even when the ion stream speed in the hole frame greatly exceeds the ion thermal speed, so there are no reflected ions. The behavior that we observe in numerical simulations agrees very well with our analytic theory of hole momentum conservation and the effects of “jetting.”
How to Discreetly Spread a Rumor in a Crowd

In this paper, we study PUSH-PULL style rumor spreading algorithms in the mobile telephone model, a variant of the classical telephone model in which each node can participate in at most one connection per round; i.e., you can no longer have multiple nodes pull information from the same source in a single round. Our model also includes two new parameterized generalizations: (1) the network topology can undergo a bounded rate of change (for a parameterized rate that spans from no changes to changes in every round); and (2) in each round, each node can advertise a bounded amount of information to all of its neighbors before connection decisions are made (for a parameterized number of bits that spans from no advertisement to large advertisements). We prove that in the mobile telephone model with no advertisements and no topology changes, PUSH-PULL style algorithms perform poorly with respect to a graph’s vertex expansion and graph conductance as compared to the known tight results in the classical telephone model. We then prove, however, that if nodes are allowed to advertise a single bit in each round, a natural variation of PUSH-PULL terminates in time that matches (within logarithmic factors) this strategy’s performance in the classical telephone model—even in the presence of frequent topology changes. We also analyze how the performance of this algorithm degrades as the rate of change increases toward the maximum possible amount. We argue that our model matches well the properties of emerging peer-to-peer communication standards for mobile devices, and that our efficient PUSH-PULL variation that leverages small advertisements and adapts well to topology changes is a good choice for rumor spreading in this increasingly important setting.
Efficient differentiation of murine embryonic stem cells requires the binding of CXXC finger protein 1 to DNA or methylated histone H3-Lys4

Mammalian CXXC finger protein 1 (Cfp1) is a DNA-binding protein that is a component of the Setd1 histone methyltransferase complexes and is a critical epigenetic regulator of both histone and cytosine methylation. Murine embryonic stem (ES) cells lacking Cfp1 exhibit a loss of histone H3-Lys4 tri-methylation (H3K4me3) at many CpG islands, and a mis-localization of this epigenetic mark to heterochromatic sub-nuclear domains. Furthermore, these cells fail to undergo cellular differentiation in vitro. These defects are rescued upon introduction of a Cfp1-expression vector. Cfp1 contains an N-terminal plant homeodomain (PHD), a motif frequently observed in chromatin associated proteins that functions as a reader module of histone marks. Here, we report that the Cfp1 PHD domain directly and specifically binds to histone H3K4me1/me2/me3 marks. Introduction of individual mutations at key Cfp1 PHD residues (Y28, D44, or W49) ablates this histone interaction both in vitro and in vivo. The W49A point mutation does not affect the ability of Cfp1 to rescue appropriate restriction of histone H3K4me3 to euchromatic sub-nuclear domains or in vitro cellular differentiation in Cfp1-null ES cells. Similarly, a mutated form of Cfp1 that lacks DNA-binding activity (C169A) rescues in vitro cellular differentiation. However, rescue of Cfp1-null ES cells with a double mutant form of Cfp1 (W49A, C169A) results in partially defective in vitro differentiation. These data define the Cfp1 PHD domain as a reader of histone H3K4me marks and provide evidence that this activity is involved in the regulation of lineage commitment in ES cells.
Albuminuria and masked uncontrolled hypertension in chronic kidney disease.

Background Masked uncontrolled hypertension (MUCH) is associated with greater target organ damage such as left ventricular hypertrophy, increased arterial stiffness and albuminuria. Whether MUCH independently associates with greater cardiovascular end-organ damage or kidney damage is unclear. The objective of this study was to assess the strength of the relationship of MUCH (awake ambulatory blood pressure ≥135/85 mmHg and clinic blood pressure <140/90 mmHg) with target organ damage. Methods In a cross-sectional study at a veterans' administration medical center, clinically normotensive veterans without chronic kidney disease (CKD) (n = 29) and 287 patients with CKD and controlled hypertension (CH, n = 193), MUCH (n = 67) and uncontrolled hypertension (UCH, n = 27) had evaluation of target organ damage. Target organ damage was measured by echocardiography [left ventricular mass index (LVMI)], arterial ultrasonography [aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV)] and 24-h urine collection [albuminuria (urine albumin to creatinine ratio)] in all participants. Results Compared to that of controls, LVMI was higher by 21.8 g/m2 (CI, 4.0-39.7 g/m2) in CH, 27.9 (CI, 8-47.8) in MUCH and 39.5 (CI, 15.7-63.2) in UCH (P < 0.01 for group differences, P < 0.01 for linear trend). Although differences persisted after adjustment for age, sex and race, they lost significance after adjustments for cardiovascular risk factors and their treatment. Compared to that of controls, PWV was different among CH, MUCH and UCH (P = 0.04 for group differences, P = 0.02 for linear trend). However, differences lost significance after adjustments for age, sex and race. Compared to that of controls, log2 UACR was higher by 2.40 mg/mg (CI, 1.28-3.52) in CH, 4.94 (CI, 3.70-6.18) in MUCH and 6.01 (CI, 4.49-7.53) in UCH (P < 0.0001 for group difference, P < 0.0001 for linear trend). Differences persisted after adjustment for age, sex and race, cardiovascular risk factors and their treatment and cardiovascular disease (P < 0.0001 for group difference, P < 0.0001 for linear trend). Conclusions MUCH is more strongly related to albuminuria compared with cardiovascular damage as assessed by left ventricular mass and PWV. A graded and an independent relationship of blood pressure classification status with albuminuria is consistent with the hypothesis that renal mechanisms may be more important than cardiovascular disease in mediating the pathogenesis of MUCH.
Quantitative Spatial Economics

The observed uneven distribution of economic activity across space is influenced by variation in exogenous geographical characteristics and endogenous interactions between agents in goods and factor markets. Until recently, the theoretical literature on economic geography had focused on stylized settings that could not easily be taken to the data. This paper reviews more recent research that has developed quantitative models of economic geography. These models are rich enough to speak to first-order features of the data, such as many heterogenous locations and gravity equation relationships for trade and commuting. Yet at the same time these models are sufficiently tractable to undertake realistic counterfactuals exercises to study the effect of changes in amenities, productivity, and public policy interventions such as transport infrastructure investments. We provide an extensive taxonomy of the different building blocks of these quantitative spatial models and discuss their main properties and quantification.
A Simple, Fast and Highly-Accurate Algorithm to Recover 3D Shape from 2D Landmarks on a Single Image

Three-dimensional shape reconstruction of 2D landmark points on a single image is a hallmark of human vision, but is a task that has been proven difficult for computer vision algorithms. We define a feed-forward deep neural network algorithm that can reconstruct 3D shapes from 2D landmark points almost perfectly (i.e., with extremely small reconstruction errors), even when these 2D landmarks are from a single image. Our experimental results show an improvement of up to two-fold over state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms; 3D shape reconstruction error (measured as the Procrustes distance between the reconstructed shape and the ground-truth) of human faces is $ , cars is .0022, human bodies is .022, and highly-deformable flags is .0004. Our algorithm was also a top performer at the 2016 3D Face Alignment in the Wild Challenge competition (done in conjunction with the European Conference on Computer Vision, ECCV) that required the reconstruction of 3D face shape from a single image. The derived algorithm can be trained in a couple hours and testing runs at more than 1,000 frames/s on an i7 desktop. We also present an innovative data augmentation approach that allows us to train the system efficiently with small number of samples. And the system is robust to noise (e.g., imprecise landmark points) and missing data (e.g., occluded or undetected landmark points).
The Economics of Counterfeiting

We develop a strategic theory of counterfeiting as a multi-market large game. Bad guys choose whether to counterfeit, and what quality to produce. Opposing them is a continuum of good guys who select a costly verification effort. In equilibrium, counterfeiters produce better quality at higher notes, but verifiers try sufficiently harder that verification still improves. We develop a graphical framework for deducing comparative statics. Passed and counterfeiting rates vanish for low and high notes. Our predictions are consistent with time series and cross-sectional patterns in a unique data set assembled largely from the Secret Service.
A DIRECT ANTERIOR APPROACH THA WITH TABLE ASSIST

Patient History This patient is a 59-year-old female who presents with right side hip pain which has gradually progressed over the last 2 years. She describes activity related pain in the right groin radiating down the anterior thigh to the knee. There is also a moderate amount of posterior pain in the ischial region. She is now having pain at night as well as occasional back pain. The patient works as a landscape designer and historically has been quite active participating in yoga, snow skiing, and hiking. These activities have become more limited over the last 12 months. She denies any significant right knee pain and has no radicular complaints. Prior treatment has consisted of physical therapy on two separate occasions over the last year both for 6-week periods without relief. She uses anti-inflammatories daily but otherwise has not had any injections or surgery on the right hip. A cane is used for long distances and her maximum ambulatory capacity is 2 blocks. She is unable to negotiate stairs easily and has difficulty donning socks and shoes. Overall she describes her activity level as light labour. She has no significant past medical or surgical history and takes no medications. The patient is allergic to sulfa drugs. She denies tobacco use. By physical exam she stands 5 feet 4 inches and weighs 150 pounds. Lumbar spine exam shows no tenderness to palpation with negative straight leg raise bilaterally. Right hip exam is consistent with 95 degrees of flexion and 10 degrees extension. Abduction and adduction are 20 degrees and 10 degrees, respectively with 5 degrees of both internal and external rotation. Groin pain is reproduced with passive hip range of motion. Hip flexion and abduction strength are 5/5 with mild tenderness along the greater trochanteric region. Leg lengths are symmetrical. Right knee exam shoes full range of motion with neutral alignment and stability in both the coronal and sagittal planes. Right foot and ankle exam is consistent with normal sensory motor function and palpable dosalis pedis and posterior tibial pulses. X-ray examination demonstrates advanced degenerative changes in the right hip with complete joint space obliteration and early erosive changes in the femoral head. Bone quality shows mild osteoporosis. Impression: Osteoarthritis Right Hip Plan: Anterior Approach Right Total Hip Arthroplasty
Verification procedures supporting software systems development

Particularly in the context of large software systems, prevention and early detection of errors during product development are critical factors in controlling cost and quality. Top-down design, structured programming, informal program verifications, and code inspection are some of the tools presently being used in order to reduce the probability of error. However, current methodologies fail to provide a systematic, comprehensive and well formalized error-detection strategy. In response to this need, a new software development methodology is proposed. The approach, described in the next section, incorporates a cohesive set of verification procedures that enables the validation of each development stage, from requirements definition through individual program implementation. The description of the verification procedures is part of the third section, while the fourth section deals with some managerial aspects related to the practical implementation of the advocated techniques in an industrial environment. A summary and conclusions are presented in the fifth section.
The urban geographical imagination in the age of Big Data

This paper explores the variety of ways that emerging sources of (big) data are being used to re-conceptualize the city, and how these understandings of what the urban is shapes the design of inter...
Development and Implementation of a Clinical Pathway for Radiation of Bone Metastases on a Palliative Radiation Oncology Service

170 Background: Clinical pathways increase compliance with treatment guidelines and reduce in-hospital complications. Evidence around treatment of complicated bone metastases is increasingly nuanced and although ASTRO/ACR recommend single fraction radiation therapy for uncomplicated bone metastases, implementation is variable. We sought to determine the effects of a bone metastases-focused clinical pathway on the practice patterns of our institution’s palliative radiation oncology service (SPRO), which sees 600 patients yearly and on a rotating basis, involves 23 physicians, 28 residents, 2 nurse practitioners, and 1 fellow. We hypothesized that pathway implementation would augment data-driven use of palliative radiation for bone metastases, including use of 8 Gy x 1 for uncomplicated metastases. It would also enhance physician efficiency and confidence. Methods: Using published literature, clinical guidelines, and expert input, we designed a comprehensive clinical pathway for bone metastases radiation. T...
Internal and external duality in abstract polytopes

We define an abstract regular polytope to be internally self-dual if its self-duality can be realized as one of its symmetries. This property has many interesting implications on the structure of the polytope, which we present here. Then, we construct many examples of internally self-dual polytopes. In particular, we show that there are internally self-dual regular polyhedra of each type $\{p, p\}$ for $p \geq 3$ and that there are both infinitely many internally self-dual and infinitely many externally self-dual polyhedra of type $\{p, p\}$ for $p$ even. We also show that there are internally self-dual polytopes in each rank, including a new family of polytopes that we construct here.
Colloquium : Zoo of quantum-topological phases of matter

The subject of this Colloquium is related to the topic of the 2016 Physics Nobel Prize that was awarded to David J. Thouless, F. Duncan M. Haldane, and J. Michael Kosterlitz ``for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.'' The Colloquium provides a pedagogical introduction to topological phases of matter from comprehensive point of view of many-body entanglement which is important in quantum physics.
Computing Equilibria with Partial Commitment

In security games, the solution concept commonly used is that of a Stackelberg equilibrium where the defender gets to commit to a mixed strategy. The motivation for this is that the attacker can repeatedly observe the defender's actions and learn her distribution over actions, before acting himself. If the actions were not observable, Nash or perhaps correlated equilibrium would arguably be a more natural solution concept. But what if some, but not all, aspects of the defender's actions are observable? In this paper, we introduce solution concepts corresponding to this case, both with and without correlation. We study their basic properties, whether these solutions can be efficiently computed, and the impact of additional observability on the utility obtained.
Cognitive and linguistic predictors of mathematical word problems with and without irrelevant information

The purpose of this study was to identify cognitive and linguistic predictors of word problems with versus without irrelevant information. The sample was 701 2nd-grade students who received no specialized intervention on word problems. In the fall, they were assessed on initial arithmetic and word-problem skill as well as language ability, working memory capacity, and processing speed; in the spring, they were tested on a word-problem measure that included items with versus without irrelevant information. Significant predictors common to both forms of word problems were initial arithmetic and word problem-solving skill as well as language and working memory. Nonverbal reasoning predicted word problems with irrelevant information, but not word problems without irrelevant information. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for intervention and future research.
An Improved Integrality Gap for the Călinescu-Karloff-Rabani Relaxation for Multiway Cut

We construct an improved integrality gap instance for the Calinescu-Karloff-Rabani LP relaxation of the Multiway Cut problem. For \(k \geqslant 3\) terminals, our instance has an integrality ratio of \(6 / (5 + \frac{1}{k - 1}) - \varepsilon \), for every constant \(\varepsilon > 0\). For every \(k \geqslant 4\), this improves upon a long-standing lower bound of \(8 / (7 + \frac{1}{k - 1})\) by Freund and Karloff [7]. Due to the result by Manokaran et al. [9], our integrality gap also implies Unique Games hardness of approximating Multiway Cut of the same ratio.
A Misunderstanding of Moral Distress.

Campbell, Ulrich, and Grady (2016) should be commended for attempting to contribute to the discussion of what many believe is currently a messy concept. They propose that a broader definition of mo...
Analysis of Scattering from Archival Pulsar Data using a CLEAN-based Method

In this work we adopted a CLEAN-based method to determine the scatter time, $\tau$, from archived pulsar profiles under both the thin screen and uniform medium scattering models and to calculate the scatter time frequency scale index $\alpha$ where $\tau\propto\nu^{\alpha}$. The value of $\alpha$ is $-4.4$, if a Kolmogorov spectrum of the interstellar medium turbulence is assumed. We deconvolved 1342 profiles from 347 pulsars over a broad range of frequencies and dispersion measures. In our survey, in the majority of cases the scattering effect was not significant compared to pulse profile widths. For a subset of 21 pulsars scattering at the lowest frequencies was large enough to be measured. Because reliable scatter time measurements were determined only for the lowest frequency, we were limited to using upper limits on scatter times at higher frequencies for the purpose of our scatter time frequency slope estimation. We scaled the deconvolved scatter time to 1~GHz assuming $\alpha=-4.4$ and considered our results in the context of other observations which yielded a broad relation between scatter time and dispersion measure.
Injective stabilization of additive functors, I. Preliminaries

Abstract This paper is the first one in a series of three dealing with the concept of injective stabilization of the tensor product and its applications. Its primary goal is to collect known facts and establish a basic operational calculus that will be used in the subsequent parts. This is done in greater generality than is necessary for the stated goal. Several results of independent interest are also established. They include, among other things, connections with satellites, an explicit construction of the stabilization of a finitely presented functor, various exactness properties of the injectively stable functors, a construction, from a functor and a short exact sequence, of a doubly-infinite exact sequence by splicing the injective stabilization of the functor and its derived functors. When specialized to the tensor product with a finitely presented module, the injective stabilization with coefficients in the ring is isomorphic to the 1-torsion functor. The Auslander-Reiten formula is extended to a more general formula, which holds for arbitrary (i.e., not necessarily finite) modules over arbitrary associative rings with identity. Weakening of the assumptions in the theorems of Eilenberg and Watts leads to characterizations of the requisite zeroth derived functors. The subsequent papers, provide applications of the developed techniques. Part II deals with new notions of torsion module and cotorsion module of a module. This is done for arbitrary modules over arbitrary rings. Part III introduces a new concept, called the asymptotic stabilization of the tensor product. The result is closely related to different variants of stable homology (these are generalizations of Tate homology to arbitrary rings). A comparison transformation from Vogel homology to the asymptotic stabilization of the tensor product is constructed and shown to be epic.
Missing in action: practice, paralegality, and the nature of immigration enforcement

AbstractU.S. immigration control is typically understood in terms of enforcement practices undertaken by federal officers guided by legislation and court decisions. While legislation and court opinions are important components of the immigration control apparatus, they do not adequately account for immigration control ‘on the ground.’ To explore this problem, we advance the concept of paralegality, the practices and operations that constitute a dynamic system of actions and relationships that are not simply linear applications of legislation or judicial decisions but may in fact extend or counter these texts. We illustrate the importance of paralegality by reconstructing the evolution of the §287(g) and Secure Communities programs, both of which have shape-shifted dramatically since their inception. Our account of immigration control highlights the problem practice poses for law, proposes a theoretical alternative to textual-law-centric research on immigration and law enforcement, and contributes to schol...
Convex Hull of the Quadratic Branch AC Power Flow Equations and Its Application in Radial Distribution Networks

A branch flow model (BFM) is used to formulate the AC power flow in general networks. For each branch/line, the BFM contains a nonconvex quadratic equality. A mathematical formulation of its convex hull is proposed, which is the tightest convex relaxation of this quadratic equation. The convex hull formulation consists of a second-order cone inequality and a linear inequality within the physical bounds of power flows. The convex hull formulation is analytically proved and geometrically validated. An optimal scheduling problem of distributed energy storage (DES) in radial distribution systems with high penetration of photovoltaic resources is investigated in this paper. To capture the performance of both the battery and converter, a second-order DES model is proposed. Following the convex hull of the quadratic branch flow equation, the convex hull formulation of the nonconvex constraint in the DES model is also derived. The proposed convex hull models are used to generate a tight convex relaxation of the DES optimal scheduling problem. The proposed approach is tested on several radial systems. A discussion on the extension to meshed networks is provided.
The economics of competition and cooperation between MNOs and MVNOs

In this work, we consider the economics of the interaction between Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). We investigate the incentives of an MNO for offering some of her resources to an MVNO instead of using the resources for her own. We formulate the problem as a sequential game. We consider a market with one MNO and one MVNO, and a continuum of undecided endusers. We assume that EUs have different preferences for the MNO and the MVNO. These preferences can be because of the differences in the service they are offering or the reluctance of an EU to buy her plan from one of them. We assume that the preferences also depend on the investment level the MNO and the MVNO. We show that there exists a unique interior SPNE, i.e. the SPNE by which both SPs receive a positive mass of EUs, and characterize it. We also consider a benchmark case in which the MNO and the MVNO do not cooperate, characterize the unique SPNE of this case, and compare the results of our model to the benchmark case to assess the incentive of the MNO to invest in her infrastructure and to offer it to the MVNO.