cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Quickest hub discovery in correlation graphs

A sequential test is proposed for detection and isolation of hubs in a correlation graph. Hubs in a correlation graph of a random vector are variables (nodes) that have a strong correlation edge. It is assumed that the random vectors are high-dimensional and are multivariate Gaussian distributed. The test employs a family of novel local and global summary statistics generated from small samples of the random vectors. Delay and false alarm analysis of the test is obtained and numerical results are provided to show that the test is consistent in identifying hubs, as the false alarm rate goes to zero.
When no bad deed goes punished: Relational contracting in Ghana and the UK

Abstract Experiment evidence to date indicates that subjects follow a trigger strategy in finitely repeated games: they punish bad contractual performance by reducing future offers and the threat of punishment disciplines opportunistic breach. This behavior contradicts standard game theory predictions. We conduct a repeated prisoner's dilemma (PD) game experiment with university students in Ghana and the UK. The experiment is framed as an employment contract. Each period the employer makes a irrevocable wage offer to the worker who then chooses an effort level. UK subjects use a trigger strategy to discipline workers, in line with previous experiments: wage offers reward high effort and punish low effort in the past; this induces workers to choose high effort; and gains from trade are shared between workers and employers. We find no such evidence with Ghana subjects: employers seldom reduce wage offers after low effort and, if they do, workers respond by lowering effort; employer often reduce wages after high effort; and employers earn a zero payoff on average. Introducing competition or reputation does not significantly improve workers’ effort. We conclude that the use of trigger strategies in repeated labor transactions is not a universally shared heuristic.
Partial impredicativity in reverse mathematics

In reverse mathematics, it is possible to have a curious situation where we know that an implication does not reverse, but appear to have no information on how to weaken the assumption while preserving the conclusion (other than reducing all the way to the tautology of assuming the conclusion). A main cause of this phenomenon is the proof of a sentence from the theory . Using methods based on the functional interpretation, we introduce a family of weakenings of and use them to give new upper bounds for the Nash-Williams Theorem of wqo theory and Menger's Theorem for countable graphs.
Gaussian hypergeometric evaluations of traces of Frobenius for elliptic curves

We present here a formula for expressing the trace of the Frobenius endomorphism of an elliptic curve E over F q satisfying j(E) ≠ 0,1728 and q ≡ 1 (mod 12) in terms of special values of Gaussian hypergeometric series. This paper uses methods introduced by Fuselier for one-parameter families of curves to express the trace of Frobenius of E as a function of its j-invariant and discriminant instead of a parameter, which are more intrinsic characteristics of the curve.
Thump, ring: the sound of a bouncing ball

A basketball bounced on a stiff surface produces a characteristic loud thump, followed by a high-pitched ringing. Describing the ball as an inextensible but flexible membrane containing compressed air, I formulate an approximate theory of the generation of these sounds and predict their amplitudes and waveforms.
Computational studies of the skid test: Evaluation of the non-shock ignition of LX-10 using HERMES

We perform computational studies to evaluate the non-shock ignition response of LX-10 (95wt.% HMX, 5wt.% Viton A) during a skid impact test. We employ the HERMES (High Explosive Response to MEchanical Stimuli) model for LX-10 for Skid test calculations investigating the influence of drop height and angle on the pressure, strain-rate, strain, and ignition states. While grit is typically present in skid tests, it was not considered in these continuum-scale calculations. We found that the incident angle has a much more significant influence on pressure, strain-rate, strain, and ignition states than drop height. The peak HERMES ignition parameter value, Ign, is nearly one order of magnitude higher for an incident angle of 45° than for 14°. Peak Ign values occur at the contact patch where shear deformation is highest and is a result of the shear-dependence in the ignition criteria. While peak Ign values for Steven Tests were approximately 60, the skid test had a much smaller value < 2 for the scenarios considered in this study. The discrepancy in ignition values suggest that grit-explosive interactions play a significant role in skid test response. Since the peak ignition values are much less for the 14° impact angles, the role of the grit may be more important at lower incident angles. Future work should include meso-scale calculations to resolve the localized grit interactions that underpins these shear ignition mechanisms.
Guardianship and Clinical Research Participation: The Case of Wards with Disorders of Consciousness

We review relevant federal law about research on human subjects and state laws on guardian authority to determine whether guardians can consent on behalf of their wards to participation in research. The Common Rule is silent on the issue as are most state guardianship laws. Our analysis shows significant variation in guardians' decision-making authority in the states that do regulate wards' participation in research.We consider how the appointment of guardians for patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) impacts such patients' access to research. We assert that it is important that such persons be permitted to participate in research, so that their conditions and potential medical interventions can be studied, and that those with similar conditions can benefit from the knowledge gained from these studies. We argue that state guardianship laws should be adapted to specifically give guardians the authority to consent to research on behalf of wards who may be able to regain decisional capacity.
Data-driven estimation of travel latency cost functions via inverse optimization in multi-class transportation networks

We develop a method to estimate from data travel latency cost functions in multi-class transportation networks, which accommodate different types of vehicles with very different characteristics (e.g., cars and trucks). Leveraging our earlier work on inverse variational inequalities, we develop a datadriven approach to estimate the travel latency cost functions. Extensive numerical experiments using benchmark networks, ranging from moderate-sized to large-sized, demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach.
The behavior of iodine in graphite

Abstract The adsorption of iodine on National Carbon type TSX graphite was studied at 100, 200, 500 and 800°C, over the pressure range 0.01–15 mm Hg, using a tracer technique. Above 200°C iodine was chemisorbed on a small fraction of the graphite surface. At 100°C the iodine was held on the graphite by both chemisorption and physical adsorption. The surface area of the graphite, determined from the 100°C iodine adsorption isotherm using the B.E.T. theory, was found to be in good agreement with surface area values obtained from nitrogen isotherms at −195°C. No relation was found between the amounts of iodine adsorbed on various samples and their surface area, at concentrations below one monolayer. The adsorption of iodine was enhanced by high temperature outgassing (2000°C) and contact with water vapor at 900°C. A small fraction of the iodine adsorbed at 25 and 100°C could not be removed from the graphite by heating in vacuo at 950°C. The amount of iodine irreversibly adsorbed at 25°C, in saturated iodine vapor, was approximately proportional to the reversible iodine adsorption at higher temperatures.
Online and linear-time attention by enforcing monotonic alignments

Recurrent neural network models with an attention mechanism have proven to be extremely effective on a wide variety of sequence-to-sequence problems. However, the fact that soft attention mechanisms perform a pass over the entire input sequence when producing each element in the output sequence precludes their use in online settings and results in a quadratic time complexity. Based on the insight that the alignment between input and output sequence elements is monotonic in many problems of interest, we propose an end-to-end differentiable method for learning monotonic alignments which, at test time, enables computing attention online and in linear time. We validate our approach on sentence summarization, machine translation, and online speech recognition problems and achieve results competitive with existing sequence-to-sequence models.
Langmuir wave filamentation in the kinetic regime. I. Filamentation instability of Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal modes in multidimensional Vlasov simulations

A nonlinear Langmuir wave in the kinetic regime k λ D ≳ 0.2 may have a filamentation instability, where k is the wavenumber and λD is the Debye length. The nonlinear stage of that instability develops into the filamentation of Langmuir waves which in turn leads to the saturation of the stimulated Raman scattering in laser-plasma interaction experiments. Here, we study the linear stage of the filamentation instability of the particular family (H. A. Rose and D. A. Russell, Phys. Plasmas 8, 4784 (2001)) of Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal (BGK) modes (I. B. Bernstein et al., Phys. Rev. 108, 546 (1957)) that is a bifurcation of the linear Langmuir wave. Performing direct 2 + 2D Vlasov–Poisson simulations of collisionless plasma, we find the growth rates of oblique modes of the electric field as a function of BGK's amplitude, wavenumber, and the angle of the oblique mode's wavevector relative to the BGK's wavevector. Simulation results are compared to theoretical predictions.
The effects of fluoride, strontium, theobromine and their combinations on caries lesion rehardening and fluoridation.

Abstract Objective The aim was to investigate the effects of fluoride, strontium, theobromine and their combinations on caries lesion rehardening and fluoridation (EFU) under pH cycling conditions. Design Human enamel specimens were demineralized at 37 °C for 24 h using a pH 5.0 solution containing 50 mM lactic acid and 0.2% Carbopol 907 which was 50% saturated with respect to hydroxyapatite. Lesions were assigned to nine treatment groups (n = 16) based on Knoop surface microhardness indentation length. Treatment aqueous solutions were: placebo, 11.9 mM sodium fluoride (F), 23.8 mM sodium fluoride (2 × F), 1.1 mM strontium chloride hexahydrate (Sr), 1.1 mM F theobromine, Sr + theobromine, F + Sr, F + theobromine, F + Sr + theobromine. Lesions were pH cycled for 5d (daily protocol: 3 × 1min-treatment; 2 × 60min-demineralization; 4 × 60 min & overnight-artificial saliva). Knoop indentation length was measured again and%surface microhardness recovery (%SMHr) calculated. EFU was determined using the acid-etch technique. Data were analysed using ANOVA. Results Model showed fluoride dose-response for both variables (2 × F > F > placebo). For%SMHr, F + Sr+/−theobromine resulted in more rehardening than F, however less than 2 × F. F + theobromine was similar to F. For EFU, F + Sr was inferior to F, F + theobromine and F + Sr + theobromine which were similar and inferior to 2 × F. In absence of fluoride, Sr, theobromine or Sr + theobromine were virtually indistinguishable from placebo and inferior to F. Conclusions It can be concluded that a) strontium aids rehardening but not EFU and only in presence of fluoride; b) theobromine does not appear to offer any anti-caries benefits in this model; c) there are no synergistic effects between strontium and theobromine in the presence or absence of fluoride.
A Teenager in Love: Multidimensional Human Capital and Teenage Pregnancy in Ghana

I examine teenage pregnancy in Ghana, focusing on the role and interplay of Ghanaian and English reading skills, formal educational attainment, and adult literacy programme participation. Pursuing ...
The Impact of Client Error-Management Climate and the Nature of the Auditor-Client Relationship on External Auditor Reporting Decisions

ABSTRACT: An important aspect of an organization's tone at the top is its practices for correcting the behavior of employees who deviate from set corporate policies and procedures (COSO 2013). Coll...
Speeding up Consensus by Chasing Fast Decisions

This paper proposes CAESAR, a novel multi-leader Generalized Consensus protocol for geographically replicated sites. The main goal of CAESAR is to overcome one of the major limitations of existing approaches, which is the significant performance degradation when application workload produces conflicting requests. CAESAR does that by changing the way a fast decision is taken: its ordering protocol does not reject a fast decision for a client request if a quorum of nodes reply with different dependency sets for that request. The effectiveness of CAESAR is demonstrated through an evaluation study performed on Amazon's EC2 infrastructure using 5 geo-replicated sites. CAESAR outperforms other multi-leader (e.g., EPaxos) competitors by as much as 1.7x in the presence of 30% conflicting requests, and single-leader (e.g., Multi-Paxos) by up to 3.5x.
βII Protein kinase c is required for the G2/M phase transition of cell cycle

Entry into mitosis requires the coordinated action of multiple mitotic protein kinases. In this report, we investigate the involvement of protein kinase C in the control of mitosis in human cells. Treatment of synchronized HL60 cells with the highly selective protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor chelerythrine chloride leads to profound cell cycle arrest in G2 phase. The cellular effects of chelerythrine are not due to either direct or indirect inhibition of the known mitotic regulator p34(cdc2)/cyclin B kinase. Rather, several lines of evidence demonstrate that chelerythrine-mediated G2 phase arrest results from selective inhibition and degradation of betaII protein kinase C. First, chelerythrine causes dose-dependent inhibition of betaII PKC in vitro with an IC50 identical to that for G2 phase blockade in whole cells. Second, chelerythrine specifically inhibits betaII PKC-mediated lamin B phosphorylation and mitotic nuclear lamina disassembly. Third, chelerythrine leads to selective loss of betaII PKC during G2 phase in synchronized cells. Fourth, chelerythrine mediates activation-dependent degradation of PKC, indicating that betaII PKC is selectively activated during G2 phase of cell cycle. Taken together, these data demonstrate that betaII PKC activation at G2 phase is required for mitotic nuclear lamina disassembly and entry into mitosis and that betaII PKC-mediated phosphorylation of nuclear lamin B is important in these events.
Bringing Research Tools Into the Classroom

the advancement of computer technology used for research is creating the need to change the way classes are taught in higher education. “bringing research tools into the Classroom” has become a major focus for the software tools for academics and researchers (star) team at MIt. the star developers collaborate with faculty researchers to help solve the problems of moving computational tools used for research into the classroom. In the first two years of the program’s existence, the star team has implemented software to bring high-performance computing (hPC) into material modeling courses, built software for protein structure visualization and hydrological analysis of watersheds, repackaged genomics software for analyzing microarray data, and provided the development environment and computational resources necessary for teaching parallel programming. the goal of this work is to make research software and data easily accessible to students and their faculty in a package that not only promotes use in the classroom, but also creates a path for unscripted discovery. this paper presents five star software packages that are currently being used in MIt classrooms. a star software package is considered successful if it enables bringing new topics into the classroom that previously could not be taught.
Financial Innovation and Sustainable Development in Selected Countries in West Africa

Financial innovation has given a new trend to modern financial system and its importance has been widely recognized. This study investigated the effect of financial innovation augmented with bank competition on sustainable development in eight West African countries. Data were sourced from World Bank development indicators from years 2000-2013. We used two proxies of competitions, two proxies of financial innovations and regressed them on a growth indicator as well as development indicator with other control variables. Using panel data estimations, our results confirmed that an increase in banking efficiency driven by competition and financial innovation would improve economic growth and development. While the two proxies of competition were significant, the financial innovations were not significant; one displayed a negative, while the other exhibited a positive relationship with development. These results revealed the differential effects of different financial innovations adopted in the financial system. That is, the growth effect of financial innovation is sensitive to the choice of proxy. A reduction in demand for money caused by financial innovations could deter economic growth and development. This is because individuals would move away from more liquid assets to less liquid assets. On the other hand, financial innovations could potentially lead to an increase in money demand if payment systems improve and individual’s demand for more liquid assets is channeled to productive sectors. We therefore concluded that policies which would drive competition and efficiency in the banking industry as well as financial innovation should be introduced to ensure effective functioning of the financial system.
Nickel Sequestration by the Host-Defense Protein Human Calprotectin.

The human innate immune protein calprotectin (CP, S100A8/S100A9 oligomer, calgranulin A/calgranulin B oligomer, MRP-8/MRP-14 oligomer) chelates a number of first-row transition metals, including Mn(II), Fe(II), and Zn(II), and can withhold these essential nutrients from microbes. Here we elucidate the Ni(II) coordination chemistry of human CP. We present a 2.6-A crystal structure of Ni(II)- and Ca(II)-bound CP, which reveals that CP binds Ni(II) ions at both its transition-metal-binding sites: the His3Asp motif (site 1) and the His6 motif (site 2). Further biochemical studies establish that coordination of Ni(II) at the hexahistidine site is thermodynamically preferred over Zn(II). We also demonstrate that CP can sequester Ni(II) from two human pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae, that utilize this metal nutrient during infection, and inhibit the activity of the Ni(II)-dependent enzyme urease in bacterial cultures. In total, our findings expand the biological coordination chemistry ...
Advanced materials with low dielectric properties and highly thermal conductivity

In this study, the hypothesized thermal conductive monomers were synthesized by bi-phenol derivatives and monomers with vinyl functional groups, and then the purified products were identified by1H-NMR spectrum. The thermal properties of synthesized monomers were measured by DSC and TGA instruments. The resin prepared by synthesized monomers, crosslinking agent and initiator with thermal conductivity (K) is about 0.30∼0.34 W/mK, dielectric constant (D k ) is about 2.6∼3.0 at 10 GHz, and dissipation factor (D f ) is about 0.007∼0.008 at 10 GHz properties. Furthermore, The resin prepared by synthesized monomers, crosslinking agent, initiator, bi-phenol derived epoxy, normal epoxy and curing agent with K is about 0.36∼0.38W/mK, D k is about 2.6∼2.8 at 10 GHz, and D f is about 0.015∼0.018 at 10 GHz properties. Copper clad laminate (CCL) prepared by glass cloth and resins composed by the above resin system, low D k resin system, and modified thermal conductive filler shows high K is about 1.5 W/mK, D k is about 3.3∼3.5 at 38 GHz, and D f is about 0.004∼0.005 at 38 GHz properties.
Unified Output Feedback Design and Loop Transfer Recovery

Abastract This paper presents, for the first time, a systematic, general, and simple design procedure for a dynamic output feedback (DOF) compensator whose internal state z(t) converges to a linear transformation of open loop system states Tx(t). This procedure is valid for all observable systems {A,B,C} with more outputs than inputs, and is valid for arbitrary (but stable) compensator poles. The unique property z(t)→Tx(t) guarantees uniquely the following four significant advantages and developments. 1). this compensator implements a perfectly equivalent yet more powerful static output feedback (SOF), which is also equivalent of a constrained state feedback (SF). 2). this compensator guarantees exact and finite gain LTR for this constrained SF, and therefore significantly reduces the restrictions of the existing result of exact or finite gain LTR (restrictions of minimum-phase and rank(CB)=rank(B) are omitted). Therefore, our constrained SF is more reasonably deigned than the normally formulated SF which is designed independent of LTR observer implementation. 3). this compensator perfectly unifies SOF and arbitrary SF with exact LTR observer implementation, as its two extreme structures. 4). this compensator guarantees the critical separation principle of the corresponding closed loop system
Local Asymptotic Stabilization of Two Dimensional Polynomial Systems

Abstract We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the asymptotic stabilizability of a class of two dimensional polynomial systems.
Benchmark results for high-speed 4-bit accumulators implemented in indium phosphide DHBT technology

High-speed accumulators are frequently used as a benchmark of the high-speed performance and ability to yield large scale circuits in InP double heterojunction bipolar (DHBT) processes. In previous work, we reported test results of an InP DHBT 4-bit accumulator with 624 transistors operating at 41 GHz clock frequency with a power consumption of 4.1W. In this work, we report on modifications that allow the circuit to operate at a lower supply voltage and a corresponding lower power consumption. Simulation results for this modification indicate that a 16% power reduction can be obtained, while maintaining a high-speed operating frequency of 40 GHz.
Sexual Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus

AN ESTIMATED 16 000 people in the United States will develop acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 1986.1Already, an estimated 0.5 to 1.7 million people in the United States have been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (also known as the human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III [HTLV-III] and the lymphadenopathy-associated virus [LAV]).1-3Blood donor deferral, HIV-antibody screening, and heat treatment of factor concentrates will largely prevent further transmission of HIV to recipients of these products, but blood recipients represent only 2% to 3% of all AIDS cases.1Sexual contact has been the route of transmission of the virus in over 78% of all AIDS cases. Moreover, the prevalence of infection with HIV is already almost 70% in at least one group of sexually active gay men.4In the absence of a vaccine or therapy, the major hope for preventing transmission is the adoption of
Use of Inferior Rectus Myocutaneous Flap for Coverage of Bladder Exstrophy Defect

This report details the closure of a large suprapubic abdominal wall defect with the use of inferior rectus abdominis and tensor fascia lata myocutaneous flaps in a 14-mo-old child with exstrophy of the bladder.
Efficacy of Ganciclovir in Liver and Kidney Transplant Recipients with Severe Cytomegalovirus Infection

Twelve liver and 5 kidney transplant recipients with severe cytomegalovirus infection were treated with Ganciclovir (7.5 mg/kg/day, intravenously). Ten were evaluable (compatible clinical picture, organ involvement shown histopathologically or by culture, viremia, and absence of concomitant infection). All 17 patients were studied for adverse drug side effects. A total of 9 evaluable patients survived the infection; 1 died during treatment due to infection or drug toxicity. A death 19 days after completion of treatment was due to unrelated causes. Patients became afebrile after 2-9 days (mean, 5.3 days) of treatment. Liver function improved, pulmonary infiltrates cleared, and hypoxemia reversed during therapy. Viremia ceased during therapy in 9 patients; asymptomatic viruria persisted or recurred in 6 of 7 patients studied. No relapses occurred during follow-up (7-17 months; mean, 13 months). Transient neutropenia and thrombocytopenia occurred in 3 and 1 patients, respectively. Ganciclovir appears promising for treatment of severe CMV infection in patients with kidney or liver transplants.
Hormonal Therapy for Metastatic Male Breast Cancer

• Forty-one men with metastatic breast cancer were treated with 70 trials of hormone therapy. These included 25 orchiectomies and 45 additive hormonal treatments. The overall response rate was 31%. The response rate was 32% to orchiectomy, 17% to estrogens, 43% to steroids, 25% to tamoxifen citrate, and 60% to androgens. The response to additive hormonal therapy was 31% and was not affected by prior orchiectomy (33% v 30%). Median overall response duration was 12 months, 17.5 months following orchiectomy, 8.5 months following additive hormonal therapy, five months following estrogens, 11 months following steroids, and eight months following androgens. Median survival from first metastasis was significantly prolonged in patients responding to orchiectomy and additive hormonal therapy. Patients with a disease-free interval (DFI) longer than 12 months had a 59% response rate to hormonal therapy compared with 9% of those with a DFI no more than 12 months. Response to one form of hormonal therapy did not predict later hormonal response. Ablative and additive hormonal therapy offer effective palliation to one third of male breast cancer patients, produce little toxic effects and morbidity, and improve survival duration after metastasis in responders. (Arch Intern Med1983;143:237-240)
Long Term Indwelling Urethral Catheterisation for Congenital Neuropathic Bladder

Long term urethral catheterisation remains an important and effective method of achieving dryness and maintaining renal function in children with congenital neuropathic bladders. Those most likely to require an indwelling catheter are girls who are severely disabled because of myelomeningocele. The management of such catheterisation and its consequences, in the light of our experience with a 100 children treated over a 12 year period, is described.
Standardization of the Immunofluorescence Test for Autoantibody to Nuclear Antigens (ANA): Use of Reference Sera of Defined Antibody Specificity

Standardization of the indirect immunofluorescence antinuclear antibody (IF-ANA) test can be improved for a given substrate with iise of reference ANA sera, uniform assay conditions, and standardization of optical systems. To accomplish this, reference sera from the Arthritis Foundation with defined antibody specificities for nDNA, SS-B, RNP, Sm, nucleoli, and “speckled pattern” were reacted with commonly used IF-ANA substrates, mouse kidney sections, KB and HEp-2 tissue culture cells. Reagents and assay conditions used were those provided with the substrates in commercially available IF-ANA kits. A microscope slide with graded intensities of fluorescent beads was used to standardize microscope fluorescence intensity readings. The authors’ fluorescence pattern and intensity results should be directly comparable to results obtained in other laboratories for the six antibodies for which reference sera are available. Although no defined sera are widely available for SS-A, Scl-70, PM-1, and centromere antibodies, the ability of each substrate to detect these antinuclear antibodies as well as mitochondrial, smooth muscle, ribosomal and microsomal antibodies also was tested. HEp-2 cells and KB cells were found to be superior to mouse kidney sections for detection of SS-A, Scl-70, PM-1 and centromere antinuclear antibodies. Mouse kidney sections were superior for screening of sera for the absence of ANA as well as for detection of smooth muscle and liver-kidney microsomal antibodies. Other antibodies were detected with equal sensitivity with all substrates and each of the three ANA kits used in the study performed satisfactorily. Use of reference sera as well as optical standardization is recommended for IF-ANA testing.
Disseminated Kaposi’s Sarcoma in a Patient With Acquired Ichthyosis

An elderly black male with Kaposi's sarcoma of the skin and lymph nodes is presented. The patient developed several violaceous papules involving the nose, which suggested a diagnosis of sarcoidosis clinically but proved to be Kaposi's sarcoma on biopsy. His clinical course was complicated by the development of acquired ichthyosis. The prognosis and treatment of generalized Kaposi's sarcoma is discussed.
Exact dimension estimation of interacting qubit systems assisted by a single quantum probe

Estimating the dimension of an Hilbert space is an important component of quantum system identification. In quantum technologies, the dimension of a quantum system (or its corresponding accessible Hilbert space) is an important resource, as larger dimensions determine e.g. the performance of quantum computation protocols or the sensitivity of quantum sensors. Despite being a critical task in quantum system identification, estimating the Hilbert space dimension is experimentally challenging. While there have been proposals for various dimension witnesses capable of putting a lower bound on the dimension from measuring collective observables that encode correlations, in many practical scenarios, especially for multiqubit systems, the experimental control might not be able to engineer the required initialization, dynamics and observables. Here we propose a more practical strategy, that relies not on directly measuring an unknown multiqubit target system, but on the indirect interaction with a local quantum probe under the experimenter's control. Assuming only that the interaction model is given and the evolution correlates all the qubits with the probe, we combine a graph-theoretical approach and realization theory to demonstrate that the dimension of the Hilbert space can be exactly estimated from the model order of the system. We further analyze the robustness in the presence of background noise of the proposed estimation method based on realization theory, finding that despite stringent constrains on the allowed noise level, exact dimension estimation can still be achieved.
The Visible Human Project: From Body to Bits

Atlases of anatomy have long been a mainstay for visualizing and identifying features of the human body [1]. Many are constructed of idealized illustrations rendered so that structures are presented as three-dimensional (3-D) pictures. Others have employed photographs of actual dissections. Still others are composed of collections of artist renderings of organs or areas of interest. All rely on a basically two-dimensional (2-D) graphic display to depict and allow for a better understanding of a complicated 3-D structure.
Optical Absorption, Raman, and Photoluminescence Excitation Spectroscopy of Inhomogeneous InGaN Films

InxGa1−xN films with x=0.06 to x=0.49 were characterized by optical transmittance, Raman, and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopies. Previous microstructural characterizations detected phase separation only in films with x>0.2. The transmittance data suggest that compositional inhomogeneity is also present in the lower-x films (x 0.2. The composition dependence of the Raman spectra, from x=0.28 to x=0.49, is consistent with an increase in the size of the phase-separated regions with increasing x.
Measuring and Modeling the U.S. Regulatory Ecosystem

Over the last 23 years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has required over 34,000 companies to file over 165,000 annual reports. These reports, the so-called “Form 10-Ks,” contain a characterization of a company’s financial performance and its risks, including the regulatory environment in which a company operates. In this paper, we analyze over 4.5 million references to U.S. Federal Acts and Agencies contained within these reports to measure the regulatory ecosystem, in which companies are organisms inhabiting a regulatory environment. While individuals across the political, economic, and academic world frequently refer to trends in this regulatory ecosystem, far less attention has been paid to supporting such claims with large-scale, longitudinal data. In this paper, in addition to positing a model of regulatory ecosystems, we document an increase in the regulatory energy per filing, i.e., a warming “temperature.” We also find that the diversity of the regulatory ecosystem has been increasing over the past two decades. These findings support the claim that regulatory activity and complexity are increasing, and this framework contributes an important step towards improving academic and policy discussions around legal complexity and regulation.
Hierarchical Association Coefficient Algorithm: New Method for Genome-Wide Association Study.

Hierarchical association coefficient algorithm calculates the degree of association between observations and categories into a value named hierarchical association coefficient (HA-coefficient) between 0 for the lower limit and 1 for the upper limit. The HA-coefficient algorithm can be operated with stratified ascending categories based on the average of observations in each category. The upper limit refers to a condition where observations are increasingly ordered into the stratified ascending categories, whereas the lower limit refers to a condition where observations are decreasingly ordered into the stratified ascending categories. An HA-coefficient represents how close an observed categorization is to the upper limit, or how distant an observed categorization is from the lower limit. To demonstrate robustness and reliability, the HA-coefficient algorithm was applied to 3 different simulated data sets with the same pattern in terms of the association between observations and categories. From all simula...
Estimating the Prevalence of Serious Mental Illness and Dementia Diagnoses Among Medicare Beneficiaries in the Health and Retirement Study.

Objective:To estimate the prevalence of serious mental illness and dementia among Medicare beneficiaries in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).Methods:This study utilizes HRS-linked Medicare claims data sets and inverse probability weighting to estimate overall and age-specific cumulative prevalence rates of dementia and serious mental illnesses among 18,740 Medicare beneficiaries. Two-way tabulations determine conditional probabilities of dementia diagnoses among beneficiaries diagnosed with specific mental illnesses, and binary logistic regressions determine conditional probabilities of dementia diagnoses among beneficiaries diagnosed with specific mental illnesses, controlling for covariates.Results:Weighted prevalence estimates for dementia, schizophrenia (SZP), bipolar disorder (BPD), and major depressive disorder (MDD) are similar to previous studies. Odds of dementia diagnosis are significantly greater for beneficiaries diagnosed with SZP, BPD, or MDD.Conclusions:Co-occurring mental disabilities...
Output- and performance-based road contracts and agricultural production : evidence from Zambia

Rural access is among the most important infrastructure elements to stimulate economic growth in rural and remote areas. The sustainability of feeder road maintenance is a challenge in many developing countries. Many feeder roads are unpaved and need to be maintained frequently, but they are often neglected under budget pressure. Output- and performance-based road contracts are an instrument to ensure the sustainability of road maintenance. Contractors are required not only to improve roads, but also to maintain them. Using micro data from household surveys in Zambia, the paper examines the impacts of output- and performance-based road contracts on agricultural production. It shows that the contracts have a significant impact on crop production, especially maize and groundnuts, two major crops grown in the study area. The paper also finds that the measured impacts are associated with actual road maintenance works, regardless of contractual methods. Any road work can improve people's connectivity, even if it is not an output- and performance-based road contracts. The impact of the contracts is catalytic: more road works were implemented on contract roads than non-contract roads, holding everything else constant. This is an important contribution to the sustainability of road maintenance. Finally, road improvement works are found to facilitate farmers' market participation, but the impact seems weak. There may be other constraints. Transport service costs are found to have a negative impact on farmers' market sales. Thus, although roads are improved, transport services may be not available or too expensive, which still hamper farmers' market participation.
Information Seeding and Knowledge Production in Online Communities: Evidence from OpenStreetMap

The wild success of a few online communities (such as Wikipedia) has obscured the fact that most attempts at forming such communities fail. This study evaluates information seeding, an early-stage ...
Assessment of the productive efficiency of large wind farms in the United States: An application of two-stage data envelopment analysis

Abstract Wind power is one of the most promising renewable energy sources that has gained enormous attention, especially in the electricity generation sector over the past decade in the United States. In this study Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is implemented to quantitatively evaluate the relative efficiencies of the 236 large utility-scale wind farms. Input- and output-oriented CCR (Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes) and BCC (Banker, Charnes, and Cooper) models are applied to pre-determined three input and three output variables. The sensitivity analysis is conducted for the robustness of DEA by introducing seven new models with the various combinations of input and output variables of the original model. Tobit regression models are developed for the second stage of the analysis to investigate the effects of specifications of the wind turbine technologies. DEA results indicate that two-thirds of the wind farms are operated efficiently. On average, 70% of the wind farms have a considerable potential for further improvement in operational productivity by expanding these wind farm projects, 24% of them should reduce their operational size to increase their productivity level, and 6% of them are operating wind power at the most productive scale size. Nonparametric statistical tests show that the most efficient wind farms are located in Oklahoma because of the relatively high wind speed resources. Tobit regression model indicates the selection of the brand of the wind turbine has a significant contribution to the productive efficiency of the wind farms. The results of this study shed some light on the current efficiency assessments of the 236 large utility-scale wind farms in the United States and the future of wind energy for both energy practitioners and policy makers.
Position Tracking for Virtual Reality Using Commodity WiFi

Today, experiencing virtual reality (VR) is a cumbersome experience which either requires dedicated infrastructure like infrared cameras to track the headset and hand-motion controllers (e.g., Oculus Rift, HTC Vive), or provides only 3-DoF (Degrees of Freedom) tracking which severely limits the user experience (e.g., Samsung Gear). To truly enable VR everywhere, we need position tracking to be available as a ubiquitous service. This paper presents WiCapture, a novel approach which leverages commodity WiFi infrastructure, which is ubiquitous today, for tracking purposes. We prototype WiCapture using off-the-shelf WiFi radios and show that it achieves an accuracy of 0.88 cm compared to sophisticated infrared-based tracking systems like the Oculus, while providing much higher range, resistance to occlusion, ubiquity and ease of deployment.
Integrated ground-based hyperspectral imaging and geochemical study of the Eagle Ford Group in West Texas

Abstract This study used ground-based hyperspectral imaging to map an outcrop of the Eagle Ford Group in west Texas. The Eagle Ford Group consists of alternating layers of mudstone – wackestone, grainstone – packstone facies and volcanic ash deposits with high total organic content deposited during the Cenomanian – Turonian time period. It is one of the few unconventional source rock and reservoirs that have surface representations. Ground-based hyperspectral imaging scanned an outcrop and hand samples at close ranges with very fine spatial resolution (centimeter to sub-millimeter). Spectral absorption modeling of clay minerals and calcite with the modified Gaussian model (MGM) allowed quantification of variations of mineral abundances. Petrographic analysis confirmed mineral identifications and shed light on sedimentary textures, and major element geochemistry supported the mineral quantification. Mineral quantification resulted in mapping of mudstone – wackestone, grainstone – packstone facies and bentonites (volcanic ash beds). The lack of spatial associations between the grainstones and bentonites on the outcrop calls into question the hypothesis that the primary productivity is controlled by iron availability from volcanic ash beds. Enrichment of molybdenum (Mo) and uranium (U) indicated “unrestricted marine” paleo-hydrogeology and anoxic to euxinic paleo-redox bottom water conditions. Hyperspectral remote sensing data also helped in creating a virtual outcrop model with detailed mineralogical compositions, and provided reservoir analog to extract compositional and geo-mechanical characteristics and variations. The utilization of these new techniques in geo-statistical analysis provides a workflow for employing remote sensing in resource exploration and exploitation.
Unilateral and multilateral sanctions: A network approach ☆

Abstract The extensive literature on efficacy of sanctions has been mainly focused on a dyadic interaction between sender and target. In contrast, this paper examines sanctions when the sender and target are embedded in a network of linkages to other agents and each agent's utility is a function of the size of the agent's component. Efficacy of sanctions is then a function of two factors: the network structure binding the sender and target, and the concavity/convexity of utility in the component size. We consider both unilateral sanctions and multilateral sanctions. We demonstrate how the network architecture, together with the specification of utility, qualifies and sometimes reverses the main tenets of the dyadic approach. We add to the recent work on identifying network architectures that sustain cooperation via the threat of exclusion by showing that the utility specification matters. Thus the same network can be efficacious for sanctions if utility is convex in component size but not if it is concave.
Chapter 11 – Analysis of Three-Dimensional Problems

The three-dimensional elements and their applications are considered for modeling thick short beams, thick pressure vessels, machine foundations, and concentrated loads acting on elastic half-space. The basic element, tetrahedron, has four nodes with three displacements, one along each of the x, y, and z coordinates, at each node. A linear displacement model in three dimensions is used for u, v, and w inside the element. The resulting stiffness matrix of order 12 × 12 and consistent load vectors due to initial (thermal) strains, body forces, or distributed pressure loading, each of order 12 × 1, are derived. The hexahedron element with eight nodes with three degrees of freedom at each node is considered using natural coordinates. Assuming a linear displacement model, the derivation of the element stiffness matrix of order 24 × 24 is presented. The analysis of solids of revolution (or axisymmetric solids) is outlined using a ring element with triangular cross section. By using triangular coordinates and assuming linear variations for the radial and axial displacements within the element, the 6 × 6 stiffness matrix and 6 × 1 load vectors due to initial strains, body forces, and surface forces are derived.
A BLOCKCHAIN SOLUTION TO GUN CONTROL

Blockchain technology can help reduce firearm related morbidity and mortality by improving background checks, gun registration, and decreasing economic pressures that increase interpersonal violence and suicides. In the US, firearm related deaths have reached epidemic levels. Suicides were the 10th leading cause of death and homicides the 17th leading cause of death in 2014, with the majority of these due to firearm injury [1] . The level of morbidity and mortality due to firearm injuries in the US is not showing a significant decline in spite of advances in medical care and technology. Death from firearms rightly has been recognized as a public health crisis [2] .
Twisted smooth Deligne cohomology

Deligne cohomology can be viewed as a differential refinement of integral cohomology, hence captures both topological and geometric information. On the other hand, it can be viewed as the simplest nontrivial version of a differential cohomology theory. While more involved differential cohomology theories have been explicitly twisted, the same has not been done to Deligne cohomology, although existence is known at a general abstract level. We work out what it means to twist Deligne cohomology, by taking degree one twists of both integral cohomology and de Rham cohomology. We present the main properties of the new theory and illustrate its use with examples and applications. Given how versatile Deligne cohomology has proven to be, we believe that this explicit and utilizable treatment of its twisted version will be useful.
Diversity, Group Identity, and Citizenship Education in a Global Age:

Worldwide immigration and quests for rights by minority groups have caused social scientists and educators to raise serious questions about liberal assimilationist conceptions of citizenship that h...
On the bioconversion of dietary carotenoids to astaxanthin in the marine copepod, Tigriopus californicus

Red carotenoid-based coloration is widely distributed across marine and terrestrial animals and has taken a prominent role in studies of how phenotypic traits evolve in response to natural and sexual selection. Key to these studies is an understanding of the physiological mechanisms that give rise to red coloration, yet an ideal model system for such work has not been identified. The red marine copepod Tigriopus californicus is used as a model system for studies in ecotoxicology, genetics, and physiology, but the mechanisms involved in its bright red coloration have not been well studied. Like nearly all animals that display red carotenoid coloration, T. californicus likely convert yellow carotenoids present in their algal diet to red carotenoids. We conducted precursor/product feeding experiments to demonstrate that T. californicus bioconverts dietary carotenoids to the red carotenoid, astaxanthin. In separate treatment groups, copepods were fed carotenoids that are precursors to specific astaxanthin bioconversion pathways. We found that copepods from each precursor pigment group produced astaxanthin, and that the amount produced depended on which carotenoid was supplemented. We also describe the distribution of astaxanthin in developing egg sacs and show that the red color of the naupliar eyespot is not due to astaxanthin. We briefly discuss the potential of Tigriopus californicus to serve as a model system for the study of carotenoid metabolism in animals.