cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Structural Equation Modeling: Software

The first widely distributed special-purpose software for estimating factor-based structural equation models appeared almost 40 years ago. Today, researchers can choose from a variety of packages that differ markedly in terms of their intellectual heritage, interface, statistical sophistication, flexibility, integration with other statistical packages, and cost. Pioneers LISREL and EQS continue to offer their strengths. Mplus appears to be the package with the broadest set of out-of-the-box ready capabilities, although a rapidly developing offering from Stata may pose future competition. Most recently, strong alternatives have appeared within the open-source R environment, particularly including the increasingly sophisticated lavaan and the extremely flexible OpenMx. Despite numerous advances, there is still substantial room for improvement. Keywords: structural equation modeling; software; LISREL; EQS; SPSS Amos; Mplus; Stata; R; lavaan; OpenMx
Household wealth, public consumption and economic well-being in the United States

Standard official measures of household economic well-being in several countries are based on money income. The general consensus is that such measures are limited because they ignore certain crucial determinants of well-being. We examine two such determinants--household wealth and public consumption--in the context of the US. Our findings suggest that the level and distribution of economic well-being is substantially altered when money income is adjusted for wealth or public consumption. Over the 1989-2000 period, median well-being appears to increase faster when these adjustments are made than when standard money income is used. Adding imputed rent and annuity from household wealth to household income increases measured inequality, while adding public consumption reduces it. However, all three measures show about the same rise in inequality over the period.
A 342 mW Mobile Application Processor With Full-HD Multi-Standard Video Codec and Tile-Based Address-Translation Circuits

A full-HD (1080p30) 500 MHz mobile application processor with an H.264 HP/MPEG-2/MPEG-4 video codec is integrated on a 6.4 × 6.5 mm 2 die in 65 nm low-power CMOS. With two parallel pipelines for macroblock processing and tile-based address translation circuits, the processor consumes 342 mW in real-time playback of a full-HD H.264 stream from a 64 b width low-power DDR-SDRAM at an operating frequency of 166 MHz at 1.2 V.
PERI-ACETABULAR OSTEOLYSIS: CUP RETENTION OR REPLACEMENT?

Periacetabular osteolysis is seen in response to particles (polyethylene, ceramic, metal or cement), at times in the presence of an unstable implant, and perhaps made worse by the unique host response to the particle burden. The impact of wear modes: due to either the primary bearing surface (MOP, MOM, COC) or unintended surfaces as seen in impingement, as well as the quality of the bearing counterface all influence the extent of the osteolytic response. The final common pathway appears to be via macrophage stimulation, an upregulation of cytokines leading to a resorption of bone. The patterns of lysis range from linear resorption at the implant interface to more expansile patterns which can be more dramatic in size and may place the implant at jeopardy for loosening. Assessment of implant fixation as well as extent of the lytic process employs the use of plain radiographs (including oblique views), computerised tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. The utility of MRI for the quantification of bone loss as well as the newer phenomena of associated soft tissue lesions (pseudotumors, adverse tissue reactions) has turned out to be a valuable tool in helping determine timing and need for revision. The basic principles in determining need for revision surgery revolve around: degree of lysis, integrity of the soft tissues, fixation of the implant, track record of the implant, as well as patient factors including symptoms, age and activity. In cemented sockets, progressive bone loss, pain with or without overt loosening is indication for revision which is generally accomplished using an uncemented hemispherical acetabular component with bone graft and screw augmentation. In the uncemented socket, the decision to revise is based upon a) implant stability, 2) the integrity of the locking mechanism, 3) degree of bone loss. With stable implants, polyethylene exchange and “lesional” treatment is appropriate. Well fixed implants with extensive lysis can be successfully managed with liner exchange and bone grafting as necessary. If the liner locking mechanism is compromised, cementing a liner into place is an excellent strategy. Removing a well fixed cup with extensive lysis runs the risk of encountering a large acetabular defect which may be difficult to reconstruct. Loose implants clearly require revision. In the era of “hard bearings”, progressive soft tissue expansion leading to damage of the abductor and other soft tissue constraints about the hip is an indication for revision. Revision of MOM THR9s may be performed by maintaining the femoral component and performing an isolated acetabular revision or in some instances of modular acetabular components, maintaining the shell and inserting a new liner. In all instances of implant retention, it is critical to confirm that the components are in optimised position: implants retained in suboptimal position are at risk for early failure.
BINOCULARS for efficient, nonmyopic sequential experimental design

Finite-horizon sequential experimental design (SED) arises naturally in many contexts, including hyperparameter tuning in machine learning among more traditional settings. Computing the optimal policy for such problems requires solving Bellman equations, which are generally intractable. Most existing work resorts to severely myopic approximations by limiting the decision horizon to only a single time-step, which can underweight exploration in favor of exploitation. We present BINOCULARS: Batch-Informed NOnmyopic Choices, Using Long-horizons for Adaptive, Rapid SED, a general framework for deriving efficient, nonmyopic approximations to the optimal experimental policy. Our key idea is simple and surprisingly effective: we first compute a one-step optimal batch of experiments, then select a single point from this batch to evaluate. We realize BINOCULARS for Bayesian optimization and Bayesian quadrature — two notable SED problems with radically different objectives — and demonstrate that BINOCULARS significantly outperforms myopic alternatives in real-world scenarios.
Near-optimal fully dynamic densest subgraph

We give the first fully dynamic algorithm which maintains a (1−є)-approximate densest subgraph in worst-case time poly(logn, є−1) per update. Dense subgraph discovery is an important primitive for many real-world applications such as community detection, link spam detection, distance query indexing, and computational biology. We approach the densest subgraph problem by framing its dual as a graph orientation problem, which we solve using an augmenting path-like adjustment technique. Our result improves upon the previous best approximation factor of (1/4 − є) for fully dynamic densest subgraph [Bhattacharya et. al., STOC ‘15]. We also extend our techniques to solving the problem on vertex-weighted graphs with similar runtimes. Additionally, we reduce the (1−є)-approximate densest subgraph problem on directed graphs to O(logn/є) instances of (1−є)-approximate densest subgraph on vertex-weighted graphs. This reduction, together with our algorithm for vertex-weighted graphs, gives the first fully-dynamic algorithm for directed densest subgraph in worst-case time poly(logn, є−1) per update. Moreover, combined with a near-linear time algorithm for densest subgraph [Bahmani et. al., WAW ‘14], this gives the first near-linear time algorithm for directed densest subgraph.
Cusp transitivity in hyperbolic 3-manifolds

In this paper, we study multiply transitive actions of the group of isometries of a cusped finite-volume hyperbolic 3-manifold on the set of its cusps. In particular, we prove a conjecture of Vogeler that there is a largest integer k for which such k-transitive actions exist, and that for each integer $$k \ge 3$$ , there is an upper bound on the possible number of cusps.
Tau invariants for balanced spatial graphs

In 2003, Ozsvath and Szabo defined the concordance invariant τ for knots in oriented 3-manifolds as part of the Heegaard Floer homology package. In 2011, Sarkar gave a combinatorial definition of τ...
Harnessing Energy Efficiency of Heterogeneous-ISA Platforms

With the emergence of both power and performance as primary design constraints, energy efficiency has become the new design criteria. A platform with heterogeneous-ISA processors can provide multiple power-performance execution points needed for a varied mix of workloads. We argue that a new system software architecture is needed to obtain maximum energy efficiency on such heterogeneous-ISA platforms. We present our system software, a replicated-kernel operating system and a compiler framework, and quantify the advantages of such a system software on ARM-x86 using simulations. Based on our experimental observations, we propose a scheduling approach which considers system and application runtime characteristics along with platform profiles to maximize energy efficiency.
Law Is the Command of the Sovereign: H. L. A. Hart Reconsidered

This article presents a critical reevaluation of the thesis—closely associated with H. L. A. Hart, and central to the views of most recent legal philosophers—that the idea of state coercion is not logically essential to the definition of law. The author argues that even laws governing contracts must ultimately be understood as “commands of the sovereign, backed by force.” This follows in part from recognition that the “sovereign,” defined rigorously, at the highest level of abstraction, is that person or entity identified by reference to game theory and the philosophical idea of “convention” as the source of signals with which the subject population has become effectively locked, as a group, into conformity.
In the land of OZ: designating opportunity zones

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 allowed governors of the fifty states to designate low-income areas as a “Qualified Opportunity Zone” (QOZ), which entitled the investors in these QOZs to significant tax incentives. As a result, each governor’s designation of QOZs provided an opportunity for the governor to introduce investments in low-income communities that would, in principle, increase economic opportunities in these areas. At the same time, each governor’s decision also provided an opportunity for the governor to reward political allies, to buy voter support, and to help business interests. Which of these many factors influenced the designation of QOZs? In this paper we estimate the impact of economic and political variables on the governors’ decisions to choose which areas among all eligible areas would receive QOZ status and which would not. We find that the QOZ selection process overall seems to have been relatively technocratic, with many of the strongest factors that determine QOZ designation being indicators of economic distress such as higher rates of unemployment, welfare receipt, or lower median income, all of which are consistent with the presumed goals of QOZs. Even so, we also find that political factors are significant in QOZ designation, with Democratic representation being negatively associated with QOZ nomination and with political representation by a local politician of the same party as the governor being positively associated with QOZ nomination. Of some note, we also find that areas with higher college attainment are favored.
Unfolding quantum computer readout noise

In the current era of noisy intermediate-scale quantum computers, noisy qubits can result in biased results for early quantum algorithm applications. This is a significant challenge for interpreting results from quantum computer simulations for quantum chemistry, nuclear physics, high energy physics (HEP), and other emerging scientific applications. An important class of qubit errors are readout errors. The most basic method to correct readout errors is matrix inversion, using a response matrix built from simple operations to probe the rate of transitions from known initial quantum states to readout outcomes. One challenge with inverting matrices with large off-diagonal components is that the results are sensitive to statistical fluctuations. This challenge is familiar to HEP, where prior-independent regularized matrix inversion techniques (“unfolding”) have been developed for years to correct for acceptance and detector effects, when performing differential cross section measurements. We study one such method, known as iterative Bayesian unfolding, as a potential tool for correcting readout errors from universal gate-based quantum computers. This method is shown to avoid pathologies from commonly used matrix inversion and least squares methods.
Imaginary-time time-dependent density functional theory for periodic systems.

Imaginary-time time-dependent Density functional theory (it-TDDFT) has been proposed as an alternative method for obtaining the ground state within density functional theory (DFT) which avoids some of the difficulties with convergence encountered by the self-consistent-field (SCF) iterative method. It-TDDFT was previously applied to clusters of atoms where it was demonstrated to converge in select cases where SCF had difficulty with convergence. In the present work we implement it-TDDFT propagation for {\it periodic systems} by modifying the Quantum ESPRESSO package, which uses a plane-wave basis with multiple $\boldsymbol{k}$ points, and has the options of non-collinear and DFT+U calculations using ultra-soft or norm-conserving pseudo potentials. We demonstrate that our implementation of it-TDDFT propagation with multiple $\boldsymbol{k}$ points is correct for DFT+U non-collinear calculations and for DFT+U calculations with ultra-soft pseudo potentials. Our implementation of it-TDDFT propagation converges to the exact SCF energy (up to the decimal guaranteed by double precision) in all but one case where it converged to a slightly lower value than SCF, suggesting a useful alternative for systems where SCF has difficulty reaching the Kohn-Sham ground state. In addition, we demonstrate that more rapid convergence can be achieved if we use adaptive-size imaginary-time-steps for different kinetic-energy plane-waves.
Water Electrolysis for Propulsion of a Crewed Mars Mission

NASA’s Mars Design Reference Architecture 5.0 presents architecture options for a crewed Mars mission. This paper compares the cryogenic chemical-propulsion option in that study with an alternative...
Optimal Statistical Hypothesis Testing for Social Choice.

We address the following question in this paper: "What are the most robust statistical methods for social choice?'' By leveraging the theory of uniformly least favorable distributions in the Neyman-Pearson framework to finite models and randomized tests, we characterize uniformly most powerful (UMP) tests, which is a well-accepted statistical optimality w.r.t. robustness, for testing whether a given alternative is the winner under Mallows' model and under Condorcet's model, respectively.
Trimming complexes and applications to resolutions of determinantal facet ideals

We produce a family of complexes called trimming complexes and explore its applications. We demonstrate how trimming complexes can be used to deduce the Betti table for the minimal free resolution ...
Mario Level Generation From Mechanics Using Scene Stitching

Video game tutorials allow players to gain mastery over game skills and mechanics. To hone players’ skills, it is beneficial from practicing in environments that promote individual player skill sets. However, automatically generating environments which are mechanically similar to one-another is a non-trivial problem. This paper presents a level generation method for Super Mario by stitching together pre-generated "scenes" that contain specific mechanics, using mechanic-sequences from agent playthroughs as input specifications. Given a sequence of mechanics, the proposed system uses an FI-2Pop algorithm and a corpus of scenes to perform automated level authoring. The proposed system outputs levels that can be beaten using a similar mechanical sequence to the target mechanic sequence but with a different playthrough experience. We compare the proposed system to a greedy method that selects scenes that maximize the number of matched mechanics. Unlike the greedy approach, the proposed system is able to maximize the number of matched mechanics while reducing emergent mechanics using the stitching process.
The nucleocytosolic O-fucosyltransferase SPINDLY affects protein expression and virulence in Toxoplasma gondii

Once considered unusual, nucleocytoplasmic glycosylation is now recognized as a conserved feature of eukaryotes. While in animals, O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) modifies thousands of intracellular proteins, the human pathogen Toxoplasma gondii transfers a different sugar, fucose, to proteins involved in transcription, mRNA processing, and signaling. Knockout experiments showed that TgSPY, an ortholog of plant SPINDLY and paralog of host OGT, is required for nuclear O-fucosylation. Here we verify that TgSPY is the nucleocytoplasmic O-fucosyltransferase (OFT) by 1) complementation with TgSPY-MYC3, 2) its functional dependence on amino acids critical for OGT activity, and 3) its ability to O-fucosylate itself and a model substrate and to specifically hydrolyze GDP-Fuc. While many of the endogenous proteins modified by O-Fuc are important for tachyzoite fitness, O-fucosylation by TgSPY is not essential. Growth of Δspy tachyzoites in fibroblasts is modestly affected, despite marked reductions in the levels of ectopically expressed proteins normally modified with O-fucose. Intact TgSPY-MYC3 localizes to the nucleus and cytoplasm, whereas catalytic mutants often displayed reduced abundance. Δspy tachyzoites of a luciferase-expressing type II strain exhibited infection kinetics in mice similar to wild-type but increased persistence in the chronic brain phase, potentially due to an imbalance of regulatory protein levels. The modest changes in parasite fitness in vitro and in mice, despite profound effects on reporter protein accumulation, and the characteristic punctate localization of O-fucosylated proteins suggest that TgSPY controls the levels of proteins to be held in reserve for response to novel stresses.
A novel gonorrhea vaccine composed of MetQ lipoprotein formulated with CpG shortens experimental murine infection.

Bacterial surface lipoproteins are emerging as attractive vaccine candidates due to their biological importance and the feasibility of their large-scale production for vaccine manufacturing. The global prevalence of gonorrhea, resistance to antibiotics, and serious consequences to reproductive and neonatal health necessitate development of effective vaccines. Reverse vaccinology identified the surface-displayed L-methionine binding lipoprotein MetQ (NGO2139) and its homolog GNA1946 (NMB1946) as gonococcal and meningococcal vaccine candidates, respectively. Here, we assessed the suitability of MetQ for inclusion in a gonorrhea vaccine by examining MetQ conservation, its function inNeisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng) pathogenesis, and its ability to induce protective immune responses using a female murine model of lower genital tract infection. In-depth bioinformatics, phylogenetics and mapping the most prevalent Ng polymorphic amino acids to the GNA1946 crystal structure revealed remarkable MetQ conservation: ~97% Ng isolates worldwide possess a single MetQ variant. Mice immunized with rMetQ-CpG (n = 40), a vaccine containing a tag-free version of MetQ formulated with CpG, exhibited robust, antigen-specific antibody responses in serum and at the vaginal mucosae including IgA. Consistent with the activity of CpG as a Th1-stimulating adjuvant, the serum IgG1/IgG2a ratio of 0.38 suggested a Th1 bias. Combined data from two independent challenge experiments demonstrated that rMetQ-CpG immunized mice cleared infection faster than control animals (vehicle, p < 0.0001; CpG, p = 0.002) and had lower Ng burden (vehicle, p = 0.03; CpG, p < 0.0001). We conclude rMetQ-CpG induces a protective immune response that accelerates bacterial clearance from the murine lower genital tract and represents an attractive component of a gonorrhea subunit vaccine.
Radio Wave Propagation through a Medium Containing Electron Density Fluctuations Described by an Anisotropic Goldreich-Sridhar Spectrum

We study the propagation of radio waves through a medium possessing density fluctuations that are elongated along the ambient magnetic field and described by an anisotropic Goldreich-Sridhar power spectrum. We derive general formulae for the wave phase structure function D, visibility, angular broadening, diffraction pattern length scales, and scintillation timescale for arbitrary distributions of turbulence along the line of sight and specialize these formulae to idealized cases. In general, D (?r)5/3 when the baseline ?r is in the inertial range of the turbulent density spectrum, and D (?r)2 when ?r is in the dissipation range, just as for an isotropic Kolmogorov spectrum of fluctuations. When the density structures that dominate the scattering have an axial ratio R 1 (typically R ~ 103), the axial ratio of the broadened image of a point source in the standard Markov approximation is at most ~R1/2, and this maximum value is obtained in the unrealistic case that the scattering medium is confined to a thin screen in which the magnetic field has a single direction. If the projection of the magnetic field within the screen onto the plane of the sky rotates through an angle ?? along the line of sight from one side of the screen to the other, and if R-1/2 ?? 1, then the axial ratio of the resulting broadened image of a point source is 2(8/3)3/5/?? 3.6/??. The error in this formula increases with ?? but reaches only ~15% when ?? = ?. This indicates that a moderate amount of variation in the direction of the magnetic field along the line of sight dramatically decreases the anisotropy of a broadened image. When R 1, the observed anisotropy will in general be determined by the degree of variation of the field direction along the sight line and not by the degree of density anisotropy. Although this makes it difficult to determine observationally the degree of anisotropy in interstellar density fluctuations, observed anisotropies in broadened images provide general support for anisotropic models of interstellar turbulence. Regions in which the angle ? between the magnetic field and line of sight is small cause enhanced scattering due to the increased coherence of density structures along the line of sight. In the exceedingly rare and probably unrealized case that scattering is dominated by regions in which ? (?r/l)1/3, where l is the outer scale (stirring scale) of the turbulence, D (?r)4/3 for ?r in the inertial range. In a companion paper (Backer & Chandran) we discuss the semiannual modulation in the scintillation time of a nearby pulsar for which the field direction variation along the line of sight is expected to be moderately small.
Intrinsic spin Hall effect in topological insulators: A first-principles study

The intrinsic spin Hall conductivity of typical topological insulators ${\mathrm{Sb}}_{2}{\mathrm{Se}}_{3},$ ${\mathrm{Sb}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{3},$ ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Se}}_{3},$ and ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Te}}_{3}$ in the bulk form, is calculated from first principles by using density functional theory and the linear response theory in a maximally localized Wannier basis. The results show that there is a finite spin Hall conductivity of 100--200 $(\ensuremath{\hbar}/2\mathrm{e})(\mathrm{S}/\mathrm{cm})$ in the vicinity of the Fermi energy. Although the resulting values are an order of magnitude smaller than that of heavy metals, they show a comparable spin Hall angle due to their relatively lower longitudinal conductivity. The spin Hall angle for different compounds are then compared to that of recent experiments on topological-insulator/ferromagnet heterostructures. The comparison suggests that the role of the bulk in generating a spin current and consequently a spin torque in magnetization switching applications is comparable to that of the surface including the spin-momentum locked surface states and the Rashba-Edelstein effect at the interface.
Fast Fourier transforms for the rook monoid

We define the notion of the Fourier transform for the rook monoid (also called the symmetric inverse semigroup) and provide two efficient divide-and-conquer algorithms (fast Fourier transforms, or FFTs) for computing it. This paper marks the first extension of group FFTs to nongroup semigroups.
Plasma Energization in Colliding Magnetic Flux Ropes

Magnetic flux ropes are commonly observed throughout the heliosphere, and recent studies suggest that interacting flux ropes are associated with some energetic particle events. In this work, we carry out 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to study the coalescence of two magnetic flux ropes (or magnetic islands), and the subsequent plasma energization processes. The simulations are initialized with two magnetic islands embedded in a reconnecting current sheet. The two islands collide and eventually merge into a single island. Particles are accelerated during this process as the magnetic energy is released and converted to the plasma energy, including bulk kinetic energy increase by the ideal electric field, and thermal energy increase by the fluid compression and the non-ideal electric field. We find that contributions from these different energization mechanisms are all important and comparable with each other. Fluid shear and a non-gyrotropic pressure tensor also contribute to the energy conversion process. For simulations with different box sizes ranging from $L_x \sim 25$--$100 d_i$ and ion-to-electron mass ratios $m_i / m_e = 25$, 100 and 400, we find that the general evolution is qualitatively the same for all runs, and the energization depends only weakly on either the system size or the mass ratio. The results may help us understand plasma energization in solar and heliospheric environments.
Cosmography of KNdS Black Holes and Isentropic Phase Transitions

We present a new analysis of Kerr-Newman-deSitter black holes in terms of thermodynamic quantities that are defined in the observable portion of the universe; between the black hole and cosmological horizons. In particular, we replace the mass m with a new ‘area product’ parameter X. The physical region of parameter space is found analytically and thermodynamic quantities are given by simple algebraic functions of these parameters. We find that different geometrical properties of the black holes are usefully distinguished by the sum of the black hole and cosmological entropies. The physical parameter space breaks into a region in which the total entropy, together with Λ, a and q uniquely specifies the black hole, and a region in which there is a two-fold degeneracy. In this latter region, there are isentropic pairs of black holes, having the same Λ, a, and q, but different X. The thermodynamic volumes and masses differ in such that there are high and low density branches. The partner spacetimes are related by a simple inversion of X, which has a fixed point at the state of maximal total entropy. We compute the compressibility at fixed total entropy and find that it diverges at the maximal entropy point. Hence a picture emerges of high and low density phases merging at this critical point. ar X iv :1 50 9. 02 34 3v 2 [ he pth ] 2 6 O ct 2 01 5
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AT THE QUANTUM LEVEL: CAN MODERN DENSITY FUNCTIONAL THEORY FORGE THE PATH?

Recent years have seen vast improvements in the ability of rigorous quantum-mechanical methods to treat systems of interest to molecular biology. In this review article, we survey common computational methods used to study such large, weakly bound systems, starting from classical simulations and reaching to quantum chemistry and density functional theory. We sketch their underlying frameworks and investigate their strengths and weaknesses when applied to potentially large biomolecules. In particular, density functional theory — a framework that can treat thousands of atoms on firm theoretical ground — can now accurately describe systems dominated by weak van der Waals interactions. This newfound ability has rekindled interest in using this tried-and-true approach to investigate biological systems of real importance. In this review, we focus on some new methods within the density functional theory that allow for accurate inclusion of the weak interactions that dominate binding in biological macromolecules. Recent work utilizing these methods to study biologically relevant systems will be highlighted, and a vision for the future of density functional theory within molecular biology will be discussed.
Computational Psychiatry in Borderline Personality Disorder.

Purpose of Review We review the literature on the use and potential use of computational psychiatry methods in borderline personality disorder.
Large Volcanic Event on Io Inferred from Jovian Sodium Nebula Brightening

Using narrow-band images recorded on over 150 nights by the 35 cm coronagraph which comprises PSI's Io Input/Output Facility (IoIO), we detected a 6-month long enhancement in the Jovian sodium nebula. The onset of the enhancement occurred in the mid December 2017 -- early January 2018 timeframe. Sodium emission over the IoIO 0.4 degree field-of-view of was seen to increase through January 2018 and peak in early March 2018. By early June 2018, the surface brightness of the emission returned to the value seen 2017 April -- June, making this the longest such event observed by this technique (Brown & Bouchez 1997, Yoneda et al. 2015) and comparable in length to that observed by the Galileo Dust Detector in 2000 (Krueger et al. 2003). A new IR hot-spot was found on Io near Susanoo/Mulungu paterae between January 2 and 12, however this hot-spot was neither bright nor long-lasting enough to have been independently identified as the source of a major sodium nebula enhancement. Furthermore, no other report of this event has been made despite a significant number of observations of the Jovian system by and in support of NASA's Juno mission. This detection therefore places those observations in valuable context and highlights the importance of synoptic observations by facilities such as IoIO, which provide a global view of neutral material in the Jovian magnetosphere.
THE FERMI BUBBLES. I. POSSIBLE EVIDENCE FOR RECENT AGN JET ACTIVITY IN THE GALAXY

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals two large gamma-ray bubbles in the Galaxy, which extend about 50° (~10 kpc) above and below the Galactic center (GC) and are symmetric about the Galactic plane. Using axisymmetric hydrodynamic simulations with a self-consistent treatment of the dynamical cosmic ray (CR)-gas interaction, we show that the bubbles can be created with a recent active galactic nucleus (AGN) jet activity about 1-3 Myr ago, which was active for a duration of ~0.1-0.5 Myr. The bipolar jets were ejected into the Galactic halo along the rotation axis of the Galaxy. Near the GC, the jets must be moderately light with a typical density contrast 0.001 η 0.1 relative to the ambient hot gas. The jets are energetically dominated by kinetic energy, and overpressured with either CR or thermal pressure which induces lateral jet expansion, creating fat CR bubbles as observed. The sharp edges of the bubbles imply that CR diffusion across the bubble surface is strongly suppressed. The jet activity induces a strong shock, which heats and compresses the ambient gas in the Galactic halo, potentially explaining the ROSAT X-ray shell features surrounding the bubbles. The Fermi bubbles provide plausible evidence for a recent powerful AGN jet activity in our Galaxy, providing new insights into the origin of the halo CR population and the channel through which massive black holes in disk galaxies release feedback energy during their growth.
Millimeter-Wave Polarimeters Using Kinetic Inductance Detectors for TolTEC and Beyond

Microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) provide a compelling path forward to the large-format polarimeter, imaging, and spectrometer arrays needed for next-generation experiments in millimeter-wave cosmology and astronomy. We describe the development of feedhorn-coupled MKID detectors for the TolTEC millimeter-wave imaging polarimeter being constructed for the 50-m Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT). Observations with TolTEC are planned to begin in early 2019. TolTEC will comprise ∼7000 ∼7000 polarization-sensitive MKIDs and will represent the first MKID arrays fabricated and deployed on monolithic 150 mm diameter silicon wafers—a critical step toward future large-scale experiments with over 10 5 105 detectors. TolTEC will operate in observational bands at 1.1, 1.4, and 2.0 mm and will use dichroic filters to define a physically independent focal plane for each passband, thus allowing the polarimeters to use simple, direct-absorption inductive structures that are impedance matched to incident radiation. This work is part of a larger program at NIST-Boulder to develop MKID-based detector technologies for use over a wide range of photon energies spanning millimeter-waves to X-rays. We present the detailed pixel layout and describe the methods, tools, and flexible design parameters that allow this solution to be optimized for use anywhere in the millimeter and sub-millimeter bands. We also present measurements of prototype devices operating in the 1.1 mm band and compare the observed optical performance to that predicted from models and simulations.
The CMB and the measure of the multiverse

In the context of eternal inflation, cosmological predictions depend on the choice of measure to regulate the diverging spacetime volume. The spectrum of inflationary perturbations is no exception, as we demonstrate by comparing the predictions of the fat geodesic and causal patch measures. To highlight the effect of the measure — as opposed to any effects related to a possible landscape of vacua — we take the cosmological model, including the model of inflation, to be fixed. We also condition on the average CMB temperature accompanying the measurement. Both measures predict a 1-point expectation value for the gauge-invariant Newtonian potential, which takes the form of a (scale-dependent) monopole, in addition to a related contribution to the 3-point correlation function, with the detailed form of these quantities differing between the measures. However, for both measures both effects are well within cosmic variance. Our results make clear the theoretical relevance of the measure, and at the same time validate the standard inflationary predictions in the context of eternal inflation.
Length functions of Hitchin representations

Given a Hitchin representation W 1.S/! PSLn.R/, we construct n continuous functions ‘ i W C Hol .S/!R defined on the space of Holder geodesic currents C Hol .S/ such that, for a closed, oriented curve in S , the i th eigenvalue of the matrix ./ 2 PSLn.R/ is of the form exp‘ i ./ : such functions generalize to higher rank Thurston’s length function of Fuchsian representations. Identities and differentiability properties of these lengths ‘ i , as well as applications to eigenvalue estimates, are also considered. 57M50; 57M05, 37F30, 22E40 Let S be a closed, connected, oriented surface S of genus g 2. This article is concerned with homomorphisms W 1.S/! PSLn.R/ from the fundamental group 1.S/ to the Lie group PSLn.R/ (equal to the special linear group SLn.R/ if n is odd, and to SLn.R/=f Idg if n is even), and more precisely with elements lying in Hitchin components Hitn.S/ of the PSLn.R/‐character variety RPSLn.R/.S/D Hom 1.S/; PSLn.R/ ==PSLn.R/ identified by N Hitchin [18]. Here, the “double bar” sign indicates that the precise definition of the character variety RPSLn.R/.S/ requires that the quotient be taken in the sense of geometric invariant theory (Mumford, Fogarty and Kirwan [21]); however, for the component Hitn.S/ that we are interested in, this quotient construction coincides with the usual topological quotient. A Hitchin component Hitn.S/ is defined as a component of RPSLn.R/.S/ that contains some n‐Fuchsian representation, namely some homomorphism W 1.S/! PSLn.R/ of the form D r; where: rW 1.S/! PSL2.R/ is a discrete, injective homomorphism, and W PSL2.R/! PSLn.R/ is the preferred homomorphism defined by the n‐dimensional, irreducible representation of SL2.R/ into SLn.R/. These components Hitn.S/ were singled out by
Extensive post-transcriptional regulation across human tissues

Transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation shape tissue-type-specific proteomes, but their relative contributions remain contested. Estimates of the factors determining protein levels in human tissues do not distinguish between (i) the factors determining the variability between the abundances of different proteins and (ii) the factors determining the physiological variability of the same protein across different tissue types. We estimated the factors determining these two orthogonal sources of variability and found that mRNA levels can account for most of the variability between the levels of different proteins but not for the protein variability across tissue-types. After accounting for measurement noise, most of the across-tissue protein variability remains unexplained by mRNA levels, suggesting extensive post-transcriptional regulation. These results reconcile existing estimates in the literature, caution against estimating protein fold-changes from mRNA fold-changes between different cell-types, and highlight the contribution of post-transcriptional regulation in shaping tissue-type-specific proteomes.
Gauge coupling unification in realistic free-fermionic string models

We discuss the unification of gauge couplings within the framework of a wide class of realistic free-fermionic string models which have appeared in the literature, including the flipped SU(5), SO(6) × SO(4), and various SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1) models. If the matter spectrum below the string scale is that of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), then string unification is in disagreement with experiment. We therefore examine several effects that may modify the minimal string predictions. First, we develop a systematic procedure for evaluating the one-loop heavy string threshold corrections in free-fermionic string models, and we explicitly evaluate these corrections for each of the realistic models. We find that these string threshold corrections are small, and we provide general arguments explaining why such threshold corrections are suppressed in string theory. Thus heavy thresholds cannot resolve the disagreement with experiment. We also study the effect of non-standard hypercharge normalizations, light SUSY thresholds, and intermediate-scale gauge structure, and similarly conclude that these effects cannot resolve the disagreement with low-energy data. Finally, we examine the effects of additional color triplets and electroweak doublets beyond the MSSM. Although not required in ordinary grand unification scenarios, such states generically appear within the context of certain realistic free-fermionic string models. We show that if these states exist at the appropriate thresholds, then the gauge couplings will indeed unify at the string scale. Thus, within these string models, string unification can be in agreement with low-energy data.
Comparison of the dust and gas radial structure in the transition disk [PZ99] J160421.7-213028

We present ALMA observations of the 880 μm continuum and CO J = 3–2 line emission from the transition disk around [PZ99] J160421.7-213028, a solar mass star in the Upper Scorpius OB association. Analysis of the continuum data indicates that 80% of the dust mass is concentrated in an annulus extending between 79 and 114 AU in radius. Dust is robustly detected inside the annulus, at a mass surface density 100 times lower than that at 80 AU. The CO emission in the inner disk also shows a significantly decreased mass surface density, but we infer a cavity radius of only 31 AU for the gas. The large separation of the dust and gas cavity edges, as well as the high radial concentration of millimeter-sized dust grains, is qualitatively consistent with the predictions of pressure trap models that include hydrodynamical disk–planet interactions and dust coagulation/fragmentation processes.
The Johansson‐Molloy theorem for DP‐coloring

The aim of this note is twofold. On the one hand, we present a streamlined version of Molloy's new proof of the bound $\chi(G) \leq (1+o(1))\Delta(G)/\ln \Delta(G)$ for triangle-free graphs $G$, avoiding the technicalities of the entropy compression method and only using the usual "lopsided" Lovasz Local Lemma (albeit in a somewhat unusual setting). On the other hand, we extend Molloy's result to DP-coloring (also known as correspondence coloring), a generalization of list coloring introduced recently by Dvořak and Postle.
New Tests for Disruption Mechanisms of Star Clusters: Methods and Application to the Antennae Galaxies

We present new tests for disruption mechanisms of star clusters based on the bivariate mass-age distribution g(M, τ). In particular, we derive formulae for g(M, τ) for two idealized models in which the rate of disruption depends on the masses of the clusters and one in which it does not. We then compare these models with our Hubble Space Telescope observations of star clusters in the Antennae galaxies over the mass-age domain in which we can readily distinguish clusters from individual stars: τ 107(M/104 M ☉)1.3 yr. We find that the models with mass-dependent disruption are poor fits to the data, even with complete freedom to adjust several parameters, while the model with mass-independent disruption is a good fit. The successful model has the simple form g(M, τ) M –2τ–1, with power-law mass and age distributions, dN/dM M –2 and dN/dτ τ–1. The predicted luminosity function is also a power law, dN/dL L –2, in good agreement with our observations of the Antennae clusters. The similarity of the mass functions of star clusters and molecular clouds indicates that the efficiency of star formation in the clouds is roughly independent of their masses. The age distribution of the massive young clusters is plausibly explained by the following combination of disruption mechanisms: (1) removal of interstellar material by stellar feedback, τ 107 yr; (2) continued stellar mass loss, 107 yr τ 108 yr; (3) tidal disturbances by passing molecular clouds, τ 108 yr. None of these processes is expected to have a strong dependence on mass, consistent with our observations of the Antennae clusters. We speculate that this simple picture also applies—at least approximately—to the clusters in many other galaxies.
Non-vanishing of the symmetric square L-function at the central point

Using the mollifier method, we show that for a positive proportion of holomorphic Hecke eigenforms of level one and weight bounded by a large enough constant, the associated symmetric square $L$-function does not vanish at the central point of its critical strip. We note that our proportion is the same as that found by other authors for other families of $L$-functions also having symplectic symmetry type.
Learning control lyapunov functions from counterexamples and demonstrations

We present a technique for learning control Lyapunov-like functions, which are used in turn to synthesize controllers for nonlinear dynamical systems that can stabilize the system, or satisfy specifications such as remaining inside a safe set, or eventually reaching a target set while remaining inside a safe set. The learning framework uses a demonstrator that implements a black-box, untrusted strategy presumed to solve the problem of interest, a learner that poses finitely many queries to the demonstrator to infer a candidate function, and a verifier that checks whether the current candidate is a valid control Lyapunov-like function. The overall learning framework is iterative, eliminating a set of candidates on each iteration using the counterexamples discovered by the verifier and the demonstrations over these counterexamples. We prove its convergence using ellipsoidal approximation techniques from convex optimization. We also implement this scheme using nonlinear MPC controllers to serve as demonstrators for a set of state and trajectory stabilization problems for nonlinear dynamical systems. We show how the verifier can be constructed efficiently using convex relaxations of the verification problem for polynomial systems to semi-definite programming problem instances. Our approach is able to synthesize relatively simple polynomial control Lyapunov-like functions, and in that process replace the MPC using a guaranteed and computationally less expensive controller.
Tight frames of exponentially decaying Wannier functions

Let L be a Schrodinger operator with periodic magnetic and electric potentials A, V, a Maxwell operator in a periodic medium or an arbitrary self-adjoint elliptic linear partial differential operator in with coefficients periodic with respect to a lattice Γ. Also let S be a finite part of its spectrum separated by gaps from the rest of the spectrum. We consider the old question of the existence of a finite set of exponentially decaying Wannier functions wj(x) such that their Γ-shifts wj,γ(x) = wj(x − γ) for γ Γ span the whole spectral subspace corresponding to S in some 'nice' manner. It is known that a topological obstruction might exist to finding exponentially decaying wj,γ that form an orthonormal basis of the spectral subspace. This obstruction has the form of non-triviality of a certain finite-dimensional (with the dimension of the fiber equal to the number m of spectral bands in S) analytic vector bundle ΛS over the n-dimensional torus. It was shown by G Nenciu in 1983 that in the presence of time reversal symmetry (which implies the absence of magnetic fields), and if S is a single band, the bundle is trivial and thus the desired Wannier functions do exist. In 2007, G Panati proved that in dimensions n ≤ 3, even if S consists of several spectral bands, the time reversal symmetry removes the obstruction as well, if one uses the so-called composite Wannier functions. It has not been known what could be achieved when the bundle is non-trivial (which can occur, for instance, in the presence of magnetic fields or for Chern insulators). Let τ be the type of the bundle ΛS, i.e. the number of open sub-domains over which it is trivial (for the trivial bundle τ = 1, and τ never exceeds 2n, where n is the dimension of the coordinate space). We show that it is always possible to find a finite number l ≤ τm (and thus m ≤ l ≤ 2nm) of exponentially decaying composite Wannier functions wj such that their Γ-shifts form a 1-tight frame in the spectral subspace. Here the 1-tight frame is a redundant analog of an orthogonal basis, which appears in many applications, e.g. to signal processing and communication theory. This appears to be the best one can do when the topological obstruction is present. The number l is the smallest dimension of a trivial bundle containing an equivalent copy of ΛS. In particular, l = m if and only if ΛS is trivial, in which case an orthonormal basis of exponentially decaying composite Wannier functions is known to exist.
State of the Unification Address

After reviewing how M-theory subsumes string theory, I report broadly on some new and interesting developments, focusing on the "brane world": circumventing no-go theorems for supersymmetric brane-worlds, complementarity of the Maldacena and Randall-Sundrum pictures; self-tuning of the cosmological constant. I conclude with the top ten unsolved problems.