cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Blood disorders associated with pregnancy; the value of sternal marrow biopsy.

Summary In the past, the obstetrician's main interest in the blood findings assoelated with pregnancy has been in the clinical interpretation of the commonly noted lowered hemoglobin level and erythrocyte count seen in healthy indi viduals during pregnancy. In more recent years, the association of pregnancy and the various blood disorders has gained his attention, but unfortunately he has not made use of the sternal marrow findings. The hematologist, likewise, has not yet considered the problems of pregnancy in the light of the information obtained from bone marrow studies. It is only through cooperation of the hematologist and the obstetrician that such a relatively new procedure can reach its proper place in clinical investigation. Bone marrow biopsy is not the sole method or . answer to hematologic diagnosis. Although it is merely a part of the diagnostic “blood work-up” it is a most important one. The standard peripheral blood studies are still of major importance, and in many eases the sternal marrow findings may be only confirmatory. Yet, peripheral blood studies, especially in pregnancy because of the hydremia factor, often do not give one sufficient information, or may even give a false clue to diagnosis. Sternal marrow biopsy then becomes mandatory. Sternal marrow aspiration (puncture method) using the concentration technique enables one to obtain a gross impression of the state of the hone marrow; and the well-developed “sternal hemogram”" reveals- more enough marrow cells to enable the hematologist to readily discern the bone marrow pattern. The normal erythroid marrow findings noted in healthy patients during pregnancy are conclusive in revealing that the lowered peripheral blood levels are due only to a hydremia, and speak for normal findings during pregnancy associated with blood dilution. The characteristic marrow pattern noted in the various blood dyserasias is of diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic importance in the management of both the hematologic and obstetric problems. One of the greatest values of sternal marrow biopsy is its “negative value.”' The finding of a normal type of bone marrow definitely rules out the presence of a primary blood disease. The only exception is in cases of aleucemic lymphadenosis. (Lymph node biopsy will be needed.)
Directed search and the Bertrand Paradox

I study a directed search model of oligopolistic competition, extended to incorporate general capacity constraints, congestion effects, and pricing based on ex post demand. In the presence of any one of these ingredients, the Bertrand paradox fails to hold. Hence, despite the emphasis that has been placed by the literature on sellers' capacity constraints as a resolution to the paradox, the existence of such constraints is only a subcase of a general class of environments where the paradox fails. Specifically, Bertrand's paradox will not arise whenever the buyers' expected utility from visiting a seller is decreasing in that seller's realized demand.
Frontal-stability analysis of surfactant floods

Recent surfactant-flooding experiments have shown that very-efficient oil recovery can be obtained without mobility control when the surfactant solution is injected at less than the critical velocity required for a gravity-stable displacement. The purpose of this study was to develop a method to predict the stability of surfactant floods at the reservoir scale on the basis of gravity-stable surfactant-flooding experiments at the laboratory scale. The scaleup process involves calculation of the appropriate average frontal velocity for the reservoir flood. The frontal velocity depends on the well configuration. We have performed systematic numerical simulations to study the effect of key scaling groups on the performance of gravity-stable surfactant floods. We simulated 3D heterogeneous reservoirs by use of a fine grid and a third-order finite-difference method to ensure numerical accuracy. These simulations have provided new insight into the behavior of gravitystable surfactant floods, and in particular the importance of the microemulsion properties. The capability to predict when and under what reservoir conditions a gravity-stable surfactant flood can be performed at a reasonable velocity is highly significant. When a surfactant flood can be performed without polymer (or foam) for mobility control, cost and complexity are significantly reduced. Advantages are especially significant when the reservoir temperature is high and the use of polymer becomes increasingly difficult. Our simulations show that gravity-stable surfactant floods can be very efficient using horizontal wells in reservoirs with high vertical permeability.
Linking computer science, art, and practice through digital sound

This workshop will share textbook material and associated interactive online Flash tutorials; Max demos; hands-on exercises and creative projects in Logic, Cakewalk Music Creator, Reason, Audition, and the like; MATLAB worksheets; and C programming exercises. The goal of this material is to link concepts of computer science and digital sound with applications in music and sound design in a way that is motivating to students. A Flash-player-enabled web browser and the Max runtime system are recommended for the workshop, but participants can benefit from the workshop without having the related software. The curriculum material will be freely available on the web, allowing workshop participants to continue to use and experiment with the material later at their own pace.
Social Media Strategies in Product-Harm Crises

When a focal firm undergoes a product-harm crisis, nonfocal firms offering similar products or services can suffer from a negative spillover effect, but can also benefit from customers switching from the troubled focal firm, which we call the competitive effect. In response, a nonfocal firm can adapt its marketing strategy in consideration of these two opposing effects. Because social media is a flexible medium through which firms can quickly adjust marketing strategies in response to such unexpected events, we study how nonfocal firms adjust their post-crisis social media efforts to induce purchases and to improve customer relationships-two strategies known in the literature as offensive and defensive marketing, respectively. In particular, we use the daily social media activities of 56 major airlines on Twitter around the time of the Germanwings Flight 9525 crash to study how nonfocal airlines ran offensive and defensive marketing on social media before and after the crisis. We find that, on average, nonfocal airlines increased their defensive marketing efforts but decreased their offensive marketing efforts after the crash, which we attribute to the negative spillover effect. However, the strategic adjustment of decreasing offensive marketing is attenuated by the competition between nonfocal airlines and the focal one, which we attribute to the moderating role of the competitive effect. These results are shown to be robust in various tests and reveal how the interplay of the two effects of a product-harm crisis on nonfocal firms shapes their postcrisis social media strategies. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0707 .
Assembly bias & redshift–space distortions: impact on cluster dynamics tests of general relativity

The redshift-space distortion (RSD) of galaxies surrounding massive clusters is emerging as a promising testbed for theories of modified gravity. Conventional applications of this method rely upon the assumption that the velocity field in the cluster environment is uniquely determined by the cluster mass profile. Yet, real dark matter halos in N-body simulations are known to violate the assumption that virial mass determines the configuration space distribution, an effect known as assembly bias. In this Letter, I show that assembly bias in simulated dark matter halos also manifests in velocity space. In the 1-10 Mpc environment surrounding a cluster, high-concentration "tracer" halos exhibit a 10-20% larger pairwise-velocity dispersion profile relative to low-concentration tracer halos of the same mass. This difference is comparable to the size of the RSD signal predicted by f(R) models designed to account for the cosmic acceleration. I use the age matching technique to study how color-selection effects may influence the cluster RSD signal, finding a ~10% effect due to redder satellites preferentially occupying higher mass halos, and a ~5% effect due to assembly-biased colors of centrals. In order to use cluster RSD measurements to robustly constrain modified gravity, we likely will need to develop empirical galaxy formation models more sophisticated than any in the current literature.
Clamoring for Greenbacks: Explaining the Resurgence of the U.S. Dollar in International Debt

This paper characterizes trends of the shares of the U.S. dollar, the euro, and total foreign currencies in international debt denomination over the last two decades. We find that countries with a high output growth trend, greater financial development, better fiscal conditions, and more investment opportunities tend to decrease the extent of their reliance on the dollar, but increase that on the euro, while their dependency on total foreign currencies remains unaffected. Stronger trade ties with the United States (the euro area) contribute to a higher dollar (euro) share in the currency denomination of international debt securities. We also find that absent from the global financial crisis (GFC), the dollar (euro) share in debt denomination would have been higher (lower) than the observed shares in the postcrisis period. That suggests that the outbreak of the GFC increased the demand for the dollar as a safe haven.
Adaptively Secure Puncturable Pseudorandom Functions in the Standard Model

We study the adaptive security of constrained PRFs in the standard model. We initiate our exploration with puncturable PRFs. A puncturable PRF family is a special class of constrained PRFs, where the constrained key is associated with an element $$x'$$ in the input domain. The key allows evaluation at all points $$x\ne x'$$. We show how to build puncturable PRFs with adaptive security proofs in the standard model that involve only polynomial loss to the underlying assumptions. Prior work had either super-polynomial loss or applied the random oracle heuristic. Our construction uses indistinguishability obfuscation and DDH-hard algebraic groups of composite order. More generally, one can consider a t-puncturable PRF: PRFs that can be punctured at any set of inputs S, provided the size of S is less than a fixed polynomial. We additionally show how to transform any single puncturable PRF family to a t-puncturable PRF family, using indistinguishability obfuscation.
Sharp total variation bounds for finitely exchangeable arrays

In this article we demonstrate the relationship between finitely exchangeable arrays and finitely exchangeable sequences. We then derive sharp bounds on the total variation distance between distributions of finitely and infinitely exchangeable arrays.
Multi-Track Programming Competitions with Scratch

High school programming competitions often follow the traditional model of collegiate competitions, exemplified by the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). This tradition has been reinforced by the nature of Advanced Placement Computer Science (AP CS A), for which ICPC-style problems are considered an excellent practice regimen. As more and more students in high school computer science courses approach the field from broader starting points, such as Exploring Computer Science (ECS), or the new AP CS Principles course, an analogous structure for high school outreach events becomes of greater importance.This paper describes our work on developing a Scratch-based alternative competition for high school students, that can be run in parallel with a traditional morning of ICPC-style problems.
Economic Freedom, Race, and Health Disparities: Evidence from US States

The social determinants of health include the communities in which people reside. Associated with geographic areas are public policies that influence a variety of economic and social outcomes. The ...
Li3Mo4P5O24: A Two-Electron Cathode for Lithium-Ion Batteries with Three-Dimensional Diffusion Pathways

The structure of the novel compound Li3Mo4P5O24 has been solved from single crystal X-ray diffraction data. The Mo cations in Li3Mo4P5O24 are present in four distinct types of MoO6 octahedra, each of which has one open vertex at the corner participating in a Mo═O double bond and whose other five corners are shared with PO4 tetrahedra. On the basis of a bond valence sum difference map (BVS-DM) analysis, this framework is predicted to support the facile diffusion of Li+ ions, a hypothesis that is confirmed by electrochemical testing data, which show that Li3Mo4P5O24 can be utilized as a rechargeable battery cathode material. It is found that Li can both be removed from and inserted into Li3Mo4P5O24. The involvement of multiple redox processes occurring at the same Mo site is reflected in electrochemical plateaus around 3.8 V associated with the Mo6+/Mo5+ redox couple and 2.2 V associated with the Mo5+/Mo4+ redox couple. The two-electron redox properties of Mo cations in this structure lead to a theoretical ...
Modeling Collaboration Patterns on an Interactive Tabletop in a Classroom Setting

Interaction logs generated by educational software can provide valuable insights into the collaborative learning process and identify opportunities for technology to provide adaptive assistance. Modeling collaborative learning processes at tabletop computers is challenging, as the computer is only able to log a portion of the collaboration, namely the touch events on the table. Our previous lab study with adults showed that patterns in a group's touch interactions with a tabletop computer can reveal the quality of aspects of their collaborative process. We extend this understanding of the relationship between touch interactions and the collaborative process to adolescent learners in a field setting and demonstrate that the touch patterns reflect the quality of collaboration more broadly than previously thought, with accuracies up to 84.2%. We also present an approach to using the touch patterns to model the quality of collaboration in real-time.
On Theory in Supply Chain Uncertainty and its Implications for Supply Chain Integration

This article develops a theoretical conceptualization of supply chain uncertainty, based on the foundation provided by contingency theory, classical organization theory, and information processing theory. We develop a theoretical analogy between a supply chain and an organization, then highlight key differences, which leads us to hypothesize that there are three key types of supply chain uncertainty. Micro-level uncertainty is based on the variability of inputs to the technical core of a supply chain, corresponding to the traditional operationalization of uncertainty in the supply chain and operations management literature. Meso-level uncertainty is the lack of information needed by a supply chain member, corresponding to the information processing theory perspective. This is often due to the conflicting pressures of differentiation and interdependence in a supply chain, where members may withhold information that they feel could compromise their interests. Macro-level uncertainty, based on the equivocality construct, is related to unclear and ambiguous situations faced by supply chain members in rapidly changing external environments. We propose that all three types of uncertainty coexist in a supply chain and may interact with each other. Based on contingency theory's focus on alignment of process and structure with the environment, we test the relationship among supply chain integration (process), centralization, formalization and flatness (organization structure) and the dimensions of uncertainty (environment). Hypotheses are tested using hierarchical regression on data collected from 339 globally distributed manufacturing plants. It reveals that, as hypothesized, micro-level and meso-level uncertainty are positively related to SCI and that macro-level uncertainty is inversely related to it. The organization structure variables of centralization and formalization had a moderating effect, strengthening or reducing the main effects of uncertainty. The results are discussed in terms of their consistency with the theoretical foundation, implications for decision makers facing supply chain uncertainty and future research opportunities.
On Garland’s vanishing theorem for \mathrm {SL}_n

This is an expository paper on Garland’s vanishing theorem specialized to the case when the linear algebraic group is \(\mathrm {SL}_n\). Garland’s theorem can be stated as a vanishing of cohomology groups of certain finite simplicial complexes. The method of the proof is quite interesting on its own. It relates the vanishing of cohomology to the assertion that the minimal positive eigenvalue of a certain combinatorial Laplacian is sufficiently large. Since the 1970s, this idea has found applications in a variety of problems in representation theory, group theory, and combinatorics, so the paper might be of interest to a wide audience. The paper is intended for non-specialists and graduate students.
The Fiscal Roots of Financial Underdevelopment

Why do some countries indulge in financial repression, harming economic development in the process, whereas others promote financial development? Three main explanations have been put forth. Market failures, due to information asymmetries, mean that credit is rationed even when lenders could potentially benefit from making loans readily available. Political failures, due to state capture, mean that credit will be rationed as a way of generating rents for politically powerful financial incumbents. The state might, however, have its own fiscal reasons for politicizing the supply and price of credit, since financial repression provides easy-to-collect revenues. I draw on the third approach to argue that the state's fiscal imperative is usually the primary reason behind financial repression, and even when private actors benefit, they are subordinate to this concern. A dynamic panel analysis that exploits instrumental variables and a case study of Mexico adduce strong empirical support for my fiscal transaction cost theory.
Large Deformation Tensile Properties of Elastomers. I. Temperature Dependence of C1 and C2 in the Mooney-Rivlin Equation

Tensile stress-strain data were determined at various extension rates and temperatures on unfilled butyl and silicone vulcanizates and on six hydrofluorocarbon (Viton A-HV) vulcanizates that contain between 0.90 and 12.2 × 10−5 mole of effective network chains per unit volume of gel rubber. From 1-min. isochronal data, values of C1 and C2 in the Mooney-Rivlin equation were derived. For the butyl and silicone vulcanizates from, respectively, −20 to 150°C. and −45 to 200°C., C1 increases with temperature at a rate which is in reasonable agreement with published data from forcetemperature measurements. Because C2 is sensibly temperature independent over these extended temperature ranges, it is concluded that C2 is a finite quantity under equilibrium conditions. Time-dependent behavior was observed on the Viton A-HV vulcanizates between −5 and 230°C. For each vulcanizate between about 25 and 230°C., C1273/T is temperature independent, but it increases with decreasing temperature below about 25°C. Except at the lowest temperatures, C2273/T decreases with increasing temperature, the rate of decrease becoming progressively less with an increase in crosslink density. Above 25°C. the ratio C2/C1, which ranges from about 90 to 0.6, decreases with an increase in either temperature or crosslink density. The time-dependent behavior of C2273/T appears to arise primarily from molecular processes whose relaxation times are considerably longer than the terminal relaxation time of individual chains.
Time and time again: Temporal processing demands implicate perceptual and gating deficits in the HIV-1 transgenic rat

HIV-1-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) afflict up to 50 % of HIV-1+ individuals, despite the effectiveness of combination antiretroviral therapy (CART) in reducing the prevalence of more severe neurocognitive impairment. Alterations in brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP), a measure of temporal processing, are one of the earliest neurological abnormalities of HIV-1-positive individuals. Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the auditory startle response (ASR), a measure of sensorimotor gating, was studied in HIV-1 transgenic (Tg) rats, which express 7 of the 9 HIV-1 genes. Ovariectomized female Fischer HIV-1 Tg and control rats (ns = 41-42) were tested for PPI at three test periods, with at least 2 months separating each test period, using auditory and visual prepulses, an auditory startle stimulus, and interstimulus intervals (ISI) ranging from 0 to 4000 msec. Auditory and visual prepulse trial blocks were presented in counterbalanced order. For both auditory and visual prepulses, HIV-1 Tg animals exhibited a flatter ISI function, which did not sharpen with age, as it did in controls. Over time, auditory prepulses precipitated a temporal shift in peak inhibition in HIV-1 Tg animals relative to controls, whereas with visual prepulses, both groups displayed peak inhibition at the 40 msec ISI. A lack of perceptual sharpening with age and a relative insensitivity to the temporal dimension of sensorimotor gating are evident in the HIV-1 Tg rat prior to clinical signs of wasting. Deficits in sensorimotor gating may not only provide an early subtle diagnostic marker of HAND, but may also afford a key target for development of potential therapeutics.
A flexible glutamine regulates the catalytic activity of toluene o-xylene monooxygenase.

Toluene/o-xylene monooxygenase (ToMO) is a bacterial multicomponent monooxygenase capable of oxidizing aromatic substrates. The carboxylate-rich diiron active site is located in the hydroxylase component of ToMO (ToMOH), buried 12 A from the surface of the protein. A small, hydrophilic pore is the shortest pathway between the diiron active site and the protein exterior. In this study of ToMOH from Pseudomonas sp. OX1, the functions of two residues lining this pore, N202 and Q228, were investigated using site-directed mutagenesis. Steady-state characterization of WT and the three mutant enzymes demonstrates that residues N202 and Q228 are critical for turnover. Kinetic isotope effects and pH profiles reveal that these residues govern the kinetics of water egress and prevent quenching of activated oxygen intermediates formed at the diiron active site. We propose that this activity arises from movement of these residues, opening and closing the pore during catalysis, as seen in previous X-ray crystallographic studies. In addition, N202 and Q228 are important for the interactions of the reductase and regulatory components to ToMOH, suggesting that they bind competitively to the hydroxylase. The role of the pore in the hydroxylase components of other bacterial multicomponent monooxygenases within the superfamily is discussed in light of these conclusions.
Controlling Site Selectivity in Pd‐Catalyzed Oxidative Cross‐Coupling Reactions.

This paper presents a detailed investigation of the factors controlling site selectivity in the Pd-mediated oxidative coupling of 1,3-disubstituted and 1,2,3-trisubstituted arenes (aryl-H) with cyclometalating substrates (L~C-H). The influence of both the concentration and the steric/electronic properties of the quinone promoter are studied in detail. In addition, the effect of steric/electronic modulation of the carboxylate ligand is discussed. Finally, we demonstrate that substitution of the carboxylate for a carbonate X-type ligand leads to a complete reversal in site selectivity for many arene substrates. The origins of these trends in site selectivity are discussed in the context of the mechanism of Pd-catalyzed oxidative cross-coupling.
Scientists and Science Writers

Scientists are quick to criticize writers of popular Scientific articles for the inaccuracy of their statements. A portion of this criticism is just, for science writers, like scientists, belong to the imperfect human species, and a great many errors result from hurried haphazard work.
Weekday variation in the leverage effect: A puzzle

There is large variation in the leverage effect on each weekday. In the past 15 years, the average difference between the impact of negative and positive stock return innovations on future volatility in the S&P 500 Index is 45% on Monday, 14% on Tuesday, 60% on Wednesday, 6% on Thursday, and 28% on Friday. This variation is not predicted by any prevailing hypothesis on why there is a leverage effect.
Enantioselective total syntheses of citrinadins A and B. Stereochemical revision of their assigned structures.

The concise, enantioselective total syntheses of (−)-citrinadin A and (+)-citrinadin B in a total of only 20 and 21 steps, respectively, from commercially available starting materials are described. Our strategy, which minimizes refunctionalization and protection/deprotection operations, features the highly diastereoselective, vinylogous Mannich addition of a dienolate to a chiral pyridinium salt to set the first chiral center. The absolute stereochemistry of this key center was then relayed by a sequence of substrate-controlled reactions, including a highly stereoselective epoxidation/ring opening sequence and an oxidative rearrangement of an indole to furnish a spirooxindole to establish the remaining stereocenters in the pentacyclic core of the citrinadins. An early stage intermediate in the synthesis of (−)-citrinadin A was deoxygenated to generate a dehydroxy compound that was elaborated into (+)-citrinadin B by a sequence of reaction identical to those used to prepare (−)-citrinadin A. These concise...
Oxygen Atom Induced Deposition of Silicon Dioxide

Silicon dioxide was deposited from tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and remote microwave oxygen plasma on a heated silicon substrate in a cold-wall reactor. The deposition rate and film quality were examined as functions of substrate temperature, total pressure, absorbed plasma power and O2:TEOS flow ratio. The deposition reaction exhibited an activation energy of approximately 10 kJ/mol for substrate temperatures in the range of 323–623 K. The deposition rate reached a maximum with increasing total pressure. The rate was found to be a near-linear function of the absorbed microwave power. At fixedabsorbed power the rate reached a maximum with increasing O2:TEOS flow ratio. A one-dimensional mathematical model was developed to predict the oxygen radical concentration at the exit of the afterglow region of the oxygen discharge. Comparisons of the predicted oxygen radical concentrations with the deposition rates at corresponding deposition conditions supports the view that the overall SiO2 deposition reaction is largely controlled by the concentration of oxygen radicals. The average refractive index ofthe deposited films was 1.466 ± 0.011. Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) transmission spectra showed significant concentrations of hydroxyls in the deposited films.
Oxacycle Synthesis via Intramolecular Reaction of Carbanions and Peroxides

The intramolecular reaction of dialkyl peroxides with carbanions, generated via chemoselective metal-heteroatom exchange or deprotonation, provides a new approach to cyclic ethers. Applied in tandem with C–C bond formation, the strategy enables a one-step annelation to form oxaospirocycles.
Identifying the economic potential of Indian districts

Despite its rapid growth in recent decades, GDP per capita in India remains at a relatively low level by international standards, and the country continues to be marked by large subnational disparities in levels of well-being. These large disparities naturally lead to interest in India’s spatial landscape of potential for economic development. Against this backdrop, this paper presents the results of an analysis of underlying variations in economic potential across Indian districts, where economic potential is defined as the extent to which a district possesses factors that are important determinants of the ability to experience a high level of productivity. The analysis is based on a simple composite Economic Potential Index, which is constructed from variables for which robust evidence exists of their importance as determinants of local productivity. From the analysis, a picture emerges of a heterogeneous landscape of economic potential characterized by strong geographic clustering of districts. The paper also reveals particularly high levels of underperformance, relative to potential, for districts in Uttar Pradesh.
Detecting Engagement in Egocentric Video

In a wearable camera video, we see what the camera wearer sees. While this makes it easy to know roughly Open image in new window , it does not immediately reveal Open image in new window . Specifically, at what moments did his focus linger, as he paused to gather more information about something he saw? Knowing this answer would benefit various applications in video summarization and augmented reality, yet prior work focuses solely on the “what” question (estimating saliency, gaze) without considering the “when” (engagement). We propose a learning-based approach that uses long-term egomotion cues to detect engagement, specifically in browsing scenarios where one frequently takes in new visual information (e.g., shopping, touring). We introduce a large, richly annotated dataset for ego-engagement that is the first of its kind. Our approach outperforms a wide array of existing methods. We show engagement can be detected well independent of both scene appearance and the camera wearer’s identity.
Altered STAT4 Isoform Expression in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Background Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are the major forms of inflammatory bowel disease, and pathogenesis involves a complex interplay among genetic, environmental, and immunological factors. We evaluated isoform expression of the IL-12-activated transcription factor STAT4 in children with CD and UC. Methods We collected biopsy samples from both patients newly diagnosed with CD and with UC. We further collected blood samples from patients newly diagnosed with CD and with UC as well as from patients who had a flare-up after being in clinical remission, and we examined the ratios of STAT4β/STAT4α mRNA. In addition to STAT4 isoforms, we measured the expression of the cytokines TNFα, IFNγ, granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor, and IL-17 using polymerase chain reaction of biopsy samples and multiplex analysis of patient serum samples. Results Ratios of STAT4β/STAT4α were increased in specific gastrointestinal tract segments in both patients with CD and those with UC that correlate with the location and severity of inflammation. In contrast, we did not observe changes in STAT4β/STAT4α ratios in biopsy specimens from patients with eosinophilic esophagitis. We also observed increased STAT4β/STAT4α ratios in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with UC and those with CD, compared with healthy controls. Ratios were normalized after patients were treated with steroids. Conclusions Collectively, these data indicate that STAT4 isoforms could be an important noninvasive biomarker in the diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and that expression of these isoforms might provide further insight into the pathogenesis of IBD.
A5RE4X[TO4]4 crystal growth: Fluoride flux synthesis of Na5Ln4F[GeO4]4 (Ln=Pr, Nd), the first quaternary germanate oxyfluorides

Abstract Crystals of Na5Pr4F[GeO4]4 and Na5Nd4F[GeO4]4 were synthesized using a eutectic sodium fluoride, sodium chloride flux. Both compounds crystallize in the tetragonal space group I-4 with lattice parameters of a=12.1173(4) A and c=5.6795(2) A (Pr) and of a=12.0642(17) A and c=5.6674(11) A (Nd). The structure of the reported compounds is three-dimensional with face and corner sharing lanthanide polyhedra which edge and corner share with isolated germanium tetrahedra. These novel compositions represent the first example of quaternary germanium containing oxyfluorides.
Quench-Induced Degradation of the Quality Factor in Superconducting Resonators

Cryogenic superconducting niobium resonators are key to accelerators for free-electron lasers and experiments in particle and nuclear physics. A resonator's performance is often degraded by a magnetic field that is trapped in it during a quench event. Without a clear understanding of this field's origin, the problem has been addressed by thermal cycling above the cavity's critical temperature. Now the authors pinpoint the mechanism responsible for the trapped flux, and show how to fully recover the quality factor while staying $b\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}e\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}l\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}o\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}w$ the critical temperature, which is of great practical interest.
The Pricing of Non-Price Terms in Sovereign Bonds: The Case of the Greek Guarantees

In March 2012, Greece conducted one of the biggest and most brutal sovereign debt restructurings ever, asking holders of Greek government bonds to take net present value haircuts of near 80 percent. Greece forced acquiescence to its terms from a large number of its bonds by using a variety of legal strong-arm tactics. With the vast majority of Greek bonds, the tactics worked. There were, however, thirty-six bonds guaranteed by the Greek state, which, because of the weakness of the underlying companies, were effectively obligations of the Greek state. Yet, on these thirtysix bonds, even though Greece desperately needed every euro of respite it could get, no restructuring was even attempted. Why not? The answer we received was that the guarantees escaped the restructuring because their contractual provisions made them much harder to restructure than the ordinary Greek government bonds. Assuming this contract-based claim to be true, the foregoing, in combination with the Euro area crisis of 2010â2014 throws up an opportunity to test the extent to which markets price legal differences in bond contract terms. We report evidence that the markets did price in at least some of the advantage that guaranteed bonds had over ordinary sovereign bonds in the months immediately prior to the March 2012 restructuring.
External hydrocephalus: Radiologic spectrum and differentiation from cerebral atrophy

External hydrocephalus (EH) is a condition in which infants with rapidly enlarging heads are found to have a CT scan that shows widening of the subarachnoid space with mild or no ventricular dilation. In this study, 74 infants with EH associated with a variety of conditions were examined clinically and with CT scans to identify the radiologic features of the condition as well as to understand its clinical and radiologic evolution. Some of these CT scans were compared with those of patients with cerebral atrophy. The characteristic CT findings in EH were bifrontal widening of the subarachnoid space and widened interhemispheric fissure frontally with only mild enlargement of the rest of the subarachnoid space. Occasional mild to moderate ventriculomegaly was also present. In most cases the radiologic findings could be distinguished from those seen in cerebral atrophy, even without the clinical history of an enlarging head. The cases of cerebral atrophy showed prominent sulci throughout without disproportionate bifrontal widening of the subarachnoid space. Two major groups of infants are identified. The largest group (47) consisted of infants with primary megaloencephaly. Megaloencephaly was idiopathic in 40 infants, many of whom (19) met the criteria for benign familial macrocephaly. Others (7) had a clearly defined genetic syndrome. The radiologic abnormalities in these infants usually disappear by 2 years of age. The other major group (14) consisted of infants who sustained CNS or systemic insults such as subdural hematomas (8) or meningitis (3), which cause impaired CSF absorption. Thirteen premature infants with EH were also identified. It is concluded that EH is an age-related self-limited condition occurring in infants with open cranial sutures and that usually resolves without intervention by 2–3 years of age.
Collective Calcium Dynamics in Networks of Communicating Cells

Cells can sense and encode information about their environment with remarkable precision. These properties have been studied extensively for single cells, but intercellular communication is also known to be important for both single- and multicellular organisms. Here, we examine calcium dynamics of monolayered fibroblast cells exposed to external ATP stimuli, and the effect of communication and stimulus strength on the cells' response. Communication strength is varied by changing the density of cells in the monolayer. Experimental results show that increasing cell density induces a greater fraction of cells to exhibit oscillatory calcium dynamics, but the frequencies of oscillation do not systematically shift as a function of external ATP. We developed a theoretical model of collective calcium signaling by adding stochasticity and communication to the popular model of Tang and Othmer [1]. We find that this model reproduces cells' increased tendency to oscillate as a function of communication strength, but that frequency encoding is still present, in contrast with experimental observations. By additionally introducing cell-to-cell variability into the model, however, we show that frequency encoding, while still present at the single-cell level, is nearly removed at the population level, which is more consistent with experimental results. Our model therefore suggests that the propensity of cells to oscillate, rather than frequency encoding, determines the response to external ATP. These results further suggest that the system lies near a critical boundary separating non-oscillatory and oscillatory calcium dynamics.1. Tang, Y. and Othmer, H. G., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 92, 17 (1995).
Regio- and Diastereoselective Synthesis of Highly Substituted, Oxygenated Piperidines from Tetrahydropyridines

Diastereoselective epoxidation and regioselective ring-opening methods were developed for the synthesis of densely substituted, oxygenated piperidines from two classes of tetrahydropyridines with distinct stereochemical displays of functionalities. A new and practical in situ prepared epoxidation reagent was developed for the diastereoselective epoxidation of one class of sterically hindered tetrahydropyridines. The novel bifunctional epoxidation reagent, 2-carboperoxy-3,4,5,6-tetrafluorobenzoic acid, was designed to incorporate highly reactive percarboxy acid and pendant carboxylic acid groups, which through hydrogen bonding to the amino group successfully overrode steric effects and directed epoxidation to occur at the more hindered face of the tetrahydropyridine. Nucleophilic ring-opening of the epoxides with water, alcohols, and HF proceeded with high regioselectivity, affording piperidinol products with adjacent tetrasubstituted carbons.
A new one-dimensional strontium vanadium tellurite, Sr7V4Te12O41.

Vanadium tellurites display a rich structural chemistry with inter­esting physical properties, such as second harmonic generation (SHG). Tellurites, i.e. Te4+Ox, are often observed in unusual structures and form various structural motifs, including isolated clusters, chains, layers, and three-dimensional networks. Similarly, vanadates, i.e. V5+Ox, show rich structural features, such as VO4 tetra­hedra, VO5 square pyramids or trigonal bipyramids, and VO6 octa­hedra. Strontium vanadium tellurite, Sr7V4Te12O41, was obtained from the melt of the solid-state reaction of SrTeO4 and VO2 in a sealed quartz tube as it cooled from 973 K. The crystal structure exhibits a one-dimensional latticework along the a axis comprised of paired Sr3Te3Ox units, namely Sr6Te6O2x+1, with corner-shared TeO4 polyhedra – and specifically the Te lone-pair electrons – facing outward in the bc plane. The Sr6Te6O2x+1 latticework is helical and is layered in the b-axis direction against sheets of corner-shared VO4 tetra­hedra, and is linked in the c-axis direction via individual corner-shared SrO8 square prisms.
Variance adaptive shrinkage (vash): flexible empirical Bayes estimation of variances

MOTIVATION Genomic studies often involve estimation of variances of thousands of genes (or other genomic units) from just a few measurements on each. For example, variance estimation is an important step in gene expression analyses aimed at identifying differentially expressed genes. A common approach to this problem is to use an Empirical Bayes (EB) method that assumes the variances among genes follow an inverse-gamma distribution. This distributional assumption is relatively inflexible; for example, it may not capture 'outlying' genes whose variances are considerably bigger than usual. Here we describe a more flexible EB method, capable of capturing a much wider range of distributions. Indeed, the main assumption is that the distribution of the variances is unimodal (or, as an alternative, that the distribution of the precisions is unimodal). We argue that the unimodal assumption provides an attractive compromise between flexibility, computational tractability and statistical efficiency. RESULTS We show that this more flexible approach provides competitive performance with existing methods when the variances truly come from an inverse-gamma distribution, and can outperform them when the distribution of the variances is more complex. In analyses of several human gene expression datasets from the Genotype Tissues Expression consortium, we find that our more flexible model often fits the data appreciably better than the single inverse gamma distribution. At the same time we find that in these data this improved model fit leads to only small improvements in variance estimates and detection of differentially expressed genes. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION Our methods are implemented in an R package vashr available from http://github.com/mengyin/vashr CONTACT: mstephens@uchicago.eduSupplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
The Linear Programming Relaxation Permutation Symmetry Group of an Orthogonal Array Defining Integer Linear Program

There is always a natural embedding of into the linear programming (LP) relaxation permutation symmetry group of an orthogonal array integer linear programming (ILP) formulation with equality constraints. The point of this paper is to prove that in the -level, strength- case the LP relaxation permutation symmetry group of this formulation is isomorphic to for all , and in the -level, strength- case it is isomorphic to for . The strength- result reveals previously unknown permutation symmetries that cannot be captured by the natural embedding of . We also conjecture a complete characterization of the LP relaxation permutation symmetry group of the ILP formulation. Supplementary materials are available with this article.
Long working distance objective lenses for single atom trapping and imaging

We present a pair of optimized objective lenses with long working distances of 117 mm and 65 mm, respectively, that offer diffraction limited performance for both Cs and Rb wavelengths when imaging through standard vacuum windows. The designs utilise standard catalog lens elements to provide a simple and cost-effective solution. Objective 1 provides NA = 0.175 offering 3 μm resolution whilst objective 2 is optimized for high collection efficiency with NA = 0.29 and 1.8 μm resolution. This flexible design can be further extended for use at shorter wavelengths by simply re-optimising the lens separations.
Computational Social Science: Exciting Progress and Future Challenges

The past 15 years have witnessed a remarkable increase in both the scale and scope of social and behavioral data available to researchers, leading some to herald the emergence of a new field: "computational social science." Against these exciting developments stands a stubborn fact: that in spite of many thousands of published papers, there has been surprisingly little progress on the "big" questions that motivated the field in the first place?questions concerning systemic risk in financial systems, problem solving in complex organizations, and the dynamics of epidemics or social movements, among others. In this talk I highlight some examples of research that would not have been possible just a handful of years ago and that illustrate the promise of CSS. At the same time, they illustrate its limitations. I then conclude with some thoughts on how CSS can bridge the gap between its current state and its potential.
Incentives, termination payments, and CEO contracting ☆

Abstract Many executives have compensation that is potentially forfeit conditioned on the circumstances surrounding their departure from the firm. We study firms' endogenous decisions to use such compensation “holdbacks” as a bonding device and find that firms with higher executive replacement costs, greater information asymmetry, more certain operating environments, and recent accounting concerns are more likely to have holdbacks. Additionally, holdbacks are negatively associated with incentive-based compensation, consistent with theoretical predictions that termination incentives can substitute for incentive pay. Further, holdbacks are positively associated with abnormal compensation, consistent with arguments that managers demand a premium to accept risky pay.
Damage to white matter bottlenecks contributes to language impairments after left hemispheric stroke

Damage to the white matter underlying the left posterior temporal lobe leads to deficits in multiple language functions. The posterior temporal white matter may correspond to a bottleneck where both dorsal and ventral language pathways are vulnerable to simultaneous damage. Damage to a second putative white matter bottleneck in the left deep prefrontal white matter involving projections associated with ventral language pathways and thalamo-cortical projections has recently been proposed as a source of semantic deficits after stroke. Here, we first used white matter atlases to identify the previously described white matter bottlenecks in the posterior temporal and deep prefrontal white matter. We then assessed the effects of damage to each region on measures of verbal fluency, picture naming, and auditory semantic decision-making in 43 chronic left hemispheric stroke patients. Damage to the posterior temporal bottleneck predicted deficits on all tasks, while damage to the anterior bottleneck only significantly predicted deficits in verbal fluency. Importantly, the effects of damage to the bottleneck regions were not attributable to lesion volume, lesion loads on the tracts traversing the bottlenecks, or damage to nearby cortical language areas. Multivariate lesion-symptom mapping revealed additional lesion predictors of deficits. Post-hoc fiber tracking of the peak white matter lesion predictors using a publicly available tractography atlas revealed evidence consistent with the results of the bottleneck analyses. Together, our results provide support for the proposal that spatially specific white matter damage affecting bottleneck regions, particularly in the posterior temporal lobe, contributes to chronic language deficits after left hemispheric stroke. This may reflect the simultaneous disruption of signaling in dorsal and ventral language processing streams.