cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Reviving Jacob and Youngs, Inc. v. Kent: Material Breach Doctrine Reconsidered

Determining whether a material breach has occurred under current law involves a weighing of several factors, a determination that often seems either completely without logic or precision, or self-evident and conclusory. Thus, parties are left not knowing what to do and what risks they may be assuming. The problem with the current application of material breach doctrine is in large part a result of an absence of focus. The courts apply the test without articulating any foundation or context on which it is based. The law in this area could be much improved if courts would return to Judge Cardozo's opinion in Jacob & Youngs, Inc. v. Kent. In Jacob & Youngs, Judge Cardozo defined the foundation and the context which can provide courts with the appropriate focus to use in deciding cases of material breach. This Article critiques and suggests a modification of material breach doctrine based largely on Judge Cardozo's reasoning in Jacob & Youngs Inc. v. Kent. Part II begins with a discussion of express conditions and then outlines the common law doctrine of constructive conditions and material breach and demonstrates how it is intended to apply. Part II also describes Judge Cardozo's opinion in Jacob & Youngs and how the drafters of the Second Restatement of Contracts attempted to incorporate that approach in their definition of material breach. Part III then illustrates how the courts have failed to use material breach doctrine to address successfully the problems it is intended to resolve. Part IV examines the writings of some of those who have also studied this area and critiques the models those scholars have proposed for improving the law that governs such disputes. Part IV also explores the structure of these disputes and the policy goals the law should be striving to accomplish once such disputes arise. Part V proposes a change in the law to accomplish those goals. Finally, Part VI concludes that a change in the law would promote good faith contract performance and independent resolution of contract disputes.
The nonlinear effects of parental and teacher attachment on delinquency: Disentangling strain from social control explanations

Social control and general strain theory (GST) both predict that parental and teacher attachment will affect delinquency, but differ in their predictions about the form of this effect. Social control theory predicts that positively attached individuals will be much less deliquent than neutral and negatively attached individuals, with there being little difference in delinquency between the neutral and negatively attached individuals. GST predicts that negatively attached individuals will be much more delinquent than neutral and positively attached individuals, with there being little difference in delinquency between the neutral and positively attached individuals. These competing predictions are tested with data from a national sample of adolescent males. Results support the GST prediction, and thereby shed important light on the relationship between two of the central variables in the field and delinquency. This study also questions the tendency for criminologists to assume that effects are linear, and ...
Portfolio choice and equity characteristics: characterizing the hedging demands induced by return predictability

Abstract This paper examines portfolio allocation across equity portfolios formed on the basis of characteristics like size and book-to-market. In particular, the paper assesses the impact of return predictability on portfolio choice for a multi-period investor with a coefficient of relative risk aversion of 4. Compared to the investor's allocation in her last period, return predictability with dividend yield causes the investor early in life to tilt her risky-asset portfolio away from high book-to-market stocks and away from small stocks. These results are explained using Merton's (Econometrica 41 (1973) 867) characterization of portfolio allocation by a multi-period investor in a continuous time setting. Abnormal returns relative to the investor's optimal early life portfolio are also calculated. These abnormal returns are found to exhibit the same cross-sectional patterns as abnormal returns calculated relative to the market portfolio: higher for small rather than large firms, and higher for high rather than low book-to-market firms. Thus, hedging demand may be a partial explanation for the high expected returns documented for small firms and high book-to-market firms. However, even with this hedging demand, the investor wants to sell short the low book-to market portfolio to hold the high book-to-market portfolio. The utility costs of using a value-weighted equity index or of ignoring predictability are also calculated. An investor using a value-weighted equity index would give up a much larger fraction of her wealth to have access to book-to-market portfolio than size portfolios. Finally, an investor would give up a much larger fraction of her wealth to have access to dividend yield information than term spread information.
Drones and the International Rule of Law

The international rule of law hinges on the existence of a shared lexicon accepted by states and other actors in the international system. With no independent judicial system capable of determining (and enforcing) the meaning of words and concepts, states must develop shared interpretations of the law and the concepts and terms it relies on, and be willing (mostly) to abide by those shared interpretations. When such shared interpretations exist, key aspects of the rule of law can be present even in the absence of an international judicial system; state behavior can be reasonably predictable, nonarbitrary, and transparent; and accountability can also be possible, albeit mainly through nonjudicial mechanisms.
Preferences for change: Do individuals prefer voluntary actions, soft regulations, or hard regulations to decrease fossil fuel consumption?

Pittsburgh residents (n = 209) reported their preferences for voluntary actions, soft regulations, and hard regulations to (a) limit the number of SUVs and trucks and (b) increase green energy use for household energy consumption. These two goals were presented in one of two motivating frames, as addressing either environmental or national security issues. For the goal of limiting SUVs and trucks, results indicated that participants favored voluntary actions over hard regulations, and soft regulations over voluntary actions. For the goal of increasing green energy, results indicated that participants preferred both voluntary actions and soft regulations over hard regulations, but had no significant preference between voluntary actions and soft regulations. How the problems were framed did not significantly affect participants' willingness to accept voluntary actions or regulations. Participants' environmental attitudes (as assessed using the New Ecological Paradigm scale) had a strong positive relationship with support for regulatory strategies intended to change the behaviors in question. Women were more likely to support voluntary actions than men. The loss of personal freedom was frequently mentioned as a reason for saying no to hard regulations.
Partial Birth Biopolitics

The United States Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Carhart upheld the constitutionality of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban of 2003, despite the law's failure to include an exception for the health of the mother. This paper argues that the Court's decision in Carhart opens new doors for future politicized governmental interference in the lives of patients and their doctors. Those concerned with biopolitics, the use of governmental power to regulate and control the personal and private space of one's health care decisions, have new reasons to be worried about the future of reproductive freedoms and the exercise of clinical medical judgment.
Analyzing Consumer-Product Graphs: Empirical Findings and Applications in Recommender Systems

We apply random graph modeling methodology to analyze bipartite consumer-product graphs that represent sales transactions to better understand consumer purchase behavior in e-commerce settings. Based on two real-world e-commerce data sets, we found that such graphs demonstrate topological features that deviate significantly from theoretical predictions based on standard random graph models. In particular, we observed consistently larger-than-expected average path lengths and a greater-than-expected tendency to cluster. Such deviations suggest that the consumers' product choices are not random even with the consumer and product attributes hidden. Our findings provide justification for a large family of collaborative filtering-based recommendation algorithms that make product recommendations based only on previous sales transactions. By analyzing the simulated consumer-product graphs generated by models that embed two representative recommendation algorithms, we found that these recommendation algorithm-induced graphs generally provided a better match with the real-world consumer-product graphs than purely random graphs. However, consistent deviations in topological features remained. These findings motivated the development of a new recommendation algorithm based on graph partitioning, which aims to achieve high clustering coefficients similar to those observed in the real-world e-commerce data sets. We show empirically that this algorithm significantly outperforms representative collaborative filtering algorithms in situations where the observed clustering coefficients of the consumer-product graphs are sufficiently larger than can be accounted for by these standard algorithms.
Transfer Fee Regulations and Player Development

This paper studies the role of transfer fees in professional sports, where players can commit to binding long-term contracts. They cannot switch clubs before their contract expires unless the old club agrees to let them go; transfer fee is the price of that agreement. Transfer fees have been defended as a necessary incentive for clubs to invest into training their young players. The apparent absence of signicant training costs (compared to the level of transfer fees) has undermined this defense. We present a model without training where an industry of clubs with heterogeneous marginal revenue products for player ability and a population of players with various levels of talent and experience match. Transfer fees are needed to efciently allocate scarce playing opportunities among players of different levels of known and potential ability. We show that total surplus is lower without transfer fees because playing time gets reallocated towards older players with less upside potential. The resulting increase in player salaries exceeds the transfer fee costs for each level of ability. (J31, J41, K12, L83)
The value of connections in turbulent times: Evidence from the United States

Abstract The announcement of Timothy Geithner as nominee for Treasury Secretary in November 2008 produced a cumulative abnormal return for financial firms with which he had a prior connection. This return was about 6% after the first full day of trading and about 12% after ten trading days. There were subsequently abnormal negative returns for connected firms when news broke that Geithner’s confirmation might be derailed by tax issues. Personal connections to top executive branch officials can matter greatly even in a country with strong overall institutions, at least during a time of acute financial crisis and heightened policy discretion.
Anticipatory income smoothing: a re-examination

Abstract This paper reassesses evidence of anticipatory income smoothing reported in DeFond and Park (DP) (J. Accounting Econom. 23 (1997) 115) in light of knowledge about measurement error in discretionary accrual estimates. We argue that the method DP use to measure un-managed earnings mechanically biases the evidence in a manner consistent with anticipatory income smoothing. Using an approximate randomization approach, we find that DP's results cannot be distinguished from those achieved when discretionary accruals are randomly assigned to firm-years in our sample. Overall, these results show that the ‘backing out’ approach to measuring un-managed earnings is ineffective in testing earnings management hypotheses.
Perils or Promise of Ethnic Integration? Evidence from a Hard Case in Burundi

A central question in the study of political development is how conflict between ethnic groups might be transcended. Findings from social psychology suggest that ethnically integrating institutions such as militaries or representative bodies may remove prejudices and exclusionary behavior that perpetuate interethnic animosity. Political scientists have tended to be skeptical, arguing that such processes may actually intensify or “freeze” conflicting ethnic identities. I use evidence from a hard case—military reform in the aftermath of a brutal, ethnically charged civil war in Burundi—to study this issue. At the macro level, the Burundian military undertook extensive quota-based integration that nonetheless resulted in a cohesive institution. A micro-level natural experiment, which produces quasirandom exposure to ethnic integration through the military retirement age, shows that exposure to ethnic integration decreases prejudicial behavior and is benign with respect to ethnic salience. Together, these results suggest promise in ethnic integration.
Forward-Looking Voluntary Disclosure in Proxy Contests

Using a unique, hand-gathered sample of 893 forward-looking voluntary disclosures by 70 proxy contest firms during 1992–2001, we examine whether managers temporarily alter the frequency and tone of their disclosures during proxy contests. Broadly consistent with the corporate control contest hypothesis, we find that, after controlling for performance and other determinants of disclosure, managers increase the frequency of forward-looking voluntary disclosures during the proxy contest relative to the pre-proxy period. After the proxy contest is resolved, managers decrease forward-looking voluntary disclosures. We also find that, after controlling for earnings-based performance and concurrent period stock returns, the voluntary forward-looking disclosure news is more positive, on average, during proxy contests relative to the pre-contest period. In addition, we find limited evidence that disclosure news is more positive during proxy contests relative to the post-contest period, suggesting that the more positive tone of the disclosures during proxy contests is temporary. Our results are robust to alternative estimation methods that model the endogeneity of the proxy contest event and to controlling for management tenure and turnover. In summary, proxy contest voluntary disclosure behavior is consistent with increased incentives to convince shareholders that managers are in control of the operating environment and to signal that poor past performance is transitory.
The Economics of the FIFA Football Worldcup

The expansion of economics to ‘non-market topics’ has received increased attention in recent years. The economics of sports (football) is such a sub-field. This paper reports empirical evidence of team and referee performances in the FIFA World Cup 2002. The results reveal that being a hosting nation has a significant impact on the probability of winning a game. Furthermore, the strength of a team measured with the FIFA World Ranking does not play the important role presumed, which indicates that the element of uncertainty is working. The findings also indicate that the influence of a referee on the game result should not be neglected. Finally, the previous World Cup experiences seem to have the strongest impact on referees' performances during the game.
Stochastic Discount Factor Bounds with Conditioning Information

Hansen and Jagannathan (1991) (hereafter HJ) derive restrictions on the volatility of stochastic discount factors that price a given set of returns. This article studies the sampling properties of HJ bounds that use conditioning information. One approach is to multiply the returns by the lagged variables. We also study optimized HJ bounds with conditioning information from Gallant, Hansen, and Tauchen (1990) and based on portfolios derived in Ferson and Siegel (2001). We document striking finite-sample biases in the HJ bounds, where the bounds reject asset-pricing models too often. We provide a useful bias correction. We also evaluate asymptotic standard errors for the bounds from Hansen, Heaton, and Luttmer (1995). Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.
Sentencing Circles, Clashing Worldviews, and the Case of Christopher Pauchay

The case of Christopher Pauchay demonstrates some of the differences between predominant Euro-Canadian and First Nations approaches to dispute resolution. The principles of sentencing circles sometimes overlap with the principles of restorative justice and suggest their potential incorporation into the criminal justice system. The use of alternative processes that share some common values is not enough to overcome to chasm between Euro-Western and Aboriginal justice. Where underlying worldviews diff er, those who can choose between competing values amidst limited possibilities will likely choose the values that refl ect the conventional system. A comparison of Euro-Western and Aboriginal approaches to crime and punishment clarifi es why Pauchay’s sentencing circle was unsuccessful as an alternative option. Advocates of alternative methods must consider more than the implementation of a process when adapting selective cultural methods to the overarching system. Without further evaluation, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) itself becomes a mechanism of recolonization.
Savings in Chile. What went right

Abstract In the last 10 years, Chile's overall economic performance has been remarkable in many respects, including a significant and sustained increase in domestic savings, to figures around 26% of GDP. This paper empirically assesses the reasons behind such notable behavior of savings by applying co-integration models to check for long-run relationships and error-correction models to verify short-run adjustments. The emphasis is on annual private savings (data span from 1960 to 1995) which, as it turns out, depend more than proportionally on an adjusted measure of GDP and less than proportionally on foreign savings and public savings. Private savings are also positively affected by economic growth and a dummy reflecting the effect of pension funds. Most of the adjustment between short run and long run is completed in less than 3 years, where the variable representing income bears the bulk of such adjustment. In comparing two episodes of good economic performance in the last 20 years (1976–1981 and 1986 till present), it is found that three basic differences arise concerning private savings: sustainability of growth, different access to foreign savings during the recovery from recession, and different scenarios with respect to the development of long-run capital markets. In particular, a relevant role played the move to a fully-funded social security system in the early 1980s.
Secured debt and managerial incentives

Financial theory holds that firms can control agency costs through the use of short-term and secured debt. We examine the relation between the use of secured debt and the incentive of the manager to increase the risk of the firm, as measured by vega. We find that firms utilize secured debt to a lesser extent when managerial volatility sensitivity is higher. Our results suggest that these same firms employ short-term debt as the primary tool to control risk-shifting. Managers with a high risk appetite avoid secured debt, but appear to do so without compromising the interests of the shareholders.
Dynamics on the Morse boundary

Let X be a proper geodesic metric space and let G be a group of isometries of X which acts geometrically. Cordes constructed the Morse boundary of X which generalizes the contracting boundary for CAT(0) spaces and the visual boundary for hyperbolic spaces. We characterize Morse elements in G by their fixed points on the Morse boundary $$\partial _MX$$ . The dynamics on the Morse boundary is very similar to that of a $$\delta $$ -hyperbolic space. In particular, we show that the action of G on $$\partial _MX$$ is minimal if G is not virtually cyclic. We also get a uniform convergence result on the Morse boundary which gives us a weak north-south dynamics for a Morse isometry. This generalizes the work of Murray in the case of the contracting boundary of a CAT(0) space.
Scientific publications at U.S. federal research laboratories

In this paper, we focus on scientific publications as an innovative output from the research efforts at U.S. federal laboratories. The data used relate to Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs). The relationship between R&D expenditures at these federal laboratories and their peer-reviewed scientific publications allows us to make inferences about the return to public-sector R&D. We examine two complementary statistical models. From the first model, we find that a 10% increase in constant dollar public-sector R&D is associated with between a 15.5 and 21.5% increase in scientific publications. From the second model, we find that the annual rate of return generated by an additional $1 million of R&D-based knowledge stock varies across the FFRDCs, averaging about 93 additional scientific publications, with the statistically significant values ranging from about 1 to as many as about 400 additional scientific publications.
Heterogeneous Demand Effects of Recommendation Strategies in a Mobile Application: Evidence from Econometric Models and Machine-Learning Instruments.

In this paper, we examine the effectiveness of various recommendation strategies in the mobile channel and their impact on consumers' utility and demand levels for individual products. We find significant differences in effectiveness among various recommendation strategies. Interestingly, recommendation strategies that directly embed social proofs for the recommended alternatives outperform other recommendations. Besides, recommendation strategies combining social proofs with higher levels of induced awareness due to the prescribed temporal diversity have an even stronger effect on the mobile channel. In addition, we examine the heterogeneity of the demand effect across items, users, and contextual settings, further verifying empirically the aforementioned information and persuasion mechanisms and generating rich insights. We also facilitate the estimation of causal effects in the presence of endogeneity using machine-learning methods. Specifically, we develop novel econometric instruments that capture product differentiation (isolation) based on deep-learning models of user-generated reviews. Our empirical findings extend the current knowledge regarding the heterogeneous impact of recommender systems, reconcile contradictory prior results in the related literature, and have significant business implications.
Phospho-dependent signaling during the general stress response by the atypical response regulator and ClpXP adaptor RssB.

In the model organism Escherichia coli and related species, the general stress response relies on tight regulation of the intracellular levels of the promoter specificity subunit RpoS. RpoS turnover is exclusively dependent on RssB, a two-domain response regulator that functions as an adaptor that delivers RpoS to ClpXP for proteolysis. Here, we report crystal structures of the receiver domain of RssB both in its unphosphorylated form and bound to the phosphomimic BeF3 - . Surprisingly, we find only modest differences between these two structures, suggesting that truncating RssB may partially activate the receiver domain to a "meta-active" state. Our structural and sequence analysis points to RssB proteins not conforming to either the Y-T coupling scheme for signaling seen in prototypical response regulators, such as CheY, or to the signaling model of the less understood FATGUY proteins.
Balance between promiscuity and specificity in phage λ host range

As hosts acquire resistance to viruses, viruses must overcome that resistance to re-establish infectivity, or go extinct. Despite the significant hurdles associated with adapting to a resistant host, viruses are evolutionarily successful and maintain stable coevolutionary relationships with their hosts. To investigate the factors underlying how pathogens adapt to their hosts, we performed a deep mutational scan of the region of the λ tail fiber tip protein that mediates contact with the receptor on λ's host, Escherichia coli. Phages harboring amino acid substitutions were subjected to selection for infectivity on wild type E. coli, revealing a highly restrictive fitness landscape, in which most substitutions completely abrogate function. A subset of positions that are tolerant of mutation in this assay, but diverse over evolutionary time, are associated with host range expansion. Imposing selection for phage infectivity on three λ-resistant hosts, each harboring a different missense mutation in the λ receptor, reveals hundreds of adaptive variants in λ. We distinguish λ variants that confer promiscuity, a general ability to overcome host resistance, from those that drive host-specific infectivity. Both processes may be important in driving adaptation to a novel host.
Differences in characteristics of children with cancer who receive standard versus concurrent hospice care.

Background The provision of Section 2302 of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed pediatric patients who are enrolled in Medicaid to receive hospice care concurrently with curative treatment (i.e., concurrent hospice care). Because it is a relatively new model of care and very little is known about the characteristics of children with cancer who receive it, the purpose of the current study was to compare demographic, health, and community characteristics of children who received standard hospice care versus concurrent hospice care. Procedure This study was a retrospective, comparison study with national Medicaid files provided by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The sample included 1685 pediatric patients under the age of 20 who were diagnosed with cancer, were enrolled in hospice between 2011 and 2013, and received standard hospice care (n = 1008) or concurrent hospice care (n = 655). Results Children of non-Hispanic White race with multiple complex chronic conditions, mental/behavioral health problems technology dependence, and brain and orbital tumors were more likely to be enrolled in concurrent care than in standard hospice care. The proportion of children enrolled in concurrent care versus standard hospice care was larger in rural areas, low-income communities, and in the Southern states. Conclusions The enhanced uptake of concurrent care by traditionally underserved populations is promising. Concurrent hospice care, which allows for continued medical treatment and hospice care, could enhance access to hospice within these populations by offering a more blended model of care.
Tensile Strength of Compacted Clays during Desiccation under Elevated Temperatures

The tensile strength of unsaturated soils is a critical factor controlling the initiation and propagation of desiccation cracks, which can threaten the structural integrity of natural and man-made earthen structures and slopes. Several engineering applications involve unsaturated soils subjected to elevated temperatures (e.g., earthen structure-atmospheric interaction under prolonged droughts, nuclear water disposal, energy piles, ground source heat pumps). Although the temperature dependency of desiccation cracking is demonstrated in the literature, critical gaps remain regarding the characterization of the tensile strength under elevated temperatures. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of elevated temperature on the tensile strength of unsaturated clays during desiccation. To accomplish this objective, a novel testing setup that can be used to directly determine soil tensile strength during desiccation was placed in an oven to measure the tensile strength of two compacted clayey soils of medium to high plasticity under different temperatures ranging from 20°C to 60°C. The clays are compacted at 95 % of their respective maximum dry unit weights over a range of water contents from dry to wet of optimum to investigate the influence of initial water content on tensile strength. The results demonstrated that the tensile strength decreased with increasing temperature. At the optimum water content, a tensile strength reduction of 36 % and 27 % in the highly plastic clay and the medium plastic clay, respectively, was observed when the temperature increased from 20°C to 60°C. Additionally, for the partially saturated condition, the initial water content affected the tensile strength significantly. Temperature-induced changes in key factors contributing to the tensile strength of unsaturated clays are discussed to provide further insight into tensile strength of clays at elevated temperatures. The findings of this study can contribute toward a more realistic analysis and design of earthen structures subjected to elevated temperatures.
More concordance homomorphisms from knot Floer homology

We define an infinite family of linearly independent, integer-valued smooth concordance homomorphisms. Our homomorphisms are explicitly computable and rely on local equivalence classes of knot Floer complexes over the ring $\mathbb{F}[U, V]/(UV=0)$. We compare our invariants to other concordance homomorphisms coming from knot Floer homology, and discuss applications to topologically slice knots, concordance genus, and concordance unknotting number.
On minimizers of an anisotropic liquid drop model

We consider a variant of Gamow’s liquid drop model with an anisotropic surface energy. Under suitable regularity and ellipticity assumptions on the surface tension, Wulff shapes are minimizers in this problem if and only if the surface energy is isotropic. We show that for smooth anisotropies, in the small nonlocality regime, minimizers converge to the Wulff shape in C 1 -norm and quantify the rate of convergence. We also obtain a quantitative expansion of the energy of any minimizer around the energy of a Wulff shape yielding a geometric stability result. For certain crystalline surface tensions we can determine the global minimizer and obtain its exact energy expansion in terms of the nonlocality parameter.
Numerical solution of large scale Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov equations

The Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov (HFB) theory is the starting point for treating superconducting systems. However, the computational cost for solving large scale HFB equations can be much larger than that of the Hartree–Fock equations, particularly when the Hamiltonian matrix is sparse, and the number of electrons N is relatively small compared to the matrix size N b . We first provide a concise and relatively self-contained review of the HFB theory for general finite sized quantum systems, with special focus on the treatment of spin symmetries from a linear algebra perspective. We then demonstrate that the pole expansion and selected inversion (PEXSI) method can be particularly well suited for solving large scale HFB equations. For a Hubbard-type Hamiltonian, the cost of PEXSI is at most for both gapped and gapless systems, which can be significantly faster than the standard cubic scaling diagonalization methods. We show that PEXSI can solve a two-dimensional Hubbard-Hofstadter model with N b up to 2.88 × 106 , and the wall clock time is less than 100 s using 17 280 CPU cores. This enables the simulation of physical systems under experimentally realizable magnetic fields, which cannot be otherwise simulated with smaller systems.
Computer Model Emulation with High-Dimensional Functional Output in Large-Scale Observing System Uncertainty Experiments

Observing system uncertainty experiments (OSUEs) have been recently proposed as a cost-effective way to perform probabilistic assessment of retrievals for NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-...
Adversarially-Trained Deep Nets Transfer Better: Illustration on Image Classification.

Transfer learning has emerged as a powerful methodology for adapting pre-trained deep neural networks on image recognition tasks to new domains. This process consists of taking a neural network pre-trained on a large feature-rich source dataset, freezing the early layers that encode essential generic image properties, and then fine-tuning the last few layers in order to capture specific information related to the target situation. This approach is particularly useful when only limited or weakly labeled data are available for the new task. In this work, we demonstrate that adversarially-trained models transfer better than non-adversarially-trained models, especially if only limited data are available for the new domain task. Further, we observe that adversarial training biases the learnt representations to retaining shapes, as opposed to textures, which impacts the transferability of the source models. Finally, through the lens of influence functions, we discover that transferred adversarially-trained models contain more human-identifiable semantic information, which explains -- at least partly -- why adversarially-trained models transfer better.
GPA: a GPU performance advisor based on instruction sampling

Developing efficient GPU kernels can be difficult because of the complexity of GPU architectures and programming models. Existing performance tools only provide coarse-grained tuning advice at the kernel level, if any. In this paper, we describe GPA, a performance advisor for NVIDIA GPUs that suggests potential code optimizations at a hierarchy of levels, including individual lines, loops, and functions. To relieve users of the burden of interpreting performance counters and analyzing bottlenecks, GPA uses data flow analysis to approximately attribute measured instruction stalls to their root causes and uses information about a program's structure and the GPU to match inefficiency patterns with optimization strategies. To quantify the potential benefits of each optimization strategy, we developed PC sampling-based performance models to estimate its speedup. Our experiments with benchmarks and applications show that GPA provides insightful reports to guide performance optimization. Using GPA, we obtained speedups on a Volta V100 GPU ranging from 1.01 x to 3.58 ×, with a geometric mean of 1.22 x.
Rigid-analytic varieties with projective reduction violating Hodge symmetry

We construct examples of smooth proper rigid-analytic varieties admitting formal models with projective special fibers and violating Hodge symmetry for cohomology in degrees . This answers negatively the question raised by Hansen and Li.
Large-Scale Intelligent Microservices

Deploying Machine Learning (ML) algorithms within databases is a challenge due to the varied computational footprints of modern ML algorithms and the myriad of database technologies each with their own restrictive syntax. We introduce an Apache Spark-based micro-service orchestration framework that extends database operations to include web service primitives. Our system can orchestrate web services across hundreds of machines and takes full advantage of cluster, thread, and asynchronous parallelism. Using this framework, we provide large scale clients for intelligent services such as speech, vision, search, anomaly detection, and text analysis. This allows users to integrate ready-to-use intelligence into any datastore with an Apache Spark connector. To eliminate the majority of overhead from network communication, we also introduce a low-latency containerized version of our architecture. Finally, we demonstrate that the services we investigate are competitive on a variety of benchmarks, and present two applications of this framework to create intelligent search engines, and real time auto race analytics systems.
Genetic risk score for ovarian cancer based on chromosomal-scale length variation.

Twin studies indicate that a substantial fraction of ovarian cancers should be predictable from genetic testing. Genetic risk scores can stratify women into different classes of risk. Higher risk women can be treated or screened for ovarian cancer, which should reduce ovarian cancer death rates. However, current ovarian cancer genetic risk scores do not work that well. We developed a genetic risk score based on variations in the length of chromosomes. We evaluated this genetic risk score using data collected by The Cancer Genome Atlas. We synthesized a dataset of 414 women who had ovarian serous carcinoma and 4225 women who had no form of ovarian cancer. We characterized each woman by 22 numbers, representing the length of each chromosome in their germ line DNA. We used a gradient boosting machine to build a classifier that can predict whether a woman had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The genetic risk score based on chromosomal-scale length variation could stratify women such that the highest 20% had a 160x risk (95% confidence interval 50x-450x) compared to the lowest 20%. The genetic risk score we developed had an area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.88 (95% confidence interval 0.86–0.91). A genetic risk score based on chromosomal-scale length variation of germ line DNA provides an effective means of predicting whether or not a woman will develop ovarian cancer.
Wavelets and Lattice Field Theory

When continuous fields are expanded in a wavelet basis, a D-dimensional continuum action becomes a (D+1)-dimensional lattice action on the naively discretized Poincare-patch coordinates of an Euclidean AdS(D+1). New possible criteria for acceptable actions open up.
Measuring Technological Innovation over the Long Run

We use textual analysis of high-dimensional data from patent documents to create new indicators of technological innovation. We identify significant patents based on textual similarity of a given patent to previous and subsequent work: these patents are distinct from previous work but are related to subsequent innovations. Our measure of patent significance is predictive of future citations and correlates strongly with measures of market value. We identify breakthrough innovations as the most significant patents – those in the right tail of our measure – to construct indices of technological change at the aggregate, sectoral, and firm level. Our technology indices span two centuries (1840-2010) and cover innovation by private and public firms, as well as non-profit organizations and the US government. These indices capture the evolution of technological waves over a long time span and are strong predictors of productivity at the aggregate and sectoral level.
Janus: An uncertain cache architecture to cope with side channel attacks

Side channel attacks are a major class of attacks to crypto-systems. Attackers collect and analyze timing behavior, I/O data, or power consumption in these systems to undermine their effectiveness in protecting sensitive information. In this work, we propose a new cache architecture, called Janus, to enable crypto-systems to introduce randomization and uncertainty in their runtime timing behavior and power utilization profile. In the proposed cache architecture, each data block is equipped with an on-off flag to enable/disable the data block. The Janus architecture has two special instructions in its instruction set to support the on-off flag. Beside the analytical evaluation of the proposed cache architecture, we deploy it in an ARM-7 processor core to study its feasibility and practicality. Results show a significant variation in the timing behavior across all the benchmarks. The new secure processor architecture has minimal hardware overhead and significant improvement in protecting against power analysis and timing behavior attacks.
The Lavender Letter: Applying the Law of Adultery to Same-Sex Couples and Same-Sex Conduct

In this manuscript, I examine the question whether the law of adultery applies to same-sex extramarital conduct, which has divided courts nationwide. While the case law to date has been limited – since the issue has only arisen in the context of opposite-sex marriages in which one spouse has an extramarital same-sex relationship – with the growth in the number of states legalizing same-sex marriage, the question is certain to recur with increased frequency.In the manuscript, I examine the question in four different contexts: criminal adultery prosecutions, fault-based divorce actions, civil tort actions for interference with the marital relationship, and murder cases raising a provocation defense based on a spouse’s act of adultery. I demonstrate that those decisions holding that same-sex conduct does not constitute adultery do so on the basis of outdated precedents that rely on a gendered concept of adultery that treats sexual dalliances by men and women differently, as well as on heteronormative statutory regimes in which same-sex adultery and opposite-sex adultery were punished differently because all sexual activity between individuals of the same sex was considered unlawful. Next, I show that the policy arguments in favor of maintaining any of these bases for criminal and civil liability apply with equal force to same-sex couples and same-sex conduct. Finally, I conclude that the same equality principles that have resulted in the extension of the right to marry to same-sex couples likewise require the application of adultery laws and related doctrines to same-sex couples and same-sex conduct, and indeed that a failure to apply them in those contexts devalues same-sex relationships and perpetuates antiquated, negative stereotypes about gay people.
Association Between Actual and Perceived U.S. COVID-19 Policies and Preventive Behavior.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 related policies in the USA can be confusing: some states, but not others, implemented mask mandates mid-pandemic, and states reopened their economies to different levels with different timelines after initial shutdowns. PURPOSE: The current research asks: How well does the public's perception of such policies align with actual policies, and how well do actual versus perceived policies predict the public's mask-wearing and social distancing behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic? METHODS: We conducted a preregistered cross-sectional study among 1,073 online participants who were representative of the U.S. population on age, gender, and education on Monday-Tuesday, July 20-21, 2020. We asked participants which locations they visited in the past weekend, and their mask-wearing and social distancing behaviors at each location. We also measured participants' beliefs about their state's policies on mask mandate and business opening and obtained objective measures of these policies from publicly available data. RESULTS: Perception about the existence of mask mandate was 91% accurate in states with a mask mandate but only 46% accurate in states without one. Perception of state reopening level did not correlate with policy. It was the perceived but not actual state mask mandate that positively predicted both mask-wearing and social distancing, controlling for state COVID-19 cases, demographic factors, and participants' numeracy and COVID-19 history. CONCLUSIONS: The public's perception of state-level mask mandates erred on the side of assuming there is one. Perception of reopening is almost completely inaccurate. Paradoxically, public perception that a mask mandate exists predicts preventive behaviors better than actual mandates.
Strongly Local Hypergraph Diffusions for Clustering and Semi-supervised Learning

Hypergraph-based machine learning methods are now widely recognized as important for modeling and using higher-order and multiway relationships between data objects. Local hypergraph clustering and semi-supervised learning specifically involve finding a well-connected set of nodes near a given set of labeled vertices. Although many methods for local graph clustering exist, there are relatively few for localized clustering in hypergraphs. Moreover, those that exist often lack flexibility to model a general class of hypergraph cut functions or cannot scale to large problems. To tackle these issues, this paper proposes a new diffusion-based hypergraph clustering algorithm that solves a quadratic hypergraph cut based objective akin to a hypergraph analog of Andersen-Chung-Lang personalized PageRank clustering for graphs. We prove that, for graphs with fixed maximum hyperedge size, this method is strongly local, meaning that its runtime only depends on the size of the output instead of the size of the hypergraph and is highly scalable. Moreover, our method enables us to compute with a wide variety of cardinality-based hypergraph cut functions. We also prove that the clusters found by solving the new objective function satisfy a Cheeger-like quality guarantee. We demonstrate that on large real-world hypergraphs our new method finds better clusters and runs much faster than existing approaches. Specifically, it runs in a few seconds for hypergraphs with a few million hyperedges compared with minutes for a flow-based technique. We furthermore show that our framework is general enough that can also be used to solve other p-norm based cut objectives on hypergraphs.
SASSI — Super-Pixelated Adaptive Spatio-Spectral Imaging

We introduce a novel video-rate hyperspectral imager with high spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions. Our key hypothesis is that spectral profiles of pixels within each super-pixel tend to be similar. Hence, a scene-adaptive spatial sampling of a hyperspectral scene, guided by its super-pixel segmented image, is capable of obtaining high-quality reconstructions. To achieve this, we acquire an RGB image of the scene, compute its super-pixels, from which we generate a spatial mask of locations where we measure high-resolution spectrum. The hyperspectral image is subsequently estimated by fusing the RGB image and the spectral measurements using a learnable guided filtering approach. Due to low computational complexity of the superpixel estimation step, our setup can capture hyperspectral images of the scenes with little overhead over traditional snapshot hyperspectral cameras, but with significantly higher spatial and spectral resolutions. We validate the proposed technique with extensive simulations as well as a lab prototype that measures hyperspectral video at a spatial resolution of $600 \times 900$ 600 × 900 pixels, at a spectral resolution of 10 nm over visible wavebands, and achieving a frame rate at 18fps.
Variations in structural MRI quality significantly impact commonly used measures of brain anatomy

Subject motion can introduce noise into neuroimaging data and result in biased estimations of brain structure. In-scanner motion can compromise data quality in a number of ways and varies widely across developmental and clinical populations. However, quantification of structural image quality is often limited to proxy or indirect measures gathered from functional scans; this may be missing true differences related to these potential artifacts. In this study, we take advantage of novel informatic tools, the CAT12 toolbox, to more directly measure image quality from T1-weighted images to understand if these measures of image quality: (1) relate to rigorous quality-control checks visually completed by human raters; (2) are associated with sociodemographic variables of interest; (3) influence regional estimates of cortical surface area, cortical thickness, and subcortical volumes from the commonly used Freesurfer tool suite. We leverage public-access data that includes a community-based sample of children and adolescents, spanning a large age-range (N = 388; ages 5–21). Interestingly, even after visually inspecting our data, we find image quality significantly impacts derived cortical surface area, cortical thickness, and subcortical volumes from multiple regions across the brain (~ 23.4% of all areas investigated). We believe these results are important for research groups completing structural MRI studies using Freesurfer or other morphometric tools. As such, future studies should consider using measures of image quality to minimize the influence of this potential confound in group comparisons or studies focused on individual differences.