cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Pink shrimp Farfantepenaeus duorarum spatiotemporal abundance trends along an urban, subtropical shoreline slated for restoration

The Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands (BBCW) project of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) aims to reduce point-source freshwater discharges and spread freshwater flow along the mainland shoreline of southern Biscayne Bay. These actions will be taken to approximate conditions in the coastal wetlands and bay that existed prior to construction of canals and water control structures. An increase in pink shrimp (Farfantepenaeus duorarum) density to ≥ 2 individuals m-2 during the wet season (i.e., August-October) along the mainland shoreline was previously proposed as an indication of BBCW success. This study examined pre-BBCW baseline densities and compared them with the proposed target. Densities were monitored by seasonal (wet, dry) throw-trapping (1 m2 replicated in triplicate) at 47 sites along ~22 km of the southwestern Biscayne Bay coastline over 10 years (2007-2016). Densities varied across years and were most often higher in dry seasons. Quantile regression revealed density limitation by four habitat attributes: water temperature (°C), depth (m), salinity (ppt), and submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV: % cover). Procrustean analyses that tested for concordance between the spatial and temporal distributions of shrimp densities and habitat metrics found that water temperature, water depth, and salinity explained ~ 28%, 28%, and 22% of density variability, respectively. No significant relationship with SAV was observed. Hierarchical clustering was used to identify spatially and temporally similar groupings of pink shrimp densities by sites or season-years. Significant groupings were then investigated with respect to potentially limiting habitat attributes. Six site and four year-season clusters were identified. Although habitat attributes significantly differed among spatial clusters, within-cluster median pink shrimp densities did not correlate with within-cluster minima, maxima, medians, or standard deviations of habitat attributes. Overall, pink shrimp density ([Formula: see text] = 0.86, SD = 1.32 shrimp m-2) was significantly lower (t(α = 0.10,2),939 = -26.53, P <0.0001) than the 2 shrimp m-2 CERP Interim Goal target. Pink shrimp density corresponded significantly with salinity and appeared limited to density < 2 shrimp m-2 by salinity < ~18 ppt. Salinity is an environmental attribute that will be directly influenced by CERP implementation.
Syntheses of 4,5-Disubstituted Oxazoles via Regioselective C-4 Bromination

A scaleable and highly regioselective C-4 bromination of 5-substituted oxazoles is described. The use of DMF as solvent played a critical role in significantly improving the C-4/C-2 bromination ratio. The resulting 4-bromooxazoles were shown to be good Suzuki–Miyaura coupling partners with arylboronic acids. Furthermore, a simple and convenient method that employs triethylamine efficiently purged residual levels of palladium and iron to less than 10 ppm.
Synthesis and some pharmacological properties of three new bradykinin antagonists

Three new analogues of bradykinin (BK) were designed, synthesized and bio assayed in conscious, unrestrained rats. The analogues were designed by modifying the [D-Arg 0 , Hyp 3 , hi 5,8 , D-Phe 7 ]-BK which was previously synthesized by the Steward group and was considered to be one of the most potent antagonists of BK known to date. It has been reported herein that the introduction of additional D-Arg residue or acylation with propionic acid of the N-terminus of [D-Arg 0 , Hyp 3 , Thi 5,8 , D-Phe 7 ]BK (model peptide) results in analogues with similar or weaker antagonistic potency as compared to the model, respectively. However, the acylation with 1-adamantaneacetic acid results in an analogue with more than ten times enhanced potency and efficacy. All peptides were synthesized by the solid phase method.
Granatum: a graphical single-cell RNA-Seq analysis pipeline for genomics scientists.

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) is an increasingly popular platform to study heterogeneity at the single-cell level. Computational methods to process scRNA-Seq data are not very accessible to bench scientists as they require a significant amount of bioinformatic skills. We have developed Granatum, a web-based scRNA-Seq analysis pipeline to make analysis more broadly accessible to researchers. Without a single line of programming code, users can click through the pipeline, setting parameters and visualizing results via the interactive graphical interface. Granatum conveniently walks users through various steps of scRNA-Seq analysis. It has a comprehensive list of modules, including plate merging and batch-effect removal, outlier-sample removal, gene-expression normalization, imputation, gene filtering, cell clustering, differential gene expression analysis, pathway/ontology enrichment analysis, protein network interaction visualization, and pseudo-time cell series construction. Granatum enables broad adoption of scRNA-Seq technology by empowering bench scientists with an easy-to-use graphical interface for scRNA-Seq data analysis. The package is freely available for research use at http://garmiregroup.org/granatum/app
A convenient, efficient method for conjugate reductions using catalytic quantities of Cu(I)

Abstract Exposure of enones and enals to either Bu3SnH or PhSiH3 in the presence of ≤ 5 mol % [(Ph3P)CuH]6 leads to products of 1,4-hydride delivery in good yields.
Synthesis, structure, and optical properties of a series of quaternary oxides, K2Ba(MO4)2 (M = Cr, Mo, W)

Abstract Single crystals of a family of quaternary oxides K2Ba(MO4)2 (M = Cr, Mo, W) have been grown for the first time. The crystals were grown in a hydroxide-based hydroflux. The compounds crystallize in space group R 3 ¯ m and, according to single-crystal X-ray diffraction structure determination, are isostructural with the mineral Palmierite. All compounds show anti-site mixing of the potassium and barium. The degree of mixing appears to be determined indirectly by the M-O bond distance. Diffuse reflectance spectra and room-temperature luminescence were measured for each compound.
Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis of Quaternary Carbon Centers. Exploratory Investigations of Intramolecular Heck Reactions of (E)-α,β-Unsaturated 2-Haloanilides and Analogues To Form Enantioenriched Spirocyclic Products

The effect of chiral diphosphine structure, method of catalyst generation, reaction solvent, and HI scavenger on the formation of enantioenriched 3,3-disubstituted 2-oxindole 5 from asymmetric Heck cyclization of 4 was studied (eq 1). Depending upon whether the HI scavenger was a silver salt or a basic tertiary amine, either enantiomer of 5 could be formed with good selectivity using the same enantiomer of BINAP. Using Pd−BINAP as catalyst, a variety of enantioenriched 3,3-disubstituted oxindoles, indolines, and dihydrobenzofurans was prepared from (E)-α,β-unsaturated 2-haloaniline substrates (Table 5). With but one exception, cyclizations conducted in the presence of Ag3PO4 or 1,2,2,6,6-pentamethylpiperidine (PMP) afforded opposite enantiomers of the spirocyclic product. Which HI acceptor results in highest enantioselection is substrate dependent. These studies demonstrate, for the first time, that asymmetric Heck reactions of halide substrates can proceed with useful levels of enantioselectivity in the ...
Hypothesis: a Plastically Produced Phenotype Predicts Host Specialization and Can Precede Subsequent Mutations in Bacteriophage.

ABSTRACT The role of phenotypic plasticity in the evolution of new traits is controversial due to a lack of direct evidence. Phage host range becomes plastic in the presence of restriction-modification (R-M) systems in their hosts. I modeled the evolution of phage host range in the presence of R-M systems. The model makes two main predictions. The first prediction is that the offspring of the first phage to gain a new methylation pattern by infecting a new host make up a disproportionate fraction of the subsequent specialist population, indicating that the plastically produced phenotype is highly predictive of evolutionary outcome. The second prediction is that the first phage to gain this pattern is not always genetically distinct from other phages in the population. Taken together, these results suggest that plasticity could play a causal role on par with mutation during the evolution of phage host range. This uniquely tractable system could enable the first direct test of “plasticity first” evolution.
Aggression and discrimination among closely versus distantly related species of Drosophila

Fighting between different species is widespread in the animal kingdom, yet this phenomenon has been relatively understudied in the field of aggression research. Particularly lacking are studies that test the effect of genetic distance, or relatedness, on aggressive behaviour between species. Here we characterized male-male aggression within and between species of fruit flies across the Drosophila phylogeny. We show that male Drosophila discriminate between conspecifics and heterospecifics and show a bias for the target of aggression that depends on the genetic relatedness of opponent males. Specifically, males of closely related species treated conspecifics and heterospecifics equally, whereas males of distantly related species were overwhelmingly aggressive towards conspecifics. To our knowledge, this is the first study to quantify aggression between Drosophila species and to establish a behavioural bias for aggression against conspecifics versus heterospecifics. Our results suggest that future study of heterospecific aggression behaviour in Drosophila is warranted to investigate the degree to which these trends in aggression among species extend to broader behavioural, ecological and evolutionary contexts.
Structural aspects of the product from glyoxal and tetrakis(ethoxycarbonylamino)ethane

The base-promoted addition of glyoxal to 1,1,2,2-tetrakis(ethoxycarbonylamino)ethane in DMF gives a product mixture containing mostly 1,1′,3,3′-tetrakis(ethoxycarbonyl)-4,4′,5,5,'-tetrahydroxy-2,2′-biimidazolidyl. An alternate structure containing a tetraazadecalin system was considered less likely, since the most significant peak in the mass spectrum of this product and a tetraacetate derivative corresponded to half the mass of the parent ion. Two-dimensional nmr spectra on the major hplc fraction are more consistent with the biimidazolidinyl structure (very low Jvic and lack of NOE enhancement). A HETCOSY spectrum on the mixture allowed assignment of 1H nmr shifts.
Detection of pro-apoptotic Bax∆2 proteins in the human cerebellum

Bax∆2 is a pro-apoptotic protein originally discovered in colon cancer patients with high microsatellite instability. Unlike most pro-apoptotic Bax family members, Bax∆2 mediates cell death through a non-mitochondrial caspase 8-dependent pathway. In the scope of analyzing the distribution of Bax∆2 expression in human tissues, we examined a panel of human brain samples. Here, we report four cerebellar cases in which the subjects had no neurological disorder or disease documented. We found Bax∆2 positive cells scattered in all areas of the cerebellum, but most strikingly concentrated in Purkinje cell bodies and dendrites. Two out the four subjects tested had strong Bax∆2-positive staining in nearly all Purkinje cells; one was mainly negative; and one had various levels of positive staining within the same sample. Further genetic analysis of the Purkinje cell layer, collected by microdissection from two subjects, showed that the samples contained G7 and G9 Bax microsatellite mutations. Both subjects were young and had no diseases reported at the time of death. As the distribution of Bax∆2 is consistent with that known for Baxα, but in a less ubiquitous manner, these results may imply a potential function of Bax∆2 in Purkinje cells.
Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Aza-C-disaccharides: (1→6), (1→4), and (1→1) Linked Sugar Mimics

The synthesis of (1→6), (1→4), and (1→1) linked aza-C-disaccharides, a novel class of glycomimetic compounds, is described. The polyhydroxylated piperidine ring was synthesized using vinyl bromide 11 as a common intermediate which was synthesized de novo from bromobenzene utilizing the microbial oxidation metabolite bromodiol 10. A Suzuki coupling of 11 with an alkylboron reagent derived from olefinated carbohydrate precursors via hydroboration was used to form the C-glycosidic bond. Ozonolysis and selective reduction of the resultant carbonyl functions served to produce the azasugar ring. Fully deprotected aza-C-disaccharides were obtained upon acidic deprotection. Biological screening of the title compounds against several common glycosidase enzymes as well as in vitro anti-HIV assays are reported.
Why is it so difficult to simulate entropies, free energies, and their differences?

The classical 19th century thermodynamic inequalities of Clausius and Helmholtz are applied to the calculation of entropy and free energy changes by computer simulation. The irreversibility of finite-time thermodynamic paths is exploited to obtain upper and lower bounds on these quantities. Schrodinger's microscopic interpretation of heat and work provides the basis for a literal implementation of the key historical concepts on the computer using the Monte Carlo algorithm of Metropolis. Coupling schemes, paths, and reference states are variationally optimized to improve the convergence of the simulated properties, and a newly introduced variational flexibility, metric scaling, is overviewed. Reasons for expecting limiting power laws for the convergence are outlined.
An extended scope synthesis of an artificial safranine cofactor

Abstract Safranines hold great promise as artificial flavin-like electron transfer cofactors with tunable properties. We have previously reported the stepwise synthesis of a safranine analogue, p-methoxy safranine. We now report an improved synthetic pathway which enables the synthesis of safranine analogues containing electron donating phenyl substituents. Low potential safranine analogues were synthesized that extend the range of two electron midpoint reduction potentials to 249 mV, or 11.4 kcal/mol. NMR analysis of the safranine series demonstrates that the 15N chemical shift at the N(5) position correlates with the two-electron reduction midpoint potential.
Growth-Environment Dependent Modulation of Staphylococcus aureus Branched-Chain to Straight-Chain Fatty Acid Ratio and Incorporation of Unsaturated Fatty Acids

The fatty acid composition of membrane glycerolipids is a major determinant of Staphylococcus aureus membrane biophysical properties that impacts key factors in cell physiology including susceptibility to membrane active antimicrobials, pathogenesis, and response to environmental stress. The fatty acids of S. aureus are considered to be a mixture of branched-chain fatty acids (BCFAs), which increase membrane fluidity, and straight-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that decrease it. The balance of BCFAs and SCFAs in USA300 strain JE2 and strain SH1000 was affected considerably by differences in the conventional laboratory medium in which the strains were grown with media such as Mueller-Hinton broth and Luria broth resulting in high BCFAs and low SCFAs, whereas growth in Tryptic Soy Broth and Brain-Heart Infusion broth led to reduction in BCFAs and an increase in SCFAs. Straight-chain unsaturated fatty acids (SCUFAs) were not detected. However, when S. aureus was grown ex vivo in serum, the fatty acid composition was radically different with SCUFAs, which increase membrane fluidity, making up a substantial proportion of the total ( 37%) and BCFAs (>36%) making up the rest. Staphyloxanthin, an additional major membrane lipid component unique to S. aureus, tended to be greater in content in cells with high BCFAs or SCUFAs. Cells with high staphyloxanthin content had a lower membrane fluidity that was attributed to increased production of staphyloxanthin. S. aureus saves energy and carbon by utilizing host fatty acids for part of its total fatty acids when growing in serum, which may impact biophysical properties and pathogenesis given the role of SCUFAs in virulence. The nutritional environment in which S. aureus is grown in vitro or in vivo in an infection is likely to be a major determinant of membrane fatty acid composition.
Stereochemistry of dihydroxylation of N-arylbicyclo[2.2.1]-hept-5-ene-endo- and -exo-2,3-dicarboximides

Stereochemistry of the oxidation of N-arylbicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene-endo-and-exo-2,3-dicarboximides at the double bond with peroxyacetic acid generated in situ in the presence of sulfuric acid and with an anhydrous dioxane solution of peroxyacetic acid was studied. In both cases, the reaction was stereospecific, regardless of the substituent in the N-aryl group and configuration of the imide ring, but the reaction direction depended on the presence of water in the system. In the first case, the corresponding trans-5,6-dihydroxy derivatives were formed, while in the second, exo-5,6-epoxy derivatives. The oxidation of N-arylbicyclo[2.2.1]-hept-5-ene-endo-and-exo-2,3-dicarboximides with a solution of potassium permanganate in aqueous acetone gave the corresponding N-aryl-cis-5,6-dihydroxybicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-endo-and-exo-2,3-dicarboximides. The exo,cis,exo and exo,cis,endo configurations of the synthesized compounds were determined by 1H NMR spectroscopy.
Laser-induced thermal desorption studies of surface reaction kinetics

Laser induced thermal desorption (LITD) has proven to be an effective probe of reaction kinetics on single-crystal surfaces. The ability of LITD techniques to measure adsorption, decomposition and desorption kinetics will be illustrated by studies of SiCl4 and (CH3CH2)2 SiH2 on Si(111)7X7. Silicon tetrachloride, SiCl4, is important in silicon epitaxial growth and diethylsilane, (CH3CH2)2 SiH2, is a promising candidate for silicon atomic layer epitaxy. The desorption products, sticking coefficients and decomposition and desorption kinetics measured by these LITD investigations are important for an understanding of silicon epitaxy by chemical vapor deposition.© (1991) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Iridium and Ruthenium Complexes with Chelating N-Heterocyclic Carbenes: Efficient Catalysts for Transfer Hydrogenation, β-Alkylation of Alcohols, and N-Alkylation of Amines

Air-stable Ir and Ru complexes of a chelating pyrimidine-functionalized N-heterocyclic carbene were synthesized. The complexes were characterized by NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction and were found to be catalytically active for transfer hydrogenation, β-alkylation of secondary alcohols with primary alcohols, and N-alkylation of amines with primary alcohols. Notably, the Ir complexes were found to catalyze the N-alkylation of amines using the mild base NaHCO3.
Listeria monocytogenes cell-to-cell spread in epithelia is heterogeneous and dominated by rare pioneer bacteria.

Eating food that has been contaminated with bacteria called Listeria monocytogenes can result in life-threatening infections. The bacteria first invade the epithelial cells that line the small intestine. After this, L. monocytogenes can move from one host cell to another, which allows the infection to reach other organs. Most studies into how L. monocytogenes infections spread have focused either on how single bacterial cells move from one host cell to the next, or on how millions of bacteria damage host tissues. Little was known about the intermediate steps of an infection, where the bacteria start to colonize the small intestine. To investigate, Ortega et al. recorded videos of L. monocytogenes spreading between epithelial cells grown on a glass coverslip, and developed computer simulations to try to reproduce how the bacteria spread. This revealed that the bacteria do not all move in the same way. Instead, less than 1% of the bacteria move in ‘steps’ that are up to 10 times longer than those taken by the others. Ortega et al. named these bacteria ‘pioneers’. Ortega et al. propose that the pioneers form long protrusions that allow them to spread directly from an infected cell to a non-neighboring cell. By taking these large steps, the pioneers may increase the chances that the bacteria will cause a long-lasting infection. Future research will be needed to answer further questions about the pioneers. For example, how do the pioneer bacteria differ from the majority of bacterial cells? Would targeting anti-bacterial treatments at pioneers make it easier to treat infections? It also remains to be seen if other types of bacteria also show this pioneer behavior.
Chemical Synthesis, Processing, and Characterization of Nanostructured Fe−B for the Magnetically Assisted Chemical Separation of Hazardous Waste

Nanostructured Fe−B alloys have been synthesized by reducing aqueous FeCl2 with potassium borohydride both in the presence and in the absence of an applied magnetic field and investigated for the separation of hazardous waste in the magnetically assisted chemical separation (MACS) process. Linear chain and discrete particle microstructures of Fe−B are obtained depending on the reaction conditions. The Fe−B samples exhibit a saturation magnetization as high as 190 emu/g after annealing in a 90%Ar−10%H2 atmosphere at 400 °C. The Fe−B magnetic materials are then encapsulated within a uniform polyacrylamide matrix using a solution-based technique developed in this study. With an optimum surfactant concentration, homogeneous Fe−B/polyacrylamide composite materials could be readily prepared. The particle size of the composite could be controlled by varying the monomer concentration during the polymerization. Laboratory level testing with a surrogate species (cobalt ions) indicates that these materials are highl...
Computational Soundness of Formal Indistinguishability and Static Equivalence.

In the investigation of the relationship between the formal and the computational view of cryptography, a recent approach, first proposed in [10], uses static equivalence from cryptographic pi calculi as a notion of formal indistinguishability. Previous work [10, 1] has shown that this yields the soundness of natural interpretations of some interesting equational theories, such as certain cryptographic operations and a theory of XOR. In this paper however, we argue that static equivalence is too coarse to allow sound interpretations of many natural and useful equational theories. We illustrate this with several explicit examples in which static equivalence fails to work. To fix the problem, we propose a notion of formal indistinguishability that is more flexible than static equivalence. We provide a general framework along with general theorems, and then discuss how this new notion works for the explicit examples where static equivalence fails to ensure soundness.
Construction of the Azepinoindole Core Tricycle of the Stemona Alkaloids

The azepinoindole substructure common to a number of Stemona alkaloids is constructed by employing a 7-endo radical cyclization of a readily available N-alkylated hydroindolone substrate. The indolone precursors are prepared via [1 + 4] cycloaddition between a vinyl isocyanate and either dimethoxycarbene or cyclohexylisocyanide.
For whom does “what works” work? The political economy of evidence-based education

What role does scientific evidence play in educational practice? Supporters of evidence-based education (EBE) see it as a powerful way of improving the quality of public services which is readily applicable to the education sector. Academic scholarship, however, points out important limits to this applicability. I offer an account inspired by Tullock’s theory of bureaucracy that helps explain EBE’s influence despite these limits. Recent configurations of EBE are an imperfect solution to 2 imperatives where policymakers are at an informational disadvantage: (a) guiding professionals working in the field and (b) evaluating evidence from academic researchers. EBE, especially in the form of RCTs and systematic reviews, offers a way of filtering a complex range of research to produce a determinate result that is transparent to policymakers. However, this impression of research transparency is misleading as it omits theoretical background that is critical for successfully interpreting the results of particular interventions. This comes at a cost of relevance to the frontline professionals whom this research evidence is supposed to inform and help.
“Short-bite” ligands in cluster synthesis

The “short-bite” ligands CH2(PR2)2 or CH(PR2)3 (R = Me, Ph),RN(PX2)2 (R=H, Me, Et;X = F, OR′ (R′= Me, Et, i-Pr, Ph), Ph),RE(CH2ER2)2 (E = P, As;R = Me, Ph ), Ph2 P(2-C5H4N) and related species are particularly versatile for the synthesis of di- and polynuclear complexes which frequently possess metal-metal bonds. In addition to homometallic products, these ligands often permit the directed synthesis of heterometallic complexes. Selected aspects of the chemistry of these complexes are also reviewed.
A tricyclic aluminum alkoxide catalyst for aldehyde trimethylsilylcyanation

Trimethylsilylcyanation of aldehydes is efficiently accomplished with a low concentration of catalyst 1 under mild conditions in acetonitrile. This protocol tolerates a variety of electron-rich, neutral, and deficient aryl, heterocyclic, and alkyl aldehydes. At the end of the reaction, catalyst 1 precipitates from solution, allowing it to be recycled three times.
Aqueous Crystallization of Manganese(II) Group 6 Metal Oxides

Aqueous salt metathesis reactions of manganese(II) salts and various chromate, molybdate, and tungstate salts afford a series of manganese group 6 metal oxides. The chromate reactions form a previously unknown phase, KMn2(CrO4)2(OH)(H2O) (1), whereas the tungstate reactions afford a simpler, hydrated phase, MnWO4·H2O (4). In these reactions, the countercation appears to influence the crystal form and size of the products. The molybdate reactions display countercation-dependent phase selectivity. Sodium and ammonium molybdates afford hydrated manganese molybdenum oxide, MnMoO4·H2O (3), whereas potassium molybdate affords the new molydenum analogue of the chromate phase, KMn2(MoO4)2(OH)(H2O) (2). Counteranion effects are more subtle, with crystal form and size representing the primary differences between the products from reactions using sulfate, acetate, or chloride salts of manganese(II). Each phase undergoes thermal dehydration, affording α-MnMoO4 from 3 and MnWO4 (hubnerite) from 4.
Selective reduction of acyl aziridines to Mannich bases using silyllithium reagents

Abstract Mannich bases are prepared from the selective α-reduction of acyl aziridines using silyllithium reagents. The reaction proceeds via an aziridine ring-opening assisted Brook rearrangement.
A formal [3+2] cycloaddition for the synthesis of bicyclo[3.2.1]octanes

Abstract A new and a direct synthetic method for the construction of the bicyclo[3.2.1]octane system is envisioned by assembling cyclic allylsilanes with electron-deficient double bonds in a single step via a formal diastereoselective Lewis acid-promoted [3+2] cycloaddition.
Central Bank Balances and Reserve Requirements

Most central banks oblige depository institutions to hold minimum reserves against their liabilities, predominantly in the form of balances at the central bank. The role of these reserve requirements has evolved significantly over time. The overlay of changing purposes and practices has the result that it is not always fully clear what the current purpose of reserve requirements is, and this necessarily complicates thinking about how a reserve regime should be structured. This paper describes three main purposes for reserve requirements - prudential, monetary control and liquidity management - and suggests best practice for the structure of a reserves regime. Finally, the paper illustrates current practices using a 2010 IMF survey of 121 central banks.
Unsupervised Visual Domain Adaptation: A Deep Max-Margin Gaussian Process Approach

For unsupervised domain adaptation, the target domain error can be provably reduced by having a shared input representation that makes the source and target domains indistinguishable from each other. Very recently it has been shown that it is not only critical to match the marginal input distributions, but also align the output class distributions. The latter can be achieved by minimizing the maximum discrepancy of predictors. In this paper, we take this principle further by proposing a more systematic and effective way to achieve hypothesis consistency using Gaussian processes (GP). The GP allows us to induce a hypothesis space of classifiers from the posterior distribution of the latent random functions, turning the learning into a large-margin posterior separation problem, significantly easier to solve than previous approaches based on adversarial minimax optimization. We formulate a learning objective that effectively influences the posterior to minimize the maximum discrepancy. This is shown to be equivalent to maximizing margins and minimizing uncertainty of the class predictions in the target domain. Empirical results demonstrate that our approach leads to state-to-the-art performance superior to existing methods on several challenging benchmarks for domain adaptation.
A copositive approach for two-stage adjustable robust optimization with uncertain right-hand sides

We study two-stage adjustable robust linear programming in which the right-hand sides are uncertain and belong to a convex, compact uncertainty set. This problem is NP-hard, and the affine policy is a popular, tractable approximation. We prove that under standard and simple conditions, the two-stage problem can be reformulated as a copositive optimization problem, which in turn leads to a class of tractable, semidefinite-based approximations that are at least as strong as the affine policy. We investigate several examples from the literature demonstrating that our tractable approximations significantly improve the affine policy. In particular, our approach solves exactly in polynomial time a class of instances of increasing size for which the affine policy admits an arbitrarily large gap.
The unbroken spectrum of type-A Frobenius seaweeds

If $$\mathfrak {g}$$ is a Frobenius Lie algebra, then for certain $$F\in \mathfrak {g}^*$$ the natural map $$\mathfrak {g}\longrightarrow \mathfrak {g}^* $$ given by $$x \longmapsto F[x,-]$$ is an isomorphism. The inverse image of F under this isomorphism is called a principal element. We show that if $$\mathfrak {g}$$ is a Frobenius seaweed subalgebra of $$A_{n-1}=\mathfrak {sl}(n)$$ , then the spectrum of the adjoint of a principal element consists of an unbroken set of integers whose multiplicities have a symmetric distribution. Our proof methods are constructive and combinatorial in nature.
Statistical guarantees for the EM algorithm: From population to sample-based analysis

We develop a general framework for proving rigorous guarantees on the performance of the EM algorithm and a variant known as gradient EM. Our analysis is divided into two parts: a treatment of these algorithms at the population level (in the limit of infinite data), followed by results that apply to updates based on a finite set of samples. First, we characterize the domain of attraction of any global maximizer of the population likelihood. This characterization is based on a novel view of the EM updates as a perturbed form of likelihood ascent, or in parallel, of the gradient EM updates as a perturbed form of standard gradient ascent. Leveraging this characterization, we then provide non-asymptotic guarantees on the EM and gradient EM algorithms when applied to a finite set of samples. We develop consequences of our general theory for three canonical examples of incompletedata problems: mixture of Gaussians, mixture of regressions, and linear regression with covariates missing completely at random. In each case, our theory guarantees that with a suitable initialization, a relatively small number of EM (or gradient EM) steps will yield (with high probability) an estimate that is within statistical error of the MLE. We provide simulations to confirm this theoretically predicted behavior.
SolidWorx: A Resilient and Trustworthy Transactive Platform for Smart and Connected Communities

Internet of Things and data sciences are fueling the development of innovative solutions for various applications in Smart and Connected Communities (SCC). These applications provide participants with the capability to exchange not only data but also resources, which raises the concerns of integrity, trust, and above all the need for fair and optimal solutions to the problem of resource allocation. This exchange of information and resources leads to a problem where the stakeholders of the system may have limited trust in each other. Thus, collaboratively reaching consensus on when, how, and who should access certain resources becomes problematic. This paper presents SolidWorx, a blockchain-based platform that provides key mechanisms required for arbitrating resource consumption across different SCC applications in a domain-agnostic manner. For example, it introduces and implements a hybrid-solver pattern, where complex optimization computation is handled off-blockchain while solution validation is performed by a smart contract. To ensure correctness, the smart contract of SolidWorx is generated and verified using a model-based approach.
Curvature invariant on noncommutative polyballs

Abstract In this paper we develop a theory of curvature (resp. multiplicity) invariant for tensor products of full Fock spaces F 2 ( H n 1 ) ⊗ ⋯ ⊗ F 2 ( H n k ) and also for tensor products of symmetric Fock spaces F s 2 ( H n 1 ) ⊗ ⋯ ⊗ F s 2 ( H n k ) . This is an attempt to find a more general framework for these invariants and extend some of the results obtained by Arveson for the symmetric Fock space, by the author and Kribs for the full Fock space, and by Fang for the Hardy space H 2 ( D k ) over the polydisc. To prove the existence of the curvature and its basic properties in these settings requires a new approach based on noncommutative Berezin transforms and multivariable operator theory on polyballs and varieties, as well as summability results for completely positive maps. The results are presented in the more general setting of regular polyballs.
Minimizing normalized volumes of valuations

For any $${\mathbb {Q}}$$ -Gorenstein klt singularity (X, o), we introduce a normalized volume function $${\widehat{\mathrm{vol}}}$$ that is defined on the space of real valuations centered at o and consider the problem of minimizing $${\widehat{\mathrm{vol}}}$$ . We prove that the normalized volume has a uniform positive lower bound by proving an Izumi type estimate for any $${\mathbb {Q}}$$ -Gorenstein klt singularity. Furthermore, by proving a properness estimate, we show that the set of real valuations with uniformly bounded normalized volumes is compact, and hence reduce the existence of minimizers for $${\widehat{\mathrm{vol}}}$$ to a conjectural lower semicontinuity property. For a smooth point, we use an inequality of de-Fernex-Ein-Mustaţa to show that the divisorial valuation associated to the exceptional divisor of the standard blow up is a minimizer of $${\widehat{\mathrm{vol}}}$$ . Finally the relation to Fujita’s work on divisorial stability is pointed out.
Solving puzzles described in english by automated translation to answer set programming and learning how to do that translation

We present a system capable of automatically solving combinatorial logic puzzles given in (simplified) English. It uses an ontology to represent the puzzles in ASP which is applicable to a large set of logic puzzles. To translate the English descriptions of the puzzles into this ontology, we use a λ-calculus based approach using Probabilistic Combinatorial Categorial Grammars (PCCG) where the meanings of words are associated with parameters to be able to distinguish between multiple meanings of the same word.
Space-Time Block Diagonalization for Frequency-Selective MIMO Broadcast Channels

The most important linear precoding method for frequency-flat MIMO broadcast channels is block diagonalization (BD) which, under certain conditions, attains the same nonlinear dirty paper coding channel capacity. However, BD is not easily translated to frequency-selective channels, since space-time information must be included in the transceiver design. In this paper, we demonstrate that BD is possible in frequency-selective MIMO broadcast channels to eliminate inter-user interference and derive the conditions on the number of transmit antennas and the transmission block length (as functions of the number of users and channel delay spread) for the existence of BD precoders. We also propose three different approaches to mitigate/eliminate inter-symbol interference in block transmissions: time-reversal-based BD (TRBD), equalized BD (EBD), and joint processing BD (JPBD). We show that any transmit-processing-only method (including TRBD and EBD) yields zero diversity and multiplexing gains (high SNR regime). We also demonstrate that JPBD, which uses linear processing at the transmitter and the receiver, approximates full multiplexing gain for a sufficiently large transmit block length, and show its diversity-multiplexing tradeoff. Extensive numerical simulations show that the achievable rate and probability of error performance of all the proposed techniques remarkably improve that of conventional time-reversal beamforming. Moreover, JPBD provides the highest achievable rate region for frequency-selective MIMO broadcast channels.
Conserved quantities of harmonic asymptotic initial data sets

In the first half of this article, we survey the new quasi-local and total angular momentum and center of mass defined in [9] and summarize the important properties of these definitions. To compute these conserved quantities involves solving a nonlinear PDE system (the optimal isometric embedding equation), which is rather difficult in general. We found a large family of initial data sets on which such a calculation can be carried out effectively. These are initial data sets of harmonic asymptotics, first proposed by Corvino and Schoen to solve the full vacuum constraint equation. In the second half of this article, the new total angular momentum and center of mass for these initial data sets are computed explicitly.
Do ImageNet Classifiers Generalize to ImageNet

We build new test sets for the CIFAR-10 and ImageNet datasets. Both benchmarks have been the focus of intense research for almost a decade, raising the danger of overfitting to excessively re-used test sets. By closely following the original dataset creation processes, we test to what extent current classification models generalize to new data. We evaluate a broad range of models and find accuracy drops of 3% - 15% on CIFAR-10 and 11% - 14% on ImageNet. However, accuracy gains on the original test sets translate to larger gains on the new test sets. Our results suggest that the accuracy drops are not caused by adaptivity, but by the models' inability to generalize to slightly "harder" images than those found in the original test sets.
Computing entropy rate of symbol sources & a distribution-free limit theorem

Entropy rate of sequential data-streams naturally quantifies the complexity of the generative process. Thus entropy rate fluctuations could be used as a tool to recognize dynamical perturbations in signal sources, and could potentially be carried out without explicit background noise characterization. However, state of the art algorithms to estimate the entropy rate have markedly slow convergence; making such entropic approaches non-viable in practice. We present here a fundamentally new approach to estimate entropy rates, which is demonstrated to converge significantly faster in terms of input data lengths, and is shown to be effective in diverse applications ranging from the estimation of the entropy rate of English texts to the estimation of complexity of chaotic dynamical systems. Additionally, the convergence rate of entropy estimates do not follow from any standard limit theorem, and reported algorithms fail to provide any confidence bounds on the computed values. Exploiting a connection to the theory of probabilistic automata, we establish a convergence rate of equation as a function of the input length |s|, which then yields explicit uncertainty estimates, as well as required data lengths to satisfy pre-specified confidence bounds.
Pursuing polynomial bounds on torsion

We show that for all ϵ > 0, there is a constant C(ϵ) > 0 such that for all elliptic curves E defined over a number field F with j(E) ∈ Q we have $$\# E\left( F \right)\left[ {tors} \right] \leq C\left( \in \right){\left[ {F:\mathbb{Q}} \right]^{5 + 2 + \in }}$$ . We pursue further bounds on the size of the torsion subgroup of an elliptic curve over a number field E/F that are polynomial in [F: Q] under restrictions on j(E). We give an unconditional result for j(E) lying in a fixed quadratic field that is not imaginary of class number one as well as two further results, one conditional on GRH and one conditional on the strong boundedness of isogenies of prime degree for non-CM elliptic curves.
Online and differentially-private tensor decomposition

Tensor decomposition is an important tool for big data analysis. In this paper, we resolve many of the key algorithmic questions regarding robustness, memory efficiency, and differential privacy of tensor decomposition. We propose simple variants of the tensor power method which enjoy these strong properties. We present the first guarantees for online tensor power method which has a linear memory requirement. Moreover, we present a noise calibrated tensor power method with efficient privacy guarantees. At the heart of all these guarantees lies a careful perturbation analysis derived in this paper which improves up on the existing results significantly.
Box-Hunter Resolution in Nonregular Fractional Factorial Designs

In a 1961 paper, Box and Hunter defined the resolution of a regular fractional factorial design as a measure of the amount of aliasing in the fraction. They also indicated that the maximum resolution is equal to the minimum length of a defining word. The idea of a wordlength pattern has now been extended to nonregular designs by various authors, who show that the minimum generalized wordlength equals the maximum strength plus 1.
Equation of Motion Theory for Excited States in Variational Monte Carlo and the Jastrow Antisymmetric Geminal Power in Hilbert Space

An equation of motion formalism for excited states in variational Monte Carlo is derived, and a pilot implementation for the Jastrow-modified antisymmetric geminal power is tested. In single excitations across a range of small molecules, this combination is shown to be intermediate in accuracy between configuration interaction singles and equation of motion coupled cluster with singles and doubles. For double excitations, energy errors are found to be similar to those for coupled cluster.
An Efficient Polyphase Filter-Based Resampling Method for Unifying the PRFs in SAR Data

Variable higher pulse repetition frequencies (PRFs) are increasingly being used to meet the stricter requirements and complexities of current airborne and spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems associated with higher resolution and wider area products. POLYPHASE , the proposed resampling scheme, downsamples and unifies variable PRFs within a single look complex SAR acquisition and across a repeat pass sequence of acquisitions down to an effective lower PRF. A sparsity condition of the received SAR data ensures that the uniformly resampled data approximate the spectral properties of a decimated densely sampled version of the received SAR data. While experiments conducted with both synthetically generated and real airborne SAR data show that POLYPHASE retains comparable performance with the state-of-the-art best linear unbiased interpolation scheme in image quality, a polyphase filter-based implementation of POLYPHASE offers significant computational savings for arbitrary (not necessarily periodic) input PRF variations, thus allowing fully on-board, in-place, and real-time implementation.
A third-moment theorem and precise asymptotics for variations of stationary Gaussian sequences

In two new papers [2] and [8], sharp general quantitative bounds are given to complement the wellknown fourth moment theorem of Nualart and Peccati, by which a sequence in a …xed Wiener chaos converges to a normal law if and only if its fourth cumulant converges to 0. The bounds show that the speed of convergence is precisely of order the maximum of the fourth cumulant and the absolute value of the third moment (cumulant). Specializing to the case of normalized centered quadratic variations for stationary Gaussian sequences, we show that a third moment theorem holds: convergence occurs if and only if the sequence’s third moments tend to 0. This is proved for sequences with general decreasing covariance, by using the result of [8], and …nding the exact speed of convergence to 0 of the quadratic variation’s third and fourth cumulants. [8] also allows us to derive quantitative estimates for the speeds of convergence in a class of log-modulated covariance structures, which puts in perspective the notion of critical Hurst parameter when studying the convergence of fractional Brownian motion’s quadratic variation. We also study the speed of convergence when the limit is not Gaussian but rather a second-Wiener-chaos law. Using a log-modulated class of spectral densities, we recover a classical result of Dobrushin-Major/Taqqu whereby the limit is a Rosenblatt law, and we provide new convergence speeds. The conclusion in this case is that the price to pay to obtain a Rosenblatt limit despite a slowly varying modulation is a very slow convergence speed, roughly of the same order as the modulation.
Isoperimetric profiles and random walks on some permutation wreath products

We study the isoperimetric profiles of certain families of finitely generated groups defined via marked Schreier graphs and permutation wreath products. The groups we study are among the “simplest” examples within a much larger class of groups, all defined via marked Schreier graphs and/or action on rooted trees, which includes such examples as the long range group, Grigorchuck group and the basillica group. The highly nonlinear structure of these groups make them both interesting and difficult to study. Because of the relative simplicity of the Schreier graphs that define the groups we study here (the key fact is that they contained very large regions that are “one dimensional”), we are able to obtain sharp explicit bounds on the L1 and L2 isoperimetric profiles of these groups. As usual, these sharp isoperimetric profile estimates provide sharp bounds on the probability of return of simple random walk. Nevertheless, within each of the families of groups we study there are also many cases for which the existing techniques appear inadequate and this leads to a variety of open problems.
An Envelope for Davis–Yin Splitting and Strict Saddle-Point Avoidance

It is known that operator splitting methods based on forward–backward splitting, Douglas–Rachford splitting, and Davis–Yin splitting decompose difficult optimization problems into simpler subproblems under proper convexity and smoothness assumptions. In this paper, we identify an envelope (an objective function), whose gradient descent iteration under a variable metric coincides with Davis–Yin splitting iteration. This result generalizes the Moreau envelope for proximal-point iteration and the envelopes for forward–backward splitting and Douglas–Rachford splitting iterations identified by Patrinos, Stella, and Themelis. Based on the new envelope and the stable–center manifold theorem, we further show that, when forward–backward splitting or Douglas–Rachford splitting iterations start from random points, they avoid all strict saddle points with probability one. This result extends the similar results by Lee et al. from gradient descent to splitting methods.