cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Comparative assessment of content-based face image retrieval in different color spaces

Content-based face image retrieval is concerned with computer retrieval of face images (of a given subject) based on the geometric or statistical features automatically derived from these images. It is well known that color spaces provide powerful information for image indexing and retrieval by means of color invariants, color histogram, color texture, etc.. This paper assesses comparatively the performance of content-based face image retrieval in different color spaces using a standard algorithm, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), which has become a popular algorithm in the face recognition community. In particular, we comparatively assess 12 color spaces (RGB, HSV, YUV, YCbCr, XYZ, YIQ, L*a*b*, U*V*W*, L*u*v*, I1I2I3, HSI, and rgb) by evaluating 7 color configurations for every single color space. A color configuration is defined by an individual or a combination of color component images. Take the RGB color space as an example, possible color configurations are R, G, B, RG, RB, GB, and RGB. Experimental results using 1,800 FERET R, G, B images corresponding to 200 subjects show that some color configurations, such as R in the RGB color space and V in the HSV color space, help improve face retrieval performance.
The Oregon Medicaid program: is it just?

While the objective of expanding the Oregon Medicaid program is commendable, the means adopted by the Oregon legislature to control the costs of the expansion are problematic. This paper examines the legislature's approach from a legal perspective. The first part of the paper determines whether it is consistent with federal and state law governing the Medicaid program. Oregon is seeking waivers from any conflicting federal requirements, and since there do not appear to be any constitutional impediments, the key question is whether the waivers should be granted as a matter of sound public policy. The second and third parts of the paper explore this question in terms of the two main features of the Oregon plan: priority ranking of medical services, and redistributing Medicaid resources from current to future eligibles. The final portion of the paper considers whether alternative methods of expanding Medicaid eligibility would be preferable.
Does targeted cognitive training reduce educational disparities in cognitive function among cognitively normal older adults

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate educational differences in treatment responses to memory, reasoning, and speed of processing cognitive training relative to no-contact control. Methods Secondary analyses of the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly trial were conducted. Two thousand eight hundred older adults were randomized to memory, reasoning, or speed of processing training or no-contact control. A repeated-measures mixed-effects model was used to investigate immediate post-training and 1-year outcomes with sensitivity analyses out to 10 years. Outcomes were as follows: (1) memory composite of Hopkins Verbal Learning Test, Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, and Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test; (2) reasoning composite of letter series, letter sets, and word series; and (3) speed of processing measured using three trials of useful field of view and the digit symbol substitution test. Results The effects of reasoning and memory training did not differ by educational attainment. The effect of speed of processing training did. Those with fewer than 12 years of education experienced a 50% greater effect on the useful field of view test compared with those with 16 or more years of education. The training advantage for those with fewer than 12 years of education was maintained to 3 years post-training. Conclusion Older adults with less than a secondary education are at elevated risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. The analyses here indicate that speed of processing training is effective in older adults with low educational attainment.
In Vivo MRI Based Prostate Cancer Identification with Random Forests and Auto-context Model

Prostate cancer is one of the major causes of cancer death for men. Magnetic Resonance (MR) image is being increasingly used as an important modality to detect prostate cancer. Therefore, identifying prostate cancer in MRI with automated detection methods has become an active area of research, and many methods have been proposed to identify the prostate cancer. However, most of previous methods only focused on identifying cancer in the peripheral zone, or classifying suspicious cancer ROIs into benign tissue and cancer tissue. In this paper, we propose a novel learning-based multi-source integration framework to directly identify the prostate cancer regions from in vivo MRI. We employ the random forest technique to effectively integrate features from multi-source images together for cancer segmentation. Here, the multi-source images include initially only the multi-parametric MRIs (T2, DWI, eADC and dADC) and later also the iteratively estimated and refined tissue probability map of prostate cancer. Experimental results on 26 real patient data show that our method can accurately identify the cancerous tissue.
The chemical inventory system of the center for heterocyclic compounds, University of Florida.

A system suitable for tracking the amounts and locations of ca. 10 000 chemicals is described.
Adaptive local scanning: A comprehensive and intelligent method for fast scanning of indiscrete objects

A pixel-by-pixel scanning that is usually performed by a single point-like sensor or probe is being widely used in the applications such as scanning probe microscopy techniques. Typically, their scanning time is several seconds to minutes long due to a raster scanning that needs to be conducted for capturing every single point on the surface of the sample area. To improve the scanning efficiency, recent research has been focused on investigating effective scanning patterns and methods. This work presents an adaptive local scanning method for efficiently sampling indiscrete objects like string-like one-piece connected objects under the microscopy. An initial scanning pattern is firstly investigated. Once the initial scanning reaches the object, an adaptive sinusoidal scanning method that can on-line adjust its scanning frequency and amplitude by predicting both the curvatures and the shape of the object is employed. The method also addresses scanning intersections and bifurcations associated with objects. Based on extensive implementations, it is validated that our method has high performance as it has high scanning efficiency and the scanned results match objects with high precision and high accuracy.
Rapid access to conformationally-constrained oxatricycles via Ugi–Smiles couplings

Use of allylamine and substituted 2-furaldehydes as components in Ugi–Smiles couplings of 2-nitrophenol provide ready access to N-aryl epoxyisoindolines. These adducts form via a dual event involving the Ugi–Smiles multicomponent reaction and an intramolecular Diels–Alder cycloaddition with the furan ring.
Collusion, Exclusion, and Inclusion in Random-Order Bargaining

This paper examines the profitability of three types of integration in a cooperative game solved by a random-order value (e.g. the Shapley value). Collusion between players i and j is a contract merging their resources in the hands of one of them, say i . This contract can be represented as a combination of exclusion, which lets i exclude j ’s resource but not use it himself, and inclusion, which lets i use j ’s resource but not exclude j from it. This representation yields a third-difference condition on the characteristic function that determines the profitability of collusion, generalizing existing results for specific games. Namely, collusion is profitable [unprofitable] when the complementarity of the colluding players is reduced [increased] by other players.
Generating Simulations of Motion Events from Verbal Descriptions

In this paper, we describe a computational model for motion events in natural language that maps from linguistic expressions, through a dynamic event interpretation, into three-dimensional temporal simulations in a model. Starting with the model from (Pustejovsky and Moszkowicz, 2011), we analyze motion events using temporally-traced Labelled Transition Systems. We model the distinction between path- and manner-motion in an operational semantics, and further distinguish different types of manner-of-motion verbs in terms of the mereo-topological relations that hold throughout the process of movement. From these representations, we generate minimal models, which are realized as three-dimensional simulations in software developed with the game engine, Unity. The generated simulations act as a conceptual “debugger” for the semantics of different motion verbs: that is, by testing for consistency and informativeness in the model, simulations expose the presuppositions associated with linguistic expressions and their compositions. Because the model generation component is still incomplete, this paper focuses on an implementation which maps directly from linguistic interpretations into the Unity code snippets that create the simulations.
Promoting Reductive Tandem Reactions of Nitrostyrenes with Mo(CO)6 and a Palladium Catalyst To Produce 3H-Indoles

The combination of Mo(CO)6 and 10 mol % of palladium acetate catalyzes the transformation of 2-nitroarenes to 3H-indoles through a tandem cyclization-[1,2] shift reaction of in situ generated nitrosoarenes. Mo(CO)6 appears to have dual roles in this transformation: generate CO and promote C–N bond formation to increase the yield of the N-heterocycle product.
ADAGE-Based Integration of Publicly Available Pseudomonas aeruginosa Gene Expression Data with Denoising Autoencoders Illuminates Microbe-Host Interactions.

ABSTRACT The increasing number of genome-wide assays of gene expression available from public databases presents opportunities for computational methods that facilitate hypothesis generation and biological interpretation of these data. We present an unsupervised machine learning approach, ADAGE ( a nalysis using d enoising a utoencoders of g ene e xpression), and apply it to the publicly available gene expression data compendium for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In this approach, the machine-learned ADAGE model contained 50 nodes which we predicted would correspond to gene expression patterns across the gene expression compendium. While no biological knowledge was used during model construction, cooperonic genes had similar weights across nodes, and genes with similar weights across nodes were significantly more likely to share KEGG pathways. By analyzing newly generated and previously published microarray and transcriptome sequencing data, the ADAGE model identified differences between strains, modeled the cellular response to low oxygen, and predicted the involvement of biological processes based on low-level gene expression differences. ADAGE compared favorably with traditional principal component analysis and independent component analysis approaches in its ability to extract validated patterns, and based on our analyses, we propose that these approaches differ in the types of patterns they preferentially identify. We provide the ADAGE model with analysis of all publicly available P. aeruginosa GeneChip experiments and open source code for use with other species and settings. Extraction of consistent patterns across large-scale collections of genomic data using methods like ADAGE provides the opportunity to identify general principles and biologically important patterns in microbial biology. This approach will be particularly useful in less-well-studied microbial species. IMPORTANCE The quantity and breadth of genome-scale data sets that examine RNA expression in diverse bacterial and eukaryotic species are increasing more rapidly than for curated knowledge. Our ADAGE method integrates such data without requiring gene function, gene pathway, or experiment labeling, making practical its application to any large gene expression compendium. We built a Pseudomonas aeruginosa ADAGE model from a diverse set of publicly available experiments without any prespecified biological knowledge, and this model was accurate and predictive. We provide ADAGE results for the complete P. aeruginosa GeneChip compendium for use by researchers studying P. aeruginosa and source code that facilitates ADAGE’s application to other species and data types. Author Video : An author video summary of this article is available.
Joint Inference in Weakly-Annotated Image Datasets via Dense Correspondence

We present a principled framework for inferring pixel labels in weakly-annotated image datasets. Most previous, example-based approaches to computer vision rely on a large corpus of densely labeled images. However, for large, modern image datasets, such labels are expensive to obtain and are often unavailable. We establish a large-scale graphical model spanning all labeled and unlabeled images, then solve it to infer pixel labels jointly for all images in the dataset while enforcing consistent annotations over similar visual patterns. This model requires significantly less labeled data and assists in resolving ambiguities by propagating inferred annotations from images with stronger local visual evidences to images with weaker local evidences. We apply our proposed framework to two computer vision problems, namely image annotation with semantic segmentation, and object discovery and co-segmentation (segmenting multiple images containing a common object). Extensive numerical evaluations and comparisons show that our method consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art in automatic annotation and semantic labeling, while requiring significantly less labeled data. In contrast to previous co-segmentation techniques, our method manages to discover and segment objects well even in the presence of substantial amounts of noise images (images not containing the common object), as typical for datasets collected from Internet search.
What Happens to a Manifold Under a Bi-Lipschitz Map?

We study geometric and topological properties of the image of a smooth submanifold of $$\mathbb {R}^{n}$$Rn under a bi-Lipschitz map to $$\mathbb {R}^{m}$$Rm. In particular, we characterize how the dimension, diameter, volume, and reach of the embedded manifold relate to the original. Our main result establishes a lower bound on the reach of the embedded manifold in the case where $$m \le n$$m≤n and the bi-Lipschitz map is linear. We discuss implications of this work in signal processing and machine learning, where bi-Lipschitz maps on low-dimensional manifolds have been constructed using randomized linear operators.
Hysterectomy at the time of colpocleisis: a decision analysis

Colpocleisis is an obliterative procedure for the treatment of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) with success rates nearing 100 %. Concomitant hysterectomy is commonly performed to avoid potential difficulty or delay in diagnosis and management of endometrial cancer (EMC). The objective was to assess the utility of vaginal hysterectomy at the time of a colpocleisis using decision analysis. A decision analysis model was constructed to compare the outcomes of Le Fort colpocleisis (C) with those of colpocleisis and concomitant vaginal hysterectomy (CH). Probability and utility values from published data and expert opinions were utilized. As EMC risk changes with age, the total expected utility for each alternative was calculated for each decade using the rollback method. Sensitivity analysis was performed using Monte Carlo simulation. When evaluating specifically the risk of developing EMC in those patients with uterine conservation (C) and the risk of laparotomy in patients undergoing CH, one-way sensitivity analysis was used to determine a threshold for decision reversal. Two-way sensitivity analysis determined a threshold for complications common to both C and CH. The expected overall utility for C was higher than for CH for all ages 30–90 years. This difference was statistically significant for ages 40–90, favoring C. The Monte Carlo simulation results confirmed that the difference between the two alternatives was statistically significant. Multiple one-way sensitivity analyses confirmed model robustness. Colpocleisis should be preferred to CH. Concomitant hysterectomy commonly performed for cancer may be justified in patients younger than 40 years of age.
Construction of Enantiopure Taxoid and Natural Product-like Scaffolds Using a C–C Bond Cleavage/Arylation Reaction

An approach to construct enantiopure complex natural product-like frameworks, including the first reported synthesis of a C17 oxygenated taxoid scaffold, is presented. A palladium-catalyzed C–C activation/cross-coupling is utilized to access these structures in a short sequence from (+)-carvone; the scope of this reaction is explored.
Semi-Markov Switching Vector Autoregressive Model-Based Anomaly Detection in Aviation Systems

In this work we consider the problem of anomaly detection in heterogeneous, multivariate, variable-length time series datasets. Our focus is on the aviation safety domain, where data objects are flights and time series are sensor readings and pilot switches. In this context the goal is to detect anomalous flight segments, due to mechanical, environmental, or human factors in order to identifying operationally significant events and highlight potential safety risks. For this purpose, we propose a framework which represents each flight using a semi-Markov switching vector autoregressive (SMS-VAR) model. Detection of anomalies is then based on measuring dissimilarities between the model's prediction and data observation. The framework is scalable, due to the inherent parallel nature of most computations, and can be used to perform online anomaly detection. Extensive experimental results on simulated and real datasets illustrate that the framework can detect various types of anomalies along with the key parameters involved.
Distinguishing between Personal Preferences and Social Influence in Online Activity Feeds

Many online social networks thrive on automatic sharing of friends' activities to a user through activity feeds, which may influence the user's next actions. However, identifying such social influence is tricky because these activities are simultaneously impacted by influence and homophily. We propose a statistical procedure that uses commonly available network and observational data about people's actions to estimate the extent of copy-influence---mimicking others' actions that appear in a feed. We assume that non-friends don't influence users; thus, comparing how a user's activity correlates with friends versus non-friends who have similar preferences can help tease out the effect of copy-influence. Experiments on datasets from multiple social networks show that estimates that don't account for homophily overestimate copy-influence by varying, often large amounts. Further, copy-influence estimates fall below 1% of total actions in all networks: most people, and almost all actions, are not affected by the feed. Our results question common perceptions around the extent of copy-influence in online social networks and suggest improvements to diffusion and recommendation models.
Is inequality deadly and for whom? A Bayesian Model Averaging analysis

Abstract The persistent correlations between income and mortality, and inequality and mortality in the US are well established. It has been demonstrated with various empirical models at different levels of analysis. However, there is no consensus on the relevant confounding factors or even the functional specification of the income–inequality–mortality relationship across the literature. We interpret this as significant model uncertainty when it comes to the correct specification of the implied econometric model and provide a systematic approach to address it. Using BMA, we conduct a large-scale analysis considering millions of models to determine a model-averaged inequality effect explaining cross-sectional variations in mortality at the county level. The results also suggest a best set of confounding factors and emphasize the importance of controlling for unobserved State-specific factors. Furthermore, we uncover a robust nonlinear income–inequality–mortality relationship that challenges typical assumptions in the literature.
Epistemic privacy

We present a novel definition of privacy in the framework of offline (retroactive) database query auditing. Given information about the database, a description of sensitive data, and assumptions about users' prior knowledge, our goal is to determine if answering a past user's query could have led to a privacy breach. According to our definition, an audited property A is private, given the disclosure of property B, if no user can gain confidence in A by learning B, subject to prior knowledge constraints. Privacy is not violated if the disclosure of B causes a loss of confidence in A. The new notion of privacy is formalized using the well-known semantics for reasoning about knowledge, where logical properties correspond to sets of possible worlds (databases) that satisfy these properties. Database users are modeled as either possibilistic agents whose knowledge is a set of possible worlds, or as probabilistic agents whose knowledge is a probability distribution on possible worlds.We analyze the new privacy notion, show its relationship with the conventional approach, and derive criteria that allow the auditor to test privacy efficiently in some important cases. In particular, we prove characterization theorems for the possibilistic case, and study in depth the probabilistic case under the assumption that all database records are considered a-priori independent by the user, as well as under more relaxed (or absent) prior-knowledge assumptions. In the probabilistic case we show that for certain families of distributions there is no efficient algorithm to test whether an audited property A is private given the disclosure of a property B, assuming P ≠ NP. Nevertheless, for many interesting families, such as the family of product distributions, we obtain algorithms that are efficient both in theory and in practice.
Genetic and Developmental Basis of Cardiovascular Malformations

Cardiovascular malformations (CVMs) are the most common birth defect, occurring in 1% to 5% of all live births. Genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors all influence the development of CVMs, and an improved understanding of the causation of CVMs is a prerequisite for prevention. Cardiac development is a complex, multistep process of morphogenesis that is under genetic regulation. Although the genetic contribution to CVMs is well recognized, the genetic causes of human CVMs are still identified infrequently. This article discusses the key genetic concepts characterizing human CVMs, their developmental basis, and the critical developmental and genetic concepts underlying their pathogenesis.
Conceptualizing Factors of Adoption for Head Mounted Displays: Toward an Integrated Multi-Perspective Framework

Recent developments in Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) offer radical new ways of exploring and interacting in three dimensional virtual or augmented spaces. However, the literature reveals a gap in terms of predictive adoption factors that address human usage and social constraints. Our investigation was guided by the question, “ What are the critical factors that predict HMD adoption? ” We used a literature review and discourse analysis approach to conduct exploratory research. As an outcome, our paper contributes a conceptual HMD framework which includes diverse adoption factors from each of three differing perspectives: producer firm-level, general product-level, and HMD-specific. We posit that all three perspectives are necessary for a comprehensive systemic framework that robustly predicts the successful adoption of HMDs in diverse settings. At the firm-level or producer-level, we explore business factors that might impact adoption by applying the Transparency Innovation Models (TIMs) typology. At the product-level, users’ satisfaction with immersions into virtual realms depends on how engaged they become in “flow” states which is influenced by mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics general design choices. At the HMD-specific level, visual strain, power arrangements, and haptic interaction are important considerations. Also, the paper contributes application case studies of two HMD firms: Oculus and Magic Leap. We argue that the meaningful-TIM approach when distributed across networks of key stakeholders offers greater advantages in terms of enabling open relationships and development processes among critical stakeholders, such as HMD producers, software developers, and potential users. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible future outcomes for HMDs.
Environmental Policy, Federalism, and the Obama Presidency

Environmental policy is a central piece of President Obama’s domestic policy agenda. Congressional gridlock, however, has frequently compelled the Obama Administration to turn to the tools of the administrative presidency to achieve its goals. While executive authority has enabled the President to pursue a relatively ambitious environmental agenda, it has often engendered conflict with Congress, industry, and some states. High levels of intergovernmental conflict have plagued the Obama Administration in several areas of environmental policy, including investment in renewable energy, Environmental Protection Agency regulations on air pollution, and executive actions to manage public lands. And, for their part, states have continued to pursue their own policy goals in the absence of federal policy, with episodes of both policy innovation and retrenchment. Although President Obama’s approach continues a trend of presidents primarily using the tools of the administrative presidency, the President’s signature climate change policy, the Clean Power Plan, may signal an evolving intergovernmental partnership in environmental policy.
Thermal Property Database for Investment Casting Shells

Reliable and realistic thermal properties data for investment casting shell molds are required to correctly simulate the solidification and predict the shrinkage. Investment casting shells exhibit several phase transformations during firing and pouring which affect their transient thermal properties. These properties are dependent upon time, temperature and process history. This study presents the thermal properties (thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity) of seven industrially produced ceramic molds using an inverse method in which pure Ni was poured into ceramic molds equipped with two thermocouples (inside the mold cavity and in the shell). MAGMASOFT® software (hereafter known as Software A) was used to simulate virtual cooling curves which were fitted to experimental curves by adjusting the temperature dependent thermal properties of the ceramic mold. The thermal properties data obtained from the inverse method were compared with measurement results from laser flash and the differences were discussed. The dataset thus developed will serve to improve the accuracy of investment casting simulation.
Flow Calculations with Strong Magnetic Effects

Simulations of the flow within an MFD (Magneto-Fluid Dynamic) channel accelerator using the complete equations, including induction, and the low Reynolds number approximation are compared. Significant differences are shown to occur and possible explanations are discussed. Non-equilibrium flow within the NASA Ames MFD Channel experiment, using several cesium seeding concentrations, is simulated.
Infrastructure-less Occupancy Detection and Semantic Localization in Smart Environments

Accurate estimation of localized occupancy related informa- tion in real time enables a broad range of intelligent smart environment applications. A large number of studies using heterogeneous sensor arrays reflect the myriad requirements of various emerging pervasive, ubiquitous and participatory sensing applications. In this paper, we introduce a zero- configuration and infrastructure-less smartphone based lo- cation specific occupancy estimation model. We opportunis- tically exploit smartphone’s acoustic sensors in a conversing environment and motion sensors in absence of any conver- sational data. We demonstrate a novel speaker estimation algorithm based on unsupervised clustering of overlapped and non-overlapped conversational data and a change point detection algorithm for locomotive motion of the users to infer the occupancy. We augment our occupancy detection model with a fingerprinting based methodology using smart- phone’s magnetometer sensor to accurately assimilate loca- tion information of any gathering. We postulate a novel crowdsourcing-based approach to annotate the semantic lo- cation of the occupancy. We evaluate our algorithms in dif- ferent contexts; conversational, silence and mixed in pres- ence of 10 domestic users. Our experimental results on real-life data traces in natural settings show that using this hybrid approach, we can achieve approximately 0.76 error count distance for occupancy detection accuracy on aver- age.
The Deep Space 1 Encounter With Comet 19P/Borrelly

On 22 Sept 2001 at 22h 29m 33s UTC the Deep Space 1 (DS1) spacecraft encountered the comet 19P/Borrelly at a distance of 2171 km. Measurements were undertaken by two dedicated science instruments on the spacecraft and by the spacecraft’s ion propulsion system diagnostic sensors (IDS). The images are the highest resolution ever obtained of a cometary nucleus and show topography and albedo differences on the surface at a resolution of 47m. The disk averaged geometric albedo is less than 0.03, among the lowest of any solar system object observed. The surface reflectance varies by a factor of three; the most absorbing areas having a normal reflectance of less than 0.01. Material is being emitted of from localized regions on the nucleus generally in the sunward direction. These regions are cylindrically shaped about 0.5 km in diameter and about 5 km in length. The cometary bow shock and other features associated with the cometary environs are asymmetrically offset from the sun-Borrelly axis. This suggests that the localized emission regions seen in the images may cause the coma to be asymmetrically offset from the sun-nucleus line. Such an offset has not been reported in previous spacecraft encounters with other comets.
Cavity Nonlinear Optics at Low Photon Numbers from Collective Atomic Motion

We report on nonlinear optical phenomena from collective motion of ultracold atoms within a strong-coupling cavity. The nonlinearity arises from probe-induced atom displacement. Longevity of motional coherence allows nonlinearity at extremely low cavity photon numbers.
A noble-metal-free, tetra-nickel polyoxotungstate catalyst for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

A tetra-nickel-containing polyoxotungstate, Na6K4[Ni4(H2O)2(PW9O34)2]·32H2O (Na6K4-Ni4P2), has been synthesized in high yield and systematically characterized. The X-ray crystal structure confirms that a tetra-nickel cluster core [Ni4O14] is sandwiched by two trivacant, heptadentate [PW9O34]9– POM ligands. When coupled with (4,4′-di-tert-butyl-2,2′-dipyridyl)-bis(2-phenylpyridine(1H))-iridium(III) hexafluorophosphate [Ir(ppy)2(dtbbpy)][PF6] as photosensitizer and triethanolamine (TEOA) as sacrificial electron donor, the noble-metal-free complex Ni4P2 works as an efficient and robust molecular catalyst for H2 production upon visible light irradiation. Under minimally optimized conditions, Ni4P2 catalyzes H2 production over 1 week and achieves a turnover number (TON) of as high as 6500 with almost no loss in activity. Mechanistic studies (emission quenching, time-resolved fluorescence decay, and transient absorption spectroscopy) confirm that, under visible light irradiation, the excited state [Ir(ppy)2(dtb...
Home Foreclosures and Community Crime: Causal or Spurious Association?*

Objective. Aggregate crime rates continue to decline in the United States despite the depth and breadth of the current foreclosure crisis. This trend calls into question conventionalwisdomandpriorresearchthatsuggestacausal,positiverelationshipbetween foreclosures and crime. The objective of this article is to consider an alternative argument, that foreclosures and crime are part-and-parcel of the same communitylevel dynamics, and thus are not causally related. Methods. We use random effects modelstoanalyzecommunitycrimeandforeclosuredatafromChicagobetween2004 and 2009. Results. Findings reveal that crime and foreclosures are spuriously related; controlling for confounding factors such as concentrated disadvantage and the politicalhierarchyofcommunitiesrenderstheforeclosure-crimeassociationnonsignificant. Conclusion. Foreclosures and crime are each explained by antecedent community characteristics. To understand why social problems are unevenly distributed across geographic space, it is necessary to investigate why power and political influence are unevenly distributed. Data reported by the Mortgage Bankers Association reveal that the rate of mortgages entering foreclosure in the United States increased from roughly 0.2 percent in 1980 to 0.3 percent in 1990, and then to 0.4 percent by 2000. Then the increase in foreclosures accelerated, rising to 0.5 percent by 2006, to 0.6 percent by 2007, to 1.08 percent by the fourth quarter of 2008, to 1.20 percent by the fourth quarter of 2009, and to 1.27 percent by the fourth quarter of 2010 (Mortgage Bankers Association, 2010, 2011; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2007). The causes of this epidemic in home foreclosures are many, and include an oversupply of new homes, the rise in unsustainable subprime mortgage finance products, falling home values, limited home refinancing options, rising unemployment, and segregation (Rugh and Massey, 2010; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2007). The consequences of the current foreclosure crisis need no exaggeration: global recession, massive investment losses, staggering unemployment, and the collapse of major financial institutions and markets (to name just a few). Yet one consequence that remains underexplored is the impact of home
Quantum confinement and surface relaxation effects in rutile TiO 2 nanowires

Spin-polarized density functional theory calculations within the generalized gradient approximation have been applied to investigate the size- and shape-dependent atomic and electronic properties of [001]-oriented rutile ${\mathrm{TiO}}_{2}$ nanowires of rectangular cross section. We find pronounced even-odd oscillation in the formation energy and band structure of the nanowires as a function of the number of ${\mathrm{TiO}}_{2}$ layers, which are largely connected to the presence or absence of a mirror Ti-O plane along either confinement direction. We demonstrate that the relative stability and the oscillation in the band structure characters of the rutile ${\mathrm{TiO}}_{2}$ nanowires arise from the interplay between surface relaxation and quantum confinement effects, which depend on the even-odd parity of the number of ${\mathrm{TiO}}_{2}$ layers and can be tuned separately along each confinement direction.
Concise synthesis of alkaloid (-)-205B.

Described herein is a short total synthesis of alkaloid (−)-205B (1) by means of an anti-selective SN2′ alkylation of an attractively functionalized cyclopropanol and diastereoselective cyclization of the resulting aminoallene adduct for bicyclic ring formation. The synthesis features a general route to cis- or trans-2,6-disubstituted piperidines by lithium aluminum hydride reduction of the imine intermediate by an appropriate choice of solvent and cis- or trans-2,5-disubstituted pyrrolidines by an exceptional level of chirality transfer from a pendant allene. Particularly noteworthy are the brevity and convergence made possible by a segment-coupling strategy.
Ambient intermolecular [2 + 2] cycloaddition: an example of carbophilicity and oxophilicity competition in Au/Ag catalysis.

The gold-catalyzed intermolecular [2 + 2] cycloaddition of propargyl esters was achieved with good stereoselectivity. The “silver-free” condition was critical for this transformation, while only a trace amount of [2 + 2] products were formed in the presence of silver under otherwise identical conditions.
The Caribbean, the genesis of a fragmented nationalism

The Caribbean is now recognized as an authoritative history of the region. This new edition has been substantially revised in the light of comments by scholars and teachers, and now deals with parts of the region in greater detail. There are individual chapters on Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the English Antilles, Dutch and French islands, the Virgin Islands, Belize, and the Bahamas, as wells as on migration and Caribbean economics.
Choosing Europe over Russia: what has Ukraine gained?

ABSTRACTUkraine's choice of European association and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) with the EU over membership in the Eurasian Customs Union (ECU) advocated by Russia has plunged the country into chaos and led to the most serious security crisis in Europe since the end of the Cold War. While much has been said about Russia's role in provoking the crisis and contributing to Ukraine's misery, the discussion of relative economic merits of Ukraine's European association versus Eurasian integration has been put on back burner now that Ukraine's choice seems to be clear. This article revisits the question, arguing that the DCFTA increases the country's vulnerability to external shocks and accelerates the decline of domestic industry. In the short- to mid-term perspectives, Ukraine would be better off as a member of the common economic space with Russia and other ECU states, while in the long-term perspective ECU membership could offer a less painful, albeit more protracted, path to economi...
The Media and Election 2004

This study of the media and election 2004 is drawn from the author’s Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy(2005) that argues that several convergent trends intersecting U.S. media and politic...
Stress-Strain Behavior of Randomly Crosslinked Polydimethylsiloxane Networks

The stress–strain behavior of randomly crosslinked polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) networks was studied. The small-strain data obtained agreed well with available data on radiation-crosslinked PDMS networks. It was found that both the suppression of junction fluctuation and trapped entanglements have to be considered in order to account for the discrepancy between experimental data and the phantom-network theory. With the addition of a constant trapped entanglement term, Flory's recent network model describes correctly the behavior of our networks under tonsion and compression. The values of the parameters used in fitting the data are within the range suggested by Flory for typical rubber networks. Edwards' “potential pipe” theory did not correlate our data over the entire range of strain variation.
Constitutive Equations for Elastomers

Abstract General relations were derived by expanding the strain-energy density function in terms of the invariants of the deformation tensor. Some constitutive equations obtained by keeping a third term in the expanson in addition to the two terms retained in the Mooney-Rivlin equation were tested in the light of currently available experimental data. It is shown that by the retention of the third term the upswing in the Mooney stress at low values of γ−1 is successfully predicted, and the stress—strain behavior can be described with excellent accuracy up to break, even in carbon black-filled rubber which is difficult to describe by the Mooney-Rivlin equation.
Synthesis and biological evaluation of caulibugulones A–E

The marine bryozoan metabolites caulibugulone A–E were prepared from a readily available isoquinoline dione. These natural products were found to be potent and selective inhibitors of the dual specificity phosphatase Cdc25B.
Privacy, Discovery, and Authentication for the Internet of Things

Automatic service discovery is essential to realizing the full potential of the Internet of Things (IoT). While discovery protocols like Multicast DNS, Apple AirDrop, and Bluetooth Low Energy have gained widespread adoption across both IoT and mobile devices, most of these protocols do not offer any form of privacy control for the service, and often leak sensitive information such as service type, device hostname, device owner’s identity, and more in the clear.
METATARSOPHALANGEAL JOINT HEMIARTHROPLASTY FOR ADVANCED HALLUX RIGIDUS: A MID-TERM FOLLOW-UP

Arthrodesis of the first metatarsophalangeal joint (MTPJ) has been reported as gold standard for the treatment of advanced hallux rigidus and is a well-documented procedure. However, many patients demand a mobile MTPJ and therefore joint sparing procedures like MTPJ-arthroplasty have gained popularity. The aim of the present study was to present first mid-term results after hemiarthroplasty to treat advanced osteoarthritis of the first MTPJ. Between April 2006 and October 2013, a total of 81 hemiprostheses (AnaToemic®, Arthrex) in 71 consecutive patients (44 females, 27 male, 10 bilateral; mean age, 58 [range, 45–82]) were implanted at the St. Vincent Hospital Vienna (Austria). The indication for surgery was persistent MTPJ pain after failed conservative treatment combined with radiologic evidence of osteoarthritis (advanced hallux rigidus grade II-IV). Patients were clinically examined using the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) score before surgery and at the final follow-up visit. Patient9s satisfaction with the treatment was recorded. Radiological results were evaluated using standard x-rays and revision surgeries were documented. The mean preoperative AOFAS Scores significantly increased from 51 to 88 points after an average follow-up duration of 5 years (p According to our promising mid-term results with a MTPJ-hemiprostheses, we conclude that MTPJ-arthroplasty is an effective alternative treatment modality for anatomical reconstruction of the first MTPJ with the benefit to reduce pain and maintain mobility.
IMPACT DIRECTION EFFECTS FORCE TRANSMISSION OF MODULAR COMPONENTS IN TOTAL HIP ARTHROPLASTY

Introduction Modularity in total hip arthroplasty offers many potential benefits, however the consequences of mechanically associated corrosion continue to be concerning. Micromotion and settling of the modular components at the taper interface are thought to contribute to the etiology of this problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of hammer blows delivered in different directions on the force transmitted to the head-neck and neck-stem interface in modular hip implants. Methods One-hundred and forty-four impact tests were performed in six different directions: one on axis and five 10° off axis. Four different simulations were performed measuring the head-neck only and three different necks: 0°, 8°, and 15°. A constant height delivered on-axis hammer blows at a constant 4,500 Newton (N). Load cells positioned in the hammer and at the neck-stem junction transmitted voltage to an oscilloscope which measured forces. Results Impact force of the hammer on the head ranged from 3800N – 4500N. Blows delivered in line with the axis had the highest force. There was a trend toward decreased force as direction moved in the proximal, anterior and posterior direction. Impact forces measured at the head-neck junction were roughly proportional to those measured at the neck-stem junction in all 3 different necks, albeit slightly attenuated. The 15° neck resulted in variable force transmission at all angles off-axis. Discussion/Conclusion The location of the impact significantly influences the force transmitted to the head-neck and neck-stem junction in dual modular hip implants. Input loads appear to be proportional, although slightly attenuated at the taper joints. Increasing the version of the neck results in increased variability of forces at the taper junctions.
Images of the Optic Nerve: Anatomic-CT Correlation

The course of the intraorbital part of the optic nerve, as demonstrated on anatomic sections in various planes, is correlated with the appearance of the nerve in computed tomographic (CT) images. Discrepancies between the anatomic and CT appearance are analyzed and discussed. Since the optic nerve has a sinuous course in both the horizontal and vertical planes, no thin axial or sagittal section can be entirely parallel to the nerve. Any section will transsect the optic nerve obliquely, leading to an apparent hypodensity or “thinning” of certain segments as shown on CT. The appearance of the course of the nerve on reformatted CT images depends on the plane of the original CT section. Computed tomograms that are obtained with the eye in primary position do not allow reliable judgments regarding the course and size of the optic nerve.
Can business owners form accurate counterfactuals ? eliciting treatment and control beliefs about their outcomes in the alternative treatment status

A survey of participants in a large-scale business plan competition experiment, in which winners received an average of US$50,000 each, is used to elicit beliefs about what the outcomes would have been in the alternative treatment status. Participants are asked the percent chance they would be operating a firm, and the number of employees and monthly sales they would have, had their treatment status been reversed. The study finds the control group to have reasonably accurate expectations of the large treatment effect they would experience on the likelihood of operating a firm, although this may reflect the treatment effect being close to an upper bound. The control group dramatically overestimates how much winning would help them grow the size of their firm. The treatment group overestimates how much winning helps their chance of running a business, and also overestimates how much winning helps them grow their firms. In addition, these counterfactual expectations appear unable to generate accurate relative rankings of which groups of participants benefit most from treatment.
Diagnosis Dangerous: Why State Licensing Boards Should Step in to Prevent Mental Health Practitioners from Speculating Beyond the Scope of Professional Standards

This Article reviews the use of mental health experts to provide testimony on the future dangerousness of individuals who have already been convicted of a crime that qualifies them for the death penalty. Although this practice is common in many states that still retain the death penalty, it most frequently occurs in Texas because of a statute that makes it mandatory for juries to determine the future dangerousness of the defendant they have just found guilty. Both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association have protested the use of mental health professionals in this setting because there are no scientifically valid methods to make these predictions for people who face long periods of incarceration in maximum-security prisons. Existing models of prediction consider the behavior of individuals in the free world. Moreover, the Supreme Court has upheld these predictions of dangerousness in capital sentencing hearings on the grounds that neither of the protesting professional organizations actually license mental health professionals. Therefore, this Article suggests that these state licensing boards be held responsible for assuring mental health professionals do not testify beyond the scope of medical support or evidence. In so doing, it analyzes cases in which health care professionals, in general, have been held responsible by state licensing boards for testimony that is beyond what is acceptable practice in that profession.