cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Steric promotion of cyclization reactions: Substituent effect studies in the furan intramolecular diels-alder reaction

Seven alkyl and aryl substituted N-allyl-N-(methylfuran)-sulfonamide compounds have been synthesized and their rates of cyclization and equilibrium product concentrations determined. Increased steric bulk on the sulfonamide substituent has been shown to increase both the rate of cyclization and yields of these reactions. A three-fold increase in rate and 15% increase in yield was observed as the substituent was varied from methyl to triisopropylbenzene.
Synthesis and transformations of 1-(1,3-butadien-1-yl)benzotriazoles

1-[α-(Phenylthio)alkyl]benzotriazoles were converted into the corresponding 1-(1,3-butadien-1-yl)benzotriazoles in good yields by one-pot sequential reactions with (i) lithium diisopropylamide, (ii) allyl bromide or cinnamyl chloride, and (iii) potassium t-butoxide. Diels-Alder and hetero [4 + 2] cycloadditions of 1-(1,3-butadien-1-yl)benzotriazoles and some transformations of their α-lithio derivatives were studied.
DksA Controls the Response of the Lyme Disease Spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi to Starvation.

ABSTRACT The pathogenic spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi senses and responds to changes in the environment, including changes in nutrient availability, throughout its enzootic cycle in Ixodes ticks and vertebrate hosts. This study examined the role of DnaK suppressor protein (DksA) in the transcriptional response of B. burgdorferi to starvation. Wild-type and dksA mutant B. burgdorferi strains were subjected to starvation by shifting cultures grown in rich complete medium, Barbour-Stoenner-Kelly II (BSK II) medium, to a defined mammalian tissue culture medium, RPMI 1640, for 6 h under microaerobic conditions (5% CO2, 3% O2). Microarray analyses of wild-type B. burgdorferi revealed that genes encoding flagellar components, ribosomal proteins, and DNA replication machinery were downregulated in response to starvation. DksA mediated transcriptomic responses to starvation in B. burgdorferi, as the dksA-deficient strain differentially expressed only 47 genes in response to starvation compared to the 500 genes differentially expressed in wild-type strains. Consistent with a role for DksA in the starvation response of B. burgdorferi, fewer CFU of dksA mutants were observed after prolonged starvation in RPMI 1640 medium than CFU of wild-type B. burgdorferi spirochetes. Transcriptomic analyses revealed a partial overlap between the DksA regulon and the regulon of RelBbu, the guanosine tetraphosphate and guanosine pentaphosphate [(p)ppGpp] synthetase that controls the stringent response; the DksA regulon also included many plasmid-borne genes. Additionally, the dksA mutant exhibited constitutively elevated (p)ppGpp levels compared to those of the wild-type strain, implying a regulatory relationship between DksA and (p)ppGpp. Together, these data indicate that DksA, along with (p)ppGpp, directs the stringent response to effect B. burgdorferi adaptation to its environment. IMPORTANCE The Lyme disease bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi survives diverse environmental challenges as it cycles between its tick vectors and various vertebrate hosts. B. burgdorferi must withstand prolonged periods of starvation while it resides in unfed Ixodes ticks. In this study, the regulatory protein DksA is shown to play a pivotal role controlling the transcriptional responses of B. burgdorferi to starvation. The results suggest that DksA gene regulatory activity impacts B. burgdorferi metabolism, virulence gene expression, and the ability of this bacterium to complete its natural life cycle.
Rearrangement of 5-trimethylsilylthebaine on treatment with L-selectride: an efficient synthesis of (+)-bractazonine.

Treatment of 5-trimethylsilylthebaine with L-Selectride gave rise to a rearrangement to 10-trimethylsilylbractazonine through migration of the phenyl group, whereas treatment of thebaine with strong Lewis acids is known to lead to a similar rearrangement through migration of the alkyl bridge to give, after reduction, (+)-neodihydrothebaine. It is suggested that the rearrangement of the alkyl group of thebaine is favored due to the formation of a tertiary benzylic cation. However, for 5-trimethylsilylthebaine, the lithium ion of L-Selectride acts as the Lewis acid and the β-silyl effect dominates in the stabilization of any positive charge. This rearrangement provides a clear example of the greater relative migratory aptitude of phenyl groups over alkyl groups, and provides an efficient synthesis of (+)-bractazonine from thebaine.
Glyoxalase 1 (GLO1) Inhibition or Genetic Overexpression Does Not Alter Ethanol's Locomotor Effects: Implications for GLO1 as a Therapeutic Target in Alcohol Use Disorders.

Author(s): Barkley-Levenson, Amanda M; Lagarda, Frances A; Palmer, Abraham A | Abstract: BACKGROUND:Glyoxalase 1 (GLO1) is an enzyme that metabolizes methylglyoxal (MG), which is a competitive partial agonist at GABAA receptors. Inhibition of GLO1 increases concentrations of MG in the brain and decreases binge-like ethanol (EtOH) drinking. This study assessed whether inhibition of GLO1, or genetic overexpression of Glo1, would also alter the locomotor effects of EtOH, which might explain reduced EtOH consumption following GLO1 inhibition. We used the prototypical GABAA receptor agonist muscimol as a positive control. METHODS:Male C57BL/6J mice were pretreated with either the GLO1 inhibitor S-bromobenzylglutathione cyclopentyl diester (pBBG; 7.5 mg/kg; Experiment 1) or muscimol (0.75 mg/kg; Experiment 2), or their corresponding vehicle. We then determined whether locomotor response to a range of EtOH doses (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5) was altered by either pBBG or muscimol pretreatment. We also examined the locomotor response to a range of EtOH doses in FVB/NJ wild-type and transgenic Glo1 overexpressing mice (Experiment 3). Anxiety-like behavior (time spent in the center of the open field) was assessed in all 3 experiments. RESULTS:The EtOH dose-response curve was not altered by pretreatment with pBBG or by transgenic overexpression of Glo1. In contrast, muscimol blunted locomotor stimulation at low EtOH doses and potentiated locomotor sedation at higher EtOH doses. No drug or genotype differences were seen in anxiety-like behavior after EtOH treatment. CONCLUSIONS:The dose of pBBG used in this study is within the effective range shown previously to reduce EtOH drinking. Glo1 overexpression has been previously shown to increase EtOH drinking. However, neither manipulation altered the dose-response curve for EtOH's locomotor effects, whereas muscimol appeared to enhance the locomotor sedative effects of EtOH. The present data demonstrate that reduced EtOH drinking caused by GLO1 inhibition is not due to potentiation of EtOH's stimulant or depressant effects.
The application of vinamidinium salts to the synthesis of 1,2,4-trisubstituted pyrroles

Abstract The synthesis of 1-methyl-2-cyano-4-arylsubstituted pyrroles by the condensation of symmetrical vinamidinium salts with methyl aminoacetonitrile has been accomplished for the first time. Simple experimental conditions were used to prepare seven different pyrroles, six of which are not reported in the literature.
Highly enantioselective cyclizations of conjugated trienes with low catalyst loadings: a robust chiral N-heterocyclic carbene enabled by acetic acid cocatalyst.

Densely functionalized cyclopentenones are useful synthetic intermediates. We report herein a new method to synthesize this important class of compounds through a highly enantioselective (98 → 99% ee) triene cyclization that is cocatalyzed by acetic acid and a chiral N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC). We discovered that acetic acid not only could coexist with NHCs but also could greatly stabilize the active catalyst, which enables a long-lived catalyst with high reactivity and selectivity.
Preparation of (2E,6E)-10,11-dihydrofarnesol via a (bisphenyl)dithioacetal reduction

Abstract Reduction of a (bisphenyl)dithioacetal with sodium/isopropyl alcohol in THF allows preparation of (2 E ,6 E )-10,11 -dihydrofarnesol in high yield.
SEQUENTIAL CYCLIZATION/SILYLATION OF DIENYNES CATALYZED BY AN ORGANOYTTRIUM COMPLEX

The organoyttrium complex Cp*2YCH3·THF (Cp* = C5Me5) has been shown to be an effective precatalyst for the selective sequential cyclization/silylation of dienynes. The catalyst's ability to insert the alkyne in preference to the alkenes in a regioselective manner, combined with the high diastereoselectivity of the intramolecular insertion process, leads to bicyclo[3.3.0]octane products in high yield. The stereochemistry of the exocyclic olefin, the ring fusion, and the ring substituents are all controlled in the reaction. The cyclization of dienynes thus affords silylated carbobicyclics with high diastereoselectivities in excellent yields.
Phenacenes from Diels-Alder trapping of photogenerated o-xylylenols: phenanthrenes and benzo[e]pyrene bisimide.

The synthesis of phenanthrene and benzo[e]pyrene bisimides, 1 and 2, was accomplished via the Diels−Alder trapping of sterically congested o-xylylenols photochemically generated from 3,6-dibenzoyl-o-xylene and 1,4-dibenzoyl-9,10-dihydroanthracene, respectively. Absorption and emission from 2 are red-shifted from 1 and unsubstituted benzo[e]pyrene. The fluorescence quantum yield for 2 is an order of magnitude lower than that of 1 and comparable to that of the parent benzo[e]pyrene.
Preparation of fused β-lactams through Weinreb amide α-anions

Abstract Enantiomerically pure β-lactams bearing a Weinreb amide functionality at the C3 position have been shown to be excellent substrates for α-alkylation reactions, generating C3 quaternary centers with predictable absolute stereochemistry. In addition, oxidative coupling of C3/C4 dianions affords entry to fused β,γ-bislactam systems.
Academic Accomplices: Practical Strategies for Research Justice

This workshop brings together folks currently or interested in becoming academic accomplices, or scholars committed to leveraging resources and power to support the justice work of their community collaborators. Academic accomplices are necessary for research justice-research that materially challenges inequity-and owe it to community partners to challenge underlying oppressive structure and practices as perpetuated through academic research. The goal of this workshop is to discuss concrete strategies for challenging oppression through research methodologies, physical or institutional resources, and/or pedagogy. This workshop will generate practical strategies for research justice for DIS and HCI scholars.
Conformational study and enantioselective, regiospecific syntheses of novel aminoxy trans-proline analogues derived from an acylnitroso Diels-Alder cycloaddition.

The cis/trans isomerization of the proline amide bond has many implications in biological processes. The conformations of representative acylnitroso-derived proline analogues derived from cyclopentadiene were shown to exist exclusively as the E or trans conformation in CD2Cl2. The energetically favored conformations were determined using COSMO self-consistent reaction field calculations at the B3LYP/6-31G* level of theory in addition to low temperature 1H NMR studies. The syntheses of the acylnitroso-derived peptides utilized two methods to selectively functionalize either of two chemically similar esters in the acylnitroso-derived amino acids. A novel transpeptidation of the amino acid that controlled the absolute stereochemistry in the acylnitroso Diels−Alder cycloaddition took advantage of an activated aminoxy amide linkage to control regiochemistry. Alternatively, an enantioselective and regiospecific enzymatic resolution of a racemic dimethyl ester provided a novel aminoxy acid.
The first framework solid composed of vanadosilicate clusters.

In this Communication, we report the first example of a network structure composed of vanadosilicate clusters. We utilized hydrothermal conditions to synthesize a polyoxovanadogermanate (POVG): (C...
Symmetric Bridgehead-to-Bridgehead Coupling of Bicyclo[1.1.1]pentanes and [n]Staffanes

Symmetrical bridgehead-to-bridgehead coupling of bicyclo[1.1.1]pentane cages has been effected in 48−70% yields by the cuprate oxidation method.
Palladacycles with a Metal-Bonded sp3-Hybridized Carbon as Intermediates in the Synthesis of 2,2,3,4-Tetrasubstituted 2H-1-Benzopyrans and 1,2-Dihydroquinolines. Effects of Auxiliary Ligands and Substitution at a Palladium-Bonded Tertiary Carbon

Prompted by the failure to prepare stable oxapalladacycles L2Pd-1-C6H4-2-OC(R1)COOEt with PPh3 ligands (L = PPh3) and substituents R1 other than hydrogen, systematic studies on the effects of steric and electronic properties of auxiliary ligands L and substituents R1 (alkyl, aryl) on the feasibility of formation, stability, and reactivity of the oxapalladacycles were performed. Using N,N,N‘,N‘-tetramethyl-1,2-ethylenediamine bidentate ligand (L−L = TMEDA), stable palladacycles featuring substituents R1 (Me, Et, i-Pr, and Ph) were prepared, and the presence of palladium-bonded tertiary sp3-hybridized carbons was confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analyses on palladacycles with i-Pr and Ph substituents R1. Relying on 31P NMR analyses of crude reaction mixtures, ligand displacement reactions of palladacycles (TMEDA)Pd-1-C6H4-2-OC(R1)COOEt with monodentate phosphines (PPh3 and PPh2Me) were studied, as well as base-mediated ring-closure reactions of arylpalladium(II) iodo complexes (PPh3)2Pd(-1-C6H4-2-OCHR1CO...
Sunbeam: an extensible pipeline for analyzing metagenomic sequencing experiments.

Analysis of mixed microbial communities using metagenomic sequencing experiments requires multiple preprocessing and analytical steps to interpret the microbial and genetic composition of samples. Analytical steps include quality control, adapter trimming, host decontamination, metagenomic classification, read assembly, and alignment to reference genomes. We present a modular and user-extensible pipeline called Sunbeam that performs these steps in a consistent and reproducible fashion. It can be installed in a single step, does not require administrative access to the host computer system, and can work with most cluster computing frameworks. We also introduce Komplexity, a software tool to eliminate potentially problematic, low-complexity nucleotide sequences from metagenomic data. A unique component of the Sunbeam pipeline is an easy-to-use extension framework that enables users to add custom processing or analysis steps directly to the workflow. The pipeline and its extension framework are well documented, in routine use, and regularly updated. Sunbeam provides a foundation to build more in-depth analyses and to enable comparisons in metagenomic sequencing experiments by removing problematic, low-complexity reads and standardizing post-processing and analytical steps. Sunbeam is written in Python using the Snakemake workflow management software and is freely available at github.com/sunbeam-labs/sunbeam under the GPLv3.
Substituent Effects on the Photocleavage of Benzyl-Sulfur Bonds. Observation of the "Meta Effect"

Benzyl phenyl sulfide has been used to investigate the photocleavage mechanism for benzyl−sulfur bonds. Four experiments have shown that the reaction goes through a radical intermediate. First, the photoproducts observed can all be justified by radical mechanisms. Second, the radical intermediate was trapped with a five hexenyl tether. Third, UV analysis of analogs for the 4-NO2 derivative indicate no exciplex or electron transfer pathway. Fourth, no strong correlation is observed between σ values and the quatum yields for loss of substituted benzyl phenyl sulide. The effect of oxygen on quantum yields is best observed after samples are thoroughly outgassed with consecutive freeze−pump−thaw cycles. It is shown that oxygen diminishes the substituent effect. Upon photolysis of the outgassed samples, the meta-substituted derivatives showed more significant variances than the para derivatives. The meta derivatives are most efficiently cleaved in the following order: 3-CN > 3-NO2 > 3-CF3 > 3-CH3 > 3-OCH3. The...
Mannich reactions of carbonyl compounds and enamines with benzotriazole as the NH component

Boron trifluoride catalyses reactions of 1-(hydroxymethyl)benzotriazole with ketones to give predominantly monosubstituted Mannich products. In unsymmetrical ketones, a methylene is slightly more reactive than a me- thyl group. For 1,3-diketones and diethyl malonate, substitution occurs on the central methylene group. β-Aminocrotononitrile and β-aminocroto- nate undergo Mannich condensations with benzotriazole and formaldehyde without any catalyst. Preliminary investigations of the reactivity of the Mannich bases thus obtained are reported
Synthesis of 1,5-dideoxy-1,5-imino-d-xylonolactam VIA acid-catalyzed intramolecular schmidt rearrangement

Summary 5-Azido-2,3,4-tri-O-benzoyl-5-deoxy-D-xylose diethyl dithioacetal (3) undergoes smooth Lewis acid-catalyzed demercaptalation (boron trifluoride etherate/HgO) to afford the unstable aldehydo-azide 4, which in the presence of Lewis acids yields the tribenzoate 6 of the title compound (7) via an apparent intramolecular Schmidt rearrangement.
Fused bicyclic vinylcyclopropanes from intramolecular alkylidene carbene-alkene additions

Abstract A double bond migration driven by the high strain energy of endocyclic methylenecyclopropane-containing fused bicyclic systems is proposed to explain the formation of azabicyclo[3.1.0]hexanes from the intramolecular addition of alkylidene carbenes to alkenes.
The Impact of DNA Polymerase and Number of Rounds of Amplification in PCR on 16S rRNA Gene Sequence Data.

ABSTRACT PCR amplification of 16S rRNA genes is a critical yet underappreciated step in the generation of sequence data to describe the taxonomic composition of microbial communities. Numerous factors in the design of PCR can impact the sequencing error rate, the abundance of chimeric sequences, and the degree to which the fragments in the product represent their abundance in the original sample (i.e., bias). We compared the performance of high fidelity polymerases and various numbers of rounds of amplification when amplifying a mock community and human stool samples. Although it was impossible to derive specific recommendations, we did observe general trends. Namely, using a polymerase with the highest possible fidelity and minimizing the number of rounds of PCR reduced the sequencing error rate, fraction of chimeric sequences, and bias. Evidence of bias at the sequence level was subtle and could not be ascribed to the fragments’ fraction of bases that were guanines or cytosines. When analyzing mock community data, the amount that the community deviated from the expected composition increased with the number of rounds of PCR. This bias was inconsistent for human stool samples. Overall, the results underscore the difficulty of comparing sequence data that are generated by different PCR protocols. However, the results indicate that the variation in human stool samples is generally larger than that introduced by the choice of polymerase or number of rounds of PCR. IMPORTANCE A steep decline in sequencing costs drove an explosion in studies characterizing microbial communities from diverse environments. Although a significant amount of effort has gone into understanding the error profiles of DNA sequencers, little has been done to understand the downstream effects of the PCR amplification protocol. We quantified the effects of the choice of polymerase and number of PCR cycles on the quality of downstream data. We found that these choices can have a profound impact on the way that a microbial community is represented in the sequence data. The effects are relatively small compared to the variation in human stool samples; however, care should be taken to use polymerases with the highest possible fidelity and to minimize the number of rounds of PCR. These results also underscore that it is not possible to directly compare sequence data generated under different PCR conditions.
Auto-localization in de-Sitter space

We point out that gravity on dSn gives rise to a localized graviton on dSn−1. This way one can derive a recursion relation for the entropy of dS spaces, which might have interesting implications for dS holography. In the same spirit we study domain walls interpolating between dS spaces with different cosmological constant. Our observation gives an easy way to calculate what fraction of the total entropy can be accessed by an observer stuck on the bubble wall.
A rigorous measure of genome-wide genetic shuffling that takes into account crossover positions and Mendel's second law.

Comparative studies in evolutionary genetics rely critically on evaluation of the total amount of genetic shuffling that occurs during gamete production. Such studies have been hampered by the absence of a direct measure of this quantity. Existing measures consider crossing-over by simply counting the average number of crossovers per meiosis. This is qualitatively inadequate, because the positions of crossovers along a chromosome are also critical: a crossover toward the middle of a chromosome causes more shuffling than a crossover toward the tip. Moreover, traditional measures fail to consider shuffling from independent assortment of homologous chromosomes (Mendel’s second law). Here, we present a rigorous measure of genome-wide shuffling that does not suffer from these limitations. We define the parameter r ¯ as the probability that the alleles at two randomly chosen loci are shuffled during gamete production. This measure can be decomposed into separate contributions from crossover number and position and from independent assortment. Intrinsic implications of this metric include the fact that r ¯ is larger when crossovers are more evenly spaced, which suggests a selective advantage of crossover interference. Utilization of r ¯ is enabled by powerful emergent methods for determining crossover positions either cytologically or by DNA sequencing. Application of our analysis to such data from human male and female reveals that (i) r ¯ in humans is close to its maximum possible value of 1/2 and that (ii) this high level of shuffling is due almost entirely to independent assortment, the contribution of which is ∼30 times greater than that of crossovers.
Thorectandramine, a novel β-carboline alkaloid from the marine sponge Thorectandra sp.

The isolation, structure elucidation and biological activity of a novel hexacyclic quaternary alkaloid, thorectandramine (1), from a Palauan sponge of the genus Thorectandra are reported.
Rationally Inattentive Control of Markov Processes

The article poses a general model for optimal control subject to information constraints, motivated in part by recent work of Sims and others on information-constrained decision making by economic agents. In the average-cost optimal control framework, the general model introduced in this paper reduces to a variant of the linear-programming representation of the average-cost optimal control problem, subject to an additional mutual information constraint on the randomized stationary policy. The resulting optimization problem is convex and admits a decomposition based on the Bellman error, which is the object of study in approximate dynamic programming. The theory is illustrated through the example of information-constrained linear quadratic Gaussian control problem. Some results on the infinite-horizon discounted-cost criterion are also presented.
A Loop Space Formulation for Geometric Lifting Problems

We review and then combine two aspects of the theory of bundle gerbes. The first concerns lifting bundle gerbes and connections on those, developed by Murray and by Gomi. Lifting gerbes represent obstructions against extending the structure group of a principal bundle. The second is the transgression of gerbes to loop spaces, initiated by Brylinski and McLaughlin and with recent contributions of the author. Combining these two aspects, we obtain a new formulation of lifting problems in terms of geometry on the loop space. Most prominently, our formulation explains the relation between (complex) spin structures on a Riemannian manifold and orientations of its loop space.
Numerical Methods and Closed Orbits in the Kepler–Heisenberg Problem

The Kepler–Heisenberg problem is that of determining the motion of a planet around a sun in the sub-Riemannian Heisenberg group. The sub-Riemannian Hamiltonian provides the kinetic energy, and the ...
On the performance overhead tradeoff of distributed principal component analysis via data partitioning

Principal component analysis (PCA) is not only a fundamental dimension reduction method, but is also a widely used network anomaly detection technique. Traditionally, PCA is performed in a centralized manner, which has poor scalability for large distributed systems, on account of the large network bandwidth cost required to gather the distributed state at a fusion center. Consequently, several recent works have proposed various distributed PCA algorithms aiming to reduce the communication overhead incurred by PCA without losing its inferential power. This paper evaluates the tradeoff between communication cost and solution quality of two distributed PCA algorithms on a real domain name system (DNS) query dataset from a large network. We also apply the distributed PCA algorithm in the area of network anomaly detection and demonstrate that the detection accuracy of both distributed PCA-based methods has little degradation in quality, yet achieves significant savings in communication bandwidth.
On Coded Caching with Heterogeneous Distortion Requirements

This paper considers heterogeneous coded caching where the users have unequal distortion requirements. The server is connected to the users via an error-free multicast link and designs the users' cache sizes subject to a total memory budget. In particular, in the placement phase, the server jointly designs the users' cache sizes and the cache contents. To serve the users' requests, in the delivery phase, the server transmits signals that satisfy the users' distortion requirements. An optimization problem with the objective of minimizing the worst-case delivery load subject to the total cache memory budget and users' distortion requirements is formulated. The optimal solution for uncoded placement and linear delivery is characterized explicitly and is shown to exhibit a threshold policy with respect to the total cache memory budget. As a byproduct of the study, a caching scheme for systems with fixed cache sizes that outperforms the state-of-art is presented.
Decentralized Dynamic Optimization for Power Network Voltage Control

Voltage control in power distribution networks has been greatly challenged by the increasing penetration of volatile and intermittent devices. These devices can also provide limited reactive power resources that can be used to regulate the network-wide voltage. A decentralized voltage control strategy can be designed by minimizing a quadratic voltage mismatch error objective using gradient-projection (GP) updates. Coupled with the power network flow, the local voltage can provide the instantaneous gradient information. This paper aims to analyze the performance of this decentralized GP-based voltage control design under two dynamic scenarios: First, the nodes perform the decentralized update in an asynchronous fashion. Second, the network operating condition is time varying. For the asynchronous voltage control, we improve the existing convergence condition by recognizing that the voltage-based gradient is always up-to-date. By modeling the network dynamics using an autoregressive process and considering time-varying resource constraints, we provide an error bound in tracking the instantaneous optimal solution to the quadratic error objective. This result can be extended to more general constrained dynamic optimization problems with smooth strongly convex objective functions under stochastic processes that have bounded iterative changes. Extensive numerical tests have been performed to demonstrate and validate our analytical results for realistic power networks.
Streaming Variational Inference for Bayesian Nonparametric Mixture Models

In theory, Bayesian nonparametric (BNP) models are well suited to streaming data scenarios due to their ability to adapt model complexity with the observed data. Unfortunately, such benets have not been fully realized in practice; existing inference algorithms are either not applicable to streaming applications or not extensible to BNP models. For the special case of Dirichlet processes, streaming inference has been considered. However, there is growing interest in more exible BNP models building on the class of normalized random measures (NRMs). We work within this general framework and present a streaming variational inference algorithm for NRM mixture models. Our algorithm is based on assumed density ltering (ADF), leading straightforwardly to expectation propagation (EP) for large-scale batch inference as well. We demonstrate the ecacy of the algorithm on clustering documents in large, streaming text corpora.
Personalized Human Activity Recognition Using Convolutional Neural Networks

A major barrier to the personalized Human Activity Recognition using wearable sensors is that the performance of the recognition model drops significantly upon adoption of the system by new users or changes in physical/behavioral status of users. Therefore, the model needs to be retrained by collecting new labeled data in the new context. In this study, we develop a transfer learning framework using convolutional neural networks to build a personalized activity recognition model with minimal user supervision.
Minor Excluded Network Families Admit Fast Distributed Algorithms

Distributed network optimization problems, such as minimum spanning tree, minimum cut, and shortest path, are an active research area in distributed computing. This paper presents a fast distributed algorithm for such problems in the CONGEST model, on networks that exclude a fixed minor. On general graphs, many optimization problems, including the ones mentioned above, require Ω(√ n) rounds of communication in the CONGEST model, even if the network graph has a much smaller diameter. Naturally, the next step in algorithm design is to design efficient algorithms which bypass this lower bound on a restricted class of graphs. Currently, the only known method of doing so uses the low-congestion shortcut framework of Ghaffari and Haeupler [SODA'16]. Building off of their work, this paper proves that excluded minor graphs admit high-quality shortcuts, leading to an O(D^2) round algorithm for the aforementioned problems, where D is the diameter of the network graph. To work with excluded minor graph families, we utilize the Graph Structure Theorem of Robertson and Seymour. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the Graph Structure Theorem has been used for an algorithmic result in the distributed setting. Even though the proof is involved, merely showing the existence of good shortcuts is sufficient to obtain simple, efficient distributed algorithms. In particular, the shortcut framework can efficiently construct near-optimal shortcuts and then use them to solve the optimization problems. This, combined with the very general family of excluded minor graphs, which includes most other important graph classes, makes this result of significant interest.
On Perfect Lenses and Nihility

The canonical problem of a perfect lens with linear bianisotropic materials is formulated. Its solution is shown to be directly connected with the concept of nihility, the electromagnetic nilpotent. Perfect lenses as well as nihility remain unrealizable.
The depth of a permutation

For the elements of a Coxeter group, we present a statistic called depth, defined in terms of factorizations of the elements into products of reflections. Depth is bounded above by length and below by the average of length and reflection length. In this article, we focus on the case of the symmetric group, where we show that depth is equal to sum_i max{w(i)-i, 0}. We characterize those permutations for which depth equals length: these are the 321-avoiding permutations (and hence are enumerated by the Catalan numbers). We also characterize those permutations for which depth equals reflection length: these are permutations avoiding both 321 and 3412 (also known as boolean permutations, which we can hence also enumerate). In this case, it also happens that length equals reflection length, leading to a new perspective on a result of Edelman.
Knot contact homology detects cabled, composite, and torus knots

Knot contact homology is an invariant of knots derived from Legendrian contact homology which has numerous connections to the knot group. We use basic properties of knot groups to prove that knot contact homology detects every torus knot. Further, if the knot contact homology of a knot is isomorphic to that of a cable (respectively composite) knot, then the knot is a cable (respectively composite).
Imbedding of Lie triple systems into Lie algebras

Abstract We show that the category of Lie triple systems is equivalent to a full subcategory of the category of Z 2 -graded Lie algebras and give two intrinsic characterizations of this subcategory. As a corollary we obtain an analogous result for imbedding of symmetric spaces into Lie groups with involutions.
Power Grid Decomposition Based on Vertex Cut Sets and Its Applications to Topology Control and Power Trading

It is well known that the reserves/redundancies built into the transmission grid in order to address a variety of contingencies over a long planning horizon may, in the short run, cause economic dispatch inefficiency. Accordingly, power grid optimization by means of short term line switching has been proposed and is typically formulated as a mixed integer programming problem by treating the state of the transmission lines as a binary decision variable, i.e. in-service or out-of-service, in the optimal power flow problem. To handle the combinatorial explosion, a number of heuristic approaches to grid topology reconfiguration have been proposed in the literature. This paper extends our recent results on the iterative heuristics and proposes a fast grid decomposition algorithm based on vertex cut sets with the purpose of further reducing the computational cost. The paper concludes with a discussion of the possible relationship between vertex cut sets in transmission networks and power trading.
Sigma Delta Quantization with Harmonic Frames and Partial Fourier Ensembles

Sigma Delta ( $$\Sigma \Delta $$ ) quantization, a quantization method first surfaced in the 1960s, has now been widely adopted in various digital products such as cameras, cell phones, radars, etc. The method features a great robustness with respect to quantization noises through sampling an input signal at a Super-Nyquist rate. Compressed sensing (CS) is a frugal acquisition method that utilizes the sparsity structure of an objective signal to reduce the number of samples required for a lossless acquisition. By deeming this reduced number as an effective dimensionality of the set of sparse signals, one can define a relative oversampling/subsampling rate as the ratio between the actual sampling rate and the effective dimensionality. When recording these “compressed” analog measurements via Sigma Delta quantization, a natural question arises: will the signal reconstruction error previously shown to decay polynomially as the increase of the vanilla oversampling rate for the case of band-limited functions, now be decaying polynomially as that of the relative oversampling rate? Answering this question is one of the main goals in this direction. The study of quantization in CS has so far been limited to proving error convergence results for Gaussian and sub-Gaussian sensing matrices, as the number of bits and/or the number of samples grow to infinity. In this paper, we provide a first result for the more realistic Fourier sensing matrices. The main idea is to randomly permute the Fourier samples before feeding them into the quantizer. We show that the random permutation can effectively increase the low frequency power of the measurements, thus enhance the quality of $$\Sigma \Delta $$ quantization.
Lower bounds for Betti numbers of monomial ideals

Abstract Let I be a monomial ideal of height c in a polynomial ring S over a field k. If I is not generated by a regular sequence, then we show that the sum of the betti numbers of S / I is at least 2 c + 2 c − 1 and characterize when equality holds. Lower bounds for the individual betti numbers are given as well.
Analysis of Large-Scale Multi-Tenant {GPU} Clusters for {DNN} Training Workloads

With widespread advances in machine learning, a number of large enterprises are beginning to incorporate machine learning models across a number of products. These models are typically trained on shared, multi-tenant GPU clusters. Similar to existing cluster computing workloads, scheduling frameworks aim to provide features like high efficiency, resource isolation, fair sharing across users, etc. However Deep Neural Network (DNN) based workloads, predominantly trained on GPUs, differ in two significant ways from traditional big data analytics workloads. First, from a cluster utilization perspective, GPUs represent a monolithic resource that cannot be shared at a fine granularity across users. Second, from a workload perspective, deep learning frameworks require gang scheduling reducing the flexibility of scheduling and making the jobs themselves inelastic to failures at runtime. In this paper we present a detailed workload characterization of a two-month long trace from a multi-tenant GPU cluster in a large enterprise. By correlating scheduler logs with logs from individual jobs, we study three distinct issues that affect cluster utilization for DNN training workloads on multi-tenant clusters: (1) the effect of gang scheduling and locality constraints on queuing, (2) the effect of locality on GPU utilization, and (3) failures during training. Based on our experience running a large-scale operation, we provide design guidelines pertaining to next-generation cluster schedulers for DNN training workloads. Traces used in the paper are now available!
Almost global convergence in singular perturbations of strongly monotone systems

This paper deals with global convergence to equilibria, and in particular Hirsch's generic convergence theorem for strongly monotone systems, for singular perturbations of monotone systems.
Differentiating the pseudo determinant

Abstract A class of derivatives is defined for the pseudo determinant Det ( A ) of a Hermitian matrix A. This class is shown to be non-empty and to have a unique, canonical member ∇ Det ( A ) = Det ( A ) A + , where A + is the Moore–Penrose pseudo inverse. The classic identity for the gradient of the determinant is thus reproduced. Examples are provided, including the maximum likelihood problem for the rank-deficient covariance matrix of the degenerate multivariate Gaussian distribution.
Local base change via Tate cohomology

In this paper we propose a new way to realize cyclic base change (a special case of Langlands functoriality) for prime degree extensions of characteristic zero local fields. Let $F / E$ be a prime degree $l$ extension of local fields of residue characteristic $p \neq l$. Let $\pi$ be an irreducible cuspidal $l$-adic representation of $\mathrm{GL}_n(E)$ and $\rho$ be an irreducible cuspidal $l$-adic representation of $\mathrm{GL}_n(F)$ which is Galois-invariant. Under some minor technical conditions on $\pi$ and $\rho$ (for instance, we assume that both are level zero) we prove that the $\bmod l$-reductions $r_l(\pi)$ and $r_l(\rho)$ are in base change if and only if the Tate cohomology of $\rho$ with respect to the Galois action is isomorphic, as a modular representation of $\mathrm{GL}_n(E)$, to the Frobenius twist of $r_l(\pi)$. This proves a special case of a conjecture of Treumann and Venkatesh as they investigate the relationship between linkage and Langlands functoriality.
Fast ADMM algorithm for distributed optimization with adaptive penalty

We propose new methods to speed up convergence of the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM), a common optimization tool in the context of large scale and distributed learning. The proposed method accelerates the speed of convergence by automatically deciding the constraint penalty needed for parameter consensus in each iteration. In addition, we also propose an extension of the method that adaptively determines the maximum number of iterations to update the penalty. We show that this approach effectively leads to an adaptive, dynamic network topology underlying the distributed optimization. The utility of the new penalty update schemes is demonstrated on both synthetic and real data, including an instance of the probabilistic matrix factorization task known as the structure-from-motion problem.
Near-Optimal UGC-hardness of Approximating Max k-CSP_R

In this paper, we prove an almost-optimal hardness for Max k-CSP_R based on Khot's Unique Games Conjecture (UGC). In Max k-CSP_R, we are given a set of predicates each of which depends on exactly k variables. Each variable can take any value from 1, 2, ..., R. The goal is to find an assignment to variables that maximizes the number of satisfied predicates. Assuming the Unique Games Conjecture, we show that it is NP-hard to approximate Max k-CSP_R to within factor 2^{O(k log k)}(log R)^{k/2}/R^{k - 1} for any k, R. To the best of our knowledge, this result improves on all the known hardness of approximation results when 3 <= k = o(log R/log log R). In this case, the previous best hardness result was NP-hardness of approximating within a factor O(k/R^{k-2}) by Chan. When k = 2, our result matches the best known UGC-hardness result of Khot, Kindler, Mossel and O'Donnell. In addition, by extending an algorithm for Max 2-CSP_R by Kindler, Kolla and Trevisan, we provide an Omega(log R/R^{k - 1})-approximation algorithm for Max k-CSP_R. This algorithm implies that our inapproximability result is tight up to a factor of 2^{O(k \log k)}(\log R)^{k/2 - 1}. In comparison, when 3 <= k is a constant, the previously known gap was $O(R)$, which is significantly larger than our gap of O(polylog R). Finally, we show that we can replace the Unique Games Conjecture assumption with Khot's d-to-1 Conjecture and still get asymptotically the same hardness of approximation.
Fisher-Rao Metric, Geometry, and Complexity of Neural Networks

We study the relationship between geometry and capacity measures for deep neural networks from an invariance viewpoint. We introduce a new notion of capacity --- the Fisher-Rao norm --- that possesses desirable invariance properties and is motivated by Information Geometry. We discover an analytical characterization of the new capacity measure, through which we establish norm-comparison inequalities and further show that the new measure serves as an umbrella for several existing norm-based complexity measures. We discuss upper bounds on the generalization error induced by the proposed measure. Extensive numerical experiments on CIFAR-10 support our theoretical findings. Our theoretical analysis rests on a key structural lemma about partial derivatives of multi-layer rectifier networks.
Automorphisms of cubic surfaces in positive characteristic

We classify all possible automorphism groups of smooth cubic surfaces over an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic. As an intermediate step we also classify automorphism groups of quartic del Pezzo surfaces. We show that the moduli space of smooth cubic surfaces is rational in every characteristic, determine the dimensions of the strata admitting each possible isomorphism class of automorphism group, and find explicit normal forms in each case. Finally, we completely characterize when a smooth cubic surface in positive characteristic, together with a group action, can be lifted to characteristic zero.
Transfer Learning for Neural Semantic Parsing

The goal of semantic parsing is to map natural language to a machine interpretable meaning representation language (MRL). One of the constraints that limits full exploration of deep learning technologies for semantic parsing is the lack of sufficient annotation training data. In this paper, we propose using sequence-to-sequence in a multi-task setup for semantic parsing with focus on transfer learning. We explore three multi-task architectures for sequence-to-sequence model and compare their performance with the independently trained model. Our experiments show that the multi-task setup aids transfer learning from an auxiliary task with large labeled data to the target task with smaller labeled data. We see an absolute accuracy gain ranging from 1.0% to 4.4% in in our in-house data set and we also see good gains ranging from 2.5% to 7.0% on the ATIS semantic parsing tasks with syntactic and semantic auxiliary tasks.
Calibrating the energy of a 50×50 GeV muon collider using spin precession

The neutral Higgs boson is expected to have a mass in the region 90{endash}150thinspGeV /c{sup 2} in various schemes within the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. A first generation muon collider is uniquely suited to investigate the mass, width, and decay modes of the Higgs boson, since the coupling of the Higgs boson to muons is expected to be strong enough for it to be produced in the s channel mode in the muon collider. Because of the narrow width of the Higgs boson, it is necessary to measure and control the energy of the individual muon bunches to a precision of a few parts in a million. We investigate the feasibility of determining the energy scale of a muon collider ring with circulating muon beams of 50thinspGeV energy by measuring the turn by turn variation of the energy deposited by electrons produced by the decay of the muons. This variation is caused by the existence of an average initial polarization of the muon beam and a nonzero value of g{minus}2 for the muon. We demonstrate that it is feasible to determine the energy scale of the machine with this method to a few parts per million usingmore » data collected during 1000 turns. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}« less
Intrinsic energy is a loop Schur function

We give an explicit subtraction-free formula for the energy function in tensor products of Kirillov-Reshetikhin crystals for symmetric powers of the standard representation of U_q'(\hat sl_n). The energy function is shown to be the tropicalization of a stretched staircase shape loop Schur function. The latter were introduced by the authors in the study of total positivity in loop groups.
Decay estimates for the wave equation in two dimensions

Abstract We establish Strichartz estimates (both reversed and some direct ones), pointwise decay estimates, and weighted decay estimates for the linear wave equation in dimension two with an almost scaling-critical potential, in the case when there is no resonance or eigenvalue at the edge of the spectrum. We also prove some simple applications.
Estimating Network Structure from Incomplete Event Data

Multivariate Bernoulli autoregressive (BAR) processes model time series of events in which the likelihood of current events is determined by the times and locations of past events. These processes can be used to model nonlinear dynamical systems corresponding to criminal activity, responses of patients to different medical treatment plans, opinion dynamics across social networks, epidemic spread, and more. Past work examines this problem under the assumption that the event data is complete, but in many cases only a fraction of events are observed. Incomplete observations pose a significant challenge in this setting because the unobserved events still govern the underlying dynamical system. In this work, we develop a novel approach to estimating the parameters of a BAR process in the presence of unobserved events via an unbiased estimator of the complete data log-likelihood function. We propose a computationally efficient estimation algorithm which approximates this estimator via Taylor series truncation and establish theoretical results for both the statistical error and optimization error of our algorithm. We further justify our approach by testing our method on both simulated data and a real data set consisting of crimes recorded by the city of Chicago.