cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Dirty float or clean intervention? : The Bank of England in the foreign exchange market

The effectiveness of central bank intervention is debated and despite literature showing mixed results, central banks regularly intervene in the foreign exchange market, both in developing and developed economies. Does foreign exchange intervention work? Using over 60,000 new daily observations on intervention and exchange rates, this paper is the first study of the Bank of England’s foreign exchange intervention between 1952 and 1972.The main finding is that the Bank of England was unsuccessful in managing a credible exchange rate over that period. Running an event study, I demonstrate that betting systematically against the Bank of England would have been a profitable trading strategy. The Bank of England failed to maintain credibility in offshore markets and eventually manipulated the publication of its reserve figures to avoid a run on sterling. (Less)
Studies Directed to the Synthesis of the Unusual Cardiotoxic Agent Kalmanol. Enantioselective Construction of the Advanced Tetracyclic 7-Oxy-5,6-dideoxy Congener

The first synthesis of a highly functionalized B-homo-C-nor grayanotoxin closely related to kalmanol is reported. An enantiocontrolled route to the diquinane sector was first developed from (4R)-(+)-tert-butyldimethylsiloxycyclopentenone by taking advantage of the Michael acceptor properties of this enone and an α,β-unsaturated ester subsequently derived from it, viz., 4 → 7 → 8. These experiments formed the basis for more advanced substitution of the bicyclo[3.3.0]octane core. In fact, ready access was gained to the α-hydroxy esters 24−27. In these advanced intermediates, it is imperative that the acetyl and carbomethoxy groups bear a trans 1,3-relationship. The neighboring OR substituent should preferably be larger than methoxy in order to guarantee 100% facial selectivity during the ensuing capture by 1 (as its lithiated derivative). This condensation leads unidirectionally to tricyclic lactones represented by 30 and 31 and sets the stage for implementation of sequential Tebbe olefination and Claisen r...
Toward development of activity coefficient models for process and product design of complex chemical systems

Molecular thermodynamics, an engineering science for quantitative representation of thermophysical properties and phase behavior for mixtures, has served as a core scientific foundation for process modeling and process and product design in the industries. This paper presents a personal adventure through molecular thermodynamics that follows the footprints of John Prausnitz and leads toward the development of activity coefficient models for process modeling and process and product design of complex chemical systems. In this scientific expedition, passion and endurance, industrial applications, molecular insights, and out-of-the-box thinking all play key roles. We venerate past accomplishments that serve industrial needs and cherish new opportunities that await future exploration by adventurous souls.
Chain composition of type IV collagen networks in basement membranes

Type IV collagen, the major component of basement membranes (BM), is a family of six very similar chains. This allows for many kinds (isoforms) of triple helical protomers. The protomers self-assemble into network-like supramolecular structures by dimerization through C-terminal (NCl) domains (resulting in six chains forming an NC1 hexamer), and tetramerization through the protomer N-terminal domain. Studies on the networks of seminiferous tubule BM (STBM) involved affinity chromatography to fractionate NCl hexamers excised by collagenase digestion. Three major hexamer populations were obtained that containedα1(IV) andα2(IV) chains,α1(IV)-α6(IV) chains, andα3(IV)-α6(IV) chains, respectively, which indicated three major separate type IV collagen networks in STBM. To study glomerular BM, we used selective proteolysis to separate large fragments of type IV collagen. These contained type IV collagen chains cross-linked between NCl domains, andα1(IV) throughα5(IV) chains cross-linked between NC1 domains as well between triple helices. The latter set of fragments contained a subset of disulfidelinkedα3(IV),α4(IV) andα5(IV) chains. The existence of networks containingα3(IV),α4(IV) andα5(IV) chains suggests a molecular basis for mutations in the gene encoding theα5(IV) chain causing defective assembly of not onlyα5(IV) chains, but alsoα3(IV) andα4(IV) chains in the GBM of patients with Alport syndrome. A significant result of these studies is that GBM contains three major type IV collagen networks:α1(IV) ·α2(IV),α1(IV)-α5(IV) andα3(IV) ·α4(IV) ·α5(IV), similar to those of STBM, which also containsα6(IV) chains in the latter two networks.
Intermolecular palladium-catalyzed coupling of 2-halopyridines and alcohols for the preparation of pyridine ether PPAR agonists

A series of pyridine ether PPAR agonists were synthesized through intermolecular palladium-catalyzed coupling of 2-halopyridines and alcohols. This method proved to be versatile, efficient, and amenable to parallel synthesis.
The Subcritical Phase for a Homopolymer Model

We study a model of continuous-time nearest-neighbor random walk on $\mathbb{Z}^d$ penalized by its occupation time at the origin, also known as a homopolymer. For a fixed real parameter $\beta$ and time $t>0$, we consider the probability measure on paths of the random walk starting from the origin whose Radon-Nikodym derivative is proportional to the exponent of the product $\beta$ times the occupation time at the origin up to time $t$. The case $\beta>0$ was studied previously by Cranston and Molchanov arXiv:1508.06915. We consider the case $\beta<0$, which is intrinsically different only when the underlying walk is recurrent, that is $d=1,2$. Our main result is a scaling limit for the distribution of the homopolymer on the time interval $[0,t]$, as $t\to\infty$, a result that coincides with the scaling limit for penalized Brownian motion due to Roynette and Yor. In two dimensions, the penalizing effect is asymptotically diminished, and the homopolymer scales to standard Brownian motion. Our approach is based on potential analytic and martingale approximation for the model. We also apply our main result to recover a scaling limit for a wetting model. We study the model through analysis of resolvents.
Amino alcohol catalyzed direct asymmetric aldol reactions: enantioselective synthesis of anti-α-fluoro-β-hydroxy ketones

Abstract Prolinol but not proline-(a recently established catalyst of simple intermolecular aldol reactions) was found to be an efficient catalyst for fluoroaldol reactions providing anti-α-fluoro-β-hydroxy ketones with good regio-, diasterio-, and enantioselectivities.
Porphyrins with exocyclic rings. Part 10. Synthesis of meso,β-propanoporphyrins from 4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1H-indoles

Abstract Benzyl (6) and tert-butyl 3-methyl-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1H-indole-2-carboxylates (28) were easily prepared from cyclohexanone using a variation of the Knorr pyrrole condensation. Regioselective oxidation with lead tetraacetate gave the corresponding 7-acetoxy derivatives, or related solvolysis products, and subsequent reaction with 5-unsubstituted pyrrole-2-carboxylates in the presence of p-toluenesulfonic acid in acetic acid gave a series of 7-pyrrolyltetrahydroindoles 16 in excellent overall yields. Cleavage of the protective ester units, followed by acid-catalyzed condensation with diformyldipyrrylmethanes 19 under modified MacDonald “2 + 2” conditions gave good yields of meso,β-propanoporphyrins 26. This chemistry was sufficiently versatile that a porphyrin with two six-membered exocyclic rings (34) could be prepared by the same methodology. On the other hand, attempts to cyclize an a,c-biladiene 37 incorporating a six-membered carbocyclic ring gave moderate to poor yields of the required meso,β-propanoporphyrin 26a, probably due to a deleterious steric interaction between the carbocyclic ring and an adjacent alkyl substituent. Nonetheless, the results described below demonstrate the value of this approach for the synthesis of sedimentary cycloalkanoporphyrins
ABSOLUTE CONFIGURATION OF CURACIN A, A NOVEL ANTIMITOTIC AGENT FROM THE TROPICAL MARINE CYANOBACTERIUM LYNGBYA MAJUSCULA

Abstract Curacin A is a structurally novel antimitotic agent isolated from the Caribbean cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula. Its planar structure has been previously determined from a spectroscopic investigation. Here, we define the complete relative and absolute configuration of curacin A by comparison of products obtained from chemical degradation of the natural product with the same substances prepared by synthesis. Curacin A is shown to have 2R, 13R, 19R, 21S absolute configuration.
The asymmetric hetero-Diels–Alder reaction of enamide aldehydes with Danishefsky’s diene and an efficient synthesis of chiral binaphthyl ligands

Abstract By varying the substituents on the nitrogen of enamide aldehydes, their reaction mode with Danishefsky’s diene in the presence of Lewis acid catalysts can be controlled and the desired formal hetero-Diels–Alder products obtained. A new and efficient method to synthesize chiral binaphthyl ligands containing sterically bulky 3,3′-substituents has been developed. Lewis acid complexes prepared from these binaphthyl ligands and AlMe 3 are used to catalyze the hetero-Diels–Alder reaction of an enamide aldehyde with Danishefsky’s diene with up to 78% ee . This catalytic asymmetric reaction may allow for the efficient synthesis of biologically interesting molecules such as fumonisins.
The Luminescence Rigidochromic Effect Exhibited by Organometallic Complexes: Rationale and Applications.

Several transition-metal organometallic complexes exhibit an especially pronounced hypsochromic shift of their luminescence bands when their solution environment becomes more rigid. This unusual sp...
Dynamic PET of human liver inflammation: impact of kinetic modeling with optimization-derived dual-blood input function

The hallmark of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis is hepatocellular inflammation and injury in the setting of hepatic steatosis. Recent work has indicated that dynamic 18F-FDG PET with kinetic modeling has the potential to assess hepatic inflammation noninvasively, while static FDG-PET is less promising. Because the liver has dual blood supplies, kinetic modeling of dynamic liver PET data is challenging in human studies. This paper aims to identify the optimal dual-input kinetic modeling approach for dynamic FDG-PET of human liver inflammation. Fourteen patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease were included. Each patient underwent 1 h dynamic FDG-PET/CT scan and had liver biopsy within six weeks. Three models were tested for kinetic analysis: the traditional two-tissue compartmental model with an image-derived single-blood input function (SBIF), a model with population-based dual-blood input function (DBIF), and a new model with optimization-derived DBIF through a joint estimation framework. The three models were compared using Akaike information criterion (AIC), F test and histopathologic inflammation score. Results showed that the optimization-derived DBIF model improved liver time activity curve fitting and achieved lower AIC values and higher F values than the SBIF and population-based DBIF models in all patients. The optimization-derived model significantly increased FDG K1 estimates by 101% and 27% as compared with traditional SBIF and population-based DBIF. K1 by the optimization-derived model was significantly associated with histopathologic grades of liver inflammation while the other two models did not provide a statistical significance. In conclusion, modeling of DBIF is critical for dynamic liver FDG-PET kinetic analysis in human studies. The optimization-derived DBIF model is more appropriate than SBIF and population-based DBIF for dynamic FDG-PET of liver inflammation.
Flux Synthesis of the Noncentrosymmetric Cluster Compounds Cs2SnAs2Q9 (Q = S, Se) Containing Two Different Polychalcoarsenite β-[AsQ4]3- and [AsQ5]3- Ligands

Two noncentrosymmetric quaternary tin chalcoarsenates, Cs2SnAs2S9 (1) and Cs2SnAs2Se9 (2), were synthesized by the polychalcoarsenate flux method. Compound 1 crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Pmc21 with a = 7.386(3) A, b = 14.614(5) A, c = 14.417(5) A, and Z = 4. Compound 2 crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P21 with a = 7.715(5) A, b = 17.56(1) A, c = 7.663(5) A, β = 115.86(1)°, and Z = 2. Both structures contain the same tin-centered molecular cluster anions {Sn[AsQ2(Q2)][AsQ(Q2)2]}2- (Q = S, Se) separated by Cs cations. The Sn4+ ion is in a distorted octahedral environment coordinated by two different pyramidal-shaped tridentate ligands, [AsQ2(Q2)]3- and [AsQ(Q2)2]3-. These compounds absorb visible light at energies above 1.98 and 1.45 eV for 1 and 2, respectively. Differential thermal analysis revealed that 1 melts at 350 °C and on cooling gives a glass. The glass recrystallizes at 268 °C upon subsequent heating. Compound 2 melts at 258 °C.
A new thiatriazine isomer: synthesis, tautomerism, and molecular structure of 3,6-diphenyl-4H-1,2,4,5-thiatriazine as a precursor to the 1,2,4,5-thiatriazinyl radical

The diphenyl derivative of 4H-1,2,4,5-thiatriazine (5) was prepared by oxidative cyclization of 9. The molecular structure of 5, obtained by X-ray diffraction [orthorhombic, Pna21, a = 9.7746(13) A, b = 21.692(2) A, c = 5.6580(8) A], compares favorably with that predicted with ab initio calculations. The thiatriazine 5 was used as a precursor to the 3,6-diphenyl-1,2,4,5-thiatriazinyl radical (4) through either oxidation with PbO2, or conversion to and reduction of sulfiminyl chloride 6 with Ph3Sb. The weak ESR quintet (aN = 1.03 mT, g = 2.0103) observed in the latter case correlates well with the molecular structure of 4, but the results of DFT calculations are ambiguous. Ab initio calculations show that 4H-1,2,4,5-thiatriazine (I-4H) is the most stable tautomer and is the second most stable isomer among the six possible thiatriazines. All isomeric thiatriazinyl radicals exhibit similar spin distribution patterns. 1,2,4,5-Thiatriazinyl radical (I-R) is calculated to be 23.1 kcal/mol less stable than the m...
Social inheritance can explain the structure of animal social networks

The social network structure of animal populations has major implications for survival, reproductive success, sexual selection and pathogen transmission of individuals. But as of yet, no general theory of social network structure exists that can explain the diversity of social networks observed in nature, and serve as a null model for detecting species and population-specific factors. Here we propose a simple and generally applicable model of social network structure. We consider the emergence of network structure as a result of social inheritance, in which newborns are likely to bond with maternal contacts, and via forming bonds randomly. We compare model output with data from several species, showing that it can generate networks with properties such as those observed in real social systems. Our model demonstrates that important observed properties of social networks, including heritability of network position or assortative associations, can be understood as consequences of social inheritance.
Growth Factor–Independent 1 Is a Tumor Suppressor Gene in Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Growth factor-independent 1 (GFI1) is a zinc finger transcriptional repressor responsible for controlling secretory cell differentiation in the small intestine and colon. GFI1 plays a significant role in the development of human malignancies, including leukemia, lung cancer, and prostate cancer. However, the role of GFI1 in colorectal cancer progression is largely unknown. Our results demonstrate that RNA and protein expression of GFI1 are reduced in advanced-stage nonmucinous colorectal cancer. Subcutaneous tumor xenograft models demonstrated that the reexpression of GFI1 in 4 different human colorectal cancer cell lines inhibits tumor growth. To further investigate the role of Gfi1 in de novo colorectal tumorigenesis, we developed transgenic mice harboring a deletion of Gfi1 in the colon driven by CDX2-cre (Gfi1F/F; CDX2-cre) and crossed them with ApcMin/+ mice (ApcMin/+; Gfi1F/F; CDX2-cre). Loss of Gfi1 significantly increased the total number of colorectal adenomas compared with littermate controls with an APC mutation alone. Furthermore, we found that compound (ApcMin/+; Gfi1F/F; CDX2-cre) mice develop larger adenomas, invasive carcinoma, as well as hyperplastic lesions expressing the neuroendocrine marker chromogranin A, a feature that has not been previously described in APC-mutant tumors in mice. Collectively, these results demonstrate that GFI1 acts as a tumor suppressor gene in colorectal cancer, where deficiency of Gfi1 promotes malignancy in the colon. IMPLICATIONS: These findings reveal that GFI1 functions as a tumor suppressor gene in colorectal tumorigenesis.
An Approximate Bayesian Marginal Likelihood Approach for Estimating Finite Mixtures

Estimation of finite mixture models when the mixing distribution support is unknown is an important problem. This article gives a new approach based on a marginal likelihood for the unknown support. Motivated by a Bayesian Dirichlet prior model, a computationally efficient stochastic approximation version of the marginal likelihood is proposed and large-sample theory is presented. By restricting the support to a finite grid, a simulated annealing method is employed to maximize the marginal likelihood and estimate the support. Real and simulated data examples show that this novel stochastic approximation and simulated annealing procedure compares favorably with existing methods.
Intramolecular 4+3 Cycloadditions. A Total Synthesis of Aphanamol

Abstract Treatment of the easily prepared allylic alcohol 11 with triflic anhydride gives the cycloadduct 12 in 32% yield. Deprotection results in the formation of racemic aphanamol I. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.
A general method for controlling glycosylation stereochemistry in the synthesis of 2'-deoxyribose nucleosides

Abstract Glycosylation reactions of 2-arylsulfinyl-O-acetylribosides 6 with silylated thymine 11 produce 2′-deoxyribose nucleosides with high β-selectivity. An application of this directing effect in the synthesis of the antiretroviral agent D4T, 2 , is described.
Structurally Conserved Primate LncRNAs Are Transiently Expressed during Human Cortical Differentiation and Influence Cell-Type-Specific Genes

The cerebral cortex has expanded in size and complexity in primates, yet the molecular innovations that enabled primate-specific brain attributes remain obscure. We generated cerebral cortex organoids from human, chimpanzee, orangutan, and rhesus pluripotent stem cells and sequenced their transcriptomes at weekly time points for comparative analysis. We used transcript structure and expression conservation to discover gene regulatory long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Of 2,975 human, multi-exonic lncRNAs, 2,472 were structurally conserved in at least one other species and 920 were conserved in all. Three hundred eighty-six human lncRNAs were transiently expressed (TrEx) and many were also TrEx in great apes (46%) and rhesus (31%). Many TrEx lncRNAs are expressed in specific cell types by single-cell RNA sequencing. Four TrEx lncRNAs selected based on cell-type specificity, gene structure, and expression pattern conservation were ectopically expressed in HEK293 cells by CRISPRa. All induced trans gene expression changes were consistent with neural gene regulatory activity.
Engineered Reciprocal Chromosome Translocations Drive High Threshold, Reversible Population Replacement in Drosophila.

Replacement of wild insect populations with transgene-bearing individuals unable to transmit disease or survive under specific environmental conditions using gene drive provides a self-perpetuating method of disease prevention. Mechanisms that require the gene drive element and linked cargo to exceed a high threshold frequency in order for spread to occur are attractive because they offer several points of control: they bring about local, but not global population replacement; and transgenes can be eliminated by reintroducing wildtypes into the population so as to drive the frequency of transgenes below the threshold frequency required for drive. Reciprocal chromosome translocations were proposed as a tool for bringing about high threshold population replacement in 1940 and 1968. However, translocations able to achieve this goal have only been reported once, in the spider mite Tetranychus urticae, a haplo-diploid species in which there is strong selection in haploid males for fit homozygotes. We report th...
EFFECT OF CATIONIC STRENGTH AND SPECIES ON 2-D CONDENSATION OF DNA

The structure of DNA molecules condensed on cationic lipid bilayers changes in the presence of high-valence cations. For a plasmid DNA, it is found that the interhelical distance of condensed DNA h...
Sonochemical synthesis of 1,1-dimethyl-1-germacyclopent-3-enes and the extrusion of dimethylgermylene upon their pyrolysis

Abstract The ultrasound-promoted reaction of dichlorodimethylgermane with lithium in the presence of substituted 1,3-dienes results in the formation of the corresponding germacyclopent-3-enes in good yields. The gas-phase flow pyrolysis of 1,1,3-trimethyl- and 1,1,3,4-tetramethyl-1-germacyclopent-3-enes leads to the extrusion of dimethylgermylene that has been trapped by addition to 1,3-dienes.
ELECTRON AND MASS TRANSPORT IN HYBRID REDOX POLYETHER MELTS: CO AND FE BIPYRIDINES WITH ATTACHED POLYETHER CHAINS

The coupling of electron self exchange reactions with physical diffusion has been used to measure electron transfer rate constants in a series of undiluted metal complex molten salts [M(bpy(CO2MePEG)2)3](ClO4)2 where M = Co(II/I) and Fe(III/II) and MePEG is an oligomeric polyether of MW 150, 350, and 550. Physical self-diffusion rates in the melts vary with attached polyether chain length by over 103-fold while the electron transfer rate constants show no strong systematic dependence. The electron transfer rates and activation parameters indicate that the metal complex cores move rapidly within their attached polyether “solvent” shells relative to the rates of electron transfers, which are near adiabatic with large activation barriers reflecting the apparent inability of the attached polyether chains to act as a freely mobile “solvent”. Ionic conductivities of the melts were measured in order to inspect for ionic and electronic migration effects which are present to minor degrees. Diffusion and heterogene...
A Rearrangement Route to Fenvaleric Acid

(±)-Fenvaleric acid 2, the key intermediate for the preparation of the pesticide esfenvalerate 1, was prepared by a novel sequence which first involves the Henry reaction of 2-methyl-1-nitropropane and 4-chlorobenzaldehyde. The nitroaldol reaction provided nitroalcohol 5 which was then reduced to the corresponding aminoalcohol 6. Submission of 6 to an aminopinacol rearrangement promoted by nitrous acid deamination then afforded aldehyde 8 through a 1,2-aryl shift. The product fenvaleric aldehyde 8 was then converted to the title compound 2 by a modified Jones oxidation.
Fluoride-Catalyzed Nucleophilic Perfluoroalkylations of Acetylenic Ketones or Aldehydes

Reactions of 4-phenylbut-3-yn-2-one (la) and phenylpropynal (1b) with trimethyl(perfluoroalkyl)silanes (Me 3 SiR f ) (R f = CF3, C 2 F 5 , n-C 6 F 1 3 , n-C 7 F 1 5 , n-C 8 F 1 7 ) in the presence of catalytic amounts of cesium fluoride (CsF) have been studied. Compounds la, 1b were reacted with 0.5 equivalent excess of Me 3 SiR f in ethylene glycol dimethyl ether (monoglyme) at 25 °C for R f = CF 3 , C 2 F 5 and at 50 °C for R f = n-C 6 F 1 3 , n-C 7 F 1 5 , n-C 8 F 1 7 to give the corresponding perfluoroalkylated alcohols in good yields after acid hydrolysis. The new compounds were characterized by IR, NMR ( 1 H, 1 9 F, 1 3 C), MS and elemental analysis. In these reactions, tetrabutylammonium fluoride (TBAF) is also effective as the fluoride catalyst. The alcohols with CF 3 or C 2 F 5 are viscous liquids whereas those with n-C 6 F 1 3 , n-C 7 F 1 5 or n-C 8 F 1 7 are solids. They are soluble in common organic solvents and stable to air and moisture.
Synthesis and Properties of V6O16Cu(C4H4N2)2·(H2O)0.22(1): Charge Density Matching of a Metal-Segregated Layer Structure

A metal-segregated layered compound, containing square nets of Cu(pyz)22+ and buckled V6O162- layers, has been synthesized using hydrothermal techniques to have the composition V6O16Cu(C4H4N2)2·(H2O)0.22(1) (C4H4N2 = pyrazine, pyz). The Cu(II) square nets are nearly regular and undergo an antiferromagnetic transition at 8 K. In contrast to the plethora of recently synthesized metal−oxide clusters, chains, and networks in the VOx/M/L (M = late transition element; L = organonitrogen ligand) system, this compound is a relatively rare example that contains two different metals distributed into distinct layers. An application of charge density matching to form layered structures is postulated.
Configuration-dependent fault localization

In a buggy configurable system, configuration-dependent bugs cause the failures in only certain configurations due to unexpected interactions among features. Manually localizing configuration-dependent faults in configurable systems could be highly time-consuming due to their complexity. However, the cause of configuration-dependent bugs is not considered by existing automated fault localization techniques, which are designed to localize bugs in non-configurable code. Thus, their capacity for efficient configuration-dependent localization is limited. In this work, we propose CoFL, a novel approach to localize configuration-dependent bugs by identifying and analyzing suspicious feature interactions that potentially cause the failures in buggy configurable systems. We evaluated the efficiency of CoFL in fault localization of artificial configuration-dependent faults in a highly-configurable system. We found that CoFL significantly improves the baseline spectrum-based approaches. With CoFL, on average, the correctness in ranking the buggy statements increases more than 7 times, and the search space is significantly narrowed down, about 15 times.
Los sinuosos caminos de la etnografía política

The text reviews the author’s extensive and productive career in the difficult craft of political ethnography. Through a reflective account of his own ethnographic experience, he highlights the importance and complexity of the craft; and therefore refers us to the findings, obstacles, problems, limitations and projections of ethnographic practice in politics. The document is divided into five sections, each corresponding to the research topics addressed by the author’s ethnographic career. These review the relation and usefulness of political ethnography in the study of clientele networks, collective action, and in the study of the gray area of politics, environmental suffering, and the topic of waiting as an expression of the relations of social domination. The document closes with an invitation and a warning in regard to the craft of ethnography.
CytoGPS: a web-enabled karyotype analysis tool for cytogenetics.

Summary Karyotype data are the most common form of genetic data that is regularly used clinically. They are collected as part of the standard of care in many diseases, particularly in pediatric and cancer medicine contexts. Karyotypes are represented in a unique text-based format, with a syntax defined by the International System for human Cytogenetic Nomenclature (ISCN). While human-readable, ISCN is not intrinsically machine-readable. This limitation has prevented the full use of complex karyotype data in discovery science use cases. To enhance the utility and value of karyotype data, we developed a tool named CytoGPS. CytoGPS first parses ISCN karyotypes into a machine-readable format. It then converts the ISCN karyotype into a binary Loss-Gain-Fusion (LGF) model, which represents all cytogenetic abnormalities as combinations of loss, gain, or fusion events, in a format that is analyzable using modern computational methods. Such data is then made available for comprehensive 'downstream' analyses that previously were not feasible. Availability and implementation Freely available at http://cytogps.org.
Energy-recycling Blockchain with Proof-of-Deep-Learning

An enormous amount of energy is wasted in Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanisms adopted by popular blockchain applications (e.g., PoW-based cryptocurrencies) because miners must conduct a large amount of computation. Owing to this, one serious rising concern is that the energy waste not only dilutes the value of the blockchain but also hinders its further application. In this paper, we propose a novel blockchain design that fully recycles the energy required for facilitating and maintaining it, which is re-invested to the computation of deep learning. We realize this by proposing Proof-of-Deep-Learning (PoDL) such that a valid proof for a new block can be generated if and only if a proper deep learning model is produced. We present a proof-of-concept design of PoDL that is compatible with the majority of the cryptocurrencies that are based on hash-based PoW mechanisms. Our benchmark and simulation results show that the proposed design is feasible for various popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.
Toward a programmable FIB caching architecture

The current Internet routing ecosystem is neither sustainable nor economical. More than 711K IPv4 routes and more than 41K IPv6 routes exist in current global Forwarding Information Base (FIBs) with growth rates increasing. This rapid growth has serious consequences, such as creating the need for costly FIB memory upgrades and increased potential for Internet service outages. And while FIB memories are power-hungry and prohibitively expensive, more than 70% of the routes in FIBs carry no traffic for long time periods, a wasteful use of these expensive resources. Taking advantage of the emerging concept of programmable data plane, we design a programmable FIB caching architecture to address the existing concerns. Our preliminary evaluation results show that the architecture can significantly mitigate the global routing scalability and poor FIB utilization issues.
Existence of Hermitian-Yang-Mills metrics under conifold transitions

We first study the degeneration of a sequence of Hermitian-Yang-Mills metrics with respect to a sequence of balanced metrics on a Calabi-Yau threefold $\hat{X}$ that degenerates to the balanced metric constructed by Fu, Li, and Yau on the complement of finitely many (-1,-1)-curves in $\hat{X}$. Then under some assumptions we show the existence of Hermitian-Yang-Mills metrics on bundles over a family of threefolds $X_t$ with trivial canonical bundles obtained by performing conifold transitions on $\hat{X}$.
Funk, Cosine, and Sine Transforms on Stiefel and Grassmann manifolds

The Funk, cosine, and sine transforms on the unit sphere are indispensable tools in integral geometry and related harmonic analysis. The aim of this paper is to extend basic facts about these transforms to the more general context for Stiefel or Grassmann manifolds. The main topics are composition formulas, the Fourier functional relations for homogeneous distributions, analytic continuation, inversion formulas, and some applications.
Ultraviolet Divergences and Scale-Dependent Gravitational Couplings

I review the field-theoretic renomalization group approach to quantum gravity, built around the existence of a non-trivial ultraviolet fixed point in four dimensions. I discuss the implications of such a fixed point, found in three largely unrelated non-perturbative approaches, and how it relates to the vacuum state of quantum gravity, and specifically to the running of G. One distinctive feature of the new fixed point is the emergence of a second genuinely non-perturbative scale, analogous to the scaling violation parameter in non-abelian gauge theories. I argue that it is natural to identify such a scale with the small observed cosmological constant, which in quantum gravity can arise as a nonperturbative vacuum condensate. I then show how the lattice cutoff theory of gravity can in principle provide quantitative predictions on the running of G, which can then be used to construct manifestly covariant effective field equations, and from there estimate the size of non-local quantum corrections to the standard GR framework.
The third-order term in the normal approximation for singular channels.

For a singular and symmetric discrete memoryless channel with positive dispersion, the third-order term in the normal approximation is shown to be upper bounded by a constant. This finding completes the characterization of the third-order term for symmetric discrete memoryless channels. The proof method is extended to asymmetric and singular channels with constant composition codes, and its connection to existing results, as well as its limitation in the error exponents regime, are discussed.
TRAINING DEEP NEURAL NETWORKS ON NOISY LABELS WITH BOOTSTRAPPING

Current state-of-the-art deep learning systems for visual object recognition and detection use purely supervised training with regularization such as dropout to avoid overfitting. The performance depends critically on the amount of labeled examples, and in current practice the labels are assumed to be unambiguous and accurate. However, this assumption often does not hold; e.g. in recognition, class labels may be missing; in detection, objects in the image may not be localized; and in general, the labeling may be subjective. In this work we propose a generic way to handle noisy and incomplete labeling by augmenting the prediction objective with a notion of consistency. We consider a prediction consistent if the same prediction is made given similar percepts, where the notion of similarity is between deep network features computed from the input data. In experiments we demonstrate that our approach yields substantial robustness to label noise on several datasets. On MNIST handwritten digits, we show that our model is robust to label corruption. On the Toronto Face Database, we show that our model handles well the case of subjective labels in emotion recognition, achieving state-of-theart results, and can also benefit from unlabeled face images with no modification to our method. On the ILSVRC2014 detection challenge data, we show that our approach extends to very deep networks, high resolution images and structured outputs, and results in improved scalable detection.
K3 Surfaces, N=4 Dyons, and the Mathieu Group M24

A close relationship between K3 surfaces and the Mathieu groups has been established in the last century. Furthermore, it has been observed recently that the elliptic genus of K3 has a natural interpretation in terms of the dimensions of representations of the largest Mathieu group M24. In this paper we first give further evidence for this possibility by studying the elliptic genus of K3 surfaces twisted by some simple symplectic automorphisms. These partition functions with insertions of elements of M24 (the McKay-Thompson series) give further information about the relevant representation. We then point out that this new "moonshine" for the largest Mathieu group is connected to an earlier observation on a moonshine of M24 through the 1/4-BPS spectrum of K3xT^2-compactified type II string theory. This insight on the symmetry of the theory sheds new light on the generalised Kac-Moody algebra structure appearing in the spectrum, and leads to predictions for new elliptic genera of K3, perturbative spectrum of the toroidally compactified heterotic string, and the index for the 1/4-BPS dyons in the d=4, N=4 string theory, twisted by elements of the group of stringy K3 isometries.
New convolution identities for hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials

Abstract New convolution identities of hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials are presented. Two different approaches to proving these identities are discussed, corresponding to the two equivalent definitions of hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials as Appell sequences.
Robustly learning a gaussian: getting optimal error, efficiently

We study the fundamental problem of learning the parameters of a high-dimensional Gaussian in the presence of noise --- where an e-fraction of our samples were chosen by an adversary. We give robust estimators that achieve estimation error O(ϵ) in the total variation distance, which is optimal up to a universal constant that is independent of the dimension. In the case where just the mean is unknown, our robustness guarantee is optimal up to a factor of [EQUATION] and the running time is polynomial in d and 1/ϵ. When both the mean and covariance are unknown, the running time is polynomial in d and quasipolynomial in 1/ϵ. Moreover all of our algorithms require only a polynomial number of samples. Our work shows that the same sorts of error guarantees that were established over fifty years ago in the one-dimensional setting can also be achieved by efficient algorithms in high-dimensional settings.
The application of differential privacy for rank aggregation: Privacy and accuracy

The potential risk of privacy leakage prevents users from sharing their honest opinions on social platforms. This paper addresses the problem of privacy preservation if the query returns the histogram of rankings. The framework of differential privacy is applied to rank aggregation. The error probability of the aggregated ranking is analyzed as a result of noise added in order to achieve differential privacy. Upper bounds on the error rates for any positional ranking rule are derived under the assumption that profiles are uniformly distributed. Simulation results are provided to validate the probabilistic analysis.
Super-resolution by compressive sensing algorithms

In this work, super-resolution by 4 compressive sensing methods (OMP, BP, BLOOMP, BP-BLOT) with highly coherent partial Fourier measurements is comparatively studied.
Photon Trajectory in the Human Cornea

In this article, we follow the trajectory of a photon in the human cornea. Prior to experimental evidence of the cornea's gradient refractive index (GRIN) nature, schematic eye models used a constant or average as the corneal refractive index. A few recent models respect the intra-corneal GRIN, but are based on the paraxial approximation, and thereby have limited validity in peripheral visual field analysis and non-paraxial photon tracking. Here, we introduce the Trajectron algorithm. It uses a closed form solution of the ray equation of constant axial GRIN media, and evaluates over piece-wise constant GRIN. Using Trajectron, we present the first quantitative demonstration of non-paraxial intra-corneal light-bending phenomena. This demonstration has significant implications in the development of refractive surgery algorithms.
Graph theory versus minimum rank for index coding

We obtain novel index coding schemes and show that they provably outperform all previously known graph theoretic bounds proposed so far. Further, we establish a rather strong negative result: all known graph theoretic bounds are within a logarithmic factor from the chromatic number. This is in striking contrast to minrank since prior work has shown that it can outperform the chromatic number by a polynomial factor in some cases. The conclusion is that all known graph theoretic bounds are not much stronger than the chromatic number. I. INTRODUCTION
Local and global existence for the Lagrangian Averaged Navier-Stokes equations in Besov spaces

We prove the existence of short time solutions to the incompressible, isotropic Lagrangian Averaged Navier-Stokes equation with low regularity initial data in Besov spaces $B^{r}_{p,q}(\mathbb{R}^n)$, $r>n/2p$. When $p=2$ and $n\geq 3$, we obtain global solutions, provided the parameters $r,q$ and $n$ satisfy certain inequalities. This is an improvement over known analogous Sobolev space results, which required $n=3$.
Invariant random subgroups and action versus representation maximality

We show that weak containment of free ergodic measure-preserving actions of F∞ is not equivalent to weak containment of the corresponding Koopman representations. This result is based on the construction of an invariant random subgroup of F∞ which is supported on the maximal actions.
On a duality between recoverable distributed storage and index coding.

In this paper, we introduce a model of a single-failure locally recoverable distributed storage system. This model appears to give rise to a problem seemingly dual of the well-studied index coding problem. The relation between the dimensions of an optimal index code and optimal distributed storage code of our model has been established in this paper. We also show some extensions to vector codes.
Network Clocks: Detecting the Temporal Scale of Information Diffusion

Information diffusion models typically assume a discrete timeline in which an information token spreads in the network. Since users in real-world networks vary significantly in their intensity and periods of activity, our objective in this work is to answer: How to determine a temporal scale that best agrees with the observed information propagation within a network? A key limitation of existing approaches is that they aggregate the timeline into fixed-size windows, which may not fit all network nodes’ activity periods. We propose the notion of a heterogeneous network clock: a mapping of events to discrete timestamps that best explains their occurrence according to a given cascade propagation model. We focus on the widely-adopted independent cascade (IC) model and formalize the optimal clock as the one that maximizes the likelihood of all observed cascades. The single optimal clock (OC) problem can be solved exactly in polynomial time. However, we prove that learning multiple optimal clocks (kOC), corresponding to temporal patterns of groups of network nodes, is NP-hard. We propose scalable solutions that run in almost linear time in the total number of cascade activations and discuss approximation guarantees for each variant. Our algorithms and their detected clocks enable improved cascade size classification (up to 8% F1 lift) and improved missing cascade data inference (0.15 better recall). We also demonstrate that the network clocks exhibit consistency within the type of content diffusing in the network and are robust with respect to the propagation probability parameters of the IC model.
Multi-Task Metric Learning on Network Data

Multi-task learning (MTL) has been shown to improve prediction performance in a number of different contexts by learning models jointly on multiple different, but related tasks. In this paper, we propose to do MTL on general network data, which provide an important context for MTL. We first show that MTL on network data is a common problem that has many concrete and valuable applications. Then, we propose a metric learning approach that can effectively exploit correlation across multiple tasks and networks. The proposed approach builds on structural metric learning and intermediate parameterization, and has efficient an implementation via stochastic gradient descent. In experiments, we challenge it with two common real-world applications: citation prediction for Wikipedia articles and social circle prediction in Google+. The proposed method achieves promising results and exhibits good convergence behavior.
Query complexity of mastermind variants

Abstract We study variants of Mastermind, a popular board game in which the objective is sequence reconstruction. In this two-player game, the so-called codemaker constructs a hidden sequence H = ( h 1 , h 2 , … , h n ) of colors selected from an alphabet A = { 1 , 2 , … , k } (i.e., h i ∈ A for all i ∈ { 1 , 2 , … , n } ). The game then proceeds in turns, each of which consists of two parts: in turn t , the second player (the codebreaker) first submits a query sequence Q t = ( q 1 , q 2 , … , q n ) with q i ∈ A for all i , and second receives feedback Δ ( Q t , H ) , where Δ is some agreed-upon function of distance between two sequences with n components. The game terminates when the codebreaker has determined the value of H , and the codebreaker seeks to end the game in as few turns as possible. Throughout we let f ( n , k ) denote the smallest integer such that the codebreaker can determine any H in f ( n , k ) turns. We prove three main results: First, when H is known to be a permutation of { 1 , 2 , … , n } , we prove that f ( n , n ) ≥ n − log log n for all sufficiently large n . Second, we show that Knuth’s Minimax algorithm identifies any H in at most n k queries. Third, when feedback is not received until all queries have been submitted, we show that f ( n , k ) = Ω ( n log k ) .
Some remarks on resonances in even-dimensional Euclidean scattering

The purpose of this paper is to prove some results about quantum mechanical black box scattering in even dimensions $d \geq 2$. We study the scattering matrix and prove some identities which hold for its meromorphic continuation onto $\Lambda$, the Riemann surface of the logarithm function. We relate the multiplicities of the poles of the continued scattering matrix to the multiplicities of the poles of the resolvent. Moreover, we show that the poles of the scattering matrix on the $m$th sheet of $\Lambda$ are related to the zeros of a scalar function defined on the physical sheet. This paper contains a number of results about "pure imaginary" resonances. As an example, in contrast with the odd-dimensional case, we show that in even dimensions there are no "purely imaginary" resonances on any sheet of $\Lambda$ for Schrodinger operators with potentials $0 \leq V \in L_0^\infty (\R^d)$.
Method for determination of technical noise contributions to ion motional heating

Microfabricated Paul ion traps show tremendous promise for large-scale quantum information processing. However, motional heating of ions can have a detrimental effect on the fidelity of quantum logic operations in miniaturized, scalable designs. In many experiments, motional heating rates are ascribed solely to anomalous heating, which arises at least in part from electric field noise from the trap surface not attributable to any known mechanisms. Contributions to measured ion heating rates due to technical voltage noise present on the static (DC) and radio frequency (RF) electrodes—i.e., due to voltage sources, amplifiers, and other electrical components—can often be overlooked. We present a reliable method for determining the extent to which motional heating is dominated by technical voltage noise on the DC or RF electrodes. Also, we demonstrate that stray DC electric fields can shift the ion position such that technical noise on the RF electrode can significantly contribute to the motional heating rate. After minimizing the pseudopotential gradient experienced by the ion induced by stray DC electric fields, the motional heating due to RF technical noise can be significantly reduced.
Learning to Infer Graphics Programs from Hand-Drawn Images

We introduce a model that learns to convert simple hand drawings into graphics programs written in a subset of \LaTeX.~The model combines techniques from deep learning and program synthesis. We learn a convolutional neural network that proposes plausible drawing primitives that explain an image. These drawing primitives are a specification (spec) of what the graphics program needs to draw. We learn a model that uses program synthesis techniques to recover a graphics program from that spec. These programs have constructs like variable bindings, iterative loops, or simple kinds of conditionals. With a graphics program in hand, we can correct errors made by the deep network and extrapolate drawings.