cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Efficient robust secret sharing from expander graphs

Threshold secret sharing allows a dealer to share a secret among n players so that any coalition of t players learns nothing about the secret, but any t+1 players can reconstruct the secret in its entirety. Robust secret sharing (RSS) provides the additional guarantee that even if t malicious players mangle their shares, they cannot cause the honest players to reconstruct an incorrect secret. In this work, we construct a simple RSS protocol for $t = \left ({ \frac {1}{2} - \epsilon }\right )n$ that achieves logarithmic overhead in terms of share size and simultaneously allows efficient reconstruction. Our shares size increases by an additive term of $\mathcal {O}(\kappa + \log n)$ , and reconstruction succeeds except with probability at most 2−κ . Previous efficient RSS protocols like that of Rabin and Ben-Or (STOC ’89) and Cevallos et al. (Eurocrypt ’12) use MACs to allow each player to check the shares of each other player in the protocol. These checks provide robustness, but require significant overhead in share size. Our construction identifies the n players as nodes in an expander graph, each player only checks its neighbors in the expander graph.
Scaling, topological tunneling and actions for weak coupling DWF calculations

We present results from a 2+1 flavor DWF calculation at a 1 = 3 GeV and discuss strategies for similar calculations at finer lattice spacings which will target charm physics. At weak coupling the autocorrelation time of the global topological charge becomes very long because the HMC algorithm has trouble moving between topological sectors. We report the results of simulations that test two ideas for reducing the autocorrelation time of topological charge. In weak coupling quenched simulations we find that the open boundary conditions suggested by Luscher and Schaefer do not prevent the appearance of extremely long autocorrelation times for topological observables. We discuss the idea of a "dislocation-enhancing determinant" and show that it can produce an increase in topological tunneling.
Has there actually been a sustained increase in the synchronization of house price (and business) cycles across countries

Abstract Housing has been demonstrated to affect the macroeconomy, particularly business cycle fluctuations. Given the more globalized nature of financial and economic activity in comparison to past decades, there has been much research on how synchronized home values are across countries. This research mirrors a similar line of inquiry on business cycle movement across nations. The degree of co-movement has implications portfolio management in real estate investment, as well as for macroeconomic policy coordination across countries. In this paper, we apply a newly developed set of international house price data and utilize some recently created tools to investigate international housing and business cycle co-movement. We find that there has been no sustained increase in co-movement for either house prices or income across nations.
Key Role of STAT4 Deficiency in the Hematopoietic Compartment in Insulin Resistance and Adipose Tissue Inflammation.

Visceral adipose tissue (AT) inflammation is linked to the complications of obesity, including insulin resistance (IR) and type 2 diabetes. Recent data from our lab showed that germline deficiency in STAT4 reduces inflammation and improves IR in obese mice. The objective of this study was to determine the contribution of selective STAT4 deficiency in subsets of hematopoietic cells to IR and AT inflammation. To determine the contribution of hematopoietic lineage, we sublethally irradiated Stat4-/-C57Bl6 mice and reconstituted them with bone marrow cells (BMC) from Stat4+/+C57Bl6 congenic donors. We also established the contribution of selective STAT4 deficiency in CD4+ or CD8+ T cells using adoptive transfer in Rag1-/- mice. All mice received a HFD for 15 weeks (n = 7-12 mice/group). BMC that expressed STAT4 induced increases in glucose intolerance and IR compared to STAT4-deficient cells. Also, AT inflammation was increased and the numbers of CD8+ cells infiltrating AT were higher in mice with STAT4 expressing BMC. Studies in Rag1-/- mice further confirmed the prominent role of CD8+ cells expressing STAT4 in insulin resistance and AT and islet inflammation. Collectively our results show specific and dominant contribution of STAT4 in the hematopoietic compartment to metabolic health and inflammation in diet-induced obesity.
Systemic anticoagulation in the setting of vascular extremity trauma

Abstract Introduction There is conflicting data regarding if patients with vascular extremity trauma who undergo surgical treatment need to be systematically anticoagulated. We hypothesized that intraoperative systemic anticoagulation (ISA) decreased the risk of repair thrombosis or limb amputation after traumatic vascular injury of the extremities. Methods We analyzed a composite risk of repair thrombosis and/or limb amputation (RTLA) between patients who did and did not undergo ISA during arterial injury repair. Patient data was collected in the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma PROspective Vascular Injury Treatment (PROOVIT) registry. This registry contains demographic, diagnostic, treatment, and outcome data. Results Between February 2013 and August 2015, 193 patients with upper or lower extremity arterial injuries who underwent open operative repair were entered into the PROOVIT registry. The majority were male (87%) with a mean age of 32.6 years (range 4–91) and 74% injured by penetrating mechanism. 63% of the injuries were described as arterial transection and 37% had concomitant venous injury. 62% of patients underwent ISA. RTLA occurred in 22 patients (11%) overall, with no significant difference in these outcomes between patients who received ISA and those that did not (10% vs. 14%, p = 0.6). There was, however, significantly higher total blood product use noted among patients treated with ISA versus those that did not receive ISA (median 3 units vs. 1 unit, p = 0.002). Patients treated with ISA also stayed longer in the ICU (median 3 days vs. 1 day, p = 0.001) and hospital (median 9.5 days vs. 6 days, p = 0.01). Discussion In this multicenter prospective cohort, intraoperative systemic anticoagulation was not associated with a difference in rate of repair thrombosis or limb loss; but was associated with an increase in blood product requirements and prolonged hospital stay. Our data suggest there is no significant difference in outcome to support use of ISA for repair of traumatic arterial injuries.
Obfuscating function call topography to test structural malware detection against evasion attacks

The incredible popularity of the Android mobile operating system has resulted in a massive influx of malicious applications for the platform. This malware can come from a number of sources as Google allows the installation of Android App Packages (APKs) from third parties. Even within its own Google Play storefront, however, malicious software can be found.
A fast algorithm for a weighted low rank approximation

Matrix low rank approximation including the classical PCA and the robust PCA (RPCA) method have been applied to solve the background modeling problem in video analysis. Recently, it has been demonstrated that a special weighted low rank approximation of matrices can be made robust to the outliers similar to the l 1 -norm in RPCA method. In this work, we propose a new algorithm that can speed up the existing algorithm for solving the special weighted low rank approximation and demonstrate its use in background estimation problem.
Descending motor pathways and the spinal motor system: limbic and non-limbic components

Research on descending motor pathways to caudal brainstem and spinal cord in the spinal motor system is reviewed. Particular attention is given to somatic and autonomic motoneurons in the spinal cord and brainstem, local projections to motoneurons, bulbospinal interneurons projecting to motoneurons, descending pathways of somatic motor control systems, and descending pathways involved in limbic motor control systems.
Micromachined pipette arrays

The design and characterization of batch fabricated metallic micromachined pipette arrays is described. The process used to fabricate the micromachined pipette arrays (MPA) includes p/sup +/ etch-stop membrane technology anisotropic etching of silicon in potassium hydroxide, sacrificial thick photoresist micromolding technology, and electrodeposition. Arrays of one to ten pipettes have been fabricated using nickel as the structural material and palladium as the biocompatible coating of inside walls. The inner dimensions of the individual pipettes fabricated to date range from 30 /spl mu/m to 1.5 mm in width, 0.5 mm to several cm in length, and 550 /spl mu/m in thickness. The center-to-center spacing of these pipettes varies from 100 /spl mu/m to several centimeters. The MPA have a number of advantages when compared to the current micropipette technology, including the ability to transfer precise volumes of samples in the submicroliter range; the ability to manipulate samples, reagents, or buffers in a highly-parallel fashion by operating hundreds of individual pipettes simultaneously; and the compatibility with the submillimeter center-to-center dimensions of the microscale biochemical analysis systems. The application of the MPA to high lane density slab gel electrophoresis is explored. Sample wells are formed in agarose gels by using micromachined combs (solid MPA) at center-to-center spacing ranging from 250 /spl mu/m to 1.9 mm. The samples are loaded using the MPA. The results of the micro-gel separations compare favorably with the standard mini-gel separations and show a twofold increase in the number of theoretical plates as well as a sixfold increase in lane density.
Parallel methods for evidence and trust based selection and recommendation of software apps from online marketplaces

With the popularity of various online software marketplaces, third-party vendors are creating many instances of software applications ('apps') for mobile and desktop devices targeting the same set of requirements. This abundance makes the task of selecting and recommending (S&R) apps, with a high degree of assurance, for a specific scenario a significant challenge. The S&R process is a precursor for composing any trusted system made out of such individually selected apps. In addition to feature-based information, about these apps, these marketplaces contain large volumes of user reviews. These reviews contain unstructured user sentiments about app features and the onus of using these reviews in the S&R process is put on the user. This approach is ad-hoc, laborious and typically leads to a superficial incorporation of the reviews in the S&R process by the users. However, due to the large volumes of such reviews and associated computing, these two techniques are not able to provide expected results in real-time or near real-time. Therefore, in this paper, we present two parallel versions (i.e., batch processing and stream processing) of these algorithms and empirically validate their performance using publically available datasets from the Amazon and Android marketplaces. The results of our study show that these parallel versions achieve near real-time performance, when measured as the end-to-end response time, while selecting and recommending apps for specific queries.
Does the World Bank foster business

This study investigates the impact of World Bank development policy loans on the ease of doing business. It finds that the cumulative number of development policy loans enhances business climate, especially for less developed countries and when combined with an International Monetary Fund assistance program. The results are robust to several specifications and sample restrictions, and controlling for possible endogeneity. When the cumulative number of loans and their cumulative value are included in the regression, the value is no longer significant. This finding suggests that overall engagement with the World Bank is more relevant than the amount of resources invested in the project.
Backstepping Design of Robust Controllers for a Class of Nonlinear Systems

Abstract We present a backstepping procedure for designing non-dynamic feedback compensators for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems. We assume knowledge of nonlinear growth bounds on the system uncertainties, and we require that these bounds satisfy a strict feedback condition (a condition much less restrictive than the matching condition). We develop two design procedures, one for systems whose uncertainties vanish at an equilibrium point (in which case we achieve global uniform asymptotic stability) and one for systems with more general types of uncertainties (in which case we achieve global uniform ultimate boundedness).
Computations of Optimal Transport Distance with Fisher Information Regularization

We propose a fast algorithm to approximate the optimal transport distance. The main idea is to add a Fisher information regularization into the dynamical setting of the problem, originated by Benamou and Brenier. The regularized problem is shown to be smooth and strictly convex, thus many classical fast algorithms are available. In this paper, we adopt Newton’s method, which converges to the minimizer with a quadratic rate. Several numerical examples are provided.
Integral Equation Formulation of the Biharmonic Dirichlet Problem

We present a novel integral representation for the biharmonic Dirichlet problem. To obtain the representation, the Dirichlet problem is first converted into a related Stokes problem for which the Sherman–Lauricella integral representation can be used. Not all potentials for the Dirichlet problem correspond to a potential for Stokes flow, and vice-versa, but we show that the integral representation can be augmented and modified to handle either simply or multiply connected domains. The resulting integral representation has a kernel which behaves better on domains with high curvature than existing representations. Thus, this representation results in more robust computational methods for the solution of the Dirichlet problem of the biharmonic equation and we demonstrate this with several numerical examples.
The ghost stairs stabilize to sharp symplectic embedding obstructions

In determining when a four-dimensional ellipsoid can be symplectically embedded into a ball, McDuff and Schlenk found an infinite sequence of "ghost" obstructions that generate an infinite "ghost staircase" determined by the even index Fibonacci numbers. The ghost obstructions are not visible for the four-dimensional embedding problem because strictly stronger obstructions also exist. We show that in contrast, the embedding constraints associated to the ghost obstructions are sharp for the stabilized problem; moreover, the corresponding optimal embeddings are given by symplectic folding. The proof introduces several ideas of independent interest, namely: (i) an improved version of the index inequality familiar from the theory of embedded contact homology (ECH), (ii) new applications of relative intersection theory in the context of neck stretching analysis, (iii) a new approach to estimating the ECH grading of multiply covered elliptic orbits in terms of areas and continued fractions, and (iv) a new technique for understanding the ECH of ellipsoids by constructing explicit bijections between certain sets of lattice points.
The Strategic Advantage of Conflict of Interest Laws

The ongoing arguments and confusion about conflict of interest laws in Washington, DC, offer a good opportunity to remember that conflict of interest laws are not just a nuisance and an afterthough...
An economic analysis of silkworm cocoon production: A case study in Kolar district of Karnataka

The present study is an attempt to assess the silkworm cocoon production and its profitability in five taluks of Kolar district of Karnataka through structured survey during 2012-13. The sample comprised of 120 families consisting of 440 members with an average of 4.40. The number of adult male and female members constituted 46.14 and 33.41 per cent respectively and the rest were children. The number of illiterates in the sample was to the tune of 33 per cent. Out of total acreage wetland constituted 27.36 per cent while garden land formed 14.53 per cent. The total cost incurred for rearing of 8,000 DFLs per year was worked out to be Rs. 7,30,224. Among the total cost, maximum cost was incurred towards the mulberry leaves Rs. 4,55,000 (62.30%). The minimum cost of expenditure was incurred towards transportation and marketing Rs 5000 (0.68 %) and other costs were to the tune of Rs. 500 (0.06%). The total net earnings from 10 batches per year was estimated to be Rs. 19, 04,000 per 8,000 DFLs per year with a benefit cost ratio of 1.59. The total investment on building and equipments for rearing of 8000 DFLs per year was worked out to be Rs. 46,874. Among the depreciation cost incurred towards the equipments for rearing of 800 DFLs, the highest was contributed by mountages Rs. 25,600 during the silkworm cocoon production activities.
Convergence Properties for a Family of Bounded Fixed Step-Size Algorithms

Abstract Convergence and tracking properties are discussed for a family of adaptive signal processing algorithms. The family treated includes bounded fixed gain versions of both the RM and KW stochastic approximation procedures. New results are presented that are applicable when the training data is correlated and the "optimal" solution is not unique and/or time-varying, The non-uniqueness is of interest in establishing "convergence" for constrained algorithms as well as determining "single-mode behavior".
Treatment of Sexual Precocity by Removal of a Luteinizing Hormone-Releasing Hormone Secreting Hamartoma

A 1-year-old infant was initially seen with precocious puberty that progressed rapidly and was associated with episodic gonadotropin release. A computed tomographic metrizamide cisternogram showed a pedunculated mass below the tuber cinereum; the mass was resected. His pubertal development regressed, his accelerated growth ceased, and his hormone levels returned to the normal prepubertal range. Immunocytochemical studies of the tissue demonstrated luteinizing hormone—releasing hormone (LHRH) granules in the perikaryon of neurons and axons in the hamartoma and axons connecting the hamartoma to the tuber cinereum. These data suggest that such lesions cause pubertal development by stimulating gonadotropin secretion via episodic release of LHRH. If such lesions are pedunculated, operative resection may be the treatment of choice. (JAMA1984;251:2247-2249)
Cross‐country spillovers of fiscal consolidations in the euro area

This paper revisits the issue of cross‐country spillovers from fiscal consolidations using an innovative empirical methodology. We find evidence in support of fiscal spillovers in ten euro area countries. Fiscal consolidation in one country not only reduces domestic output (direct effect) but also reduces the output of other member countries (indirect/spillover effect). Fiscal spillovers are larger for (a) more closely located and economically integrated countries, and (b) fiscal shocks originating from relatively larger countries. On average, 1% of gross domestic product fiscal consolidation in ten euro area countries reduces the combined output by 0.6% on impact, out of which half is driven by indirect effects from fiscal spillovers. The impact peters out and becomes insignificant over the medium term. It is largely driven by tax measures, which have a relatively stronger effect on output compared to expenditure measures. The results are robust to alternative measures of bilateral links across countries.
The Natural History of Kaposi’s Sarcoma in the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Abstract Kaposi's sarcoma is a multifocal systemic neoplasm histologically characterized by proliferating fibroblastic and microvascular elements. Initial signs include macules, papules, or nodules...
Catheter Drainage of Abdominal Abscesses

For many years, localized accumulations of fluid in different areas of the body have been treated by aspiration or more radical methods of drainage. Abdominal abscesses represent the most serious of these collections. Difficult both to diagnose and treat, they still lead to an appreciable mortality rate. Fortunately, several factors have combined to render them less dangerous. Through modern radiologic techniques diagnosis can be made much earlier than in the past and confirmed by aspiration; in many instances adequate treatment can be instituted by means of percutaneous catheters inserted by radiologists. Antibiotics are considered to be essential for success. The . . .
Strong Deformation of the Thick Electric Double Layer around a Charged Particle during Sedimentation or Electrophoresis.

The deformation of the electric double layer around a charged colloidal particle during sedimentation or electrophoresis in a binary, symmetric electrolyte is studied. The surface potential of the particle is assumed to be small compared to the thermal voltage scale. Additionally, the Debye length is assumed to be large compared to the particle size. These assumptions enable a linearization of the electrokinetic equations. The particle appears as a point charge in this thick-double-layer limit; the distribution of charge in the diffuse cloud surrounding it is determined by a balance of advection due to the particle motion, Brownian diffusion of ions, and electrostatic screening of the particle by the cloud. The ability of advection to deform the charge cloud from its equilibrium state is parametrized by a Peclet number, Pe. For weak advection (Pe ≪ 1), the cloud is only slightly deformed. In contrast, the cloud can be completely stripped from the particle at Pe ≫ 1; consequently, electrokinetic effects on...
The Adoption of Outcome Measurement in Human Service Nonprofits

Performance measurement has received increasing attention in the nonprofit sector. While the current scholarship has emphasized the balanced use of performance measures, only a limited number of nonprofits have adopted outcome measurement. In this study, we investigate what factors explain a variation in the adoption of outcome measurement based on survey data from 263 human service nonprofits. The results of logistic regression find that human service nonprofits are more likely to adopt outcome measures when they are more risk-taking, influenced by institutional pressures, and have higher human resource and political capacities.
MANAGING GLENOID BONE LOSS: ROLE OF AUGMENTED PATIENT-SPECIFIC IMPLANTS

Glenoid bone loss is not an uncommon challenge in both primary shoulder arthroplasty surgery and revision surgery. Walch described the classification of glenoid morphology and this has led to an understanding of the expanded role for bone grafting, patient-specific implants and reverse prostheses. While bone grafting of the glenoid in conventional arthroplasty has been shown to be successful in some patients it is more routinely used in combination with reverse prostheses. More recently, augmented glenoid components have been developed for both conventional and reverse arthroplasty, though follow-up is insufficient to confirm their durability at this time.
Violent Conflict and Political Development Over the Long Run: China Versus Europe

Is the traditional logic by which violent conflict fosters long-run political development universal? To help address this question, this article compares Europe with China. While historical warfare was very common across both units, representative government flourished only in Europe. We suggest that the relationship between violent conflict and political development depends on the underlying political geography context. In Europe, political fragmentation was rampant. Thus, conflict tended to be external (i.e., interstate), and attack threats were multidirectional. Furthermore, exit ability was high in this context. Elites were therefore in a strong bargaining position to demand political representation in return for new tax revenue. China, by contrast, was politically centralized. Here, conflict tended to be internal, attack threats were unidirectional, and exit ability was low. The emperor was thus powerful enough to extract tax funds without surrendering political control. In this context, violent conf...
Isolation and Characterization of Bacteria That Degrade Phosphonates in Marine Dissolved Organic Matter.

Semi-labile dissolved organic matter (DOM) accumulates in surface waters of the oligotrophic ocean gyres and turns over on seasonal to annual timescales. This reservoir of DOM represents an important source of carbon, energy, and nutrients to marine microbial communities but the identity of the microorganisms and the biochemical pathways underlying the cycling of DOM remain largely uncharacterized. In this study we describe bacteria isolated from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) near Hawaii that are able to degrade phosphonates associated with high molecular weight dissolved organic matter (HMWDOM), which represents a large fraction of semi-labile DOM. We amended dilution-to-extinction cultures with HMWDOM collected from NPSG surface waters and with purified HMWDOM enriched with polysaccharides bearing alkylphosphonate esters. The HMWDOM-amended cultures were enriched in Roseobacter isolates closely related to Sulfitobacter and close relatives of hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria of the Oceanospirillaceae family, many of which encoded phosphonate degradation pathways. Sulfitobacter cultures encoding C-P lyase were able to catabolize methylphosphonate and 2-hydroxyethylphosphonate, as well as the esters of these phosphonates found in native HMWDOM polysaccharides to acquire phosphorus while producing methane and ethylene, respectively. Conversely, growth of these isolates on HMWDOM polysaccharides as source of carbon did not support robust increases in cell yields, suggesting that the constituent carbohydrates in HMWDOM were not readily available to these individual isolates. We postulate that the complete remineralization of HMWDOM polysaccharides requires more complex microbial inter-species interactions. The degradation of phosphonate esters and other common substitutions in marine polysaccharides may be key steps in the turnover of marine DOM.
Elevated unmethylated and methylated insulin DNA are unique markers of A + β + ketosis prone diabetes

Abstract A + β + ketosis prone diabetes (KPD) is associated with slowly progressive autoimmune beta cell destruction. Plasma unmethylated and methylated insulin DNA (biomarkers of ongoing beta cell damage and systemic inflammation, respectively) were elevated in A + β + KPD compared to all other KPD subgroups.
Parallelized, Aerobic, Single Carbon-Source Enrichments from Different Natural Environments Contain Divergent Microbial Communities.

Microbial communities that inhabit environments such as soil can contain thousands of distinct taxa, yet little is known about how this diversity is maintained in response to environmental perturbations such as changes in the availability of carbon. By utilizing aerobic substrate arrays to examine the effect of carbon amendment on microbial communities taken from six distinct environments (soil from a temperate prairie and forest, tropical forest soil, subalpine forest soil, and surface water and soil from a palustrine emergent wetland), we examined how carbon amendment and inoculum source shape the composition of the community in each enrichment. Dilute subsamples from each environment were used to inoculate 96-well microtiter plates containing triplicate wells amended with one of 31 carbon sources from 6 different classes of organic compounds (phenols, polymers, carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, amines, amino acids). After incubating each well aerobically in the dark for 72 hours, we analyzed the composition of the microbial communities on the substrate arrays as well as the initial inocula by sequencing 16S rRNA gene amplicons using the Illumina MiSeq platform. Comparisons of alpha and beta diversity in these systems showed that, while the composition of the communities that grow to inhabit the wells in each substrate array diverges sharply from that of the original community in the inoculum, these enrichment communities are still is strongly affected by the inoculum source. We found most enrichments were dominated by one or several OTUs most closely related to aerobes or facultative anaerobes from the Proteobacteria (e.g. Pseudomonas, Burkholderia, and Ralstonia) or Bacteroidetes (e.g. Chryseobacterium). Comparisons within each substrate array based on the class of carbon source further show that the communities inhabiting wells amended with a carbohydrate differ significantly from those enriched with a phenolic compound. Selection therefore seems to play a role in shaping the communities in the substrate arrays, although some stochasticity is also seen whereby several replicate wells within a single substrate array display strongly divergent community compositions. Overall, the use of highly parallel substrate arrays offers a promising path forward to study the response of microbial communities to perturbations in a changing environment.
Deep Learning for real-time gravitational wave detection and parameter estimation: Results with Advanced LIGO data

Abstract The recent Nobel-prize-winning detections of gravitational waves from merging black holes and the subsequent detection of the collision of two neutron stars in coincidence with electromagnetic observations have inaugurated a new era of multimessenger astrophysics. To enhance the scope of this emergent field of science, we pioneered the use of deep learning with convolutional neural networks, that take time-series inputs, for rapid detection and characterization of gravitational wave signals. This approach, Deep Filtering , was initially demonstrated using simulated LIGO noise. In this article, we present the extension of Deep Filtering using real data from LIGO, for both detection and parameter estimation of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers using continuous data streams from multiple LIGO detectors. We demonstrate for the first time that machine learning can detect and estimate the true parameters of real events observed by LIGO. Our results show that Deep Filtering achieves similar sensitivities and lower errors compared to matched-filtering while being far more computationally efficient and more resilient to glitches, allowing real-time processing of weak time-series signals in non-stationary non-Gaussian noise with minimal resources, and also enables the detection of new classes of gravitational wave sources that may go unnoticed with existing detection algorithms. This unified framework for data analysis is ideally suited to enable coincident detection campaigns of gravitational waves and their multimessenger counterparts in real-time.
Th17 cells contribute to pulmonary fibrosis and inflammation during chronic kidney disease progression after acute ischemia

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with high mortality rates and predisposes development of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Distant organ damage, particularly in the lung, may contribute to mort...
Health Ecologies in Addiction Treatment: Rhetoric of Health and Medicine and Conceptualizing Care

This study explored the introduction of an ecological care model into a women’s alcohol-and-other-drug treatment facility. When patients learned that their health resembled a network of factors inc...
Effects of 14 MeV neutron irradiation on the DC characteristics of CBRAM cells

CBRAM cells were irradiated with 14 MeV neutrons to a total fluence of 3.19×1013 n/cm2. This is the first time that the effect of displacement damage on the DC characteristics of CBRAM has been examined. The high resistance and low resistance states of the cells are shown to converge with increasing neutron fluence. After reaching a fluence of 2.93×1013 n/cm2, the CBRAM cells became irrecoverably locked into their final resistance state.
Property tax deferral: A proposal to help Massachusetts' seniors

Massachusetts citizens, like those in other states, face the prospect of inadequate retirement income. Social Security will provide less relative to pre-retirement earnings; 401(k) balances are generally meager; and half the private sector workforce does not have an employer-sponsored retirement plan. At the same time, the number of years spent in retirement has increased dramatically; health care costs are high and rapidly rising; and interest rates are at historic lows. In addition to these nationwide challenges, Massachusetts’ older residents face extraordinarily high housing costs and, as a result, rank among the most disadvantaged in terms of the gap between their required and actual resources. The three big levers to improve the retirement income situation are: 1) encourage people to work longer; 2) provide coverage for employees who do not have a retirement savings plan at work; and 3) enable older households to tap their home equity. States can assist on all three fronts to help individuals use their own resources to support themselves in retirement. They can publicize the advantage to individuals of staying in the labor force and to companies of hiring and retaining older workers. They can institute programs that require employers without a retirement plan to automatically enroll their workers in an Individual Retirement Account. And they can offer a program of property tax deferral that will enable homeowners to use some of their home equity to augment inadequate retirement income. This brief focuses on the third option, exploring one possible approach to property tax deferral that uses Massachusetts as an example. The discussion proceeds as follows. The first section describes the nation’s retirement income challenge and the particular problem created by Massachusetts’ high housing costs. The second section describes the major existing programs for homeowners’ relief in Massachusetts: two that cost the taxpayer and one that allows low-income homeowners to help themselves through limited property tax deferral. The third section describes a proposal for a new statewide program of property tax deferral that would be open to all homeowners. The fourth section addresses likely utilization and startup costs before the program becomes self-financing. The final section concludes that a comprehensive property tax deferral program offers enough promise to at least be tried as a pilot.
In Vivo siRNA Delivery and Rebound of Renal LRP2 in Mice.

siRNA stabilized for in vivo applications is filtered and reabsorbed in the renal proximal tubule (PT), reducing mRNA expression transiently. Prior siRNA efforts have successfully prevented upregulation of mRNA in response to injury. We proposed reducing constitutive gene and protein expression of LRP2 (megalin) in order to understand its molecular regulation in mice. Using siRNA targeting mouse LRP2 (siLRP2), reduction of LRP2 mRNA expression was compared to scrambled siRNA (siSCR) in mouse PT cells. Mice received siLRP2 administration optimized for dose, administration site, carrier solution, administration frequency, and administration duration. Kidney cortex was collected upon sacrifice. Renal gene and protein expression were compared by qRT-PCR, immunoblot, and immunohistochemistry (IHC). Compared to siSCR, siLRP2 reduced mRNA expression in PT cells to . In mouse kidney cortex, siLRP2 reduced mRNA expression to 74.8 ± 6.3% 3 h and 70.1 ± 6.3% 6 h after administration. mRNA expression rebounded at 12 h (160.6 ± 11.2%). No megalin renal protein expression reduction was observed by immunoblot or IHC, even after serial twice daily dosing for 3.5 days. Megalin is a constitutively expressed protein. Although LRP2 renal mRNA expression reduction was achieved, siRNA remains a costly and inefficient intervention to reduce in vivo megalin protein expression.
A roadmap for gene drives: using institutional analysis and development to frame research needs and governance in a systems context

ABSTRACTThe deployment of gene drives is emerging as an alternative for protecting endangered species, controlling agricultural pests, and reducing vector-borne diseases. This paper reports on a workshop held in February 2016 to explore the complex intersection of political, economic, ethical, and ecological risk issues associated with gene drives. Workshop participants were encouraged to use systems thinking and mapping to describe the connections among social, policy, economic, and ecological variables as they intersect within governance systems. In this paper, we analyze the workshop transcripts and maps using the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to categorize variables associated with gene drive governance and account for the complexities of socio-ecological systems. We discuss how the IAD framework can be used in the future to test hypotheses about how features of governance systems might lead to certain outcomes and inform the design of research programs, public engagement, and...
Experimental Evidence of Tax Salience and the Labor-Leisure Decision: Anchoring, Tax Aversion, or Complexity?

Recent research in marketing and public economics suggests that consumers underestimate the effects of taxes and surcharges on total purchase prices when taxes and surcharges are made less salient....
A Cloud Based Irrigation System for Agriculture

By 2050, it's normal that the total populace will contact 9.2 billion individuals, 34 percent higher than today. A lot of this development will occur in creating nations like India, which has the biggest zone on the planet with arable land for agriculture. To stay aware of rising populaces and wage development, worldwide sustenance generation must increment by 70 percent so as to have the capacity to encourage the world. With help of IoT, control focuses gather and process information continuously to enable ranchers to settle on the best choices as to planting, treating and collecting crops. Sensors set all through the fields are utilized to gauge temperature and stickiness of the dirt and encompassing air. We Propose a Cloud based Irrigation System for better agriculture farming.
Photoluminescence Excitation Spectroscopy of Carbon-Doped Gallium Nitride

We have done a comparative study of carbon-doped GaN and undoped GaN utilizing photoluminescence (PL) and photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectroscopies in order to investigate deep levels involved in yellow luminescence (YL) and red luminescence (RL). When the GaN was excited by above-bandgap light, red luminescence (RL) centered at 1.82 eV was the dominant below-gap PL from undoped GaN, but carbon-doped GaN below-gap PL was dominated by yellow luminescence (YL) centered at 2.2 eV. When exciting PL below the band-gap with 2.4 eV light, undoped GaN had a RL peak centered at 1.5 eV and carbon-doped GaN had a RL peak centered at 1.65 eV. PLE spectra of carbon-doped GaN, detecting at 1.56 eV, exhibited a strong, broad excitation band extending from about 2.1 to 2.8 eV with an unusual shape that may be due to two or more overlapping excitation bands. This RL PLE band was not observed in undoped GaN. We also demonstrate that PL spectra excited by below gap light in GaN films on sapphire substrates are readily contaminated by 1.6−1.8 eV and 2.1−2.5 eV chromium-related emission from the substrate. A complete characterization of the Cr emission and excitation bands for sapphire substrates enables the determination of the excitation and detection wavelengths required to obtain GaN PL and PLE spectra that are free of contributions from substrate emission.
A Field Too Crowded? How Measures of Market Structure Shape Nonprofit Fiscal Health:

This article explores how various dimensions of market structure, often used to measure organizational crowding, affect the fiscal health of nonprofit organizations. Using 2011 National Center for ...
Experimental construction of hunter-gatherer residential features, mobility, and the costs of occupying “persistent places”

Abstract Temporal and caloric costs associated with building common hunter-gatherer residential features – housefloors, housepits, storage pits, rock rings, and various types of wickiups – are presented based on experimental construction of these types of features. For subsurface features, excavation rates and associated labor costs are consistent regardless of feature type, soil type, or feature size. Labor costs for surface features are largely dependent on feature size, complexity, and availability of raw materials. In total, the per-family costs of building a single-family hunter-gatherer residential base are just under one 8-h day and approximately 2500 kcal per person. Combined, these data indicate relatively low costs are associated with hunter-gatherer investments in persistent places and in residential facilities made from locally-available resources. Implied by the study is that initial use of a place might reduce the costs of and thus encourage subsequent reoccupations and that raw material availability may have played as much of a role in decisions about when to move as density and distribution of subsistence resources.
T cell responses to tumor associated antigens in multiple myeloma patients treated with MV-NIS, an oncolytic measles virus.

218Background: Evidence from mouse studies shows that Oncolytic viral mode of tumor cell killing can boost the cytotoxic T lymphocyte response against tumor associated antigens (TAA), leading to ‘bystander’ killing of uninfected tumor cells. Methods: To investigate whether oncolytic virotherapy can boost immune responses to tumor antigens in human subjects we studied T cell responses to 10 different TAA reported to have high expression in patients with multiple myeloma (n = 10) before and after intravenous administration of an oncolytic measles virus (MV-NIS). Baseline and 6 week post-therapy PBMC samples were stimulated with peptides specific to each of the selected TAA and their responses to this antigenic stimulation were measured using IFNγ ELISPOT. Results: Despite their prior exposure to multiple immunosuppressive treatment regimens, some of the tested patients had higher T cell responses to some of the TAA even prior to MV-NIS. Baseline T cell responses against MAGEc1 were present in 50% of the pat...
Foresight and Hindsight

ABSTRACT There was computation long before the computer—and there were artists, seduced by the beauty of mathematics, who integrated computation in their creative endeavors. With the advent of the digital machine the relation between aesthetic artifacts and computation was redefined. The article reports on images produced between 1965–1970. The generation of images associated with mathematical formulae, raised questions regarding art’s condition and the nature of creativity. These are addressed from the perspective of aesthetic experiments. Through dedicated experiments involving computers, in Eastern Europe, particularly in (communist) Romania, artists strove for artistic freedom.
Demographic Change and Political Polarization in the United States

I construct an index of political polarization using seven previously proposed measures. I estimate the relative propensity for polarization across demographic groups in a regression framework and examine the extent to which demographic change can explain recent trends in polarization. Assuming fixed propensities for polarization, I estimate that 25 to 59 percent of the change in polarization between 1984 and 2016 can be attributed to demographic change in the United States.
Travel Time to Clinic but not Neighborhood Crime Rate is Associated with Retention in Care Among HIV-Positive Patients.

Using geospatial analysis, we examined the relationship of distance between a patient’s residence and clinic, travel time to clinic, and neighborhood violent crime rates with retention in care or viral suppression among people living with HIV (PLWH). For HIV-positive patients at a large urban clinic, we measured distance and travel time between home and clinic and violent crime rate within a two block radius of the travel route. Kruskal–Wallis rank sum was used to compare outcomes between groups. Over the observation period, 2008–2016, 219/602 (36%) patients were retained in care. Median distance from clinic was 3.6 (IQR 2.1–5.6) miles versus 3.9 (IQR 2.7–6.1) miles among those retained versus not retained in care, p = 0.06. Median travel time by car was 15.9 (IQR 9.6–22.9) versus 17.1 (IQR 12.0–24.6) minutes for those retained versus not retained, p = 0.04. Violent crime rate along travel route was not associated with retention. There was no significant association between travel time or distance and viral suppression.
Personalized Behavior-Powered Systems for Guiding Self-Experiments

The goal of my research is to study how individuals perform self-experiments and to build behavior-powered systems that help them run such experiments. I have developed SleepCoacher, a sleep-tracking system that provides and evaluates the effect of actionable personalized recommendations for improving sleep. Going further, my aim is to expand beyond sleep and develop the first guided self-experimentation system, which educates users about health interventions and helps them plan and carry out their own experiments. My thesis aims to use self-experimentation to help people take better care of their well-being by uncovering the hidden causal relationships in their lives.
Iterative Spectral Method for Alternative Clustering

Given a dataset and an existing clustering as input, alternative clustering aims to find an alternative partition. One of the state-of-the-art approaches is Kernel Dimension Alternative Clustering (KDAC). We propose a novel Iterative Spectral Method (ISM) that greatly improves the scalability of KDAC. Our algorithm is intuitive, relies on easily implementable spectral decompositions, and comes with theoretical guarantees. Its computation time improves upon existing implementations of KDAC by as much as 5 orders of magnitude.
Cruise Line Customers’ Responses to Risk and Crisis Communication Messages: An Application of the Risk Perception Attitude Framework:

The main purpose of this study was to test cruise line customers’ responses to risk and crisis communication messages addressing health-related incidents on cruise ships. This study used norovirus ...
History of Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF) and Its Use for Spinal Cord Injury Repair

Following an initial mechanical insult, traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) induces a secondary wave of injury, resulting in a toxic lesion environment inhibitory to axonal regeneration. This review focuses on the glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and its application, in combination with other factors and cell transplantations, for repairing the injured spinal cord. As studies of recent decades strongly suggest that combinational treatment approaches hold the greatest therapeutic potential for the central nervous system (CNS) trauma, future directions of combinational therapies will also be discussed.