cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Glycaemic control in diabetes.

This review is one of over 60 chapters included in the first issue of Clinical Evidence , a new information resource for clinicians available from 28 June 1999. The compendium will be updated and expanded every six months. Future issues of Clinical Evidence will summarise the relevant results of the UK prospective diabetes study. #### Key messages www.evidence.org Subscription details at end of article Definition: Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic diseases characterised by hyperglycaemia (fasting plasma glucose ≥7.0 mmol/l, or two hour post 75g oral glucose load plasma glucose ≥11.1 mmol/l, on two or more occasions). Intensive treatment is designed to achieve blood glucose values as close to the non-diabetic range as possible. The essential components of such treatment are education, counselling, monitoring, self management, and pharmacological treatment with insulin or oral antidiabetic agents, to achieve specific glycaemic goals. Incidence/prevalence: Diabetes is diagnosed in around 5% of adults aged 20 years or over in the United States.1 A further 2.7% have undiagnosed diabetes on the basis of fasting glucose. The prevalence is similar in men and women, but diabetes is more common in many ethnic groups. The prevalence in people aged 40-74 has increased over the past decade. Aetiology: Diabetes results from deficient insulin secretion, decreased insulin action, or both. Many processes can be involved, ranging from autoimmune destruction of the β cells of the …
Capabilities and Skills

AbstractThis paper discusses the relevance of recent research on the economics of human development to the work of the Human Development and Capability Association. The recent economics of human development brings insights about the dynamics of skill accumulation to the literature on capabilities. Skills embodied in agents empower people. Enhanced skills enhance opportunities and hence promote capabilities. We address measurement problems common to both the economics of human development and the capability approach. The economics of human development analyzes the dynamics of preference formation, but is silent about which preferences should be used to evaluate alternative policies. This is both a strength and a limitation of the approach.
Palladium-Catalyzed Stereospecific Decarboxylative Benzylation of Alkynes.

Enantioenriched benzyl esters of propiolic acids undergo highly stereospecific decarboxylative coupling to provide 1,1-diarylethynyl methanes. This sp–sp3 coupling does not require strongly basic conditions or preformed organometallics and produces CO2 as the sole byproduct. Ultimately, this method results in the successful transfer of stereochemical information from secondary benzyl alcohols to generate enantioenriched tertiary diarylmethanes.
The Sedition Act of 1798 and the Incorporation of Seditious Libel into First Amendment Jurisprudence

On July 14, 1798, the Federalist-controlled Congress passed the Sedition Act. This act, codifying the English common law of seditious libel, made it a federal crime to publish defamatory matter against the Congress, President, or government of the United States. Republican-party critics of the Act argued that it violated the free press clause of the recently adopted First Amendment. In supporting the Act, however, Federalists attempted to reconcile the old common law with the constitutional text. A closer examination of the Federalists' arguments shows that they were indeed able to impart a core common-law understanding to the freedom of the press that resonated in First Amendment jurisprudence until recent times.
Vinylogous Mukaiyama-Michael Reactions of Dihydropyridinones.

An In(III)-catalyzed vinylogous addition of O-silyl vinylketene acetals to 2,3-dihydro-4-pyridinones has been developed. The method features the unprecedented employment of supersilyl groups to influence the γ versus α regiochemical control of vinylogous Mukaiyama–Michael (vM−Michael) reactions when γ-substituted O-silyl vinylketene acetals are used. We also demonstrate that these reactions allow facile access to quinolizidine-based alkaloids such as deoxynupharidine and well as lasubine I and II.
Observation of the Transient Expansion of Heated Surfaces by Picosecond Photothermal Deflection Spectroscopy

Recently there has been a considerable amount of work centered on the problem of understanding lattice thermalization of optically excited carriers on the picosecond time scale. A necessary consequence of thermalization of carriers with the lattice is the subsequent lattice expansion. This expansion leads to a propagating elastic stress wave which results in motion of the free surface. In the experiments reported here the technique of photothermal deflection1 has been extended for the first time to the picosecond time domain in order to resolve this surface motion.
Effect of nonlinear load on design of dynamic compensator for reactive power modulation in AC/DC power system

This paper presents a method to design a robust dynamic compensator for reactive power modulation to improve the dynamic performance of an AC/DC power system. The robust dynamic compensator is designed using closed-loop eigenvalue sensitivity with respect to load characteristic. Eigenvalue analysis and simulation results show that a dynamic compensator designed using a constant impedance load model may lead to system instability at constant active power load. However, a robust dynamic compensator improves the system response over a wide range of load characteristics. >
Quantum Algorithms for Abelian Difference Sets and Applications to Dihedral Hidden Subgroups

Difference sets are basic combinatorial structures that have applications in signal processing, coding theory, and cryptography. We consider the problem of identifying a shifted version of the characteristic function of a (known) difference set and present a general algorithm that can be used to tackle any hidden shift problem for any difference set in any abelian group. We discuss special cases of this framework which include a) Paley difference sets based on quadratic residues in finite fields which allow to recover the shifted Legendre function quantum algorithm, b) Hadamard difference sets which allow to recover the shifted bent function quantum algorithm, and c) Singer difference sets which allow us to define instances of the dihedral hidden subgroup problem which can be efficiently solved on a quantum computer.
THE PROBLEM WOUND: A KNEE IS NOT A HIP

Wound complications are much more common following knee arthroplasty compared to hip arthroplasty. This is because of the precarious blood supply which contributes to the infection rate which is about twice as high. Many, if not most, infections are related to wound problems. Avoiding wound problems is a critical issue in joint replacement, more so in the knee than the hip. The volume of these procedures is growing rapidly. Infection continues to be a major complication. The incidence is not decreasing and infections are becoming more difficult to treat, because of resistant organisms. Also, the increasing number of procedures in patients with obesity and other risk factors makes wound management a major issue in knee replacement. Many wound problems are avoidable and can be minimised by care to detail by the surgeon. Salvaging the problem wound is a major issue in total knee replacement currently in order to minimise infection, which remains a major issue and is frequently related to wound healing problems. The first step is identifying the patient at risk and either deferring surgery or optimising the patient to minimise the risk of wound healing problems and subsequent infection. Secondly, is appropriate soft tissue handling with careful attention to choosing the optimal skin incision. Third is taking steps to facilitate primary wound healing and absolutely minimising the risk of persistent drainage, particularly through the very judicious use of anticoagulants. Finally, the delayed wound healing and persistent drainage must be identified early and treated aggressively in order to minimise the risk of infection.
Organized Labor and Debt Contracting: Firm-Level Evidence from Collective Bargaining

ABSTRACT: This paper employs a firm-level collective bargaining dataset to investigate the effect of labor, as an important stakeholder of a firm, on debt contracting. I conjecture and provide evidence that firms with strong organized labor prefer bank loans to public bonds because, by communicating with banks privately, unionized firms can reduce the adverse selection costs while preserving the information asymmetry with organized labor. Furthermore, I show that organized labor influences the structure of syndicated loans. When firms with strong unions withhold public disclosures, but communicate privately with lead lenders, heightened information asymmetry between the lead lenders and the participant lenders induces the lead lenders to retain larger shares of the loans and form more concentrated syndicates. Overall, this study demonstrates that the proprietary costs of disclosure related to organized labor significantly influence firms' debt contracting decisions and outcomes. Data Availability: Data ar...
Engineering and Probing Topological Properties of Dirac Semimetal Films by Asymmetric Charge Transfer

Dirac semimetals (DSMs) have topologically robust three-dimensional Dirac (doubled Weyl) nodes with Fermi-arc states. In heterostructures involving DSMs, charge transfer occurs at the interfaces, which can be used to probe and control their bulk and surface topological properties through surface-bulk connectivity. Here we demonstrate that despite a band gap in DSM films, asymmetric charge transfer at the surface enables one to accurately identify locations of the Dirac-node projections from gapless band crossings and to examine and engineer properties of the topological Fermi-arc surface states connecting the projections, by simulating adatom-adsorbed DSM films using a first-principles method with an effective model. The positions of the Dirac-node projections are insensitive to charge transfer amount or slab thickness except for extremely thin films. By varying the amount of charge transfer, unique spin textures near the projections and a separation between the Fermi-arc states change, which can be obser...
A Textual Analysis Algorithm for the Equity Market: The European Case

This article explores the use of the crowd to interpret text and the power of that interpretation to predict future events. This topic is addressed through an experiment in which news sentiment is evaluated by crowds and experts in different configurations. Their classifications are used as training sets for machine-learning algorithms. The testing is done based on Reuters news stories and the returns of the stocks mentioned right after the stories appear. This article explores a simple trading strategy in which the trader takes a long position when the forecast of the asset return is positive and liquidates the position after one minute. Using this trading strategy, a support vector machine trained with the sentiment of several human groups shows the highest Sharpe ratio after transaction costs and outperforms the STOXX 50 Index.
On Open and Closed Convex Codes

Neural codes serve as a language for neurons in the brain. Open (or closed) convex codes, which arise from the pattern of intersections of collections of open (or closed) convex sets in Euclidean space, are of particular relevance to neuroscience. Not every code is open or closed convex, however, and the combinatorial properties of a code that determine its realization by such sets are still poorly understood. Here we find that a code that can be realized by a collection of open convex sets may or may not be realizable by closed convex sets, and vice versa, establishing that open convex and closed convex codes are distinct classes. We establish a non-degeneracy condition that guarantees that the corresponding code is both open convex and closed convex. We also prove that max intersection-complete codes (i.e., codes that contain all intersections of maximal codewords) are both open convex and closed convex, and provide an upper bound for their minimal embedding dimension. Finally, we show that the addition of non-maximal codewords to an open convex code preserves convexity.
One-loop gravity divergences in D>4 cannot all be removed

Unlike the one-loop QG divergences in D=4, which can all be transformed away, those in arbitrary higher (even) D cannot.
The Evolution of Pd0/PdII-Catalyzed Aromatic Fluorination

ConspectusAromatic fluorides are prevalent in both agrochemical and pharmaceutical agents. However, methods for their rapid and general preparation from widely available starting materials are limited. Traditional approaches such as the Balz–Schiemann and Halex reactions require harsh conditions that limit functional group tolerance and substrate scope. The use of transition metals to affect C–F bond formation has provided some useful alternatives, but a broadly applicable method remains elusive. In contrast to the widespread use of Pd0/PdII catalysis for aryl–Z bond formation (Z = C, N, O), the analogous C–F cross-coupling process was unknown until fairly recently. In large part, this is due to the challenging Ar–F reductive elimination from Pd(II) intermediates. We have discovered that certain biaryl monophosphine ligands are uniquely capable of promoting this transformation. In this Account, we describe the discovery and development of a Pd-catalyzed C–F cross-coupling process and the systematic develo...
Electron spin resonance spectroscopy of small ensemble paramagnetic spins using a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond

A nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is a promising sensor for nanoscale magnetic sensing. Here, we report on electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy using a single NV center in diamond. First, using a 230 GHz ESR spectrometer, we performed ensemble ESR of a type-Ib sample crystal and identified a substitutional single nitrogen impurity as a major paramagnetic center in the sample crystal. Then, we carried out free-induction decay and spin echo measurements of the single NV center to study static and dynamic properties of nanoscale bath spins surrounding the NV center. We also measured ESR spectrum of the bath spins using double electron-electron resonance spectroscopy with the single NV center. The spectrum analysis of the NV-based ESR measurement identified that the detected spins are the nitrogen impurity spins. The experiment was also performed with several other single NV centers in the diamond sample and demonstrated that the properties of the bath spins are unique to the NV centers indicati...
Delayed Expected Loss Recognition and the Risk Profile of Banks

This paper investigates the extent to which delayed expected loan loss recognition (DELR) is associated with greater vulnerability of banks to three distinct dimensions of risk: (1) stock market liquidity risk, (2) downside tail risk of individual banks, and (3) codependence of downside tail risk among banks. We hypothesize that DELR increases vulnerability to downside risk by creating expected loss overhangs that threaten future capital adequacy and by degrading bank transparency, which increases financing frictions and opportunities for risk-shifting. We find that DELR is associated with higher correlations between bank-level illiquidity and both aggregate banking sector illiquidity and market returns (i.e., higher liquidity risks) during recessions, suggesting that high DELR banks as a group may simultaneously face elevated financing frictions and enhanced opportunities for risk-shifting behavior in crisis periods. With respect to downside risk, we find that during recessions DELR is associated with significantly higher risk of individual banks suffering severe drops in their equity values, where this association is magnified for banks with low capital levels. Consistent with increased systemic risk, we find that DELR is associated with significantly higher codependence between downside risk of individual banks and downside risk of the banking sector. We theorize that downside risk vulnerability at the individual bank level can translate into systemic risk by virtue of DELR creating a common source of risk vulnerability across high DELR banks simultaneously, which leads to risk codependence among banks and systemic effects from banks acting as part of a herd.
HANDHELD NAVIGATION IN TKA: THE ORTHOPAEDIST'S SMART PHONE

Computer navigation is an attractive tool for use in total knee arthroplasty (TKA), as it is well known that alignment is important for the proper function of a total knee replacement. Malalignment of the prosthetic joint can lead to abnormal kinematics, unbalanced soft-tissues, and early loosening. Although there are no long term studies proving the clinical benefits of computer navigation in TKA, studies have shown that varus alignment of the tibial component is a risk factor for early loosening. A handheld, accelerometer based navigation unit for use in total knee replacement has recently become available to assist the surgeon in making the proximal tibial and distal femoral cuts. Studies have shown the accuracy to be comparable to large, console-based navigation units. Additionally, accuracy of cuts is superior to the use of traditional alignment guides, improving the percentage of cuts within 2 degrees of the desired alignment. Because the registration is based on the mechanical axis of the knee, anatomic variables such as femoral neck-shaft angle, femoral length, and presence of a tibial bow do not affect the results. The handheld aspect of this navigation unit allows its use without additional incisions or array attachment. Furthermore, the learning curve and usage time is minimal, supporting its use in primary TKA.
Classification of motor imagery EEG patterns and their topographic representation

We have developed a single trial motor imagery (MI) classification strategy for the brain computer interface (BCI) applications by using time-frequency synthesis approach to accommodate the individual difference, and using the spatial patterns derived from EEG rhythmic components as the feature description. The EEGs are decomposed into a series of frequency bands, and the instantaneous power is represented by the envelop of oscillatory activity, which formed the spatial patterns for a given electrode montage at a time-frequency grid. Time-frequency weights determined by training process were used to synthesize the contributions at the time-frequency domains. The overall classification accuracies for three selected human subjects performing left or right hand movement imagery tasks, were about 87 percent in the ten-fold cross validation without rejecting trials. The loci of motor imagery activity were shown in the spatial topography of differential mode patterns over the sensorimotor area. The present method promises to provide a useful alternative as a general purpose classification procedure for motor imagery classification.
Confinement from Center Vortices: A review of old and new results

I briefly review the numerical evidence, some old and some quite recent, in favor of the center vortex theory of confinement.
Log-linear approximation versus an exact solution at the ZLB in the New Keynesian model

Abstract How accurate is a log-linear approximation of the New Keynesian model when the nominal interest rate is bounded by zero? This paper compares the solution of the exact non-linear model to the log-linear approximation. It finds that the difference is modest for a common economic scenario. This applies even for extreme events in numerical experiments that replicate the U.S. Great Depression. The exact non-linear model makes the same predictions as the log-linear approximation for key policy questions such as the size and sign of government spending and tax multipliers. It also replicates well known paradoxes like the paradox of toil and the paradox of price flexibility. The paper also reconciles different findings reported in the literature using Calvo versus Rotemberg pricing.
BLOOD CONSERVATION: PRE-, PERI- AND POST-OPERATIVE STRATEGIES

Tranexamic acid (TXA) is an effective medication to limit blood loss and transfusion requirements in association with contemporary total joint arthroplasty. TXA is in a class of medications termed anti-fibrinolytics due to their action to limit the breakdown of a clot that has already been formed. It is useful to note that TXA does not promote the formation of a clot, it simply limits the breakdown of already established clots. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials of TXA use in total hip replacement demonstrated: 1) a substantial reduction in the proportion of patients who required transfusion and 2) no increase in DVT or PE. Similarly a recent Cochrane Database systematic review assessed Anti-fibrinolytic Use for Minimizing Perioperative Blood Transfusion and found tranexamic acid to be effective in reducing blood loss during and after surgery and to be free of serious adverse effects. In orthopaedic surgery, varying doses have been used over time. A pragmatic dosing approach for Total Knee and Total Hip patients has been used at the Mayo Clinic over the past 16 years: 1 gram IV over 10 minutes prior to incision (delivered at same time as pre-operative antibiotics) followed by 1 gram IV over 10 minutes at the time wound closure is initiated. Infusion rates greater than 100 mg/minute have been associated with hypotension and thus the recommendation for 1 gram over 10 minutes. A recent review of 1500 TKA patients at Mayo Clinic revealed a very low prevalence of clinically symptomatic DVT and PE when tranexamic acid was used with 3 different thromboembolic prophylaxis regimens (aspirin and foot pumps; coumadin; low molecular weight heparin). The safety of TXA for patients with coronary stents has not been fully clarified.
A Causal Framework for Discovering and Removing Direct and Indirect Discrimination

Anti-discrimination is an increasingly important task in data science. In this paper, we investigate the problem of discovering both direct and indirect discrimination from the historical data, and removing the discriminatory effects before the data is used for predictive analysis (e.g., building classifiers). We make use of the causal network to capture the causal structure of the data. Then we model direct and indirect discrimination as the path-specific effects, which explicitly distinguish the two types of discrimination as the causal effects transmitted along different paths in the network. Based on that, we propose an effective algorithm for discovering direct and indirect discrimination, as well as an algorithm for precisely removing both types of discrimination while retaining good data utility. Different from previous works, our approaches can ensure that the predictive models built from the modified data will not incur discrimination in decision making. Experiments using real datasets show the effectiveness of our approaches.
Generating machine-executable plans from end-user's natural-language instructions

Abstract It is critical for advanced manufacturing machines to autonomously execute a task by following an end-user's natural language (NL) instructions. However, NL instructions are usually ambiguous and abstract so that the machines may misunderstand and incorrectly execute the task. To address this NL-based human-machine communication problem and enable the machines to appropriately execute tasks by following the end-user's NL instructions, we developed a Machine-Executable-Plan-Generation (exePlan) method. The exePlan method conducts task-centered semantic analysis to extract task-related information from ambiguous NL instructions. In addition, the method specifies machine execution parameters to generate a machine-executable plan by interpreting abstract NL instructions. To evaluate the exePlan method, an industrial robot Baxter was instructed by NL to perform three types of industrial tasks {“drill a hole”, “clean a spot”, “install a screw”}. The experiment results proved that the exePlan method was effective in generating machine-executable plans from the end-user's NL instructions. Such a method has the promise to endow a machine with the ability of NL-instructed task execution.
Action Experience Drives Visual-Processing Biases Near the Hands:

Observers experience affordance-specific biases in visual processing for objects within the hands’ grasping space, but the mechanism that tunes visual cognition to facilitate action remains unknown. I investigated the hypothesis that altered vision near the hands is a result of experience-driven plasticity. Participants performed motion-detection and form-perception tasks—while their hands were either near the display, in atypical grasping postures, or positioned in their laps—both before and after learning novel grasp affordances. Participants showed enhanced temporal sensitivity for stimuli viewed near the backs of the hands after training to execute a power grasp using the backs of their hands (Experiment 1), but showed enhanced spatial sensitivity for stimuli viewed near the tips of their little fingers after training to use their little fingers to execute a precision grasp (Experiment 2). These results show that visual biases near the hands are plastic, facilitating processing of information relevant...
Late outcomes of adult survivors of childhood non-Hodgkin lymphoma: A report from the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study.

Background Survivors of childhood non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) are at increased risk for chronic health conditions. The objective of this study was to characterize health conditions, neurocognitive function, and physical performance among a clinically evaluated cohort of 200 childhood NHL survivors. Method Chronic health and neurocognitive conditions were graded as per a modified version of the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) and impaired physical function defined as performance < 10th percentile of normative data. Multivariable regression was used to investigate associations between sociodemographic characteristics, therapeutic exposures, and outcomes. Results Survivors were a median age of 10 years (range 1–19) at diagnosis and 34 years (range 20–58) at evaluation. Eighty-eight (44%) received radiation, 46 (23%) cranial radiation, and 69 (35%) high-dose methotrexate. Most prevalent CTCAE Grades 3–4 (severe life-threatening) conditions were obesity (35%), hypertension (9%), and impairment of executive function (13%), attention (9%), and memory (4%). Many had impaired strength (48%), flexibility (39%), muscular endurance (36%), and mobility (36%). Demographic and treatment-related factors were associated with the development of individual chronic diseases and functional deficits. Conclusions Clinical evaluation identified a high prevalence of chronic health conditions, neurocognitive deficits, and performance limitations in childhood NHL survivors.
Should Long-Term Investors Time Volatility?

Abstract A long-term investor who ignores variation in volatility gives up the equivalent of 2.4% of wealth per year. This result holds for a wide range of parameters that are consistent with US stock market data, and it is robust to estimation uncertainty. We propose and test a new channel, the volatility composition channel, for how investment horizon interacts with volatility timing. Investors respond substantially less to volatility variation if the amount of mean reversion in returns disproportionally increases with volatility and also if mean reversion happens quickly. We find that these conditions are unlikely to hold in the data.
Subspace projection method for unstructured searches with noisy quantum oracles using a signal-based quantum emulation device

This paper describes a novel approach to solving unstructured search problems using a classical, signal-based emulation of a quantum computer. The classical nature of the representation allows one to perform subspace projections in addition to the usual unitary gate operations. Although bandwidth requirements will limit the scale of problems that can be solved by this method, it can nevertheless provide a significant computational advantage for problems of limited size. In particular, we find that, for the same number of noisy oracle calls, the proposed subspace projection method provides a higher probability of success for finding a solution than does an single application of Grover's algorithm on the same device.
Solenoid transport for heavy ion fusion

Solenoid transport of high current, heavy ion beams is considered for several stages of a heavy ion fusion driver. In general, this option is more efficient than magnetic quadrupole transport at sufficiently low kinetic energy and/or large e/m, and for this reason it has been employed in electron induction linacs. Ideally, an ion beam would be transported in a state of Brillouin flow, i.e. cold in the transverse plane and spinning at one half the cyclotron frequency. The design of appropriate solenoids and the equilibrium and stability of transported ion beams are discussed. An outline of application to a fusion driver is also presented.
Multi-Task Multiple Kernel Relationship Learning.

This paper presents a novel multitask multiple kernel learning framework that efficiently learns the kernel weights leveraging the relationship across multiple tasks. The idea is to automatically infer this task relationship in the \textit{RKHS} space corresponding to the given base kernels. The problem is formulated as a regularization-based approach called \textit{Multi-Task Multiple Kernel Relationship Learning} (\textit{MK-MTRL}), which models the task relationship matrix from the weights learned from latent feature spaces of task-specific base kernels. Unlike in previous work, the proposed formulation allows one to incorporate prior knowledge for simultaneously learning several related tasks. We propose an alternating minimization algorithm to learn the model parameters, kernel weights and task relationship matrix. In order to tackle large-scale problems, we further propose a two-stage \textit{MK-MTRL} online learning algorithm and show that it significantly reduces the computational time, and also achieves performance comparable to that of the joint learning framework. Experimental results on benchmark datasets show that the proposed formulations outperform several state-of-the-art multitask learning methods.
INSTABILITY: MANAGING MULTIFACETED VARIABLES

Instability remains a common reason for revision after primary TKA. Careful preoperative examination is necessary to determine the exact direction of and reason for the instability. Radiographs and CT can be useful to evaluate component alignment and rotation. Obviously, ruling out concurrent infection should be a part of the routine preoperative workup. PCL insufficiency can be treated by conversion to a more “dished” insert if available, and all other component issues are acceptable. If dished inserts are not available, then revision to a posterior stabilised component can be effective. Flexion instability can occur with PCL substituting designs, and may require revision as well. Up-sizing, and posteriorising the femoral component (often requiring posterior augmentation) to tighten the flexion gap can be an effective strategy. With collateral ligament problems, so called CCK or “constrained” implants can be effective. While ligament advancement or augmentation techniques have been described, few surgeons are familiar with these techniques, and most “back up” such reconstructions with constrained implants. With more severe collateral ligament deficiencies, multi-directional instabilities, or massive flexion-extension gap mismatches, the use of so-called “hinged” implants can be effective. It is wise to have various levels of constraint available preoperatively when undertaking these challenging revisions.
The 2/3-Convergence Rate for the Poisson Bracket

In this paper we introduce a new method for approaching the C 0-rigidity results for the Poisson bracket. Using this method, we provide a different proof for the lower semi-continuity under C 0 perturbations, for the uniform norm of the Poisson bracket. We find the precise rate for the modulus of the semi-continuity. This extends the previous results of Cardin–Viterbo, Zapolsky, Entov and Polterovich. Using our method, we prove a C 0-rigidity result in the spirit of the work of Humiliere. We also discuss a general question of the C 0-rigidity for multilinear differential operators.
Rethinking Operational Risk Capital Requirements

Operational risk capital requirements represent a relative backwater of the Basel capital framework for banks. We examine both the existing Basel II framework and the latest Basel Committee proposals for reform and conclude that neither are effective in creating the incentives and loss absorbency to minimize negative externalities from operational risk events. We suggest an alternative approach that we believe would be much more effective in achieving the regulatory objectives. We do not offer a view on the amount of capital required, focusing instead on the methodology and structure of the capital requirement.
In situ structure of the Legionella Dot/Icm type IV secretion system by electron cryotomography

Type IV secretion systems (T4SSs) are large macromolecular machines that translocate protein and DNA and are involved in the pathogenesis of multiple human diseases. Here, using electron cryotomography (ECT), we report the in situ structure of the Dot/Icm type IVB secretion system (T4BSS) utilized by the human pathogen Legionella pneumophila. This is the first structure of a type IVB secretion system, and also the first structure of any T4SS in situ. While the Dot/Icm system shares almost no sequence similarity with type IVA secretion systems (T4ASSs), its overall structure is seen here to be remarkably similar to previously reported T4ASS structures (those encoded by the R388 plasmid in Escherichia coli and the cag pathogenicity island in Helicobacter pylori). This structural similarity suggests shared aspects of mechanism. However, compared to the negative‐stain reconstruction of the purified T4ASS from the R388 plasmid, the L. pneumophila Dot/Icm system is approximately twice as long and wide and exhibits several additional large densities, reflecting type‐specific elaborations and potentially better structural preservation in situ.
Privacy-preserving vehicle assignment for mobility-on-demand systems

Urban transportation is being transformed by mobility-on-demand (MoD) systems. One of the goals of MoD systems is to provide personalized transportation services to passengers. This process is facilitated by a centralized operator that coordinates the assignment of vehicles to individual passengers, based on location data. However, current approaches assume that accurate positioning information for passengers and vehicles is readily available. This assumption raises privacy concerns. In this work, we address this issue by proposing a method that protects passengers' drop-off locations (i.e., their travel destinations). Formally, we solve a batch assignment problem that routes vehicles at obfuscated origin locations to passenger locations (since origin locations correspond to previous drop-off locations), such that the mean waiting time is minimized. Our main contributions are two-fold. First, we formalize the notion of privacy for continuous vehicle-to-passenger assignment in MoD systems, and integrate a privacy mechanism that provides formal guarantees. Second, we present a polynomial-time iterative version of the Hungarian algorithm to allocate a redundant number of vehicles to a single passenger. This algorithm builds on the insight that even during peak rush hour there are unoccupied (redundant) traveling vehicles. This strategy allows us to reduce the performance deterioration induced by the privacy mechanism. In particular, it enables the exploration of the trade-off between privacy levels, waiting time, and deployed fleet size. We evaluate our methods on a real, large-scale data set consisting of over 11 million taxi rides (specifying vehicle availability and passenger requests), recorded over a month's duration, in the area of Manhattan, New York. Based on current traffic statistics, our evaluations indicate that privacy can be achieved without incurring a significant loss of performance, and that this loss can be further controlled by varying operator or user preferences.
Age-related reduction in the expression of FOXO transcription factors and correlations with intervertebral disc degeneration

Aging is a main risk factor for intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration, the main cause of low back pain. FOXO transcription factors are important regulators of tissue homeostasis and longevity. Here, we determined the expression pattern of FOXO in healthy and degenerated human IVD and the associations with IVD degeneration during mouse aging. FOXO expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry in normal and degenerated human IVD samples and in cervical and lumbar IVD from 6-, 12-, 24-, and 36-month-old C57BL/6J mice. Mouse spines were graded for key histological features of disc degeneration in all the time points and expression of two key FOXO downstream targets, sestrin 3 (SESN3) and superoxide dismutase (SOD2), was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Histological analysis revealed that FOXO proteins are expressed in all compartments of human and mouse IVD. Expression of FOXO1 and FOXO3, but not FOXO4, was significantly deceased in human degenerated discs. In mice, degenerative changes in the lumbar spine were seen at 24 and 36 months of age whereas cervical IVD showed increased histopathological scores at 36 months. FOXO expression was significantly reduced in lumbar IVD at 12-, 24-, and 36-month-old mice and in cervical IVD at 36-month-old mice when compared with the 6-month-old group. The reduction of FOXO expression in lumbar IVD was concomitant with a decrease in the expression of SESN3 and SOD2. These findings suggest that reduced FOXO expression occurs in lumbar IVD during aging and precedes the major histopathological changes associated with lumbar IVD degeneration. © 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res
Locating the External Source of Enforceability: Alliances, Bilateral Investment Treaties, and Foreign Direct Investment*

Objective We theorize that alliances play a role as an external source of enforceability of bilateral investment treaties (BITs), and they do this by limiting the policy opportunism in foreign direct investment (FDI) host countries. We attempt to demonstrate that being party to common BITs and common alliances substantially raises the accumulation of FDI. Methods Using econometric techniques including panel-corrected standard error, fixed effect, and dynamic pooled models, we analyze panel data on dyadic FDI stock from 1978 to 2003. Results We find that BITs increase FDI stock and that alliances magnify this positive effect of BITs by a substantial margin. Conclusion Being embedded in alliances strengthens the impact of BITs on FDI. This study contributes to the extant literature on the efficacy of BITs in particular and that on international institutions in general.
Hardware-Software Codesign of Accurate, Multiplier-free Deep Neural Networks

While Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) push the state-of-the-art in many machine learning applications, they often require millions of expensive floating-point operations for each input classification. This computation overhead limits the applicability of DNNs to low-power, embedded platforms and incurs high cost in data centers. This motivates recent interests in designing low-power, low-latency DNNs based on fixed-point, ternary, or even binary data precision. While recent works in this area offer promising results, they often lead to large accuracy drops when compared to the floating-point networks. We propose a novel approach to map floating-point based DNNs to 8-bit dynamic fixed-point networks with integer power-of-two weights with no change in network architecture. Our dynamic fixed-point DNNs allow different radix points between layers. During inference, power-of-two weights allow multiplications to be replaced with arithmetic shifts, while the 8-bit fixed-point representation simplifies both the buffer and adder design. In addition, we propose a hardware accelerator design to achieve low-power, low-latency inference with insignificant degradation in accuracy. Using our custom accelerator design with the CIFAR-10 and ImageNet datasets, we show that our method achieves significant power and energy savings while increasing the classification accuracy.
Rigidity of circle polyhedra in the 2-sphere and of hyperideal polyhedra in hyperbolic 3-space

We generalize Cauchy's celebrated theorem on the global rigidity of convex polyhedra in Euclidean $3$-space $\mathbb{E}^{3}$ to the context of circle polyhedra in the $2$-sphere $\mathbb{S}^{2}$. We prove that any two convex and proper non-unitary c-polyhedra with Mobius-congruent faces that are consistently oriented are Mobius-congruent. Our result implies the global rigidity of convex inversive distance circle packings in the Riemann sphere as well as that of certain hyperideal hyperbolic polyhedra in $\mathbb{H}^{3}$.
A Study of Homophily on Social Media

Similarity breeds connections, the principle of homophily, has been well studied in existing sociology literature. Several studies have observed this phenomenon by conducting surveys on human subjects. These stud ies have concluded that new ties are formed between similar individuals. This phenomenon has been used to explain several socio-psvchological concepts such as segregation, community development, social mobility, etc. However, due to the nature of these studies and limitations because of involvement of human subjects, conclusions from these studies are not easily extensible in online social media. Social media, which is becoming the infinite space for interactions, has exceeded all the expectations in terms of growth, for reasons beyond human comprehension. New ties are formed in social media in the same way that they emerge in the real world. However, given the differences between real-world and online social media, do the same factors that govern the construction of new ties in the real world also govern the construction of new ties in social media? In other words, does homophily exist in social media? In this chapter, the authors study this highly significant question and propose a systematic approach by studying two online social media sites, BlogCatalog and Last.fm, and report our findings along with some interesting observations.
Counting arcs in projective planes via Glynn’s algorithm

An n-arc in a projective plane is a collection of n distinct points in the plane, no three of which lie on a line. Formulas counting the number of n-arcs in any finite projective plane of order q are known for $$n \le 8$$ . In 1995, Iampolskaia, Skorobogatov, and Sorokin counted 9-arcs in the projective plane over a finite field of order q and showed that this count is a quasipolynomial function of q. We present a formula for the number of 9-arcs in any projective plane of order q, even those that are non-Desarguesian, deriving Iampolskaia, Skorobogatov, and Sorokin’s formula as a special case. We obtain our formula from a new implementation of an algorithm due to Glynn; we give details of our implementation and discuss its consequences for larger arcs.
Surfing surface gravity waves

A simple criterion for water particles to surf an underlying surface gravity wave is presented. It is found that particles travelling near the phase speed of the wave, in a geometrically confined region on the forward face of the crest, increase in speed. The criterion is derived using the equation of John (Commun. Pure Appl. Maths, vol. 6, 1953, pp. 497–503) for the motion of a zero-stress free surface under the action of gravity. As an example, a breaking water wave is theoretically and numerically examined. Implications for upper-ocean processes, for both shallow- and deep-water waves, are discussed.
Suboptimal Control Laws of Markov Chains: A Stochastic Approximation Approach

Abstract This paper is concerned with a stochastic approximation algorithm for estimating the optimal control law of an average-cost problem of a finite-state controlled Markov chain, while the values of transition probabilities are unknown. Assuming that the state sequence of the Markov chain is completely observable, we prove that the sequence of control laws generated by the algorithm and depending on the state sequence is convergent to a small compact neighborhood of the optimal control law with probability one by using weak convergence technique.
Discrete Direct Multivariable Adaptive Control

Abstract Direct multivariable model reference adaptive control (DMMRAC) procedures have been successfully used in continuous-time systems. Previous discrete versions of the algorithm required apriori knowledge of a stabilizing feedback gain matrix for the controlled plant and also an estimate of the ideal model following control in order to guarantee a bounded output tracking error. In this paper a discrete version of the DMMRAC algorithm is shown to guarantee stability of the adaptive system as well as asymptotically perfect output model following provided that the system satisfies a positive realness condition. No a priori information is needed for implementation.
SREPT: software reliability estimation and prediction tool

Abstract Several tools have been developed for the estimation of software reliability. However, they are highly specialized in the approaches they implement and the particular phase of the software life-cycle in which they are applicable. There is an increasing need for a tool that can be used to track the quality of a software product during the software life-cycle, right from the architectural phase all the way up to the operational phase of the software. Also the conventional techniques for software reliability evaluation, which treat the software as a monolithic entity, are inadequate to assess the reliability of heterogeneous systems, which consist of a large number of globally distributed components. Architecture-based approaches are essential to assess the reliability and performance of such systems. This paper presents the high-level design of a software reliability estimation and prediction tool (SREPT), that offers a unified framework consisting of techniques (including the architecture-based approach) to assist in the evaluation of software reliability during all phases of the software life-cycle.
Reflex Control of Renal Salt and Water Excretion

• The regulation of renal salt and water excretion by the kidneys involves both intrarenal and extrarenal mechanisms. These systems play a pivotal role in the regulation of body fluid volume. An understanding of their operation is important in the treatment of many disease states. The normal operation of these control mechanisms is reviewed. ( Arch Intern Med 1983;143:129-132)
Captopril Renography in Two Kidney and One Kidney Goldblatt Hypertension in Dogs

hypertension, captopril(1.5 mg/kgboluswith 1.5 mg/ mminfusion)reducedmeanarterial pressure(MAP)and ipsilateralglomerularfiltration rate (GFR)without changesin the contralateralkidney. Captoprilinfusionresulted in alterationsin boththe[@â€œTc]DTPA and[1311]hippuran studies,whichweremostevidentinthe 15-mm [@â€˜Tc]DTPA renal flow studies. In one-kidney, one-clip (volume-dependent) hypertension, captoprilreducedMAPbutdidnotalterGFR,renalplasmaflow,or theradionuclide studies. Thesestudies suggest that the [@â€œTc]DTPA renalflow study coupledwith captopril challenge may unmaskintrarenalangiotensinIl-dependentfunctionaland hemodynamicchangesof the stenotic kidney, and offers promisein the detection of renin-dependenthypertension.