cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Synthesis of the C16-C28 spiroketal subunit of spongistatin 1 (altohyrtin A): the pyrone approach.

The synthesis of the CD spiroketal fragment of spongistatin 1 (altohyrtin A) has been accomplished utilizing the addition of a metalated pyrone to an aldehyde and subsequent acid-catalyzed spirocyclization. A stereoselective hydrogenation and subsequent conformational inversion establish the C19 stereocenter and the axial−equatorial spiroketal center.
Radical additions to allyl bromides. A synthetically useful, ‘Tin-Free’ method for carbon–carbon bond formation

Abstract The scope and limitations of a novel free radical chain process involving the addition of benzyl radicals to substituted allyl bromides were examined and extended to explore the effect of α-substitution on the allyl bromide (R′), and the use of pyrrolidine amides and oxazolidinone as activating substituents (Z) as the first steps toward the development of a stereoselective, radical-based C–C bond-forming reaction which is environmentally benign.
The histology of Nanomia bijuga (Hydrozoa: Siphonophora)

The siphonophore Nanomia bijuga is a pelagic hydrozoan (Cnidaria) with complex morphological organization. Each siphonophore is made up of many asexually produced, genetically identical zooids that are functionally specialized and morphologically distinct. These zooids predominantly arise by budding in two growth zones, and are arranged in precise patterns. This study describes the cellular anatomy of several zooid types, the stem, and the gas-filled float, called the pneumatophore. The distribution of cellular morphologies across zooid types enhances our understanding of zooid function. The unique absorptive cells in the palpon, for example, indicate specialized intracellular digestive processing in this zooid type. Though cnidarians are usually thought of as mono-epithelial, we characterize at least two cellular populations in this species which are not connected to a basement membrane. This work provides a greater understanding of epithelial diversity within the cnidarians, and will be a foundation for future studies on N. bijuga, including functional assays and gene expression analyses.
Physical activity unveils the relationship between mitochondrial energetics, muscle quality, and physical function in older adults

Background The concept of mitochondrial dysfunction in ageing muscle is highly controversial. In addition, emerging evidence suggests that reduced muscle oxidative capacity and efficiency underlie the aetiology of mobility loss in older adults. Here, we hypothesized that studying well-phenotyped older cohorts across a wide range of physical activity would unveil a range of mitochondrial function in skeletal muscle and in turn allow us to more clearly examine the impact of age per se on mitochondrial energetics. This also enabled us to more clearly define the relationships between mitochondrial energetics and muscle lipid content with clinically relevant assessments of muscle and physical function. Methods Thirty-nine volunteers were recruited to the following study groups: young active (YA, n = 2 women/8 men, age = 31.2 ± 5.4 years), older active (OA, n = 2 women/8 men, age = 67.5 ± 2.7 years), and older sedentary (OS, n = 8 women/11 men, age = 70.7 ± 4.7 years). Participants completed a graded exercise test to determine fitness (VO2 peak), a submaximal exercise test to determine exercise efficiency, and daily physical activity was recorded using a tri-axial armband accelerometer. Mitochondrial energetics were determined by (i) 31 P magnetic resonance spectroscopy and (ii) respirometry of fibre bundles from vastus lateralis biopsies. Quadriceps function was assessed by isokinetic dynamometry and physical function by the short physical performance battery and stair climb test. Results Daily physical activity energy expenditure was significantly lower in OS, compared with YA and OA groups. Despite fitness being higher in YA compared with OA and OS, mitochondrial respiration, maximum mitochondrial capacity, Maximal ATP production/Oxygen consumption (P/O) ratio, and exercise efficiency were similar in YA and OA groups and were significantly lower in OS. P/O ratio was correlated with exercise efficiency. Time to complete the stair climb and repeated chair stand tests were significantly greater for OS. Interestingly, maximum mitochondrial capacity was related to muscle contractile performance and physical function. Conclusions Older adults who maintain a high amount of physical activity have better mitochondrial capacity, similar to highly active younger adults, and this is related to their better muscle quality, exercise efficiency, and physical performance. This suggests that mitochondria could be an important therapeutic target for sedentary ageing associated conditions including sarcopenia, dynapenia, and loss of physical function.
Palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of pyrrole anions with aryl chlorides, bromides, and iodides.

A general method for the conversion of pyrrole anions to 2-arylpyrroles has been developed. Using a palladium precatalyst and sterically demanding 2-(dialkylphosphino)biphenyl ligands, (pyrrolyl)zinc chloride may be cross-coupled with a wide range of aryl halides, including aryl chlorides and aryl bromides, at low catalyst loadings and under mild conditions. A high degree of steric hindrance is tolerated. Certain ring-substituted pyrrole anions have also been arylated with aryl bromide substrates.
Repurposing tofacitinib as an anti-myeloma therapeutic to reverse growth-promoting effects of the bone marrow microenvironment

The myeloma bone marrow microenvironment promotes proliferation of malignant plasma cells and resistance to therapy. Activation of JAK/STAT signaling is thought to be a central component of these microenvironment-induced phenotypes. In a prior drug repurposing screen, we identified tofacitinib, a pan-JAK inhibitor Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for rheumatoid arthritis, as an agent that may reverse the tumor-stimulating effects of bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells. Herein, we validated in vitro, in stromal-responsive human myeloma cell lines, and in vivo, in orthotopic disseminated xenograft models of myeloma, that tofacitinib showed efficacy in myeloma models. Furthermore, tofacitinib strongly synergized with venetoclax in coculture with bone marrow stromal cells but not in monoculture. Surprisingly, we found that ruxolitinib, an FDA approved agent targeting JAK1 and JAK2, did not lead to the same anti-myeloma effects. Combination with a novel irreversible JAK3-selective inhibitor also did not enhance ruxolitinib effects. Transcriptome analysis and unbiased phosphoproteomics revealed that bone marrow stromal cells stimulate a JAK/STAT-mediated proliferative program in myeloma cells, and tofacitinib reversed the large majority of these pro-growth signals. Taken together, our results suggest that tofacitinib reverses the growth-promoting effects of the tumor microenvironment. As tofacitinib is already FDA approved, these results can be rapidly translated into potential clinical benefits for myeloma patients.
Convenient, in Situ Generation of Anhydrous Hydrogen Iodide for the Preparation of α-Glycosyl Iodides and Vicinal Iodohydrins and for the Catalysis of Ferrier Glycosylation

Anhydrous hydrogen iodide is generated in situ by the reaction of solid iodine and a thiol. The HI thus generated has been employed for the efficient preparation of α-glycosyl iodides and vicinal i...
Synthesis, Structural Analysis, and Superconductivity of BaxV6S8

A nonstoichiometric ternary vanadium sulfide, BaxV6S8 (x = 0.41−0.48), was synthesized. This solid-state compound crystallizes in the hexagonal space group P63/m (no. 176) with a = 9.2080(3) A, c = 3.3169(2) A, V = 243.55(2) A3, and Z = 1. The structure of this solid is similar to that of its parent compound V3S4, consisting of face-sharing, distorted octahedral VS6 units. A superconducting transition of the solid at approximately 2.5 K was observed. A computational analysis of the electronic structure using the extended Huckel method is presented.
Biginelli reaction in aqueous medium: a greener and sustainable approach to substituted 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones

Abstract An environmentally benign aqueous Biginelli protocol for the synthesis of substituted 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones using polystyrenesulfonic acid (PSSA) as a catalyst has been achieved. These microwave-assisted reactions proceed efficiently in water in the absence of organic solvent, with simple filtration as the product isolation step.
Microfluidic on-demand engineering of exosomes towards cancer immunotherapy

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), particularly exosomes (30–150 nm), are an emerging delivery system in mediating cellular communications, which have been observed for priming immune responses by presenting parent cell signaling proteins or tumor antigens to immune cells. Therefore, preparation of antigenic exosomes that can play therapeutic roles, particularly in cancer immunotherapy, is emerging. However, standard benchtop methods (e.g., ultracentrifugation and filtration) lack the ability to purify antigenic exosomes specifically among other microvesicle subtypes, due to the non-selective and time-consuming (>10 h) isolation protocols. Exosome engineering approaches, such as the transfection of parent cells, also suffer from poor yields, low purity, and time-consuming operations. In this paper, we introduce a streamlined microfluidic cell culture platform for integration of harvesting, antigenic modification, and photo-release of surface engineered exosomes in one workflow, which enables the production of intact, MHC peptide surface engineered exosomes for cytolysis activation. A PDMS microfluidic cell culture chip is simply cast from a 3D-printed mold. This proof-of-concept study demonstrated the enhanced ability of harvested exosomes in antigen presentation and T cell activation, by decorating melanoma tumor peptides on the exosome surface (e.g., gp-100, MART-1, and MAGE-A3). Such surface engineered antigenic exosomes were harvested in real-time from the on-chip culture of leukocytes isolated from human blood, leading to much faster cellular uptake. The activation of gp100-specific CD8 T cells which were purified from the spleen of 2 Pmel1 transgenic mice was evaluated using surface engineered exosomes prepared from murine antigen presenting cells. Antigen-specific CD8 T cell proliferation was significantly induced by the engineered exosomes compared to that by native, non-engineered exosomes. This microfluidic platform serves as an automated and highly integrated cell culture device for rapid and real-time production of therapeutic exosomes that could advance cancer immunotherapy.
The stereoselective synthesis of (E)-octafluoro-1,3,5-hexatriene and (3E,5E,7E)-dodecafluoro-1,3,5,7,9-decapentaene

Abstract (E)-(1,2-Difluoro-1,2-ethenediyl)bis[tributylstannane], 3, readily undergoes a Pd(PPh3)4/CuI-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction with iodotrifluoroethene to yield (E)-octafluoro-1,3,5-hexatriene, 4, in high isomeric purity. (1Z,3E,5Z)-(1,2,3,4,5,6-Hexafluoro-1,3,5-hexenetriyl)bis[tributylstannane], 7, was sequentially prepared from (1Z,3E,5Z)-(1,2,3,4,5,6-hexafluoro-1,3,5-hexenetriyl)bis[triethylsilane], 5, which was prepared via a Pd(PPh3)4/CuI-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction of 3 with (E)-1,2-difluoro-1-iodo-2-triethylsilylethene, 6. Pd(PPh3)4/CuI cross-coupling of 7 with iodotrifluoroethene gave (3E,5E,7E)-dodecafluoro-1,3,5,7,9-decapentaene, 8.
Synthesis and characterization of a diaziridinium ion. Conversion of 3,4-dihydroisoquinolines to 4,5-dihydro-3H-benzo[2,3]diazepines via a formal N-insertion process

Abstract A diaziridinium ion has been synthesized in high yield and its structure unambiguously confirmed by X-ray crystal analysis. The predicted N-transfer reactivity with olefins of this species was not observed. Instead, upon heating, the diaziridinium ion underwent ring opening to produce a dihydrobenzodiazepene product in good yield, thus achieving a formal N-insertion of the starting dihydroisoquinoline substrate. This process has been demonstrated on 11 total substrates.
Terpyridine Ruthenium-Catalyzed One-Pot Conversion of Aldehydes into Amides

TerpyRu(PPh3)Cl2 is an efficient catalyst for rearranging aldoximes to amides without the need for chelating phosphines or additives as in prior examples. The catalyst is also useful in converting aldehydes into amides in a one-pot process using NaHCO3 as an additive. A mechanism involving nucleophilic attack of deprotonated oxime on an adjacent nitrile is suggested.
metamicrobiomeR: an R package for analysis of microbiome relative abundance data using zero-inflated beta GAMLSS and meta-analysis across studies using random effects models

The rapid growth of high-throughput sequencing-based microbiome profiling has yielded tremendous insights into human health and physiology. Data generated from high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons are often preprocessed into composition or relative abundance. However, reproducibility has been lacking due to the myriad of different experimental and computational approaches taken in these studies. Microbiome studies may report varying results on the same topic, therefore, meta-analyses examining different microbiome studies to provide consistent and robust results are important. So far, there is still a lack of implemented methods to properly examine differential relative abundances of microbial taxonomies and to perform meta-analysis examining the heterogeneity and overall effects across microbiome studies. We developed an R package ‘metamicrobiomeR’ that applies Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) with a zero-inflated beta (BEZI) family (GAMLSS-BEZI) for analysis of microbiome relative abundance datasets. Both simulation studies and application to real microbiome data demonstrate that GAMLSS-BEZI well performs in testing differential relative abundances of microbial taxonomies. Importantly, the estimates from GAMLSS-BEZI are log (odds ratio) of relative abundances between comparison groups and thus are analogous between microbiome studies. As such, we also apply random effects meta-analysis models to pool estimates and their standard errors across microbiome studies. We demonstrate the meta-analysis examples and highlight the utility of our package on four studies comparing gut microbiomes between male and female infants in the first six months of life. GAMLSS-BEZI allows proper examination of microbiome relative abundance data. Random effects meta-analysis models can be directly applied to pool comparable estimates and their standard errors to evaluate the overall effects and heterogeneity across microbiome studies. The examples and workflow using our ‘metamicrobiomeR’ package are reproducible and applicable for the analyses and meta-analyses of other microbiome studies.
Selection of topically applied non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for oral cancer chemoprevention

746 Topical delivery of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs through the oral mucosa has been used for oral cancer chemoprevention. Local permeability of these agents is one of the major concerns. Here we propose an approach to predict the permeability of topically applied agents for oral cancer chemoprevention. There are two routes of drug transport into the oral mucosa, paracellular and transcellular, with the paracellular route being the major one. Absorption of the topically applied agents into the oral mucosa is a process of passive diffusion. In theory, the total flux through the oral mucosa (J max ) can be estimated by adding the transcellular flux (J TC ) and the paracellular flux (J PC ). To target the Cox-2 enzyme in oral epithelial cells, it is desirable to maximize the theoretical activity index, the ratio of J TC to IC 50 of a Cox-2 inhibitor (J TC /IC 50-Cox-2 ) . Since we are unable to calculate J TC of a drug in oral mucosa, skin J max was calculated with aqueous solubility and log P , which are predicted by the ACD Suite (Version 8.0, Advanced Chemical Development Inc., Toronto, Canada). Theoretical activity indices were then calculated based on the IC 50 values in the literature. Among the 12 commonly used drugs, celecoxib, nimesulide and ibuprofen had the highest theoretical activity indices, and may be the agents of choice to target Cox-2 in oral epithelial cells through topical application. Based on these calculations, a long-term chemopreventive experiment using celecoxib (3% or 6%) through topical application was performed in a DMBA-induced hamster oral cancer model. Both 3% and 6% reduced the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma at the post-initiation stage. Such a cancer preventive effect was correlated with inhibition of prostaglandin E 2 biosynthesis. (Supported by NIH grant CA101235)
Challenges Facing Genetics and Materialism

There are under-appreciated, serious behavioral challenges to science’s understanding of life and its DNA-basis. The general problem facing the DNA model, though, has been the inability to identify the DNA origins of many heritable characteristics. This brief commentary will introduce the missing heritability situation and then go on to detail a few behavioral challenges.
Uncoupling of p97 ATPase activity has a dominant negative effect on protein extraction

p97 is a highly abundant, homohexameric AAA+ ATPase that performs a variety of essential cellular functions. Characterized as a ubiquitin-selective chaperone, p97 recognizes proteins conjugated to K48-linked polyubiquitin chains and promotes their removal from chromatin and other molecular complexes. Changes in p97 expression or activity are associated with the development of cancer and several related neurodegenerative disorders. Although pathogenic p97 mutations cluster in and around p97's ATPase domains, mutant proteins display normal or elevated ATPase activity. Here, we show that one of the most common p97 mutations (R155C) retains ATPase activity, but is functionally defective. p97-R155C can be recruited to ubiquitinated substrates on chromatin, but is unable to promote substrate removal. As a result, p97-R155C acts as a dominant negative, blocking protein extraction by a similar mechanism to that observed when p97's ATPase activity is inhibited or inactivated. However, unlike ATPase-deficient proteins, p97-R155C consumes excess ATP, which can hinder high-energy processes. Together, our results shed new insight into how pathogenic mutations in p97 alter its cellular function, with implications for understanding the etiology and treatment of p97-associated diseases.
Singularities of Secant Varieties

We study the singularities of the secant variety $\Sigma(X,L)$ associated to a smooth variety $X$ embedded by a sufficiently positive adjoint bundle $L$. We show that $\Sigma(X,L)$ is always Du Bois singular. Examples of secant varieties with worse singularities when $L$ has weak positivity are provided. We also give a necessary and sufficient condition for $\Sigma(X, L)$ to have rational singularities.
Casting a shadow: Productivity of formal firms and informality

Using firm-level survey data for a large cross section of countries, the paper assesses the gap in labor productivity between formal and informal firms in developing countries for which comparable data are available. It also investigates the impact of competition from informal firms on the labor productivity of formal firms. The results show that on average, the labor productivity of informal firms is about one-fourth that of formal firms. Moreover, the labor productivity of formal firms that face competition from informal firms is about 75 percent of the average labor productivity of formal firms that do not experience informal competition. This suggests that competition from the informal sector can erode formal firms' market share and the resources available to boost productivity where formal firms shoulder the additional cost of regulatory compliance. These findings are robust to a range of firm and country characteristics as well as checks for endogeneity concerns.
Stability inequalities and universal Schubert calculus of rank 2

The goal of the paper is to introduce a version of Schubert calculus for each dihedral reflection group W. That is, to each “sufficiently rich” spherical building Y of type W we associate a certain cohomology theory \( H_{BK}^*(Y) \) and verify that, first, it depends only on W (i.e., all such buildings are “homotopy equivalent”), and second, \( H_{BK}^*(Y) \) is the associated graded of the coinvariant algebra of W under certain filtration. We also construct the dual homology “pre-ring” on Y. The convex “stability” cones in \( {\left( {{\mathbb{R}^2}} \right)^m} \) defined via these (co)homology theories of Y are then shown to solve the problem of classifying weighted semistable m-tuples on Y in the sense of [KLM1]; equivalently, they are cut out by the generalized triangle inequalities for thick Euclidean buildings with the Tits boundary Y. The independence of the (co)homology theory of Y refines the result of [KLM2], which asserted that the Stability Cone depends on W rather than on Y. Quite remarkably, the cohomology ring \( H_{BK}^*(Y) \) is obtained from a certain universal algebra At by a kind of “crystal limit” that has been previously introduced by Belkale–Kumar for the cohomology of ag varieties and Grassmannians. Another degeneration of At leads to the homology theory H*(Y).
On the Control of Fork-Join Networks

Networks in which the processing of jobs occurs both sequentially and in parallel are prevalent in many application domains, such as computer systems, healthcare, manufacturing, and project managem...
Equivalence checking by logic relaxation

We introduce a new framework for Equivalence Checking (EC) of Boolean circuits based on a general technique called Logic Relaxation (LoR). LoR is meant for checking if a propositional formula G has only “good” satisfying assignments specified by a design property. The essence of LoR is to relax G into a formula Grlx and compute a set S that contains all assignments that satisfy Grlx but do not satisfy G. If all bad satisfying assignments are in S, formula G can have only good ones and the design property in question holds. Set S is built by a procedure called partial quantifier elimination. The appeal of EC by LoR is twofold. First, it facilitates generation of powerful inductive proofs. Second, proving inequiv-alence comes down to checking the existence of some assignments satisfying Grlx i.e. a simpler version of the original formula. We give experimental evidence that supports our approach.
An overview of periodic elliptic operators

The article surveys the main techniques and results of the spectral theory of periodic operators arising in mathematical physics and other areas. Close attention is paid to studying analytic properties of Bloch and Fermi varieties, which influence significantly most properties of such operators. The approaches described are applicable not only to the standard model example of Schrodinger operator with periodic electric potential −∆ + V (x), but to a wide variety of elliptic periodic equations and systems, equations on graphs, ∂-operator, and other operators on abelian coverings of compact bases. Many important applications are mentioned. However, due to the size restrictions, they are not dealt with in details.
Convex relaxation for mixed-integer optimal power flow problems

Recent years have witnessed the success of employing convex relaxations of the AC optimal power flow (OPF) problem to find global or near-global optimal solutions. The majority of the effort has focused on solving problem formulations where variables live in continuous spaces. Our focus here is in the extension of these results to the co-optimization of network topology and the OPF problem. We employ binary variables to model topology reconfiguration in the standard semidefinite programming (SDP) formulation of the OPF problem. This makes the problem non-convex, not only because the variables are binary, but also because of the presence of bilinear products between the binary and other continuous variables. Our proposed convex relaxation to this problem incorporates the bilinear terms in a novel way that improves over the commonly used McCormick approximation. We also address the exponential complexity associated with the discrete variables by partitioning the network graph in a way that minimizes the impact on the optimal value of the relaxation. As a result, the problem is broken down into several parallel mixed-integer problems, reducing the overall computational complexity. Simulations in the IEEE 118-bus test case demonstrate that our approach converges to solutions which are very close to the lower bound of the mixed-integer OPF problem.
Schur flexibility of cominuscule Schubert varieties

Let X=G/P be cominuscule rational homogeneous variety. (Equivalently, X admits the structure of a compact Hermitian symmetric space.) We say a Schubert class [S] is Schur rigid if the only irreducible subvarieties Y of X with homology class [Y] = r [S], for an integer r, are Schubert varieties. Robles and The identified a sufficient condition for a Schubert class to be Schur rigid. In this paper we show that the condition is also necessary.
Data Programming: Creating Large Training Sets, Quickly

Large labeled training sets are the critical building blocks of supervised learning methods and are key enablers of deep learning techniques. For some applications, creating labeled training sets is the most time-consuming and expensive part of applying machine learning. We therefore propose a paradigm for the programmatic creation of training sets called data programming in which users provide a set of labeling functions, which are programs that heuristically label subsets of the data, but that are noisy and may conflict. By viewing these labeling functions as implicitly describing a generative model for this noise, we show that we can recover the parameters of this model to "denoise" the generated training set, and establish theoretically that we can recover the parameters of these generative models in a handful of settings. We then show how to modify a discriminative loss function to make it noise-aware, and demonstrate our method over a range of discriminative models including logistic regression and LSTMs. Experimentally, on the 2014 TAC-KBP Slot Filling challenge, we show that data programming would have led to a new winning score, and also show that applying data programming to an LSTM model leads to a TAC-KBP score almost 6 F1 points over a state-of-the-art LSTM baseline (and into second place in the competition). Additionally, in initial user studies we observed that data programming may be an easier way for non-experts to create machine learning models when training data is limited or unavailable.
DeformNet: Free-Form Deformation Network for 3D Shape Reconstruction from a Single Image

3D reconstruction from a single image is a key problem in multiple applications ranging from robotic manipulation to augmented reality. Prior methods have tackled this problem through generative models which predict 3D reconstructions as voxels or point clouds. However, these methods can be computationally expensive and miss fine details. We introduce a new differentiable layer for 3D data deformation and use it in DEFORMNET to learn a model for 3D reconstruction-through-deformation. DEFORMNET takes an image input, finds a nearest shape template from a database, and deforms the template to match the query image. We evaluate our approach on the ShapeNet dataset and show that - (a) the Free-Form Deformation layer is a powerful new building block for Deep Learning models that manipulate 3D data (b) DEFORMNET uses this FFD layer combined with shape retrieval for smooth and detail-preserving 3D reconstruction of qualitatively plausible point clouds with respect to a single query image (c) compared to other state-of-the-art 3D reconstruction methods, DEFORMNET quantitatively matches or outperforms their benchmarks by significant margins.
List Decoding Group Homomorphisms Between Supersolvable Groups

We show that the set of homomorphisms between two supersolvable groups can be locally list decoded up to the minimum distance of the code, extending the results of Dinur et al. (Proc. STOC 2008) who studied the case where the groups are abelian. Moreover, when specialized to the abelian case, our proof is more streamlined and gives a better constant in the exponent of the list size. The constant is improved from about 3.5 million to 105.
Complete submodularity characterization in the comparative independent cascade model

Abstract We study the propagation of comparative ideas or items in social networks. A full characterization for submodularity in the comparative independent cascade (Com-IC) model of two-idea cascade is given, for competing ideas and complementary ideas respectively, with or without reconsideration. We further introduce One-Shot model where agents show less patience toward ideas, and show that in One-Shot model, only the strongest idea spreads with submodularity.
Modeling Interpersonal Influence of Verbal Behavior in Couples Therapy Dyadic Interactions.

Dyadic interactions among humans are marked by speakers continuously influencing and reacting to each other in terms of responses and behaviors, among others. Understanding how interpersonal dynamics affect behavior is important for successful treatment in psychotherapy domains. Traditional schemes that automatically identify behavior for this purpose have often looked at only the target speaker. In this work, we propose a Markov model of how a target speaker's behavior is influenced by their own past behavior as well as their perception of their partner's behavior, based on lexical features. Apart from incorporating additional potentially useful information, our model can also control the degree to which the partner affects the target speaker. We evaluate our proposed model on the task of classifying Negative behavior in Couples Therapy and show that it is more accurate than the single-speaker model. Furthermore, we investigate the degree to which the optimal influence relates to how well a couple does on the long-term, via relating to relationship outcomes
Generalized Likelihood Ratio Statistics and Uncertainty Adjustments in Efficient Adaptive Design of Clinical Trials

Abstract A new approach to adaptive design of clinical trials is proposed in a general multiparameter exponential family setting, based on generalized likelihood ratio statistics and optimal sequential testing theory. These designs are easy to implement, maintain the prescribed Type I error probability, and are asymptotically efficient. Practical issues involved in clinical trials allowing mid-course adaptation and the large literature on this subject are discussed, and comparisons between the proposed and existing designs are presented in extensive simulation studies of their finite-sample performance, measured in terms of the expected sample size and power functions.
A Critique of Dyadic Design

Dyadic research designs concern data that comprise interactions among actors. They are, without a doubt, the most frequent designs employed in the empirical analysis of international politics. But what do such designs carry with them in terms of theoretical claims and statistical problems? These two issues closely intertwine. When testing hypotheses empirically, the statistical model must be a careful operationalization of the theory under consideration. Given that the theoretical and statistical cannot be separated, we discuss dyadic research designs from these two perspectives. We highlight problems of model misspecification, erroneous assumptions about the independence of events, artificial levels of analysis, and the incoherent treatment of multilateral/multiparty events on the theoretical side. On the statistical side, we stress difficult-to-escape challenges to valid inference.
Typically bounding torsion

Abstract We formulate the notion of typical boundedness of torsion on a family of abelian varieties defined over number fields. This means that the torsion subgroups of elements in the family can be made uniformly bounded by removing from the family all abelian varieties defined over number fields of degree lying in a set of arbitrarily small density. We show that for each fixed g, torsion is typically bounded on the family of all g-dimensional CM abelian varieties. We show that torsion is not typically bounded on the family of all elliptic curves, and we establish results – some unconditional and some conditional – on typical boundedness of torsion of elliptic curves for which the degree of the j-invariant is fixed.
A model‐based approach for analog spatio‐temporal dynamic forecasting

Analog forecasting has been applied in a variety of fields for predicting future states of complex nonlinear systems that require flexible forecasting methods. Past analog methods have almost exclusively been used in an empirical framework without the structure of a model-based approach. We propose a Bayesian model framework for analog forecasting, building upon previous analog methods but accounting for parameter uncertainty. Thus, unlike traditional analog forecasting methods, the use of Bayesian modeling allows one to rigorously quantify uncertainty to obtain realistic posterior predictive distributions. The model is applied to the long-lead time forecasting of mid-May averaged soil moisture anomalies in Iowa over a high-resolution grid of spatial locations. Sea surface temperature is used to find past time periods with similar trajectories to the current pre-forecast period. The analog model is developed on projection coefficients from a basis expansion of the soil moisture and sea surface temperature fields. Separate models are constructed for locations falling in each Iowa Crop Reporting District, and the forecasting ability of the proposed model is compared against a variety of alternative methods and metrics. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Proof of the main conjecture in Vinogradov’s Mean Value Theorem for degrees higher than three

We prove the main conjecture in Vinogradov's Mean Value Theorem for degrees higher than three. This will be a consequence of a sharp decoupling inequality for curves
Phaseless super-resolution in the continuous domain

Phaseless super-resolution refers to the problem of super-resolving a signal from only its low-frequency Fourier magnitude measurements. In this paper, we consider the phaseless super-resolution problem of recovering a sum of sparse Dirac delta functions which can be located anywhere in the continuous time-domain. For such signals in the continuous domain, we propose a novel Semidefinite Programming (SDP) based signal recovery method to achieve the phaseless super-resolution. This work extends the recent work of Jaganathan et al. [1], which considered phaseless super-resolution for discrete signals on the grid.
Geometric framework for modeling nonlinear flows in porous media, and its applications in engineering

Abstract Our work is focused on certain theoretical aspects of non-linear non-Darcy flows in porous media, and their application in reservoir and hydraulic engineering. The goal of this paper is to develop a mathematically rigorous framework to study the dynamical processes associated to nonlinear Forchheimer flows for slightly compressible fluids. Using fundamental geometric methods, we have proved the existence of a nonlinear scaling operator which relates constant mean curvature surfaces and time invariant pressure distribution graphs constrained by the Darcy–Forchheimer law. The hereby obtained properties of fast flows and their geometric interpretation can be used as analytical tools to evaluate important technological parameters in reservoir engineering.
Pruning processes and a new characterization of convex geometries

We provide a new characterization of convex geometries via a multivariate version of an identity that was originally proved, in a special case arising from the k-SAT problem, by Maneva, Mossel and Wainwright. We thus highlight the connection between various characterizations of convex geometries and a family of removal processes studied in the literature on random structures.
Hyperbolic rational homology spheres not admitting fillable contact structures

In this short note, we exhibit an infinite family of hyperbolic rational homology $3$--spheres which do not admit any fillable contact structures. We also note that most of these manifolds do admit tight contact structures.
The transfer map of free loop spaces

For any perfect fibration $E \rightarrow B$, there is a "free loop transfer map" $LB_+ \rightarrow LE_+$, defined using topological Hochschild homology. We prove that this transfer is compatible with the Becker-Gottlieb transfer, allowing us to extend a result of Dorabiala and Johnson on the transfer map in Waldhausen's $A$-theory. In the case where $E \rightarrow B$ is a smooth fiber bundle, we also give a concrete geometric model for the free loop transfer in terms of Pontryagin-Thom collapse maps. We recover the previously known computations of the free loop transfer due to Schlichtkrull, and make a few new computations as well.
An efficient primal-dual approach to chance-constrained economic dispatch

To effectively enhance the integration of distributed and renewable energy sources in future smart microgrids, economical energy management accounting for the principal challenge of the variable and non-dispatchable renewables is indispensable and of significant importance. Day-ahead economic generation dispatch with demand-side management for a micro-grid in islanded mode is considered in this paper. With the goal of limiting the risk of the loss-of-load probability, a joint chance constrained optimization problem is formulated for the optimal multi-period energy scheduling with multiple wind farms. Bypassing the intractable spatio-temporal joint distribution of the wind power generation, a primal-dual approach is used to obtain a suboptimal solution efficiently. The method is based on first-order optimality conditions and successive approximation of the probabilistic constraint by generation of p-efficient points. Numerical results are reported to corroborate the merits of this approach.
Algebraic Structure of Holomorphic Poisson Cohomology on Nilmanifolds

It is proved that on nilmanifolds with abelian complex structure, there exists a canonically constructed non-trivial holomorphic Poisson structure. We identify the necessary and sufficient condition for its associated cohomology to be isomorphic to the cohomology associated to trivial (zero) holomorphic Poisson structure. We also identify a sufficient condition for this isomorphism to be at the level of Gerstenhaber algebras.
Ultraviolet Completion of Electroweak Theory on Minimal Fractal Manifolds

The experimental discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has effectively disqualified all Higgs-less models developed prior to July 2012. Today, despite its conclusive validation, the Higgs sector of the Standard Model (SM) remains a largely uncharted territory. This raises the following question: Are there any hidden insights brought up by Higgs-less models that can still be beneficial for the on-going research in particle physics? Pursuing this thought, we re-examine here Moffat’s scenario based on a finite electroweak Lagrangian built outside the Higgs paradigm. Unlike the original proposal, we place the model on a spacetime support equipped with minimal fractality. In doing so, we find that the theory is perturbatively well-behaved at large scattering cross-sections and that it gracefully connects with the conventional formulation of the SM in the limit of vanishing fractality.
A Learning Framework for Winner-Take-All Networks with Stochastic Synapses.

Many recent generative models make use of neural networks to transform the probability distribution of a simple low-dimensional noise process into the complex distribution of the data. This raises ...
Computer-assisted proofs in PDE: a survey

In this survey we present some recent results concerning computer-assisted proofs in partial differential equations, focusing in those coming from problems in incompressible fluids. Particular emphasis is put on the techniques, as opposed to the results themselves.
Stability and Recovery for Independence Systems

Two genres of heuristics that are frequently reported to perform much better on "real-world" instances than in the worst case are greedy algorithms and local search algorithms. In this paper, we systematically study these two types of algorithms for the problem of maximizing a monotone submodular set function subject to downward-closed feasibility constraints. We consider perturbation-stable instances, in the sense of Bilu and Linial [11], and precisely identify the stability threshold beyond which these algorithms are guaranteed to recover the optimal solution. Byproducts of our work include the first definition of perturbation-stability for non-additive objective functions, and a resolution of the worst-case approximation guarantee of local search in p-extendible systems.
Some Tables of Right Set Properties in Affine Weyl Groups of Type A

The tables of the title are a first attempt to understand empirically the sizes of certain distinguished sets, introduced by Hankyung Ko, of elements in affine Weyl groups. The distinguished sets themselves each have a largest element w, and all other elements are constructible combinatorially from that largest element. The combinatorics are given in the language of right sets, in the sense of Kazhdan–Lusztig. Collectively, the elements in a given distinguished set parameterize highest weights of possible modular composition factors of the “reduction modulo p” of a pth root of unity irreducible characteristic 0 quantum group module. Here, p is a prime, subject to conditions discussed below, in some cases known to be quite mild. Thus, the sizes of the distinguished sets in question are relevant to estimating how much time might be saved in any future direct approach to computing irreducible modular characters of algebraic groups from larger irreducible characters of quantum groups. Actually, Ko has described two methods for obtaining potentially effective systems of such sets. She has proved one method to work at least for all primes p as large as the Coxeter number h, in a context she indicates largely generalizes to smaller p. The other method, which produces smaller distinguished sets, is known for primes \(p\ge h \) for which the Lusztig character formula holds, but is currently unknown to be valid without the latter condition. In the tables of this paper, we calculate, for all w indexing a (p-)regular highest weight in the (p-)restricted parallelotope, distinguished set sizes for both methods, for affine types A\(_3\), A\(_4\), and A\(_5\). To keep the printed version of this paper sufficiently small, we only use those w indexing actual restricted weights in the A\(_5\) case. The sizes corresponding to the two methods of Ko are listed in columns (6) and (5), respectively, of the tables. We also make calculations in column (7) for a third, more “obvious” system of distinguished sets (see part (1) of Proposition 1), to indicate how much of an improvement each of the first two systems provides. Finally, all calculations have been recently completed for affine type A\(_6\), and the restricted cases are listed in this paper as a final table.
Overfitting or perfect fitting? Risk bounds for classification and regression rules that interpolate

Many modern machine learning models are trained to achieve zero or near-zero training error in order to obtain near-optimal (but non-zero) test error. This phenomenon of strong generalization performance for ``overfitted'' / interpolated classifiers appears to be ubiquitous in high-dimensional data, having been observed in deep networks, kernel machines, boosting and random forests. Their performance is consistently robust even when the data contain large amounts of label noise. Very little theory is available to explain these observations. The vast majority of theoretical analyses of generalization allows for interpolation only when there is little or no label noise. This paper takes a step toward a theoretical foundation for interpolated classifiers by analyzing local interpolating schemes, including geometric simplicial interpolation algorithm and singularly weighted $k$-nearest neighbor schemes. Consistency or near-consistency is proved for these schemes in classification and regression problems. Moreover, the nearest neighbor schemes exhibit optimal rates under some standard statistical assumptions. Finally, this paper suggests a way to explain the phenomenon of adversarial examples, which are seemingly ubiquitous in modern machine learning, and also discusses some connections to kernel machines and random forests in the interpolated regime.
Zeros of harmonic polynomials, critical lemniscates, and caustics

In this paper, we sharpen significantly several known estimates on the maximal number of zeros of complex harmonic polynomials. We also study the relation between the curvature of critical lemniscates and its impact on geometry of caustics and the number of zeros of harmonic polynomials.
Transferring Semantic Roles Using Translation and Syntactic Information

Our paper addresses the problem of annotation projection for semantic role labeling for resource-poor languages using supervised annotations from a resource-rich language through parallel data. We propose a transfer method that employs information from source and target syntactic dependencies as well as word alignment density to improve the quality of an iterative bootstrapping method. Our experiments yield a 3.5 absolute labeled F-score improvement over a standard annotation projection method.
Consistently Estimating Markov Chains with Noisy Aggregate Data

We address the problem of estimating the parameters of a time-homogeneous Markov chain given only noisy, aggregate data. This arises when a population of individuals behave independently according to a Markov chain, but individual sample paths cannot be observed due to limitations of the observation process or the need to protect privacy. Instead, only population-level counts of the number of individuals in each state at each time step are available. When these counts are exact, a conditional least squares (CLS) estimator is known to be consistent and asymptotically normal. We initiate the study of method of moments estimators for this problem to handle the more realistic case when observations are additionally corrupted by noise. We show that CLS can be interpreted as a simple “plug-in” method of moments estimator. However, when observations are noisy, it is not consistent because it fails to account for additional variance introduced by the noise. We develop a new, simpler method of moments estimator that bypasses this problem and is consistent under noisy observations.
Non-parametric quickest change detection for large scale random matrices

The problem of quickest detection of a change in the distribution of a n × p random matrix based on a sequence of observations having a single unknown change point is considered. The forms of the pre- and post-change distributions of the rows of the matrices are assumed to belong to the family of elliptically contoured densities with sparse dispersion matrices but are otherwise unknown. We propose a non-parametric stopping rule that is based on a novel summary statistic related to k-nearest neighbor correlation between columns of each observed random matrix. In the large scale regime of p → ∞ and n fixed we show that, among all functions of the proposed summary statistic, the proposed stopping rule is asymptotically optimal under a minimax quickest change detection (QCD) model.