cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Optimizing Gemcitabine Efficacy Through Degradation of RRM1

ABSTRACT Objectives RRM1 (ribonucleotide reductase M1) is the molecular target and key efficacy determinant of gemcitabine. Gemcitabine binds directly to active sites resulting in irreversible inactivation. Mechanisms that control RRM1 abundance are largely unknown, but may provide an opportunity for optimization of gemcitabine efficacy. Methods and results We have identified that the E3 ubiquitin-protein ligases RNF2 (RING finger protein 2, Ring1B) and Bmi1 (B cell-specific moloney murine leukemia virus insertion site 1) interact with RRM1 using yeast two-hybrid screening. We confirmed that RNF2and Bmi1 interact with RRM1 in vivo by immunoprecipitation. Confocal immunofluorescence microscopy revealed that RNF2 and Bmi1 completely co-localized with RRM1 in nucleus. RRM1 undergoes proteasome-mediated polyubiquitination and degradation. The proteasome inhibitor MG132 blocked the turnover of RRM1. We found that RNF2 and Bmi1 can induce polyubiquitination of RRM1 in vitro and in vivo. Lysine (K) 548 and 224 are major polyubiquitination sites of RRM1. Substitution of the lysine residues 548 and 224, either alone or together, significantly reduced RRM1 polyubiquitination. Depletion of RNF2 and Bmi1 by siRNA increased RRM1 protein level and promoted chemoresistance to gemcitabine in vitro. Conclusions These results establish that RNF2 and Bmi1 are E3 ubiquitin ligases of RRM1 that regulate RRM1 ubiquitination, degradation, and cellular response to gemcitabine. This suggests that RNF2 and Bmi1 might be attractive therapeutic targets to overcome gemcitabine resistance in malignancies. Disclosure All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
Pleiotropic function of the oca2 gene underlies the evolution of sleep loss and albinism in cavefish

Summary Adaptation to novel environments often involves the evolution of multiple morphological, physiological and behavioral traits. One striking example of multi-trait evolution is the suite of traits that has evolved repeatedly in cave animals, including regression of eyes, loss of pigmentation, and enhancement of non-visual sensory systems [1,3]. The Mexican tetra, Astyanax mexicanus, consists of fish that inhabit at least 30 caves in Northeast Mexico and ancestral-like surface fish which inhabit the rivers of Mexico and Southern Texas [6]. Cave A. mexicanus are interfertile with surface fish and have evolved a number of traits that are common to cave animals throughout the world, including albinism, eye loss, and alterations to behavior [8–10]. To define relationships between different cave-evolved traits, we phenotyped 208 surface-cave F2 hybrid fish for numerous morphological and behavioral traits. We found significant differences in sleep between pigmented and albino hybrid fish, raising the possibility that these traits share a genetic basis. In cavefish and many other species, mutations in oculocutaneous albinism 2 (oca2) cause albinism [11–15]. Surface fish with CRISPR-induced mutations in oca2 displayed both albinism and reduced sleep. Further, this mutation in oca2 fails to complement sleep loss when surface fish harboring this engineered mutation are crossed to different, independently evolved populations of albino cavefish with naturally occurring mutations in oca2, confirming that oca2 contributes to sleep loss. Finally, analysis of the oca2 locus in wild caught cave and surface fish suggests that oca2 is under positive selection in at least three cave populations. Taken together, these findings identify oca2 as a novel regulator of sleep and suggest that a pleiotropic function of oca2 underlies the adaptive evolution of both of albinism and sleep loss.
Medical malpractice litigations involving aortic dissection.

Abstract Objectives Medical malpractice litigation arises when a discrepancy exists between a patient's expectation of acceptable medical care and the care the patient receives. Aortic dissection is a frequently misdiagnosed and often-fatal condition. The purpose of this study was to characterize trends of medical malpractice litigations arising from aortic dissection, investigate the etiology, and analyze predictive factors regarding the verdict. Methods The Westlaw legal database was used to compile relevant litigations from 1994 to 2019 across the United States. Each litigation was screened individually for inclusion, and after inclusion, descriptive factors were compiled, including patient data, litigation data, verdict data, and clinical outcomes data. The Fisher exact test was used to evaluate the significance of association between parameters and verdict type. Results In total, 135 unique litigations met criteria for inclusion, with a defendant verdict in 57% (n = 77), plaintiff verdict in 20% (n = 27), and settlements in 23% (n = 31). Plaintiffs most commonly cited a failure to diagnose as their reason for litigation in 64% (n = 87). Patient mortality was associated with a lower average plaintiff award, $1,892,781 versus $5,944,983, and a lower average settlement, $1,230,923 versus $2,250,000, than their surviving counterparts. California, Illinois, and Pennsylvania had the most cases filed. An alleged failure to test, failure to refer, failure to consult, incidence of a stroke, and incidence of an autopsy diagnosis were significantly associated with defendant verdicts and a failure to diagnose was significantly associated with plaintiff verdicts (P Conclusions Plaintiffs frequently cited a failure to timely diagnose, order diagnostic tests, and interpret diagnostic tests as reasons for litigations. Defendant verdicts were common, suggesting judicially acceptable standards of care are commonly satisfied.
Pharmacy-led initiative for improving peri-operative medication reconciliation among bariatric surgical patients: what is the role?

Multiple medication changes are common after bariatric surgery, but pharmacist assistance in this setting is not well described. This study evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of a pharmacy-led initiative for facilitating discharge medicine reconciliation after bariatric surgery. A standardized post-operative pharmacy consult evaluation was conducted on bariatric surgery inpatients at a single academic center starting 1/2/2019. Retrospective chart review evaluated patient characteristics, medication changes, and 30-day outcomes pre-intervention (7/2018–12/2018) and post-intervention (1/2019–12/2019). Two-sample t tests or binomial tests were used for continuous or categorical variables, respectively; a p-value of < 0.05 was deemed statistically significant. A total of 353 patients were identified for study inclusion (n = 158 pre-intervention, n = 195 post-intervention) with a mean age of 45 years, 87% female, and 71% sleeve gastrectomy. Overall pharmacy consultation compliance was 94% with 77.0% of home medication recommendations followed. Non-narcotic pain medication prescription use significantly increased (39% pre- vs. 54% post-intervention; p < 0.001). At discharge, the average number of changed or new medications significantly increased (3.7 ± 1.2 pre- vs. 4.2 ± 1.8 post-intervention; p = 0.003) while the average number of stopped medications was similar (1.2 ± 1.5 pre- vs. 1.5 ± 1.9 post-intervention; p = 0.09). Anti-hypertensive medications were decreased or stopped substantially more often with pharmacist input (44.7% pre- vs. 85.4% post-intervention; p < 0.001). Three medication-related readmissions happened pre-intervention with none post-intervention. Outpatient medication-related phone calls did considerably increase (31% pre- vs. 39% post-intervention; p = 0.04), while overall 30-day readmissions significantly decreased (7.6% pre- vs. 1.5% post-intervention; p = 0.04). Inpatient pharmacy consultation facilitated rapid alteration to more appropriate therapy for hypertension management and significantly increased use of non-narcotic pain medications upon discharge among bariatric surgery patients. Improved protocol adherence is anticipated with program maturity and patient education interventions will be deployed to address outpatient phone calls.
Acute Budd Chiari syndrome in an ECMO patient.

Introduction:Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is widely utilized to make timely decisions regarding patient care. This approach allowed us to diagnose the cause of acutely rising transaminases in a...
Risk of Retinal Detachment in Children with Ocular Coloboma.

UNSTRUCTURED ABSTRACT We estimated the prevalence by age during childhood of acquired retinal detachment among 387 eyes of 258 children with coloboma. Two eyes (0.78%) of 2 children had acquired retinal detachment, lower than previously reported.
The Effect of the National School Lunch Program on Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity has been recognized as not only a personal disease, but also as a social problem inducing government development of policies to address the childhood obesity problem. Since the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) has been one of the most important nutrition supplement programs for children, the government has tried to solve the childhood obesity problem through the NSLP.We set a goal of the pa- per as investigating theoretical relationship between the NSLP and the children's BMI and establishing support for a new school lunch program policy emphasizing quality of foods to reduce the childhood obesity epidemic. To develop an e¢ cient nutrition sup- plement policy on the childhood obesity problem, this paper studies the significance of participation in the NSLP on the improvement in childhood obesity and clarifies conditions to encourage parents' continued participation in the NSLP using both the- oretical and empirical models. The theoretical results show that participating in the NSLP a¤ects the children's BMI change and contributes to improving the childhood obesity problem. Moreover, the results exhibit if the marginal rate of substitution be- tween high and low calories in the NSLP is greater than eating at home, the parent of an overweight child is more likely to continue participating in the NSLP to solve their childs obesity problem. The theoretical results are tested empirically by using the ECLS-K data and we simulate the childs BMI percentile change based on the empirical results.
Goltz, Friedrich Leopold

Friedrich Goltz (1834–1902) was a pioneer in the use of experimental physiology to study functions of the nervous system. He was a major protagonist in the scientific debates of the late nineteenth century on cerebral localization. Based on results he had obtained following surgical removal (ablation) of portions of the cerebrum predominantly in dogs, he advocated a holistic view of brain function, believing that the brain functioned as a coordinated unit rather than as a mosaic of discrete functional centers.
INTERACTIVE EVOLUTIONARY DESIGN OF MOTION VARIANTS

This paper presents an intuitive method for novice users to interactively design custom populations of stylized, heterogeneous motion, from one input motion clip, thus allowing the user to amplify an existing database of motions. We allow the user to set up lattice deformers which are used by a genetic algorithm to manipulate the animation channels of the input motion and create new motion variations. Our interactive evolutionary design environment allows the user to traverse the available space of possible motions, presents the user with populations of motion, and gradually converges to a satisfactory set of solutions. Each generated motion sequence can undergo a motion ltering process subject to user-specied, high-level metrics to produce a result crafted to t the designer's interest.
Truthful Multi-unit Procurements with Budgets

We study procurement games where each seller supplies multiple units of his item, with a cost per unit known only to him. The buyer can purchase any number of units from each seller, values different combinations of the items differently, and has a budget for his total payment. For a special class of procurement games, the bounded knapsack problem, we show that no universally truthful budget-feasible mechanism can approximate the optimal value of the buyer within ln n, where n is the total number of units of all items available. We then construct a polynomial-time mechanism that gives a 4(1 + ln n)-approximation for procurement games with concave additive valuations, which include bounded knapsack as a special case. Our mechanism is thus optimal up to a constant factor. Moreover, for the bounded knapsack problem, given the well-known FPTAS, our results imply there is a provable gap between the optimization domain and the mechanism design domain. Finally, for procurement games with sub-additive valuations, we construct a universally truthful budget-feasible mechanism that gives an \(O(\frac{\log^2 n}{\log \log n})\)-approximation in polynomial time with a demand oracle.
Ending the War on Drugs and Children

Decriminalization would do much harm, but failure to decriminalize must also do much harm. This article aims to demonstrate that it is possible to show that the distributional consequences of legalization would improve the world, eventually.
Evaluation of Photodiode and Thermopile Pyranometers for Photovoltaic Applications: Preprint

Accurately determining PV module performance in the field requires measurement of solar irradiance reaching the PV panel at a high level of accuracy and known uncertainty. Silicon detectors used in various solar energy measuring instruments including reference cells are potentially an attractive choice for multiple reasons that include faster responsivity than thermopile detectors, cheaper cost and lower maintenance. The main drawback though is the fact that the silicon detectors are only spectrally responsive in a narrow part of the solar spectrum. Therefore, to determine broadband solar irradiance a calibration factor that converts the narrowband response to broadband is required. Normally this calibration factor is a single number determined under standard conditions but then used for various scenarios including varying air-mass, panel orientation and atmospheric conditions. This would not have been an issue if all wavelengths that form the broadband spectrum responded uniformly to atmospheric constituents. Unfortunately the scattering and absorption signature varies widely across wavelengths and the calibration factor computed under certain test conditions is not appropriate for other conditions. This paper lays out the issues that will arise from the use of silicon detectors for PV performance measurement in the field. We also present a comparison of simultaneous spectralmore » and broadband measurements from silicon and thermopile detectors and estimated measurement errors when using silicon devices for both array performance and resource assessment.« less
Optimizing CMOS Transconductor-C Filters for Low Power Wide Band Operation

A novel figure of merit to describe the bandwidth power efficiency of CMOS transconductors—g_{ac}/P_{diss} is proposed and optimized for cross-coupled differential pair transconductor structures. The optimization is done in two different ways: univariable unconstrained and multivariable constrained. It is revealed that not only dc biases but also ac input phases can affect the bandwidth power efficiency of the transconductor. The bias voltages which can lead to best g_{ac}/P_{diss} ratio at different ac phase combinations are obtained and presented in the article. HSPICE simulations are conducted to verify the theoretical predictions. On the basis of the cross-coupled differential pair transconductor, a biquadratic transconductor-C filter configuration is implemented. The frequency vs. power characteristic of the filter is studied for both optimally- and non-optimally-biased transconductor. It is shown that the g_{ac}/P_{diss} optimization of the transconductor structure can result in performance improvement of the transconductor-C filter. The deviation of the optimal bias condition between the transconductor alone and the transconductor-C filter due to the inclusion of peripheray circuitries in the filter is discussed in the article.
Risk factors in early-onset neonatal group B streptococcal infections

Newborn infants with "early-onset" disease due to group B beta hemolytic streptococcus were studied over a 40-month period. Clinical presentations included asymptomatic bacteremia, mild transient illness, respiratory distress, meningitis, and overwhelming sepsis. Chronologically, 18 were ill at birth; 10 became ill after a symptom-free period; and four were asymptomatic. Sixty-six percent of the cases weighted less than 2500 grams, and 56% were born to mothers whose amniotic membranes were ruptured for over 20 hours. All 15 of the deaths occurred in low birth weight infants who were criticially ill from birth. A review of 128 consecutive deliveries of infants weighing under 2000 grams revealed 28 cases with prolonged ruptured membranes, and three of these 28 infants developed group B streptococcal infection. The infant of the colonized gravid woman in premature labor or with prolonged ruptured membranes is clearly at risk, and these results suggest that the management of "early-onset" disease should begin prior to delivery.
Design of Discrete Time Repetitive Controllers with Applications to Mechanical Systems

Abstract In many mechanical systems such as robots, machine tools or disk drives the control task is repetitive. In such a case, the reference and disturbance inputs to the system are periodic. This paper considers the design of robust discrete-time repetitive controllers that allow the plant to track the periodic reference input while rejecting the periodic disturbance input. The cancellation of the periodic disturbance implies that a periodic signal generator, or disturbance model, must exist. Two forms of discrete-time repetitive controllers will be examined; those that place the disturbance model inside the feedback loop and those that place it outside the feedback loop. Implementation results demonstrate that a repetitive controller can be used in a plug in fashion to augment an existing controller.
EKR Sets for Large n and r

Let $$\mathcal {A}\subset \left( {\begin{array}{c}[n]\\ r\end{array}}\right) $$A?[n]r be a compressed, intersecting family and let $$X\subset [n]$$X?[n]. Let $$\mathcal {A}(X)=\{A\in \mathcal {A}:A\cap X\ne \emptyset \}$$A(X)={A?A:A?X??} and $$\mathcal {S}_{n,r}=\left( {\begin{array}{c}[n]\\ r\end{array}}\right) (\{1\})$$Sn,r=[n]r({1}). Motivated by the Erd?s---Ko---Rado theorem, Borg asked for which $$X\subset [2,n]$$X?[2,n] do we have $$|\mathcal {A}(X)|\le |\mathcal {S}_{n,r}(X)|$$|A(X)|≤|Sn,r(X)| for all compressed, intersecting families $$\mathcal {A}$$A? We call X that satisfy this property EKR. Borg classified EKR sets X such that $$|X|\ge r$$|X|?r. Barber classified X, with $$|X|\le r$$|X|≤r, such that X is EKR for sufficiently large n, and asked how large n must be. We prove n is sufficiently large when n grows quadratically in r. In the case where $$\mathcal {A}$$A has a maximal element, we sharpen this bound to $$n>\varphi ^{2}r$$n>?2r implies $$|\mathcal {A}(X)|\le |\mathcal {S}_{n,r}(X)|$$|A(X)|≤|Sn,r(X)|. We conclude by giving a generating function that speeds up computation of $$|\mathcal {A}(X)|$$|A(X)| in comparison with the naive methods.
Synthesis of 1,4,2-Oxathiazoles via Oxidative Cyclization of Thiohydroximic Acids

An oxidative formation of 1,4,2-oxathiazoles from readily available thiohydroximic acids is reported. A variety of alkyl, aryl, and heteroaryl substituents are well tolerated for both the thiohydroximic acid and activating fragments, and the reaction has been demonstrated on gram-scale. This reaction represents the only method currently available to prepare a diverse set of oxathiazoles and expands the chemistry of C–H oxidation via appended N–OH functional groups. Finally, we also demonstrate the rapid preparation of a 1,4,2-oxathiazole analog of an anticancer lead molecule.
Measuring small internal pressures along a tube during steady flow

A tube that can accurately measure small strains and pressure profiles during flow of non-Newtonian paste explosives has been designed and strain gaged. Equiangular rosette strain gages were installed along the length of a 6-mm-dia, 0.46-m-long thin-walled aluminum tube. The rosettes were oriented in the classical stress-gage configuration to measure circumferential stress and hence internal pressure independent of other stresses. The tube was static calibrated on a floating-piston pressure calibrator. Steady flow calibration was accomplished by extruding a viscous Newtonian silicone oil. Inlet pressure ranged from 0.52 to 2.1 MPa (75 to 300 psi). For the low-pressure 0.52-MPa silicone oil extrusion, the full-scale strain levels varied from 6 to 53 ..mu..m/m. For all eight strain gage stations, the maximum deviation from a linear pressure profile was equivalent to 0.5 ..mu..m/m. A pulsed current excitation signal-conditioning and digital data-acquisition system provided the necessary stability and precision to measure these unusually low strain levels accurately.
Human Capital, Product Quality, and Growth

A model of growth is developed in which finite-lived individuals invest in human capital, investments have a positive external effect on the human capital of later cohorts, and labor with more human capital produces higher-quality goods. Stationary growth paths are analyzed, paths along which human capital and the quality of goods grow at a common, constant rate. It is also shown that if a small open economy is either very advanced or very backward relative to the rest of the world, then its rate of investment in human capital is lower under free trade than under autarky.
Resolutions of the Steinberg module for GL(n)

Abstract We give several resolutions of the Steinberg representation St n for the general linear group over a principal ideal domain, in particular over Z . We compare them, and use these results to prove that the computations in Avner Ash et al. (2011) [AGM11] are definitive. In particular, in Avner Ash et al. (2011) [AGM11] we use two complexes to compute certain cohomology groups of congruence subgroups of SL ( 4 , Z ) . One complex is based on Voronoiʼs polyhedral decomposition of the symmetric space for SL ( n , R ) , whereas the other is a larger complex that has an action of the Hecke operators. We prove that both complexes allow us to compute the relevant cohomology groups, and that the use of the Voronoi complex does not introduce any spurious Hecke eigenclasses.
Service selection algorithms for composing complex services with multiple qos constraints

One of the promises of the service-oriented architecture (SOA) is that complex services can be composed using individual services. Individual services can be selected and integrated either statically or dynamically based on the service functionalities and performance constraints. For many distributed applications, the runtime performance (e.g. end-to-end delay, cost, reliability and availability) of complex services are very important. In our earlier work, we have studied the service selection problem for complex services with only one QoS constraint. This paper extends the service selection problem to multiple QoS constraints. The problem can be modelled in two ways: the combinatorial model and the graph model. The combinatorial model defines the problem as the multi-dimension multi-choice 0-1 knapsack problem (MMKP). The graph model defines the problem as the multi-constraint optimal path (MCOP) problem. We propose algorithms for both models and study their performances by test cases. We also compare the pros & cons between the two models.
The Quality of Foreign Aid: Country Selectivity or Donors Incentives?

The author investigates the determinants of foreign aid quality. He shows that design effects are a crucial component of quality. He thus establishes that donors have an impact on the quality of the foreign assistance they provide. The author also shows both theoretically and empirically that the quality of aid is endogenous to the relationship between the donor agency and the recipient government. Highly capable and accountable governments accept only well-designed projects, whereas governments with low accountability may accept poor quality projects either because they are unable to assess the worth of the projects or they will benefit personally.
Existential despair and bipolar disorder: the therapeutic alliance as a mood stabilizer.

The major clinical morbidity of bipolar disorder is chronic depression. Yet this depression, which is resistant to our best pharmacological treatments, may represent something else. We suggest it m...
The Interest Rate Risk of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

This paper evaluates the interest rate risk of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (F&F) and develops related public policy proposals. F&F merit special attention due to (1) their potentially very large interest rate risk, and (2) their status as U.S. government sponsored enterprises. The analysis focuses on the dynamic hedging strategy and extensive use of interest rate derivatives employed by F&F to control their interest rate risk. While dynamic hedging is highly cost effective for F&F, it creates imperfect hedges and thus could impose significant costs on U.S. taxpayers in a potential future F&F bailout. The policy discussion includes proposals to modify the F&F interest rate disclosures and the OFHEO stress test, and to create rate interest risk standards for F&F.
A Framework for RFID Survivability Requirement Analysis and Specification

Many industries are becoming dependent on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for inventory management and asset tracking. The data collected about tagged objects though RFID is used in various high level business operations. The RFID system should hence be highly available, reliable, and dependable and secure. In addition, this system should be able to resist attacks and perform recovery in case of security incidents. Together these requirements give rise to the notion of a survivable RFID system. The main goal of this paper is to analyze and specify the requirements for an RFID system to become survivable. These requirements, if utilized, can assist the system in resisting against devastating attacks and recovering quickly from damages. This paper proposes the techniques and approaches for RFID survivability requirements analysis and specification. From the perspective of system acquisition and engineering, survivability requirement is the important first step in survivability specification, compliance formulation, and proof verification.
Medicaid, Managed Care, and Kids. 12th Annual Herbert Lourie Memorial Lecture on Health Policy

This policy brief talks about what managed care for Medicaid is, how it influences kids, and how it relates to the State Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP). It focuses on what we have learned over the last 20 years through research about cost, use, and quality. It also discusses some of the expectations we had for children covered by Medicaid managed care. Finally, it talks abaout the future of Medicaid managed care and the implications for CHIP.
Figure/Ground assignment in natural images

Figure/ground assignment is a key step in perceptual organization which assigns contours to one of the two abutting regions, providing information about occlusion and allowing high-level processing to focus on non-accidental shapes of figural regions. In this paper, we develop a computational model for figure/ground assignment in complex natural scenes. We utilize a large dataset of images annotated with human-marked segmentations and figure/ground labels for training and quantitative evaluation. We operationalize the concept of familiar configuration by constructing prototypical local shapes, i.e. shapemes, from image data. Shapemes automatically encode mid-level visual cues to figure/ground assignment such as convexity and parallelism. Based on the shapeme representation, we train a logistic classifier to locally predict figure/ground labels. We also consider a global model using a conditional random field (CRF) to enforce global figure/ground consistency at T-junctions. We use loopy belief propagation to perform approximate inference on this model and learn maximum likelihood parameters from ground-truth labels. We find that the local shapeme model achieves an accuracy of 64% in predicting the correct figural assignment. This compares favorably to previous studies using classical figure/ground cues [1]. We evaluate the global model using either a set of contours extracted from a low-level edge detector or the set of contours given by human segmentations. The global CRF model significantly improves the performance over the local model, most notably when using human-marked boundaries (78%). These promising experimental results show that this is a feasible approach to bottom-up figure/ground assignment in natural images.
SPATIAL HEDONICS AND THE WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR RESIDENTIAL AMENITIES

We investigate the role of spatial multipliers when using spatial-lag hedonic models to measure the benefits of residential amenity improvements. Such benefits are commonly measured using the product of the coefficient of the amenity in question and a spatial multiplier. We show this is correct only when the spatial spillovers transmitted through the multiplier are strictly technological. If they are instead strictly pecuniary, then benefits are fully measured using the coefficient with no spatial multiplier. In either case, or in intermediate cases where both types of spillovers exist, a spatial-lag specification is required to obtain valid benefits measures.
El cuerpo, el gueto y el Estado penal

Este articulo analiza el enfoque del autor sobre la etnografia, la teoria social, y la politica del conocimiento a traves de un dialogo que vuelve sobre su trayectoria intelectual y los vinculos analiticos entre sus investigaciones sobre el cuerpo, la marginalidad urbana comparada y el Estado penal. Resalta las conexiones practicas y fundamentos epistemologicos detras de sus principales proyectos de investigacion, explica las distintas maneras en que se despliega el trabajo de campo de observacion en cada uno de ellos, y examina el papel de los intelectuales en las sociedades avanzadas de la era del neoliberalismo hegemonico. Rechazando tanto el empirismo de Hume como el neo-cognitivismo kantiano, el autor aboga por el uso de la etnografia como un instrumento de ruptura y construccion, la potencia del conocimiento carnal, el imperativo de la reflexividad epistemica y la necesidad de ampliar los generos textuales y estilos con el fin de captar mejor el sabor y el dolor de la accion social. En la esfera publica, propone que las ciencias sociales pueden actuar como un disolvente de la doxa y un faro que arroja luz sobre las propiedades latentes y las tendencias desapercibidas en las transformaciones sociales a fin de generar rupturas y ampliar el debate civico.
Coupled Minimum-Cost Flow Cell Tracking

A growing number of screening applications require the automated monitoring of cell populations in a high-throughput, high-content environment. These applications depend on accurate cell tracking of individual cells that display various behaviors including mitosis, occlusion, rapid movement, and entering and leaving the field of view. We present a tracking approach that explicitly models each of these behaviors and represents the association costs in a graph-theoretic minimum-cost flow framework. We show how to extend the minimum-cost flow algorithm to account for mitosis and merging events by coupling particular edges. We applied the algorithm to nearly 6,000 images of 400,000 cells representing 32,000 tracks taken from five separate datasets, each composed of multiple wells.Our algorithm is able to track cells and detect different cell behaviors with an accuracy of over 99%.
Systematic Design of Adaptive Controllers for Feedback Linearizable Systems

A systematic procedure is developed for the design of new adaptive regulation and trackdng schemes for a class of feedback linearizable nonlinear systems. The coordinate-free geometric conditions, which characterize this class of systems, neither restrict the location of the unknown parameters, nor constrain the growth of the nonlinearities. Instead, they require that the nonlinear system be transformable into the so-called pure-feedback form. When this form is "strict", the proposed scheme guarantees global regulation and tracking properties, and substantially enlarges the class of nonlinear systems with unknown parameters for which global stabilization can be achieved. The main results of this paper use simple analytical tools, familiar to most control engineers.
ParaMor: Finding Paradigms across Morphology

ParaMor automatically learns morphological paradigms from unlabelled text, and uses them to annotate word forms with morpheme boundaries. ParaMor competed in the English and German tracks of Morpho Challenge 2007 (Kurimo et al., 2008). In English, ParaMor's balanced precision and recall outperform at F1 an already sophisticated baseline induction algorithm, Morfessor (Creutz, 2006). In German, ParaMor suffers from a low morpheme recall. But combining ParaMor's analyses with analyses from Morfessor results in a set of analyses that outperform either algorithm alone, and that place first in F1 among all algorithms submitted to Morpho Challenge 2007. Categories and Subject Descriptions: I.2 [Artificial Intelligence]: I.2.7 Natural Language Processing.
Robot-Assisted Real-Time Tumor Manipulation for Breast Biopsy

Breast biopsy guided by imaging techniques such as ultrasound is widely used to evaluate suspicious masses within the breast. The current procedure allows the clinician to determine the location and extent of a tumor in the patient breast before inserting the needle. However, there are several problems with this procedure: the complex interaction dynamics between the needle force and the breast tissue will likely displace the tumor from its original position, necessitating multiple insertions, causing clinicianspsila fatigue, patient's discomfort, and compromising the integrity of the tissue specimen. In this paper, we present a new concept for real-time manipulation of a tumor using a robotic controller that monitors the image of the tumor to generate appropriate external force to position the tumor at a desired location. The idea here is to demonstrate that it is possible to manipulate a tumor in real time by applying controlled external force in an automated way such that the tumor does not deviate from the path of the needle. Experiments on breast phantoms are presented to demonstrate the essence of this concept. The success of this approach has the potential to reduce the number of attempts a clinician makes to capture the desired tissue specimen, minimize tissue damage, improve speed of biopsy, reduce patient discomfort, and eliminate false negative results.
Semantic Casts: Contracts and Structural Subtyping in a Nominal World

Nominal subtyping forces programmers to explicitly state all of the subtyping relationships in the program. This limits component reuse, because programmers cannot anticipate all of the contexts in which a particular class might be used. In contrast, structural subtyping implicitly allows any type with appropriate structure to be used in a given context. Languagues with contracts exacerbate the problem. Since contracts are typically expressed as refinements of types, contracts in nominally typed languages introduce additional obstacles to reuse.
Shock-Based Causal Inference in Corporate Finance and Accounting Research

We study shock-based methods for credible causal inference in corporate finance research. We focus on corporate governance research, survey 13,461 papers published between 2001 and 2011 in 22 major accounting, economics, finance, law, and management journals; and identify 863 empirical studies in which corporate governance is associated with firm value or other characteristics. We classify the methods used in these studies and assess whether they support a causal link between corporate governance and firm value or another outcome. Only a small minority have convincing causal inference strategies. The convincing strategies largely rely on external shocks – usually from legal rules – to generate natural experiments. We examine the 75 shock-based papers and provide a guide to shock-based research design, which stresses the common features across different designs and the value of using combined designs.
Case Study: The Evolution of Western Integrated Resource Education from Rural Byways to the Information Super-Highway

WIRE courses emphasize the process of management—setting goals, priorities, making decisions, planning, budgeting, keeping records and performing evaluations with personal goals and optimization in mind—rather than particular production technologies. The process moves from strategic management outlining where the operation is headed, to tactical management comparing options for getting from “here” to “there”, to operational management where the specifics of how, when, and by whom the management plan will be accomplished.
Probabilities of causation : Three counterfactual interpretations and their identification

According to common judicial standard, judgment in favor ofplaintiff should be made if and only if it is “more probable than not” thatthe defendant's action was the cause for the plaintiff's damage (or death). This paper provides formal semantics, based on structural models ofcounterfactuals, for the probability that event x was a necessary orsufficient cause (or both) of another event y. The paper then explicates conditions under which the probability of necessary (or sufficient)causation can be learned from statistical data, and shows how data fromboth experimental and nonexperimental studies can be combined to yieldinformation that neither study alone can provide. Finally, we show thatnecessity and sufficiency are two independent aspects of causation, andthat both should be invoked in the construction of causal explanations for specific scenarios.
A Method of Computation for Structural Dynamics

A general procedure for the solution of problems in structural dynamics is described herein. The method is capable of application to structures of any degree of complication, with any relationship ...
Evolution as Learning Yields Hyperbolic Discounting

Learning is modeled as an infection, which jumps from person to person. The rate of infection mimics individual discount rates and induces savings behavior on its own. It is shown that the apparent discount rate, the combination of the agents' true discount rate and the infection rate, decreases over time and approaches the agents' true discount rate. This decrease, known as hyperbolic discounting, is consistent with what is observed in psychology studies, while the limiting case, exponential discounting, is consistent with market level observations. This model closes the gap between individual and market level observations of discounting behavior without explicitly assuming the two kinds of discounting nor relying on commitment mechanisms.
Topology preserving tissue classification with fast marching and topology templates

This paper presents a novel approach for object segmentation in medical images that respects the topological relationships of multiple structures as given by a template. The algorithm combines advantages of tissue classification, digital topology, and level-set evolution into a topology-invariant multiple-object fast marching method. The technique can handle any given topology and enforces object-level relationships with little constraint over the geometry. Applied to brain segmentation, it sucessfully extracts gray matter and white matter structures with the correct spherical topology without topology correction or editing of the sub-cortical structures.
Distributed evaluation and convergence of self-appraisals in social networks

We consider in this paper a networked system of opinion dynamics in continuous time, where the agents are able to evaluate their self-appraisals in a distributed way. In the model we formulate, the underlying network topology is described by a rooted digraph. For each ordered pair of agents $(i,j)$ , we assign a function of self-appraisal to agent $i$ , which measures the level of importance of agent $i$ to agent $j$ . Thus, by communicating only with her neighbors, each agent is able to calculate the difference between her level of importance to others and others' level of importance to her. The dynamical system of self-appraisals is then designed to drive these differences to zero. We show that for almost all initial conditions, the trajectory generated by this dynamical system asymptotically converges to an equilibrium point which is exponentially stable.
Can hedge funds time market liquidity

Abstract We explore a new dimension of fund managers' timing ability by examining whether they can time market liquidity through adjusting their portfolios' market exposure as aggregate liquidity conditions change. Using a large sample of hedge funds, we find strong evidence of liquidity timing. A bootstrap analysis suggests that top-ranked liquidity timers cannot be attributed to pure luck. In out-of-sample tests, top liquidity timers outperform bottom timers by 4.0–5.5% annually on a risk-adjusted basis. We also find that it is important to distinguish liquidity timing from liquidity reaction, which primarily relies on public information. Our results are robust to alternative explanations, hedge fund data biases, and the use of alternative timing models, risk factors, and liquidity measures. The findings highlight the importance of understanding and incorporating market liquidity conditions in investment decision making.
Analyticity for singular sums of squares of degenerate vector fields

Recently J. J. Kohn (2005) proved C ∞ hypoellipticity for P k = LL + L|z| 2k L = -L*L-(z k L)* -k z L with L = ∂ ∂z + iz∂ ∂t, (the negative of) a singular sum of squares of complex vector fields on the complex Heisenberg group, an operator which exhibits a loss of k - 1 derivatives. Subsequently, M. Derridj and D. S. Tartakoff proved analytic hypoellipticity for this operator using rather different methods going back to earlier methods of Tartakoff. Those methods also provide an alternate proof of the hypoellipticity given by Kohn. In this paper, we consider the equation P m,k = L m L m + L m |z| 2k L m with L m = ∂ ∂z + iz|z| 2m ∂ ∂t, for which the underlying manifold is only of finite type, and prove analytic hypoellipticity using methods of Derridj and Tartakoff. This operator is also subelliptic with large loss of derivatives, but the exact loss plays no role for analytic hypoellipticity. Nonetheless, these methods give a proof of C ∞ hypoellipticity with precise loss as well, which is to appear in a forthcoming paper by A. Bove, M. Derridj, J. J. Kohn and the author.
Dispersion in unit disks

We present two new approximation algorithms with (improved) constant ratios for selecting $n$ points in $n$ unit disks such that the minimum pairwise distance among the points is maximized. (I) A very simple $O(n \log{n})$-time algorithm with ratio $0.5110$ for disjoint unit disks. In combination with an algorithm of Cabello~\cite{Ca07}, it yields a $O(n^2)$-time algorithm with ratio of $0.4487$ for dispersion in $n$ not necessarily disjoint unit disks. (II) A more sophisticated LP-based algorithm with ratio $0.6495$ for disjoint unit disks that uses a linear number of variables and constraints, and runs in polynomial time. The algorithm introduces a novel technique which combines linear programming and projections for approximating distances. The previous best approximation ratio for disjoint unit disks was $\frac{1}{2}$. Our results give a partial answer to an open question raised by Cabello~\cite{Ca07}, who asked whether $\frac{1}{2}$ could be improved.
The Moral Dimensions of Poverty, Entitlements, and Theft

In the view of many commentators and pundits, all citizens have an entitlement to be relieved of their poverty, and this may best be accomplished by throwing other people’s money at the poor. This chapter makes the case that not only do the impoverished not have any such right, but the attempt to furnish them with wealth earned by others constitutes theft, and does not help them in any case. Given, however, that such entitlements exist, how is the moral person to react to them? In order to approach an answer to this question, this chapter defines and then applies to it “libertarian class analysis,” and derives from this some counterintuitive conclusions regarding poor welfare recipients and reparations for past invasions of person and property.
Consumption, health, gender, and poverty

Standard methods of measuring poverty assume that an individual is poor if he or she lives in a family whose income or consumption lies below an appropriate poverty line. Such methods provide only limited insight into male and female poverty separately. Nevertheless, there are reasons why household resources are linked to the gender composition of the household: women's earnings are often lower than men's; families in some countries control their fertility through differential stopping rules; and women live longer than men. It is also possible to link family expenditure patterns to the gender composition of the household, something the authors illustrate using data from India and South Africa. Such a procedure provides useful information on who gets what, but cannot tell us how total resources are allocated between males and females. More can be gleaned from data on consumption by individual household members, and for many goods, collecting such information is good survey practice in any case. Even so, it will be some time before such information can be used routinely to produce estimates of poverty by gender. A more promising approach is likely to come within a broader definition of poverty that includes health (and possibly education) as well as income. The authors discuss recent work on collecting self-reported measures of nonfatal health and argue that such measures are already useful for assessing the relative health status of males and females. The evidence is consistent with non-elderly women generally having poorer health than non-elderly men. The authors emphasize the importance of simultaneously measuring poverty in multiple dimensions. The different components of well-being are correlated, and it is misleading to look at any one in isolation from the others.
The SuperCDMS Experiment

Modest improvements in the level and/or discrimination of backgrounds are needed to keep backgrounds negligible during the three phases of SuperCDMS. By developing production designs that require only modest testing, detector production rates may be improved sufficiently to allow an exposure of 500 ton d within a reasonable time and budget. Overall, the improvement estimates described above are conservative. Previous development efforts have shown that some areas prove easier and provide larger factors while others prove more difficult. The conservative estimates together with the broad approach reduce the risk and give us confidence that we will succeed, providing the surest way to probe to WIMP-nucleon cross sections of 10{sup -46} cm{sup 2}.