cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Isotopic Evidence for Long-Distance Mammal Procurement, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA

Previous research on the prehistoric communities of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (ca. A.D. 800–1250) provides evidence of an extensive procurement system of nonlocal food and economic goods. In this paper, we use oxygen and strontium isotope analyses to establish whether animal protein followed a similar pattern. We contextualized our isotopic analyses of the archaeofaunas from recent excavations at Pueblo Bonito with data on modern faunas across an area of approximately 100,000 km2 around the site. Our results show that most archaeological deer, rabbits, and prairie dogs were obtained from >40 km away from Pueblo Bonito with the latter two likely being garden hunted. The Chuska Mountains west of Chaco Canyon and more distant San Juan Mountains to the north were the main source areas. These results closely align with previous results on architectural wood, corn, and other key resources. The importation of small game animals suggests that the local supplies could not meet the needs of the community. Long-distance meat procurement may have been embedded within a more complex network of ritual-goods exchange or tribute that helped to offset the transport costs. Resource depletion may have contributed to the eventual abandonment of the region during the Medieval Warm Period.
Z-Source Resonant Converter With Power Factor Correction for Wireless Power Transfer Applications

In this paper, the Z-source converter is introduced to power factor correction (PFC) applications. The concept is demonstrated through a wireless power transfer (WPT) system for electric vehicle battery charging, namely Z-source resonant converter (ZSRC). Due to the Z-source network (ZSN), the ZSRC inherently performs PFC and regulate the system output voltage simultaneously, without adding extra semiconductor devices and control circuitry to the conventional WPT system such as conventional PFC converters do. In other words, the ZSN can be categorized as a family of the single-stage PFC converters. In addition, the ZSN is suitable for high-power applications since it is immune to shoot-through states, which increases reliability and adds a boost feature to the system. The ZSRC-based WPT system operating principle is described and analyzed in this paper. Simulations and experimental results based on a 1-kW prototype with 20-cm air gap between the system primary and secondary sides are presented to validate the analysis and demonstrate the effectiveness of the ZSN in the PFC of the WPT system.
An evolutionary overview of the ownership, governance and strategy of Mediobanca: from the kingmaker of Italian capitalism to a large financial conglomerate

The chapter presents the history of Mediobanca from its birth to today. This history is particularly interesting for several reasons. First, Mediobanca has for a long time been the dominant player of the national investment banking industry thanks to its links with the three largest Italian commercial banks. Furthermore, Mediobanca has played a key role in the development of the national economic system by both favouring the stability of control and supporting the growth of large national private industrial groups. Finally, the history of Mediobanca is strictly intertwined with the personality and the vision of Enrico Cuccia, one of the most influential and admired bankers of its time.
TopCom: Index for Shortest Distance Query in Directed Graph

Finding shortest distance between two vertices in a graph is an important problem due to its numerous applications in diverse domains, including geo-spatial databases, social network analysis, and information retrieval. Classical algorithms such as, Dijkstra solve this problem in polynomial time, but these algorithms cannot provide real-time response for a large number of bursty queries on a large graph. So, indexing based solutions that pre-process the graph for efficiently answering exactly or approximately a large number of distance queries in real-time are becoming increasingly popular. Existing solutions have varying performance in terms of index size, index building time, query time, and accuracy. In this work, we propose TopCom, a novel indexing-based solution for exactly answering distance queries in a directed acyclic graph DAG. Our experiments with two of the existing state-of-the-art methods IS-Label and TreeMap show the superiority of TopCom over these two methods considering scalability and query time.
Do non-monetary prices target the poor? Evidence from a field experiment in India

Monetary price subsidies are often used to increase take-up of health products, but monetary prices may screen out those with the highest returns, the poor. Using willingness to pay (WTP) data from a field experiment in India, this paper determines whether nonmonetary prices better target health products to the poor than monetary prices. It is found that monetary WTP is increasing in income and nonmonetary WTP is weakly decreasing in income. Comparing across price types, nonmonetary WTP falls relative to monetary WTP as income rises. Nonmonetary prices better target the poor than monetary prices (a larger fraction of total demand is poor).
The Cost of Foreign Exchange Intervention: Concepts and Measurement

Abstract Foreign exchange intervention led to a sizable expansion of many central banks’ balance sheets over the last decade, raising questions about the associated fiscal costs. This paper clarifies conceptual issues about how to measure these costs both from an ex-post and an ex-ante (relevant for decision making) perspective, and estimates both marginal and total costs for 73 countries over the period 2002-13. Averaging across various estimation methods, we find ex-ante marginal costs in the inter-quartile range of 2.0-5.5 percent per year for emerging market economies. Reflecting differences in the accumulation of foreign exchange, ex-ante total costs amounted to 0.2-0.7 percent of GDP per year in countries with limited intervention, while reaching 0.3-1.2 percent of GDP per year in heavy-intervening economies. These estimates indicate that fiscal costs of sustained FX intervention are not negligible.
Fractal dimensions of subfractals induced by sofic subshifts

In this paper, we will consider subfractals, defined as a subset of the attractor of hyperbolic iterated function systems, which satisfy the open set condition. The subfractals will consist of points associated with infinite strings from a sofic subshift on the symbolic space. We find that the zeros of the lower and upper topological pressure functions are lower and upper bounds, respectively, for the Hausdorff, packing, lower and upper box dimensions of the subfractal.
Supramolecular Photochemistry as a Potential Synthetic Tool: Photocycloaddition.

Photochemistry, bearing significant applications in natural and man-made events such as photosynthesis, vision, photolithography, photodynamic therapy, etc., is yet to become a common tool during the synthesis of small molecules in a laboratory. Among other rationale, the inability to influence photochemical reactions with temperature, solvent, additives, etc., dissuades chemists from employing light-initiated reactions as a routine synthetic tool. This review highlights how diverse, highly organized structures such as solvent-free crystals and water-soluble host–guest assemblies can be employed to control and manipulate photoreactions and thereby serve as an efficient tool for chemists, including those interested in synthesis. The efficacy of the media in modifying the excited-state behavior of organic molecules is illustrated with photocycloaddition in general and [2 + 2] photocycloaddition in particular, reactions widely employed in the synthesis of complex natural products as well as highly constraine...
Deconvolution of Ensemble Chromatin Interaction Data Reveals the Latent Mixing Structures in Cell Subpopulations

Chromosome conformation capture (3C) experiments provide a window into the spatial packing of a genome in three dimensions within the cell. This structure has been shown to be correlated with gene regulation, cancer mutations, and other genomic functions. However, 3C provides mixed measurements on a population of typically millions of cells, each with a different genome structure due to the fluidity of the genome and differing cell states. Here, we present several algorithms to deconvolve these measured 3C matrices into estimations of the contact matrices for each subpopulation of cells and relative densities of each subpopulation. We formulate the problem as that of choosing matrices and densities that minimize the Frobenius distance between the observed 3C matrix and the weighted sum of the estimated subpopulation matrices. Results on HeLa 5C and mouse and bacteria Hi-C data demonstrate the methods' effectiveness. We also show that domain boundaries from deconvolved matrices are often more enriched or depleted for regulatory chromatin markers when compared to boundaries from convolved matrices.
The role of intraperitoneal chemotherapy in ovarian cancer.

Although intraperitoneal drug delivery as therapy of ovarian cancer has been employed for more than three decades, it is only over the past 10 years that a solid rationale for this therapeutic strategy in the management of ovarian cancer has been critically defined [1,2]. The basic goal of intraperitoneal cytotoxic drug administration is to expose tumor present in the body compartment to higher concentrations of drug for longer periods of time (increase both in peak concentrations and in area under the concentration-versus-time curve (AUC)) over that which could be accomplished if the same or similar drugs are delivered systemically.
Transethnic Genetic-Correlation Estimates from Summary Statistics

The increasing number of genetic association studies conducted in multiple populations provides an unprecedented opportunity to study how the genetic architecture of complex phenotypes varies between populations, a problem important for both medical and population genetics. Here, we have developed a method for estimating the transethnic genetic correlation: the correlation of causal-variant effect sizes at SNPs common in populations. This methods takes advantage of the entire spectrum of SNP associations and uses only summary-level data from genome-wide association studies. This avoids the computational costs and privacy concerns associated with genotype-level information while remaining scalable to hundreds of thousands of individuals and millions of SNPs. We applied our method to data on gene expression, rheumatoid arthritis, and type 2 diabetes and overwhelmingly found that the genetic correlation was significantly less than 1. Our method is implemented in a Python package called Popcorn.
How secure and quick is QUIC?: provable security and performance analyses

QUIC is a secure transport protocol developed by Google and implemented in Chrome in 2013, currently representing one of the most promising solutions to decreasing latency while intending to provide security properties similar with TLS. In this work we shed some light on QUIC's strengths and weaknesses in terms of its provable security and performance guarantees in the presence of attackers. We introduce a security model for analyzing performance-driven protocols like QUIC and prove that QUIC satisfies our definition under reasonable assumptions on the protocol's building blocks. Our analyses also reveal that with simple replay and manipulation attacks on some public parameters exchanged during the handshake, an adversary could easily prevent QUIC from achieving minimal latency by causing connection failure, probably resulting in fallback to TLS.
Savoir scientifique, politiques gouvernementales et démocratie : survol des perspectives

L’effet du savoir scientifique sur un ensemble de valeurs, definies de facon plutot vague, que l’on designe sous le nom de « democratie », continue de susciter des passions et des analyses, comme en temoignent les revendications populaires en faveur d’une plus grande participation de la population aux processus de prises de decision relatives aux dossiers scientifiques. De telles revendications soulignent l’importance du debat politique dans des domaines qui furent jusqu’ici reserves a la recherche scientifique. Cependant, un debat eclaire ne peut avoir lieu que dans la mesure ou les participants ont une certaine competence dans le domaine technique, ne serait-ce que pour pouvoir evaluer les « imperatifs techniques » des choix reels qui se posent. Le savoir scientifique — tout comme la terre, la force de travail et le capital — constitue une ressource, voire une marchandise. La possibilite d’utiliser et de controler cette ressource a des consequences importantes sur la distribution du pouvoir politique dans les societes democratiques.
Highly Regio- and Diastereoselective Formation of Tetrasubstituted (Z)-1,2-Dihaloalkenes from the Halogenation of Trimethylsilyl Alkynes with ICl

The stereoselective anti addition of diatomic halogens to alkynes has been well studied. A method is reported that utilizes the β-silyl effect to override this typically observed anti selectivity and provides halogenation products that result from syn addition. The reaction involves the addition of iodine monochloride to trialkylsilyl-substituted alkynes to produce tetrasubstituted (Z)-dihaloalkenes in good to excellent yields and with excellent regio- and diastereoselectivity.
Non-malleable extractors: new tools and improved constructions

A non-malleable extractor is a seeded extractor with a very strong guarantee -- the output of a non-malleable extractor obtained using a typical seed is close to uniform even conditioned on the output obtained using any other seed. The first contribution of this paper consists of two new and improved constructions of non-malleable extractors: We construct a non-malleable extractor with seed-length O(log n · log log n) that works for entropy Ω(log n). This improves upon a recent exciting construction by Chattopadhyay, Goyal, and Li (STOC'16) that has seed length O(log2 n) and requires entropy Ω(log2 n). Secondly, we construct a non-malleable extractor with optimal seed length O(log n) for entropy n/polylog n. Prior to this construction, non-malleable extractors with a logarithmic seed length, due to Li (FOCS'12), required entropy 0.49n. Even non-malleable condensers with seed length O(log n), by Li (STOC'12), could only support linear entropy. We further devise several tools for enhancing a given non-malleable extractor in a black-box manner. One such tool is an algorithm that reduces the entropy requirement of a non-malleable extractor at the expense of a slightly longer seed. A second algorithm increases the output length of a non-malleable extractor from constant to linear in the entropy of the source. We also devise an algorithm that transforms a non-malleable extractor to the so-called t-non-malleable extractor for any desired t. Besides being useful building blocks for our constructions, we consider these modular tools to be of independent interest.
Resistant trichomoniasis in the female.

Every physician who treats women is plagued with cases of resistant and recurrent trichomoniasis. The factors responsible for the resistance to therapy and the recurrences after successful treatments are not always clear. Perhaps if we could find the few missing links in the etiology and the life cyle of the Trichomonas, our understanding would be more complete. My colleagues and I believe that trichomoniasis is commoner in women than in men and that the infection is frequently transmitted by sexual intercourse. The disease may be asymptomatic, and both men and women can be carriers. Exacerbations could be precipitated in part by a change in the accompanying bacterial flora. Of the vaginal discharges in women, 50% harbor Trichomonas vaginalis. Recent reports on nonspecific male infections harboring Trichomonas reveal incidences of 12% to 15% (Durel and associates, Allison, Feo, and others). At times, the Trichomonas organisms are difficult to find and can
Emissions From a Diesel Engine Operating in a Dual-Fuel Mode Using Port-Fuel Injection of Heated Hydrous Ethanol

Aftermarket dual-fuel injection systems in diesel engines using hydrous ethanol have been developed as a means to lower emissions from older diesel-powered equipment. However, our previous work has shown that the emissions benefits of currently available aftermarket intake fumigation injection systems can be inconsistent with manufacturer claims. Our current study evaluates a newly developed aftermarket dual fuel system that incorporates a novel fuel heating system and port fuel injection (PFI). This paper describes an experimental investigation of engine-out emissions from a John Deere 4045HF475 Tier 2 engine with port injection of 180 proof (90% ethanol by volume) hydrous ethanol. The engine was retrofitted with a custom fuel heat exchanger to heat the hydrous ethanol to a range of 46–79°C for helping to improve fuel vaporization in the intake port. PFI duration was controlled using engine speed and throttle position as inputs to achieve a desired fumigant energy fraction (FEF), defined as the amount of energy provided by the hydrous ethanol based on lower heating value (LHV) over the total fuel energy provided to the engine. Data was collected over a range of FEF with direct injected diesel for eight operating modes comparing heated versus unheated hydrous ethanol. Results of the study indicate that as FEF increases, NO emissions decrease, while NO2, CO, THC, and ethanol emissions increase. In addition, it was found that preheating the ethanol using engine coolant prior to injection has little benefit on engine-out emissions. The work shows that the implemented aftermarket dual-fuel PFI system can achieve FEF rates up to 37% at low engine load while yielding modest benefits in emissions.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
Tobacco regulation and cost-benefit analysis: How should we value foregone consumer surplus?

Recent tobacco regulations proposed by the Food and Drug Administration have raised a thorny question: how should the cost-benefit analysis accompanying such policies value foregone consumer surplu...
Network protocols for the cellular packet switch

Future wireless information networks will employ dense grids of base stations to support a high user population. While small cells mitigate capacity problems, lengthen battery life, and improve signal quality, the frequent movement of users across cell boundaries imposes new burdens on network controllers. Previous work suggests that a cellular packet switch, based on distributed network control, can support high density personal communications. This paper proposes an allocation of control functions to elements of the cellular packet switch and specifies the flow of information within the switch. Message flows, defined for key procedures, form the foundation of a network layer protocol. Functionality is divided into the categories of call processing (set up and release), mobility management (location updates, handover, and path optimization), and radio resource management. Central office switches perform call processing. Mobility management and radio resource management are performed by interface units of the metropolitan area network at the heart of the cellular packet switch. This architecture delivers advanced services with minimal impact on central office switch software. It also relies on distributed, rather than centralized mobility management to provide prompt, accurate communications as users move about. >
Cooperative research and technology transfer

The Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) is a cooperative effort of US and Canadian companies to strengthen and maintain the vitality and competitive ability of the semiconductor industry. In 1990, the SRC funded over 81 research contracts ranging in size from $30 thousand to $1.5 million per year. These contracts define 290 separate research tasks and involve 69 different research organizations, most of which are universities. The researchers themselves are the most important element of the program. At present there are 337 faculty members and over 600 students participating. >
Health Care Human Factors/Ergonomics Fieldwork in Home and Community Settings

Designing innovations aligned with patients’ needs and workflows requires human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) fieldwork in home and community settings. Fieldwork in these extra-institutional settings is challenged by a need to balance the occasionally competing priorities of patient and informal caregiver participants, study team members, and the overall project. We offer several strategies that HF/E professionals can use before, during, and after home and community site visits to optimize fieldwork and mitigate challenges in these settings. Strategies include interacting respectfully with participants, documenting the visit, managing the study team–participant relationship, and engaging in dialogue with institutional review boards.
The health capability paradigm and the right to health care in the United States

Against a backdrop of non-ideal political and legal conditions, this article examines the health capability paradigm and how its principles can help determine what aspects of health care might legitimately constitute positive health care rights-and if indeed human rights are even the best approach to equitable health care provision. This article addresses the long American preoccupation with negative rights rather than positive rights in health care. Positive health care rights are an exception to the overall moral range and general thrust of U.S. legal doctrine. Some positive rights to health care have arisen from U.S. Constitutional Eighth Amendment cases and federal and state laws like Medicare, Medicaid, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Finally, this article discusses some of the difficulties inherent in implementing a positive right to health care in the U.S.
Social Learning Over Weakly Connected Graphs

In this paper, we study diffusion social learning over weakly connected graphs. We show that the asymmetric flow of information hinders the learning abilities of certain agents regardless of their local observations. Under some circumstances that we clarify in this paper, a scenario of total influence (or “mind-control”) arises where a set of influential agents ends up shaping the beliefs of noninfluential agents. We derive useful closed-form expressions that characterize this influence, and which can be used to motivate design problems to control it. We provide simulation examples to illustrate the results.
Energy efficiency in two-tiered wireless sensor networks

We study a two-tiered wireless sensor network (WSN) consisting of N access points (APs) and M base stations (BSs). The sensing data, which is distributed on the sensing field according to a density function f, is first transmitted to the APs and then forwarded to the BSs. Our goal is to find an optimal deployment of APs and BSs to minimize the average weighted total, or Lagrangian, of sensor and AP powers. For M = 1, we show that the optimal deployment of APs is simply a linear transformation of the optimal N-level quantizer for density f, and the sole BS should be located at the geometric centroid of the sensing field. Also, for a one-dimensional network and uniform f, we determine the optimal deployment of APs and BSs for any N and M. Moreover, to numerically optimize node deployment for general scenarios, we propose one-and two-tiered Lloyd algorithms and analyze their convergence properties. Simulation results show that, when compared to random deployment, our algorithms can save up to 79% of the power on average.
The Jilting Effect: Antecedents, Mechanisms, and Consequences for Preference

AbstractThis research explores how the experience of a jilt—the anticipation and subsequent inaccessibility of a highly desirable, aspirant option—influences preference for incumbent and non-incumbent options. The authors conceptualize jilting as a multi-stage process, which consists of a pre-jilt anticipatory phase that is initiated on the introduction of an aspirant option and a post-jilt phase that is initiated when the aspirant option becomes inaccessible. They show that during the anticipatory phase, a process of denigration specific to the incumbent option is engendered. The subsequent jilt elicits a negative emotional response. During the affectively charged post-jilt phase, preference shifts away from the now-denigrated incumbent option, yielding a jilting effect. In four field and laboratory studies, the authors establish this jilting effect, rule out alternative accounts, and discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.
The future intensification of hourly precipitation extremes

Climate change is causing increases in extreme rainfall across the United States. This study uses observations and high-resolution modelling to show that rainfall changes related to rising temperatures depend on the available atmospheric moisture. Extreme precipitation intensities have increased in all regions of the Contiguous United States (CONUS)1 and are expected to further increase with warming at scaling rates of about 7% per degree Celsius (ref. 2), suggesting a significant increase of flash flood hazards due to climate change. However, the scaling rates between extreme precipitation and temperature are strongly dependent on the region, temperature3, and moisture availability4, which inhibits simple extrapolation of the scaling rate from past climate data into the future5. Here we study observed and simulated changes in local precipitation extremes over the CONUS by analysing a very high resolution (4 km horizontal grid spacing) current and high-end climate scenario that realistically simulates hourly precipitation extremes. We show that extreme precipitation is increasing with temperature in moist, energy-limited, environments and decreases abruptly in dry, moisture-limited, environments. This novel framework explains the large variability in the observed and modelled scaling rates and helps with understanding the significant frequency and intensity increases in future hourly extreme precipitation events and their interaction with larger scales.
An elementary derivation of the Routh-Hurwitz criterion

In most undergraduate texts on control systems, the Routh-Hurwitz criterion is usually introduced as a mechanical algorithm for determining the Hurwitz stability of a real polynomial. Unlike many other stability criteria, such as the Nyquist criterion, root locus, etc., no attempt whatsoever is made to even allude to a proof of the Routh-Hurwitz criterion. Recent results using the Hermite-Biehler theorem have, however, succeeded in providing a simple derivation of Routh's algorithm for determining the Hurwitz stability or otherwise of a given real polynomial. However, this derivation fails to capture the fact that Routh's algorithm can also be used to count the number of open right half-plane roots of a given polynomial. This paper shows that by using appropriately generalized versions of the Hermite-Biehler theorem, it is possible to provide a simple derivation of the Routh-Hurwitz criterion which also captures its unstable root counting capability.
Frequency coverage properties of a uniform shrinkage prior distribution

ABSTRACTA uniform shrinkage prior (USP) distribution on the unknown variance component of a random-effects model is known to produce good frequency properties. The USP has a parameter that determines the shape of its density function, but it has been neglected whether the USP can maintain such good frequency properties regardless of the choice for the shape parameter. We investigate which choice for the shape parameter of the USP produces Bayesian interval estimates of random effects that meet their nominal confidence levels better than several existent choices in the literature. Using univariate and multivariate Gaussian hierarchical models, we show that the USP can achieve its best frequency properties when its shape parameter makes the USP behave similarly to an improper flat prior distribution on the unknown variance component.
Economic and Social Rights Fulfillment Index: Country Scores and Rankings

Building on a previously proposed methodology for an index of economic and social rights fulfillment, this article presents country scores and rankings based on the Economic and Social Rights Fulfillment Index (ESRF Index). Unlike socioeconomic indicators, which are often used as proxies for the extent to which rights-holders enjoy economic and social rights, the ESRF Index incorporates the perspective of the duty-bearer as well as the rights-holder and takes into account the principle of progressive realization. The resulting scores and rankings provide important new information that complements other measures of economic and social rights fulfillment. The ESRF Index is an important conceptual and methodological breakthrough; although it still does not capture all key human rights principles, such as the rights to participation, nondiscrimination, and equality. The article also analyzes the results of the global ranking and outlines some priorities for further research.
Multiple illumination phaseless super-resolution (MIPS) with applications to phaseless DoA estimation and diffraction imaging

Phaseless super-resolution is the problem of recovering an unknown signal from measurements of the “magnitudes” of the “low frequency” Fourier transform of the signal. This problem arises in applications where measuring the phase, and making high-frequency measurements, are either too costly or altogether infeasible. The problem is especially challenging because it combines the difficult problems of phase retrieval and classical super-resolution. Recently, the authors in [1] demonstrated that by making three phaseless low-frequency measurements, obtained by appropriately “masking” the signal, one can uniquely and robustly identify the phase using convex programming and obtain the same super-resolution performance reported in [2]. However, the masks proposed in [1] are very specific and in many applications cannot be directly implemented. In this paper, we broadly extend the class of masks that can be used to recover the phase and show how their effect can be emulated in coherent diffraction imaging using multiple illuminations, as well as in direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimation using multiple sources to excite the environment. We provide numerical simulations to demonstrate the efficacy of the method and approach.
Automatic versus Manual Segmentation of Choroidal Neovascularization Lesions Using Optical Coherence Tomography

1.1.Purpose: To measure and quantify choroidal neovascularization (CNV) lesion size in classic lesions visualized on Spectral Domain-Optical Coherence Tomography (SD-OCT) using automated segmentation analysis and confirm whether further refinement improves the accuracy of disease regression after loading dose Anti-VEGF injections. 1.2.Methodology: A retrospective study of 10 macular degeneration patients diagnosed with CNV. Blinded observers, trained to detect changes on OCT, delineated boundaries of CNV lesions using SD-OCT (Topcon 2000) with automated software and then modified segmentation manually before and after loading dose Ranbizumab injections. Automated measurements were then compared to manual segmentation values. Statistical analysis was performed, taking into account inter-observer variability. 1.3.Results: Automatic and manual segmentation measurements are similar in 1) retinal area and fovea center values both pre-and post-injection; and 2) retinal volume post-injection. Retinal volume pre-injection is 1) similar between the two blinded observers; 2) varies between automatic measurements and observers in some patients; and 3) underestimated for all patients in the automatic measurements. Overall, automatic segmentation detects a general reduction in CNV lesion size following loading dose injections. 1.4.Conclusion: SD-OCT automated segmentation software detects CNV lesions and reports size reduction after the third anti-VEGF injection. SD-OCT automatic segmentation using Topcon segmentation analysis in this small cohort is an accurate diagnostic tool to measure CNV surface area and volume as a biomarker of CNV regression.
Trade Liberalization and Regional Dynamics

Abstract We study the evolution of trade liberalization's effects on Brazilian local labor markets. Regions facing larger tariff cuts experienced prolonged declines in formal sector employment and ...
Speaker-dependent multipitch tracking using deep neural networks

Multipitch tracking is important for speech and signal processing. However, it is challenging to design an algorithm that achieves accurate pitch estimation and correct speaker assignment at the same time. In this paper, deep neural networks (DNNs) are used to model the probabilistic pitch states of two simultaneous speakers. To capture speaker-dependent information, two types of DNN with different training strategies are proposed. The first is trained for each speaker enrolled in the system (speaker-dependent DNN), and the second is trained for each speaker pair (speaker-pair-dependent DNN). Several extensions, including gender-pair-dependent DNNs, speaker adaptation of gender-pair-dependent DNNs and training with multiple energy ratios, are introduced later to relax constraints. A factorial hidden Markov model (FHMM) then integrates pitch probabilities and generates the most likely pitch tracks with a junction tree algorithm. Experiments show that the proposed methods substantially outperform other speaker-independent and speaker-dependent multipitch trackers on two-speaker mixtures. With multi-ratio training, the proposed methods achieve consistent performance at various energies ratios of the two speakers in a mixture.
The Role of Psychological Connectedness to the Future Self in Decisions Over Time

What motivates people to make decisions in the present that benefit their self in the future? An emerging literature suggests that farsightedness is influenced by the degree of connection people pe...
SURGICAL PEARLS: A LIFETIME OF LESSONS LEARNED

After over 4 decades of experience with total knee arthroplasty, many lessons have been learned regarding surgical technique. These include exposure issues, alignment methods, bone preparation, correction of deformity, implantation techniques and wound closure. Where is the proper placement of the skin incision relative to the tibial tubercle? How does one safely evert the patella in the obese or ankylosed knee? Can a tibial tubercle osteotomy be avoided in the ankylosed knee? How does one protect the patellar tendon insertion from avulsing? How do you protect the soft tissues from debris and contamination and minimise the potential for infection? Can exposure be maintained if there are few surgical assistants? How do you find the lateral inferior genicular vessels and minimise postoperative bleeding? How do you know where to enter the intramedullary femoral canal for placement of the distal femoral alignment device? How can you avoid notching the anterior femoral cortex when in-between sizes or there is a pre-existing dysplastic trochlea? How can you correct a varus deformity without performing a formal MCL release? An inverted cruciform lateral retinacular release effectively corrects a severe valgus deformity and avoids the need for an LCL release. Trimming the posterior femoral condyles and removing posterior osteophytes is best accomplished using a trial femoral component as a template. Zone 4 femoral bone-cement radiolucencies can be minimised using the “smear” technique. The best indicator of potential postoperative flexion is not preoperative flexion but is intraoperative flexion against gravity measured after capsular closure.
Stimulated Raman spectroscopic imaging by microsecond delay-line tuning

Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy is a promising technique for label-free imaging of living systems. We demonstrate microsecond-scale SRS spectral imaging by tuning two spectrally focused pulses temporally through a resonant delay-line. Our platform acquired an SRS spectrum within 42 microseconds and formed a spectral image composed of 40,000 pixels in real-time.
Semidefinite relaxations for semi-infinite polynomial programming

This paper studies how to solve semi-infinite polynomial programming (SIPP) problems by semidefinite relaxation methods. We first recall two SDP relaxation methods for solving polynomial optimization problems with finitely many constraints. Then we propose an exchange algorithm with SDP relaxations to solve SIPP problems with compact index set. At last, we extend the proposed method to SIPP problems with noncompact index set via homogenization. Numerical results show that the algorithm is efficient in practice.
Deformations of symplectic vortices

We prove a gluing theorem for a symplectic vortex on a compact complex curve and a collection of holomorphic sphere bubbles. Using the theorem we show that the moduli space of regular strongly stable symplectic vortices on a fixed curve with varying markings has the structure of a stratified-smooth topological orbifold. In addition, we show that the moduli space has a non-canonical C1-orbifold structure.
A Distributed Online Pricing Strategy for Demand Response Programs

We study a demand response (DR) problem from utility (also referred to as operator)’s perspective with realistic settings, in which the utility faces uncertainty and limited communication. Specifically, the utility does not know the cost function of consumers and cannot have multiple rounds of information exchange with consumers. We formulate an optimization problem for the utility to minimize its operational cost considering time-varying DR targets and responses of consumers. We develop a joint online learning and pricing algorithm. In each time slot, the utility sends out a price signal to all consumers and estimates the cost functions of consumers based on their noisy responses. We measure the performance of our algorithm using regret analysis and show that our online algorithm achieves logarithmic regret with respect to the operating horizon. In addition, our algorithm employs linear regression to estimate the aggregate response of consumers, making it easy to implement in practice. Simulation experiments validate the theoretic results and show that the performance gap between our algorithm and the offline optimality decays quickly.
The Unreasonable Ubiquitousness of Quasi-Polynomials

A function $g$, with domain the natural numbers, is a quasi-polynomial if there exists a period $m$ and polynomials $p_0,p_1,\ldots,p_{m-1}$ such that $g(t)=p_i(t)$ for $t\equiv i\bmod m$. Quasi-polynomials classically - and "reasonably'' - appear in Ehrhart theory and in other contexts where one examines a family of polyhedra, parametrized by a variable $t$, and defined by linear inequalities of the form $a_1x_1+\cdots+a_dx_d\le b(t)$. Recent results of Chen, Li, Sam; Calegari, Walker; and Roune, Woods show a quasi-polynomial structure in several problems where the $a_i$ are also allowed to vary with $t$. We discuss these "unreasonable'' results and conjecture a general class of sets that exhibit various (eventual) quasi-polynomial behaviors: sets $S_t\subseteq\mathbb{N}^d$ that are defined with quantifiers ($\forall$, $\exists$), boolean operations (and, or, not), and statements of the form $a_1(t)x_1+\cdots+a_d(t)x_d \le b(t)$, where $a_i(t)$ and $b(t)$ are polynomials in $t$. These sets are a generalization of sets defined in the Presburger arithmetic. We prove several relationships between our conjectures, and we prove several special cases of the conjectures. The title is a play on Eugene Wigner's "The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences''.
THE INCIDENCE OF ILIOPSOAS IMPINGEMENT AFTER ANTERIOR TOTAL HIP ARTHROPLASTY

Introduction Iliopsoas impingement is a well described cause of groin pain after direct anterior total hip arthroplasty (THA). We proposed to evaluate the incidence, natural history and response to treatment of iliopsoas impingement after direct anterior total hip arthroplasty. Methods A retrospective chart review of 725 consecutive patients who underwent anterior approach total hip arthroplasty between 2009 and 2014 was conducted. All surgeries were performed by one of two surgeons. Patients were included if they underwent primary anterior approach THA and had a minimum of 2 years of follow up. Patients who had a posterior approach, revision surgery or had less than 2 years of follow up were excluded. Iliopsoas impingement was identified if patients reported groin pain at greater than 6 weeks of postoperative follow up and in association with pain with resisted seated hip flexion. The natural history and response to treatment was recorded for patients identified as having iliopsoas impingement. Results 900 patients met inclusion criteria. Of these, 120 (13.4%) developed groin pain following direct anterior total hip arthroplasty. The average time of onset was at 21 months postoperatively. At 2 years postoperatively, 16% of patients had symptoms, whereas 84% had resolution. 28% of patients responded to structured physical therapy, 22% improved with home stretching, 19% improved after arthroscopic psoas release, 9% after psoas sheath injection, and 6% required acetabular component revision. Conclusion In our study population, iliopsoas impingement is not an uncommon finding after direct anterior total hip arthroplasty, but nearly half of these patients responded well to home stretching or physical therapy. In some cases, psoas injection and arthroscopic release was necessary. Rarely, cup revision was required for symptomatic relief.
Using Student Annotated Hashtags and Emojis to Collect Nuanced Affective States

Determining affective states such as confusion from students' participation in online discussion forums can be useful for instructors of a large classroom. However, manual annotation of forum posts by instructors or paid crowd workers is both time-consuming and expensive. In this work, we harness affordances prevalent in social media to allow students to self-annotate their discussion posts with a set of hashtags and emojis, a process that is fast and cheap. For students, self-annotation with hashtags and emojis provides another channel for self-expression, as well as a way to signal to instructors and other students on the lookout for certain types of messages. This method also provides an easy way to acquire a labeled dataset of affective states, allowing us distinguish between more nuanced emotions such as confusion and curiosity. From a dataset of over 25,000 discussion posts from two courses containing self-annotated posts by students, we demonstrate how we can identify linguistic differences between posts expressing confusion versus curiosity, achieving 83% accuracy at distinguishing between the two affective states.
A Comprehensive Study of the Alteration of Ignitable Liquids by Weathering and Microbial Degradation

The differing effects of weathering and microbial degradation are described here in a comprehensive study that involved 50 different ignitable liquids from the Ignitable Liquids Database and Reference Collection. Examples of ignitable liquid residues from each of the main classes established by the American Society of Testing and Materials are presented. Weathering was accomplished via evaporation, whereas microbial degradation was carried out on soil at room temperature for periods of up to 21 days. Major trends included the rapid degradation of long n-alkanes and monosubstituted alkyl benzenes (e.g., toluene, ethylbenzene, and propylbenzene). Surprisingly, some longer branched alkanes (e.g., trimethyloctanes) were also susceptible to microbial attack. Although all ignitable liquids examined suffered at least to some extent from microbial degradation, gasoline, petroleum distillates, and oxygenates were the most susceptible. Isoparaffinic and naphthenic-paraffinic products were the most resistant to microbial degradation.
Real Options Models for Proactive Uncertainty-Reducing Mitigations and Applications in Cybersecurity Investment Decision Making

Managerial flexibility, or real options, embedded in information technology IT investments allows resolving uncertainty not only by passively waiting for new information to arrive during deferral but also by proactively deploying mitigations. Classic real options models fail to account for the value of proactive uncertainty-reducing mitigations, since they assume that uncertainty is fixed or follows a continuous, time-dependent dynamics. We present adaptations of these models that address this shortcoming. In our models, zero or more mitigations can be applied in varying sequences, mitigations have impulse-type effects on uncertainty reduction, and mitigations' effects can be complementary, substitutive, or synergetic. These traits make the value of mitigations path dependent and conditional on the uncertainty-reduction ability of earlier deployed mitigations. We operationalize the effects of mitigations in the IT and cybersecurity investment contexts. We also apply the adapted models to a real-world cybersecurity investment case from a Japanese company. Investments in multiple cybersecurity mitigations are typically treated as having a multiplicative effect that leads to overinvestment in mitigations. Our models avoid this problem, permitting to lower cybersecurity costs without compromising on loss prevention. More generally, our models allow implementing the real options logic more fully by supporting both passive and proactive IT investment risk management. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0714 .
Of the People: Voting Is More Effective with Representative Candidates

In light of the classic impossibility results of Arrow and Gibbard and Satterthwaite regarding voting with ordinal rules, there has been recent interest in characterizing how well common voting rules approximate the social optimum. In order to quantify the quality of approximation, it is natural to consider the candidates and voters as embedded within a common metric space, and to ask how much further the chosen candidate is from the population as compared to the socially optimal one. We use this metric preference model to explore a fundamental and timely question: does the social welfare of a population improve when candidates are representative of the population? If so, then by how much, and how does the answer depend on the complexity of the metric space? We restrict attention to the most fundamental and common social choice setting: a population of voters, two independently drawn candidates, and a majority rule election. When candidates are not representative of the population, it is known that the candidate selected by the majority rule can be thrice as far from the population as the socially optimal one; this holds even when the underlying metric is a line. We examine how this ratio improves when candidates are drawn independently from the population of voters. Our results are two-fold: When the metric is a line, the ratio improves from 3 to 4-2 √2}, roughly 1.1716; this bound is tight. When the metric is arbitrary, we show a lower bound of 1.5 and a constant upper bound strictly better than 2 on the approximation ratio of the majority rule. The positive result depends in part on the assumption that candidates are independent and identically distributed. However, we show that independence alone is not enough to achieve the upper bound: even when candidates are drawn independently, if the population of candidates can be different from the voters, then an upper bound of 2 on the approximation is tight. Thus, we show a constant gap between representative and non-representative candidates.