cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Impact of Head Start Quality on Children’s Developmental Outcomes

This study examines Head Start's impact on children's cognitive and social-emotional outcomes by considering the quality of Head Start and heterogeneity in types of care received by the control group. The questions addressed in this article are (1) Do children who attended high-quality Head Start programs have better outcomes than those in low-quality Head Start, home-based, or center-based care and (2) Do child and family characteristics and overall quality affect child outcomes? This study found that high-quality Head Start children had higher cognitive scores than children in low quality Head Start or center-based care. Child and family characteristics and overall quality moderated the effects of type of care on children's cognitive and social-emotional outcomes.
Stabilization Programs and External Enforcement : Experience From the 1920's

Credibility and financing problems are important reasons why countries may seek to involve external institutions in the design and implementation of stabilization programs. In particular, governments may rely on external institutions to ‘enforce’ programs that would otherwise lack credibility. This paper analyzes six European currency stabilizations sponsored by the League of Nations in the 1920s. It emphasizes the means by which the League provided a ‘commitment technology’ and enforced compliance, thereby helping to ensure successful stabilizations. Empirical evidence indicates that countries with greater credibility problems relied more heavily on external enforcement to stabilize their currencies.
Experienced harms from substance use among college students: A latent class analysis

ABSTRACTMany college students experience personal consequences from their own substance use as well as secondhand effects resulting from other students’ substance use. Our study identifies meaningf...
Continental-Margin Processes Recorded in Shelf and Canyon Sediments. Sediment Deposition, Erosion and Accumulation on a Tidal Flat Adjacent to a River Mouth

Abstract : The ultimate goal of the work in the Gulf of Lions is to understand the relationships between sediment transport and accumulation in shelf and slope environments, and how they lead to the formation and preservation of sedimentary strata in the seabed. The goal of the tidal-flats project during the first year was to help plan a DRI study of Korean and US intertidal sedimentation. The objectives of research during FY07 were to: (1) complete lab analyses and write papers about: Rhone flood deposits, the Gulf of Lions mid-shelf mud deposit, off-shelf transport, and submarine-canyon sedimentation: (2) publish the STRATAFORM Master Volume (results are summarized under Work Completed); and (3) help with planning the Tidal Flats DRI (results are summarized under Work Completed).
Rate-Invariant Autoencoding of Time-Series

For time-series classification and retrieval applications, an important requirement is to develop representations/metrics that are robust to re-parametrization of the time-axis. Temporal re-parametrization as a model can account for variability in the underlying generative process, sampling rate variations, or plain temporal mis-alignment. In this paper, we extend prior work in disentangling latent spaces of autoencoding models, to design a novel architecture to learn rate-invariant latent codes in a completely unsupervised fashion. Unlike conventional neural network architectures, this method allows to explicitly disentangle temporal parameters in the form of order-preserving diffeomorphisms with respect to a learnable template. This makes the latent space more easily interpretable. We show the efficacy of our approach on a synthetic dataset and a real dataset for hand action-recognition.
Voluntary Exposure to Political Fact Checks

For political fact-checking enterprises to be effective, two conditions must be met. Voters must be interested in fact-checks, and the fact-checks must encourage voters to reevaluate their beliefs....
Trauma as an Entry Point to the Health Care System.

This study examines unmanaged chronic medical and psychiatric conditions in hospitalized trauma patients.
Gene characterization and expression of the γδ T cell co-receptor WC1 in sheep.

Abstract Sheep are known to express the hybrid co-receptor/pattern recognition receptor WC1 on their γδ T cells but details of the ovine WC1 multigenic array and gene expression were unknown. Annotation of the sheep genome assembly (Oar_rambouillet_v1.0) yielded 15 complete and 42 partial WC1 genes predicted to code for six different protein structures. RT-PCR amplification of the most distal scavenger receptor cysteine rich (SRCR) domain known as a1, which serves as the gene signature, from genomic and cDNA templates verified the majority of annotated genes. As for cattle and goats, sheep a1 domain sequences included WC1.1 and WC1.2 types. A unique ovine gene, WC1-16, had multiple SRCR a-pattern domains in tandem similar to one found in goats. Intracytoplasmic domains of WC1 transcripts had splice variants that may affect signal transduction. The larger number of WC1 genes in sheep and differences in structures and splice variants relative to cattle could have implications in expression patterns and engagement of γδ T cells by pathogens or vaccine constructs.
In Your Capable Hands: Ethical Practice, Bias Mitigation, and Care for Children Who Rely on Chronic Mechanical Ventilation.

Abstract Nurses encounter constraints, pressures and complexity in patient care which may increase reliance on implicit bias -- unconscious, mental shortcuts which shape attitudes and behavior (Kahneman, 2011). These cognitive shortcuts save time, but if unexamined, can undermine the ethical commitment to “respect…the inherent dignity, worth, unique attributes, and human rights of all individuals,” (ANA Code, 2015, p.1). This is especially concerning when considering vulnerable populations, such as families with children who are dependent on tracheostomy and mechanical ventilation (trach-vent-dependent). Studies of parent caregivers of children who are trach-vent-dependent raise questions of whether implicit bias contributes to the stigmatization these families experience. Practical strategies to activate the Code of Ethics with Interpretive Statements can mitigate the risks of stigmatization and vulnerability, resulting in improved shared decision making and care for these patients and families. An objective tool to guide patient- and family-centered inquiry and care can anchor nurses' ethical practice.
Sleep and Activity Patterns Are Altered During Early Critical Illness in Mechanically Ventilated Adults.

Background Mechanically ventilated (MV) patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) often experience disturbed sleep and profound inactivity. Objectives The aim of this study was to report 5 consecutive days' descriptive analyses on sleep efficiency (SE), total sleep time (TST), daytime activity ratio (DAR), and hourly activity counts among critically ill MV adults from 9 ICUs across 2 hospitals. Methods A secondary analysis was undertaken from our parent National Institutes of Health-funded randomized controlled trial (NIH R01 NR016702). Subjects included 31 critically ill patients from multiple ICUs. Wrist actigraphy estimated SE and TST. Mean DAR, an indicator of altered sleep-wake cycles, was calculated. Continuous 24-hour activity counts over 5 consecutive days were summarized. Descriptive analyses were used. Results A total of 31 subjects with complete actigraphy data were included. Mean age was 59.6 (SD, 17.3) years; 41.9% were male; 83.9% were White, and 67.7% were Hispanic/Latino; and the mean APACHE III (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation III) severity of illness score was 74.5 (SD, 25.5). The mean nighttime SE and TST over the 5-day ICU period were 83.1% (SD, 16.14%) and 6.6 (SD, 1.3) hours, respectively. The mean DAR over the 5-day ICU period was 66.5% (SD, 19.2%). The DAR surpassed 80% on only 17.5% of subject days. The majority of subjects' activity level was low, falling below 1000 activity counts per hour. Conclusion Our study revealed poor rest-activity cycle consolidation among critically ill MV patients during the early ICU period. Future interventional studies should promote quality sleep at nighttime and promote mobilization during the daytime.
Enabling Cost-Effective Screening for Antimicrobials against Listeria monocytogenes in Ham.

ABSTRACT Ready-to-eat meat products, such as deli ham, can support the growth of Listeria monocytogenes (LM), which can cause severe illness in immunocompromised individuals. The objectives of this study were to validate a miniature ham model (MHM) against the ham slice method and to screen antimicrobial combinations to control LM on ham by using response surface methology (RSM) as a time- and cost-effective high-throughput screening tool. The effect of nisin (Ni), potassium lactate and sodium diacetate, lauric arginate (LAG), lytic bacteriophage (P100), and e-polylysine (EPL) added alone, or in combination, were determined on the MHM over 12 days of storage. Results showed the MHM accurately mimics the ham slice method because no statistical differences were found (P = 0.526) in the change of LM cell counts in MHM and slice counts after 12 days of storage at 4°C for treated and untreated hams. The MHM was then used to screen antimicrobial combinations by using an on-face design and three center points in a central composite design. The RSM was tested by using a cocktail of five LM strains isolated from foodborne disease outbreaks. Three levels of the previously mentioned antimicrobials were used in combination for a total of 28 runs performed in triplicate. The change of LM cell counts were determined after 12 days of storage at 4°C. All tested antimicrobials were effective on reducing LM cell counts on ham when added alone. A significant antagonistic interaction (P = 0.002) was identified by the RSM between LAG and P100, where this antimicrobial combination caused a 2.2-log CFU/g change of LM cell counts after 12 days of storage. Two interactions, between Ni and EPL (P = 0.058), and Ni and P100 (P = 0.068), showed possible synergistic effects against LM on the MHM. Other interactions were clearly nonsignificant, suggesting additive effects. In future work, the developed MHM in combination with RSM can be used as a high-throughput method to analyze novel antimicrobial treatments against LM. HIGHLIGHTS
New START: Viable framework for modernization or past tense?

The United States and Russia must take the decision to extend the New START nuclear arms control treaty for five years by February, 2021 or the agreement will expire. Extension of New START will te...
‘Phrenology as global science, as race science’

In Materials of the Mind: Phrenology, Race and the Global History of Science, 1815-1920, James Poskett follows the fabrication and circulation of objects associated with the ‘most popular mental sc...
Process Engineering & Fabrication

A manufacturer of spiral freezers, which allow food manufacturers to replace a batch freezing process with single piece flow in a fraction of the space, reviews the economics of replacing a batch freezing process with a spiral freezer for a customer. The case enables students to demonstrate an understanding of process analysis, bottlenecks, and Little's Law in the context of an economic cost/benefit analysis. Excerpt UVA-OM-1418 May 5, 2011 Process Engineering & Fabrication As he drove his son to soccer practice, Bob Amacker pondered something else entirely: how to convince a potential customer in New York City, Mamita's Ices, that it ought to purchase an industrial freezer from a company he had recently acquired outside Charlottesville, Virginia, Process Engineering & Fabrication (PEF). PEF built customized spiral cooling solutions for food processing lines. Amacker knew that Mamita's Ices would purchase a freezer only if he could present a compelling argument that it would be cost effective and provide an adequate return on investment. So while his son practiced on the pitch, he would work to quantify his. Company Background Charles E. Marckel, an entrepreneur who had previously worked for ConAgra Foods, started PEF in 1969; the company bloomed during its early years and, after 30 years of business, reached $ 5 million in revenue. In 2005, Marckel decided to sell the company and retire. Two investors from Alabama bought it, only to lose control and focus and come close to bankrupting it within three years. Marckel bought the company back to save it and then decided to sell it again. Amacker, confident that he had the skills to turn the situation around, purchased the company in 2009, even though annual sales had dropped to about $ 750,000. . . .
Cuboid Sling: A Novel Surgical Repair of Cuboid Syndrome and Literature Review

Abstract Cuboid syndrome is a poorly understood and defined condition of which diagnosis is reliant on clinical findings. Patients often present with acute or insidious onset of lateral column pain and difficulty ambulating. While conservative measures including cuboid manipulation, taping, bracing, and orthotics provide many with relief, surgical intervention is sometimes warranted. We describe a novel surgical approach to recreate the dorsal calcaneocuboid ligament using fibertape without relying on the patient's native ligament or graft tissue.
Qualitative probabilistic networks for planning under uncertainty

Bayesian networks provide a probabilistic semantics for qualitative assertions about likelihood. A qualitative reasoner based on an algebra over these assertions can derive further conclusions about the influence of actions. While the conclusions are much weaker than those computed from complete probability distributions, they are still valuable for suggesting potential actions, eliminating obviously inferior plans, identifying important tradeoffs, and explaining probabilistic models.
Optimal random sampling from distributed streams revisited

We give an improved algorithm for drawing a random sample from a large data stream when the input elements are distributed across multiple sites which communicate via a central coordinator. At any point in time the set of elements held by the coordinator represent a uniform random sample from the set of all the elements observed so far. When compared with prior work, our algorithms asymptotically improve the total number of messages sent in the system as well as the computation required of the coordinator. We also present a matching lower bound, showing that our protocol sends the optimal number of messages up to a constant factor with large probability. As a byproduct, we obtain an improved algorithm for finding the heavy hitters across multiple distributed sites.
Sensation, Assessment of

A multitude of methods for evaluating sensory nerves and function have been devised, ranging from simple bedside measures of minimal perception to skin or nerve biopsies. Some depend on subject cooperation or attention, such as bedside tests and quantitative assessments of vibration, temperature, or pain perception. Electrodiagnostic testing and evoked potentials record directly from neurological systems and provide physiological data. Skin or nerve biopsies allow quantification of nerves and may provide additional pathological information.
Resynthesis of Combinational Circuits for Path Count Reduction and for Path Delay Fault Testability

Path delay fault model is the most suitable model for detecting distributed manufacturing defects which can cause delay faults. However, the number of paths in a modern design can be extremely large and the path delay testability of many practical designs is very low. In this paper we show how to resynthesize a combinational circuit in order to reduce the total number of paths in the circuit. Our results show that it is possible to obtain circuits with a significant reduction in the number of paths while not increasing area and/or delay of the longest sensitizable path in the circuit. Research on path delay testing shows that in many circuits a large portion of paths does not have a test that can guarantee detection of a delay fault. The path delay testability of a circuit would increase if the number of such paths is reduced. We show that addition of a small number of test points into the circuit can help reducing the number of such paths in the given design.
ICRF antenna matching systems with ferrite tuners for the Alcator C-Mod tokamak

Abstract Real-time fast ferrite tuning (FFT) has been successfully implemented on the ICRF antennas on Alcator C-Mod. The former prototypical FFT system on the E-port 2-strap antenna has been upgraded using new ferrite tuners. A new FFT system with two ferrite tuners and one fixed-length stub has been installed on the transmission line of the D-port 2-strap antenna. These two systems are able to achieve and maintain the reflected power to the transmitters to less than 1% in real time under almost all plasma conditions and help ensure reliable high power operation of the antennas. The loading insensitivity feature vs. plasma conditions of the innovative field-aligned (FA) 4-strap antenna on the J-port allows us to significantly improve the matching by installing a carefully designed stub on each of the two transmission lines. The reduction of the RF voltages in the transmission lines has enabled the J-port FA antenna to deliver 3.7 MW RF power to plasmas out of 4 MW source power. The matching on the J-port antenna can be further improved by adding a single ferrite tuner under real-time control on each transmission line and this scheme will be implemented in the near future.
The enumerative geometry of K3 surfaces and modular forms

We prove the conjectures of Yau-Zaslow and Gottsche concerning the number curves on K3 surfaces. Specifically, let X be a K3 surface and C be a holomorphic curve in X representing a primitive homology class. We count the number of curves of geometric genus g with n nodes passing through g generic points in X in the linear system |C| for any g and n satisfying C^2=2g+2n-2. When g=0, this coincides with the enumerative problem studied by Yau and Zaslow who obtained a conjectural generating function for the numbers. Recently, Gottsche has generalized their conjecture to arbitrary g in terms of quasi-modular forms. We prove these formulas using Gromov-Witten invariants for families, a degeneration argument, and an obstruction bundle computation. Our methods also apply to P^2 blown up at 9 points where we show that the ordinary Gromov-Witten invariants of genus g constrained to g points are also given in terms of quasi-modular forms.
Davis Smart Mobility Model Project: Initial Scoping and Planning Study

CALIFORNIA PATH PROGRAM INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORTATION STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Davis Smart Mobility Model Project: Initial Scoping and Planning Study Susan A. Shaheen, Rachel S. Finson California PATH Research Report UCB-ITS-PRR-2003-21 This work was performed as part of the California PATH Program of the University of California, in cooperation with the State of California Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency, Department of Transportation; and the United States Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the State of California. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation. Final Report for Task Order 4144 June 2003 ISSN 1055-1425 CALIFORNIA PARTNERS FOR ADVANCED TRANSIT AND HIGHWAYS
Ontology-driven automatic entity disambiguation in unstructured text

Precisely identifying entities in web documents is essential for document indexing, web search and data integration. Entity disambiguation is the challenge of determining the correct entity out of various candidate entities. Our novel method utilizes background knowledge in the form of a populated ontology. Additionally, it does not rely on the existence of any structure in a document or the appearance of data items that can provide strong evidence, such as email addresses, for disambiguating person names. Originality of our method is demonstrated in the way it uses different relationships in a document as well as from the ontology to provide clues in determining the correct entity. We demonstrate the applicability of our method by disambiguating names of researchers appearing in a collection of DBWorld posts using a large scale, real-world ontology extracted from the DBLP bibliography website. The precision and recall measurements provide encouraging results.
Bounds on the power of constant-depth quantum circuits

We show that if a language is recognized within certain error bounds by constant-depth quantum circuits over a finite family of gates, then it is computable in (classical) polynomial time. In particular, for 0<e≤δ≤ 1, we define BQNC$^{0}_{\epsilon ,\delta}$ to be the class of languages recognized by constant depth, polynomial-size quantum circuits with acceptance probability either <e (for rejection) or ≥δ (for acceptance). We show that BQNC$^{0}_{\epsilon ,\delta} \subseteq $P, provided that 1 – δ ≤ 2−2d(1–e), where d is the circuit depth. On the other hand, we adapt and extend ideas of Terhal & DiVincenzo [1] to show that, for any family $\mathcal{F}$ of quantum gates including Hadamard and CNOT gates, computing the acceptance probabilities of depth-five circuits over $\mathcal{F}$ is just as hard as computing these probabilities for arbitrary quantum circuits over $\mathcal{F}$. In particular, this implies that NQNC0 = NQACC = NQP = coC=P , where NQNC0 is the constant-depth analog of the class NQP. This essentially refutes a conjecture of Green et al. that NQACC ⊆ TC0 [2].
A dimeric PR-1-type pathogenesis-related protein interacts with ToxA and potentially mediates ToxA-induced necrosis in sensitive wheat.

Summary A dimeric PR-1-type pathogenesis-related protein (PR-1-5), recently identified in wheat, was found to interact with Stagonospora nodorum ToxA in both yeast two-hybrid and co-immunoprecipitation assays. Site-specific mutational analyses revealed that the RGD motif of ToxA is not targeted by PR-1-5, whereas two surface-exposed asparagine residues are essential for the interaction: the N102 residue of the turning loop between β2 and β3 in ToxA and the N141 residue of the turning loop between βC and βD in PR-1-5. Recombinant PR-1-5 and ToxA mutant proteins carrying alanine substitutions at the interacting sites were expressed in Pichia pastoris, together with the wild-type proteins. Native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) confirmed that the PR-1-5-N141A mutant retains the ability to form dimers. Plant assays indicated that the ToxA-N102A mutant fails to induce necrosis, whereas the PR-1-5-N141A mutant is impaired in the ‘necrosis-promoting’ activity shown by the wild-type PR-1-5 when co-infiltrated with ToxA in sensitive wheat. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analyses revealed that the native PR-1-5 protein is differentially expressed between ToxA-sensitive and ToxA-insensitive wheat lines in response to ToxA treatment. These results suggest that PR-1-5 is a potential target of ToxA and the site-specific interaction between PR-1-5 and ToxA may mediate ToxA-induced necrosis in sensitive wheat.
On the (Im)Possibility of Key Dependent Encryption

We study the possibility of constructing encryption schemes secure under messages that are chosen depending on the key k of the encryption scheme itself. We give the following separation results that hold both in the private and in the public key settings: Let $\mathcal{H}$ be the family of poly(n )-wise independent hash-functions. There exists no fully-black-box reduction from an encryption scheme secure against key-dependent messages to one-way permutations (and also to families of trapdoor permutations) if the adversary can obtain encryptions of h (k ) for $h \in \mathcal{H}$. There exists no reduction from an encryption scheme secure against key-dependent messages to, essentially, any cryptographic assumption, if the adversary can obtain an encryption of g (k ) for an arbitrary g , as long as the reduction's proof of security treats both the adversary and the function g as black boxes.
Residuals in Structural Equation, Factor Analysis, and Path Analysis Models

Residuals are defined for structural equation, factor analysis, and path analysis models. Their defining equations are given and it is pointed out how they can be obtained in empirical contexts. The different types of residuals are particularly useful when examining local goodness of fit for those models. Keywords: covariance; mean structural models; goodness of fit; residuals
Generation and Solution of Effective Many-Body Hamiltonians for Rare Earth and Transition Metal Compounds

Effective Hamiltonians offer a realistic and practical approach to the representation of low-lying electronic excitations in strongly correlated charge transfer insulators, such as the high-Tc parent La2CuO4. Not only do such Hamiltonians minimize the required number of orbital degrees of freedom, but it is suggested that the fundamental problem of charged excitations in these materials may be folded into renormalized Hamiltonian parameters which already reflect solid state screening, and that such parameters may easily be obtained from constrained local density functional calculations. Beneficial consequences of the renormalization include reasonable insulating gaps already from the Hartree-Fock one-electron spectra, and a restriction of configuration interaction to those essential correlations associated with the spin degrees of freedom. In large periodic clusters where states have well characterized crystal momentum, such spin correlations in the vicinity of particles doped into the parent insulator are still reminiscent of the total spin eigenstates found in impurity model solutions.
Readers behaving badly: reader revocation in PKI-based RFID systems

Recent emergence of RFID tags capable of performing public key operations motivates new RFID applications, including electronic travel documents, identification cards and payment instruments. In this context, public key certificates form the cornerstone of the overall system security. In this paper, we argue that one of the prominent challenges is how to handle revocation and expiration checking of RFID reader certificates. This is an important issue considering that these high-end RFID tags are geared for applications such as e-documents and contactless payment instruments. Furthermore, the problem is unique to public key-based RFID systems, since a passive RFID tag has no clock and thus cannot use (time-based) off-line methods. In this paper, we address the problem of reader certificate expiration and revocation in PKI-Based RFID systems. We begin by observing an important distinguishing feature of personal RFID tags used in authentication, access control or payment applications - the involvement of a human user. We take advantage of the user's awareness and presence to construct a simple, efficient, secure and (most importantly) feasible solution. We evaluate the usability and practical security of our solution via user studies and discuss its feasibility.
How to Interpret an Interferogram

This paper presents a method of interferogram reduction for reflected wavefront profiles measuring surface shape, transmitted wavefront profiles combining surface and homogeneity effects, surface irregularities or gradient errors per unit of clear aperture at normal incidence, and parallelism or wedge angle. Also included are several testing methods.
Reaching through the genome.

Abstract Advances in genomics research have called forth new strategies for patenting DNA sequences. Gene patenting, which began inconspicuously in the early days of the biotechnology industry in the 1970s and 1980s, did not generate significant public controversy until the advent of high-throughput DNA sequencing in the 1990s. 1 By this point, it was such a well-established practice 2 that categorical challenges to the patentability of DNA seemed quaint and out of touch. Yet something was plainly different. In the early days, patenting genes looked like patenting drugs. By the early 1990s, it looked more like patenting scientific information. We have a reasonably clear story about why we should issue patents on drugs; the case for issuing patents on scientific information is less clear. Patents on research discoveries arising far upstream from end-product development threaten the interests of research scientists, who fear impediments to the free use and dissemination of new discoveries, and of downstream product developers, who fear that they will be foreclosed from pursuing certain research and development (R&D) pathways or that their profits will be diluted by the claims of upstream predecessors. At the same time, it is not obvious how upstream patent owners might use patents to capture the value that their discoveries contribute to downstream product development, particularly in the face of concerted resistance to sharing the wealth. This strategic challenge is leading upstream innovators to pursue novel patent claiming and licensing approaches that raise unresolved doctrinal and policy questions.
MEDIA BIAS IN THE MARKETPLACE: THEORY

Abstract We review the theoretical literature on market determinants of media bias. We present a theoretical framework that organizes key themes in the literature and discuss substantive lessons.
Hydrodynamics on the lowest Landau level

Using the recently developed approach to quantum Hall physics based on Newton-Cartan geometry, we consider the hydrodynamics of an interacting system on the lowest Landau level. We rephrase the non-relativistic fluid equations of motion in a manner that manifests the spacetime diffeomorphism invariance of the underlying theory. In the massless (or lowest Landau level) limit, the fluid obeys a force-free constraint which fixes the charge current. An entropy current analysis further constrains the energy response, determining four transverse response functions in terms of only two: an energy magnetization and a thermal Hall conductivity. Kubo formulas are presented for all transport coefficients and constraints from Weyl invariance derived. We also present a number of Středa-type formulas for the equilibrium response to external electric, magnetic and gravitational fields.
Measurement of the nonlinear elasticity of red blood cell membranes

The membranes of human red blood cells (RBCs) are a composite of a fluid lipid bilayer and a triangular network of semiflexible filaments (spectrin). We perform cellular microrheology using the dynamic membrane fluctuations of the RBCs to extract the elastic moduli of this composite membrane. By applying known osmotic stresses, we measure the changes in the elastic constants under imposed strain and thereby determine the nonlinear elastic properties of the membrane. We find that the elastic nonlinearities of the shear modulus in tensed RBC membranes can be well understood in terms of a simple wormlike chain model. Our results show that the elasticity of the spectrin network can mostly account for the area compression modulus at physiological osmolality, suggesting that the lipid bilayer has significant excess area. As the cell swells, the elastic contribution from the now tensed lipid membrane becomes dominant.
Elements of Relational Database Theory

The goal of this paper is to provide a systematic and unifying introduction to relational database theory, including some of the recent developments in database logic programming. The first part of the presentation covers the two basic components of the relational data model: its specification component, that is the database scheme with dependencies, and its operational component, that is the relational algebra query language. The choice of basic constructs for specifying the semantically meaningful databases and for querying them is justified through an in-depth investigation of their properties. Some important research themes are reviewed in this context: the analysis of the hypergraph syntax of a database scheme and the extensions of the query language using deduction or universal relation assumptions. The subsequent parts of the presentation are structured around the two fundamental concepts illustrated in the first part, dependencies and queries. The main themes of dependency theory are implication problems and applications to database scheme design. Queries are classified in a variety of ways, with emphasis on the connections between the expressibility of query languages, finite model theory and logic programming. The theory of queries is very much related to research on database logic programs, which are an elegant formalism for the study of the principles of knowledge base systems. The optimization of such programs involves both techniques developed for the relational data model and new methods for analyzing recursive definitions. The exposition closes with a discussion of how relational database theory deals with the problems of complex objects, incomplete information and database updates.
Trivial low energy states for commuting Hamiltonians, and the quantum PCP conjecture

We consider the entanglement properties of ground states of Hamiltonians which are sums of commuting projectors (we call these commuting projector Hamiltonians), in particular whether or not they have "trivial" ground states, where a state is trivial if it is constructed by a local quantum circuit of bounded depth and range acting on a product state. It is known that Hamiltonians such as the toric code only have nontrivial ground states in two dimensions. Conversely, commuting projector Hamiltonians which are sums of two-body interactions have trivial ground states[1]. Using a coarse-graining procedure, this implies that any such Hamiltonian with bounded range interactions in one dimension has a trivial ground state. In this paper, we further explore the question of which Hamiltonians have trivial ground states. We define an "interaction complex" for a Hamiltonian, which generalizes the notion of interaction graph and we show that if the interaction complex can be continuously mapped to a 1-complex using a map with bounded diameter of pre-images then the Hamiltonian has a trivial ground state assuming one technical condition on the Hamiltonians holds (this condition holds for all stabilizer Hamiltonians, and we additionally prove the result for all Hamiltonians under one assumption on the 1-complex). While this includes the cases considered by Ref. bv, we show that it also includes a larger class of Hamiltonians whose interaction complexes cannot be coarse-grained into the case of Ref. bv but still can be mapped continuously to a 1-complex. One motivation for this study is an approach to the quantum PCP conjecture. We note that many commonly studied interaction complexes can be mapped to a 1- complex after removing a small fraction of sites. For commuting projector Hamiltonians on such complexes, in order to find low energy trivial states for the original Hamiltonian, it would suffice to find trivial ground states for the Hamiltonian with those sites removed. Such trivial states can act as a classical witness to the existence of a low energy state. While this result applies for commuting Hamiltonians and does not necessarily apply to other Hamiltonians, it suggests that to prove a quantum PCP conjecture for commuting Hamiltonians, it is worth investigating interaction complexes which cannot be mapped to 1-complexes after removing a small fraction of points. We define this more precisely below; in some sense this generalizes the notion of an expander graph. Surprisingly, such complexes do exist as will be shown elsewhere[2], and have useful properties in quantum coding theory.
Knowledge and Development A Cross-Section Approach

This paper assesses the effects of knowledge on economic growth. By using an array of indicators, each of which represents an aspect of knowledge, as independent variables in cross-section regressions that span 92 countries for the period 1960 to 2000, the paper shows that knowledge is a significant determinant of long-term economic growth. In particular, we find that the stock of human capital, the level of domestic innovation and technological adaptation, and the level of information and communications technologies (ICT) infrastructure all exert statistically significant positive effects on long-term economic growth. More specifically with regard to the growth effects of the human capital stock, we find that an increase of 20 percent in the average years of schooling of a population tends to increase the average annual economic growth by 0.15 percentage point. In terms of innovation, we find that a 20 percent increase in the annual number of USPTO patents granted is associated with an increase of 3.8 percentage points in annual economic growth. Lastly, when the ICT infrastructure, measured by the number of phones per 1,000 persons, is increased by 20 percent, we find that annual economic growth tends to increase by 0.11 percentage point.
The World Bank's assistance for water resources management in China

China has an ancient tradition of hydraulic engineering but in the past half century the intensity of exploitation of water resources has accelerated as a result of population and economic growth. The three major issues for Chinese water management are water shortages, flood control and pollution. The World Commission on Dams noted that since 1949 the number of large dams in China had increased from 22 to 22,000, almost half the global total. China has over 80,000 reservoirs and 240,000 km of dikes. Most rivers and streams are now used for irrigation, power generation, transport, urban water supply or waste disposal, some for all of these purposes. The main constraints to integration of Water Resource Management, or WRM arise from the interaction of fairly objective needs for new institutions, incentives and procedures, on the one hand, and bureaucratic interests and political resistance to demand management on the other. Chinas water problems are not unique, involving a balancing act between economic growth and resource depletion, protection of the environment, health and other non-economic objectives, mediated by strong governments at both central and federal (provincial levels). This paper focuses on the role that the World Bank operations have played in changing WRM policy and strategy during the 1990s.
A General Method for Feature Matching and Model Extraction

Popular algorithms for feature matching and model extraction fall into two broad categories, generate-and-test and Hough transform variations. However, both methods suffer from problems in practical implementations. Generate-and-test methods are sensitive to noise in the data. They often fail when the generated model fit is poor due to error in the selected features. Hough transform variations are somewhat less sensitive the noise, but implementations for complex problems suffer from large time and space requirements and the detection of false positives. This paper describes a general method for solving problems where a model is extracted from or fit to data that draws benefits from both generate-and-test methods and those based on the Hough transform, yielding a method superior to both. An important component of the method is the subdivision of the problem into many subproblems. This allows efficient generate-and-test techniques to be used, including the use of randomization to limit the number of subproblems that must be examined. However, the subproblems are solved using pose space analysis techniques similar to the Hough transform, which lowers the sensitivity of the method to noise. This strategy is easy to implement and results in practical algorithms that are efficient and robust. We apply this method to object recognition, geometric primitive extraction, robust regression, and motion segmentation.
Performance of fair distributed mutual exclusion algorithms

The classical Ricart-Agrawala algorithm (RA) has long been considered the most efficient fair mutual exclusion algorithm in distributed message-passing systems. The algorithm requires 2(N – 1) messages per critical section access, where N is the number of processes in the system. Recently, Lodha-Kshemkalyani proposed an improved fair algorithm (LK) that requires between N and 2(N – 1) messages per critical section access, and without any extra overhead. The exact number of messages depends on the concurrency of requests, and is difficult to prove or analyze theoretically. This paper shows the superior performance of LK over RA using extensive simulations under a wide range of critical section access patterns and network loads.
Magnetars and Pulsars: A Missing Link

There is growing evidence that soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are isolated neutron stars with superstrong magnetic fields, i.e., magnetars, marking them a distinguished species from the conventional species of spindown-powered isolated neutron stars, i.e., radio pulsars. The current arguments in favor of the magnetar interpretation of SGR/AXP phenomenology will be outlined, and the two energy sources in magnetars, i.e. a magnetic dissipation energy and a spindown energy, will be reviewed. I will then discuss a missing link between magnetars and pulsars, i.e., lack of the observational evidence of the spindown-powered behaviors in known magnetars. Some recent theoretical efforts in studying such behaviors will be reviewed along with some predictions testable in the near future.
Worker reallocation during Estonia's transition to market : how efficient and how equitable?

Based on consecutive labor force surveys, this study examines labor market dynamics during the first decade of the Estonian transition to market. the results show that, similar to other transition economies: 1) Estonias employment and labor force was reduced; 2) patterns of mobility profoundly changed--labor market flows intensified and previously nonexistent transiotions emerged; and 3) some groups of workers were disproportionally affected, chief among them the less educated and ethnic minorities. But Estonian liberal and radical transition reforms produced also labor market outcomes that differ signficantly from those in other transition economies--above all, the intensity of worker and job flows in Estonia's transition have surpassed those in most other transition economies., thereby contributing to efficient reallocation of labor. This was achieved by deliberate policies aimed at stimulating job creation and employment, above all by low employment protection and other policies geared toward increasing employability and strengthening the incentives of workers. Moreover, under the dynamic Estonian labor market adjustment, marginal groups have fared better than those in more protective labor markets of other transition economies.
Why churches need free-riders: Religious capital formation and religious group survival

Abstract Prevailing theory claims that churches thrive when they overcome the free-rider problem. However, this paper argues that religious organizations need free-riders in a dynamic setting. If individuals’ contributions to congregations increase as their exposure to religion increases, then allowing potential members to free-ride temporarily may increase future membership and contribution levels. Free-riders thus comprise a risky but necessary investment by the church. Strict churches screen out riskier investments yet still allow some free-riding, while ultra-strict churches screen out all but members’ children. This new theory yields predictions consistent with stylized empirical facts.
Classical Test Score Equating

Test equating procedures are statistical score adjustment procedures that are used when alternate forms of educational and psychological tests are constructed to a common set of content and statistical specifications. Alternate forms enhance the security of tests and allow for examinees to be tested more than one time with a different set of test questions. Even though efforts are made by test developers for the alternate forms to be equivalent, such forms differ somewhat in difficulty. A data collection design is necessary for conducting equating. Equating also involves application of statistical methodology. Traditional equating methods equate score distributions. In this entry, equating designs and traditional equating methods are described. Error in equating is considered. Selected practical issues are also discussed. Keywords: equating; equating design; equating method; equipercentile; linear; random groups; common items
An alternative to Riemann-Siegel type formulas

Simple unsmoothed formulas to compute the Riemann zeta function, and Dirichlet $L$-functions to a power-full modulus, are derived by elementary means (Taylor expansions and the geometric series). The formulas enable square-root of the analytic conductor complexity, up to logarithmic loss, and have an explicit remainder term that is easy to control. The formula for zeta yields a convexity bound of the same strength as that from the Riemann-Siegel formula, up to a constant factor. Practical parameter choices are discussed.
The DUC summarization evaluations

There has been a long history of research in text summarization by both the text retrieval and the natural language processing communities, but evaluation of this research has always presented problems. In 2001 NIST launched a new text summarization evaluation effort, guided by a roadmap from the research community and sponsored by the DARPA TIDES project. This paper is a report of the first formal evaluation in a new conference called the Document Understanding Conference (DUC).
Thermoelectrics Near the Mott Localization-Delocalization Transition

Density functional theory based approaches gives reliable estimates of the total energy, and are an excellent starting point for computing excited state properties of weakly correlated electron systems. These approaches allows the evaluation of transport coefficients using very limited, or no empirical information, and are beginning to be used in conjunction with data mining technique and combinatorial searches.
Prognosis of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma and pancreatic metastases.

Objectives To identify the clinical outcomes of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) with pancreatic metastases (PM) treated with either pazopanib or sunitinib and assess whether PM is an independent prognostic variable in the current therapeutic environment. Patients and Methods A retrospective review of patients with mRCC in an outpatient clinic was carried out for the period January 2006 to November 2011. Patient characteristics, including demographics, laboratory data and outcomes, were analysed. Baseline characteristics were compared using chi-squared and t-tests and overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates were estimated using Kaplan–Meier methods. Predictors of OS were analysed using Cox regression. Results A total of 228 patients were reviewed, of whom 44 (19.3%) had PM and 184 (81.7%) had metastases to sites other than the pancreas. The distribution of baseline characteristics was equal in both groups, with the exception of a higher incidence of previous nephrectomy, diabetes and number of metastatic sites in the PM group. Four patients had isolated PM, but the majority of patients (68%) with PM had at least three different organ sites of metastases, as compared with 29% in patients without PM (P 0.05). The median OS was 39 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 24–57, hazard ratio 0.66, 95% CI 0.42–0.94; P = 0.02) for patients with PM, compared with 26 months (95% CI 21–31) for patients without PM (P < 0.01). CSS was 42 months (95% CI 30–57) in the PM group and 27 months (95% CI 22–33) in the control group (P = 0.05). Conclusions Despite a higher number of affected organ sites in the PM cohort, mRCC behaviour in this cohort appears to be more indolent, as demonstrated by a higher median OS. These findings suggest that host or tumour features associated with PM may represent a less aggressive tumour phenotype.