cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Solution for Dynamic Spectrum Management in Mission-Critical UAV Networks

In this paper, we study the problem of spectrum scarcity in a network of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) during mission-critical applications such as disaster monitoring and public safety missions, where the pre-allocated spectrum is not sufficient to offer a high data transmission rate for real-time video-streaming. In such scenarios, the UAV network can lease part of the spectrum of a terrestrial licensed network in exchange for providing relaying service. In order to optimize the performance of the UAV network and prolong its lifetime, some of the UAVs will function as a relay for the primary network while the rest of the UAVs carry out their sensing tasks. Here, we propose a team reinforcement learning algorithm performed by the UAV’s controller unit to determine the optimum allocation of sensing and relaying tasks among the UAVs as well as their relocation strategy at each time. We analyze the convergence of our algorithm and present simulation results to evaluate the system throughput in different scenarios.
Interkingdom signal indole inhibits Pseudomonas aeruginosa persister cell waking.

Aims Persister cells are stressed cells that have transient tolerance to antibiotics; these cells undergo no genetic change, but instead, their tolerance is due to reduced metabolism. Unfortunately, little is known about how persisters resuscitate, so we explored the waking of cells in the presence of the interkingdom signal indole. Methods and results To generate a large population of persister cells, we induced the persister phenotype in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa by pretreating cells with carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone to reduce translation by depleting ATP levels, and found, via single cell observations, that proline is sufficient to wake the persister cells. P. aeruginosa is often present in the gastrointestinal tract, and indole from commensal bacteria such as Escherichia coli has been shown to inhibit P. aeruginosa quorum sensing and pathogenicity without influencing growth. Furthermore, indole is not toxic to P. aeruginosa persister cells. However, we find here that physiological concentrations of indole inhibit P. aeruginosa persister cell resuscitation with an efficiency of higher than 95%. Critically, when contacted with E. coli stationary-phase cultures, the indole produced by E. coli completely inhibits persister cell resuscitation of P. aeruginosa. Conclusions Therefore, E. coli has devised a method to outcompete its competitors by preventing their resuscitation with indole. Significance and impact of the study This work provides insight into why indole is produced by commensal bacteria.
Neural correlates of decision making related to information security: Self-control and moral potency.

Security breaches of digital information represent a significant threat to the wellbeing of individuals, corporations, and governments in the digital era. Roughly 50% of breaches of information security result from the actions of individuals inside organizations (i.e., insider threat), and some evidence indicates that common deterrence programs may not lessen the insiders’ intention to violate information security. This had led researchers to investigate contextual and individual difference variables that influence the intention to violate information security policies. The current research builds upon previous studies and explores the relationship between individual differences in self-control and moral potency and the neural correlates of decision making in the context of information security. The behavioral data revealed that individuals were sensitive to the severity of a violation of information security, and that the measures of self-control and moral potency were reliable indicators of the underlying constructs. The ERP data provided a partial replication of previous research, revealing differences in neural activity for scenarios describing security violations relative to control stimuli over the occipital, medial and lateral frontal, and central regions of the scalp. Brain-behavior analyses showed that higher moral potency was associated with a decrease in neural activity, while higher self-control was associated with an increase in neural activity; and that moral potency and self-control tended to have independent influences on neural recruitment related to considering violations of information security. These findings lead to the suggestion that enhancing moral potency and self-control could represent independent pathways to guarding against insider threat.
Oral prescription opioid‐seeking behavior in male and female mice

A significant portion of prescription opioid users self-administer orally rather than intravenously. Animal models of opioid addiction have demonstrated that intravenous cues are sufficient to cause drug seeking. However, intravenous models may not characterize oral users, and the preference to self-administer orally appears to be partially influenced by the user's sex. Our objectives were to determine whether oral opioid-associated cues are sufficient for relapse and whether sex differences exist in relapse susceptibility. Mice orally self-administered escalating doses of oxycodone under postprandial (prefed) or non-postprandial (no prefeeding) conditions. Both sexes demonstrated cue-induced reinstatement following abstinence. In separate mice, we found that oral oxycodone cues were sufficient to reinstate extinguished oral oxycodone-seeking behavior following abstinence without prior postprandial or water self-administration training. During self-administration, we incidentally found that female mice earned significantly more mg/kg oxycodone than male mice. Follow-up studies indicated sex differences in psychomotor stimulation and plasma oxycodone/oxymorphone following oral oxycodone administration. In addition, gonadal studies were performed in which we found divergent responses where ovariectomy-enhanced and orchiectomy-suppressed oral self-administration. While the suppressive effects of orchiectomy were identified across doses and postprandial conditions, the enhancing effects of ovariectomy were selective to non-postprandial conditions. These studies establish that (a) oral drug cues are sufficient to cause reinstatement that is independent of prandial conditions and water-seeking behavior, (b) earned oral oxycodone is larger in female mice compared with male mice potentially through differences in psychomotor stimulation and drug metabolism, and (c) gonadectomy produces divergent effects on oral oxycodone self-administration between sexes.
Minimum FIR deconvolver orders for MIMO systems in one or several variables

The problem of computing exact finite impulse response (FIR) inverses for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) FIR systems is considered. Results allow for arbitrary n-dimensional inputs and outputs and thus are applicable to time signals, images and video. A generic bound on the orders of the inverse filters is derived and is shown to be approximately inversely proportional to the ratio of the number of outputs to that of inputs. Further, the bounds are shown to be sharp for many special cases of practical interest.
An Automatic Digital Terrain Generation Technique for Terrestrial Sensing and Virtual Reality Applications

The identification and modeling of the terrain from point cloud data is an important component of Terrestrial Remote Sensing (TRS) applications. The main focus in terrain modeling is capturing details of complex geological features of landforms. Traditional terrain modeling approaches rely on the user to exert control over terrain features. However, relying on the user input to manually develop the digital terrain becomes intractable when considering the amount of data generated by new remote sensing systems capable of producing massive aerial and ground-based point clouds from scanned environments. This article provides a novel terrain modeling technique capable of automatically generating accurate and physically realistic Digital Terrain Models (DTM) from a variety of point cloud data. The proposed method runs efficiently on large-scale point cloud data with real-time performance over large segments of terrestrial landforms. Moreover, generated digital models are designed to effectively render within a Virtual Reality (VR) environment in real time. The paper concludes with an in–depth discussion of possible research directions and outstanding technical and scientific challenges to improve the proposed approach.
The Impact of Coupons on the Visit-to-Purchase Funnel

Using data from a field experiment, we find that mobile coupons lift revenue primarily by increasing visits to the website rather than through redemption.
Distinguishing “incorrigibility” from “transient immaturity”: Risk assessment in the context of sentencing/resentencing evaluations for juvenile homicide offenders.

n two recent cases, the United States Supreme Court abolished mandatory juvenile life without parole (LWOP; Miller v. Alabama, 2012) and held that the ban applies retroactively (Montgomery v. Louisiana, 2016). Pointedly, the Court suggested that juveniles should only be sentenced to LWOP when they are 'incorrigible' or 'irreparably corrupt.' In practical terms, this means juveniles should only be sentenced to LWOP if they are unlikely to desist from criminal activity. Although there are no measures of long-term risk for juveniles, making it difficult to predict which juveniles are incorrigible or irreparably corrupt, forensic mental health professionals are increasingly being called upon to offer opinions about the long-term risk of juvenile offenders in homicide cases. This article provides a framework through which forensic mental health professionals can approach such cases. Given research indicating that most juvenile offenders will naturally desist from criminal activity over time, we suggest the default assumption of forensic mental health professionals should be that any individual juvenile offender is also likely to desist. Any adjustment from this base-rate-informed assumption requires empirical justification—namely, the existence of factors associated with life-course persistent offending. Further, treatment amenability, protective factors, and the availability of effective interventions for reducing criminal risk should be considered.
Ownership Structure, Bank Stability and the Financial Performance of Commercial Banks in South Sudan

Since independence in 2011, the Republic of South Sudan has witnessed growth in the financial systems and the overall economy. This has led to growth in the number of financial institutions in the country. There is however minimal research on their overall performance. Hence the current research sought to determine the effect of ownership structure, bank stability and the financial performance of commercial banks in South Sudan. The population for the study was all the 29 commercial banks in South Sudan. Secondary data was collected for the period 2012-2017 from audited annual financial reports of individual banks and the Central Bank of South Sudan reports while primary data was collected by the use of a semi-structured questionnaire. Collected data was edited, sorted and coded into SPSS 23 for subsequent data analysis using SPSS 23 statistical analysis tool. This research utilized both descriptive and inferential statistical methods in the analysis. Statistical tests to be utilized in the study included t-tests, f-test, regression models and ANOVA models. Findings of the research were presented using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviation, correlation coefficients, charts, tables, and other statistical measures. Results of the study indicated there was a statistically significant moderating effect of ownership structure on the financial performance of commercial banks in South Sudan. This study recommends that the government should adopt better measures to safeguard public-owned commercial banks to improve their efficiency and performance.
Inspecting and Interacting with Meaningful Music Representations using VAE

Variational Autoencoders(VAEs) have already achieved great results on image generation and recently made promising progress on music generation. However, the generation process is still quite difficult to control in the sense that the learned latent representations lack meaningful music semantics. It would be much more useful if people can modify certain music features, such as rhythm and pitch contour, via latent representations to test different composition ideas. In this paper, we propose a new method to inspect the pitch and rhythm interpretations of the latent representations and we name it disentanglement by augmentation. Based on the interpretable representations, an intuitive graphical user interface is designed for users to better direct the music creation process by manipulating the pitch contours and rhythmic complexity.
Designing yeast as plant-like hyperaccumulators for heavy metals

Hyperaccumulators typically refer to plants that absorb and tolerate elevated amounts of heavy metals. Due to their unique metal trafficking abilities, hyperaccumulators are promising candidates for bioremediation applications. However, compared to bacteria-based bioremediation systems, plant life cycle is long and growing conditions are difficult to maintain hindering their adoption. Herein, we combine the robust growth and engineerability of bacteria with the unique waste management mechanisms of plants by using a more tractable platform-the common baker's yeast-to create plant-like hyperaccumulators. Through overexpression of metal transporters and engineering metal trafficking pathways, engineered yeast strains are able to sequester metals at concentrations 10-100 times more than established hyperaccumulator thresholds for chromium, arsenic, and cadmium. Strains are further engineered to be selective for either cadmium or strontium removal, specifically for radioactive Sr90. Overall, this work presents a systematic approach for transforming yeast into metal hyperaccumulators that are as effective as their plant counterparts.
Human capital, parent size, and the destination industry of spinouts

Research Summary We study how spinout founders' human capital and parent size relate to founders' propensity to stay in the same industry as their parents or to go outside the industry. Individuals with high human capital face a higher performance penalty if they form spinouts outside the parent industry, but they also face greater deterrence from large parents if they stay in that industry. Using matched employer–employee data on spinout founders and their coworkers, we find that individuals with higher human capital are less likely to form spinouts in distant industries than in the parent's industry. Further, we find that as parent size increases, such individuals are less likely to form spinouts in the parent's industry and more likely to form spinouts in distant industries. Managerial Summary We examine how the ability of potential entrepreneurs affects whether they found a startup in the same industry as their employers (“parents”) or in a different industry, and how that choice relates to the size of the parents. We find that founders with high ability are more likely to form a startup in the parents' industry. However, as the parent size increases, they are more likely to form a startup in a different industry. These findings suggest that while high‐ability founders want to benefit from their industry expertise by forming a startup in the parents' industry, some of them are dissuaded from doing so either because large parents try to retain high‐ability founders or because such founders want to avoid potential competition with large parents.
Does financial statement comparability mitigate delayed trading volume before earnings announcements

Abstract This paper examines the role of financial statement comparability in shaping trading volume prior to earnings announcements. We find that the degree of delayed trading volume prior to earnings announcements is less pronounced for firms with more comparable financial statements. In addition, the effect of financial statement comparability on pre-announcement trading volume is stronger in more opaque information environments. Our findings are incrementally significant after controlling for a comprehensive set of within-firm earnings attributes and robust to various research design choices including alternative comparability models with differing peer group selection. Collectively, our results show that financial statement comparability serves an integral mechanism facilitating a firm’s pre-existing information environment. In sum, this paper constitutes the first, volume-based evidence which lends support to the usefulness of financial statement comparability in investors’ trading activity.
Policy Uncertainty, Trade and Global Value Chains: Some Facts, Many Questions

This paper attempts to quantify the impact of economic policy uncertainty on overall trade and trade linked to global value chains. Using new data on policy uncertainty for 18 countries and 24 years, it finds a statistically significant negative impact of policy uncertainty on overall trade growth. A 1 percent increase in uncertainty is associated with a 0.02 percentage point reduction in the growth of goods and services trade, implying that the increase in policy uncertainty since mid-2018 may have caused a 1 percentage point decline in world trade growth. The paper also finds that the impact of policy uncertainty on trade linked to global value chains is similar to overall trade. This is likely to be the result of two opposing forces: global value chains are more dependent on relation-specific investments that are sensitive to policy uncertainty, but these investments also make trade patterns sticky. More research and better data are needed to disentangle these different effects empirically.
Radiation-Induced Lipid Peroxidation Triggers Ferroptosis and Synergizes with Ferroptosis Inducers

Although radiation is widely used to treat cancers, resistance mechanisms often develop and involve activation of DNA repair and inhibition of apoptosis. Therefore, compounds that sensitize cancer cells to radiation via alternative cell death pathways are valuable. We report here that ferroptosis, a form of nonapoptotic cell death driven by lipid peroxidation, is partly responsible for radiation-induced cancer cell death. Moreover, we found that small molecules activating ferroptosis through system xc- inhibition or GPX4 inhibition synergize with radiation to induce ferroptosis in several cancer types by enhancing cytoplasmic lipid peroxidation but not increasing DNA damage or caspase activation. Ferroptosis inducers synergized with cytoplasmic irradiation, but not nuclear irradiation. Finally, administration of ferroptosis inducers enhanced the antitumor effect of radiation in a murine xenograft model and in human patient-derived models of lung adenocarcinoma and glioma. These results suggest that ferroptosis inducers may be effective radiosensitizers that can expand the efficacy and range of indications for radiation therapy.
Breaching and Entering: When Data Scraping Should Be a Federal Computer Hacking Crime

This note analyzes how computer hacking is understood under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”). The CFAA is a federal statute that proscribes accessing data "without authorization" and includes provisions for both civil and criminal liability. Authorization, however, is never properly defined within the statute. The note also focuses on the conduct of scrapers. Scrapers are automated digital robots that aggregate data from various Internet websites in order to present the end data to users in easily readable formats -- often on new platforms and in new venues. Scrapers can be used to aggregate data that is either publicly available, such as products being sold on the internet, or data being protected by a password barrier, such as content in a private digital database. How the scraper operates depends on how it is designed. This paper proposes that scraping should only occasionally invite criminal liability under the CFAA. The narrow circumstance in which it should invite criminal liability is when the scraper is being used to breach a password or other digital barrier to aggregate disparate data. This situation is appropriate for criminal prosecution as it is akin to criminal theft and ensures that the scraper operator has sufficient specific intent. Further, this position aligns with a narrow interpretation of "authorization," which is more in line with the purpose of the statute. The paper still endorses use of the common law tort of trespass to chattels to recover civil damages from scrapers that are not designed to breach code barriers.
Matricial Proofs of Some Classical Results about Critical Point Location

The Gauss–Lucas and Bocher–Grace–Marden theorems are classical results in the geometry of polynomials. Proofs of the these results are available in the literature, but the approaches are seemingly ...
Judging Expert Testimony: From Verbal Formalism to Practical Advice

Appraising the worth of others’ testimony is always complex; appraising the worth of expert testimony is even harder; appraising the worth of expert testimony in a legal context is harder yet. Legal efforts to assess the reliability of expert testimony—I’ll focus on evolving U.S. law governing the admissibility of such testimony—seem far from adequate, offering little effective practical guidance. My purpose in this paper is to think through what might be done to offer courts more real, operational help. The first step is to explain why the legal formulae that have evolved over the years may seem reassuring, but aren’t really of much practical use. The next is to suggest that we might do better not by amending evidentiary rules but by helping judges and attorneys understand what questions they should ask about expert evidence. I focus here on (i) epidemiological testimony, and (ii) the process of peer review.
Bounds on Singular Values Revealed by QR Factorizations

We introduce a pair of dual concepts: pivoted blocks and reverse pivoted blocks. These blocks are the outcome of a special column pivoting strategy in QR factorization. Our main result is that under such a column pivoting strategy, the QR factorization of a given matrix can give tight estimates of any two a priori-chosen consecutive singular values of that matrix. In particular, a rank-revealing QR factorization is guaranteed when the two chosen consecutive singular values straddle a gap in the singular value spectrum that gives rise to the rank degeneracy of the given matrix. The pivoting strategy, called cyclic pivoting, can be viewed as a generalization of Golub's column pivoting and Stewart's reverse column pivoting. Numerical experiments confirm the tight estimates that our theory asserts.
Mixed State Holonomies

Sjoqvist, Pati, Ekert, Anandan, Ericsson, Oi and Vedral (Phys. Rev. Lett. 85 (2000), 2845) have recently ‘provided a physical prescription based on interferometry for introducing the total phase of a mixed state undergoing unitary evolution, which has been an elusive concept in the past’. They note that ‘Uhlmann was probably the first to address the issue of mixed state holonomy, but as a purely mathematical problem’. We investigate possible relationships between these ‘experimental’ and ‘mathematical’ approaches, by examining various quantum-theoretic scenarios. We find that the two methodologies, in general, yield inequivalent outcomes.
Analytic computable structure theory and $L^p$-spaces part 2

Suppose $$p \ge 1$$ is a computable real. We extend previous work of Clanin, Stull, and McNicholl by determining the degrees of categoricity of the separable $$L^p$$ spaces whose underlying measure spaces are atomic but not purely atomic. In addition, we ascertain the complexity of associated projection maps.
The role of the asymmetric Ekman dissipation term on the energetics of the two-layer quasi-geostrophic model

Abstract In the two-layer quasi-geostrophic model, the friction between the flow at the lower layer and the surface boundary layer, placed beneath the lower layer, is modeled by the Ekman term, which is a linear dissipation term with respect to the horizontal velocity at the lower layer. The Ekman term appears in the governing equations asymmetrically; it is placed at the lower layer, but does not appear at the upper layer. A variation, proposed by Phillips and Salmon, uses extrapolation to place the Ekman term between the lower layer and the surface boundary layer, or at the surface boundary layer. We present theoretical results that show that in either the standard or the extrapolated configurations, the Ekman term dissipates energy at large scales, but does not dissipate potential enstrophy. It also creates an approximately symmetric stable distribution of potential enstrophy between the two layers. The behavior of the Ekman term changes fundamentally at small scales. Under the standard formulation, the Ekman term will unconditionally dissipate energy and also dissipate, under very minor conditions, potential enstrophy at small scales. However, under the extrapolated formulation, there exist small “negative regions”, which are defined over a two-dimensional phase space, capturing the distribution of energy per wavenumber between baroclinic energy and barotropic energy, and the distribution of potential enstrophy per wavenumber between the upper layer and the lower layer, where the Ekman term may inject energy or potential enstrophy.
Energy Storage Management via Deep Q-Networks

Energy storage devices represent environmentally friendly candidates to cope with volatile renewable energy generation. Motivated by the increase in privately owned storage systems, this paper studies the problem of real-time control of a storage unit co-located with a renewable energy generator and an inelastic load. Unlike many approaches in the literature, no distributional assumptions are being made on the renewable energy generation or the real-time prices. Building on the deep Q-networks algorithm, a reinforcement learning approach utilizing a neural network is devised where the storage unit operational constraints are respected. The neural network approximates the action-value function which dictates what action (charging, discharging, etc.) to take. Simulations indicate that near-optimal performance can be attained with the proposed learning-based control policy for the storage units.
Tensor product of commutative unions of groups

1. Structure theorem. The study of tensor products of commutative semigroups was initiated independently by Grillet [5] and Head [6]. In 1967, T. Head [8] determined the tensor product of a commutative group with a commutative union of groups, and posed the problem of determining the tensor product of semilattices, and more generally, the tensor product of commutative unions of groups. Anderson [1] treated closely related questions. J. Delaney [4] determined the tensor product of semilattices when one of the semilattices is a chain. The solution for arbitrary semilattices (given below as Theorem 1.2) is due to N. Kimura [9], and the solution for complete lattices is forthcoming in N. Kimura and J. L. Williams [10]. In this paper, all groups and semigroups will be commutative, all semilattices will be lower semilattices with juxtaposition as the operation. Let p(A, B) denote the set of finitely generated bifilters [2] of A x B. The bifilter generated by (a, ,B) E A x B will be denoted by [(a, /3)] or by a, /8 when used as a superscript or subscript. Let T r S denote the restriction of T to S. For general information on semigroups see [3], for bifilters see [2], and for colimits see [11]. DEFINITION 1.1. Let A and B be semilattices and C = A x B be their direct product. A subset F of C is called a bifilter if the following conditions are satisfied: (KO) F is dual hereditary, i.e. if (a, b) E F, a < x, b < y then (x, y) E F. (K1) For every b E B, if (a, b), (a', b) E F then (aa', b) E F. (K2) For every a E A, if (a, b), (a, b') E F then (a, bb') E F. The following theorem is due to N. Kimura [9] and is given here without proof:
Stalk Bending Strength is Strongly Associated with Maize Stalk Lodging Incidence Across Multiple Environments

Abstract Stalk lodging in maize results in substantial yield losses worldwide. These losses could be prevented through genetic improvement. However, breeding efforts and genetics studies are hindered by lack of a robust and economical phenotyping method for assessing stalk lodging resistance. A field-based phenotyping platform that induces failure patterns consistent with natural stalk lodging events and measures stalk bending strength in field-grown plants was recently developed. Here we examine the association between data gathered from this new phenotyping platform with counts of stalk lodging incidence on 47 maize hybrids representing a subset of genetic diversity. For comparative purposes, we examine four additional predictive phenotypes commonly assumed to be related to stalk lodging resistance; namely, rind penetrometer resistance (a.k.a. rind puncture resistance), cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Lodging incidence data were gathered on 47 hybrids, grown in 98 distinct environments, spanning four years and 41 unique geographical locations in North America. Using Bayesian generalized linear mixed effects models, we show that stalk lodging incidence is associated with each of the five predictive phenotypes. Further, based on a joint analysis we demonstrate that, among the phenotypes considered, stalk bending strength measured by the new phenotyping platform is the strongest predictive phenotype of naturally occurring stalk lodging incidence in maize, followed by rind penetrometer resistance and cellulose content. This study demonstrates that field-based measurements of stalk bending strength provide a reliable estimate of stalk lodging incidence. The stalk bending strength data acquired from the new phenotyping platform will be valuable for phenotypic selection in breeding programs and for generating mechanistic insights into the genetic regulation of stalk lodging resistance.
Using Motivational Interviewing to Improve Parenting Skills and Prevent Problem Behavior During the Transition to Kindergarten

In this study, we examined the efficacy of a version of the Family Check-Up (FCU) adapted for kindergarten school entry with regard to parenting skills during the transition to school. We also examined whether improvements in parenting skills would mediate improvements in parent- and teacher-rated child behavior problems from kindergarten to second grade. The FCU is a motivational interviewing (MI) intervention designed to engage parents in treatment to improve parenting skills. Participants were parents of 365 children enrolled in one of five elementary schools in the Pacific Northwestern United States. Main and indirect effects were tested with structural equation path modeling using an intent-to-treat approach. The FCU was associated with improved change in parenting skills, and changes in parenting skills, in turn, predicted reductions in child behavior problems. Implications for embedding MI in family-centered interventions at kindergarten school entry are discussed. Trial registration: NCT02289092.
Gender and Precarious Work in the United States: Evidence from the Contingent Work Supplement 1995–2017:

A central element of the neoliberal phase of capitalism is the flexibilization of labor and the consequent prevalence of precarious work. Here, we discuss flexibilization, develop a definition and ...
Gasification Pathways and Reaction Mechanisms of Primary Alcohols in Supercritical Water

Supercritical water gasification is a promising waste-to-energy technology with the ability to convert aqueous and/or heterogeneous organic feedstocks to high-value gaseous products. Reaction behav...
Partially coherent quantum degenerate electron matter waves

Abstract The use of electron beams is ubiquitous; electron microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, electron lithography, and electron diffractometry all use these beams. On the other hand, quantum degenerate electron beams do not exist. The realization of such beams may impact electron beam technologies and are interesting to pursue. Past attempts to reach degeneracy were hampered by the low degeneracy of continuously emitting electron sources. With the recent advent of ultra-short electron pulses, high degeneracy is expected. Coulomb repulsion and low quantum coherence are hurdles that need to be overcome. A quantum analysis of the electron degeneracy for partially coherent pulsed electron sources is presented for source parameters that are currently available. The conclusive demonstration of the fermionic Hanbury Brown-Twiss (HBT) effect for free electrons is within reach, and our results support that femto-second nanotip electron sources, with partial coherence can manifest quantum degeneracy with appreciable signal-to-noise-ratios notwithstanding their small particle numbers.
The Voltage Regulation of Boost Converters Using Dual Heuristic Programming

In this paper, a dual heuristic programming controller is proposed to control a boost converter. Conventional controllers such as proportional-integral-derivative (PID) or proportional-integral (PI) are designed based on the linearized small-signal model near the operating point. Therefore, the performance of the controller during start-up, load change, or input voltage variation is not optimal since the system model changes by varying the operating point. The dual heuristic programming controller optimally controls the boost converter by following the approximate dynamic programming. The advantage of the DHP is that the neural network–based characteristic of the proposed controller enables boost converters to easily cope with large disturbances. A DHP with a well-trained critic and action networks can perform as an optimal controller for the boost converter. To compare the effectiveness of the traditional PI-based and the DHP boost converter, the simulation results are provided.
Estimating Road Network Accessibility during a Hurricane Evacuation: A Case Study of Hurricane Irma in Florida

Abstract Understanding the spatio-temporal road network accessibility during a hurricane evacuation—the level of ease of residents in an area in reaching evacuation destination sites through the road network—is a critical component of emergency management. While many studies have attempted to measure road accessibility (either in the scope of evacuation or beyond), few have considered both dynamic evacuation demand and characteristics of a hurricane. This study proposes a methodological framework to achieve this goal. In an interval of every six hours, the method first estimates the evacuation demand in terms of number of vehicles per household in each county subdivision (sub-county) by considering the hurricane’s wind radius and track. The closest facility analysis is then employed to model evacuees’ route choices towards the predefined evacuation destinations. The potential crowdedness index (PCI), a metric capturing the level of crowdedness of each road segment, is then computed by coupling the estimated evacuation demand and route choices. Finally, the road accessibility of each sub-county is measured by calculating the reciprocal of the sum of PCI values of corresponding roads connecting evacuees from the sub-county to the designated destinations. The method is applied to the entire state of Florida during Hurricane Irma in September 2017. Results show that I-75 and I-95 northbound have a high level of congestion, and sub-counties along the northbound I-95 suffer from the worst road accessibility. In addition, this research performs a sensitivity analysis for examining the impacts of different choices of behavioral response curves on accessibility results.
Universal Screening for SARS-CoV-2 in Women Admitted for Delivery.

SARS-CoV-2 Testing in Obstetrical Patients Among 215 pregnant women who were admitted to a New York hospital for delivery and who underwent universal testing for SARS-CoV-2, more than one in eight ...
Effects of Field and Landscape Scale Habitat on Insect and Bird Damage to Sunflowers

Agriculture-dominated landscapes harbor significantly diminished biodiversity. Woody vegetation along field margins can provide farmers with ecosystem services and benefit biodiversity. However, when crops are damaged by the biodiversity harbored in such vegetation, farmers are reluctant to incorporate field margin habitat onto their land and may even actively remove such habitats. We investigated how damage by both insect pests (sunflower moth, Homoeosoma electellum) and avian pests to sunflower (Helianthus annuus) seed crops varied as a function of field-margin and landscape-scale habitat, as well as by bird abundance and diversity. Surveys for insect damage, avian abundance, and bird damage were carried out over two years in 30 different fields. The mean percentage of moth-damaged sunflowers sampled was nearly four times higher in fields that had bare or weedy margins (23.5%; $877/ha) compared to fields with woody vegetation (5.9%; $220/ha) and decreased in both field types as landscape-scale habitat complexity declined. Birds damaged significantly fewer sunflower seeds (2.7%) than insects, and bird damage was not affected by field margin habitat type, landscape-scale habitat variables, or avian abundance, but was significantly higher along field edges compared to  50m from the field edge. Avian species richness nearly doubled in fields with woody margin habitat compared to fields with bare/weedy margins in both the breeding season and in fall. These results indicate that the benefits of planting or retaining woody vegetation along sunflower field margins could outweigh the ecosystem disservices related to bird damage, while simultaneously increasing the biodiversity value of intensively farmed agricultural landscapes.
Unsteady Shock Motion in a Transonic Flow over a Wall-Mounted Hemisphere

Particle image velocimetry measurements have been conducted for a Mach 0.8 flow over a wall-mounted hemisphere with a strongly separated wake. The shock foot was found to typically sit just forward of the apex of the hemisphere and move within a range of about ±10 deg. Conditional averages based upon the shock foot location show that the separation shock is positioned upstream along the hemisphere surface when reverse velocities in the recirculation region are strong and is located downstream when they are weaker. The recirculation region appears smaller when the shock is located farther downstream. No correlation was detected of the incoming boundary layer with the shock position nor with the wake recirculation velocities. These observations are consistent with recent studies concluding that, for large, strong separation regions, the dominant mechanism is the instability of the separated flow rather than a direct influence of the incoming boundary layer.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-2 is the most widely used personality inventory in clinical, forensic, and personnel assessment settings. It is a self-report personality inventory based upon items that address mental health symptoms, personality traits, and behavioral characteristics. The MMPI-2 provides mental health professionals with information that allows them to appraise psychological adjustment. Moreover, the test includes a number of self-report validity indices that allow the practitioner to determine the client's willingness and frankness to cooperate with the appraisal.
Partial Demand Information and Commitment in Dynamic Transportation Procurement

This paper analyzes a decision process of planning transportation procurement for a distribution lane given limited information regarding future demand for transportation services and a specified c...
Graded Cancellation Properties of Graded Rings and Graded Unit-regular Leavitt Path Algebras

We raise the following general question regarding a ring graded by a group: “If P is a ring-theoretic property, how does one define the graded version Pgr of the property P in a meaningful way?”. Some properties of rings have straightforward and unambiguous generalizations to their graded versions and these generalizations satisfy all the matching properties of the nongraded case. If P is either being unit-regular, having stable range 1 or being directly finite, that is not the case. The first part of the paper addresses this issue. Searching for appropriate generalizations, we consider graded versions of cancellation, internal cancellation, substitution, and module-theoretic direct finiteness. In the second part of the paper, we consider graded matrix and Leavitt path algebras. If K is a trivially graded field and E is a directed graph, the Leavitt path algebra LK(E) is naturally graded by the ring of integers. If E is a finite graph, we present a property of E which is equivalent with LK(E) being graded unit-regular. This property critically depends on the lengths of paths to cycles and it further illustrates that graded unit-regularity is quite restrictive in comparison to the alternative generalization of unit-regularity from the first part of the paper.
Macroeconomic implications of agglomeration

Cities exist because of the productivity gains that arise from clustering production and workers, a process called agglomeration. How important is agglomeration for aggregate growth? This paper constructs a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model of cities and uses it to estimate the effect of local agglomeration on aggregate growth. We combine aggregate time-series and city-level panel data to estimate the model's parameters via generalized method of moments. The estimates imply a statistically and economically significant impact of local agglomeration on the growth rate of per capita consumption, raising it by about 10%.
Chapter 10 – Distance Measurement and Dimensional Control

This chapter discusses the application of lasers as sensors and measurement tools. It emphasizes the distance measurement, and the associated uses for the dimensional control. Lasers can solve a variety of practical problems in distance measurement. The interferometric systems using the helium–neon lasers help in accurate distance measurement over a scale of distances less than 100m, and in an indoor environment. Such devices are suitable for dimensional control of machine tools. The laser Doppler displacement method competes with the interferometric distance measurement. The Doppler shift of the beam reflected from a target is measured, and integrated to obtain displacement. It is best suited for indoors usage at distances not more than a few hundred feet. A method used outdoor is the beam modulation telemetry. In this method, the modulated beam is transmitted to a distant object, and a reflected return signal is detected. The phase of the modulation of the return signal is compared with the phase of the outgoing signal. This method is useful for distances of hundreds of meters, and is used in surveying.
Composable computation in discrete chemical reaction networks

We study the composability of discrete chemical reaction networks (CRNs) that stably compute (i.e., with probability 0 of error) integer-valued functions $$f:\mathbb {N}^d\rightarrow \mathbb {N}$$. We consider output-oblivious CRNs in which the output species is never a reactant (input) to any reaction. The class of output-oblivious CRNs is fundamental, appearing in earlier studies of CRN computation, because it is precisely the class of CRNs that can be composed by simply renaming the output of the upstream CRN to match the input of the downstream CRN. Our main theorem precisely characterizes the functions f that are stably computable by output-oblivious CRNs with an initial leader. The key necessary condition is that for sufficiently large inputs, f is the minimum of a finite number of nondecreasing quilt-affine functions (an affine function is linear with a constant offset; a quilt-affine function is linear with a periodic offset).
The Structure of the Membrane Protein of SARS-CoV-2 Resembles the Sugar Transporter SemiSWEET

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the disease COVID-19 that has decimated the health and economy of our planet. The virus causes the disease not only in people but also in companion and wild animals. People with diabetes are at risk of the disease. As yet we do not know why the virus has been highly successful in causing the pandemic within 3 months of its first report. The structural proteins of SARS include membrane glycoprotein (M), envelope protein (E), nucleocapsid protein (N), and the spike protein (S). Methods : The structure and function of the most abundant structural protein of SARS-CoV-2, the membrane (M) glycoprotein, is not fully understood. Using in silico analyses we determined the structure and potential function of the M protein. Results : The M protein of SARS-CoV-2 is 98.6% similar to the M protein of bat SARS-CoV, maintains 98.2% homology with pangolin SARS-CoV, and has 90% homology with the M protein of SARS-CoV; whereas, the similarity is only 38% with the M protein of MERS-CoV. In silico analyses showed that the M protein of SARS-CoV-2 has a triple helix bundle, forms a single 3-transmembrane domain, and is homologous to the prokaryotic sugar transport protein SemiSWEET. SemiSWEETs are related to the PQ-loop family whose members function as cargo receptors in vesicle transport, mediate movement of basic amino acids across lysosomal membranes, and are also involved in phospholipase flippase function. Conclusions : The advantage and role of the M protein having a sugar transporter-like structure is not clearly understood. The M protein of SARS-CoV-2 interacts with S, E, and N protein. The S protein of the virus is glycosylated. It could be hypothesized that the sugar transporter-like structure of the M protein influences glycosylation of the S protein. Endocytosis is critical for the internalization and maturation of RNA viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Sucrose is involved in endosome and lysosome maturation and may also induce autophagy, pathways that help in the entry of the virus. Overall, it could be hypothesized that the SemiSWEET sugar transporter-like structure of the M protein may be involved in multiple functions that may aid in the rapid proliferation, replication, and immune evasion of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Biological experiments would validate the presence and function of the SemiSWEET sugar transporter.
Signal Detection Theory

Signal-detection theory is a framework for understanding the process of decision making under conditions of uncertainty. Its essential claim is that subjective evidence for the presence or absence of a stimulus is a continuous variable. That is, evidence comes in degrees and is never entirely present or entirely absent even though the stimulus itself is. Although the average amount of subjective evidence is higher on trials in which the stimulus actually is present, trial-to-trial variability is such that no evidence value perfectly distinguishes stimulus-present trials from stimulus-absent trials. As such, the observer is assumed to select a criterion evidence value above which the stimulus is declared to be present and below which it is declared to be absent. This way of thinking sheds light on an extremely wide range of decision problems ranging from auditory detection to the detection of a psychiatric condition, and it offers a measure of discrimination (d′) that, unlike percent correct, is theoretically uncontaminated by response bias. Keywords: signal-detection theory; ′; hit rate; false alarm rate; response bias; ROC curves