cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Modulation of Host Learning in Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes

How mosquitoes determine which individuals to bite has important epidemiological consequences. This choice is not random; most mosquitoes specialize in one or a few vertebrate host species, and some individuals in a host population are preferred over others. Mosquitoes will also blood feed from other hosts when their preferred is no longer abundant, but the mechanisms mediating these shifts between hosts, and preferences for certain individuals within a host species, remain unclear. Here, we show that olfactory learning may contribute to Aedes aegypti mosquito biting preferences and host shifts. Training and testing to scents of humans and other host species showed that mosquitoes can aversively learn the scent of specific humans and single odorants and learn to avoid the scent of rats (but not chickens). Using pharmacological interventions, RNAi, and CRISPR gene editing, we found that modification of the dopamine-1 receptor suppressed their learning abilities. We further show through combined electrophysiological and behavioral recordings from tethered flying mosquitoes that these odors evoke changes in both behavior and antennal lobe (AL) neuronal responses and that dopamine strongly modulates odor-evoked responses in AL neurons. Not only do these results provide direct experimental evidence that olfactory learning in mosquitoes can play an epidemiological role, but collectively, they also provide neuroanatomical and functional demonstration of the role of dopamine in mediating this learning-induced plasticity, for the first time in a disease vector insect.
Gradient-enhanced kriging for high-dimensional problems

Surrogate models provide an affordable alternative to the evaluation of expensive deterministic functions. However, the construction of accurate surrogate models with many independent variables is currently prohibitive because they require a large number of function evaluations for the desired accuracy. Gradient-enhanced kriging has the potential to reduce the number of evaluations when efficient gradient computation, such as an adjoint method, is available. However, current gradient-enhanced kriging methods do not scale well with the number of sampling points because of the rapid growth in the size of the correlation matrix, where new information is added for each sampling point in each direction of the design space. Furthermore, they do not scale well with the number of independent variables because of the increase in the number of hyperparameters that must be estimated. To address this issue, we develop a new gradient-enhanced surrogate model approach that drastically reduces the number of hyperparameters through the use of the partial least squares method to maintain accuracy. In addition, this method is able to control the size of the correlation matrix by adding only relevant points defined by the information provided by the partial least squares method. To validate our method, we compare the global accuracy of the proposed method with conventional kriging surrogate models on two analytic functions with up to 100 dimensions, as well as engineering problems of varied complexity with up to 15 dimensions. We show that the proposed method requires fewer sampling points than conventional methods to obtain the desired accuracy, or it provides more accuracy for a fixed budget of sampling points. In some cases, we get models that are over three times more accurate than previously developed surrogate models for the same computational time, and over 3200 times faster than standard gradient-enhanced kriging models for the same accuracy.
Status Report on Solar Thermionic Power Systems

Abstract The ultimate objective of this research is to advance the state-of-the-art of solar thermionic power conversion technology to a suitable state that it could be considered as an alternate spacecraft power source. Efforts in specialized areas such as; cesium reservoir and solar flux control, ceramic to metal seals, generator support structures, solar concentrating mirrors and thermionic converters must be actively pursued. Over the past few years major improvements in thermionic converter performance have been demonstrated (today converters with power densities to 24 w/cm 2 and life testing beyond 3000 hours are a matter of fact). Problems which exist today, of a metallographical or design nature, are solvable within the foreseeable future. The materials and technology developed under this effort have application not only to solar powered systems but have both direct and indirect application to systems which utilize other thermal sources such as radioisotope and nuclear reactors.
Revisiting the leading drivers of Pacific coastal drought variability in the Contiguous United States

AbstractCoastal droughts that simultaneously affect California, Oregon, and Washington are rare, but they have extensive and severe impacts (e.g., wildfire and agriculture). To better understand these events, historical observations are used to investigate 1) drought variability along the Pacific coast of the contiguous United States and 2) years when extreme drought affects the entire coast. The leading pattern of cold-season (October–March) precipitation variability along the Pacific coast favors spatially coherent moisture anomalies, accounting for >40% of the underlying variance, and is forced primarily by internal atmospheric dynamics. This contrasts with a much weaker dipole mode (~20% of precipitation variability) characterized by antiphased moisture anomalies across 40°N and strong correlations with tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs). Sixteen coastal-wide summer droughts occurred from 1895 to 2016 (clustering in the 1920s–1930s and post-2000), events most strongly linked with the lea...
Recognizing d -Interval Graphs and d -Track Interval Graphs

A d-interval is the union of d disjoint intervals on the real line. A d-track interval is the union of d disjoint intervals on d disjoint parallel lines called tracks, one interval on each track. As generalizations of the ubiquitous interval graphs, d-interval graphs and d-track interval graphs have wide applications, traditionally to scheduling and resource allocation, and more recently to bioinformatics. In this paper, we prove that recognizing d-track interval graphs is NP-complete for any constant d≥2. This confirms a conjecture of Gyarfas and West in 1995. Previously only the complexity of the case d=2 was known. Our proof in fact implies that several restricted variants of this graph recognition problem, i.e., recognizing balanced d-track interval graphs, unit d-track interval graphs, and (2,…,2) d-track interval graphs, are all NP-complete. This partially answers another question recently raised by Gambette and Vialette. We also prove that recognizing depth-two 2-track interval graphs is NP-complete, even for the unit case. In sharp contrast, we present a simple linear-time algorithm for recognizing depth-two unit d-interval graphs. These and other results of ours give partial answers to a question of West and Shmoys in 1984 and a similar question of Gyarfas and West in 1995. Finally, we give the first bounds on the track number and the unit track number of a graph in terms of the number of vertices, the number of edges, and the maximum degree, and link the two numbers to the classical concepts of arboricity.
Social preferences of future physicians

We measure the social preferences of a sample of US medical students and compare their preferences with those of the general population sampled in the American Life Panel (ALP). We also compare the medical students with a subsample of highly educated, wealthy ALP subjects as well as elite law school students and undergraduate students. We further associate the heterogeneity in social preferences within medical students to the tier ranking of their medical schools and their expected specialty choice. Our experimental design allows us to rigorously distinguish altruism from preferences regarding equality–efficiency tradeoffs and accurately measure both at the individual level rather than pooling data or assuming homogeneity across subjects. This is particularly informative, because the subjects in our sample display widely heterogeneous social preferences in terms of both their altruism and equality–efficiency tradeoffs. We find that medical students are substantially less altruistic and more efficiency focused than the average American. Furthermore, medical students attending the top-ranked medical schools are less altruistic than those attending lower-ranked schools. We further show that the social preferences of those attending top-ranked medical schools are statistically indistinguishable from the preferences of a sample of elite law school students. The key limitation of this study is that our experimental measures of social preferences have not yet been externally validated against actual physician practice behaviors. Pending this future research, we probed the predictive validity of our experimental measures of social preferences by showing that the medical students choosing higher-paying medical specialties are less altruistic than those choosing lower-paying specialties.
How to Achieve Non-Malleability in One or Two Rounds

Non-malleable commitments, introduced by Dolev, Dwork and Naor (STOC 1991), are a fundamental cryptographic primitive, and their round complexity has been a subject of great interest. And yet, the goal of achieving non-malleable commitments with only one or two rounds} has been elusive. Pass (TCC 2013) captured this difficulty by proving important impossibility results regarding two-round non-malleable commitments. This led to the widespread belief that achieving two-round non-malleable commitments was impossible from standard assumptions. We show that this belief was false. Indeed, we obtain the following positive results:&#x2218; We construct two-message non-malleable commitments satisfying non-malleability with respect to commitment, based on standard sub-exponential assumptions, namely: sub-exponential one-way permutations, sub-exponential ZAPs, and sub-exponential DDH. Furthermore, our protocol is public-coin}.&#x2218; We obtain two-message private-coin} non-malleable commitments with respect to commitment, assuming only sub-exponential DDH or QR or N^{th}-residuosity.&#x2218; We bootstrap the above protocols (under the same assumptions) to obtain two round constant bounded-concurrent non-malleable commitments. In the simultaneous message model, we obtain unbounded concurrent non-malleability in two rounds.&#x2218; In the simultaneous messages model, we obtain one-round} non-malleable commitments, with unbounded concurrent security with respect to opening, under standard sub-exponential assumptions.&#x2013; This implies non-interactive non-malleable commitments with respect to opening, in a restricted model with a broadcast channel, and a-priori bounded polynomially many parties such that every party is aware of every other party in the system. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first protocol to achieve completely non-interactive non-malleability in any plain model setting from standard assumptions.&#x2013; As an application of this result, in the simultaneous exchange model, we obtain two-round multi-party pseudorandom coin-flipping.&#x2218; We construct two-message zero-knowledge arguments with super-polynomial strong} simulation (SPSS-ZK), which also serve as an important tool for our constructions of non-malleable commitments.&#x2218; In order to obtain our results, we develop several techniques that may be of independent interest.&#x2013; We give the first two-round black-box rewinding strategy based on standard sub-exponential assumptions, in the plain model.&#x2013; We also give a two-round tag amplification technique for non-malleable commitments, that amplifies a 4-tag scheme to a scheme for all tags, while relying on sub-exponential DDH. This includes a more efficient alternative to the DDN encoding.The full version of this paper is available online at: https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/291.pdf.
On-demand quantum state transfer and entanglement between remote microwave cavity memories

Coupling isolated quantum systems through propagating photons is a central theme in quantum science1,2, with the potential for groundbreaking applications such as distributed, fault-tolerant quantum computing3–5. To date, photons have been used widely to realize high-fidelity remote entanglement6–12 and state transfer13–15 by compensating for inefficiency with conditioning, a fundamentally probabilistic strategy that places limits on the rate of communication. In contrast, here we experimentally realize a long-standing proposal for deterministic, direct quantum state transfer16. Using efficient, parametrically controlled emission and absorption of microwave photons, we show on-demand, high-fidelity state transfer and entanglement between two isolated superconducting cavity quantum memories. The transfer rate is faster than the rate of photon loss in either memory, an essential requirement for complex networks. By transferring states in a multiphoton encoding, we further show that the use of cavity memories and state-independent transfer creates the striking opportunity to deterministically mitigate transmission loss with quantum error correction. Our results establish a compelling approach for deterministic quantum communication across networks, and will enable modular scaling of superconducting quantum circuits.
Economic Leadership and Growth

Abstract Economies governed by former economics students grow faster than economies governed by leaders with other education backgrounds; a result which is most evident for presidents. Faster growth (average growth) occurs during an economic leader's first year (entire tenure), primarily through investment. When focusing on close elections which “quasi-randomize” economic leadership, I find a large effect that is robust controlling for a leader's advanced education. Investors seem to hasten their activity in anticipation of their economic leader's eventual reduction of the top personal income-tax rate. Overall, the findings suggest that economic leaders improve short-term growth through the anticipation of policy changes.
Dia1-dependent adhesions are required by epithelial tissues to initiate invasion.

Developing tissues change shape and tumors initiate spreading through collective cell motility. Conserved mechanisms by which tissues initiate motility into their surroundings are not known. We investigated cytoskeletal regulators during collective invasion by mouse tumor organoids and epithelial Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK) acini undergoing branching morphogenesis in collagen. Use of the broad-spectrum formin inhibitor SMIFH2 prevented the formation of migrating cell fronts in both cell types. Focusing on the role of the formin Dia1 in branching morphogenesis, we found that its depletion in MDCK cells does not alter planar cell motility either within the acinus or in two-dimensional scattering assays. However, Dia1 was required to stabilize protrusions extending into the collagen matrix. Live imaging of actin, myosin, and collagen in control acini revealed adhesions that deformed individual collagen fibrils and generated large traction forces, whereas Dia1-depleted acini exhibited unstable adhesions with minimal collagen deformation and lower force generation. This work identifies Dia1 as an essential regulator of tissue shape changes through its role in stabilizing focal adhesions.
Radiographic Analysis of the Vidian Canal and Its Utility in Petrous Internal Carotid Artery Localization.

Background Endoscopic endonasal surgery of the skull base requires expert knowledge of the anatomy and a systematic approach. The vidian canal is regarded as a reliable landmark to localize the petrous internal carotid artery (pICA) near the second genu, which can be used for orientation in deep skull base approaches. There is controversy about the relationship between the vidian canal and the pICA. Objective To further establish the vertical relationship between the vidian canal and the pICA to aid in surgical approaches to the skull base. Methods We utilized a collection of institutional review board-approved computed tomographic (CT) angiograms (CTAs). Fifty CTAs were studied bilaterally for 100 total sides. The vidian canal was visualized radiographically to determine whether it terminates below, at, or above the level of the pICA. Results Sixty-six of 100 vidian canals terminated inferior to the pICA (66%), which was the most common relationship observed. The average distance inferior to the pICA was 1.01 mm on the right, 1.18 mm on the left, and 1.09 mm of the total 66 sides. Less commonly, the vidian canal terminated at the level of the pICA canal in 34 sides (34%). The vidian canal was not observed to terminate superior to the pICA in any of the 50 CTAs studied. Conclusion The vidian canal terminates inferior to the pICA most commonly, but often terminates at the level of the pICA. Careful drilling clockwise inferior to superior around the vidian canal should allow for safe pICA localization in most cases.
Age- and Occupation-Based Public Health Considerations Related to Osteoarthritis of the Knee Joint: A Cadaveric Study.

ObjectiveOsteoarthritis (OA) literature makes minimal suggestion regarding age of disease onset or preventative strategies to reduce risk for onset in various populations. In 2005, the Centers for ...
Engaging heritage, engaging communities

It is impossible to read this book in 2017 without being aware of the global scope of contestations playing out over what and how to define heritage that matters. An arc of shattering community rag...
Large Differences in Small RNA Composition Between Human Biofluids

Extracellular microRNAs (miRNAs) and other small RNAs are implicated in cellular communication and may be useful as disease biomarkers. We systematically compared small RNAs in 12 human biofluid types using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). miRNAs and tRNA-derived RNAs (tDRs) accounted for the majority of mapped reads in all biofluids, but the ratio of miRNA to tDR reads varied from 72 in plasma to 0.004 in bile. miRNA levels were highly correlated across all biofluids, but levels of some miRNAs differed markedly between biofluids. tDR populations differed extensively between biofluids. Y RNA fragments were seen in all biofluids and accounted for >10% of reads in blood plasma, serum, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Reads mapping exclusively to Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) were very rare, except in seminal plasma. These results demonstrate extensive differences in small RNAs between human biofluids and provide a useful resource for investigating extracellular RNA biology and developing biomarkers.
The ecology of the Drosophila-yeast mutualism in wineries

The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is preferentially found on fermenting fruits. The yeasts that dominate the microbial communities of these substrates are the primary food source for developing D. melanogaster larvae, and adult flies manifest a strong olfactory system-mediated attraction for the volatile compounds produced by these yeasts during fermentation. Although most work on this interaction has focused on the standard laboratory yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a wide variety of other yeasts naturally ferment fallen fruit. Here we address the open question of whether D. melanogaster preferentially associates with distinct yeasts in different, closely-related environments. We characterized the spatial and temporal dynamics of Drosophila-associated fungi in Northern California wineries that use organic grapes and natural fermentation using high-throughput, short-amplicon sequencing. We found that there is nonrandom structure in the fungal communities that are vectored by flies both between and within vineyards. Within wineries, the fungal communities associated with flies in cellars, fermentation tanks, and pomace piles are distinguished by varying abundances of a small number of yeast species. To investigate the origins of this structure, we assayed Drosophila attraction to, oviposition on, larval development in, and longevity when consuming the yeasts that distinguish vineyard microhabitats from each other. We found that wild fly lines did not respond differentially to the yeast species that distinguish winery habitats in habitat specific manner. Instead, this subset of yeast shares traits that make them attractive to and ensure their close association with Drosophila.
Lewis acid mediated condensation reactions of α,β-unsaturated acids with 4-hydroxy-2-pyrones. A concise structural assignment of Fleischmann’s α,α-bispyrone and Praill’s α,γ-bispyrone

Abstract Unambiguous assignments of Fleischmann’s α,α-bispyrone 3 and Praill’s α,γ-bispyrone 6 have been carried out by exploring Lewis acid mediated condensation reactions of α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids with 4-hydroxy-2-pyrones. This protocol is shown to be useful for synthesis of a BCDE-ring tetracyclic analog of arisugacin.
Incorporating Privileged Information to Unsupervised Anomaly Detection

We introduce a new unsupervised anomaly detection ensemble called SPI which can harness privileged information—data available only for training examples but not for (future) test examples. Our ideas build on the Learning Using Privileged Information (LUPI) paradigm pioneered by Vapnik et al. [17, 19], which we extend to unsupervised learning and in particular to anomaly detection. SPI (for Spotting anomalies with Privileged Information) constructs a number of frames/fragments of knowledge (i.e., density estimates) in the privileged space and transfers them to the anomaly scoring space through “imitation” functions that use only the partial information available for test examples. Our generalization of the LUPI paradigm to unsupervised anomaly detection shepherds the field in several key directions, including (i) domain-knowledge-augmented detection using expert annotations as PI, (ii) fast detection using computationally-demanding data as PI, and (iii) early detection using “historical future” data as PI. Through extensive experiments on simulated and real datasets, we show that augmenting privileged information to anomaly detection significantly improves detection performance. We also demonstrate the promise of SPI under all three settings (i–iii); with PI capturing expert knowledge, computationally-expensive features, and future data on three real world detection tasks. Code related to this paper is available at: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/shubhras/SPI.
Origen y alcance de la doctrina estadounidense del derecho constitucional

?Como surgio en nuestro pais la doctrina que permite al Poder Judicial declarar la inconstitucionalidad de las leyes y tratarlas como si fueran nulas? ?Cual es su verdadero alcance?
Differentiation in impact melt sheets as a mechanism to produce evolved magmas on Mars

Abstract Asteroid bombardment contributed to extensive melting and resurfacing of ancient (>3.5 Ga) Mars. Evidence from the largest impact structures on Earth and the Moon suggests that vertically thick impact melt sheets experience chemical differentiation. Recently observed materials in Gale crater are enriched in alkalis (up to 14 wt% Na2O + K2O) and silica (up to 67 wt% SiO2) with low MgO (
In vitro visual and visible light transillumination methods for detection of natural non-cavitated approximal caries.

The objective was to evaluate a visible-light-transillumination (using Digital Imaging Fiber-Optic Transillumination machine: DIFOTI) method using occlusal view (DIFOTI-occl), axial view (buccal and lingual: DIFOTI-axial), and combination of all views (DIFOTI-all) for detecting non-cavitated approximal caries and to compare its performance to visual examination (International Caries Detection and Assessment System: ICDAS). Thirty extracted human premolars were selected (sound to lesions into the outer one-third of the dentine) based on micro-computed tomography (μ-CT). Teeth were mounted in a custom-made device to simulate approximal contact. DIFOTI (Electro-Optical Sciences Inc., Irvington, NY, USA) images were obtained from the occlusal, buccal, and lingual views. DIFOTI image and ICDAS examinations were performed and repeated by three trained/calibrated examiners. Sensitivity, specificity, area under receiver operating characteristics curve (Az), inter- and intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs), and correlation were determined. Sensitivity/specificity was for DIFOTI-occl: 0.42/0.75, DIFOTI-axial: 0.86/0.93, DIFOTI-all: 0.91/0.69, and for ICDAS: 0.89/0.83. Az for DIFOTI-occl was significantly lower than that of DIFOTI-axial (p < 0.001), DIFOTI-all (p = 0.002), and ICDAS (p = 0.005). Spearman correlation coefficients with μ-CT for DIFOTI-occl (r = 0.39) showed weak association, while DIFOTI-axial (r = 0.80), DIFOTI-all (r = 0.91), and ICDAS (r = 0.90) showed moderate association. ICCs for intra-examiner repeatability/inter-examiner agreement were for DIFOTI-occl (0.64/0.58), DIFOTI-axial (0.92/0.89), DIFOTI-all (0.85/0.83), and ICDAS (0.79/0.72). The results of the current in vitro study suggest that, for detection of non-cavitated approximal caries lesions, DIFOTI performs better using axial than occlusal view. Approximal non-cavitated caries detection is challenging. DIFOTI can observe images from occlusal-, buccal-, and lingual views. DIFOTI and visual (ICDAS) examinations of buccal- and lingual- and all-views are more suitable than those of occlusal view for a detection of non-cavitated approximal caries.
Online Robust Policy Learning in the Presence of Unknown Adversaries

The growing prospect of deep reinforcement learning (DRL) being used in cyber-physical systems has raised concerns around safety and robustness of autonomous agents. Recent work on generating adversarial attacks have shown that it is computationally feasible for a bad actor to fool a DRL policy into behaving sub optimally. Although certain adversarial attacks with specific attack models have been addressed, most studies are only interested in off-line optimization in the data space (e.g., example fitting, distillation). This paper introduces a Meta-Learned Advantage Hierarchy (MLAH) framework that is attack model-agnostic and more suited to reinforcement learning, via handling the attacks in the decision space (as opposed to data space) and directly mitigating learned bias introduced by the adversary. In MLAH, we learn separate sub-policies (nominal and adversarial) in an online manner, as guided by a supervisory master agent that detects the presence of the adversary by leveraging the advantage function for the sub-policies. We demonstrate that the proposed algorithm enables policy learning with significantly lower bias as compared to the state-of-the-art policy learning approaches even in the presence of heavy state information attacks. We present algorithm analysis and simulation results using popular OpenAI Gym environments.
Learning about social category-based obligations

Abstract Two studies tested how children (N = 196) use a framework theory of the social world to (a) shape their expectations of and (b) guide new learning about social behaviors. In Study 1, when introduced to two novel social groups, children predicted that an agent would preferentially harm members of the other group, be friends with members of their own group, and save members of their own group from harm. In Study 2, 4-year-old children who had been shown evidence of prior inter-group and intra-group interactions predicted that future behaviors would match the evidence they were shown only if the interactions they observed were consistent with their expectations of how members of groups should relate to one another. Thus, children use their framework theory to predict social behaviors and guide new learning about the social world.
Susan Kare: Design Icon

Susan Kare is best known for designing the distinctive icons, typefaces, and other graphic elements that gave the Apple Macintosh its characteristic—and widely emulated—look and feel. Since then, Kare has spent the last three decades designing user interface elements for many of the leading software and Internet firms. If you have clicked on a desktop icon to save a file or tapped your smart phone screen to launch a mobile app, then you have benefited from Kares work. This article presents a professional biography of Kare and documents her continuing influence on user interface design.
Skeleton model based behavior recognition for pedestrians and cyclists from vehicle sce ne camera

With the significant advances in computer vision research, skeleton model based human pose recognition has become more accurate and time-efficient, although most of the applications are limited in laboratory environment or on surveillance videos. This paper proposes a pose tracking and behavior recognition method from in-vehicle scene camera. It will not only detect pedestrians on the road, but also generate their skeleton models describing head, limb, and trunk movements. Based on these more detailed movements of body parts, the proposed method is designed to track poses of pedestrians and cyclists with the potentials to enable automated pedestrian gesture reading and non-verbal interactions between autonomous vehicles and pedestrians. The proposed algorithm has been tested on different databases including TASI 110-car naturalistic driving database and Joint Attention for Autonomous Driving (JAAD) database. Results show that key frames describing different pedestrian and cyclist negotiation gestures are detected from the raw video streams using the proposed method. These results will improve our understanding of pedestrian and cyclist’s intentions and can be further used for autonomous vehicle control algorithm development.
Report of Confirmation of the rs7853758 and rs885004 Haplotype in SLC28A3.

Aims: To validate a laboratory-developed test for the nucleoside transporter, SLC28A3, which has been associated with an increased risk of anthracycline-induced cardiomyopathy. Methods: We used Taq...
Pocket: elastic ephemeral storage for serverless analytics

Serverless computing is becoming increasingly popular, enabling users to quickly launch thousands of short-lived tasks in the cloud with high elasticity and fine-grain billing. These properties make serverless computing appealing for interactive data analytics. However exchanging intermediate data between execution stages in an analytics job is a key challenge as direct communication between serverless tasks is difficult. The natural approach is to store such ephemeral data in a remote data store. However, existing storage systems are not designed to meet the demands of serverless applications in terms of elasticity, performance, and cost. We present Pocket, an elastic, distributed data store that automatically scales to provide applications with desired performance at low cost. Pocket dynamically rightsizes resources across multiple dimensions (CPU cores, network bandwidth, storage capacity) and leverages multiple storage technologies to minimize cost while ensuring applications are not bottlenecked on I/O. We show that Pocket achieves similar performance to ElastiCache Redis for serverless analytics applications while reducing cost by almost 60%.
Generating automatically labeled data for author name disambiguation: an iterative clustering method

To train algorithms for supervised author name disambiguation, many studies have relied on hand-labeled truth data that are very laborious to generate. This paper shows that labeled data can be automatically generated using information features such as email address, coauthor names, and cited references that are available from publication records. For this purpose, high-precision rules for matching name instances on each feature are decided using an external-authority database. Then, selected name instances in target ambiguous data go through the process of pairwise matching based on the rules. Next, they are merged into clusters by a generic entity resolution algorithm. The clustering procedure is repeated over other features until further merging is impossible. Tested on 26 K instances out of the population of 228 K author name instances, this iterative clustering produced accurately labeled data with pairwise F1 = 0.99. The labeled data represented the population data in terms of name ethnicity and co-disambiguating name group size distributions. In addition, trained on the labeled data, machine learning algorithms disambiguated 24 K names in test data with performance of pairwise F1 = 0.90–0.92. Several challenges are discussed for applying this method to resolving author name ambiguity in large-scale scholarly data.
Microglial activation in an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-like model caused by Ranbp2 loss and nucleocytoplasmic transport impairment in retinal ganglion neurons

Nucleocytoplasmic transport is dysregulated in sporadic and familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and retinal ganglion neurons (RGNs) are purportedly involved in ALS. The Ran-binding protein 2 (Ranbp2) controls rate-limiting steps of nucleocytoplasmic transport. Mice with Ranbp2 loss in Thy1+-motoneurons develop cardinal ALS-like motor traits, but the impairments in RGNs and the degree of dysfunctional consonance between RGNs and motoneurons caused by Ranbp2 loss are unknown. This will help to understand the role of nucleocytoplasmic transport in the differential vulnerability of neuronal cell types to ALS and to uncover non-motor endophenotypes with pathognomonic signs of ALS. Here, we ascertain Ranbp2’s function and endophenotypes in RGNs of an ALS-like mouse model lacking Ranbp2 in motoneurons and RGNs. Thy1+-RGNs lacking Ranbp2 shared with motoneurons the dysregulation of nucleocytoplasmic transport. RGN abnormalities were comprised morphologically by soma hypertrophy and optic nerve axonopathy and physiologically by a delay of the visual pathway’s evoked potentials. Whole-transcriptome analysis showed restricted transcriptional changes in optic nerves that were distinct from those found in sciatic nerves. Specifically, the level and nucleocytoplasmic partition of the anti-apoptotic and novel substrate of Ranbp2, Pttg1/securin, were dysregulated. Further, acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1, which modulates de novo synthesis of fatty acids and T-cell immunity, showed the highest up-regulation (35-fold). This effect was reflected by the activation of ramified CD11b+ and CD45+-microglia, increase of F4\80+-microglia and a shift from pseudopodial/lamellipodial to amoeboidal F4\80+-microglia intermingled between RGNs of naive mice. Further, there was the intracellular sequestration in RGNs of metalloproteinase-28, which regulates macrophage recruitment and polarization in inflammation. Hence, Ranbp2 genetic insults in RGNs and motoneurons trigger distinct paracrine signaling likely by the dysregulation of nucleocytoplasmic transport of neuronal-type selective substrates. Immune-modulators underpinning RGN-to-microglial signaling are regulated by Ranbp2, and this neuronal-glial system manifests endophenotypes that are likely useful in the prognosis and diagnosis of motoneuron diseases, such as ALS.
Should straw polls be banned

Abstract A Principal appoints a committee of partially informed experts to choose a policy. The experts' preferences are aligned with each other but conflict with hers. We study whether she gains from banning committee members from communicating or “deliberating” before voting. Our main result is that if the committee plays its preferred equilibrium and the Principal uses a threshold voting rule, then she does not gain from banning deliberation. We show using examples how she can gain if she can choose the equilibrium played by the committee, or use a non-anonymous or non-monotone voting rule.
Assessing the bioenergy potential of grassland biomass from conservation areas in England

Abstract Bioenergy may be one of the ‘ecosystem services of the future’ for grasslands managed for conservation as the concept of bio-based economies is embraced worldwide. Although the idea of producing biogas and bioethanol from lignocellulosic material is not new, there are currently few regional-level comparisons of the bioenergy potential of high-diversity grasslands that would establish whether this could be a competitive bioenergy feedstock for farmers. Comparing the chemical composition and biogas yields of biomass samples from 13 grasslands in England and 73 other bioenergy feedstocks reveals that the lignin content of biomass from grasslands managed for conservation was up to 50% less than other bioenergy crops. Grasslands managed for conservation yielded up to 160% more biogas per ton dry matter than cereals or crop waste and only slightly less than Miscanthus. GIS modeling of the estimated biogas yields of grasslands managed for conservation and fields currently sown with Miscanthus show that grasslands are larger (20.57 ha) than Miscanthus fields (5.95 ha) and are projected to produce up to 117% more biogas per average field. Future incorporation of high-diversity grasslands into local and nation-wide energy plans may help reduce global fossil-fuel use in the 21st century.
Ordered Categorical Data

Many categorical variables have a natural ordering of the categories. Special methods are available for such data that are more powerful and more parsimonious than methods that ignore the ordering. This article discusses ways of modeling association for ordered categorical data and gives examples of them. These include loglinear models, related association models for two-way tables that have row and column effects, and logit regression models for an ordinal response variable and a set of explanatory variables. The best-known logit model, called a proportional odds model, uses the same effect parameters for each set of logits of cumulative probabilities for the ordered categorical response variable. Keywords: association model; logit models; loglinear model; multinomial distribution; odds ratio; ordinal variable; proportional odds model; quasi-symmetry
The Wolf-Rayet Content of M33

Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are evolved massive stars, and the relative number of WC-type and WN-type WRs should vary with metallicity, providing a sensitive test of stellar evolutionary theory. The observed WC/WN ratio is much higher than that predicted by theory in some galaxies but this could be due to observational incompleteness for WN types, which have weaker lines. Previous studies of M33's WR content show a galactocentric gradient in the relative numbers of WCs and WNs, but only small regions have been surveyed with sufficient sensitivity to detect all of the WNs. Here, we present a sensitive survey for WRs covering all of M33, finding 55 new WRs, mostly of WN type. Our spectroscopy also improves the spectral types of many previously known WRs, establishing in one case that the star is actually a background quasar. The total number of spectroscopically confirmed WRs in M33 is 206, a number we argue is complete to ~5%, with most WRs residing in OB associations, although ~2% are truly isolated. The WC/WN ratio in the central regions (<2?kpc) of M33 is much higher than that predicted by the current Geneva evolutionary models, while the WC/WN ratios in the outer regions are in good accord, as are the values in the Small Magellanic Cloud and Large Magellanic Cloud. The WC/WN ratio and the WC subtype distribution both argue that the oxygen abundance gradient in M33 is significantly larger than that found by some recent studies, but are consistent with the two-component model proposed by Magrini et?al.
Facebook posting activity and the selective amplification of earnings disclosures

Abstract This study examines the determinants of Facebook activity levels with a particular focus on Facebook activity around earnings announcements. Facebook activity is generally higher for firms with higher levels of analyst following, individual ownership, and trading volume, indicating that it is responsive to investor demand effects. Facebook activity also increases around earnings announcements, with the increase being largely attributable to posts containing earnings news. In general, therefore, firms use Facebook posts to amplify earnings news. Such activity is selective, however; it is lower for firms with high levels of information asymmetry, for firms reporting earnings that exactly meet the consensus analyst forecast amount, and when the earnings news is negative but the accompanying price movement is positive. Hence, firms appear to use Facebook to manage the level of attention paid to earnings news.
Inertia parameter statistics of an uncertain small body shape

Abstract This paper proposes an analytical formulation of the inertia parameters of Bezier shapes of arbitrary order. Bezier shapes can represent classical polyhedra as well as higher-order surface elements within the same framework. This formulation is linearized so as to yield the expressions of the first variation in the inertia properties of interest. These expressions eventually provide the second moment about the means of the inertia parameters, under the assumption of normally distributed, correlated mesh coordinates errors. This statistical model was evaluated over asteroid Itokawa and comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko, whose shape control points were subjected to a Gaussian, correlated deviation along their surface normals. The model exhibited good agreement with Monte-Carlo evaluations of the perturbed inertia moments, and should thus be of benefit to astronomers and astrodynamicists studying the dynamical environment of small bodies whose shape model is only known within some uncertainty.
The Olympic decathlete who became a shaman: C. K. Yang and the masculine body in modern Taiwan

In the year 2000, the Taiwan media prepared for that summer’s blitz of Olympic coverage. Some reporters, hungry for an original angle, went to interview Taiwan’s first great Olympic sportsman, C. K. Yang (Yang Chuanguang 楊傳廣). Yang, an Ami Aborigine from Taidong County in eastern Taiwan, won a silver medal in the decathlon at the Rome Olympics in 1960. To this day, his epic battle there with close friend and UCLA track and field teammate Rafer Johnson is known as one of the most touching and memorable moments in Olympic history. Forty years later, many of these reporters were shocked to find that the elderly Yang, the UCLA Bruin Hall of Famer once known around the world as “The Asian Iron Man,” was using his body in a different way. Yang now was serving as a Daoist oracle or shaman (Taiwanese tang-ki 童乩, Mandarin jitong 乩童) at the Temple of the Imperial Seal (Yuxigong 玉璽宮) in Taidong, a jarring fact which seemed curious at least and, too many, even shameful. The sense of pity for a fallen hero was soon heightened even further when, on January 1, 2001, Taiwan’s Liberty Times (Ziyou shibao 自由時報) announced that Yang was seriously ill and in need of a
The future of India's coal-fired power generation capacity

Abstract Given the size and growth prospects of the Indian economy, the Indian power sector plays a key role in the global effort to mitigate climate change. Here we use the January 2017 edition of the Coal Tracker database to understand the future prospects for Indian coal. Using improved lower and upper bounds for potential construction and capacity factors, we find that lifetime emissions over the next five decades from Indian coal-fired power generation could range from 18 to 39 gigatons. The single most important way to reduce these emissions is to reduce the average lifespan of plants, as neither falling capacity factors nor lower construction rates bring India's power sector in line with the goal of limiting global warming to 2 °C. Our estimations show that reducing the lifespan of plants from 40 to 30 years alone can decrease cumulative CO2 emissions by approximately 12 gigatons, which is equivalent to saving 5.8% of the global carbon budgets for 2 °C targets.
Line configurations and $r$-Stirling partitions

A set partition of $[n] := \{1, 2, \dots, n \}$ is called {\em $r$-Stirling} if the numbers $1, 2, \dots, r$ belong to distinct blocks. Haglund, Rhoades, and Shimozono constructed graded ring $R_{n,k}$ depending on two positive integers $k \leq n$ whose algebraic properties are governed by the combinatorics of ordered set partitions of $[n]$ with $k$ blocks. We introduce a variant $R_{n,k}^{(r)}$ of this quotient for ordered $r$-Stirling partitions which depends on three integers $r \leq k \leq n$. We describe the standard monomial basis of $R_{n,k}^{(r)}$ and use the combinatorial notion of the {\em coinversion code} of an ordered set partition to reprove and generalize some results of Haglund et.\ al.\ in a more direct way. Furthermore, we introduce a variety $X_{n,k}^{(r)}$ of line arrangements whose cohomology is presented as the integral form of $R_{n,k}^{(r)}$, generalizing results of Pawlowski and Rhoades.
A pithy look at the polytope algebra

This is a hands on introduction to McMullen's Polytope Algebra. More than interesting on its own, this algebra was McMullen's tool to give a combinatorial proof of the g-theorem.
Structure and Stability of Boron Nitrides: The Crossover between Rings and Cages

A previous study on B12N12 showed that the Hartree−Fock (HF) method, local density approximation (LDA), and gradient-corrected density functional theory (specifically B3LYP) all agree in predicting that the cage isomer of B12N12 is the most stable. If the cage is the most stable (BN)x for x = 12, then the energetic crossover between rings and cages must take place at some x < 12. Rings would be most stable for small molecules, and cages would be most stable for larger molecules. The current study explores the question of whether rings or cages are more stable at sizes smaller than B12N12, with the goal of defining a crossover point between rings and cages. These issues are examined by theoretical calculations using the HF, LDA, and B3LYP methods, along with second-order perturbation theory (MP2). In particular, an energetic comparison is carried out between the ring and cage isomers of (BN)x for x = 8−11. The major result is that boron nitride cages are more stable than rings if at least two of the six fo...
Multiple functional neurosteroid binding sites on GABAA receptors.

Neurosteroids are endogenous modulators of neuronal excitability and nervous system development and are being developed as anesthetic agents and treatments for psychiatric diseases. While gamma amino-butyric acid Type A (GABAA) receptors are the primary molecular targets of neurosteroid action, the structural details of neurosteroid binding to these proteins remain ill defined. We synthesized neurosteroid analogue photolabeling reagents in which the photolabeling groups were placed at three positions around the neurosteroid ring structure, enabling identification of binding sites and mapping of neurosteroid orientation within these sites. Using middle-down mass spectrometry (MS), we identified three clusters of photolabeled residues representing three distinct neurosteroid binding sites in the human α1β3 GABAA receptor. Novel intrasubunit binding sites were identified within the transmembrane helical bundles of both the α1 (labeled residues α1-N408, Y415) and β3 (labeled residue β3-Y442) subunits, adjacent to the extracellular domains (ECDs). An intersubunit site (labeled residues β3-L294 and G308) in the interface between the β3(+) and α1(−) subunits of the GABAA receptor pentamer was also identified. Computational docking studies of neurosteroid to the three sites predicted critical residues contributing to neurosteroid interaction with the GABAA receptors. Electrophysiological studies of receptors with mutations based on these predictions (α1-V227W, N408A/Y411F, and Q242L) indicate that both the α1 intrasubunit and β3-α1 intersubunit sites are critical for neurosteroid action.