cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Simulation and Control of Mass-Actuated Airplane

A simulation environment is developed for an airplane controlled by internally moving masses (mass actuation), instead of conventional control surfaces (aeroactuation). The mass actuation consists ...
Bacterial colonization stimulates a complex physiological response in the immature human intestinal epithelium

Human newborns are exposed to large numbers of bacteria at birth. They must transition from the protective, sterile environment of the womb into the bacteria-rich world. The gut, in particular, must adapt as bacteria colonize it. Many of the first bacteria found in the newborn gut form the basis of the bacterial communities needed for a healthy intestine throughout life. In some premature infants, bacterial colonization of the intestine may trigger harmful inflammation and a serious illness called necrotizing enterocolitis. It is not known exactly how the immature intestine first responds to bacteria. It is also unclear what goes wrong that causes illness in some premature infants. Learning more about how a healthy newborn intestine becomes colonized and responds to this colonization may help medical professionals to better care for normal infants and those who are at risk of intestinal disease. But it has been difficult to study because there is not much newborn intestinal tissue available for scientific research. One solution would be to grow tissue in the laboratory that is like tissue found in the newborn intestine and see how it adapts to bacteria. Now, Hill et al. use stem cells to grow a tissue in the laboratory that is very like immature newborn intestine and show that bacterial colonization helps it to mature. In the experiments, stem cells were grown into an intestine-like tissue. Analyses showed that this laboratory-grown tissue had the same patterns of gene expression as newborn intestines. Then, a type of bacteria called Escherichia coli that is normally found in the intestines of healthy babies was introduced to the intestine-like tissue. Hill et al. show that the initial contact with bacteria and changes in oxygen levels due to bacterial activity cause shifts in gene expression. These in turn stimulate the release of mucus and other protective responses. A protein called NF-κB plays a central role in these normal bacteria-intestine interactions. Hill et al. show that using a drug to block NF-κB interferes with these processes. The experiments show that contact with bacteria encourages the immature intestine to protect itself from potential harm. More experiments like these may help scientists understand normal bacteria-intestine interactions in early life and how they may go wrong in disease. These studies might also help identify new treatments for babies with necrotizing enterocolitis.
Directed Information Between Connected Leaky Integrate-and-Fire Neurons

The connectivity structure between neurons is useful for determining how groups of neurons perform tasks. Directed information is a measure that can be used to infer connectivity between neurons using their recorded time series. In this paper, we develop a method of calculating the directed information rate from one neuron to another neuron it is connected to, given a particular neuronal topology. We assume a leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) neuron model with independent and identically distributed random spike train inputs, which governs how the membrane potential of the output neuron evolves. We use this neuron model to find the dynamics of the resulting output spike train from its membrane potential dynamics, both for when the past of the input neuron is observed and when it is not. We show that an action potential in the LIF model causes a conditional independence of the activity before and after it, and we capture this conditional independence via a Markov model. We use these spike train dynamics to then calculate the directed information between the spike train of the input neuron to the spike train generated by the LIF model. In addition, we show how changing the refractory period of the LIF model affects the directed information, and also how the spike train dynamics are affected by memory constraints, which are commonly imposed in estimators of directed information.
Control Issues for a Flexure-Suspension Three-DOF Robotic Fine Positioning Device

We describe in this paper an extension of the 2-DOF fine Positioner reported in 1985 [1]. The extension combines x and y translational motion with rotation θz about the z axis. Allowing general planar alignment tasks to be performed. The device is a compact combination of 3-DOF linear motor. flexure springs. position sensor and digital controller. The semiconductor lateral effect method used for position sensing is extended to include measurement of rotation. A new suspension system based on flexing rods substantially cancels unwanted z motion and motor gap change associated with the 2-DOF device. but introduces highly resonant structural vibration modes that need to be controlled. This paper briefly describes the new device. discusses the issues involved in controlling it. presents several controller designs, and reports their performance.
Dependable communication synthesis for distributed embedded systems

Embedded control applications such as drive-by-wire in cars require dependable interaction between various sensors, processors, and actuators. This paper addresses the design of low-cost communication networks guaranteeing to meet both the performance and fault-tolerance requirements of such distributed applications. We develop a fault-tolerant allocation and scheduling method, which maps messages onto a low-cost multiple-bus system to ensure predictable inter-processor communication. The proposed method targets time-division multiple access (TDMA) communication protocols, and is applicable to protocols such as FlexRay and TTP which have recently emerged as possible networking standards for embedded systems such as automobile controllers. Finally, we present a case study involving some advanced automotive control applications to show that our approach uses the available network bandwidth efficiently to guarantee message deadlines.
A Self-Tuning Controller with a PID Structure

Abstract Self-tuning controllers are proposed which have the same structure as conventional PID controllers. The new self-tuning PID controllers are based on a modified version of the design method of Clarke and Gawthrop (1975, 1979). Experimental and simulation studies for a stirred-tank heating system indicate that the new self-tuners perform well and can be easily adjusted on-line.
Problems in Control System Design for Hypersonic Vehicles

Abstract The unique problems to be encountered in the design of systems for the precise control of hypersonic vehicles are to be presented and discussed. These problems pose significant research challenges if successful guidance and control systems are to be developed for this new class of vehicle. These challenges will be shown to arise due to the stringent mission requirements on the vehicle, and the highly integrated configuration designs being considered. In this paper, the mission requirements and operational goals of these vehicles will be frrst reviewed, and in particular, the heating problems and trajectory performance issues highlighted. Then the presence of critical coupling between several vehicular subsystems will be clearly exposed, and the dynamic interactions between these subsystems will be presented while considering a selected generic hypersonic configuration. This vehicle configuration, similar to the X-30 vehicle, is shown to be an unstable, highly-coupled, aeropropulsive/aeroelastic system, with large variations in its attitude-dynamic characteristics over its extensive flight envelope. The genesis of these interactions is explored, the magnitudes quantified, and their significance in the context of control system design presented. Since these issues may ultimately limit the feasibility of some configurations, the flight-dynamic modeling and analysis must be performed early in the design cycle such that critical dynamics and control issues associated with a candidate configuration may be exposed. Therefore, such dynamics and controls analysis cannot be postponed until detailed numerical models are available, because configuration changes may then be too expensive.
Improving Dual Diagnosis Care in Acute Psychiatric Inpatient Settings Through Education

Background Patients with co-existing substance use and mental disorder (dual diagnosis) have complex and challenging care needs. Acute psychiatric care settings play a vital role in providing services for patients with dual diagnosis as they often do not voluntarily seek treatment. This is significant in that recent data reveals that 57% of the psychiatric inpatients at an inner city hospital in Vancouver, Canada are characterized as dual diagnosis. Purpose To develop an educational module which will equip nurses/practitioners with the skills and knowledge required to deliver evidence-based dual diagnosis care in acute psychiatric settings. Methods A survey of 74 nurses working in acute psychiatric settings was completed to identify their learning needs and challenges. This was followed by a comprehensive review of evidence from literature to identify competencies, knowledge and skills needed to deliver dual diagnosis care. Content for the educational module was then validated by a panel of leading international experts on dual diagnosis. Two focus groups of acute psychiatric nurses were then conducted to discuss content. An 8 hour educational session was then developed and piloted using the content that was reviewed and validated. Results Thirteen content areas were identified and validated by experts. Evaluations from participants of the educational session suggest improved knowledge, skills and competencies in dual diagnosis care. Conclusions This project translates evidence into practice, contributes to the body of knowledge on dual diagnosis care and improves practitioners’ confidence and competency in delivering evidence-based care which also will improve patient care outcomes and experiences.
Immunologic Reconstitution in the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Although effective therapies are available for many of the infections and tumors that occur in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), no therapy exists for the underlying immunodeficiency. Three approaches used to treat this immunodeficiency have included wholescale immune replacement through lymphocyte transfers, bone marrow transplantation, and thymic implantation; immunologic enhancement with biologic-response modifiers, such as gamma interferon, interleukin-2, and some drugs; and antiretroviral therapy. Because of the persistence of the etiologic virus, both immune replacement and enhancement will probably be ineffective unless effective strategies are developed against the virus. Agents that have shown antiviral activity in vitro which are currently in clinical trials include suramin, heteropolyanion-23 (HPA-23), ribavirin, and alpha interferon. Foscarnet and monoclonal antibodies have yet to enter clinical trials in the United States. It is still too early to tell if any of the antiviral agents will prove of value in the management of patients with AIDS.
Toward A Scalable Exploratory Framework for Complex High-Dimensional Phenomics Data

Motivation: Phenomics is an emerging branch of modern biology, which uses high throughput phenotyping tools to capture multiple environment and phenotypic trait measurements, at a massive scale. The resulting high dimensional data sets represent a treasure trove of information for providing an indepth understanding of how multiple factors interact and contribute to control the growth and behavior of different plant crop genotypes. However, computational tools that can parse through such high dimensional data sets and aid in extracting plausible hypothesis are currently lacking. In this paper, we present a new algorithmic approach to effectively decode and characterize the role of environment on phenotypic traits, from complex phenomic data. To the best of our knowledge, this effort represents the first application of topological data analysis on phenomics data. Results: We applied this novel algorithmic approach on a real-world maize data set. Our results demonstrate the ability of our approach to delineate emergent behavior among subpopulations, as dictated by one or more environmental factors; notably, our approach shows how the environment plays a key role in determining the phenotypic behavior of one of the two genotypes. Availability: Downloadable Source code and test data are freely available with instruction set at https://xperthut.github.io/HYPPO-X
Immunopathogenesis of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Abstract Many abnormalities of humoral and cellular immunity associated with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome can be explained by the preferential infection of the T4 lymphocyte subset with t...
Epididymitis—An Unusual Presentation of Colovesical Fistula Secondary to Diverticulitis: Report of a Case

A case of colovesical fistula secondary to diverticulitis that had the unusual presentation of epididymitis is presented. The current literature on diverticulitis involving the urinary tract is reviewed.
A Concentration Gradient of Bacteria Within Wound Tissues and Scab

This investigation was designed to evaluate the effect of a synthetic moisture vapor permeable dressing on the size of the bacterial population of superficial wounds. Split-thickness donor sites were created in pig skin and were treated with a synthetic occlusive dressing (Tegaderm), with fine mesh gauze, or with nothing. All wounds became spontaneously infected with a variety of bacteria, predominantly with Staphylococcus epidermidis. The population of the Tegaderm wounds was always greater than that of the untreated controls, while that of the gauze treated wounds was equal to or less than that of the controls. Tegaderm dressed wounds healed more quickly than did the others. A gradient in the concentration of bacteria within the wounds was seen, with a very high concentration in the scab (10(8) cells/g), an intermediate concentration (10(6) cells/g) in the dermal layer, and the lowest concentration (10(4) cells/g) in the hypodermal level of the wound tissue. Such a gradient has not previously been reported. No evidence was seen that the level of infection declined over time for any of the dressings. Apparent bacterial clearing in earlier investigations may be due to the progressive loss of superficial wound tissues with the corresponding exclusion of the high concentration of bacteria within these layers from the tissue sampled.
Hospitalization Rates in Vasectomized Men

Six thousand ninety-two men who had undergone vasectomy were observed for 20,491 person-years of observation in a prepaid group practice. The incidences of first-time hospitalizations for a variety of diagnoses were examined as a proxy for disease incidence rates and compared with similarly derived rates in the remaining male membership of the practice. Vasectomized men had comparatively high rates of hospitalization for a variety of diseases of the genitourinary system during the early postvasectomy perlod. Apart from these, there were no important, statistically convincing elevations in the new hospitalization rates among vasectomized men, as compared with those of the nonvasectomized comparison group. (JAMA1981;245:2315-2317)
Space architecture for MoonVillage

Abstract The concept of a multinational MoonVillage, as proposed by Jan Worner of ESA, is analyzed with respect to diverse factors affecting its implementation feasibility: potential activities and scale as a function of location, technology, and purpose; potential participants and their roles; business models for growth and sustainability as compared to the ISS; and implications for the field of space architecture. Environmental and operations constraints that govern all types of MoonVillage are detailed. Findings include: 1) while technically feasible, a MoonVillage would be more distributed and complex a project than the ISS; 2) significant and distinctive opportunities exist for willing participants, at all evolutionary scales and degrees of commercialization; 3) the mixed-use space business park model is essential for growth and permanence; 4) growth depends on exporting lunar material products, and the rate and extent of growth depends on export customers including terrestrial industries; 5) industrial-scale operations are a precondition for lunar urbanism, which goal in turn dramatically drives technology requirements; but 6) industrial viability cannot be discerned until significant in situ operations occur; and therefore 7) government investment in lunar surface operations is a strictly enabling step. Because of the resources it could apply, the U.S. government holds the greatest leverage on growth, no matter who founds a MoonVillage. The interplanetary business to be built may because for engagement.
Vice policy in Russia: alcohol, tobacco, gambling

In the past fifteen years the regulatory systems surrounding the traditional vices of alcohol, tobacco, and gambling have been extensively overhauled in Russia, generally in the direction of tighte...
Free Side-Channel Cross-Technology Communication in Wireless Networks

Enabling direct communication between wireless technologies immediately brings significant benefits including, but not limited to, cross-technology interference mitigation and context-aware smart operation. To explore the opportunities, we propose FreeBee–a novel cross-technology communication technique for direct unicast as well as cross-technology/channel broadcast among three popular technologies of WiFi, ZigBee, and Bluetooth. The key concept of FreeBee is to modulate symbol messages by shifting the timings of periodic beacon frames already mandatory for diverse wireless standards. This keeps our design generically applicable across technologies and avoids additional bandwidth consumption (i.e., does not incur extra traffic), allowing continuous broadcast to safely reach mobile and/or duty-cycled devices. A new interval multiplexing technique is proposed to enable concurrent broadcasts from multiple senders or boost the transmission rate of a single sender. Theoretical and experimental exploration reveals that FreeBee offers a reliable symbol delivery under a second and supports mobility of 30 mph and low duty-cycle operations of under 5%.
Lightweight structure design under force location uncertainty

We introduce a lightweight structure optimization approach for problems in which there is uncertainty in the force locations. Such uncertainty may arise due to force contact locations that change during use or are simply unknown a priori. Given an input 3D model, regions on its boundary where arbitrary normal forces may make contact, and a total force-magnitude budget, our algorithm generates a minimum weight 3D structure that withstands any force configuration capped by the budget. Our approach works by repeatedly finding the most critical force configuration and altering the internal structure accordingly. A key issue, however, is that the critical force configuration changes as the structure evolves, resulting in a significant computational challenge. To address this, we propose an efficient critical instant analysis approach. Combined with a reduced order formulation, our method provides a practical solution to the structural optimization problem. We demonstrate our method on a variety of models and validate it with mechanical tests.
The Dire Effects of the Lack of Monetary and Fiscal Coordination

Abstract If the government’s willingness to stabilize debt is waning, while the central bank is adamant about keeping inflation low, the economy enters a vicious spiral of higher inflation, monetary tightening, recession, and further debt accumulation. The mere possibility of this conflict represents a drag on the economy. A commitment to inflate away the debt accumulated during a large recession leads to welfare improvements and lower uncertainty by separating long-run fiscal sustainability from the short-run fiscal stimulus. This strategy can be used to avoid the zero lower bound. As a technical contribution, we explain how to build shock-specific policy rules.
The analytical limits of modeling short diffusion timescales

Abstract Diffusion modeling of chemical zonation in crystals and glasses is a widely used method of quantifying the timescales of a variety of geological processes. Obtaining timescale information from diffusion modeling relies on fitting modeled diffusion profiles to measured compositional gradients. Thus analytical factors, such as spatial resolution, analysis location and analytical uncertainty have the potential to limit the accuracy and precision of calculated diffusion timescales, especially when the resolution of the individual analyses approaches the width of the observed diffusion gradient. Herein we use a probabilistic modeling approach to assess the accuracy of timescales based on diffusion modeling at various spatial resolutions and diffusivities. We have calculated synthetic 1D diffusion profiles produced from simple step function geometries at various diffusivities and timescales and then resampled these at common analytical spatial resolutions. Standard diffusion modeling techniques were used to estimate apparent diffusion timescales from the resampled profiles to compare with the “true” synthetic times. Results confirm that for a given diffusivity, higher analytical spatial resolution gives access to shorter timescales, and that for each analytical resolution there is a minimum threshold timescale, below which diffusion modeling significantly overestimates the true timescale. The accuracy of short diffusion timescales depends on the width of the diffusion gradient (the portion of a profile that has been modified by diffusion) relative to the analytical spatial resolution, with models becoming accurate (within 20%) at a gradient width/spot size ratio > 2. The precision of diffusion timescales depends on the gradient width to spot size ratio, the magnitude of analytical uncertainty and the magnitude of the compositional difference across the step function boundary. Precision is improved with a large gradient width/spot size ratio, and where the magnitude of the compositional difference across the step function boundary is large relative to the analytical uncertainty. We present a generalized method to quantify these threshold timescales for any given spatial resolution and diffusivity, and present simple guidelines to aid in selecting compositional profiles that will produce more accurate diffusion timescale estimates.
Sensitivity Analysis for Unmeasured Confounding in Meta-Analyses.

Random-effects meta-analyses of observational studies can produce biased estimates if the synthesized studies are subject to unmeasured confounding. We propose sensitivity analyses quantifying the ...
CEO social capital, risk-taking and corporate policies

Abstract We provide the first direct empirical evidence of the effect of CEO social capital on aggregate corporate risk-taking. Our theory predicts that CEOs with high social capital display higher levels of risk-seeking behavior. Consistent with this prediction, we find a positive association between CEO social capital and aggregate corporate risk-taking. Examining the channel, we show that social ties cause corporate policy actions, and these actions lead to greater volatilities in stock returns and earnings. In addition, we uncover a number of factors that significantly moderate the effects of social capital on risk-taking. We also show that this increase in risk-taking is value-enhancing to the firm. Our results are robust to alternative proxies for risk-taking, alternative model specifications, and tests for endogeneity.
Destination Brazil: Immigration in Works of Nélida Piñón and Karen Tei Yamashita

In his study of nationalism, Konstantin Symmons-Symonolewicz describes the process of national awakening as a phase of nationalism as a social movement in which a new identity must be defined in terms of the country’s cultural heritage and in which its respective groups are activated around new social values and principles of organization (21-22). He sees two concomitant activities as comprising this process: the work of scholars in “rediscovering” and reevaluating that nation’s culture and the work of “men of letters,” in giving creative expression to its distinctive individuality as a human collectivity. He suggests that the main responsibility falls on the scholars to demonstrate the antiquity and respectability of the nation by probing into its history and prehistory and by analyzing its literature and its language as a mirror of its culture. Here I would like to extend this analysis by examining the role, not of the men but of the women of letters in contributing to the probing of national consciousness, to the exposing of injustices at a national level, and to the development of viable new concepts of national identity that reaffirm a belief in the nation as moral community, in the specific context of the impact of immigration in the formation of Brazilian identity.
Uncertainty, Momentum, and Profitability

In this article, the authors argue that momentum and profitability factors share a common source in uncertainty. Specifically, the authors find that uncertainty subsumes price momentum and operating profitability; it also accounts for the majority of the profits associated with earnings momentum and return on equity, especially in large firms. Furthermore, the profits of the four aforementioned momentum/profitability strategies concentrate in periods of negative market returns, consistent with high-uncertainty stocks’ greater vulnerability to bad market states documented in recent literature. The market-state dependence of momentum/profitability strategies has significant implications for portfolio managers who attempt to profit from these strategies. Understanding the sources of the profits also helps portfolio managers better employ these factors in constructing investment portfolios.
The blockchain-based scientific study

Blockchain technology enables the creation of immutable, publicly available data. Initial applications have been primarily in the fields of finance (Bitcoin) and law (smart contracts), yet it can also help advance science by reducing human bias. The blockchain can ensure that hypotheses are not altered; that methods of data collection are transparent; that results are publicly available for independent analyses; and that conclusions are less biased. Our current system of medical research suffers from too much bias. Blockchain technologies, by creating immutable data, will lead to an increased confidence in evidence based medicine.
Network Approach to Regime Type and Global Internet Connectedness

ABSTRACTThe current study examines the relationship between regime type and country access to the Internet at both domestic and global levels by conducting longitudinal analyses of economic and social indicators and Internet data between 2002 and 2014. In particular, the authors investigate how a country’s position in the global Internet network is associated with the country’s type of political institution while taking into account its economic growth, population, and education level. The current analysis shows that democracies dominated the global Internet network both in 2002 and in 2014. Finally, the panel regression and network analyses suggest that it is important to consider network characteristics in investigating whether and how a country’s regime type influences the country’s Internet adoption.
Intensivist-based deep sedation using propofol for pediatric outpatient flexible bronchoscopy.

Intensivist-based deep sedation using propofol for pediatric outpatient flexible bronchoscopy
Proto-South China Sea Plate Tectonics Using Subducted Slab Constraints from Tomography

The past size and location of the hypothesized proto-South China Sea vanished ocean basin has important plate-tectonic implications for Southeast Asia since the Mesozoic. Here we present new details on proto-South China Sea paleogeography using mapped and unfolded slabs from tomography. Mapped slabs included: the Eurasia-South China Sea slab subducting at the Manila trench; the northern Philippine Sea Plate slab subducting at the Ryukyu trench; and, a swath of detached, subhorizontal, slab-like tomographic anomalies directly under the South China Sea at 450 to 700 km depths that we show is subducted ‘northern proto-South China Sea’ lithosphere. Slab unfolding revealed that the South China Sea lay directly above the ‘northern Proto-South China Sea’ with both extending 400 to 500 km to the east of the present Manila trench prior to subduction. Our slab-based plate reconstruction indicated the proto-South China Sea was consumed by double-sided subduction, as follows: (1) The ‘northern proto-South China Sea’ subducted in the Oligo–Miocene under the Dangerous Grounds and southward expanding South China Sea by in-place ‘self subduction’ similar to the western Mediterranean basins; (2) limited southward subduction of the proto-South China Sea under Borneo occurred pre-Oligocene, represented by the 800–900 km deep ‘southern proto-South China Sea’ slab.
Ideology, Economic Policy, and Economic History: Cohen and DeLong's Concrete Economics

Stephen S. Cohen and J. Bradford DeLong view US economic policy extending up to 1980 as pragmatically fostering growth. This they interpret as the Hamiltonian tradition, and their intent is to rescue policy debate from the data- and logic-free quagmire into which they believe it has fallen. Following an introduction, section 2 of this essay describes methods and evidence that permit statements about the historical influence of ideological thinking more empirically grounded than those essayed by the authors. Section 3 examines specific aspects of their narrative. Section 4 considers what we mean by ideological thinking, and why it might be deleterious.
Plasmonic Superlens Imaging Enhanced by Incoherent Active Convolved Illumination

We introduce a loss compensation method to increase the resolution of near-field imaging with a plasmonic superlens that relies on the convolution of a high spatial frequency passband function with the object. Implementation with incoherent light removes the need for phase information. The method is described theoretically and numerical imaging results with artificial noise are presented, which display enhanced resolution of a few tens of nanometers, or around 1/15th of the free space wavelength. A physical implementation of the method is designed and simulated to provide a proof-of-principle, and steps toward experimental implementation are discussed.
Minimum thermal conductivity in the context of diffuson-mediated thermal transport

A model for the thermal conductivity of bulk solids is proposed in the limit of diffusive transport mediated by diffusons as opposed to phonons. This diffusive thermal conductivity, κdiff, is determined by the average energy of the vibrational density of states, ℏωavg, and the number density of atoms, n. Furthermore, κdiff is suggested as an appropriate estimate of the minimum thermal conductivity for complex materials, such that (at high temperatures): . A heuristic finding of this study is that the experimental ωavg is highly correlated with the Debye temperature, allowing κdiff to be estimated from the longitudinal and transverse speeds of sound: . Using this equation to estimate κmin gives values 37% lower than the widely-used Cahill result and 18% lower than the Clarke model for κmin, on average. This model of diffuson-mediated thermal conductivity may thus help explain experimental results of ultralow thermal conductivity.
President Garfield and the Pythagorean Theorem

(2002). President Garfield and the Pythagorean Theorem. Math Horizons: Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 9-15.
The influence of dialect in sound symbolic size perception

Prior research on sound symbolism and referent object size establishes that words with front vowels are perceived to refer to smaller objects than do back vowels (Ohala 1997; Klink 2000). Some dialects of American English exhibit vowel movement along the front-back axis which may influence perceived object size. This study focuses on California English /u/-fronting (Hinton et al. 1987) and predicts that shifting from a standardly back vowel [u] to a more front vowel [ʉ] is paired with a shift from a large perceived object size to a smaller perceived object size. This paper describes two experiments in which participants either silently read ( reading task ) or listened ( listening task ) to stimulus words and rated perceived object size. California English speakers in the reading task experiment perceived words with /u/ to be smaller than did non-California English speakers. This result suggests that sound symbolic perception is sensitive to fine phonetic variability due to a person’s dialect.
Systematic identification of correlates of HIV infection: an X-wide association study

OBJECTIVE Better identification of at-risk groups could benefit HIV-1 care programmes. We systematically identified HIV-1 risk factors in two nationally representative cohorts of women in the Demographic and Health Surveys. METHODS We identified and replicated the association of 1415 social, economic, environmental, and behavioral factors with HIV-1 status. We used the 2007 and 2013-2014 surveys conducted among 5715 and 15 433 Zambian women, respectively (688 shared factors). We used false discovery rate criteria to identify factors that are strongly associated with HIV-1 in univariate and multivariate models of the entire population, as well as in subgroups stratified by wealth, residence, age, and past HIV-1 testing. RESULTS In the univariate analysis, we identified 102 and 182 variables that are associated with HIV-1 in the two surveys, respectively (79 factors were associated in both). Factors that were associated with HIV-1 status in full-sample analyses and in subgroups include being formerly married (adjusted OR 2007, 2.8, P < 10(-16); 2013-2014 2.8, P < 10(-29)), widowhood (aOR 3.7, P < 10(-12); and 4.2, P < 10(-30)), genital ulcers within 12 months (aOR 2.4, P < 10(-5); and 2.2, P < 10(-6)), and having a woman head of the household (aOR 1.7, P < 10(-7); and 2.1, P < 10(-26), while owning a bicycle (aOR 0.6, P < 10(-6); and 0.6, P < 10(-8)) and currently breastfeeding (aOR 0.5, P < 10(-9); and 0.4, P < 10(-26)) were associated with decreased risk. Area under the curve for HIV-1 positivity was 0.76-0.82. CONCLUSION Our X-wide association study identifies under-recognized factors related to HIV-1 infection, including widowhood, breastfeeding, and gender of head of the household. These features could be used to improve HIV-1 identification programs.
Meteoric water alteration of soil and landscapes at Meridiani Planum, Mars

Abstract The geomorphology and geochemistry data gathered by the MER Opportunity at Meridiani Planum is a rich data set relevant to soil research on Mars. Many of the data, particularly with respect to outcrops at Victoria Crater, have been only partially analyzed. Here, the previously published geochemical profile of Endurance Crater is compared to that of Victoria Crater, to understand aspects of the post-depositional aqueous and chemical alteration of the Meridiani land surface. The landsurface bears cracking patterns similar to those produced by multiple episodes of wetting and drying in expansive materials on Earth. The geochemical profiles at both craters are nearly identical, suggesting (using mass balance methods) that a very chemically homogenous sedimentary deposit has been engulfed by the apparent surficial addition of S, Cl, and Br (and associated cations) since exposure to the atmosphere. The chemistry and mineralogy at both locations is one where the most insoluble of the added components resides near the land surface (Ca sulfates), and the more soluble components are concentrated at greater depths in a vertical pattern consistent with their solubility in water. The profiles, when compared to those on Earth (and to physical constraints), are most similar those generated by the downward movement of meteoric water. When this aqueous alteration and soil formation occurred is not well constrained, but the processes occurred between late Noachian (?) to late Amazonian times. The exposure of the Victoria crater walls, which occurred likely less than 107 y ago (late Amazonian), shows the accumulation of dust as well as evidence for aqueous concentration of NaBr and/or CaBr, possibly by deliquescence. By direct comparison to Earth, the regional soil at Meridiani Planum is a Typic Petrogypsid (a sulfate cemented arid soil), bearing similarities to very ancient soils formed in the Atacama Desert of Chile. The amount of water required to produce the soils ranges from a very low (and physically unlikely) quantity of 2–4 m, to possibly (and more likely) kilometers of water that were added in small individual increments over long spans of geological time.
Quantifying statistical uncertainty in the attribution of human influence on severe weather

Abstract Event attribution in the context of climate change seeks to understand the role of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions on extreme weather events, either specific events or classes of events. A common approach to event attribution uses climate model output under factual (real-world) and counterfactual (world that might have been without anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions) scenarios to estimate the probabilities of the event of interest under the two scenarios. Event attribution is then quantified by the ratio of the two probabilities. While this approach has been applied many times in the last 15 years, the statistical techniques used to estimate the risk ratio based on climate model ensembles have not drawn on the full set of methods available in the statistical literature and have in some cases used and interpreted the bootstrap method in non-standard ways. We present a precise frequentist statistical framework for quantifying the effect of sampling uncertainty on estimation of the risk ratio, propose the use of statistical methods that are new to event attribution, and evaluate a variety of methods using statistical simulations. We conclude that existing statistical methods not yet in use for event attribution have several advantages over the widely-used bootstrap, including better statistical performance in repeated samples and robustness to small estimated probabilities. Software for using the methods is available through the climextRemes package available for R or Python. While we focus on frequentist statistical methods, Bayesian methods are likely to be particularly useful when considering sources of uncertainty beyond sampling uncertainty.
Consensus-based transfer linear support vector machines for decentralized multi-task multi-agent learning

Transfer learning has been developed to improve the performances of different but related tasks in machine learning. However, such processes become less efficient with the increase of the size of training data and the number of tasks. Moreover, privacy can be violated as some tasks may contain sensitive and private data, which are communicated between nodes and tasks. We propose a consensus-based distributed transfer learning framework, where several tasks aim to find the best linear support vector machine (SVM) classifiers in a distributed network. With alternating direction method of multipliers, tasks can achieve better classification accuracies more efficiently and privately, as each node and each task train with their own data, and only decision variables are transferred between different tasks and nodes. Numerical experiments on MNIST datasets show that the knowledge transferred from the source tasks can be used to decrease the risks of the target tasks that lack training data or have unbalanced training labels. We show that the risks of the target tasks in the nodes without the data of the source tasks can also be reduced using the information transferred from the nodes who contain the data of the source tasks. We also show that the target tasks can enter and leave in real-time without rerunning the whole algorithm.
On Heckits, LATE, and Numerical Equivalence

Structural econometric methods are often criticized for being sensitive to functional form assumptions. We study parametric estimators of the local average treatment effect (LATE) derived from a widely used class of latent threshold crossing models and show they yield LATE estimates algebraically equivalent to the instrumental variables (IV) estimator. Our leading example is Heckman's (1979) two‐step (“Heckit”) control function estimator which, with two‐sided non‐compliance, can be used to compute estimates of a variety of causal parameters. Equivalence with IV is established for a semiparametric family of control function estimators and shown to hold at interior solutions for a class of maximum likelihood estimators. Our results suggest differences between structural and IV estimates often stem from disagreements about the target parameter rather than from functional form assumptions per se. In cases where equivalence fails, reporting structural estimates of LATE alongside IV provides a simple means of assessing the credibility of structural extrapolation exercises.
Power delivery network impedance characterization for high speed I/O interfaces using PRBS transmissions

This paper presents a method to characterize power delivery network impedance seen at the silicon level in a high-speed I/O interface using pseudorandom bit stream (PRBS) patterns. Moreover, results from a transient simulation using the extracted impedance are compared with laboratory measurements, showing good correlation.
Deliberative Mini-publics as a Partial Antidote to Authoritarian Information Strategies

Authoritarian or illiberal regimes control a growing number of states throughout the world. Among the information strategies that these regimes use to gain and maintain support are the dissemination of false or misleading policy information and the use of manipulative policy frames. Deliberative mini-publics can partially counter those strategies by distributing accurate policy information and employing non-exploitative policy frames that affirm the dignity of members of the polity as free and equal citizens.
The Niobrara formation in the Southern Powder river basin, Wyoming: An emerging giant continuous petroleum accumulation

The Niobrara Total Petroleum System (TPS) covers an extensive area across the Rocky Mountain Region, US. In the Powder River Basin (PRB), the petroleum system consists of source beds in the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Formation as well as reservoirs in the Upper Cretaceous Frontier, Turner, Niobrara, Sussex, Shannon, Parkman, Teapot, and Teckla. The Niobrara is a deep-water hemipelagic carbonate mudrock and is Coniacian to early Campanian in age and approximately 150-650 ft thick. The formation, where productive, has low porosity (< 10%), low permeability (<0.01 md), and pore throat sizes less than 0.1 micron. The immature-mature present-day depth boundary is approximately 8000 ft. The formation is subdivided informally into three units in the PRB (A, B, and C). The units consist of cycles of marls and chalks. Geologic factors related to successful exploration and development include excellent source-rock quality, source-rock maturity, reservoir thickness, matrix and fracture porosity and permeability development, high geothermal gradients, overpressure, oil gravity, gas-oil ratios, and regional fracture development. The accumulation covers a large area and is a potential giant accumulation. Recent drilling success by several operators indicates that productive reservoir conditions exist in the southern PRB (Figure 1). In this area, the Niobrara Formation consists of three marly chalk facies, informally referred to in descending order as A, B, and C benches that are separated by marls, similar to the Denver Basin (Figure 2). The basal Fort Hays Member of the Niobrara Formation is absent in the southern PRB (Weimer and Flexer, 1985; Taylor, 2012). The main reservoir target currently in the southern PRB is the Niobrara B chalk/marl interval. Porosities are 6-12% and permeabilities are less than 0.01 mD (Taylor, 2012). Hydrocarbons are generated from mainly a marine type II kerogen with total organic carbon content (TOC) averaging 2-3 wt.% for the interstratified organic-rich source beds (Anna, 2009).
Mosquito control practices and perceptions: An analysis of economic stakeholders during the Zika epidemic in Belize, Central America

The tourist-based economy of Belize, a tropical hub for eco-tourism, is at high risk to be disproportionately impacted by established and emerging mosquito-borne diseases such as Zika. An online survey was used to probe economic stakeholders working in the Belize tourism industry about their mosquito control practices and perceptions. Responses demonstrated that the respondents have good working knowledge of mosquitoes and mosquito-borne illnesses. Most businesses surveyed engage in some means of mosquito control, either through larval source reduction or use of insecticides on the premises. Larvicide use was significantly correlated with a general willingness to use insecticides, as well as belief that treatment of water will reduce mosquito densities and disease transmission. A majority of the respondents agreed that they would be interested in buying a new larvicide to be used on the business premises if it were shown to be safe and effective. The safety of mosquito control products for humans, animals, plants, and the environment in general, followed by product effectiveness, are the most critical determinants of mosquito control purchasing decisions. A majority of respondents agreed that control of mosquitoes and mosquito-borne illnesses is central to the success of their tourist-based industry. Respondents expressed significant concern that the Zika epidemic was over-sensationalized by the media, and that this negatively impacted their livelihoods. The respondents, many of whom are associated with eco/sustainable businesses, also voiced concerns that chemical pesticides could have a negative impact on human health and the environment and expressed a desire for balance between effective mosquito control and preservation of the rich biodiversity of Belize. This study provided a framework for further engagement activities in Belize and other Caribbean nations, uncovered both concerns and support for emerging mosquito control technologies, and revealed opportunities for further debate and educational outreach efforts.
Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy

The basic experimental aspects of Fourier transform Raman Spectroscopy are reviewed with an emphasis on detector technology. The sensitivity is comparable to dispersive Raman Spectroscopy using visible lasers. The ease of spectral subtraction is demonstrated and examples are given showing the elimination of fluorescence.
Optimal Dynamic Pricing for Binary Demands in Smart Grids: A Fair and Privacy-Preserving Strategy

Motivated by demand-side management in smart grids, a decentralized controlled Markov chain formulation is proposed to model a homogeneous population of users with binary demands (i.e., off or on). The binary demands often arise in scheduling applications such as plug-in hybrid vehicles. Normally, an independent service operator (ISO) has a finite number of options when it comes to provide the users with electricity. The options represent various incentive means, generation resources, and price profiles. The objective of the ISO is to find optimal options in order to keep the distribution of demands close to a desired level (which varies with time, in general) by imposing the minimum price on the users. A Bellman equation is developed here to identify the globally team-optimal strategy. The proposed strategy is fair for all users and also protects the privacy of users. Moreover, its computational complexity increases linearly (rather than exponentially) with the number of users. A numerical example with 100 users is presented for peak-load management.