cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Mistaken Restriction of Strict Liability to Uncommon Activities

Courts generally insist that two criteria be met before imposing strict liability rather than basing liability on the negligence rule. The first--that the injurer’s activity must be dangerous--is sensible because strict liability possesses general advantages over the negligence rule in controlling risk. But the second--that the activity must be uncommon--is ill-advised because it exempts all common activities from strict liability no matter how dangerous they are. Thus, the harm generated by the large swath of common dangerous activities--from hunting, to construction, to the transmission of natural gas--is inadequately regulated by tort law. After developing this theme and criticizing ostensible justifications for the uncommon activity requirement, the article addresses the question of how it arose. The answer is that its legal pedigree is problematic: it appears to have been invented by the authors of the first Restatement of Torts. The conclusion is that the uncommon activity requirement for the imposition of strict liability should be eliminated.
Identification of Two Early Life Eczema and Non-Eczema Phenotypes With High Risk For Asthma Development

Background The "atopic march" has been considered a linear progression starting with eczema and culminating with development of asthma. Not all asthma cases, however, are preceded by eczema, and not all children with eczema go on to develop asthma. Objective The aim of this study was to explore the impact of allergic sensitization patterns on the association between early eczema and later childhood asthma. Given the numerous reported associations of the ciliary gene KIF3A with the atopic march, we also examined the impact of KIF3A risk allele rs12186803 on our analyses. Methods We studied 505 participants in the Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study (CCAAPS), a prospective birth cohort, with longitudinal eczema and asthma outcomes as well as prospective data regarding timing of sensitization to foods and aeroallergens. KIF3A genotypes were available on all children. Results Two high-risk groups were identified: one with and one without early eczema. The high-risk group with early eczema was more likely to be sensitized to food allergens, while the group without early eczema was more likely to be polysensitized to aeroallergens. The KIF3A rs12186803 risk allele interacted with food sensitization to increase asthma risk in children with eczema (P = 0.02). In children without eczema, asthma was associated with the interaction between rs12186803 and aeroallergen sensitization (P = 0.007). Conclusions & clinical relevance KIF3A interacted differentially with sensitization pattern to increase the risk of asthma in two high-risk groups of children with and without early eczema. Given the reported role of KIF3A in epithelial cell functioning, the results add evidence to the hypothesis that an impaired epithelial barrier is a key aspect in the development of allergic disease.
Is Inflation Just Around the Corner? The Phillips Curve and Global Inflationary Pressures

Author(s): Coibion, Olivier; Gorodnichenko, Yuriy; Ulate, Mauricio | Abstract: Tightening labor markets in the United States and other advanced economies suggest inflation should be on the rise, yet it remains subdued. Is the Phillips curve broken? We bring together surveys of household or firm expectations for 18 countries to estimate an expectations-augmented Phillips curve. We find strong evidence of a Phillips curve relationship: the Phillips curve is alive and well. The fact that inflation remains well below inflation expectations, both in the United States and abroad, suggests that there remains significant slack in labor markets.
Cluster Analysis, Variables†

Cluster analysis involves grouping objects, subjects or variables, with similar characteristics into groups. Similarity or dissimilarity of objects is measured by a particular index of association. The focus here is on clustering of variables instead of subjects. Types of methods that cluster variables based on correlation structure of variables or factorial structure of variables are considered, where factorial structure refers to a structure obtained from principal component analysis or factor analysis. The approaches described for cluster analysis uses various indices of association such as factor loadings, correlation matrix, and cosine matrix. Examples of these are shown and the advantages and disadvantages of each approach are discussed. Keywords: cluster analysis; correlation matrix; factor analysis; factor loading; principal component analysis; cosine matrix; elementary linkage analysis; orthogonal rotation; oblique rotation; cycle hunt analysis; communality
University Integration of Chinese Undergraduate Students in Canada and the United States: The Role of Secondary School Experience

Increasingly Chinese parents send children to Canada and the United States for secondary school prior to university there. This article reports on the lived experiences of Chinese students with secondary education abroad, as well as those from international secondary schools in China. Students’ perceptions of academic and social experiences are uncovered through ethnographies and interviews in an American university and a Canadian university.
Four-fold increase in solar forcing on snow in western U.S. burned forests since 1999

Forest fires are increasing across the American West due to climate warming and fire suppression. Accelerated snow melt occurs in burned forests due to increased light transmission through the canopy and decreased snow albedo from deposition of light-absorbing impurities. Using satellite observations, we document up to an annual 9% growth in western forests burned since 1984, and 5 day earlier snow disappearance persisting for >10 years following fire. Here, we show that black carbon and burned woody debris darkens the snowpack and lowers snow albedo for 15 winters following fire, using measurements of snow collected from seven forested sites that burned between 2002 and 2016. We estimate a 372 to 443% increase in solar energy absorbed by snowpacks occurred beneath charred forests over the past two decades, with enhanced post-fire radiative forcing in 2018 causing earlier melt and snow disappearance in > 11% of forests in the western seasonal snow zone. The impacts of forest fire activity in the western US on snow melt are poorly quantified. Here the authors use satellite and field-based observations to document a four-fold increase in the solar forcing on snow in western burned forests from 1999 to 2018.
Filling the ranks: the Remplacement Militaire in post-revolutionary France

Many economists have analyzed the efficiency of a volunteered army relative to a conscripted army. However, they have rarely studied the working of real-world alternative, market-based, military institutions where military obligations are traded among the citizens. This paper fills this gap by studying the rise and fall of the Remplacement Militaire in 18th and 19th century France. This system endured for more than three-quarters of a century until the French government progressively moved toward universal conscription after 1872. We explain why, as the proportion of men drafted increased, the State systematically restricted the trade of military obligations.
Is Quantum Mechanics the Whole Truth

I draw an analogy between the “measurement paradox” of quantum mechanics in 2019 and the “Gibbs paradox” of statistical physics in 1875, and use it to argue that we have good reason to believe that the answer to the question in my title is “no”.
Predicting elementary teachers’ efforts to manage social dynamics from classroom composition, teacher characteristics, and the early year peer ecology

Teachers’ efforts to manage classroom social dynamics are associated with students’ social and academic adjustment, but the determinants of teachers’ use of social dynamics management strategies have remained unexplored. Multiple potential determinants of strategy use were examined in a study of 164 teachers and their 2986 students in 164 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade classrooms. Teachers who employed more of these strategies were: female, rated by observers as emotionally supportive, expressed compassion for withdrawn students, perceived a more positive classroom social climate, and had students who reported more negative peer relations. Results suggest that teachers’ personal characteristics influence their strategy use. In addition, results suggest that teachers’ strategy use may be a response to the immediate peer ecology.
Entropy generation and momentum transfer in the superconductor-normal and normal-superconductor phase transformations and the consistency of the conventional theory of superconductivity

Since the discovery of the Meissner effect, the superconductor to normal (S–N) phase transition in the presence of a magnetic field is understood to be a first-order phase transformation that is re...
The solid–solid interface: Explaining the high and unique photocatalytic reactivity of TiO2-based nanocomposite materials

Abstract This article reviews the role of solid–solid interface between phases and materials in photocatalytic reactions. We hypothesize that the solid–solid interface is a key structural feature that facilitates charge separation to hinder recombination and enhance photocatalytic efficiency, and may be the locus of defect sites that act as catalytic “hot spots”. The focus of this article is TiO2-based photocatalytic materials and we present the work of others and some of our recent work synthesizing, characterizing, and testing TiO2-based nanocomposites, especially mixed-phase titanium dioxide. The implications of this deeper understanding of structure–function relationships to energy applications are also discussed.
Synthesis and structural characterization of A3In2Ge4 and A5In3Ge6 (A=Ca, Sr, Eu, Yb)-New intermetallic compounds with complex structures, exhibiting Ge-Ge and In-In bonding

Abstract Reported are the synthesis and the structural characterization of four new polar intermetallic phases, which exist only with mixed alkaline-earth and rare-earth metal cations in narrow homogeneity ranges. (Sr 1– x Ca x ) 5 In 3 Ge 6 and (Eu 1– x Yb x ) 5 In 3 Ge 6 ( x ≈0.7) crystallize in the orthorhombic space group Pnma with two formula units per unit cell (own structure type, Pearson symbol oP 56). The lattice parameters are as follows: a =13.109(3)–13.266(3) A, b =4.4089(9)–4.4703(12) A, and c =23.316(5)–23.557(6) A. (Sr 1– x Ca x ) 3 In 2 Ge 4 and (Sr 1– x Yb x ) 3 In 2 Ge 4 ( x ≈0.4–0.5) adopt another novel monoclinic structure-type (space group C 2 /m , Z =4, Pearson symbol mS 36) with lattice parameters in the range a =19.978(2)–20.202(2) A, b =4.5287(5)–4.5664(5) A, c =10.3295(12)–10.3447(10) A, and β =98.214(2)–98.470(2)°, depending on the metal cations and their ratio. The polyanionic sub-structures in both cases are based on chains of InGe 4 corner-shared tetrahedra. The A 5 In 3 Ge 6 structure ( A =Sr/Ca or Sr/Yb) also features Ge 4 tetramers, and isolated In atoms in nearly square-planar environment, while the A 3 In 2 Ge 4 structure ( A =Sr/Ca or Eu/Yb) contains zig-zag chains of In and Ge strings with intricate topology of cis- and trans- bonds. The experimental results have been complemented by tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbital (LMTO) band structure calculations.
Formation of (Z) dialkylboron enolates from enolsilanes: Stereoconvergent transmetallation and diastereoselective aldol reactions

Transmetallation of (E) and (Z) enolsilanes using halodialkylborane (R2BX) reagents provides predominantly the (Z) dialkylboron enolate under mild conditions. These enolates afford high levels of syn selectivity in subsequent aldol reactions.
ASYMMETRIC SYNTHESES OF THE STEREOISOMERS OF PROTECTED 2,3-METHANOGLUTAMINE

Abstract Chirons 1 and 2, both from mannitol, were used to prepare enantiomerically pure cis and trans stereoisomers of 2,3-methanoglutamine (cyclo-Gln) in a protected form suitable for solid phase peptide synthesis.
Transdiagnostic Multimodal Neuroimaging in Psychosis: Structural, Resting-State, and Task Magnetic Resonance Imaging Correlates of Cognitive Control.

Abstract Background Disorders with psychotic features, including schizophrenia and some bipolar disorders, are associated with impairments in regulation of goal-directed behavior, termed cognitive control. Cognitive control–related neural alterations have been studied in psychosis. However, studies are typically unimodal, and relationships across modalities of brain function and structure remain unclear. Thus, we performed transdiagnostic multimodal analyses to examine cognitive control–related neural variation in psychosis. Methods Structural, resting, and working memory task imaging for 31 control participants, 27 participants with bipolar disorder, and 23 participants with schizophrenia were collected and processed identically to the Human Connectome Project, enabling identification of relationships with prior multimodal work. Two cognitive control–related independent components (ICs) derived from the Human Connectome Project using multiset canonical correlation analysis with joint IC analysis were used to predict performance in psychosis. De novo multiset canonical correlation analysis with joint IC analysis was performed, and the results were correlated with cognitive control. Results A priori working memory and cortical thickness maps significantly predicted cognitive control in psychosis. De novo multiset canonical correlation analysis with joint IC analysis identified an IC correlated with cognitive control that also discriminated groups. Structural contributions included insular and cingulate regions; task contributions included precentral, posterior parietal, cingulate, and visual regions; and resting-state contributions highlighted canonical network organization. Follow-up analyses suggested that correlations with cognitive control were primarily influenced by participants with schizophrenia. Conclusions A priori and de novo imaging replicably identified a set of interrelated patterns across modalities and the healthy-to-psychosis spectrum, suggesting robustness of these features. Relationships between imaging and cognitive control performance suggest that shared symptomatology may be key to identifying transdiagnostic relationships in psychosis.
Ba2La2Cu2Sn2O11: A New Layered Perovskite with a Modulated Structure

The average structure of this compound can be described by a tetragonal 1a p x1a p x4a p subcell that has P4/mmm space group symmetry and cell parameters a=3.9893, c=16.232A. The subcell does not fully describe the long range structural features. the structure is periuodic only in a statistical sense and contains long period commensurate modulations that have a dominant periodicity of √2a p x√2a p x24a p .
The Reaction of Cyclic Carbinol Amides with Triflic Anhydride as a Method to Prepare α-Trifluoromethyl-Sulfonamido Furans

A novel synthesis of α-trifluoromethyl-sulfonamido furans via the reaction of cyclic carbinol amides with triflic anhydride has been developed. The reaction proceeds under very mild conditions with a wide set of representative lactams to provide the α-trifluoromethyl-sulfonamido-substituted furan in high yield. Rapid access to a 5-substituted indoline can be achieved by thermolysis of the N-but-3-enyl-substituted sulfonamido furan.
Generation and Trapping of Isobenzofuran Intermediates Formed in the Coupling of Fischer Carbene Complexes and o-Alkynylbenzoyl Derivatives

The coupling of o-alkynylbenzoyl derivatives with carbene complexes has been investigated. The reaction initially affords isobenzofuran derivatives, which convert to alkylidenephthalan derivatives or can be trapped by various dienophiles to afford benzo-oxanorbornene derivatives.
Quantifying spontaneous metastasis in a syngeneic mouse melanoma model using real time PCR

Modeling metastasis in vivo with animals is a priority for both revealing mechanisms of tumor dissemination and developing therapeutic methods. While conventional intravenous injection of tumor cells provides an efficient and consistent system for studying tumor cell extravasation and colonization, studying spontaneous metastasis derived from orthotopic tumor sites has the advantage of modeling more aspects of the metastatic cascade, but is challenging as it is difficult to detect small numbers of metastatic cells. In this work, we developed an approach for quantifying spontaneous metastasis in the syngeneic mouse B16 system using real time PCR. We first transduced B16 cells with lentivirus expressing firefly luciferase Luc2 gene for bioluminescence imaging. Next, we developed a real time quantitative PCR (qPCR) method for the detection of luciferase-expressing, metastatic tumor cells in mouse lungs and other organs. To illustrate the approach, we quantified lung metastasis in both spontaneous and experimental scenarios using B16F0 and B16F10 cells in C57BL/6Ncrl and NOD-Scid Gamma (NSG) mice. We tracked B16 melanoma metastasis with both bioluminescence imaging and qPCR, which were found to be self-consistent. Using this assay, we can quantitatively detect one Luc2 positive tumor cell out of 104 tissue cells, which corresponds to a metastatic burden of 1.8 × 104 metastatic cells per whole mouse lung. More importantly, the qPCR method was at least a factor of 10 more sensitive in detecting metastatic cell dissemination and should be combined with bioluminescence imaging as a high-resolution, end-point method for final metastatic cell quantitation. Given the rapid growth of primary tumors in many mouse models, assays with improved sensitivity can provide better insight into biological mechanisms that underpin tumor metastasis.
Synthesis of fluorinated cyclic s-trans vinylogous acid and amide ester derivatives

Abstract A two-step procedure for the preparation of ethyl 4-amino-2-oxo-6-(trifluoromethyl)cyclohex-3-ene-1-carboxylate (enaminone) and methyl 4-hydroxy-2-oxo-6-(trifluoromethyl)cyclohex-3-ene-1-carboxylate (vinylogous acid) has been accomplished, using reactive Michael acceptors under basic condition. In addition, acyclic trifluoromethylated ester derivatives were isolated as competing by-products. The above compounds represent novel synthetically useful trifluoromethyl building blocks.
STUDIES ON CHROMIUM(0)-PROMOTED HIGHER-ORDER CYCLOADDITION-BASED BENZANNULATION. TOTAL SYNTHESIS OF (+)-ESTRADIOL

A benzannulation sequence featuring [6π + 4π] cycloaddition of (η6-thiepin 1,1-dioxide)tricarbonylchromium(0) complexes with highly substituted dienes followed by Ramberg−Backlund rearrangement has...
Unusual oxidative transformations of a C-aromatic taxane diene and related structures

The interaction of 1 and related substances with MCPBA, dimethyldioxirane, VO(acac)2—t-BuOOH, and Mo(CO)6—t-BuOOH affords products with oxygenated A-rings and/or cleaved B-rings through novel oxidative processes.
Asymmetric Total Synthesis of Rollicosin

The first total synthesis of rollicosin, a member of a rare subgroup of Annonaceous acetogenins containing two terminal γ-lactones, is reported. The approach features a highly regio- and stereoselective tandem ring-closing/cross-metathesis reaction for construction of the east-wing lactone and incorporation of the alkyl spacer. Establishment of the C4 stereocenter and addition of the west-wing lactone were achieved by Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation and enolate alkylation.
Oxidation of Sulfides with Pyridinium Tribromide in the Presence of Hydrated Silica Gel

Abstract A variety of sulfides have been oxidized to sulfoxides utilizing pyridinium tribromide in the presence of hydrated silica gel in a non‐aqueous media. A combination of pyridinium tribromide and hydrated silica gel releases molecular bromine slowly in the reaction, affecting the oxidation. Hydrated silica gel also promotes decomposition of the bromosulfonium intermediate to the product. This procedure employs non‐aqueous media for the first time in such a reaction.
Learning structural motif representations for efficient protein structure search.

Motivation Given a protein of unknown function, fast identification of similar protein structures from the Protein Data Bank (PDB) is a critical step for inferring its biological function. Such structural neighbors can provide evolutionary insights into protein conformation, interfaces and binding sites that are not detectable from sequence similarity. However, the computational cost of performing pairwise structural alignment against all structures in PDB is prohibitively expensive. Alignment-free approaches have been introduced to enable fast but coarse comparisons by representing each protein as a vector of structure features or fingerprints and only computing similarity between vectors. As a notable example, FragBag represents each protein by a 'bag of fragments', which is a vector of frequencies of contiguous short backbone fragments from a predetermined library. Despite being efficient, the accuracy of FragBag is unsatisfactory because its backbone fragment library may not be optimally constructed and long-range interacting patterns are omitted. Results Here we present a new approach to learning effective structural motif presentations using deep learning. We develop DeepFold, a deep convolutional neural network model to extract structural motif features of a protein structure. We demonstrate that DeepFold substantially outperforms FragBag on protein structural search on a non-redundant protein structure database and a set of newly released structures. Remarkably, DeepFold not only extracts meaningful backbone segments but also finds important long-range interacting motifs for structural comparison. We expect that DeepFold will provide new insights into the evolution and hierarchical organization of protein structural motifs. Availability and implementation https://github.com/largelymfs/DeepFold.
Vcfanno: fast, flexible annotation of genetic variants

The integration of genome annotations is critical to the identification of genetic variants that are relevant to studies of disease or other traits. However, comprehensive variant annotation with diverse file formats is difficult with existing methods. Here we describe vcfanno, which flexibly extracts and summarizes attributes from multiple annotation files and integrates the annotations within the INFO column of the original VCF file. By leveraging a parallel “chromosome sweeping” algorithm, we demonstrate substantial performance gains by annotating ~85,000 variants per second with 50 attributes from 17 commonly used genome annotation resources. Vcfanno is available at https://github.com/brentp/vcfanno under the MIT license.
A Ruthenium-Based Catalyst System for Hydrovinylation at Room Temperature

A catalytic amount of RuHCl(CO)(PCy3)2 (1) activated with AgOTF or AgSbF6 at room temperature was found to be an effective catalyst system for the hydrovinylation of vinylarenes. Vinylarenes with b...
Distress tolerance across self-report, behavioral and psychophysiological domains in women with eating disorders, and healthy controls.

Abstract Background and objectives The tendency to engage in impulsive behaviors when distressed is linked to disordered eating. The current study comprehensively examines emotional responses to a distress tolerance task by utilizing self-report, psychophysiological measures (respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA], skin conductance responses [SCRs] and tonic skin conductance levels [SCLs]), and behavioral measures (i.e., termination of task, latency to quit task). Methods 26 healthy controls (HCs) and a sample of treatment-seeking women with Bulimia Nervosa (BN), Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and Anorexia Nervosa (AN) (N = 106) completed the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task- Computerized (PASAT-C). Psychophysiological measurements were collected during baseline, PASAT-C, and recovery, then averaged for each time period. Self-reported emotions were collected at baseline, post-PASAT-C and post-recovery. Results Overall, we found an effect of Time, with all participants reporting greater negative emotions, less happiness, lower RSA, more SCRs and higher tonic SCLs after completion of the PASAT-C relative to baseline. There were no differences in PASAT-C performance between groups. There was an effect of Group for negative emotions, with women with BN, BED and AN reporting overall higher levels of negative emotions relative to HCs. Furthermore, we found an effect of Group for greater urges to binge eat and lower RSA values among BED, relative to individuals with BN, AN and HCs. Limitations This study is cross-sectional and lacked an overweight healthy control group. Conclusion During the PASAT-C, individuals with eating disorders (EDs) compared to HCs report higher levels of negative emotions, despite similar physiological and behavioral manifestations of distress.
Some principles of NMR spectroscopy and their novel application

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy often uses complex methodologies in complex applications. In this review, some of the details of NMR spectroscopy are made more accessible and more interesting. Determinations of components of everyday interest, such as beer, peanuts, corn, and bananas, illustrate recent advances in overcoming sensitivity problems and highlight fascinating applications of relaxation methods. Examples are given of the selection of windows for the application of chemical shifts and T2 relaxation times. The innovative and unusual applications of NMR techniques demonstrate and highlight important principles of NMR spectroscopy. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Tandem Enyne Allene-Radical Cyclization: Low-Temperature Approaches to Benz[e]indene and Indene Compounds.

In an effort to lower the temperatures required to prepare multicyclic compounds using the tandem enediyne−radical cyclization, we have developed the tandem enyne allene−radical cyclization which p...
Intercalation of decamolybdodicobaltate(III) anion in layered double hydroxides

Intercalation of decamolybdodicobaltate(III) anion ([Co2Mo10]) in a MgAl layered double hydroxide (LDH) was carried out by an anion exchange reaction using MgAl−OH LDHs (meixnerite) as precursors. The synthesis of pure and crystalline LDHs intercalated with [Co2Mo10] required trade-offs between different reaction conditions for the [Co2Mo10] anions and the LDH layers to be stable to hydrolysis reactions. In this work, these conditions for intercalation were achieved using meixnerite precursors of Al/(Mg + Al) molar ratios larger than 0.33, a reaction pH of about 4.7, and a nonaqueous medium (ethanol/water 40 vol %) at 353 K, with an exchange time of 1 h. The structure and composition of the intercalates were established by elemental analysis, powder X-ray diffraction, FTIR and Raman spectroscopies, thermal methods, rehydration experiments, SEM and TEM microscopies, and N2 adsorption/desorption studies. Gallery heights of 0.74 and 0.97 nm were observed for the [Co2Mo10] intercalated LDHs, corresponding to ...
Extended Utility of Molten-Salt Chemistry: Unprecedented Synthesis of a Water-Soluble Salt-Inclusion Solid Comprised of High-Nuclearity Vanadium Oxide Clusters

Polyoxometallates (POMs) are desirable in materials applications ranging from uses as catalysts in selective oxidation reactions to molecular-like building blocks for the preparation of new extended solids. With the use of an unprecedented approach involving high temperature, molten salt methods, a fascinating series of salt-inclusion solids (SISs) that contain high nuclearity POMs has been isolated for the first time. Cs11Na3(V15O36)Cl6 (1) was synthesized using the eutectic NaCl/CsCl flux (mp 493 °C) which serves as a reactive solvent in crystal growth and allows for the SIS formation. Its framework can be viewed as an “ionic” lattice composed of alternately packed counterions of Cl-centered [V15O36Cl]9– clusters (V15; S = 11/2) and multinuclear [Cs9Na3Cl5]7+ cations. In light of the structural analysis, 1 was proven to be soluble in water giving rise to a dark green solution that is similar in color to single crystals of the title compound. Infrared spectroscopy of the solid formed from fast evaporatio...
Chemistry of Quinoline-5,8-diones

Room-temperature acid-catalyzed methanolysis of 7-formamido-, 7-acetamido-, or 7-isobutyramido-2-methylquinoline-5,8-diones (3, 4, 5) gives good to excellent yields of 7-amino-2-methylquinoline-5,8-dione (6). Simple methods for the synthesis of novel 7-amino-6-chloro-2-methylquinoline-5,8-dione (7), 7-alkoxy-2-methylquinoline-5,8-diones (9−11), and quinoline quinols (12, 13) are described, and the corresponding mechanisms are discussed. The replacement of an amino group on a quinone ring by alkoxy groups to produce 9−11 is reported for the first time and offers easy routes for the syntheses of these alkoxy derivatives. Also, the 1,2-addition of an ethyl group (rather than the expected 1,4-addition of a cyano group) of the reagent diethylaluminum cyanide to a quinolinedione is another novel reaction for the efficient preparation of quinoline quinols 12 and 13. An easy transformation of amino compound 6 to its acetamido derivative 4 is also described.
Proteomic and evolutionary analyses of sperm activation identify uncharacterized genes in Caenorhabditis nematodes.

Nematode sperm have unique and highly diverged morphology and molecular biology. In particular, nematode sperm contain subcellular vesicles known as membranous organelles that are necessary for male fertility, yet play a still unknown role in overall sperm function. Here we take a novel proteomic approach to characterize the functional protein complement of membranous organelles in two Caenorhabditis species: C. elegans and C. remanei. We identify distinct protein compositions between membranous organelles and the activated sperm body. Two particularly interesting and undescribed gene families—the Nematode-Specific Peptide family, group D and the here designated Nematode-Specific Peptide family, group F—localize to the membranous organelle. Both multigene families are nematode-specific and exhibit patterns of conserved evolution specific to the Caenorhabditis clade. These data suggest gene family dynamics may be a more prevalent mode of evolution than sequence divergence within sperm. Using a CRISPR-based knock-out of the NSPF gene family, we find no evidence of a male fertility effect of these genes, despite their high protein abundance within the membranous organelles. Our study identifies key components of this unique subcellular sperm component and establishes a path toward revealing their underlying role in reproduction.
SYNTHESIS AND APPLICATIONS OF A FLUOROUS THP PROTECTIVE GROUP

A recyclable fluorous labeled THP protecting group has been developed that allows for simple purification of small molecules by liquid-liquid extraction with FC-72/MeCN, and of larger or more polar molecules by solid phase extraction with fluorous reverse phase silica gel. In addition, we report a new glycosylation method which uses the Cp2ZrCl2AgClO4 reagent system to activate an anomeric sulfoxide.
Modelling haplotypes with respect to reference cohort variation graphs

Motivation Current statistical models of haplotypes are limited to panels of haplotypes whose genetic variation can be represented by arrays of values at linearly ordered bi- or multiallelic loci. These methods cannot model structural variants or variants that nest or overlap. Results A variation graph is a mathematical structure that can encode arbitrarily complex genetic variation. We present the first haplotype model that operates on a variation graph-embedded population reference cohort. We describe an algorithm to calculate the likelihood that a haplotype arose from this cohort through recombinations and demonstrate time complexity linear in haplotype length and sublinear in population size. We furthermore demonstrate a method of rapidly calculating likelihoods for related haplotypes. We describe mathematical extensions to allow modelling of mutations. This work is an important incremental step for clinical genomics and genetic epidemiology since it is the first haplotype model which can represent all sorts of variation in the population. Availability and Implementation Available on GitHub at https://github.com/yoheirosen/vg . Contact benedict@soe.ucsc.edu. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Synthesis and biological activity of nor- and homo-5,10-dideazatetrahydrofolic acid

Abstract A palladium(0)-catalyzed Heck coupling reaction was used in the synthesis of nor- and homo-DDATHF which are close analogs of the potent glycinamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase inhibitor, 5,10-dideazatetrahydrofolic acid (DDATHF).
Selective tandem enyne metathesis for the synthesis of functionalized cycloheptadienes

Abstract The regio- and site-selective ring expansion of dienes and the regioselective ring expansion of substituted cyclopentenes provide 1,3-cycloheptadienes by enyne metathesis under methylene-free conditions. Site-selectivity results from differential ring strain among two different cycloalkenes in diene reactants. The high regioselectivity found in the ring expansion of tetrahydroindene (THI) is explained on the basis of a selective ring opening by the second generation Grubbs' ruthenium carbene complex. The ring opening of substituted cyclopentenes and cyclopentene contained in a bicyclic ring system was also achieved. The ring expansion of bicyclic dienes provided seven-membered dienes contained in the bicyclo[5.2.0]nonane ring system. Details of the structural analysis are also discussed. A mechanistic analysis is provided to account for the data presented herein.
RIFRAF: a frame-resolving consensus algorithm.

Motivation Protein coding genes can be studied using long-read next generation sequencing. However, high rates of indel sequencing errors are problematic, corrupting the reading frame. Even the consensus of multiple independent sequence reads retains indel errors. To solve this problem, we introduce Reference-Informed Frame-Resolving multiple-Alignment Free template inference algorithm (RIFRAF), a sequence consensus algorithm that takes a set of error-prone reads and a reference sequence and infers an accurate in-frame consensus. RIFRAF uses a novel structure, analogous to a two-layer hidden Markov model: the consensus is optimized to maximize alignment scores with both the set of noisy reads and with a reference. The template-to-reads component of the model encodes the preponderance of indels, and is sensitive to the per-base quality scores, giving greater weight to more accurate bases. The reference-to-template component of the model penalizes frame-destroying indels. A local search algorithm proceeds in stages to find the best consensus sequence for both objectives. Results Using Pacific Biosciences SMRT sequences from an HIV-1 env clone, NL4-3, we compare our approach to other consensus and frame correction methods. RIFRAF consistently finds a consensus sequence that is more accurate and in-frame, especially with small numbers of reads. It was able to perfectly reconstruct over 80% of consensus sequences from as few as three reads, whereas the best alternative required twice as many. RIFRAF is able to achieve these results and keep the consensus in-frame even with a distantly related reference sequence. Moreover, unlike other frame correction methods, RIFRAF can detect and keep true indels while removing erroneous ones. Availability and implementation RIFRAF is implemented in Julia, and source code is publicly available at https://github.com/MurrellGroup/Rifraf.jl. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Pricing and hedging equity-linked life insurance contracts beyond the classical paradigm: The principle of equivalent forward preferences

Abstract By applying the principle of equivalent forward preferences, this paper revisits the pricing and hedging problems for equity-linked life insurance contracts. The equity-linked contingent claim depends on, not only the future lifetime of the policyholder, but also the performance of the reference portfolio in the financial market for the segregated account of the policyholder. For both zero volatility and non-zero volatility forward utility preferences, prices and hedging strategies of the contract are represented by solutions of random horizon backward stochastic differential equations. Numerical illustration is provided for the zero volatility case. The derived prices and hedging strategies are also compared with classical results in the literature.
Rapid syntheses of either enantiomer of important carbocyclic nucleoside precursors

Abstract The syntheses of both enantiomers of aminocyclopentanetriol 1, a versatile carbocyclic nucleoside precursor, is reported utilizing an amino acid-derived acylnitroso Diels–Alder cycloaddition. The sequence is practical and proceeds in an overall yield of 36% from the d -alanine-derived hydroxamic acid.
Chromatin Compaction by Small RNAs and the Nuclear RNAi Machinery in C. elegans

DNA is organized and compacted into higher-order structures in order to fit within nuclei and to facilitate gene regulation. Mechanisms by which higher order chromatin structures are established and maintained are poorly understood. In C. elegans, nuclear-localized small RNAs engage the nuclear RNAi machinery to regulate gene expression and direct the post-translational modification of histone proteins. Here we confirm a recent report suggesting that nuclear small RNAs initiate or maintain chromatin compaction states in C. elegans germ cells. Additionally, we show that experimentally provided small RNAs are sufficient to direct chromatin compaction and that this compaction requires the small RNA-binding Argonaute NRDE-3, the pre-mRNA associated factor NRDE-2, and the HP1-like protein HPL-2. Our results show that small RNAs, acting via the nuclear RNAi machinery and an HP1-like protein, are capable of driving chromatin compaction in C. elegans.
On the Safety of Machine Learning: Cyber-Physical Systems, Decision Sciences, and Data Products

Abstract Machine learning algorithms increasingly influence our decisions and interact with us in all parts of our daily lives. Therefore, just as we consider the safety of power plants, highways, ...
Learning Discourse-level Diversity for Neural Dialog Models using Conditional Variational Autoencoders

While recent neural encoder-decoder models have shown great promise in modeling open-domain conversations, they often generate dull and generic responses. Unlike past work that has focused on diversifying the output of the decoder from word-level to alleviate this problem, we present a novel framework based on conditional variational autoencoders that capture the discourse-level diversity in the encoder. Our model uses latent variables to learn a distribution over potential conversational intents and generates diverse responses using only greedy decoders. We have further developed a novel variant that is integrated with linguistic prior knowledge for better performance. Finally, the training procedure is improved through introducing a bag-of-word loss. Our proposed models have been validated to generate significantly more diverse responses than baseline approaches and exhibit competence of discourse-level decision-making.
Network offloading policies for cloud robotics: a learning-based approach

Today’s robotic systems are increasingly turning to computationally expensive models such as deep neural networks (DNNs) for tasks like localization, perception, planning, and object detection. However, resource-constrained robots, like low-power drones, often have insufficient on-board compute resources or power reserves to scalably run the most accurate, state-of-the art neural network compute models. Cloud robotics allows mobile robots the benefit of offloading compute to centralized servers if they are uncertain locally or want to run more accurate, compute-intensive models. However, cloud robotics comes with a key, often understated cost: communicating with the cloud over congested wireless networks may result in latency or loss of data. In fact, sending high data-rate video or LIDAR from multiple robots over congested networks can lead to prohibitive delay for real-time applications, which we measure experimentally. In this paper, we formulate a novel Robot Offloading Problem—how and when should robots offload sensing tasks, especially if they are uncertain, to improve accuracy while minimizing the cost of cloud communication? We formulate offloading as a sequential decision making problem for robots, and propose a solution using deep reinforcement learning. In both simulations and hardware experiments using state-of-the art vision DNNs, our offloading strategy improves vision task performance by between 1.3 and 2.3 $$\times $$ of benchmark offloading strategies, allowing robots the potential to significantly transcend their on-board sensing accuracy but with limited cost of cloud communication.
Neural Network Models for Paraphrase Identification, Semantic Textual Similarity, Natural Language Inference, and Question Answering

In this paper, we analyze several neural network designs (and their variations) for sentence pair modeling and compare their performance extensively across eight datasets, including paraphrase identification, semantic textual similarity, natural language inference, and question answering tasks. Although most of these models have claimed state-of-the-art performance, the original papers often reported on only one or two selected datasets. We provide a systematic study and show that (i) encoding contextual information by LSTM and inter-sentence interactions are critical, (ii) Tree-LSTM does not help as much as previously claimed but surprisingly improves performance on Twitter datasets, (iii) the Enhanced Sequential Inference Model is the best so far for larger datasets, while the Pairwise Word Interaction Model achieves the best performance when less data is available. We release our implementations as an open-source toolkit.
Measures of Entropy from Data Using Infinitely Divisible Kernels

Information theory provides principled ways to analyze different inference and learning problems, such as hypothesis testing, clustering, dimensionality reduction, classification, and so forth. However, the use of information theoretic quantities as test statistics, that is, as quantities obtained from empirical data, poses a challenging estimation problem that often leads to strong simplifications, such as Gaussian models, or the use of plug in density estimators that are restricted to certain representation of the data. In this paper, a framework to nonparametrically obtain measures of entropy directly from data using operators in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces defined by infinitely divisible kernels is presented. The entropy functionals, which bear resemblance with quantum entropies, are defined on positive definite matrices and satisfy similar axioms to those of Renyi's definition of entropy. Convergence of the proposed estimators follows from concentration results on the difference between the ordered spectrum of the Gram matrices and the integral operators associated to the population quantities. In this way, capitalizing on both the axiomatic definition of entropy and on the representation power of positive definite kernels, the proposed measure of entropy avoids the estimation of the probability distribution underlying the data. Moreover, estimators of kernel-based conditional entropy and mutual information are also defined. Numerical experiments on independence tests compare favorably with state-of-the-art.
Detecting inclusions with a generalized impedance condition from electrostatic data via sampling

In this paper, we derive a Sampling Method to solve the inverse shape problem of recovering an inclusion with a generalized impedance condition from electrostatic Cauchy data. The generalized impedance condition is a second-order differential operator applied to the boundary of the inclusion. We assume that the Dirichlet-to-Neumann mapping is given from measuring the current on the outer boundary from an imposed voltage. A simple numerical example is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed inversion method for recovering the inclusion. We also consider the inverse impedance problem of determining the material parameters from the Dirichlet-to-Neumann mapping assuming the inclusion has been reconstructed where uniqueness for the reconstruction of the coefficients is proven.
Noncoherent LDPC-Coded Physical-Layer Network Coding Using Multitone FSK

A noncoherent two-way relaying system is developed using physical-layer network coding for improved throughput over conventional relaying in a fading channel. Energy-efficient noncoherent operation is achieved using multitone frequency shift keying (FSK). A novel soft-output demodulator is developed for the relay, and corresponding achievable exchange rates are found for Rayleigh fading and AWGN channels. Bit-error rate performance approaching the achievable rate is realized using a capacity-approaching channel code and a receiver architecture, which iterates between demodulation and channel decoding. Iterative decoding is performed feeding information back from the channel decoder to the demodulator. In addition, the error-rate performance is made to approach the achievable rate more closely by optimizing LDPC codes for this system. The energy efficiency improvement obtained by increasing the modulation order is more dramatic for the proposed physical-layer network coding scheme than it is for a conventional point-to-point system. Using optimized LDPC codes, the bit-error rate performance is improved by as much as 1.1 dB over a widely known standardized LDPC code, and comes to within 0.7 dB of the limit corresponding to the achievable rate. Throughout this paper, the performance for physical-layer network coding is compared with conventional network coding. When noncoherent FSK is used, physical-layer network coding enables higher achievable rates, and conventional network coding exhibits better energy efficiency at low rates.
Principal Functions for Bi-free Central Limit Distributions

We find the principal function of the completely non-normal operator l(v1) + l(v1)* + i(r(v2) + r(v2)*) on a subspace of the full Fock space \({\mathcal{F}}({\mathcal{H}})\) which arises from a bi-free central limit distribution. As an application, we find the essential spectrum of this operator.
Central figure-8 cross-cuts make surfaces cylindrical

We prove: If a complete connected smooth surface M in euclidean 3-space has general position, intersects some plane along a clean figure-8 (a loop with total curvature zero) and all compact intersections with planes have central symmetry, then M is a (geometric) cylinder over some central figure-8. On the way, we establish interesting facts about centrally symmetric loops in the plane; for instance, a clean loop with even rotation number 2k can never be central unless it passes through its center exactly twice and k=0.
The Countries' Relation Formation Problem: I and II

Abstract This paper integrates the studies of various countries’ behaviors, e.g., waging wars and entering into military alliances, into a general framework of countries’ relation formation, which consists of two components, i.e., a static game and a dynamical system. Aside from being a stand-alone framework itself, this paper can also be seen as a necessary extension of a recently developed countries’ power allocation game in Li and Morse [2017]. We establish certain theoretical results, such as pure strategy Nash equilibrium existence in the static game, and propose several applications of interest made possible by combining both frameworks.