cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Ghost-free Formulation of Quantum Gauge Theory on Fractal Spacetime

It is known that quantization of massless spin-1 particles runs into several related complications such as the redundancy of gauge orbits, the presence of extra degrees of freedom and the need to introduce “ghost” fields. The textbook interpretation of quantum gauge theory is that “ghosts” are unphysical objects whose function is to preserve Lorentz covariance and unitarity. In particular, Faddeev-Popov “ghosts” (FPG) violate the spin-statistics theorem and are devoid of measurable properties. FPG are shown to decouple from the spectrum of observable states, yet it remains unclear how their presence in loop diagrams and their interaction with gauge fields is even possible in the absence of any physical attributes. The object of this work is to suggest that, at least in principle, the concept of spacetime endowed with minimal fractality enables a “ghost”-free formulation of quantum gauge theory. Our approach opens the door for a non-perturbative understanding of vacuum polarization in Quantum Electrodynamics (QED).
On Compensating Long Actuator Delays in Nonlinear Control

We are interested in finite-escape open-loop unstable plants that are globally stabilizable in the absence of actuator delay but require controller redesign in the presence of delay. The simplest such plant is Z(t) = Z(t)2 + U(t - D), where D is actuator delay of arbitrary length. For this system we present a control law that compensates the delay and achieves feedback linearization (of the entire ODE+delay infinite-dimensional cascade). However, even though exponential stability is achieved, the result is not global because the plant can have a finite escape with an initial condition Z(0) ges 1/D before the feedback control "reaches" it at t = D. We prove a stability result whose region of attraction is essentially Z(0) < 1/ D and for which we derive an asymptotic stability bound in terms of the system norm Z(t)2 + intt t-D U(thetas)2dthetas.
Asian-American educational achievements: A phenomenon in search of an explanation.

Considerable attention has been paid to the academic achievements of Asian Americans because there is convergent evidence that this population has attained high educational mobility. In trying to explain the achievement patterns, researchers have largely limited their investigations to one of two contrasting hypotheses involving (a) hereditary differences in intelligence between Asians and Whites and (b) Asian cultural values that promote educational endeavors. Research findings have cast serious doubt over the validity of the genetic hypothesis. Yet, there has been a failure to find strong empirical support for alternative hypothesis concerning cultural values. It is proposed, under the concept of relative functionalism, that Asian Americans perceive, and have experienced, restrictions in upward mobility in careers or jobs that are unrelated to education. Consequently, education assumes importance, above and beyond what can be predicted from cultural values. Research and policy implications of this view are noted.
Scalable task-based algorithm for multiplication of block-rank-sparse matrices

A task-based formulation of Scalable Universal Matrix Multiplication Algorithm (SUMMA), a popular algorithm for matrix multiplication (MM), is applied to the multiplication of hierarchy-free, rank-structured matrices that appear in the domain of quantum chemistry (QC). The novel features of our formulation are: (1) concurrent scheduling of multiple SUMMA iterations, and (2) fine-grained task-based composition. These features make it tolerant of the load imbalance due to the irregular matrix structure and eliminate all artifactual sources of global synchronization. Scalability of iterative computation of square-root inverse of block-rank-sparse QC matrices is demonstrated; for full-rank (dense) matrices the performance of our SUMMA formulation usually exceeds that of the state-of-the-art dense MM implementations (ScaLAPACK and Cyclops Tensor Framework).
Social capital, investments, and external financing

This study examines the effects of managerial social capital on investment sensitivity to cash flow and Q. Using a large cross-country sample of companies for the period 1999–2012 and a traditional investment-Q framework, we discover that social capital reduces a firm's dependence on internally generated cash. We find that social capital is positively associated with investment sensitivity to Q. We further determine that social capital positively affects the sensitivity of external finance to Q, while inversely influencing the sensitivity of external finance to cash flow. These effects of social capital are stronger in markets characterized by the weak legal protection of investors. Our findings are robust to alternative model specifications, different variable measurements, and tests for endogeneity.
C-H-Activated Direct Arylation of Strong Benzothiadiazole and Quinoxaline-Based Electron Acceptors.

Electron acceptors are important components of π-conjugated materials, but the strong electron-withdrawing properties of the required synthetic intermediates often make them poor substrates in synthetic schemes designed around conventional organometallic cross-coupling. Here, strong benzodiimine-based acceptors, including 5,6-difluoro[2,1,3]benzothiadiazole, 5,6-dicyano[2,1,3]benzothiadiazole, 5,6-dicyanobenzo[d][1,2,3]triazole, 6,7-dicyanoquinoxaline, and 6,7-dinitroquinoxaline, are shown to undergo facile palladium-catalyzed C–H direct arylation with a variety of bromoarenes in moderate to high yields. The electrochemical characteristics of di-2-thienyl derivatives synthesized using this methodology are compared and suggest that, in an electron-transfer sense, 5,6-dicyano[2,1,3]benzothiadiazole is a comparably strong acceptor to benzo[1,2-c:4,5-c′]bis[1,2,5]thiadiazole. The synthetic results suggest that high electron-withdrawing ability, which has traditionally limited reaction yields and structural va...
Iridium-Catalyzed Enantioselective Allylic Substitution of Enol Silanes from Vinylogous Esters and Amides.

The enol silanes of vinylogous esters and amides are classic dienes for Diels–Alder reactions. Here, we report their reactivity as nucleophiles in Ir-catalyzed, enantioselective allylic substitution reactions. A variety of allylic carbonates react with these nucleophiles to give allylated products in good yields with high enantioselectivities and excellent branched-to-linear ratios. These reactions occur with KF or alkoxide as the additive, but mechanistic studies suggest that these additives do not activate the enol silanes. Instead, they serve as bases to promote the cyclometalation to generate the active Ir catalyst. The carbonate anion, which was generated from the oxidative addition of the allylic carbonate, likely activates the enol silanes to trigger their activity as nucleophiles for reactions with the allyliridium electrophile. The synthetic utility of this method was illustrated by the synthesis of the anti-muscarinic drug, fesoterodine.
Oxygen Evolution Reaction Electrocatalysis on Transition Metal Oxides and (Oxy)hydroxides: Activity Trends and Design Principles

Poor oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysis limits the efficiency of H2 production from water electrolysis and photoelectrolysis routes to large-scale energy storage. Despite nearly a century of research, the factors governing the activity of OER catalysts are not well understood. In this Perspective, we discuss recent advances in understanding the OER in alkaline media for earth-abundant, first-row, transition-metal oxides and (oxy)hydroxides. We argue that the most-relevant structures for study are thermodynamically stable (oxy)hydroxides and not crystalline oxides. We discuss thin-film electrochemical microbalance techniques to accurately quantify intrinsic activity and in situ conductivity measurements to identify materials limited by electronic transport. We highlight the dramatic effect that Fe cations—added either intentionally or unintentionally from ubiquitous electrolyte impurities—have on the activity of common OER catalysts. We find new activity trends across the first-row transition metals...
The Lowest Eigenvalue of Schrödinger Operators on Compact Manifolds

The lowest eigenvalue of the Schrodinger operator $-{\Delta }+\mathcal {V}$ on a compact Riemannian manifold without boundary is studied. We focus on the particularly subtle case of a sign changing potential with positive average.
A Practical Oblivious Map Data Structure with Secure Deletion and History Independence

We present a new oblivious RAM that supports variable-sized storage blocks (vORAM), which is the first ORAM to allow varying block sizes without trivial padding. We also present a new history-independent data structure (a HIRB tree) that can be stored within a vORAM. Together, this construction provides an efficient and practical oblivious data structure (ODS) for a key/value map, and goes further to provide an additional privacy guarantee as compared to prior ODS maps: even upon client compromise, deleted data and the history of old operations remain hidden to the attacker. We implement and measure the performance of our system using Amazon Web Services, and the single-operation time for a realistic database (up to 256K entries) is less than 1 second. This represents a 100x speed-up compared to the current best oblivious map data structure (which provides neither secure deletion nor history independence) by Wang et al. (CCS 14).
Integrating Spatial Dimension into Jointly Dynamic Groundwater Extraction

One of the most important groundwater problems in Oregon, Washington and Idaho is the long-term decline of the groundwater surface level, which has been intensified by wells through discharging water from aquifers. Groundwater contamination from agriculture aggravates the depletion problem in irrigated regions since quality has a decisive role in ways of water use. We developed a spatial agricultural groundwater extraction model by coupling a hydrological model and a contamination migration model. We find that the optimal groundwater extraction is reduced if spatial interactions are incorporated, and that spatial heterogeneities such as crop varieties and soil types affect individual extraction. The socially optimal paths of shadow prices of groundwater quantity and quality depend on time preference, stock effect and dilution effect.
Spatiotemporal Modeling of Node Temperatures in Supercomputers

ABSTRACTLos Alamos National Laboratory is home to many large supercomputing clusters. These clusters require an enormous amount of power (∼500–2000 kW each), and most of this energy is converted into heat. Thus, cooling the components of the supercomputer becomes a critical and expensive endeavor. Recently, a project was initiated to investigate the effect that changes to the cooling system in a machine room had on three large machines that were housed there. Coupled with this goal was the aim to develop a general good-practice for characterizing the effect of cooling changes and monitoring machine node temperatures in this and other machine rooms. This article focuses on the statistical approach used to quantify the effect that several cooling changes to the room had on the temperatures of the individual nodes of the computers. The largest cluster in the room has 1600 nodes that run a variety of jobs during general use. Since extremes temperatures are important, a Normal distribution plus generalized Par...
Assessment of an Injectable RFID Temperature Sensor for Indication of Horse Well-Being

This research investigated the performance and placement of an injectable radio frequency identification (RFID) and temperature sensor to monitor the body temperature of horses. Eleven sensors were calibrated to assess reliability (accuracy and repeatability) of the temperature readings. Results of four separate calibration trials demonstrated significant variability in both accuracy and repeatability. To quantify accuracy, the regression standard errors (SE) were placed into four performance categories: 4, 0, 2 and 3 excellent (SE = 0.5°C); 2, 1, 7, and 1 good (0.5°C < SE = 0.75°C); 2, 3, 0, and 7 marginal (0.75oC < SE = 1.0°C); and 3, 7, 2, 0 poor (SE < 1.0oC) sensors in each of the performance categories for the four calibration trials, respectively. Three of the eleven sensors evaluated were found to be repeatable, however, with marginal accuracy. Based on these results it is recommended that the temperature system be calibrated before use.
Evaluation of Resource Allocation Strategies in Incident Management Systems

Considering an incident management system (IMS), this paper focuses on how to use existed resources efficiently to reduce the average incident duration. Traffic Management Centers (TMC) have two ways to manage incidents, namely, waiting until an incident is detected and then dispatching a traffic flow restoration unit (TFRU) from the depot to clear them, or having TFRUs out running along specific routes and clear the incidents they run into. We examine the effects of these two options using computer simulation technology. Based on simulation results, response surfaces are constructed demonstrate the impacts of these two alternatives on the incident duration, and an equilibrium point between them is determined.
On the Modeling of Friction and Rolling in Flexible Multi-Body Systems

This paper is concerned with the dynamic analysis of flexible, nonlinear multi-body systems undergoing contact involving friction and rolling. A continuous friction law is used to model the friction forces between contacting bodies. This avoids the numerical problems associated with the discontinuity inherent to Coulomb's friction law and eliminates the need for different sets of equations modeling sliding and rolling as distinct phenomena. On the other hand, continuous friction laws eliminate specific physical phenomena implied by Coulomb's friction law. The condition of vanishing relative velocity between two contacting bodies is not possible: sticking or rolling are replaced by creeping with a small relative velocity. Discrete events such as transition from slipping to rolling or rolling to slipping are eliminated, together with the high frequency phenomena they are likely to cause. The computational issues associated with the continuous friction law and with the enforcement of the non-holonomic rolling constraint are addressed in this paper. This work is developed within the framework of energy preserving and decaying time integration schemes that provide unconditional stability for nonlinear, flexible multi-body systems undergoing contact involving friction and rolling.
NOAA is Open for Business

In Spring 2014, the United States Department of Commerce (Commerce) released its FY 2014-2018 Strategic Plan (Strategic Plan), titled America is Open for Business. Five long-term goals and objectives are identified to strategically guide the Nation into the next decade: 1) Trade and Investment, 2) Innovation, 3) Environment, 4) Data, and 5) Operational Excellence. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), representing just one of the 12 bureaus residing within Commerce, leads the environment goal and supports each of the other Strategic Goals presented in the Strategic Plan.
Resonant holography

Summary from only given. We have devised a novel method to improve the diffraction efficiencies of holograms to a theoretical maximum of up to 100%. This is accomplished by placing the hologram inside a resonant optical cavity. Resonance ensures that the diffracted beams add up constructively while reflected beams at the entrance of the optical cavity are eliminated. The recording procedure takes place outside the cavity and is done by conventional means. We present a schematic of the resonant holographic geometry with normal incidence. VHOE denotes the volume holographic optical element and PRM the partially reflecting mirror.
Stereoconvergent Amine-Directed Alkyl–Alkyl Suzuki Reactions of Unactivated Secondary Alkyl Chlorides

A new family of stereoconvergent cross-couplings of unactivated secondary alkyl electrophiles has been developed, specifically, arylamine-directed alkyl–alkyl Suzuki reactions. This represents the first such investigation to be focused on the use of alkyl chlorides as substrates. Structure–enantioselectivity studies are consistent with the nitrogen, not the aromatic ring, serving as the primary site of coordination of the arylamine to the catalyst. The rate law for this asymmetric cross-coupling is compatible with transmetalation being the turnover-limiting step of the catalytic cycle.
3D Transrectal Ultrasound (TRUS) Prostate Segmentation Based on Optimal Feature Learning Framework

We propose a 3D prostate segmentation method for transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) images, which is based on patch-based feature learning framework. Patient-specific anatomical features are extracted from aligned training images and adopted as signatures for each voxel. The most robust and informative features are identified by the feature selection process to train the kernel support vector machine (KSVM). The well-trained SVM was used to localize the prostate of the new patient. Our segmentation technique was validated with a clinical study of 10 patients. The accuracy of our approach was assessed using the manual segmentations (gold standard). The mean volume Dice overlap coefficient was 89.7%. In this study, we have developed a new prostate segmentation approach based on the optimal feature learning framework, demonstrated its clinical feasibility, and validated its accuracy with manual segmentations.
Colloidal Synthesis of an Exotic Phase of Silicon: The BC8 Structure

Creating allotropes and polymorphs of nanoparticles (NPs) has gained tremendous momentum in recent times. Group 14 (C, Si, Ge) has a number of allotropes; some with significant applications. Here we report the synthesis of Si NPs crystallizing in the BC8 structure via a colloidal route for the first time. The BC8 structure is a metastable structure of Si that can be accessed from the β-Sn form through the release of high pressure. These Si BC8 structured NPs were synthesized via reduction of SiI4 with n-butyllithium, capped with octanol and precipitated from solution. The transmission electron microscopy lattice fringes as well as the selected area electron diffraction pattern of the precipitate are consistent with the BC8 structure. The LeBail whole profile fitting of powder X-ray diffraction data also confirms the structure as the BC8 phase. The Raman spectrum provides further evidence to support the BC8 structure. With proper tuning of the band gap these NPs could be potential candidates for solar cells.
Facilitators and barriers to adherence to urate-lowering therapy in African-Americans with gout: a qualitative study

Introduction: Limited literature exists for qualitative studies of medication adherence in gout, especially in African-Americans. The aim of this study was to examine the facilitators and barriers to adherence to urate-lowering therapy (ULT) in African-Americans with gout. Methods: In this study, nine nominal groups lasting 1 to 1.5 hours each were conducted in African-Americans with gout, six with low ULT and three with high ULT adherence (medication possession ratios of <0.80 or ≥0.80, respectively). Patients presented, discussed, combined and rank ordered their concerns. A qualitative analysis was performed. Results: This study included 43 patients with mean age 63.9 years (standard deviation, 9.9), 67% men, who participated in nine nominal groups (seven in men, two in women): African-American men (n = 30); African-American women (n = 13). The main facilitators to ULT adherence (three groups) were the recognition of the need to take ULT regularly to prevent gout flares, prevent pain from becoming chronic/severe and to have less dietary restriction; the lack of side effects from ULT; trust in physicians; and avoiding the need to seek emergent/urgent care for flares. Patients achieved high ULT adherence by organizing their pills using the pillbox and the incorporation of ULT intake into their routine to prevent forgetting. The main barriers to optimal ULT adherence were (six groups): doubts about effectiveness of ULT, concerns about cost and side effects, concomitant medications, forgetfulness, refilling the prescriptions on time, pill size and difficulty in swallowing, competing priorities, patient preference for alternative medicines (that is, cherry juice) and frequent travel. Conclusions: Identification of facilitators and barriers to high ULT adherence in African-Americans with gout in this study lays the foundation for designing interventions to improve ULT adherence in racial minorities.
Palladium-catalyzed, ring-forming aromatic C-H alkylations with unactivated alkyl halides.

A catalytic C–H alkylation using unactivated alkyl halides and a variety of arenes and heteroarenes is described. This ring-forming process is successful with a variety of unactivated primary and secondary alkyl halides, including those with β-hydrogens. In contrast to standard polar or radical cyclizations of aromatic systems, electronic activation of the substrate is not required. The mild, catalytic reaction conditions are highly functional group tolerant and facilitate access to a diverse range of synthetically and medicinally important carbocyclic and heterocyclic systems.
Synthesis of Fluoro- and Perfluoroalkyl Arenes via Palladium-Catalyzed [4 + 2] Benzannulation Reaction

An efficient entry into densely substituted fluorinated and perfluoroalkylated benzene derivatives via chemo- and regioselective Pd-catalyzed [4 + 2] cross-benzannulation is presented. The synthetic utility of these products for the synthesis of various aromatic and heteroaromatic compounds is also demonstrated. This strategy offers a viable and quite general alternative to existing fluorination and perfluoroalkylation methods for securing these valuable molecules.
Studying Regioisomer Formation in the Pd-Catalyzed Fluorination of Aryl Triflates by Deuterium Labeling

Isotopic labeling has been used to determine that a portion of the desired product in the Pd-catalyzed fluorination of electron-rich, non-ortho-substituted aryl triflates results from direct C–F cross-coupling. In some cases, formation of a Pd-aryne intermediate is responsible for producing undesired regioisomers. The generation of the Pd-aryne intermediate occurs primarily via ortho-deprotonation of a L·Pd(Ar)OTf (L = biaryl monophosphine) species by CsF and thus competes directly with the transmetalation step of the catalytic cycle. Deuterium labeling studies were conducted with a variety of aryl triflates.
A bi-criteria evolutionary algorithm for a constrained multi-depot vehicle routing problem

Most research about the vehicle routing problem (VRP) does not collectively address many of the constraints that real-world transportation companies have regarding route assignments. Consequently, our primary objective is to explore solutions for real-world VRPs with a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles, multi-depot subcontractors (drivers), and pickup/delivery time window and location constraints. We use a nested bi-criteria genetic algorithm (GA) to minimize the total time to complete all jobs with the fewest number of route drivers. Our model will explore the issue of weighting the objectives (total time vs. number of drivers) and provide Pareto front solutions that can be used to make decisions on a case-by-case basis. Three different real-world data sets were used to compare the results of our GA vs. transportation field experts’ job assignments. For the three data sets, all 21 Pareto efficient solutions yielded improved overall job completion times. In 57 % (12/21) of the cases, the Pareto efficient solutions also utilized fewer drivers than the field experts’ job allocation strategies.
Immunohistochemical Localization of Lactate Dehydrogenase Isoenzyme 1 in Germ Cell Tumors of the Testis

In this study, antiserum to lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme 1 (LD 1) was used to determine immunohistochemical patterns of localization in a variety of germ cell neoplasms of the testis. All 29 seminomas and teratocarcinomas and four of seven embryonal carcinomas were positive for LD 1. These results suggest that elevated serum LD 1 levels noted in patients with germ cell neoplasms may be derived directly from neoplastic tissue and explain the relationship between serum LD 1 levels and tumor burden. A variety of neoplasms from other organs also were evaluated in order to determine the specificity of LD 1 staining for testicular tumors.
Hyperthyroidism in pregnancy.

Purpose of reviewSuccessful outcome in pregnancy hyperthyroidism depends on the cause, interpretation of laboratory tests, and careful use of antithyroid drug (ATD) therapy. Planning of a pregnancy in a woman with active or past history of Graves’ hyperthyroidism is mandatory in order to avoid compl
Studies on elimination pathways of β-halovinyl ketones leading to allenyl and propargyl ketones and furans under the action of mild bases.

The elimination pathway of stereochemically defined β-halovinyl ketones has been investigated using a mild base, NEt3, leading to the formation of allenyl ketones and propargyl ketones. A preferential α-vinyl enolization of (E)-β-chlorovinyl ketones has been observed where a nonplanar s-cis conformation is proposed as a dominant conformation as opposed to a planar s-cis conformation of (Z)-β-chlorovinyl ketones. Other eliminative pathways, such as concerted syn- and anti-E2 as well as γ-deprotonation, are excluded on the basis of the deuterium isotope studies. The synthetic utility of the elimination reaction of β-chlorovinyl ketones was further demonstrated for a one-pot synthesis of 2,5-disubstituted furans in the presence of 1 mol % CuCl.
A Stereoscopic Look into the Bulk

We present the foundation for a holographic dictionary with depth perception. The dictionary consists of natural CFT operators whose duals are simple, diffeomorphisminvariant bulk operators. The CFT operators of interest are the “OPE blocks,” contributions to the OPE from a single conformal family. In holographic theories, we show that the OPE blocks are dual at leading order in 1/N to integrals of effective bulk fields along geodesics or homogeneous minimal surfaces in anti-de Sitter space. One widely studied example of an OPE block is the modular Hamiltonian, which is dual to the fluctuation in the area of a minimal surface. Thus, our operators pave the way for generalizing the Ryu-Takayanagi relation to other bulk fields. Although the OPE blocks are non-local operators in the CFT, they admit a simple geometric description as fields in kinematic space — the space of pairs of CFT points. We develop the tools for constructing local bulk operators in terms of these non-local objects. The OPE blocks also allow for conceptually clean and technically simple derivations of many results known in the literature, including linearized Einstein’s equations and the relation between conformal blocks and geodesic Witten diagrams.
A Randomized Trial of the Effects of Schema-Based Instruction on Proportional Problem-Solving for Students With Mathematics Problem-Solving Difficulties

This article reports results from a study investigating the efficacy of a proportional problem-solving intervention, schema-based instruction (SBI), in seventh grade. Participants included 806 students with mathematical difficulties in problem solving (MD-PS) from an initial pool of 1,999 seventh grade students in a larger study. Teachers and their students in the larger study were randomly assigned to an SBI or control condition and teachers in both conditions then provided instruction on the topics of ratio, proportion, and percent. We found that students with MD-PS in SBI classrooms scored on average higher than their counterparts in control classrooms on a posttest and delayed posttest administered 9 weeks later. Given students' difficulties with proportional problem-solving and the consequences of these difficulties, an important contribution of this research is the finding that when provided with appropriate instruction, students with MD-PS are capable of enhanced proportional problem-solving performance.
Who Are You Going After? A Practical Typology to Generate Engagement in Professional Student Organizations

On the basis of experiential learning theory and Cialdini’s principles of influence, two psychological streams focused on providing hands-on experiences and on effectively influencing individuals, this article identifies a typology of students to engage them in professional student organizations. Exploratory factor analysis and cluster analysis tests were used to uncover the typology in which 3 distinct segments were identified and named: motivated advocates, uncovered talent, and indifferent agents. Identifying and understanding each segment can lead faculty advisors to more effective marketing and engagement of students by better understanding the value that students place in being active members of professional student organizations.
Housing and Macroeconomics

Abstract This chapter surveys the literature on housing in macroeconomics. We first collect facts on house prices and quantities in both the time series and the cross section of households and housing markets. We then present a theoretical model of frictional housing markets with heterogeneous agents that nests or provides background for many studies. Finally, we describe quantitative results obtained during the last 15 years on household behavior, business cycle dynamics, and asset pricing, as well as boom bust episodes.
THE TWO STAGE EXCHANGE: RES IPSA LOQUITOR

Deep periprosthetic infection after hip or knee arthroplasty is a disconcerting problem for patient and surgeon alike. The diagnosis of infection is sometimes obvious but frequently requires that the surgeon maintain a substantial index of suspicion for infection as the cause of pain or poor outcome after any joint arthroplasty. While surgical debridement with component retention is appropriate in a subgroup of patients with an acute periprosthetic infection most delayed and chronic infections are best treated with component resection. The pre-eminent role of two-stage exchange as the definitive treatment was established over 30 years ago. Two-stage exchange remains the gold-standard in treatment with an established track record from multiple centers and with multiple different types of infecting organisms. Some of the historical problems with two-stage exchange, such as limited mobility during the interval stage, have been mitigated with the development of effective articulating spacer techniques. Further, the emergence of drug resistant bacteria and the possibility of fungal infection make two-stage exchange the best choice for the majority of patients with deep periprosthetic joint infection in 2015.
Can authorization reduce poverty among undocumented immigrants? Evidence from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program

We explore the impact of authorization on the poverty exposure of households headed by undocumented immigrants. The identification strategy makes use of the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provided a temporary work authorization and reprieve from deportation to eligible immigrants. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we compare DACA-eligible to DACA-ineligible likely unauthorized immigrants, before and after the program implementation. We find that DACA reduced the likelihood of life in poverty of households headed by eligible individuals by 38 percent, hinting at the gains from even temporary authorization programs.
Rescuing complementarity with little drama

The AMPS paradox challenges black hole complementarity by apparently constructing a way for an observer to bring information from the outside of the black hole into its interior if there is no drama at its horizon, making manifest a violation of monogamy of entanglement. We propose a new resolution to the paradox: this violation cannot be explicitly checked by an infalling observer in the finite proper time they have to live after crossing the horizon. Our resolution depends on a weak relaxation of the no-drama condition (we call it “little-drama”) which is the “complementarity dual” of scrambling of information on the stretched horizon. When translated to the description of the black hole interior, this implies that the fine-grained quantum information of infalling matter is rapidly diffused across the entire interior while classical observables and coarse-grained geometry remain unaffected. Under the assumption that information has diffused throughout the interior, we consider the difficulty of the information-theoretic task that an observer must perform after crossing the event horizon of a Schwarzschild black hole in order to verify a violation of monogamy of entanglement. We find that the time required to complete a necessary subroutine of this task, namely the decoding of Bell pairs from the interior and the late radiation, takes longer than the maximum amount of time that an observer can spend inside the black hole before hitting the singularity. Therefore, an infalling observer cannot observe monogamy violation before encountering the singularity.
Learning Action Concept Trees and Semantic Alignment Networks from Image-Description Data

Action classification in still images has been a popular research topic in computer vision. Labelling large scale datasets for action classification requires tremendous manual work, which is hard to scale up. Besides, the action categories in such datasets are pre-defined and vocabularies are fixed. However humans may describe the same action with different phrases, which leads to the difficulty of vocabulary expansion for traditional fully-supervised methods. We observe that large amounts of images with sentence descriptions are readily available on the Internet. The sentence descriptions can be regarded as weak labels for the images, which contain rich information and could be used to learn flexible expressions of action categories. We propose a method to learn an Action Concept Tree (ACT) and an Action Semantic Alignment (ASA) model for classification from image-description data via a two-stage learning process. A new dataset for the task of learning actions from descriptions is built. Experimental results show that our method outperforms several baseline methods significantly.
Deconstructing zero: resurgence, supersymmetry and complex saddles

We explain how a vanishing, or truncated, perturbative expansion, such as often arises in semi-classically tractable supersymmetric theories, can nevertheless be related to fluctuations about non-perturbative sectors via resurgence. We also demonstrate that, in the same class of theories, the vanishing of the ground state energy (unbroken supersymmetry) can be attributed to the cancellation between a real saddle and a complex saddle (with hidden topological angle π), and positivity of the ground state energy (broken supersymmetry) can be interpreted as the dominance of complex saddles. In either case, despite the fact that the ground state energy is zero to all orders in perturbation theory, all orders of fluctuations around non-perturbative saddles are encoded in the perturbative E (N, g). We illustrate these ideas with examples from supersymmetric quantum mechanics and quantum field theory.
Do Endothelial Cells Dream of Eclectic Shape

Endothelial cells (ECs), which line our blood vessels, exhibit dramatic plasticity and diversity of form/behavior at the individual and collective cell level. They re-organize themselves in space and time to extend new blood vessel networks during development and during a huge array of diseases including cancer. Here we will describe, using examples from our integrated in silico/in vitro/in vivo research program, how the Artificial Life (ALife) perspective and approaches have been paramount in driving entirely new experimental biology understanding of the vasculature by capitalizing on the emergent, predictive capacity and testable nature of agent-based models in close combination with in vitro and in vivo experiments. Our agent-based simulations explicitly consider the role of individual EC embodiment, active perception, heterogeneous vs homogeneous collective dynamics, pattern formation and counter-intuitive emergence from feedback in controller networks and many more Alife centric concepts. We recently identified in silico that the time it takes ECs to collectively decide who should move and who should stay during blood vessel branching morphogenesis can be varied by altering tissue environment conditions, including some changes found in tumors. By proceeding to validate these predictions in vitro and in vivo by integrating the studies in the wetlab we have been able to provide a solid new mechanism to explain the diversity of vascular network structures found across tissues and the malformations arising in disease. There is a bright future with untapped potential for the Alife community to further contribute to understanding of animals, including humans, at the cell and tissue level, where many organizational principles of the systems behavior are still lacking. If we take care to be rigorous in how we calibrate our models to biological data and make clear experimentally testable predictions, we will show we can make real change in a experimental cell biology field, traditionally segregated from in silico research. Learning from the plight of the insightful, but ostracized, Androids in Philip K Dicks novel, overcoming our cultural differences and integrating better between the artificial and natural living systems research communities could lead to huge advantages in achieving our common goals to understand life as it is.
PERFORMING A PRIMARY HIP ARTHROPLASTY

This session will be practically oriented, focusing on important surgical decisions and on technical tips to avoid complications. The panel will be polled concerning individual preferences as regards the following issues in primary total hip arthroplasty: Peri-operative antibiotics/blood management/preferred anesthetic, Surgical approach for primary total hip arthroplasty: indications or preferences for direct anterior, anterolateral, posterior, less invasive exposures, Acetabular fixation, Tips for optimising acetabular component orientation, Femoral fixation: Indications for cemented and uncemented implants and Role of hip resurfacing, Preferred femoral head size, Choice of bearing surface, Tips for optimising intra-operative hip stability, Tips for optimising leg length, Post-operative venous thromboembolism prophylaxis, Heterotopic bone prophylaxis, Post-operative pain management, rehabilitation protocol, activity restrictions and antibiotic prophylaxis.
Fluctuations When Driving Between Nonequilibrium Steady States

Maintained by environmental fluxes, biological systems are thermodynamic processes that operate far from equilibrium without detailed-balanced dynamics. Yet, they often exhibit well defined nonequilibrium steady states (NESSs). More importantly, critical thermodynamic functionality arises directly from transitions among their NESSs, driven by environmental switching. Here, we identify the constraints on excess heat and dissipated work necessary to control a system that is kept far from equilibrium by background, uncontrolled “housekeeping” forces. We do this by extending the Crooks fluctuation theorem to transitions among NESSs, without invoking an unphysical dual dynamics. This and corresponding integral fluctuation theorems determine how much work must be expended when controlling systems maintained far from equilibrium. This generalizes thermodynamic feedback control theory, showing that Maxwellian Demons can leverage mesoscopic-state information to take advantage of the excess energetics in NESS transitions. We also generalize an approach recently used to determine the work dissipated when driving between functionally relevant configurations of an active energy-consuming complex system. Altogether, these results highlight universal thermodynamic laws that apply to the accessible degrees of freedom within the effective dynamic at any emergent level of hierarchical organization. By way of illustration, we analyze a voltage-gated sodium ion channel whose molecular conformational dynamics play a critical functional role in propagating action potentials in mammalian neuronal membranes.
Symmetry-protected zero-mode laser with a tunable spatial profile

We propose to utilize symmetry-protected zero modes of a photonic lattice to realize a single-mode, fixed-frequency, and spatially tunable laser. These properties are the consequence of the underlying non-Hermitian particle-hole symmetry, with which the energy spectrum satisfies ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{m}=\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{n}^{*}$. Unlike in the Hermitian case, the symmetric phase of particle-hole symmetry is no longer restricted to $\ensuremath{\varepsilon}=0$ but extends along the imaginary-$\ensuremath{\varepsilon}$ axis, which is set by the single-cavity frequency and symmetry-protected against position and coupling disorder of the photonic lattice. By selectively pumping different cavities in the photonic lattice, we control the spontaneous symmetry restoration process, which provides a convenient method to tune the spatial profile of the laser without changing its frequency.
Credit Booms Gone Bust: Replication of Schularick and Taylor (AER 2012)

Summary This paper replicates the results in Schularick and Taylor (American Economic Review 2012; 102(2): 1029–1061; ST hereafter). Specifically, I replicate ST's results in the ‘narrow’ sense by reproducing their calculations in the open source econometrics package gretl. (Gretl is an acronym for Gnu Regression, Econometrics and Time-series Laboratory. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux at www.gretl.sourceforge.net.) I also demonstrate the robustness of ST's findings to different estimation methods. I obtain qualitatively similar results to ST via Bayesian estimation of both static and dynamic panel probit models. Finally, I show that the marginal effects of credit growth on the probability of a financial crisis vary considerably across the countries in the dataset. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An efficient algorithm for monitoring practical TPTL specifications

We provide a dynamic programming algorithm for the monitoring of a fragment of Timed Propositional Temporal Logic (TPTL) specifications. This fragment of TPTL, which is more expressive than Metric Temporal Logic, is characterized by independent time variables which enable the elicitation of complex real-time requirements. For this fragment, we provide an efficient polynomial time algorithm for off-line monitoring of finite traces. Finally, we provide experimental results on a prototype implementation of our tool in order to demonstrate the feasibility of using our tool in practical applications.
Security in Locally Repairable Storage

In this paper we extend the notion of locally repairable codes to secret sharing schemes. The main problem that we consider is to find optimal ways to distribute the shares of a secret among a set of storage-nodes (participants) such that the content of each node (share) can be recovered by using the contents of only few other nodes, and at the same time the secret can be reconstructed by only some allowable subsets of nodes. As a special case, an eavesdropper observing some set of specific nodes (such as less than certain number of nodes) does not get any information. In other words, we propose to study a locally repairable distributed storage system that is secure against a passive eavesdropper that can observe some subsets of nodes. We provide a number of results related to such systems, including upper bounds and achievability results on the number of bits that can be securely stored with these constraints. In particular, we provide conditions under which a locally repairable code can be turned into a secret sharing scheme and extend the results of secure repairable storage to cooperative repair and storage on networks. In addition, we consider perfect secret sharing schemes over general access structures under locality constraints and give an example of a perfect secret sharing scheme that can have small locality. Finally, we provide a lower bound on the size of a share compared with the size of the secret that shows how locality affects the sizes of shares in a perfect scheme.
Unusually High and Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity in Amorphous Silicon Nanostructures.

Amorphous Si (a-Si) nanostructures are ubiquitous in numerous electronic and optoelectronic devices. Amorphous materials are considered to possess the lower limit to the thermal conductivity (κ), which is ∼1 W·m–1 K–1 for a-Si. However, recent work suggested that κ of micrometer-thick a-Si films can be greater than 3 W·m–1 K–1, which is contributed to by propagating vibrational modes, referred to as “propagons”. However, precise determination of κ in a-Si has been elusive. Here, we used structures of a-Si nanotubes and suspended a-Si films that enabled precise in-plane thermal conductivity (κ∥) measurement within a wide thickness range of 5 nm to 1.7 μm. We showed unexpectedly high κ∥ in a-Si nanostructures, reaching ∼3.0 and 5.3 W·m–1 K–1 at ∼100 nm and 1.7 μm, respectively. Furthermore, the measured κ∥ is significantly higher than the cross-plane κ on the same films. This unusually high and anisotropic thermal conductivity in the amorphous Si nanostructure manifests the surprisingly broad propagon mean ...
Private schooling promotes political and economic freedom? An international fixed effects instrumental variables analysis

Specialised learning environments provided through private schooling may increase educational quality, which may increase the likelihood that citizens will pursue human rights through civic engagem...
Image restoration of space variant blurs by sectioned methods

Previous work on sectional methods in image processing is extended to the processing of degradations produced by space variant point spread functions.
An examination of strategies for estimating capacity to share among private workstations

The effective management of a cluster of private workstations requires an examination of the characteristics of the usage patterns of workstations. This paper analyzes workstation usage patterns in order to understand opportunities for exploiting idle capacity. Our study is based on traces of user workstation activity in a university environment. It identifies two areas where enhancements can be made. One identified area is the ability of a manager of the shared capacity of a workstation cluster to schedule jobs with deadline constraints. This opportunity is the result of an ability to make good predictions of the time-varying amount of capacity that is available for sharing. A simple prediction strategy is developed which is shown to have only a small amount of error. For the second area of enhancement, we show that it is feasible to allocate partitions of workstations for specific periods. This aids those users who on occasions need exclusive access to several machines. We examine the profile of periods during which exclusive access to partitions can be given, the rate that owners preempt users of partitions, and the distribution of inter-preemption intervals.
On randomization-based causal inference for matched-pair factorial designs

Abstract Under the potential outcomes framework, we introduce matched-pair factorial designs, and propose the matched-pair estimator of the factorial effects. We also calculate the randomization-based covariance matrix of the matched-pair estimator, and provide the “Neymanian” estimator of the covariance matrix.