cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
CT-Guided Placement of Iodine-125 Seeds for Unresectable Carcinoma of the Lung

To avoid thoracotomy, we recently placed 70 /sup 125/I seeds percutaneously with the aid of CT guidance for treatment of an unresectable carcinoma of the lung. We achieved a successful distribution of seeds without complications.
What are Infertility Treatment Center Websites Telling Couples about Male Factor Infertility

Abstract Introduction We evaluated patient directed information provided on the websites of infertility treatment centers. Methods We identified 428 infertility treatment centers based on the 2011 CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Fertility Clinic Success Rates Report. The website of each center was evaluated for the presence and/or description of terms related to the etiology, workup and treatment of male factor infertility using a standardized data abstraction form. Differences in the variables were examined with respect to United States Census Bureau geographic regions, academic center status and affiliation with urologists. The Flesch-Kincaid readability score was assessed. Results Only 78% of websites acknowledged a male factor etiology for infertility, 85% mentioned any evaluation of the male partner, 63% mentioned any treatment options for male factor infertility and 23% discussed referral to a urologist. When stratified by geographic region, academic status and urologist affiliation, differences in the variables of interest were most likely when stratified by urologist affiliation. The median website reading level was twelfth grade. Conclusions Patient directed information pertaining to the etiology, workup and treatment of male factor infertility on the websites of infertility treatment centers is variable at best. Etiology is completely lacking on more than 20% of websites. It is likely that couples relying on Internet based information regarding infertility evaluation and treatment are not well informed about the importance or the benefit of a male factor evaluation.
An optimal rule for patent damages under sequential innovation

We analyze the optimal design of damages for patent infringement in settings where the patent of an initial innovator may be infringed by a follow-on innovator. We consider damage rules that are linear combinations of the popular "lost profit" (LP) and "unjust enrichment" (UE) rules, coupled with a lump-sum transfer between the innovators. We identify conditions under which a linear rule can induce the socially optimal levels of sequential innovation and the optimal allocation of industry output. We also show that, despite its simplicity, the optimal linear rule achieves the highest welfare among all rules that ensure a balanced budget for the industry, and often secures substantially more welfare than either the LP rule or the UE rule.
Examining Tropical Cyclone–Kelvin Wave Interactions Using Adjoint Diagnostics

AbstractThe initial-state sensitivity and interactions between a tropical cyclone and atmospheric equatorial Kelvin waves associated with the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) during the DYNAMO field campaign are explored using adjoint-based tools from the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS). The development of Tropical Cyclone 5 (TC05) coincided with the passage of an equatorial Kelvin wave (KW) and westerly wind burst associated with an MJO that developed in the Indian Ocean in late November 2011. COAMPS 18-h adjoint sensitivities of low-level kinetic energy to changes in initial state winds, temperature, and water vapor are analyzed for both TC05 and the KW to document when the evolution of each system is sensitive to the other. Time series of sensitivity patterns confirm that TC05 and the KW low-level westerlies are sensitive to each other when the KW is to the southwest and south of TC05. While TC05 is not sensitive to the KW after this, the KW low-level westerlies remain sens...
Efficient Design of Firewall Temporal Policies

Firewalls are the first line of defense in cyber-security. They prevent malicious and unwanted network traffic entering the perimeters of organizations. The strength of a firewall lies in its policy configuration which is also a crucial task for any security administrator. The scope of Firewall policies have been expanding to address ever changing security requirements of an organization. In this process, new security parameters have been researched and one such parameter is temporal policy. Firewall temporal policy is a firewall policy that allows or denies a network packet based on specified day and time range of the policy in addition to the packet filtering rules. Firewall vendors such as CISCO and Palo Alto have already featured firewall temporal policies in their security products. Inclusion of temporal policies in firewall policies results in additional overhead for storing and scanning Firewall policies. As temporal policies are represented in week days and time, they consume considerable amount of space. In this paper, we present an innovative and efficient method for representing temporal policies which includes compact representation of temporal policies and detection of anomalies using set operations. Our approach significantly reduces the storage requirement and improves the scanning functionality of firewall. We also present a new method of creating policy sets based on week days.
Consumer Preferences Before and After a Food Safety Scare: An Experimental Analysis of the 2010 Egg Recall

In August 2010, more than half a billion eggs were recalled in the U.S. because of a Salmonella outbreak. This study examines the effect of the recall with a unique pair of auction experiments investigating willingness to pay (WTP) for conventional and organic eggs, one conducted shortly before and one right after the recall with the same participants. In addition to the before and after bids, participants bid again after a negative information or balanced information treatment about the event. Accompanying surveys showed consumers had a high level of awareness of the recall but less knowledge of specific details, and viewed information on egg farm conditions as very important in their WTP. While there were no significant before and after differences, WTP for organic eggs significantly increased in the negative information treatment, and balanced information had a positive effect on consumer WTP for conventional eggs.
Understanding the Varied Influence of Midlatitude Jet Position on Clouds and Cloud Radiative Effects in Observations and Global Climate Models

AbstractThis study examines the dynamical mechanisms responsible for changes in midlatitude clouds and cloud radiative effects (CRE) that occur in conjunction with meridional shifts in the jet streams over the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Southern Oceans. When the midlatitude jet shifts poleward, extratropical cyclones and their associated upward vertical velocity anomalies closely follow. As a result, a poleward jet shift contributes to a poleward shift in high-topped storm-track clouds and their associated longwave CRE. However, when the jet shifts poleward, downward vertical velocity anomalies increase equatorward of the jet, contributing to an enhancement of the boundary layer estimated inversion strength (EIS) and an increase in low cloud amount there. Because shortwave CRE depends on the reflection of solar radiation by clouds in all layers, the shortwave cooling effects of midlatitude clouds increase with both upward vertical velocity anomalies and positive EIS anomalies. Over midlatitude oce...
A Variable Genetic Architecture of Melanic Evolution in Drosophila melanogaster

Unraveling the genetic architecture of adaptive phenotypic divergence is a fundamental quest in evolutionary biology. In Drosophila melanogaster, high-altitude melanism has evolved in separate mountain ranges in sub-Saharan Africa, potentially as an adaptation to UV intensity. We investigated the genetic basis of this melanism in three populations using a new bulk segregant analysis mapping method. We identified 19 distinct QTL regions from nine mapping crosses, with several QTL peaks overlapping between two or all populations, and yet different crosses involving the same melanic population commonly yielded distinct QTL. The strongest QTL often overlapped well-known pigmentation genes, but we typically did not find wide signals of genetic differentiation (FST) between lightly and darkly pigmented populations at these genes. Instead, we found small numbers of highly differentiated SNPs at the probable causative genes. A simulation analysis showed that these patterns of polymorphism were consistent with selection on standing genetic variation. Overall, our results suggest that, even for potentially simpler traits like pigmentation, the complexity of adaptive trait evolution poses important challenges for QTL mapping and population genetic analysis.
Finding the Way to Solar Fuels with Dye-Sensitized Photoelectrosynthesis Cells

The dye-sensitized photoelectrosynthesis cell (DSPEC) integrates high bandgap, nanoparticle oxide semiconductors with the light-absorbing and catalytic properties of designed chromophore–catalyst assemblies. The goals are photoelectrochemical water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen and reduction of CO2 by water to give oxygen and carbon-based fuels. Solar-driven water oxidation occurs at a photoanode and water or CO2 reduction at a cathode or photocathode initiated by molecular-level light absorption. Light absorption is followed by electron or hole injection, catalyst activation, and catalytic water oxidation or water/CO2 reduction. The DSPEC is of recent origin but significant progress has been made. It has the potential to play an important role in our energy future.
Implementation with interdependent valuations

It is well known that the ability of the Vickrey–Clarke–Groves (VCG) mechanism to implement efficient outcomes for private value choice problems does not extend to interdependent value problems. When an agent’s type affects other agents’ utilities, it may not be incentive compatible for him to truthfully reveal his type when faced with VCG payments. We show that when agents are informationally small, there exist small modifications to the VCG transfers that restore incentive compatibility. We further show that truthful revelation is an approximate ex post equilibrium. Last, we show that in replicated settings, aggregate payments sufficient to induce truthful revelation go to zero.
Corruption, governance, and public pension funds

We examine the effects of state corruption as well as political and governance factors on U.S. public pension funds. We find that pension funds in states with more corruption have lower performance; a one standard deviation increase in corruption is associated with a decrease in annual returns of at least 14 basis points, and this relationship is robust to state-level and pension-level fixed effects. Pensions located in more corrupt jurisdictions also invest a larger fraction of their assets in equities. We find that having a new treasurer decreases the negative effects of corruption, suggesting that more frequent changes in administrations are beneficial in corrupt jurisdictions. Governance-related variables and political affiliation variables are by themselves not significantly related to pension returns, although these variables are associated with differences in asset allocation.
Sharing oil rents and political violence

This paper investigates how the devolution of oil windfalls affects the likelihood of political violence. It shows that transferring large shares of oil wealth can prevent conflict, while transferring small shares can trigger it. Among the different transfer schemes, fiscal transfers (to subnational governments) yield the highest levels of consumption, but direct transfers (to people) are the most effective in preventing conflict. By averting conflict, transfers can improve ex ante welfare; however, only a subset of the ex ante welfare optimal transfers is optimal ex post and thus self-enforcing. Among them, those that avert conflict by reinforcing repressive regimes are of particular policy interest.
Recent progress in anisotropic hydrodynamics

The quark-gluon plasma created in a relativistic heavy-ion collisions possesses a sizable pressure anisotropy in the local rest frame at very early times after the initial nuclear impact and this anisotropy only slowly relaxes as the system evolves. In a kinetic theory picture, this translates into the existence of sizable momentum-space anisotropies in the underlying partonic distribution functions, 〈 p L 2 〉 ≪ 〈 p T 2 〉. In such cases, it is better to reorganize the hydrodynamical expansion by taking into account momentum-space anisotropies at leading-order in the expansion instead of as a perturbative correction to an isotropic distribution. The resulting anisotropic hydrodynamics framework has been shown to more accurately describe the dynamics of rapidly expanding systems such as the quark-gluon plasma. In this proceedings contribution, I review the basic ideas of anisotropic hydrodynamics, recent progress, and present a few preliminary phenomenological predictions for identified particle spectra and elliptic flow.
Nuclear operators on spaces of continuous vector-valued functions

Let Ω: be a compact Hausdorff space, let E be a Banach space, and let C(Ω, E) stand for the Banach space of continuous E-valued functions on Ω under supnorm. It is well known [3, p. 182] that if F is a Banach space then any bounded linear operator T:C(Ω, E)→ F has a finitely additive vector measure G defined on the σ-field of Borel subsets of Ω with values in the space ℒ(E, F**) of bounded linear operators from E to the second dual F** of F. The measure G is said to represent T. The purpose of this note is to study the interplay between certain properties of the operator T and properties of the representing measure G. Precisely, one of our goals is to study when one can characterize nuclear operators in terms of their representing measures. This is of course motivated by a well-known theorem of L. Schwartz [5] (see also [3, p. 173]) concerning nuclear operators on spaces C(Ω) of continuous scalar-valued functions. The study of nuclear operators on spaces C(Ω, E) of continuous vector-valued functions was initiated in [1], where the author extended Schwartz's result in case E* has the Radon-Nikodym property. In this paper, we will show that the condition on E* to have the Radon-Nikodym property is necessary to have a Schwartz's type theorem. This leads to a new characterization of dual spaces E* with the Radon-Nikodym property. In [2], it was shown that if T:C(Ω, E)→ F is nuclear than its representing measure G takes its values in the space (E, F) of nuclear operators from E to F. One of the results of this paper is that if T:C(Ω, E)→ F is nuclear then its representing measure G is countably additive and of bounded variation as a vector measure taking its values in (E, F) equipped with the nuclear norm. Finally, we show by easy examples that the above mentioned conditions on the representing measure G do not characterize nuclear operators on C(Ω, E) spaces, and we also look at cases where nuclear operators are indeed characterized by the above two conditions. For all undefined notions and terminologies, we refer the reader to [3].
The nonconvex geometry of low-rank matrix optimizations with general objective functions

This work considers the minimization of a general convex function f (X) over the cone of positive semi-definite matrices whose optimal solution X∗ is of low-rank. Standard first-order convex solvers require performing an eigenvalue decomposition in each iteration, severely limiting their scalability. A natural nonconvex reformulation of the problem factors the variable X into the product of a rectangular matrix with fewer columns and its transpose. For a special class of matrix sensing and completion problems with quadratic objective functions, local search algorithms applied to the factored problem have been shown to be much more efficient and, in spite of being nonconvex, to converge to the global optimum. The purpose of this work is to extend this line of study to general convex objective functions f (X) and investigate the geometry of the resulting factored formulations. Specifically, we prove that when f (X) satisfies the restricted well-conditioned assumption, each critical point of the factored problem either corresponds to the optimal solution X∗ or a strict saddle where the Hessian matrix has a strictly negative eigenvalue. Such a geometric structure of the factored formulation ensures that many local search algorithms can converge to the global optimum with random initializations.
Global Weak Solutions for SQG in Bounded Domains

We prove existence of global weak L2 solutions of the inviscid SQG equation in bounded domains.© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
I/O deduplication: utilizing content similarity to improve I/O performance

Duplication of data in storage systems is becoming increasingly common. We introduce I/O Deduplication, a storage optimization that utilizes content similarity for improving I/O performance by eliminating I/O operations and reducing the mechanical delays during I/O operations. I/O Deduplication consists of three main techniques: content-based caching, dynamic replica retrieval, and selective duplication. Each of these techniques is motivated by our observations with I/O workload traces obtained from actively-used production storage systems, all of which revealed surprisingly high levels of content similarity for both stored and accessed data. Evaluation of a prototype implementation using these workloads revealed an overall improvement in disk I/O performance of 28-47% across these workloads. Further breakdown also showed that each of the three techniques contributed significantly to the overall performance improvement.
Hematologic manifestations of babesiosis

Babesiosis, a zoonotic parasitic infection transmitted by the Ixodes tick, has become an emerging health problem in humans that is attracting attention worldwide. Most cases of human babesiosis are reported in the United States and Europe. The disease is caused by the protozoa of the genus Babesia, which invade human erythrocytes and lyse them causing a febrile hemolytic anemia. The infection is usually asymptomatic or self-limited in the immunocompetent host, or follows a persistent, relapsing, and/or life threatening course with multi-organ failure, mainly in the splenectomized or immunosuppressed patients. Hematologic manifestations of the disease are common. They can range from mild anemia, to severe pancytopenia, splenic rupture, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC), or even hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). A 70 year old immunocompetent female patient living in New York City presented with a persistent fever, night sweats, and fatigue of 5 days duration. Full evaluation showed a febrile hemolytic anemia along with neutropenia and thrombocytopenia. Blood smear revealed intraerythrocytic Babesia, which was confirmed by PCR. Bone marrow biopsy was remarkable for dyserythropoiesis, suggesting possible HLH, supported by other blood workup meeting HLH-2004 trial criteria. Human babesiosis is an increasing healthcare problem in the United States that is being diagnosed more often nowadays. We presented a case of HLH triggered by Babesia microti that was treated successfully. Also, we presented the hematologic manifestations of this disease along with their pathophysiologies.
Selenomethionine and methyl selenocysteine: multiple-dose pharmacokinetics in selenium-replete men.

// James R. Marshall 1 , Raymond F. Burk 2 , Rochelle Payne Ondracek 1 , Kristina E. Hill 2 , Marjorie Perloff 3 , Warren Davis 1 , Roberto Pili 4 , Saby George 1 , Raymond Bergan 5 1 Cancer Prevention and Control, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263, USA 2 Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, C2104 Medical Center North, Nashville, TN 37232, USA 3 National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA 4 Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, R3 C516, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA 5 Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR 97239, USA Correspondence to: James R. Marshall, email: james.marshall@roswellpark.org Keywords: selenium, selenomethionine, methyl selenocysteine, chemoprevention, pharmacokinetics Received: December 01, 2016 Accepted: February 06, 2017 Published: February 17, 2017 ABSTRACT According to the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer (NPC) trial, a selenized yeast supplement containing selenium, 200 mcg/day, decreased the incidence of total cancer, cancers of the prostate, colon and lung, and cancer mortality. The active agent in the selenized yeast supplement was assumed to be selenomethionine (SEMET), although the supplement had not been well speciated. The SELECT study, largely motivated by the NPC trial, enrolling nearly 40 times as many subjects, showed unequivocally that selenium 200 mcg/day, with selenium in the form of SEMET, does not protect selenium-replete men against prostate or other major cancer. The agent tested by SELECT, pure SEMET, could have been different from the selenized yeast tested in NPC. One of the selenium forms suspected of having chemopreventive effects, and which may have been present in the NPC agent, is methyl selenocysteine (MSC). This study, with 29 selenium-replete patients enrolled in a randomized, double-blind trial, compared the multiple-dose toxicity, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of MSC and SEMET. Patients were on trial for 84 days. No toxicity was observed. Although SEMET supplementation increased blood selenium concentration more than MSC did, neither form had a more than minimal impact on the two major selenoproteins: selenoprotein P(SEPP1) and glutathione peroxidase(GPX).
Embedding problems and open subgroups

We study the properties of the fundamental group of an affine curve over an algebraically closed field of characteristic p, from the point of view of embedding problems. In characteristic zero, the fundamental group is free, but in characteristic p it is not even !- free. In this paper we show that it is "almost !-free," in the sense that each finite embedding problem has a proper solution when restricted to some open subgroup. We also prove that embedding problems can always be properly solved over the given curve if suitably many additional branch points are allowed, in locations that can be specified arbitrarily; this strengthens a result of the first author.
An overview of multi-processor approximate message passing

Approximate message passing (AMP) is an algorithmic framework for solving linear inverse problems from noisy measurements, with exciting applications such as reconstructing images, audio, hyper spectral images, and various other signals, including those acquired in compressive signal acquisiton systems. The growing prevalence of big data systems has increased interest in large-scale problems, which may involve huge measurement matrices that are unsuitable for conventional computing systems. To address the challenge of large-scale processing, multi-processor (MP) versions of AMP have been developed. We provide an overview of two such MP-AMP variants. In row-MP-AMP, each computing node stores a subset of the rows of the matrix and processes corresponding measurements. In column-MP-AMP, each node stores a subset of columns, and is solely responsible for reconstructing a portion of the signal. We will discuss pros and cons of both approaches, summarize recent research results for each, and explain when each one may be a viable approach. Aspects that are highlighted include some recent results on state evolution for both MP-AMP algorithms, and the use of data compression to reduce communication in the MP network.
Corporate social responsibility, credit rating, and private debt contracting: new evidence from syndicated loan market

We examine the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on loan spreads of syndicated bank loans, with a particular interest in how CSR and credit ratings are interrelated as a joint determinant of loan spreads. Focusing on private debt contracts, we show that both CSR strengths and concerns are related to their loan spreads. CSR strengths work to lower firm risk, hence reducing the loan spread, whereas CSR concerns increase firm risk, thus increasing the loan spread. Once we include detailed credit rating information in the models, however, CSR concerns lose significance, but CSR strengths remain significantly related to the loan spread. We also find that both CSR strengths and CSR concerns are related to loan spread for non-rated firms, but the CSR concern effect is stronger than the CSR strength effect for these firms. A further test shows that firm risk measured by stock return volatility plays as a direct channel through which a firm’s CSR activities affect loan spreads, whose result lends further support to our main results. Overall, our results provide strong evidence that CSR matters to the pricing of loan contracts beyond credit rating information and the results remain robust to the possible firm size effect and the endogeneity issues.
Quantification of Storage Necessary to Firm Up Wind Generation

This paper proposes a method to quantitatively determine the sizes of energy storage systems that are intended to mitigate negative impacts of integrating wind energy into power systems. Although the integration of wind power has several advantages, it poses several technical challenges such as variability and uncertainty of wind speed and failures of wind turbine generators (WTGs), which may deteriorate the reliability of power systems. One of the most practical solutions to mitigate these drawbacks is the use of energy storage systems. The method proposed in this paper determines the sizes of the energy storage systems considering the effect of wind power uncertainty and variability, failures of WTGs, wind speed temporal resolution, and correlation with system load. Sizes of energy storage systems are determined based on composite system reliability analysis under operational and technical constraints using the ac power flow model. Monte Carlo simulation is used to emulate the behavior of the system. The proposed method is demonstrated on the IEEE reliability test system and the results are provided. The results show that the size of an energy storage system is dependent on wind farm characteristics, as well as the connectivity with the rest of the system.
Development assistance for health: critiques, proposals and prospects for change.

After a ‘golden age’ of extraordinary growth in the level of development assistance for health (DAH) since 1990, funding seems to have reached a plateau. With the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals, debate has intensified regarding what international financing for health should look like in the post-2015 era. In this review paper, we offer a systematic overview of problems and proposals for change. Major critiques of the current DAH system include: that the total volume of financing is inadequate; financial flows are volatile and uncertain; DAH may not result in additional resources for health; too small a proportion of DAH is transferred to recipient countries; inappropriate priority setting; inadequate coordination; weak mechanisms for accountability; and disagreement on the rationale for DAH. Proposals to address these critiques include: financing-oriented proposals to address insufficient levels and high volatility of DAH; governance-oriented proposals to address concerns regarding additionality, proportions reaching countries, priority setting, coordination and accountability; and proposals that reach beyond the existing DAH system. We conclude with a discussion of prospects for change.
Aquifers Shared Between Mexico and the United States: Management Perspectives and Their Transboundary Nature

Totally 36 aquifers have been identified along the Mexico-U.S. border. Of these, only 16 have adequate data to provide a reasonable level of confidence to categorize them as transboundary. Limited and/or contrasting data over the other aquifers in the region reflects the void in transboundary groundwater management and assessment mechanisms throughout much of the Mexico-U.S. border. This paper identifies management mechanisms, structures, and institutional prioritization related to transboundary aquifers shared between Mexico and the United States. It also evaluates the differences in the transboundary nature of these aquifers, and how their combined hydrological and geographical considerations interrelate with local and regional social, economic, political, and even scale dimensions to create complex management challenges.
Relationship between nugent score and vaginal epithelial exfoliation

Objective Clue cells characteristic of bacterial vaginosis (BV) are thought to arise due to exfoliation of the vaginal epithelium; however, there is little published data connecting total numbers of epithelial cells to markers of BV. The purpose of this study was to enumerate exfoliated epithelial cells (independent of clue cells) and examine the relationship to Nugent score. Study design We conducted a cross-sectional sub-study of the Contraceptive CHOICE Project cohort. Vaginal swabs were used to create vaginal smears for Gram staining and these smears were later scored using the Nugent method, and then two blinded observers used microscopy to enumerate exfoliated epithelial cells. The degree of epithelial cell exfoliation was compared between women diagnosed as BV-negative (Nugent score 0–3), BV-intermediate (Nugent score 4–6), and BV-positive (Nugent score 7–10). BV specimens (Nugent 7–10) were randomly matched to specimens in the two other groups (Nugent low and Nugent-intermediate), in order to avoid comparing groups of women with potentially confounding baseline demographics. Results Exfoliated epithelial cell counts were higher in the vaginal smears from BV-positive women compared with BV-negative women. Higher levels of epithelial exfoliation were also evident in BV-intermediate women compared to those with low Nugent scores. After adjustment for clustering introduced by matching, the incidence ratio of increased epithelial cell counts was 2.09 (95% CI 1.50–2.90) for the BV-intermediate women and 1.71 (95% CI 1.23–2.38) for the BV positive women. Conclusion A vaginal epithelial exfoliation phenotype was measured in both Nugent-defined BV-positive and BV-intermediate women. Bacterial vaginosis and intermediate status (Nugent score >3) was associated with significantly more vaginal epithelial exfoliation compared to women with Lactobacillus-dominated microbiotas (Nugent 0–3).
Suggestive Annotation: A Deep Active Learning Framework for Biomedical Image Segmentation

Image segmentation is a fundamental problem in biomedical image analysis. Recent advances in deep learning have achieved promising results on many biomedical image segmentation benchmarks. However, due to large variations in biomedical images (different modalities, image settings, objects, noise, etc.), to utilize deep learning on a new application, it usually needs a new set of training data. This can incur a great deal of annotation effort and cost, because only biomedical experts can annotate effectively, and often there are too many instances in images (e.g., cells) to annotate. In this paper, we aim to address the following question: With limited effort (e.g., time) for annotation, what instances should be annotated in order to attain the best performance? We present a deep active learning framework that combines fully convolutional network (FCN) and active learning to significantly reduce annotation effort by making judicious suggestions on the most effective annotation areas. We utilize uncertainty and similarity information provided by FCN and formulate a generalized version of the maximum set cover problem to determine the most representative and uncertain areas for annotation. Extensive experiments using the 2015 MICCAI Gland Challenge dataset and a lymph node ultrasound image segmentation dataset show that, using annotation suggestions by our method, state-of-the-art segmentation performance can be achieved by using only 50% of training data.
Location matters: Historical racial segregation and intergenerational mobility

Abstract This paper explores historical patterns of racial segregation and its relationship with the observed spatial variation in contemporaneous economic mobility established in Chetty et al. (2014). We combined data from the Equality of Opportunity Project with a novel measure of racial segregation developed in Logan and Parman (forthcoming) and find that past racial segregation explains a significant portion of the spatial variation in intergenerational mobility. These findings are consistent with models showing that persistent institutional factors may drive long-term outcomes across areas. Racial segregation and the environment that fosters it may diminish upward economic mobility by reducing access to networks, labor and capital markets, and political institutions. If so, then reducing the impact of these persistent processes may be key to mitigating current-day gaps in wealth, income, and overall well-being.
Surface orientation from projective foreshortening of isotropic texture autocorrelation

A method for determining local surface orientation from the autocorrelation function of statistically isotropic textures is introduced. It relies on the foreshortening that occurs in the image of an oriented surface, and the analogous foreshortening produced in the texture-autocorrelation function. This method assumes textural isotropy, but does not require the texture to be composed of texels or assume other texture regularities. The technique was applied to natural images of planar-textured surfaces and found to give good results. The simplicity of the method and its use of information from all parts of the image are emphasized. >
What Should Blood Pressure “be in Healthy Children

In a recent commentary,1 Adams and Landaw propose the novel concept that normally growing children need not have an associated progressive increase in blood pressure (BP). Noting that the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Task Force graphs to be used for plotting of pressure during growth and maturation show a continual increase of BP levels with age, they state that "Any implication that this is a healthy phenomenon associated with the aging process . . . is unjustified."2 To support this concept they cite data from studies in unacculturated tribes (ie, the Yanomamo Indians) showing that mean BP levels of these indians aged 0 to 50+, except for a slight increase from ages 0 to 9 years to 10 to 19 years, show no increase with age; this pattern is unlike that found in the United States and other Western cultures.
Do Prostatic Biopsies 12 Months or More After External Irradiation for Adenocarcinoma, Stage III, Predict Long-Term Survival

Abstract Serial biopsies of the prostate after high dose external irradiation for adenocarcinoma show a gradual disappearance of the neoplastic cells. With such treatment, results of the biopsies do not have any short term prognostic significance. However, positive biopsies 12 months or more after treatment are reputed to be an unfavorable sign for long-term survival. From August, 1970 through February, 1974, 46 consecutive patients with locally advanced (Stage III, C, or T3 and T4) adenocarcinoma of the prostate underwent external irradiation with 2 MV X rays or cobalt-60 teletherapy. The technique included parallel, opposed, 14 × 14 cm anterior and posterior fields, and a 10 × 14 cm perineal field. The center of the prostate received a total dose of 70 Gy in 30–37 fractions in 43 to 56 days. Details of the dosimetry reveal inhomogeneity of the dose of ±7% within an enlarged prostate. With a median follow-up of 8 years, the actuarial survival rates, uncorrected for death from intercurrent disease, are 69% at 5 years and 49% at 10 years. Biopsies of the prostate 12 months or more after treatment were available from 31 patients: 19 had one or more positive biopsies and 12 had consistently negative biopsies; the survival curves are identical for those with and those without positive biopsies. Prostatic biopsies obtained 24 months or more after treatment were available from 21 patients: 10 had positive and 11 had negative biopsies; the survival curves are identical for those with and without residual cancer cells. Following adequate irradiation of patients with locally advanced adenocarcinoma of the prostate, the results of biopsies obtained one or two years after treatment do not predict long-term survival.
Poly‐ADP ribose polymerase‐14 limits severity of allergic skin disease

Poly-ADP ribose polymerase-14 (PARP14 or ARTD8) was initially identified as a transcriptional co-activator for signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (Stat6), where the presence of interleukin-4 (IL-4) and activated Stat6 induces the enzymatic activity of PARP14 that promotes T helper type 2 differentiation and allergic airway disease. To further our understanding of PARP14 in allergic disease, we studied the function of PARP14 in allergic inflammation of skin using mice that express constitutively active Stat6 in T cells (Stat6VT) and develop spontaneous inflammation of the skin. We mated Stat6VT mice to Parp14-/- mice and observed that approximately 75% of the Stat6VT × Parp14-/- mice develop severe atopic dermatitis (AD)-like lesions, compared with about 50% of Stat6VT mice, and have increased morbidity compared with Stat6VT mice. Despite this, gene expression in the skin and the cellular infiltrates was only modestly altered by the absence of PARP14. In contrast, we saw significant changes in systemic T-cell cytokine production. Moreover, adoptive transfer experiments demonstrated that decreases in IL-4 production reflected a cell intrinsic role for PARP14 in Th2 cytokine control. Hence, our data suggest that although PARP14 has similar effects on T-cell cytokine production in several allergic disease models, the outcome of those effects is distinct, depending on the target organ of disease.
Genome-wide analysis of facial skeletal regionalization in zebrafish.

ABSTRACT Patterning of the facial skeleton involves the precise deployment of thousands of genes in distinct regions of the pharyngeal arches. Despite the significance for craniofacial development, how genetic programs drive this regionalization remains incompletely understood. Here we use combinatorial labeling of zebrafish cranial neural crest-derived cells (CNCCs) to define global gene expression along the dorsoventral axis of the developing arches. Intersection of region-specific transcriptomes with expression changes in response to signaling perturbations demonstrates complex roles for Endothelin 1 (Edn1) signaling in the intermediate joint-forming region, yet a surprisingly minor role in ventralmost regions. Analysis of co-variance across multiple sequencing experiments further reveals clusters of co-regulated genes, with in situ hybridization confirming the domain-specific expression of novel genes. We then created loss-of-function alleles for 12 genes and uncovered antagonistic functions of two new Edn1 targets, follistatin a (fsta) and emx2, in regulating cartilaginous joints in the hyoid arch. Our unbiased discovery and functional analysis of genes with regional expression in zebrafish arch CNCCs reveals complex regulation by Edn1 and points to novel candidates for craniofacial disorders.
Movements of a Cable Due to Changes in Loading

Numerical method is presented for determination of displacements along suspended cable resulting from change in load; effect of elastic deformations is included; all computations in numerical examples were made with aid of desk calculator; procedure, however, is particularly suitable for programming for electronic digital computer.
Towards the STEM DBER Alliance: why we need a discipline-based STEM education research community.

Reprinted by permission of the American Society for Engineering Education. This article was originally published in the Journal of Engineering Education, Volume 106 Issue 3, Pages 349–355, July 2017, available in final form at http://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20168
Bone-Induced Expression of Integrin β3 Enables Targeted Nanotherapy of Breast Cancer Metastases.

Bone metastases occur in approximately 70% of metastatic breast cancer patients, often leading to skeletal injuries. Current treatments are mainly palliative and underscore the unmet clinical need for improved therapies. In this study, we provide preclinical evidence for an antimetastatic therapy based on targeting integrin β3 (β3), which is selectively induced on breast cancer cells in bone by the local bone microenvironment. In a preclinical model of breast cancer, β3 was strongly expressed on bone metastatic cancer cells, but not primary mammary tumors or visceral metastases. In tumor tissue from breast cancer patients, β3 was significantly elevated on bone metastases relative to primary tumors from the same patient ( n = 42). Mechanistic investigations revealed that TGFβ signaling through SMAD2/SMAD3 was necessary for breast cancer induction of β3 within the bone. Using a micelle-based nanoparticle therapy that recognizes integrin αvβ3 (αvβ3-MPs of ∼12.5 nm), we demonstrated specific localization to breast cancer bone metastases in mice. Using this system for targeted delivery of the chemotherapeutic docetaxel, we showed that bone tumor burden could be reduced significantly with less bone destruction and less hepatotoxicity compared with equimolar doses of free docetaxel. Furthermore, mice treated with αvβ3-MP-docetaxel exhibited a significant decrease in bone-residing tumor cell proliferation compared with free docetaxel. Taken together, our results offer preclinical proof of concept for a method to enhance delivery of chemotherapeutics to breast cancer cells within the bone by exploiting their selective expression of integrin αvβ3 at that metastatic site. Cancer Res; 77(22); 6299–312. ©2017 AACR .
Discussion of “When does the peer information environment matter?”

Abstract Shroff et al. (2017) examine whether a richer peer information environment reduces the cost of capital for firms with limited firm-specific information and whether this effect decreases as firm-specific information becomes more prevalent. Although much of the evidence supporting their hypotheses is based on a small highly idiosyncratic sample of firms issuing initial public debt, the authors provide corroborating evidence using samples of IPO and SEO firms. However, two research design choices make it difficult to discern the nature of the peer information that substitutes for firm information. Hence, the implications of the findings for disclosure regulation are limited.
Partitions and Sylvester waves

The restricted partition function $$p_N(n)$$ counts the partitions of the integer n into at most N parts. In the nineteenth century, Sylvester described these partitions as a sum of waves. We give detailed descriptions of these waves and, for the first time, show the asymptotics of the initial waves as N and n both go to infinity at about the same rate. This allows us to see when the initial waves are a good approximation to $$p_N(n)$$ in this situation. Our proofs employ the saddle-point method of Perron and the dilogarithm.
Sustaining a Good Impression: Mechanisms for Selling Partitioned Impressions at Ad Exchanges

At an ad exchange, impressions are sold to advertisers in real time through an auction mechanism. The traditional mechanism at these exchanges selects a single advertiser whose ad is displayed over...
Crowdfunding: Designing an effective reward structure

Many crowdfunding platforms allow developers maximum flexibility in terms of the number and types of rewards offered in a project. However, designing an effective reward structure continues to be a...
Multidisciplinary Optimization in Decentralized Reinforcement Learning

Multidisciplinary Optimization (MDO) is one of the most popular techniques in aerospace engineering, where the system is complex and includes the knowledge from multiple fields. However, according to the best of our knowledge, MDO has not been widely applied in decentralized reinforcement learning (RL) due to the ‘unknown’ nature of the RL problems. In this work, we apply the MDO in decentralized RL. In our MDO design, each learning agent uses system identification to closely approximate the environment and tackle the ‘unknown’ nature of the RL. Then, the agents apply the MDO principles to compute the control solution using Monte Carlo and Markov Decision Process techniques. We examined two options of MDO designs: the multidisciplinary feasible and the individual discipline feasible options, which are suitable for multi-agent learning. Our results show that the MDO individual discipline feasible option could successfully learn how to control the system. The MDO approach shows better performance than the completely decentralization and centralization approaches.
The One Best Way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency

Frederick Winslow Taylor, is regarded by many as the original time-and-motion man and the first efficiency expert. He said in 1911, "In the past, man has been first. In the future, the System must be first". To organized labour Taylor was a slavedriver, to the bosses he was an eccentric and a radical. To himself he was a misunderstood visionary, possessor of "the one best way" who under the banner of science would erase the antagonism between labour and management.
Partial Color Word Comprehension Precedes Production

Previous studies report that children use color words haphazardly before acquiring conventional, adult-like meanings. The most common explanation for this is that children do not abstract color as ...
Surface Networks

We study data-driven representations for three-dimensional triangle meshes, which are one of the prevalent objects used to represent 3D geometry. Recent works have developed models that exploit the intrinsic geometry of manifolds and graphs, namely the Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) and its spectral variants, which learn from the local metric tensor via the Laplacian operator. Despite offering excellent sample complexity and built-in invariances, intrinsic geometry alone is invariant to isometric deformations, making it unsuitable for many applications. To overcome this limitation, we propose several upgrades to GNNs to leverage extrinsic differential geometry properties of three-dimensional surfaces, increasing its modeling power. In particular, we propose to exploit the Dirac operator, whose spectrum detects principal curvature directions - this is in stark contrast with the classical Laplace operator, which directly measures mean curvature. We coin the resulting models Surface Networks (SN). We prove that these models define shape representations that are stable to deformation and to discretization, and we demonstrate the efficiency and versatility of SNs on two challenging tasks: temporal prediction of mesh deformations under non-linear dynamics and generative models using a variational autoencoder framework with encoders/decoders given by SNs.