cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Demand for Money for EMU: a Flexible Functional Form Approach

Monetary aggregates have a special role under the "two pillar strategy" of the ECB. Hence, the need for a theoretically consistent measure of monetary aggregates for the European Monetary Union (EMU) is needed. This paper analyzes aggregation over monetary assets for the EMU. We aggregate over the monetary services for the EMU-11 countries, which include Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Slovakia, and Slovenia. We adopt the Divisia monetary aggregation approach, which is consistent with index number theory and microeconomic aggregation theory. The result is a multilateral Divisia monetary aggregate in accordance with Barnett (2007). The multilateral Divisia monetary aggregate for the EMU-11 is found to be more informative and a better signal of economic trends than the corresponding simple sum aggregate. We then analyze substitutability among monetary assets for the EMU-11 within the framework of a representative consumer's utility function, using Barnett’s (1983) locally flexible functional form, the minflex Laurent Indirect utility function. The analysis of elasticities with respect to the asset’s user-cost prices shows that: (i) transaction balances (TB) and deposits redeemable at notice (DRN) are income elastic, (ii) the DRN display large variation in price elasticity, and (iii) the monetary assets are not good substitutes for each other within the EMU-11. Simple sum monetary aggregation assumes that component assets are perfect substitutes. Hence simple sum aggregation distorts measurement of the monetary aggregate. The ECB has Divisia monetary aggregates provided to the Governing Council at its meetings, but not to the public. Our European Divisia monetary aggregates will be expanded and refined, in collaboration with Wenjuan Chen at the Humboldt University of Berlin, to a complete EMU Divisia monetary aggregates database to be supplied to the public by the Center for Financial Stability in New York City.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus and cerebrospinal fluid Alzheimer's disease biomarker amyloid β1-42 in Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative participants.

Abstract Introduction Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid β (Aβ) 1-42 is an important Alzheimer's disease biomarker. However, it is inconclusive on how T2DM is related to CSF Aβ1-42. Methods Participants with T2DM were selected from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative by searching keywords from the medical history database. A two-way analysis of covariance model was used to analyze how T2DM associates with CSF Aβ1-42 or cerebral cortical Aβ. Results CSF Aβ1-42 was higher in the T2DM group than the nondiabetic group. The inverse relation between CSF Aβ1-42 and cerebral cortical Aβ was independent of T2DM status. Participants with T2DM had a lower cerebral cortical Aβ in anterior cingulate, precuneus, and temporal lobe than controls. Discussion T2DM is positively associated with CSF Aβ1-42 but negatively with cerebral cortical Aβ. The decreased cerebral cortical Aβ associated with T2DM is preferentially located in certain brain regions.
The international authority of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: a critique of the conventionality control doctrine

This article discusses the constitutional turn in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ recent jurisprudence, exemplified in the adoption of the conventionality control doctrine. Building on pr...
Learning to Look Around: Intelligently Exploring Unseen Environments for Unknown Tasks

It is common to implicitly assume access to intelligently captured inputs (e.g., photos from a human photographer), yet autonomously capturing good observations is itself a major challenge. We address the problem of learning to look around: if an agent has the ability to voluntarily acquire new views to observe its environment, how can it learn efficient exploratory behaviors to acquire informative visual observations? We propose a reinforcement learning solution, where the agent is rewarded for actions that reduce its uncertainty about the unobserved portions of its environment. Based on this principle, we develop a recurrent neural network-based approach to perform active completion of panoramic natural scenes and 3D object shapes. Crucially, the learned policies are not tied to any recognition task nor to the particular semantic content seen during training. As a result, 1) the learned "look around" behavior is relevant even for new tasks in unseen environments, and 2) training data acquisition involves no manual labeling. Through tests in diverse settings, we demonstrate that our approach learns useful generic policies that transfer to new unseen tasks and environments.
Lead Offer Spillovers

Price promotions are typically offered in groups on websites, mailings, and circulars, but little is known about how promotional offers in near proximity affect each other. Across two large-scale f...
Unionization, product market competition, and strategic disclosure

Abstract We examine the disclosure policies of non-unionized firms operating in unionized industries. We test the hypothesis that non-unionized firms have an incentive to disclose more information when their unionized rivals are engaged in labor renegotiations; that is, to weaken them. We find that non-unionized firms disclose more information and more good news when renegotiations are ongoing. This behavior is stronger for larger firms, firms with fewer peers in the industry, and firms more similar to their renegotiating rivals. We also find some evidence that unionized firms are harmed by this behavior and that non-unionized firms benefit from their increased disclosures.
Activity-induced Ca2+ signaling in perisynaptic Schwann cells of the early postnatal mouse is mediated by P2Y1 receptors and regulates muscle fatigue.

A muscle that contracts over and over again will become tired. This can sometimes occur after vigorous exercise, but abnormal muscle fatigue is also a feature of various clinical disorders. These include conditions that affect muscles directly, such as muscular dystrophy, as well as disorders of the motor nerves that control muscles, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome. Nerves make contact with muscles at specialized sites called neuromuscular junctions. Failing to send the correct signals to the muscles at these junctions can lead to muscle fatigue. Studies to date have focused on the role of nerve cells and muscle cells in these communication failures. But there is also a third cell type present at the neuromuscular junction, known as the terminal/perisynaptic Schwann cell (TPSC). Stimulating motor nerves in a way that produces muscle fatigue also activates TPSCs. To investigate whether TPSCs contribute to or counteract muscle fatigue, Heredia et al. studied the responses of these cells at the neuromuscular junctions of young mice. Stimulating motor nerves caused TPSCs to release calcium ions from their internal calcium stores. However, this did not occur in mice that lacked a protein called the P2Y1 receptor. In normal mice, activating the P2Y1 receptor directly also made the TPSCs release calcium. This calcium release in turn prompted the TPSCs to take up potassium ions. Nerve and muscle cells release potassium during intense activity, and removal of potassium by TPSCs helped to prevent muscle fatigue. Therapeutic strategies that make TPSCs release more of their internal calcium stores – and thus increase their potassium uptake – could help ease muscle fatigue. A valuable first step would be to use drugs and genetic techniques to show this effect in mice. The results could then guide the development of corresponding strategies in patients.
Earnings dynamics: The role of education throughout a worker’s career

Abstract This paper describes two stylized facts about the earnings dynamics throughout a worker’s career. First, this paper shows that more educated workers have higher wage growth with work experience than less educated workers. Second, it demonstrates that more educated workers suffer greater wage losses following job displacement. I propose a model that integrates human capital accumulation and learning mechanisms that can explain these empirical findings. In the model, employers use both education and past job displacement as a signal of a worker’s unobservable ability. As a result, educated workers receive more on-the-job training in the beginning of their careers. In addition, educated workers suffer greater wage losses after being laid off when potential employers learn that an educated worker is low ability.
Racial/Ethnic disparities in high return investment ownership: a Heckman selection model

This study investigates racial/ethnic differences in high return investment ownership in the U.S. Households with low levels of financial assets might not be able to meaningfully make investment ch...
Top-down inputs drive neuronal network rewiring and context-enhanced sensory processing in olfaction

Much of the computational power of the mammalian brain arises from its extensive top-down projections. To enable neuron-specific information processing these projections have to be precisely targeted. How such a specific connectivity emerges and what functions it supports is still poorly understood. We addressed these questions in silico in the context of the profound structural plasticity of the olfactory system. At the core of this plasticity are the granule cells of the olfactory bulb, which integrate bottom-up sensory inputs and top-down inputs delivered by vast top-down projections from cortical and other brain areas. We developed a biophysically supported computational model for the rewiring of the top-down projections and the intra-bulbar network via adult neurogenesis. The model captures various previous physiological and behavioral observations and makes specific predictions for the cortico-bulbar network connectivity that is learned by odor exposure and environmental contexts. Specifically, it predicts that-after learning-the granule-cell receptive fields with respect to sensory and with respect to cortical inputs are highly correlated. This enables cortical cells that respond to a learned odor to enact disynaptic inhibitory control specifically of bulbar principal cells that respond to that odor. For this the reciprocal nature of the granule cell synapses with the principal cells is essential. Functionally, the model predicts context-enhanced stimulus discrimination in cluttered environments ('olfactory cocktail parties') and the ability of the system to adapt to its tasks by rapidly switching between different odor-processing modes. These predictions are experimentally testable. At the same time they provide guidance for future experiments aimed at unraveling the cortico-bulbar connectivity.
Rational self-maps of moduli spaces

We discuss some examples of geometrically meaningful rational self-maps of moduli space of curves of low genus and homogeneous forms.
Translating a Trillion Points of Data into Therapies, Diagnostics, and New Insights into Disease

There is an urgent need to translate genome-era discoveries into clinical utility, but the difficulties in making bench-to-bedside translations have been well described. The nascent field of translational bioinformatics may help. Dr. Butte's lab at Stanford builds and applies tools that convert more than a trillion points of molecular, clinical, and epidemiological data — measured by researchers and clinicians over the past decade — into diagnostics, therapeutics, and new insights into disease. Dr. Butte, a bioinformatician and pediatric endocrinologist, will highlight his lab's work on using publicly-available molecular measurements to find new uses for drugs including drug repositioning for inflammatory bowel disease, discovering new treatable inflammatory mechanisms of disease in type 2 diabetes, and the evaluation of patients presenting with whole genomes sequenced.
Childhood adversities as predictors of improvement in psychiatric symptoms and global functioning in solution-focused and short- and long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy during a 5-year follow-up

Abstract Background Childhood adversities are frequent among adults who seek treatment for depression or anxiety. These disorders are commonly treated by psychotherapy. Yet it is not known if specific types or durations of psychotherapy are particularly suited for patients who have suffered various early adversities. Methods 221 depressed and anxious adult outpatients from community, student, occupational, and private healthcare services filled the Childhood Family Atmosphere Questionnaire. They were randomly assigned to short- (solution-focused or psychodynamic) or long-term (psychodynamic) psychotherapy. Outcome was assessed via patient questionnaires and clinician interviews of psychiatric symptoms and global functioning during a 5-year follow-up. Linear regression analyses were conducted. Results Less separations from caregivers expectedly predicted better outcomes in all therapies; unexpectedly, so did greater abuse. Family unhappiness and parental problems predicted faster or greater improvement when patients were assigned to a short- or long-term psychodynamic therapy model. Limitations As patients with psychotic, substance abuse, and severe personality disorders were screened out, findings might not generalize to these patient groups. Conclusions Patients with certain childhood adversities appear to respond with faster or greater improvement when the psychotherapy model is explicitly focused on working through the potential connections between past and current problems. If confirmed by in-depth studies, the findings may help match psychotherapeutic models with given patient complaints, as well as fine-tune different psychosocial interventions to individual needs for optimizing treatment outcomes.
Union framing of conflict‐related issues in the entertainment industry

This study examined the conflict framing of union leaders as they reacted to changes in the entertainment industry. The analysis revealed how participants named conflict‐based issues and attributed blame for them, cast them as whole stories, or reframed them. Overall, the leaders of two types of unions differed in their naming and blaming of controversial issues. This study suggested that naming and blaming of conflict‐based issues operated differently for the two types of unions. Leaders who employed naming singled out critical agenda items and often used reframing, while union leaders who depicted issues as whole stories resisted reframing the issues.
Estimating feedforward and feedback effective connections from fMRI time series: Assessments of statistical methods

We test the adequacies of several proposed and two new statistical methods for recovering the causal structure of systems with feedback from synthetic BOLD time series. We compare an adaptation of the first correct method for recovering cyclic linear systems; Granger causal regression; a multivariate autoregressive model with a permutation test; the Group Iterative Multiple Model Estimation (GIMME) algorithm; the Ramsey et al. non-Gaussian methods; two non-Gaussian methods by Hyvarinen and Smith; a method due to Patel et al.; and the GlobalMIT algorithm. We introduce and also compare two new methods, Fast Adjacency Skewness (FASK) and Two-Step, both of which exploit non-Gaussian features of the BOLD signal. We give theoretical justifications for the latter two algorithms. Our test models include feedback structures with and without direct feedback (2-cycles), excitatory and inhibitory feedback, models using experimentally determined structural connectivities of macaques, and empirical human resting-state and task data. We find that averaged over all of our simulations, including those with 2-cycles, several of these methods have a better than 80% orientation precision (i.e., the probability of a directed edge is in the true structure given that a procedure estimates it to be so) and the two new methods also have better than 80% recall (probability of recovering an orientation in the true structure).
Visual-Inertial Object Detection and Mapping

We present a method to populate an unknown environment with models of previously seen objects, placed in a Euclidean reference frame that is inferred causally and on-line using monocular video along with inertial sensors. The system we implement returns a sparse point cloud for the regions of the scene that are visible but not recognized as a previously seen object, and a detailed object model and its pose in the Euclidean frame otherwise. The system includes bottom-up and top-down components, whereby deep networks trained for detection provide likelihood scores for object hypotheses provided by a nonlinear filter, whose state serves as memory. Additional networks provide likelihood scores for edges, which complements detection networks trained to be invariant to small deformations. We test our algorithm on existing datasets, and also introduce the VISMA dataset, that provides ground truth pose, point-cloud map, and object models, along with time-stamped inertial measurements.
Is Silence Golden? Real Effects of Mandatory Disclosure

Mandatory disclosure provides benefits, but it also entails costs. One cost concerns managerial learning: by discouraging informed trading, disclosure could reduce managers’ ability to glean decision-relevant information from prices. Using mandatory segment reporting in the United States, we uncover a reduction in investment-$q$ sensitivity, indicating lower investment efficiency after regulation. Consistent with learning, lower sensitivity is concentrated in firms with more informed trading and lower financing constraints. Constrained firms exhibit no change in investment-$q$ sensitivity, suggesting that they enjoy countervailing benefits via greater financing and stronger governance. Overall, we document a novel link between mandatory disclosure and real effects. Received October 25, 2017; editorial decision June 20, 2018 by Editor Wei Jiang.
Studies on a landscape of perfluoroaromatic-reactive peptides

We investigated 26 midsized peptides (∼30 amino acids in length) selected using mRNA display to perform a nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction (SNAr). Analysis suggested a diverse set of reactive sequences with significant differences in primary sequence, secondary structure and even predicted tertiary structural features. Several of the sequences displayed rapid kinetics allowing for near complete labeling in under one hour. Rosetta ab initio structure prediction of these sequences suggested a landscape of structural features, ranging from beta-sheet-based sequences to those possessing more alpha-helical-like character. Circular dichroism spectroscopy confirmed elements of the structure predictions for the majority of peptides. This analysis additionally uncovered that several peptides underwent secondary structure alterations upon reaction. These results suggest a broad sequence and structural landscape of SNAr active peptides along with a potentially important feature of these biopolymers.
The Hohfeldian Analysis of Rights

This article is about Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld's famous analysis of one of the most basic concepts used in law and in ethics: the concept of a right. Hohfeld urged that usages of the term "right" are ambiguous between two senses of the word: persons have rights to do things and rights to have things done for them. Although Hohfeld died 100 years ago, he remains today one of the world’s most influential legal theorists, and his systematic analysis of the two concepts of a right remains importantly relevant today. This article seeks both to celebrate Hohfeld's achievement exactly a century after his death in October of 1918, and to inspire a new generation’s interest in his work and in the issues that his work timelessly informs. The article thus: (1) systematically explicates the Hohfeldian analysis of rights, explicating both logical extensions of what Hohfeld himself wrote, as well as relations of the Hohfeldian system to the modern deontic logic not available to Hohfeld during his day; (2) defends the Hohfeldian analysis from two forms of criticism popular in the rights literature that have developed over the past century; and (3) critiques the Hohfeldian analysis by rejecting one of its most central tenets and replacing it with an alternative logic of rights that is not vulnerable to this critique. These three tasks correspond to the three major subdivisions of the article. The article concludes with a split verdict on Hohfeld: an acceptance of the Hohfeldian analysis of the rights we have to others doing things for us, and a partial rejection and replacement of the Hohfeldian analysis of the rights we have to do things.
A Case Study in Tailoring a Bio-Inspired Cyber-Security Algorithm: Designing Anomaly Detection for Multilayer Networks

Although bio-inspired designs for cybersecurity have yielded many elegant solutions to challenging problems, the vast majority of these efforts have been ad hoc analogies between the natural and human-designed systems. We propose to improve on the current approach of searching through the vast diversity of existing natural algorithms for one most closely resembling each new cybersecurity challenge, and then trying to replicate it in a designed cyber setting. Instead, we suggest that researchers should follow a protocol of functional abstraction, considering which features of the natural algorithm provide the efficiency/effectiveness in the real world, and then use those abstracted features as design components to build purposeful, tailored (perhaps even optimized) solutions. Here, we demonstrate how this can work by considering a case study employing this method. We design an extension of an existing (and ad hoc-created) algorithm, DIAMoND, for application beyond its originally intended solution space (detection of Distributed Denial of Service attacks in simple networks) to function on multilayer networks. We show how this protocol provides insights that might be harder or take longer to discover by direct analogy-building alone; in this case, we see that differential weighting of shared information by the providing network layer is likely to be effective.
A Matrix Chernoff Bound for Strongly Rayleigh Distributions and Spectral Sparsifiers from a few Random Spanning Trees

Strongly Rayleigh distributions are a class of negatively dependent distributions of binary-valued random variables [Borcea, Branden, Liggett JAMS 09]. Recently, these distributions have played a crucial role in the analysis of algorithms for fundamental graph problems, e.g. Traveling Salesman Problem [Gharan, Saberi, Singh FOCS 11]. We prove a new matrix Chernoff bound for Strongly Rayleigh distributions. As an immediate application, we show that adding together the Laplacians of e^-2 log^2 n random spanning trees gives an (1± e) spectral sparsifiers of graph Laplacians with high probability. Thus, we positively answer an open question posted in [Baston, Spielman, Srivastava, Teng JACM 13]. Our number of spanning trees for spectral sparsifier matches the number of spanning trees required to obtain a cut sparsifier in [Fung, Hariharan, Harvey, Panigraphi STOC 11]. The previous best result was by naively applying a classical matrix Chernoff bound which requires e^-2 n log n spanning trees. For the tree averaging procedure to agree with the original graph Laplacian in expectation, each edge of the tree should be reweighted by the inverse of the edge leverage score in the original graph. We also show that when using this reweighting of the edges, the Laplacian of single random tree is bounded above in the PSD order by the original graph Laplacian times a factor log n with high probability, i.e. L_T ≤ O(log n) L_G. We show a lower bound that almost matches our last result, namely that in some graphs, with high probability, the random spanning tree is not bounded above in the spectral order by log n/loglog n times the original graph Laplacian. We also show a lower bound that in e^-2 log n spanning trees are necessary to get a (1± e) spectral sparsifier.
The Largest Cognitive Systems Will be Optoelectronic

Electrons and photons offer complimentary strengths for information processing. Photons are excellent for communication, while electrons are superior for computation and memory. Cognition requires distributed computation to be communicated across the system for information integration. We present reasoning from neuroscience, network theory, and device physics supporting the conjecture that large-scale cognitive systems will benefit from electronic devices performing synaptic, dendritic, and neuronal information processing operating in conjunction with photonic communication. On the chip scale, integrated dielectric waveguides enable fan-out to thousands of connections. On the system scale, fiber and free-space optics can be employed. The largest cognitive systems will be limited by the distance light can travel during the period of a network oscillation. We calculate that optoelectronic networks the area of a large data center (105 m2) will be capable of system-wide information integration at 1 MHz. At frequencies of cortex-wide integration in the human brain (4 Hz, theta band), optoelectronic systems could integrate information across the surface of the earth.
PAIM: Platoon-based Autonomous Intersection Management

With the emergence of autonomous ground vehicles and the recent advancements in Intelligent Transportation Systems, Autonomous Traffic Management has garnered more and more attention. Autonomous Intersection Management (AIM), also known as Cooperative Intersection Management (CIM) is among the more challenging traffic problems that poses important questions related to safety and optimization in terms of delays, fuel consumption, emissions and reliability. Previously we introduced two stop-sign based policies for autonomous intersection management that were compatible with platoons of autonomous vehicles. These policies outperformed regular stop-sign policy both in terms of average delay per vehicle and variance in delay. This paper introduces a reservation-based policy that utilizes the cost functions from our previous work to derive optimal schedules for platoons of vehicles. The proposed policy guarantees safety by not allowing vehicles with conflicting turning movement to be in the conflict zone at the same time. Moreover, a greedy algorithm is designed to search through all possible schedules to pick the best that minimizes a cost function based on a trade-off between total delay and variance in delay. A simulator software is designed to compare the results of the proposed policy in terms of average delay per vehicle and variance in delay with that of a 4-phase traffic light.
The Role of Creativity in Multimodal Construction Grammar

Construction grammar accepts responsibility to account for forms of creativity otherwise almost entirely ignored in linguistics. This commitment is wise, given that creativity is the engine that develops systems of communication. Blending is the main mechanism of this creativity.
The low but uncertain measured benefits of US water quality policy

US investment to decrease pollution in rivers, lakes, and other surface waters has exceeded $1.9 trillion since 1960, and has also exceeded the cost of most other US environmental initiatives. These investments come both from the 1972 Clean Water Act and the largely voluntary efforts to control pollution from agriculture and urban runoff. This paper reviews the methods and conclusions of about 20 recent evaluations of these policies. Surprisingly, most analyses estimate that these policies’ benefits are much smaller than their costs; the benefit–cost ratio from the median study is 0.37. However, existing evidence is limited and undercounts many types of benefits. We conclude that it is unclear whether many of these regulations truly fail a benefit–cost test or whether existing evidence understates their net benefits; we also describe specific questions that when answered would help eliminate this uncertainty.
Detecting white matter alterations in multiple sclerosis using advanced diffusion magnetic resonance imaging

Multiple sclerosis is a neurodegenerative and inflammatory disease, a hallmark of which is demyelinating lesions in the white matter. We hypothesized that alterations in white matter microstructures can be non-invasively characterized by advanced diffusion magnetic resonance imaging. Seven diffusion metrics were extracted from hybrid diffusion imaging acquisitions via classic diffusion tensor imaging, neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging, and q-space imaging. We investigated the sensitivity of the diffusion metrics in 36 sets of regions of interest in the brain white matter of six female patients (age 52.8 ± 4.3 years) with multiple sclerosis. Each region of interest set included a conventional T2-defined lesion, a matched perilesion area, and normal-appearing white matter. Six patients with multiple sclerosis (n = 5) or clinically isolated syndrome (n = 1) at a mild to moderate disability level were recruited. The patients exhibited microstructural alterations from normal-appearing white matter transitioning to perilesion areas and lesions, consistent with decreased tissue restriction, decreased axonal density, and increased classic diffusion tensor imaging diffusivity. The findings suggest that diffusion compartment modeling and q-space analysis appeared to be sensitive for detecting subtle microstructural alterations between perilesion areas and normal-appearing white matter.
Atomistic modeling of resistivity evolution of copper nanoparticle in intense pulsed light sintering process

Abstract In this work, the intense pulsed light (IPL) sintering process of copper nanoparticle ink is simulated using molecular dynamics (MD) method. First, the neck size growth between the two copper nanoparticles during the IPL sintering process is computed. The resultant electrical resistivity is then calculated by substituting the neck size into the Reimann-Weber formula. Overall, a rapid decrease of electric resistivity is observed in the beginning of the sintering, which is caused by quick neck size growth, followed by a gradually decrease of resistivity. In addition, the correlation of the simulated temperature dependent resistivity is similar to that of the experimentally measured resistivity. The MD model is an effective tool for designers to optimize the IPL sintering process.
Graph-based modeling and simulation of complex systems

Abstract We present graph-based modeling abstractions to represent cyber-physical dependencies arising in complex systems. Specifically, we propose an algebraic graph abstraction to capture physical connectivity in complex optimization models and a computing graph abstraction to capture communication connectivity in computing architectures. The proposed abstractions are scalable and are used as the backbone of a Julia -based software package that we call Plasmo . jl . We show how the algebraic graph abstraction facilitates the implementation, analysis, and decomposition of optimization problems and we show how the computing graph abstraction facilitates the implementation of optimization and control algorithms and their simulation in virtual environments that involve distributed, centralized, and hierarchical computing architectures.
High-order two-fluid plasma solver for direct numerical simulations of plasma flows with full transport phenomena

The two-fluid plasma equations for a single ion species, with full transport terms, including temperature and magnetic field dependent ion and electron viscous stresses and heat fluxes, frictional drag force, and ohmic heating terms, have been implemented in the CFDNS code and solved by using sixth-order non-dissipative compact finite differences for plasma flows in several different regimes. In order to be able to fully resolve all the dynamically relevant time and length scales, while maintaining computational feasibility, the assumptions of infinite speed of light and negligible electron inertia have been made. Non-dimensional analysis of the two-fluid plasma equations shows that, by varying the characteristic/background number density, length scale, temperature, and magnetic strength, the corresponding Hall, resistive, and ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations can be recovered as limiting cases. The accuracy and robustness of this two-fluid plasma solver in handling plasma flows in different regimes have been validated against four canonical problems: Alfven and whistler dispersion relations, electromagnetic plasma shock, and magnetic reconnection. For all test cases, by using physical dissipation and diffusion, with negligible numerical dissipation/diffusion, fully converged Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS)-like solutions are obtained when the ion Reynolds number based on the grid size is smaller than a threshold value which is about 2.3 in this study. For the magnetic reconnection problem, the results show that the magnetic flux saturation time and value converge when the ion and magnetic Reynolds numbers are large enough. Thus, the DNS-like results become relevant to practical problems with much larger Reynolds numbers.
Ballistic Transport of Vibrational Energy through an Amide Group Bridging Alkyl Chains

Transport of vibrational energy via linear alkyl molecular chains can occur efficiently and with a high speed. This study addresses the question of how such transport is changed if an amide group is incorporated in the middle of such chain. A set of four compounds, Amn-4, was synthesized such that an amide group is connected to two alkyl chains. The alkyl chain on one side of the amide, featuring 4, 7, 11, or 15 CH2 units, is terminated by an azido group, while the alkyl chain on another side is of fixed length with four methylene groups terminated with a methyl ester group. The energy transport in Amn-4 in CD3CN solution, measured by relaxation-assisted two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy, was initiated and recorded using various combinations of tags and reporters, which included N3 and C═O stretching modes of the end groups and amide-I and amide-II modes at the amide. It was found that the transport initiated by the amide-I mode in the alkyl chain attached to C═O side of the amide proceeds with a cons...
Monte Carlo Goodness of Fit Tests

Monte Carlo and Markov chain Monte Carlo goodness of fit tests are described and an application of the latter in testing the Rasch model is given. Keywords: exact P values; goodness of fit tests; Markov chain Monte Carlo
Effect of staff training and cost support on provision of long-acting reversible contraception in community health centers.

Abstract Objective To compare the proportion of women receiving same-day long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) between two different models of contraceptive provision adapted from the Contraceptive CHOICE Project. Study Design We used a controlled time-trend study design to compare 502 women receiving structured contraceptive counseling in addition to usual care (“Enhanced Care”) to 506 women receiving counseling plus healthcare provider education and cost support for LARC (“Complete CHOICE”) at three federally qualified health centers. We provided funds to health centers to ensure an “on-the-shelf” supply and no-cost LARC for uninsured women. We recorded the contraceptive method chosen after contraceptive counseling and the healthcare provider appointment as well as the contraceptive method received that day. Among women choosing LARC, we calculated proportions and performed Poisson regression with robust error variance to estimate relative risks for same-day insertion. Results Participant demographics reflected the health center populations; 69% were black, 66% had a high school diploma or less, 57% were publicly insured, and 75% reported household income less than 101% federal poverty line. There were 153 (30.5%) women in “Enhanced Care” and 273 (54.0%) in “Complete CHOICE” who chose LARC (p Conclusions A contraceptive care model that included healthcare provider education and cost support for LARC in addition to structured contraceptive counseling resulted in higher rates of same-day LARC insertion compared to contraceptive counseling and usual care alone. Implications Contraceptive care provision which includes contraceptive counseling, healthcare provider education, and “on-the-shelf”, long-acting reversible contraception facilitate same-day initiation of these methods. Interventions that focus solely on contraceptive counseling do not address other structural barriers to same-day contraceptive provision of all methods including cost and provider practice.
Remington, Richard D

Richard Remington (1931–1992) was a leading public health statistician who played a major role in linking biostatistics and epidemiology to public health research and policy. He held senior appointments at the Universities of Michigan, Texas, and Iowa. At Iowa, he served as Interim President of the University in 1987–1988 and founded the Institute for Health, Behavior, and Environmental Policy in 1992. He had a major research interest in the public health impact of hypertension and served on many NIH committees. He coauthored, with M.A. Schork, a popular textbook. Keywords: public health; hypertension; Michigan; Texas; Iowa; Schork; textbook; jazz
Blinatumomab administered concurrently with oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy is a well-tolerated consolidation strategy and eradicates measurable residual disease in adults with Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Abstract Incorporation of ABL-targeted oral tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) into frontline therapeutic regimens has improved outcomes for adults with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph + ALL). However, patients with persistent minimal residual disease (MRD) exhibit increased risk of relapse. Combining consolidative chemotherapy with TKIs may increase rates of infectious complications, organ toxicity, hospitalization, and non-relapse mortality. Blinatumomab has demonstrated single-agent activity in patients with relapsed B-ALL or persistent MRD, including Ph + B-ALL. We have used blinatumomab concomitantly with commercially available TKIs as consolidative therapy to spare toxicities of conventional chemotherapy. We evaluated 11 adults with previously treated Ph + B-ALL who received blinatumomab concurrent with TKI (ponatinib, n = 5; dasatinib, n = 4; nilotinib, n = 1; imatinib, n = 1) to eradicate MRD or sustain MRD-negativity. Eight of 9 patients with MRD achieved BCR-ABL1 negativity (complete molecular response, CMR) after a median of one cycle; 2/2 patients without measurable disease durably maintained CMR. Cytokine release syndrome (all grade 1–2) was observed in 3/11 patients; one patient experienced transient grade 1 neurologic toxicity. Transient grade 2 transaminitis was observed in 6/11 patients, including 4/5 recipients of blinatumomab + ponatinib. This small series suggests blinatumomab + TKI is a safe and effective consolidation strategy for patients with Ph + ALL to achieve or maintain CMR.
Strong approximation of stochastic differential equations driven by a time-changed Brownian motion with time-space-dependent coefficients

Abstract The rate of strong convergence is investigated for an approximation scheme for a class of stochastic differential equations driven by a time-changed Brownian motion, where the random time changes ( E t ) t ≥ 0 considered include the inverses of stable and tempered stable subordinators as well as their mixtures. Unlike those in the work of Jum and Kobayashi (2016), the coefficients of the stochastic differential equations discussed in this paper depend on the regular time variable t rather than the time change E t . This alteration makes it difficult to apply the method used in that paper. To overcome this difficulty, we utilize a Gronwall-type inequality involving a stochastic driver to control the moment of the error process. Moreover, in order to guarantee that an ultimately derived error bound is finite, we establish a useful criterion for the existence of exponential moments of powers of the random time change.
The Effect of Molecular Weight on Passage of Proteins Through the Blood-Aqueous Barrier.

Purpose To determine the effect of molecular weight (MW) on the concentration of plasma-derived proteins in aqueous humor and to estimate the plasma-derived and eye-derived fractions for each protein. Methods Aqueous humor and plasma samples were obtained during cataract surgery on an institutional review board-approved protocol. Protein concentrations were determined by ELISA and quantitative antibody microarrays. A total of 93 proteins were studied, with most proteins analyzed using 27 to 116 aqueous and 6 to 30 plasma samples. Results Plasma proteins without evidence of intraocular expression by sequence tags were used to fit a logarithmic model relating aqueous-plasma ratio (AH:PL) to MW. The log(AH:PL) appears to be well predicted by the log(MW) (P 80), and 17 proteins had contribution from both plasma and eye tissue (IOF 20-80). Conclusions Protein concentration of plasma-derived proteins in aqueous is nonlinearly dependent on MW in favor of smaller proteins. Our study demonstrates that for proper interpretation of results, proteomic studies evaluating changes in aqueous humor protein levels should take into account the plasma and eye-derived fractions.
Why do we need the new BNL muon g−2 experiment now?

New final results from the CMD-2 and SND e + e − annihilation experiments, together with radiative return measurements from BaBar, lead to recent improvements in the Standard Model prediction for the muon anomaly. The uncertainty at 0.48 ppm—a largely data-driven result—is now slightly below the experimental uncertainty of 0.54 ppm. The difference, a μ ( expt ) − a μ ( SM ) = ( 27.6 ± 8.4 ) × 10 −10 , represents a 3.3 standard deviation effect. At this level, it is one of the most compelling indicators of physics beyond the Standard Model and, at the very least, a major constraint for speculative new theories such as SUSY or extra dimensions. Others at this Workshop detailed further planned Standard Model theory improvements to a μ . Here I outline how BNL E969 will achieve a factor of 2 or more reduction in the experimental uncertainty. The new experiment is based on a proven technique and track record. I argue that this work must be started now to have maximal impact on the interpretation of the new physics anticipated to be unearthed at the LHC.
File and data repositories for Next Generation CALPHAD

Abstract The future development of the CALPHAD method requires establishing file and data repositories and tools to automate the modeling process and to enable efficient implementation of new models and the development of multicomponent descriptions. To advance these new repositories and tools, unique phase and materials identifiers must be defined. These identifiers are crucial for the successful linkage between different data repositories and for efficient searching of the needed data for a given materials system.
An Ando–Choi–Effros lifting theorem respecting subspaces

We prove a version of the Ando-Choi-Effros lifting theorem respecting subspaces, which in turn relies on Oja's principle of local reflexivity respecting subspaces. To achieve this, we first develop a theory of pairs of $M$-ideals. As a first consequence we get a version respecting subspaces of the Michael-Pelczynski extension theorem. Other applications are related to linear and Lipschitz bounded approximation properties for a pair consisting of a Banach space and a subspace. We show that in the separable case, the BAP for such a pair is equivalent to the simultaneous splitting of an associated pair of short exact sequences given by a construction of Lusky. We define a Lipschitz version of the BAP for pairs, and study its relationship to the (linear) BAP for pairs. The two properties are not equivalent in general, but they are when the pair has an additional Lipschitz-lifting property in the style of Godefroy and Kalton. We also characterize, in the separable case, those pairs of a metric space and a subset whose corresponding pair of Lipschitz-free spaces has the BAP.
Hydrogen bonding in transition metal fluorides

Abstract Hydrogen bonding often plays a crucial role in the chemistry of metal complexes and is of particular importance in the interactions of coordination compounds with biological systems. This account will discuss the role of hydrogen bonding in transition metal compounds with particular emphasis on utilizing this aspect of their chemistry to develop new metal based reagents for molecular recognition. After a brief introduction to the role of metal reagents in biochemistry and the influence of hydrogen bonding in the chemistry of organometallic compounds, recent results concerning the hydrogen bonding properties of metal fluorides prepared in my laboratory will be described. Synthetic and mechanistic chemistry relevant to chelate assisted carbon-halogen (Cl, Br, I) activation at tungsten(0) will be discussed along with structural studies of seven coordinate tungsten(II) metallacycles containing either single or double C-N bonds. The synthesis of metal carbonyl fluorides by chelate assisted oxidative addition of C-F bonds to tungsten(O) will be described including recent extensions of this chemistry to difluoro-rather than pentafluoro-substituted aromatics. Alternative synthetic routes to tungsten(II) fluorides by metathesis reactions and the reactivity of the halide in these systems will be noted. Spectroscopic (IR and 19F NMR) and crystallographic characterization of hydrogen bonds involving tungsten(II) and titanium(IV) fluorides, and quantitative assessments of the base strength of fluoride bound to these metals will be included. Remarkably, fluoride bound to tungsten(II) forms 1:1 adducts with 4-chlorophenol with equilibrium association constants that rival that of the organic base pyridine. This work provides the foundation required for the design of more sophisticated receptors for target substrates.
Total Synthesis of the Annonaceous Acetogenins Asiminocin and Asiminecin by a Bidirectional Approach

A total synthesis of the Annonaceous acetogenins asiminocin and asiminecin is described. The approach is bidirectional starting from the (S,S)-tartrate derived dialdehyde 7 and the (R)-α-OSEM stannane 6. Addition of 6 to 7 in the presence of InCl3 afforded the bis-adduct, anti-diol 8. The derived tosylate 9 was converted to the bis-tetrahydrofuran core unit 10 upon treatment with TBAF. Selective silylation of one of the two equivalent terminal diol groupings led to the OTBS ether alcohol 11. Oxidation to aldehyde 12 and then InCl3-promoted addition of the (S)-allylic stannane 14 gave the anti adduct 15. Removal of the OH group by reduction of the tosylate 16 with LiBEt3H yielded the SEM ether 17. Hydrogenation of the three double bonds of 17 followed by cleavage of the terminal silyl ether and oxidation afforded aldehyde 20. Conversion to the vinylic iodide 21 followed by Pd(0)-catalyzed coupling with the (S)-alkynyl butenolide 24 gave the asiminocin derivative 25. Selective hydrogenation of the enyne moi...
In Situ Mitigation of First-Cycle Anode Irreversibility in a New Spinel/FeSb Lithium-Ion Cell Enabled via a Microwave-Assisted Chemical Lithiation Process

First-cycle irreversibility is a major problem that plagues many next-generation nanoscale anode materials which form solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) layers. Without a method to compensate for this irreversible capacity loss, the full cells will face serious problems. The concept of a lithium reservoir in spinel cathodes was proposed in the early 90s to combat the irreversibility of graphite anodes, but chemical techniques to lithiate spinel have been complex or hazardous. We present in this study (i) a new facile microwave-assisted chemical lithiation technique for spinel oxide cathodes which is capable of inserting one extra lithium per formula unit using less expensive, readily available lithium hydroxide in polyol and (ii) two new advanced lithium-ion batteries combining a prelithiated 5 V spinel Li1 + xMn1.5Ni0.5O4 or a 4 V spinel Li1.05 + xNi0.05Mn1.9O4 cathode and a carbon-free FeSb-TiC alloy anode that has a high first-cycle irreversible capacity loss. We show that the extra chemically inserted...