cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Formation and Fragmentation of Primordial Molecular Clouds

Many questions in physical cosmology regarding the thermal history of the intergalactic medium, chemical enrichment, reionization, etc., are thought to be intimately related to the nature and evolution of pregalactic structure. In particular, the efficiency of primordial star formation and the primordial initial mass function are of special interest. We present results from high-resolution three-dimensional adaptive mesh refinement simulations that follow the collapse of primordial molecular clouds and their subsequent fragmentation within a cosmologically representative volume. Comoving scales from 128 kpc down to 1 pc are followed accurately. Dark matter dynamics, hydrodynamics, and all relevant chemical and radiative processes (cooling) are followed self-consistently for a cluster-normalized cold dark matter (CDM) structure formation model. Primordial molecular clouds with ~105 solar masses are assembled by mergers of multiple objects that have formed hydrogen molecules in the gas phase with a fractional abundance of 10-4. As the subclumps merge, cooling lowers the temperature to ~200 K in a "cold pocket" at the center of the halo. Within this cold pocket, a quasi-hydrostatically contracting core with mass ~200 M☉ and number densities 105 cm-3 are found. We find that less than 1% of the primordial gas in such small-scale structures cools and collapses to sufficiently high densities to be available for primordial star formation. Furthermore, it is worthwhile to note that this study achieved the highest dynamic range covered by structured adaptive mesh techniques in cosmological hydrodynamics to date.
Sex Trafficking, Russian Infiltration, Birth Certificates, and Pedophilia: A Survey Experiment Correcting Fake News

Following the 2016 U.S. election, researchers and policymakers have become intensely concerned about the dissemination of “fake news,” or false news stories in circulation (Lazer et al., 2017). Research indicates that fake news is shared widely and has a pro-Republican tilt (Allcott and Gentzkow, 2017). Facebook now flags dubious stories as disputed and tries to block fake news publishers (Mosseri, 2016). While the typical misstatements of politicians can be corrected (Nyhan et al., 2017), the sheer depth of fake news’s conspiracizing may preclude correction. Can fake news be corrected?
Market Triumphalism, Electoral Pathologies, and the Abiding Wisdom of First Amendment Access Rights

Jerome Barron’s seminal writings that advocate a First Amendment right of access to the media 1 make a powerful case that constitutional speech protection must actually yield dynamic, broad-based public debate in order to ensure the vitality of our democratic society. Barron posited that expressive freedom’s purpose is to enable effective democratic debate, and he accordingly called on courts to invoke the First Amendment in order to provide underfinanced and socially marginalized speakers access to the infrastructure of public discourse. 2
Some Surprising Implications of Negative Retributivism

Negative retributivism is the view that though the primary justifying aim of legal punishment is the reduction of crime, the state's efforts to do so are subject to side-constraints that forbid punishment of the innocent and disproportionate punishment of the guilty. I contend that insufficient attention has been paid to what the side-constraints commit us to in constructing a theory of legal punishment, even one primarily oriented toward reducing crime. Specifically, I argue that the side-constraints limit the kinds of actions that are appropriately criminalised, the kinds of beings who are appropriately liable to legal punishment, and the absolute and comparative severity of sanctions. I also argue that a third retributive constraint is needed, one which I term a ‘non-degradation constraint’. According to this third constraint, in our efforts to reduce crime, we must avoid treating offenders as non-moral beings and ensure that punishment does not atrophy or erode the complex capacity for moral responsibility. When this third constraint is combined with the persuasive instrumental case for promoting the moral responsiveness of offenders, the result is an approach to crime reduction that is quite different from ones which emphasise general deterrence and incapacitation. In the closing section, I broach the question whether negative retributivism has been appropriately characterised in the literature on legal punishment.
The European Union, the Euro, and equity market integration

Abstract We use industry valuation differentials across European countries to study the impact of membership in the European Union as well as the Eurozone on both economic and financial integration. In integrated markets, discount rates and expected growth opportunities should be similar within one industry, irrespective of the country, implying narrowing valuation differentials as countries become more integrated. Our analysis of the 1990–2007 period shows that membership in the EU significantly lowered discount rate and expected earnings growth differentials across countries. In contrast, the adoption of the Euro was not associated with increased integration. Our results do not change when the sample is extended to include the recent crisis period.
Methods for Generating Typologies of Non/use

Prior studies of technology non-use demonstrate the need for approaches that go beyond a simple binary distinction between users and non-users. This paper proposes a set of two different methods by which researchers can identify types of non/use relevant to the particular sociotechnical settings they are studying. These methods are demonstrated by applying them to survey data about Facebook non/use. The results demonstrate that the different methods proposed here identify fairly comparable types of non/use. They also illustrate how the two methods make different trade offs between the granularity of the resulting typology and the total sample size. The paper also demonstrates how the different typologies resulting from these methods can be used in predictive modeling, allowing for the two methods to corroborate or disconfirm results from one another. The discussion considers implications and applications of these methods, both for research on technology non/use and for studying social computing more broadly.
Sterile neutrinos and the global reactor antineutrino dataset

We present results from global fits to the available reactor antineutrino dataset, as of Fall 2019, to determine the global preference for a fourth, sterile neutrino. We have separately considered experiments that measure the integrated inverse-beta decay (IBD) rate from those that measure the energy spectrum of IBD events at one or more locations. The evidence that we infer from rate measurements varies between ≲ 3σ and negligible depending on the reactor antineutrino flux model employed. Moreover, we find that spectral ratios ostensibly imply ≳ 3σ evidence, consistent with previous work, though these measurements are known to be plagued by issues related to statistical interpretation; these results should therefore be viewed cautiously. The software used is the newly developed GLoBESfit tool set which is based on the publicly available GLoBES framework and will be released as open-source software.
Improving antibiotic markets for long-term sustainability.

The world faces a worsening public health crisis: A growing number of bacteria are resistant to available antibiotics. Yet there are few new antibiotics in the development pipeline to take the place of these increasingly ineffective drugs. We review a number of proposals intended to bolster drug development, including such financial incentives for pharmaceutical manufacturers as extending the effective patent life for new antibiotics. However, such strategies directly conflict with the clear need to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions and could actually increase prescription use. As an alternative, we recommend a two-prong, “integrated” strategy based on prizes administered through the insurance reimbursement system, but conditioned on the companies meeting conservation targets.
Sharing responsibility instead of allocating blame: Reforming torts and reducing accidents

Imagine a pedestrian and driver both approaching a crosswalk. Both parties can take actions to prevent an accident, and traditional economic analysis of tort law recognizes the importance of making sure that both parties have an incentive to do so. However, traditional negligence rules can provide efficient incentives to both parties only under unrealistic ideal conditions. I propose a liability sharing rule that focuses on responsibility rather than blame, and apportions liability according to the degree to which each party’s actions made the accident more likely. The rule I propose forces each party to bear the costs of any additional risk that is imposed on the other party. Unlike current rules, this rule provides efficient incentives in the face of heterogeneous and imperfect actors, and it can be modified to maintain efficiency when courts imperfectly observe the parties’ actions. Furthermore, the rule I propose provides a coherent basis for apportioning liability, which is lacking in the existing comparative negligence doctrine. I argue that the proposed rule is a better fit with tort law’s preference for objective standards. Finally, the focus on responsibility rather than fault could foster a more effective, collaborative approach to preventing accidents.
Costly Revenue-Raising and the Case for Favoring Import-Competing Industries

Abstract A standard finding in the political economy of trade policy literature is that we should expect export-oriented industries to attract more assistance than import-competing industries. In reality, however, trade policy is heavily biased toward supporting import industries. This paper shows how the costliness of raising revenue via taxation makes trade subsidies less desirable and trade taxes more desirable in a standard protection for sale framework. The model is then estimated and its predictions tested using U.S. tariff data. An empirical estimate of the costliness of revenue-raising is also obtained.
Regulation FD: A Review and Synthesis of the Academic Literature

SYNOPSIS: We summarize the empirical evidence regarding Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD) to gauge whether the regulation achieves its stated objectives and to provide insights and direction for future research. Overall, we find that FD's prohibition against the selective disclosure of material information eliminates the information advantage enjoyed by certain investors and analysts and thereby provides a more level playing field for all investors. In addition, a number of firms respond to FD by expanding public disclosures, and the information environment of the average firm does not appear to be adversely affected. However, we find that an unintended consequence of FD is a reduction in the total amount of information available in the market (i.e., a “chilling effect”) for small or high-technology firms. Finally, ongoing research suggests that private access to management continues to provide select analysts or investors with non-material information used to complete the “mosaic” of information.
A computational scheme for the optimal strategy in an incomplete market

Abstract We examine the optimal portfolio selection problem of a single agent who receives an unhedgeable endowment. The agent wishes to optimize his/her log-utility derived from his/her terminal wealth. We do not solve this problem analytically but construct a recursive computational algorithm which approximates the optimal one. We present an ‘intelligent’ initial portfolio which requires, numerically, about 25 % fewer corrective steps in the algorithm than a random initial portfolio, and outperforms the portfolio which ignores the unhedgeable risk of the endowment.
Biosimilar Naming: A Call for Uniformity in a Complex Field

Recombinant technology has opened a pathway for a means of producing a variety of therapeutic proteins and generating the growth of the biopharmaceutical industry. Further, due the patent expirations of a number of biologics in the coming years, there has been an increased interest in the development of generic biologics, also known as biosimilars, and a widespread push for biosimilar FDA approval in the United States. While the pressure for the expansion of biosimilar approval is warranted, the FDA must be cautious when implementing regulatory guidelines. Since biologics differ greatly from small-molecule drugs, biologics have a distinct approval process. The true complexity of a biosimilar’s structure makes it much more difficult to create biosimilar regulatory pathways that can ensure the safety of consumers. The process for approving a biosimilar requires greater analysis and consideration than traditional generic drug approval. With the increase in the number of biosimilars available, the process of naming biosimilars has become an important regulatory concern; causing countries to develop various methods of naming approved biosimilars. Some regulatory bodies use the international nonproprietary name (INN) of the reference product. Others regulatory bodies in Australia and Japan attach a short and separate qualifier. In the United States, brand companies have proposed that the biosimilars should receive a unique INN. However, a lack of uniformity in nomenclature would result in the same biological medicine having different meanings in different areas of the world. In attempts to avoid the promulgation of separate and distinct national qualifier systems, several regulatory authorities have requested that the WHO’s INN Programme develop a universal nomenclature system applicable to biosimilars. Ultimately, this Note suggests that in order to successfully promote the growth of the biosimilars market and facilitate the true intent of global legislation creating abbreviated approval path-ways for biosimilars, the WHO, together with the EU and the United States, should ensure biosimilars are afforded INNs that are identical to their existing biologic counterpart.
Structure and organisational behaviour of public research institutions under unstable growth of human resources

The study here analyses the structure and organisational behaviour of research organisations in the presence of shrinking budgets. A vital case study of large public research institution in Italy is investigated since it has a similar structure to other European research bodies. Empirical analysis shows negative rates of growth of human resources which are due to austerity programmes of governments to reduce public debt. Results support a pessimistic scenario for this public research body that might downsize the personnel of about 50% in the year 2024 or thereabouts, causing negative effects on performances of the national system of innovation. The method and findings provide vital information to policymakers for understanding the strategic change of public research institutions during environmental turbulence. Fruitful R&D management implications of human resources conclude the paper.
Strengthening the Satisfaction-Profit Chain

Customer satisfaction programs do not always deliver anticipated results. Disenchanted, some have labeled satisfaction measurement a “trap” and argued for abandoning customer satisfaction as a means for optimizing customer retention and profitability. The authors argue that doing so may be a mistake because the satisfaction-profit chain is conceptually solid. However, to achieve results, an important step is to recognize that the links in the satisfaction-profit chain are asymmetric and nonlinear. In this article, the authors review recent developments pertaining to the asymmetric and nonlinear nature of the links involved. They also discuss several examples based on commercial satisfaction studies where incorporating the asymmetry and nonlinearity added significant value to the firm’s understanding of the satisfaction-profit chain.
Decision Quicksand: How Trivial Choices Suck Us In

People often get unnecessarily mired in trivial decisions. Four studies support a metacognitive account for this painful phenomenon. Our central premise is that people use subjective experiences of difficulty while making a decision as a cue to how much further time and effort to spend. People generally associate important decisions with difficulty. Consequently, if a decision feels unexpectedly difficult, due to even incidental reasons, people may draw the reverse inference that it is also important and consequently increase the amount of time and effort they expend. Ironically, this process is particularly likely for decisions that initially seemed unimportant because people expect them to be easier (whereas important decisions are expected to be difficult to begin with). Our studies demonstrate that unexpected difficulty not only causes people to get caught up in unimportant decisions but also to voluntarily seek more options, which can increase decision difficulty even further.
Key Factors Affecting Valuation for Senior Apartments

The value of senior apartments is estimated relative to traditional apartments in 34 markets in the United States. In some markets, senior apartments transact at higher prices than predicted; in ot...
The Confirmation Effect of Analyst Recommendation Reiterations

The vast majority of reports written by sell-side equity analysts conclude with a reiteration of the analyst’s existing recommendation on a firm’s stock. Yet there is a disproportionate amount of research that focuses on the market reactions of changes in recommendations and a prevailing sense that reiterations do not matter. In this article, we test the hypothesis that reiterations of recommendations serve to resolve information uncertainty since the original recommendation was published and that they give rise to market reactions in the direction of the original recommendation, which we call a confirmation effect. Using a sample of analyst reports that do not contain any changes in recommendations, earnings forecasts, or price targets, we focus solely on reiterations and show that they are associated with proxies for information content, reductions in information uncertainty, and return reactions consistent with a confirmation effect.
Electing women to new Arab assemblies: The roles of gender ideology, Islam, and tribalism in Oman:

As Arab monarchies increasingly adopt and empower consultative assemblies, women’s representation varies markedly across countries. What leads citizens in these new electoral systems to vote for wo...
Asset allocation and asset location: household evidence from the survey of consumer finances

Abstract The rapid growth of assets in self-directed tax-deferred retirement accounts has generated a new set of financial decisions for many households. In addition to deciding which assets to hold, the traditional choice among bonds, stocks, and other investment classes, households with substantial assets in both taxable and tax-deferred accounts (TDA) must now decide where to hold them. This paper uses data from the Survey of Consumer Finances to assess how many households have enough assets in both taxable and tax-deferred accounts to face significant asset location choices. It also investigates the asset location decisions these households make. In 2001, 49% of households had at least some assets in a tax-deferred account, and more than 11 million households had at least US$25,000 in both a taxable and a tax-deferred account. Asset allocation inside and outside tax-deferred accounts is quite similar, with about 70% of assets in each location invested in equity securities. Roughly two thirds of households with financial assets in both taxable and tax-deferred accounts hold portfolios that are tax efficient. Most of the other third could reduce their taxes by relocating heavily taxed fixed income assets to their tax-deferred account. For more than half of the households that hold apparently tax-inefficient portfolios, however, a shift of less than US$10,000 in financial assets would eliminate tax inefficiency.
Tax Uncertainty and Voluntary Real-Time Tax Audits

ABSTRACT: This study examines the empirical relation between voluntary participation in the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Compliance Assurance Process (CAP) audit program, and tax uncertainty disclosed in financial statements pursuant to Financial Interpretation No. 48 (FIN 48). Based on the findings of prior analytical and empirical research, we formulate and test hypotheses about the likelihood of voluntary CAP participation and the resulting effect on FIN 48 tax reserves. We find that firms with moderate-sized FIN 48 reserves are more likely to participate in CAP than firms with either small or large reserves, indicating an inverted U-shaped relation between CAP participation rates and firms' tax reserves. After controlling for non-random sample selection, we find that CAP firms significantly reduce their FIN 48 reserves by about 16.5 percent relative to non-CAP firms. However, this reduction is concentrated among firms with moderate-sized FIN 48 reserves. These cross-sectional differences are consi...
Switchable Adhesion Actuator for Amphibious Climbing Soft Robot

Climbing soft robots are of tremendous interest in both science and engineering due to their potential applications in intelligent surveillance, inspection, maintenance, and detection under environments away from the ground. The challenge lies in the design of a fast, robust, switchable adhesion actuator to easily attach and detach the vertical surfaces. Here, we propose a new design of pneumatic-actuated bioinspired soft adhesion actuator working both on ground and under water. It is composed of extremely soft bilayer structures with an embedded spiral pneumatic channel resting on top of a base layer with a cavity. Rather than the traditional way of directly pumping air out of the cavity for suction in hard polymer-based adhesion actuator, we inflate air into the top spiral channel to deform into a stable 3D dome shape for achieving negative pressure in the cavity. The characterization of the maximum shear adhesion force of the proposed soft adhesion actuator shows strong and rapid reversible adhesion on multiple types of smooth and semi-smooth surfaces. Based on the switchable adhesion actuator, we design and fabricate a novel load-carrying amphibious climbing soft robot (ACSR) by combining with a soft bending actuator. We demonstrate that it can operate on a wide range of foreign horizontal and vertical surfaces including dry, wet, slippery, smooth, and semi-smooth ones on ground and also under water with certain load-carrying capability. We show that the vertical climbing speed can reach about 286 mm/min (1.6 body length/min) while carrying over 200 g object (over 5 times the weight of ACSR itself) during climbing on ground and under water. This research could largely push the boundaries of soft robot capabilities and multifunctionality in window cleaning and underwater inspection under harsh environment.
The Differential Effects of Stress on Voter Turnout

While everyone deals with stressful situations on a daily basis, individuals have different behavioral reactions to that stress. We argue that life stress also affects individuals’ political behavior, but this effect is contingent on their past political involvement. While individuals familiar with and engaged in the political process are unaffected when confronted with stress in life, individuals who are not routinely involved in the electoral process are more likely to disengage from politics. To test the differential effects of stress on the likelihood of political involvement, we fielded two experiments, one preceding the U.S. presidential election of 2012 and the second preceding the 2013 municipal election in a small Midwestern American town. We find that when triggered to consider life stressors unrelated to politics, individuals without a history of past participation in politics are less likely to vote while individuals who are habitual voters are unaffected.
An enterprise control assessment case study of the energy–water nexus for the ISO New England system

Abstract The generation mix of Independent System Operator in New England (ISO-NE) is fundamentally changing. Nuclear, coal, and oil generation facilities are retiring and are replaced with natural gas, solar, and wind generation. Variable renewable energy resources (VREs) such as solar and wind present multiple operational challenges that require new and innovative ways to manage and control the grid. This paper studies how water supply systems (water and wastewater treatment), and water-dependent electricity generating resources (hydro, and thermal power plants) can be operated flexibly to enhance the reliability of the grid. The study’s methodology employs the novel Electric Power Enterprise Control System (EPECS) simulator to study power systems operation, and the System-Level Generic Model (SGEM) to study water consumption and withdrawals. This work considers six potential 2040 scenarios for the ISO-NE energy–water nexus (EWN). It presents a holistic analysis that quantifies grid imbalances, normal operating reserves, energy market production costs, and water withdrawals and consumption. For scenarios with high amounts of VREs, the study shows great potential of water resources to enhance grid flexibility through improvements in load-following (up to 12.66%), and ramping (up to 18.35%) reserves. Flexible operation also results in up to 10.90% reduction in the total time VREs are curtailed. Additionally, flexible operation reduces water withdrawals by up to 25.58%, water consumption by up to 5.30%, and carbon dioxide emissions by up to 3.46%. In general, this work provides significant insights into how to jointly control the water and energy supply systems to aid in their synergistic integration.
Enhancing the Senses: How Technological Advances Shape Our View of the Law

This memorial lecture was given at West Virginia University, which houses, among other relevant programs, the Biometric Knowledge Center. The lecture surveys the application of a variety of legal topics to biometrics. Covered areas include basic research funding choices, freedom of speech, association and religion, search and seizure, and informational privacy.
Solvent Quality and Chromosome Folding in Escherichia coli

All cells must fold their genomes, including bacterial cells where the chromosome is compacted into a domain-organized meshwork called nucleoid. Polymer conformation depends highly on the quality of the solvent. Yet, the solvent quality for the DNA polymer inside cells remains unexplored. Here, we developed a method to assess this fundamental physicochemical property in live bacteria. By determining the DNA concentration and apparent average mesh size of the nucleoid, we provide evidence that the cytoplasm is a poor solvent for the chromosome in Escherichia coli. Monte Carlo simulations showed that such a poor solvent compacts the chromosome and promotes spontaneous formation of chromosomal domains connected by lower-density DNA regions. Cryo-electron tomography and fluorescence microscopy revealed that the (poly)ribosome density within the nucleoid is spatially heterogenous and correlates negatively with DNA density. These findings have broad implications to our understanding of chromosome folding and intracellular organization.
Pediatric Sports Injury Epidemiology During COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a multitude of public health response measures including social distancing, school cancellations, and cessation of organized sports. A change in the epidemiology of injuries commonly caused by sporting activities is expected. This study seeks to examine the effect of public health measures on the incidence and characteristics of common pediatric sports injuries. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study comparing sporting injuries presenting to a single level I pediatric trauma hospital in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic to …
MESHFREEFLOWNET: A Physics-Constrained Deep Continuous Space-Time Super-Resolution Framework

We propose MESHFREEFLOWNET, a novel deep learning-based super-resolution framework to generate continuous (grid-free) spatio-temporal solutions from the lowresolution inputs. While being computationally efficient, MESHFREEFLOWNET accurately recovers the fine-scale quantities of interest. MESHFREEFLOWNET allows for: (i) the output to be sampled at all spatio-temporal resolutions, (ii) a set of Partial Differential Equation (PDE) constraints to be imposed, and (iii) training on fixed-size inputs on arbitrarily sized spatio-temporal domains owing to its fully convolutional encoder. We empirically study the performance of MESHFREEFLOWNET on the task of super-resolution of turbulent flows in the Rayleigh-Benard convection problem. Across a diverse set of evaluation metrics, we show that MESHFREEFLOWNET significantly outperforms existing baselines. Furthermore, we provide a large scale implementation of MESHFREEFLOWNET and show that it efficiently scales across large clusters, achieving 96.80% scaling efficiency on up to 128 GPUs and a training time of less than 4 minutes. We provide an opensource implementation of our method that supports arbitrary combinations of PDE constraints1lsource code available:
Generalized Notions of Sparsity and Restricted Isometry Property. Part II: Applications

Restricted isometry property (RIP) provides a near isometric map for sparse signals. RIP of structured random matrices has played a key role for dimensionality reduction and recovery from compressive measurements. In a companion paper, we have developed a unified theory for RIP of group structured measurement operators on generalized sparsity models. The implication of the extended result will be further discussed in this paper in terms of its pros and cons over the conventional theory. We first show that the extended RIP theory enables the optimization of sample complexity over various relaxations of the canonical sparsity model. Meanwhile, the generalized sparsity model is no longer described as a union of subspaces. Thus the sparsity level is not sub-additive. This incurs that RIP of double the sparsity level does not imply RIP on the Minkowski difference of the sparsity model with itself, which is crucial for dimensionality reduction. We show that a group structured measurement operator provides an RIP-like property with additive distortion for non-sub-additive models. This weaker result can be useful for applications like locality-sensitive hashing. Moreover, we also present that the group structured measurements with random sign enables near isometric sketching on any set similar to the Gaussian measurements. Lastly, an extension of theory to infinite dimension is derived and illustrated over selected examples given by Lebesgue measure of support and Sobolev seminorms.
Mutualism disruption by an invasive ant reduces carbon fixation for a foundational East African ant-plant

Invasive ants shape assemblages and interactions of native species, but their effect on fundamental ecological processes is poorly understood. In East Africa, Pheidole megacephala ants have invaded monodominant stands of the ant-tree Acacia drepanolobium, extirpating native ant defenders and rendering trees vulnerable to canopy damage by vertebrate herbivores. We used experiments and observations to quantify direct and interactive effects of invasive ants and large herbivores on A. drepanolobium photosynthesis over a 2-year period. Trees that had been invaded for ≥ 5 years exhibited 69% lower whole-tree photosynthesis during key growing seasons, resulting from interaction between invasive ants and vertebrate herbivores that caused leaf- and canopy-level photosynthesis declines. We also surveyed trees shortly before and after invasion, finding that recent invasion induced only minor changes in leaf physiology. Our results from individual trees likely scale up, highlighting the potential of invasive species to alter ecosystem-level carbon fixation and other biogeochemical cycles.
Domain wall-magnetic tunnel junction spin–orbit torque devices and circuits for in-memory computing

There are pressing problems with traditional computing, especially for accomplishing data-intensive and real-time tasks, that motivate the development of in-memory computing devices to both store information and perform computation. Magnetic tunnel junction memory elements can be used for computation by manipulating a domain wall, a transition region between magnetic domains, but the experimental study of such devices has been limited by high current densities and low tunnel magnetoresistance. Here, we study prototypes of three-terminal domain wall-magnetic tunnel junction in-memory computing devices that can address data processing bottlenecks and resolve these challenges by using perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, spin–orbit torque switching, and an optimized lithography process to produce average device tunnel magnetoresistance TMR = 171% and average resistance-area product RA = 29 Ω μ m 2, close to the RA of the unpatterned film. Device initialization variation in switching voltage is shown to be curtailed to 7%–10% by controlling the domain wall initial position, which we show corresponds to 90%–96% accuracy in a domain wall-magnetic tunnel junction full adder simulation. Repeatability of writing and resetting the device is shown. A circuit shows an inverter operation between two devices, showing that a voltage window is large enough, compared to the variation noise, to repeatably operate a domain wall-magnetic tunnel junction circuit. These results make strides in using magnetic tunnel junctions and domain walls for in-memory and neuromorphic computing applications.
Wave-packet propagation in a finite topological insulator and the spectral localizer index

We consider a model of electrons in a finite topological insulator. We numerically study the propagation of electronic wave-packets localized near edges of the structure in the presence of defects and random disorder. We compare the propagation with computations of the \emph{spectral localizer index}: a spatially local topological index. We find that without disorder, wave-packets propagate along boundaries between regions of differing spectral localizer index with minimal loss, even in the presence of strong defects. With disorder, wave-packets still propagate along boundaries between regions of differing localizer index, but lose significant mass as they propagate. We also find that with disorder, the \emph{localizer gap}, a measure of the localizer index "strength", is generally smaller away from the boundary than without disorder. Based on this result, we conjecture that wave-packets propagating along boundaries between regions of differing spectral localizer index do not lose significant mass whenever the localizer gap is sufficiently large on both sides of the boundary.
Generation and characterization of a laforin nanobody inhibitor.

Abstract Objectives Mutations in the gene encoding the glycogen phosphatase laforin result in the fatal childhood dementia Lafora disease (LD). A cellular hallmark of LD is cytoplasmic, hyper-phosphorylated, glycogen-like aggregates called Lafora bodies (LBs) that form in nearly all tissues and drive disease progression. Additional tools are needed to define the cellular function of laforin, understand the pathological role of laforin in LD, and determine the role of glycogen phosphate in glycogen metabolism. In this work, we present the generation and characterization of laforin nanobodies, with one being a laforin inhibitor. Design and methods We identify multiple classes of specific laforin-binding nanobodies and determine their binding epitopes using hydrogen deuterium exchange (HDX) mass spectrometry. Using para-nitrophenyl phosphate (pNPP) and a malachite gold-based assay specific for glucan phosphatase activity, we assess the inhibitory effect of one nanobody on laforin’s catalytic activity. Results Six families of laforin nanobodies are characterized and their epitopes mapped. One nanobody is identified and characterized that serves as an inhibitor of laforin’s phosphatase activity. Conclusions The six generated and characterized laforin nanobodies, with one being a laforin inhibitor, are an important set of tools that open new avenues to define unresolved glycogen metabolism questions.
Adapting security warnings to counter online disinformation

Disinformation is proliferating on the internet, and platforms are responding by attaching warnings to content. There is little evidence, however, that these warnings help users identify or avoid disinformation. In this work, we adapt methods and results from the information security warning literature in order to design and evaluate effective disinformation warnings. In an initial laboratory study, we used a simulated search task to examine contextual and interstitial disinformation warning designs. We found that users routinely ignore contextual warnings, but users notice interstitial warnings--and respond by seeking information from alternative sources. We then conducted a follow-on crowdworker study with eight interstitial warning designs. We confirmed a significant impact on user information-seeking behavior, and we found that a warning's design could effectively inform users or convey a risk of harm. We also found, however, that neither user comprehension nor fear of harm moderated behavioral effects. Our work provides evidence that disinformation warnings can -- when designed well -- help users identify and avoid disinformation. We show a path forward for designing effective warnings, and we contribute repeatable methods for evaluating behavioral effects. We also surface a possible dilemma: disinformation warnings might be able to inform users and guide behavior, but the behavioral effects might result from user experience friction, not informed decision making.
The Charitable Continuum

There are powerful fairness and efficiency arguments for making charitable donations to soup kitchens 100% deductible. These arguments have no purchase for donations to fund opulent church organs, yet these too are 100% deductible under the current tax code. This stark dichotomy is only the tip of the iceberg. Looking at a wider sampling of charitable gifts reveals a charitable continuum. Based on sliding scales for efficiency, multiple theories of fairness, pluralism, institutional competence and social welfare dictate that charitable deductions should in most cases be fractions between zero and one. Moreover, the Central Limit Theorem strongly suggests that combining this welter of largely independent criteria with the wide variety of charitable gifts results in a classic bell-shaped normal curve of optimal deductions, with a peak at some central value and quickly decaying to zero at the extremes of 0% and 100%. Given that those are the only two options under the current tax code, the current charitable deduction regime inevitably makes large errors in most cases. Actually calculating a precise optimal percentage for each type of charitable donation is of course impractical. This Article suggests, however, that we can do much better than the systematically erroneous current charitable deduction. Granting a 100% deduction only for donations to the desperately poor, along with 50%, 25%, and 0% for gifts yielding progressively fewer efficiency, fairness, pluralism, and institutional competence benefits, promises to deliver a socially more desirable charitable deduction.
Polaron formation, native defects, and electronic conduction in metal tungstates

Iron tungstate $({\mathrm{FeWO}}_{4})$ and manganese tungstate $({\mathrm{MnWO}}_{4})$ belong to a family of wolframite-type materials that has applications in various areas, including supercapacitors, batteries, and multiferroics. A detailed understanding of bulk properties and defect physics in these transition-metal tungstates has been lacking, however, impeding possible improvement of their functional properties. Here, we report a first-principles study of ${\mathrm{FeWO}}_{4}$ and ${\mathrm{MnWO}}_{4}$ using screened hybrid density-functional calculations. We find that in both compounds the electronic structures near the band edges are predominantly the highly localized transition-metal $d$ states, which allows for the formation of both hole polarons at the Fe (Mn) sites and electron polarons at the W sites. The dominant native point defects in ${\mathrm{FeWO}}_{4}$ $({\mathrm{MnWO}}_{4})$ under realistic synthesis conditions are, however, the hole polarons at the Fe (Mn) sites and negatively charged Fe (Mn) vacancies. The presence of low-energy and highly mobile polarons provides an explanation for the good $p$-type conductivity observed in experiments and the ability of the materials to store energy via a pseudocapacitive mechanism.
Cerebral neoplasms in adults

MRI plays a critical role in the diagnosis, management, and follow-up of adult supratentorial neoplasms. However, there is considerable overlap in the imaging findings of these lesions. New imaging methods, such as functional MRI, diffusion imaging, and spectroscopy may further improve diagnostic specificity and surgical management. Knowledge of the pathogenesis of these tumors, imaging characteristics, and available novel imaging tools will aid the radiologist in making meaningful contributions in the evaluation and treatment of these lesions.
Federated Multi-armed Bandits with Personalization.

A general framework of personalized federated multi-armed bandits (PF-MAB) is proposed, which is a new bandit paradigm analogous to the federated learning (FL) framework in supervised learning and enjoys the features of FL with personalization. Under the PF-MAB framework, a mixed bandit learning problem that flexibly balances generalization and personalization is studied. A lower bound analysis for the mixed model is presented. We then propose the Personalized Federated Upper Confidence Bound (PF-UCB) algorithm, where the exploration length is chosen carefully to achieve the desired balance of learning the local model and supplying global information for the mixed learning objective. Theoretical analysis proves that PF-UCB achieves an $O(\log(T))$ regret regardless of the degree of personalization, and has a similar instance dependency as the lower bound. Experiments using both synthetic and real-world datasets corroborate the theoretical analysis and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Comparing Generic and Community-Situated Crowdsourcing for Data Validation in the Context of Recovery from Substance Use Disorders

Targeting the right group of workers for crowdsourcing often achieves better quality results. One unique example of targeted crowdsourcing is seeking community-situated workers whose familiarity with the background and the norms of a particular group can help produce better outcome or accuracy. These community-situated crowd workers can be recruited in different ways from generic online crowdsourcing platforms or from online recovery communities. We evaluate three different approaches to recruit generic and community-situated crowd in terms of the time and the cost of recruitment, and the accuracy of task completion. We consider the context of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), the largest peer support group for recovering alcoholics, and the task of identifying and validating AA meeting information. We discuss the benefits and trade-offs of recruiting paid vs. unpaid community-situated workers and provide implications for future research in the recovery context and relevant domains of HCI, and for the design of crowdsourcing ICT systems.
I Always Feel Like Somebody's Sensing Me! A Framework to Detect, Identify, and Localize Clandestine Wireless Sensors

Author(s): Singh, Akash Deep | Advisor(s): Srivastava, Mani B | Abstract: The increasing ubiquity of low-cost wireless sensors in smart homes and buildings has enabled users to easily deploy systems to remotely monitor and control their environments. However, this raises privacy concerns for third-party occupants, such as a hotel room guest who may be unaware of deployed clandestine sensors. Previous methods focused on specific modalities such as detecting cameras but do not provide a generalizable and comprehensive method to capture arbitrary sensors which may be "spying" on a user. In this work, we seek to determine whether one can walk in a room and detect any wireless sensor monitoring an individual. As such, we propose SnoopDog, a framework to not only detect wireless sensors that are actively monitoring a user, but also classify and localize each device. SnoopDog works by establishing causality between patterns in observable wireless traffic and a trusted sensor in the same space, e.g., an inertial measurement unit (IMU) that captures a user's movement. Once causality is established, SnoopDog performs packet inspection to inform the user about the monitoring device. Finally, SnoopDog localizes the clandestine device in a 2D plane using a novel trial-based localization technique. We evaluated SnoopDog across several devices and various modalities and were able to detect causality 96.6% percent of the time, classify suspicious devices with 100% accuracy, and localize devices to a sufficiently reduced sub-space.
Black-Box IoT: Authentication and Distributed Storage of IoT Data from Constrained Sensors

We propose Black-Box IoT (BBox-IoT), a new ultra-lightweight black-box system for authenticating and storing IoT data. BBox-IoT is tailored for deployment on IoT devices (including low-Size Weight and Power sensors) which are extremely constrained in terms of computation, storage, and power. By utilizing core Blockchain principles, we ensure that the collected data is immutable and tamper-proof while preserving data provenance and non-repudiation. To realize BBox-IoT, we designed and implemented a novel chain-based hash signature scheme which only requires hashing operations and removes all synchronicity dependencies between signer and verifier. Our approach enables low-SWaP devices to authenticate removing reliance on clock synchronization. Our evaluation results show that BBox-IoT is practical in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) environments: even devices equipped with 16MHz microcontrollers and 2KB memory can broadcast their collected data without requiring heavy cryptographic operations or synchronicity assumptions. Finally, when compared to industry standard ECDSA, our approach is two and three orders of magnitude faster for signing and verification operations respectively. Thus, we are able to increase the total number of signing operations by more than 5000% for the same amount of power.
Effects of End Restraints on Thermo-Mechanical Response of Energy Piles

Currently, soil structure interaction in energy piles has not been understood thoroughly. One of the important underlying features is the effect of tip and head restraints on displacement, strain and stress in energy piles. This study has investigated thermo-mechanical response of energy piles subjected to different end restraints by using recently found analytical solutions, thus providing a fundamental, rational, mechanics-based understanding. End restraints are found to have a substantial effect on thermo-mechanical response of energy piles, especially on thermal axial displacement and axial stress in the pile. Head restraint imposed by interaction of an energy pile with the superstructure led to a decrease in the magnitude of head displacement and increase in axial stress, while decreasing the axial strain. The impact of head restraint was more pronounced in end bearing than in fully floating energy piles.