cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A low voltage SANOS nonvolatile semiconductor memory (NVSM) device

Abstract In this paper, we present a new Polysilicon–Aluminum Oxide–Nitride–Oxide–Silicon (SANOS) device structure suitable for future nonvolatile semiconductor memories. Replacing SiO 2 with a high-K material, Al 2 O 3 (K f = 9) as the top blocking layer of the conventional SONOS device increases the electric field across the tunnel oxide, while reducing the electric field across the blocking layer with its dielectric constant during write and erase operations. Therefore, this new device can achieve lower programming voltages and faster programming speed than the conventional SONOS device. We have fabricated SANOS capacitors with 2 nm tunnel oxide, 5 nm silicon nitride and 8 nm aluminum oxide and studied the programming speed and charge retention characteristics of the new devices. These new SANOS devices achieve a 2 V reduction in the programming voltages with 2.1 V initial memory window.
α-Phosphono Lactone Analogues of Farnesyl Pyrophosphate: An Asymmetric Synthesis via Ring-Closing Metathesis

An α-phosphono lactone derivative of farnesol has been prepared, in both racemic and nonracemic forms, to provide a new type of farnesyl pyrophosphate analogue. Attempted preparation of the racemic α-phosphono lactone through rearrangement of a vinyl phosphate derived from the parent lactone resulted in both rearrangement and lactone ring opening, revealing that the farnesyl lactone was not stable to the excess of strong base required for the rearrangement. A procedure for C−P bond formation based on generation of the lactone enolate, reaction with a P(III) reagent, and oxidation was successful in providing the racemic α-phosphono lactone, in part, because only 1 equiv of strong base was required. The same strategy for phosphonate synthesis then was applied to the nonracemic farnesyl lactone, prepared through a sequence including allylation of farnesal with a nonracemic borane reagent, reaction of the product alcohol with acryloyl chloride, and formation of an unsaturated lactone through ring-closing meta...
Syntheses and applications of 2-phosphino-2'-alkoxy-1,1'-binaphthyl ligands. Development of a working model for asymmetric induction in hydrovinylation reactions.

Among the handful of monophosphine ligands that effect asymmetric hydrovinylation of vinylarenes, 2-diphenylphosphino-2‘-methoxy-1,1‘-binaphthyl (MOP) is among the most accessible. Addition of a methyl group at the 3‘-position of this ligand significantly improves the enantioselectivity of hydrovinylation of prototypical alkenes. Introduction of a chiral phospholane at the C2 position of this scaffolding has no effect on the enantioselectivity. These results are consistent with a model proposed for the asymmetric induction for this exacting reaction.
Structure-activity relationships of N-substituted piperazine amine reuptake inhibitors

Abstract We report the structure–activity relationships of further analogues in a series of piperazine derivatives as dual inhibitors of serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake, that is, with additional substitution of the phenyl rings, or their replacement by heterocycles. The enantiomers of compounds 1 and 2 were also profiled, and possessed drug-like physicochemical properties. In particular, compound (−)-2 lacked potent inhibitory activity against any of the important cytochromes P450 and high selectivity over a wide range of receptors, which is unusual for a compound that inhibits human amine transporters.
An unexpected equilibrium process associated with a standard approach to ynone synthesis.

A direct comparison between Weinreb amides and morpholine amides was made with regard to their reactions with alkynyllithium reagents to form ynones. While treatment with stoichiometric alkynyllithium generally effects complete reaction in the case of Weinreb amides, incomplete reactions are obtained from the corresponding morpholine amides. This difference is attributed to an unexpected equilibrium process in the latter case, and it is shown that the use of excess alkynyllithium reagent with morpholine amides provides a synthetically useful synthesis of ynones at 0 °C.
Enantiospecific total synthesis of (-)-(E)16-epiaffinisine, (+)-(E)16-epinormacusine B, and (+)-dehydro-16-epiaffinisine as well as the stereocontrolled total synthesis of alkaloid G.

An efficient strategy is described for the total synthesis of the sarpagine-related indole alkaloids (−)-(E)16-epiaffinisine (1), (+)-(E)16-epinormacusine B (2), and (+)-dehydro-16-epiaffinisine (4). A key step employed the chemospecific and regiospecific hydroboration/oxidation at C(16)−C(17); this method has also resulted in the synthesis of (+)-dehydro-16-epinormacusine B (5). The oxy-anion Cope rearrangement followed by protonation of the enolate that resulted under conditions of kinetic control has been employed to generate the key asymmetric centers at C(15), C(16), and C(20) in alkaloid G (7) in a highly stereocontrolled fashion (>43:1). Conditions that favor control of the sarpagine stereochemistry at C(16) vs the epimeric ajmaline configuration at the same stereocenter have been determined. The formation of the required cyclic ether in 4, 5, and 7 was realized with complete control from the top face on treatment of the corresponding alcohols with DDQ/THF or DDQ/aq THF in excellent yields.
Quantile search: A distance-penalized active learning algorithm for spatial sampling

Adaptive sampling theory has shown that, with proper assumptions on the signal class, algorithms exist to reconstruct a signal in ℝd with an optimal number of samples. We generalize this problem to when the cost of sampling is not only the number of samples but also the distance traveled between samples. This is motivated by our work studying regions of low oxygen concentration in the Great Lakes. We show that for one-dimensional threshold classifiers, a tradeoff between number of samples and distance traveled can be achieved using a generalization of binary search, which we refer to as quantile search. We derive the expected total sampling time for noiseless measurements and the expected number of samples for an extension to the noisy case. We illustrate our results in simulations relevant to our sampling application.
Visual Pruner: Visually guided cohort selection for observational studies

Observational studies are a widely used and challenging class of studies. A key challenge is selecting a study cohort from the available data, or “pruning” the data, in a way that produces both sufficient balance in pre-treatment covariates and an easily described cohort from which results can be generalized. Even with advanced pruning methods, it is often difficult for researchers to see how the cohort is being selected; consequently, these methods are underutilized in research. Visual Pruner is a free, easy-to-use web application that can improve both the credibility and generalizability of observational studies by letting analysts use updatable visual displays of estimated propensity scores and key baseline covariates to refine inclusion criteria. By helping researchers see how covariate distributions in their data relate to the estimated probabilities of treatment assignment, the app lets researchers make pruning decisions based on pre-treatment covariate patterns that are otherwise hard to discover. The app yields a set of inclusion criteria that can be used in conjunction with further statistical analysis in any statistical software.
Internet privacy: interpreting key issues

The phenomenal growth in Internet commerce in recent years has brought privacy concerns to the fore. Although privacy as a concept has been well understood with respect to brick and motor businesses, there is limited research in identifying major issues of concern related to Internet privacy. This paper systematically identifies the major Internet privacy concerns. Data for the study was collected through two panels and subjective evaluation.
Label-Free Nanoplasmonic-Based Short Noncoding RNA Sensing at Attomolar Concentrations Allows for Quantitative and Highly Specific Assay of MicroRNA-10b in Biological Fluids and Circulating Exosomes

MicroRNAs are short noncoding RNAs consisting of 18-25 nucleotides that target specific mRNA moieties for translational repression or degradation, thereby modulating numerous biological processes. Although microRNAs have the ability to behave like oncogenes or tumor suppressors in a cell-autonomous manner, their exact roles following release into the circulation are only now being unraveled and it is important to establish sensitive assays to measure their levels in different compartments in the circulation. Here, an ultrasensitive localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)-based microRNA sensor with single nucleotide specificity was developed using chemically synthesized gold nanoprisms attached onto a solid substrate with unprecedented long-term stability and reversibility. The sensor was used to specifically detect microRNA-10b at the attomolar (10(-18) M) concentration in pancreatic cancer cell lines, derived tissue culture media, human plasma, and media and plasma exosomes. In addition, for the first time, our label-free and nondestructive sensing technique was used to quantify microRNA-10b in highly purified exosomes isolated from patients with pancreatic cancer or chronic pancreatitis, and from normal controls. We show that microRNA-10b levels were significantly higher in plasma-derived exosomes from pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients when compared with patients with chronic pancreatitis or normal controls. Our findings suggest that this unique technique can be used to design novel diagnostic strategies for pancreatic and other cancers based on the direct quantitative measurement of plasma and exosome microRNAs, and can be readily extended to other diseases with identifiable microRNA signatures.
Child Support, Welfare Dependency, and Women's Labor Supply

This study evaluates the potential effectiveness of alternative child support policies in reducing welfare program participation. Employing longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the analysis addresses the simultaneity of women's decisions regarding welfare participation, labor force participation, and annual hours of work following marital breakup. The estimation framework accounts for the endogeneity of child support payments with female labor supply and for the selection bias due to differential rates of remarriage among divorced/separated women. Results show that higher child support payments would (i) decrease welfare participation and (ii) increase average hours of work. The empirical estimates are used to assess the potential effects of adopting alternative child support policies such as the Wisconsin child support assurance system. These results suggest that large potential welfare cost savings are attainable but significant reductions in welfare participation rates would only be achieved through substantial improvements in child support enforcement or through government-assured child support payments.
Voting rules as error-correcting codes

Abstract We present the first model of optimal voting under adversarial noise. From this viewpoint, voting rules are seen as error-correcting codes: their goal is to correct errors in the input rankings and recover a ranking that is close to the ground truth. We derive worst-case bounds on the relation between the average accuracy of the input votes, and the accuracy of the output ranking. Empirical results from real data show that our approach produces significantly more accurate rankings than alternative approaches.
Brownian shape motion: fission fragment mass distributions

A recently developed novel method for calculating fission-fragment mass distributions is discussed. It treats the nuclear shape evolution as Brownian motion and in its simplest form performs random walks on previously calculated five-dimensional potential-energy surfaces. Remarkably good reproduction of experimentally measured data is obtained without introduction of any new parameters.
The SQG Equation as a Geodesic Equation

We demonstrate that the surface quasi-geostrophic (SQG) equation given by $$\theta_t + \left\langle u, \nabla \theta\right\rangle = 0,\quad \theta = \nabla \times (-\Delta)^{-1/2} u,$$ is the geodesic equation on the group of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms of a Riemannian manifold M in the right-invariant \({\dot{H}^{-1/2}}\) metric. We show by example, that the Riemannian exponential map is smooth and non-Fredholm, and that the sectional curvature at the identity is unbounded of both signs.
Average phase calculations with near-field diffraction algorithms for the Space Interferometry Mission

This work reports on the computation of the average phase of a beam over an optical element via discrete Fourier transform techniques. The objective is to develop accurate diffraction models for the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM). Applications related to SIM include calibration of metrology measurements, evaluation of cornercube diffraction effects, and others. The algorithms that are used to compute the field are described and numerical tests that assess their accuracy are presented.
Perspectives on preference aggregation

For centuries, the mathematical aggregation of preferences by groups, organizations or society has received keen interdisciplinary attention. Extensive 20th century theoretical work in Economics and Political Science highlighted that competing notions of “rational social choice” intrinsically contradict each other. This led some researchers to consider coherent “democratic decision making” a mathematical impossibility. Recent empirical work in Psychology qualifies that view. This nontechnical review sketches a quantitative research paradigm for the behavioral investigation of mathematical social choice rules on real ballot, experimental choice, or attitudinal survey data. The paper poses a series of open questions. Some classical work sometimes makes assumptions about voter preferences that are descriptively invalid. Do such technical assumptions lead the theory astray? How can empirical work inform the formulation of meaningful theoretical primitives? Classical “impossibility results” leverage the fact that certain desirable mathematical properties logically cannot hold universally in all conceivable electorates. Do these properties nonetheless hold in empirical distributions of preferences? Will future behavioral analyses continue to contradict the expectations of established theory? Under what conditions and why do competing consensus methods yield identical outcomes?
PERI-PROSTHETIC FRACTURES: REPAIR OR REPLACE

Supracondylar femur fractures are an uncommon but serious complication following TKA. The optimal treatment method often depends on the specific fracture pattern and various patient-related factors, and can be controversial in many cases. Nonoperative treatment can be considered in low-demand patients with minimally displaced fractures, whereas fractures associated with loose components typically require revision surgery. Displaced fractures with well-fixed implants can be treated successfully using one of several different strategies. Internal fixation after open or closed reduction can be achieved using either an intramedullary device or plate-and-screw constructs. Good results have been reported using intramedullary nails, although their use is limited to certain fracture patterns and implants designs. Modern periarticular locking plates featuring polyaxial locking screws can be inserted laterally in a submuscular fashion and offer the ability to achieve rigid fixation in the short distal fragment. These plates offer a robust treatment option for most fracture patterns. Alternatively, reliable healing and good functional results can also be achieved by revision of the femoral component using stemmed implants to bypass the fracture site. This strategy typically does not require distal femoral replacement or conversion to a hinge, and can provide consistently good results. Regardless of the treatment method chosen, careful attention should be given at the time of surgery avoid malalignment, malrotation, and distraction at the fracture site which can compromise the ultimate clinical outcome. Intra-operative femoral fractures are a rare complication that usually occurs during exposure, bone preparation, or trialing. If recognised intra-operatively and treated appropriately, reliable healing can occur.
Minimum Wage Effects on Employment, Substitution, and the Teenage Labor Supply: Evidence from Personnel Data

Using personnel data from a large US retail firm, I examine the firm’s response to the 1996 federal minimum wage increase. Compulsory increases in average wages had negative but statistically insignificant effects on overall employment. However, increases in the relative wages of teenagers led to significant increases in the relative employment of teenagers, especially younger and more affluent teenagers. Further analysis suggests a pattern consistent with noncompetitive models. Where the legislation affected mainly the wages of teenagers and so was only moderately binding, it led both to higher teenage labor market participation and to higher absolute employment of teenagers.
Empirical analysis of exploiting review helpfulness for extractive summarization of online reviews

We propose a novel unsupervised extractive approach for summarizing online reviews by exploiting review helpfulness ratings. In addition to using the helpfulness ratings for review-level filtering, we suggest using them as the supervision of a topic model for sentence-level content scoring. The proposed method is metadata-driven, requiring no human annotation, and generalizable to different kinds of online reviews. Our experiment based on a widely used multi-document summarization framework shows that our helpfulness-guided review summarizers significantly outperform a traditional content-based summarizer in both human evaluation and automated evaluation.
Differences in Chemical Doping Matter: Superconductivity in Ti1–xTaxSe2 but Not in Ti1–xNbxSe2

We report that 1T-TiSe2, an archetypical layered transition metal dichalcogenide, becomes superconducting when Ta is substituted for Ti but not when Nb is substituted for Ti. This is unexpected because Nb and Ta should be chemically equivalent electron donors. Superconductivity emerges near x = 0.02 for Ti1–xTaxSe2, while, for Ti1–xNbxSe2, no superconducting transitions are observed above 0.4 K. The equivalent chemical nature of the dopants is confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. ARPES and Raman scattering studies show similarities and differences between the two systems, but the fundamental reasons why the Nb and Ta dopants yield such different behavior are unknown. We present a comparison of the electronic phase diagrams of many electron-doped 1T-TiSe2 systems, showing that they behave quite differently, which may have broad implications in the search for new superconductors. We propose that superconducting Ti0.8Ta0.2Se2 will be suitable for devices and other studies based on exfoliated crysta...
Engaging with Industry: Collaborative Action Research as a Useful Tool in Facility Management, Knowledge and Learning

This paper reports on the collaborative action research process used to evaluate the patron experience and venue readiness at a sports, entertainment, convention and business meeting facilities setting in the United States. Research involved collaboration with facility management administration, on-site event analysis, website review, and communication with venue staff to determine the patron experience according to the provisions of the action research plan. Findings indicate that the collaborative action research program met the academic and facility management requirements inclusive of analysis and evaluation, and distinctive knowledge and learning transfer. The collaborative action research program not only connected academic research and students, facility management professionals and staff with methods to improve the patron experience, including website enhancements, serving persons with disabilities or mobility limitations, it demonstrates how other facility management professionals can engage knowledge and learning to enhance the patron experience and venue readiness so patrons, customers, clients, and other visitors can enjoy equitable experiences at sports, entertainment and other recreational, convention, and business meeting facilities.
Domain Specific Author Attribution based on Feedforward Neural Network Language Models

Authorship attribution refers to the task of automatically determining the author based on a given sample of text. It is a problem with a long history and has a wide range of application. Building author profiles using language models is one of the most successful methods to automate this task. New language modeling methods based on neural networks alleviate the curse of dimensionality and usually outperform conventional N-gram methods. However, there have not been much research applying them to authorship attribution. In this paper, we present a novel setup of a Neural Network Language Model (NNLM) and apply it to a database of text samples from different authors. We investigate how the NNLM performs on a task with moderate author set size and relatively limited training and test data, and how the topics of the text samples affect the accuracy. NNLM achieves nearly 2.5\% reduction in perplexity, a measurement of fitness of a trained language model to the test data. Given 5 random test sentences, it also increases the author classification accuracy by 3.43\% on average, compared with the N-gram methods using SRILM tools. An open source implementation of our methodology is freely available at https://github.com/zge/authorship-attribution/.
Egypt : guiding reform of energy subsidies long-term

This paper examines the short- and long-run economic impact of Egypt's energy subsidy reform in July 2014 (without and without compensating transfers for the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution) and the decline in global energy prices, as well as the long-run impact of phasing out the energy subsidies over a 5 year period. The analysis uses a Computable General Equilibrium model with 56 productive sectors, including 11 energy subsectors. The short-run analysis employs a two-stage factor market adjustment, with wages first fixed and then flexible. The long-run analysis is run in a recursive dynamic mode, capturing the impact of improved productivity and increased investment resulting from more efficient allocation of resources and reduction in government deficits. In the short run, the 2014 reforms lead to slightly lower consumption while investment increases strongly and production shifts from highly subsidized energy-intensive sectors such as energy, water and sanitation, and transport to other sectors (notably construction). The impact on overall consumer prices is limited. In the longer run, real GDP growth increases by about one percentage point relative to the baseline before the 2014 reform.
Acu glass: quantifying acupuncture therapy using Google glass

Acupuncture is a therapeutic or preventative therapy through the stimulation on acupoints that located on the body surface across the anatomy to affect the functions of specific organs or soft tissues. During the acupuncture training process, mapping the acupuncture map to patients could be a challenging work since the trainees mainly rely on the instruction from experienced acupuncturists. In this study, a wearable acupuncture assistant system using augmented reality technology was introduced to record the whole treatment process with augmented information that quantified the traditional acupuncture practice. Through constructing a dynamic, personalized, and self-regulating map of virtual acupoints, the system quantified the coordinates of the acupoints to form a basic guideline to help the trainee to recall the type and location of acupuncture map. The experimental results show that the proposed system could record the coordinate of acupoints in real time and the augmented information also has the potential to be a visual guide during treatment.
Policy as Embedded Generativity: A Case Study of the Emergence and Evolution of HathiTrust

The traditional core of CSCW focuses on the relationships, tensions, and gaps between technical systems and social activity. Policy orbits around this core as a persistent but marginally represented presence. In the last few years, however, CSCW has witnessed an upsurge of interest in (re)integrating policy more explicitly and meaningfully into research and practice. For example, recent scholarship stressed the mutually constitutive and interconnected threads of design, practice, and policy [31]. This paper expands upon those motivations through a qualitative case study of the role of policy in library mass digitization work and the subsequent emergence and evolution of the HathiTrust cooperative partnership. By tracing the origins and impacts of early policy decisions in this context, this research contributes to understandings of how and why policy can both close and open spaces of social practice and technical design, functioning as a source of embedded generativity in complex sociotechnical systems.
Skip graphs

Skip graphs are a novel distributed data structure, based on skip lists, that provide the full functionality of a balanced tree in a distributed system where resources are stored in separate nodes that may fail at any time. They are designed for use in searching peer-to-peer systems, and by providing the ability to perform queries based on key ordering, they improve on existing search tools that provide only hash table functionality. Unlike skip lists or other tree data structures, skip graphs are highly resilient, tolerating a large fraction of failed nodes without losing connectivity. In addition, simple and straightforward algorithms can be used to construct a skip graph, insert new nodes into it, search it, and detect and repair errors within it introduced due to node failures.
Li14.7Mg36.8Cu21.5Ga66 : An Intermetallic Representative of a Type IV Clathrate

Synthetic explorations in the quaternary Li−Mg−Cu−Ga system yield the novel intermetallic Li14.7(8)Mg36.8(13)Cu21.5(5)Ga66 [P6m2, Z = 1, a = 14.0803(4) A, c = 13.6252 (8) A] from within a limited composition range. This contains a unique three-dimensional anionic framework consisting of distinct interbonded Ga12 icosahedra, dimerized Li@(Cu,Mg)10Ga6 icosioctahedra, and 15-vertex Li@(Cu,Mg)9Ga6 and Li@Cu3Ga12 polyhedra. These polyhedral clusters are hosted by M20 (512), M24 (51262), and M26 (51263) (M = Li/Mg) cages, respectively. The geometries and arrangements of these cages follow those in known type IV clathrate hydrates.
Consequences of Partner Incarceration for Women's Employment

Research has documented the limited opportunities men have to earn income while in prison and the barriers to securing employment and decent wages upon release. However, little research has considered the relationship between men's incarceration and the employment of the women in their lives. Economic theory suggests that family members of incarcerated individuals may attempt to smooth income fluctuation resulting from incarceration by increasing their labor supply. This study used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,780) to investigate how men's incarceration is associated with the number of hours their female partners work as well as variation in this association. Results showed that, on average, women's hours of work were not significantly impacted by the incarceration of their partners. However, there was a positive relationship between partner incarceration and employment among more advantaged groups of women (e.g., married women, white women).
TAIL AUTOTOMY IN THE FLORIDA MOUSE, PEROMYSCUS FLORIDANUS

The skin of the distal portion of the tail of the Florida mouse, Peromyscus floridanus, breaks readily and slips freely off the vertebrae. The de- nuded part of the tail soon dries up and falls off or is bitten off by the mouse. The loss of the sheath is facilitated by weak zones in the dermis where the skin easily separates and reduction in the number of connective tissue fibers binding the skin to the underlying structures. Tail shaking and violent twisting movements per- formed when a mouse is suspended by the tail enhance the effectiveness of the morphological specialization for sheath loss. The Florida mouse is also unusually powerful for its size, which aids in shedding the tail skin when the animal is held by the tail while on the ground. In samples of mice from populations inhabiting open woodland and denser scrub type vegetation, 7.1 and 5.9 per cent, respectively, had part of the tail missing. The amount of specialized tail skin was also relatively greater and less variable in the woodland population. These differences are con- sidered to be indicative of more intensive selective pressure for tail skin fragility in the more open woodland habitat. Some quantitative indication of the potential value of tail sheath loss as an escape mechanism was provided by laboratory feed- ing trials involving three species of snakes and five species of small rodents. In approximately 7 per cent of the captures observed, the prey was initially seized by the tail. The nonarboreal habits of the Florida mouse and its preference for open, sparsely vegetated habitats have probably been important factors in the evolution of tail autotomy as an escape mechanism in this species.
Iridium-catalyzed, substrate-directed C-H borylation reactions of benzylic amines.

The iridium-catalyzed arene C–H borylation reaction of benzylic amines has been developed, which inverts the typical steric-controlled product distribution to provide ortho-substituted boronate esters. Picolylamine was found to be an ideal ligand to replace 4,4′-di-tert-butylbipyridine to induce the directing effect. Preliminary experiments are consistent with a mechanism involving dissociation of one amine of the hemilabile diamine ligand.
T=0 and T=1 pair correlations in N=Z medium-mass nuclei

The isospin generalized BCS equations and the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov equation are solved for the ground states of even $N=Z$ nuclei with mass number $A=76\ensuremath{-}96.$ The calculations include isospin $T=1$ ($pp,$ $nn,$ and $\mathrm{np}$) pair correlations as well as isospin $T=0$ $(\mathrm{np})$ pair correlations. There is a transition from $T=1$ pairing at the beginning of this isotope sequence to $T=0$ pairing at the end of the sequence, with the possibility of a mixed phase containing both $T=0$ and $T=1$ pairing near the middle of the sequence.
Utilizing Solubility Differences to Achieve Regiocontrol in the Synthesis of Substituted Quinoline-4-carboxylic Acids

A practical method for the regiocontrolled synthesis of substituted quinoline-4-carboxylic acids is described. Solubility differences between the product quinoline regioisomers enable their facile separation, thus avoiding any challenging chromatographic purifications and allowing access to highly substituted quinoline compounds in three steps from commercially available anilines.
Taking the Leap: Voting, Rhetoric, and the Determinants of Electoral Reform

The Second Reform Act ushered in the age of democratic politics in the United Kingdom by expanding the voting franchise and remedying legislative malapportionment. Analyzing parliamentary debates and divisions, we investigate why reform successfully passed the House of Commons in 1867. We consider why reform passed under a minority Conservative government yet failed under a majority Liberal government despite no election or change in membership. Though partisanship is most influential for parliamentary voting, it is an incomplete explanation given the absence of modern party institutions. Rather, we argue that the narrowed scope of debate under the Conservatives was crucial in passing reform.
FASTmC: A Suite of Predictive Models for Nonreference-Based Estimations of DNA Methylation.

We describe a suite of predictive models, coined FASTmC, for nonreference, cost-effective exploration and comparative analysis of context-specific DNA methylation levels. Accurate estimations of true DNA methylation levels can be obtained from as few as several thousand short-reads generated from whole-genome bisulfite sequencing. These models make high-resolution time course or developmental and large diversity studies practical regardless of species, genome size, and availability of a reference genome.
Evaluation of Non-Destructive Methods for Condition Assessment of Culverts and Their Embedment

This paper focuses on developing a rapid and cost effective evaluation methodology for the condition assessment of culverts to estimate their remaining service life. Nondestructive inspection methods are selected based on their reliability and effectiveness. A synthesis of current and emerging non-destructive technologies (NDT) for culverts assessment management is presented. The information presented intends to serve as a database for a generalized algorithm for selecting a NDT scheme for condition assessment of culverts and their embedment.
Does affirmative action lead to mismatch? A new test and evidence

We argue that once we take into account the students' rational enrollment decisions, mismatch in the sense that the intended beneficiaries of affirmative action admission policies are made worse off ex ante can only occur if selective universities possess private information. Ex ante mismatch occurs when revelation of this information would have changed the student's choice of school. This necessary condition for mismatch provides the basis for a new test. The test is implemented using data from the Campus Life and Learning Project at Duke University. Evidence shows that Duke does possess private information that is a statistically significant predictor of students' post-enrollment academic performance. Further, this private information is shown to affect the subjective measures of students' satisfaction as well as their persistence in more difficult majors. We also propose strategies to evaluate more conclusively whether the presence of Duke private information has generated mismatch.
Ruthenium catalyzed cycloisomerization of silicon-tethered 1,7-enynes to give exocyclic 1,3-dienes.

The cycloisomerization of vinyl silicon-tethered 1,7-enynes has been accomplished using catalytic Cp*Ru(COD)Cl. The products possess a new silane moiety and trisubstituted alkenes as part of the diene system. The reaction scope includes aryl, alkyl, vinyl, and cyclopropyl alkyne functionalities. Silicon was found not to be a mandatory component of the tether. The utility of the products was demonstrated through manipulation of the vinyl silane and Diels–Alder chemistry.
Direct Catalytic Asymmetric Reductive Amination of Simple Aromatic Ketones

A green method for chiral amine synthesis, the direct catalytic asymmetric reductive amination, was developed. Phenylhydrazide is an ideal nitrogen source for reductive amination. Molecular sieves play dual roles in this reaction. They help to remove H2O to form imine, as well as promote an imine reduction. f-Binaphane minimizes the inhibition effect from amines and helps the coordination of sterically demanding imines to the iridium center, thus leading to a smooth reaction.
A practical synthesis of 3-acyl cyclobutanones by [2 + 2] annulation. Mechanism and utility of the Zn(II)-catalyzed condensation of α-chloroenamines with electron-deficient alkenes.

New conditions for the conversion of simple tertiary amides to α-chloroenamines and their use in Zn(II)-catalyzed cycloaddition reactions with commercial α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds allows rapid, regiocontrolled access to 3-acyl cyclobutanones. Reactions take place at ambient temperature without solvent, giving strained [2 + 2] adducts with all-carbon-substituted quaternary carbon atoms. Ab initio calculations of the putative keteniminium intermediate and studies with styrenyl olefins suggest a dual role for Zn(OTf)2 during catalysis.
A BRIEF ECOLOGICAL MOMENTARY INTERVENTION FOR GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF THE WORRY OUTCOME JOURNAL.

Background The efficacy of many cognitive behavioral component interventions has not been examined, with worry outcome monitoring among them. Methods To address this issue, 51 participants with clinical levels of generalized anxiety disorder were randomly assigned to a treatment or control condition for 10 days. The treatment condition consisted of a brief ecological momentary intervention termed the Worry Outcome Journal (WOJ). WOJ participants recorded worries and tracked their outcomes, rating worry distress, interference, and expected outcome probabilities. Thought log (TL) control participants completed a record of their everyday thoughts and rated associated distress. All participants made four entries on paper each day when randomly prompted by text message. They then entered their paper contents online each night. After 30 days they reviewed their contents electronically and completed follow-up measures. Results Primary results revealed significant reductions in worry for WOJ users compared to TL users at postintervention. A marginally significant difference was found at 20-day follow-up and treatment gains were maintained. Secondary analyses showed no harmful increases in worry beliefs for WOJ users, as well as preliminary evidence for decreases in beliefs about the uncontrollability of thoughts in both groups. Conclusion The WOJ may be a viable therapist-independent treatment for reducing worry, even after only 10 days of use.
Universal packet scheduling

In this paper we address a seemingly simple question: Is there a universal packet scheduling algorithm? More precisely, we analyze (both theoretically and empirically) whether there is a single packet scheduling algorithm that, at a network-wide level, can perfectly match the results of any given scheduling algorithm. We find that in general the answer is "no". However, we show theoretically that the classical Least Slack Time First (LSTF) scheduling algorithm comes closest to being universal and demonstrate empirically that LSTF can closely replay a wide range of scheduling algorithms. We then evaluate whether LSTF can be used in practice to meet various network-wide objectives by looking at popular performance metrics (such as average FCT, tail packet delays, and fairness); we find that LSTF performs comparable to the state-of-the-art for each of them. We also discuss how LSTF can be used in conjunction with active queue management schemes (such as CoDel and ECN) without changing the core of the network.
Judicial Supermajorities and the Validity of Statutes: How Mapp Became a Fourth Amendment Landmark Instead of a First Amendment Footnote

Mapp v. Ohio is justifiably known as a landmark of constitutional criminal procedure. In that case, the United States Supreme Court applied the Exclusionary Rule to the states: the prosecution may not use evidence obtained through an unlawful search and seizure. As Justice Harlan complained in dissent and as other contributors to this symposium explain, that issue was peripheral to the arguments when the case was heard in the Supreme Court. Dollree Mapp did explicitly argue in the state courts that the police had violated her Fourth Amendment rights when they forced their way into her home and seized the evidence that provided the basis for her conviction under the Ohio obscenity statute. But even in the state courts, the Fourth Amendment took a back seat to other contentions.
Sources of Error in Doppler Diagnosis of Carotid Occlusive Disease

Fifty errors with Doppler examination of 356 carotid bifurcations were examined to determine their cause and to establish methods of prevention. Only those errors related to hemodynamically significant stenosis or complete occlusion were considered. The relative frequency of errors in diagnosis of occlusion (30 false-positive or negative versus 31 true-positive) was considerably greater than the rate of inaccuracy for diagnosis of hemodynamically significant stenosis (20 false-positive or-negative versus 89 true-positive). The high error rate in diagnosis of occlusion was attributed to reliance on negative information. The source of error could be established in 48 of the 50 cases. In all but three cases, potential for preventing error existed through use of additional noninvasive techniques such as examination of common carotid resistivity or use of oculoplethysmography. Twenty-two errors of localization of stenosis or occlusion were encountered in addition to the 50 false-positive and -negative errors. In three of these, the errors might have led to patient mismanagement.
RELATIONSHIP OF SURFACE DAMAGE AND VOLUMETRIC WEAR IN RETRIEVED TKR POLYETHYLENE LINERS

Introduction Wear of the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHWMPE) component and the subsequent aseptic loosening remains a primary reason for late revision of total knee replacements (TKRs).[1] While improved measurement techniques have provided more quantitative information on the wear of surgically retrieved inserts, it is not well understood how observed damage patterns translate to volume loss of polyethylene in vivo. The overall purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship of damage patterns and volume loss at the articular surface of total knee replacements. We hypothesize that damage patterns are reliable predictors of volume loss. Methods Two different investigators independently analyzed damage patterns and volume loss on 43 revision- and 21 postmortem-retrieved MG II (Zimmer Inc.) tibial UHMWPE components. Areas of damage patterns on the articular surfaces were outlined with a video microscope (SmartScope, OGP) and were separated into four spatially exclusive categories (Fig. 1): delamination, pitting, striations and polishing. Articular surfaces were digitized with a low-incidence laser coordinate measuring machine (SmartScope, OGP). Autonomous reconstruction, a previously described and validated method,[2] calculated volume loss on the medial and lateral sides of each component. To investigate the predictability of volume loss using observed patterns, stepwise linear regression models were rendered in PASW Statistics 18 (SPSS Inc). Results Components with total volume loss higher than 300 mm3 exhibited the jagged and flaky surface topography characteristic of severe delamination. Excluding delaminated components, the population9s total wear rate (±95% CI) was 12.9 ± 5.97 mm3/year (Pearson9s r = 0.527, p r = 0.434, p = 0.002) and on the lateral side (6.32 ± 3.44 mm3/year, Pearson9s r = 0.467, p p = 0.926). Linear regression models that included delaminated components revealed that delaminated and striated areas were significant predictors of volume (Figure 3 - Table 1). Pitted area was also a significant factor on the total part, but fell out of the medial and lateral models. When delaminated components were excluded, volume loss was similarly explained by striated and pitted areas on the medial side and total part. However, the adjusted R2 of these models was low − 0.177 and 0.166, respectively. Discussion We found that damage patterns were not reliable surrogates for material volume loss. Other than delamination, area of striated patterns best predicted volume loss. However, the large reduction in adjusted R2 of the linear regression model indicates that delaminated areas were essential to explaining variations in the volume loss. While other groups have reported striations on retrievals [3], this damage pattern remains widely unrecognized in retrieval and knee simulator studies, with the mechanism poorly understood. To view tables/figures, please contact authors directly.
Synthetic Organic Electrochemistry: An Enabling and Innately Sustainable Method

While preparative electrolysis of organic molecules has been an active area of research over the past century, modern synthetic chemists have generally been reluctant to adopt this technology. In fact, electrochemical methods possess many benefits over traditional reagent-based transformations, such as high functional group tolerance, mild conditions, and innate scalability and sustainability. In this Outlook we highlight illustrative examples of electrochemical reactions in the context of the synthesis of complex molecules, showcasing the intrinsic benefits of electrochemical reactions versus traditional reagent-based approaches. Our hope is that this field will soon see widespread adoption in the synthetic community.
The Formation of Financial Networks

Modern banking systems are highly interconnected. Despite various benefits, linkages between banks carry the risk of contagion. In this article, I investigate whether banks can commit ex ante to mutually insure each other, when there is contagion risk in the financial system. I model banks' decisions to share this risk through bilateral agreements. A financial network that allows losses to be shared among various counterparties arises endogenously. I characterize the probability of systemic risk, defined as the event that contagion occurs conditional on one bank failing, in equilibrium interbank networks. I show that there exist equilibria in which contagion does not occur.
Interpersonal Problems Predict Differential Response to Cognitive Versus Behavioral Treatment in a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Abstract Objective: We examined dimensional interpersonal problems as moderators of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) versus its components (cognitive therapy [CT] and behavioral therapy [BT]). We predicted that people with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) whose interpersonal problems reflected more dominance and intrusiveness would respond best to a relaxation-based BT compared to CT or CBT, based on studies showing that people with personality features associated with a need for autonomy respond best to treatments that are more experiential, concrete, and self-directed compared to therapies involving abstract analysis of one’s problems (e.g., containing CT). Method: This was a secondary analysis of Borkovec, Newman, Pincus, and Lytle (2002). Forty-seven participants with principal diagnoses of GAD were assigned randomly to combined CBT (n = 16), CT (n = 15), or BT (n = 16). Results: As predicted, compared to participants with less intrusiveness, those with dimensionally more intrusiveness responded with greater GAD symptom reduction to BT than to CBT at posttreatment and greater change to BT than to CT or CBT across all follow-up points. Similarly, those with more dominance responded better to BT compared to CT and CBT at all follow-up points. Additionally, being overly nurturant at baseline was associated with GAD symptoms at baseline, post, and all follow-up time-points regardless of therapy condition. Conclusions: Generally anxious individuals with domineering and intrusive problems associated with higher need for control may respond better to experiential behavioral interventions than to cognitive interventions, which may be perceived as a direct challenge of their perceptions.
Quadratic Maps Are Hard to Sample

This note proves the existence of a quadratic GF(2) map pc l0, 1rn → l0, 1r such that no constant-depth circuit of size poly(n) can sample the distribution (u, p(u)) for uniform u.