cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Variations of the telescope conjecture and Bousfield lattices for localized categories of spectra

We investigate several versions of the telescope conjecture on lo- calized categories of spectra, and implications between them. Generalizing the "finite localization" construction, we show that on such categories, localizing away from a set of strongly dualizable objects is smashing. We classify all smashing localizations on the harmonic category, HFp-local category and I- local category, where I is the Brown-Comenetz dual of the sphere spectrum; all are localizations away from strongly dualizable objects, although these cat- egories have no nonzero compact objects. The Bousfield lattices of the har- monic, E(n)-local, K(n)-local, HFp-local and I-local categories are described, along with some lattice maps between them. One consequence is that in none of these categories is there a nonzero object that squares to zero.
Flooded Dark Matter and S level rise

This is a copy of an article published in the Journal of High Energy Physics © 2016 Springer Verlag Publications.
The Voronoi formula and double Dirichlet series

We prove a Voronoi formula for coefficients of a large class of L-functions including Maass cusp forms, Rankin–Selberg convolutions, and certain noncuspidal forms. Our proof is based on the functional equations of L-functions twisted by Dirichlet characters and does not directly depend on automorphy. Hence it has wider application than previous proofs. The key ingredient is the construction of a double Dirichlet series.
A categorical equivalence between generalized holonomy maps on a connected manifold and principal connections on bundles over that manifold

A classic result in the foundations of Yang-Mills theory, due to J. W. Barrett ["Holonomy and Path Structures in General Relativity and Yang-Mills Theory." Int. J. Th. Phys. 30(9), (1991)], establishes that given a "generalized" holonomy map from the space of piece-wise smooth, closed curves based at some point of a manifold to a Lie group, there exists a principal bundle with that group as structure group and a principal connection on that bundle such that the holonomy map corresponds to the holonomies of that connection. Barrett also provided one sense in which this "recovery theorem" yields a unique bundle, up to isomorphism. Here we show that something stronger is true: with an appropriate definition of isomorphism between generalized holonomy maps, there is an equivalence of categories between the category whose objects are generalized holonomy maps on a smooth, connected manifold and whose arrows are holonomy isomorphisms, and the category whose objects are principal connections on principal bundles over a smooth, connected manifold. This result clarifies, and somewhat improves upon, the sense of "unique recovery" in Barrett's theorems; it also makes precise a sense in which there is no loss of structure involved in moving from a principal bundle formulation of Yang-Mills theory to a holonomy, or "loop", formulation.
Matrix product states and equivariant topological field theories for bosonic symmetry-protected topological phases in (1+1) dimensions

Matrix Product States (MPSs) provide a powerful framework to study and classify gapped quantum phases — symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases in particular — defined in one dimensional lattices. On the other hand, it is natural to expect that gapped quantum phases in the limit of zero correlation length are described by topological quantum field theories (TFTs or TQFTs). In this paper, for (1+1)-dimensional bosonic SPT phases protected by symmetry G, we bridge their descriptions in terms of MPSs, and those in terms of G-equivariant TFTs. In particular, for various topological invariants (SPT invariants) constructed previously using MPSs, we provide derivations from the point of view of (1+1) TFTs. We also discuss the connection between boundary degrees of freedom, which appear when one introduces a physical boundary in SPT phases, and “open” TFTs, which are TFTs defined on spacetimes with boundaries.
Connecting bright and dark states through accidental degeneracy caused by lack of symmetry

Coupled excitonic structures are found in natural and artificial light harvesting systems where optical transitions link different excitation manifolds. In systems with symmetry, some optical transitions are allowed, while others are forbidden. Here we examine an excitonic ring structure and identify an accidental degeneracy between two categories of double-excitation eigenstates with distinct symmetries and optical transition properties. To understand the accidental degeneracy, a complete selection rule between two arbitrary excitation manifolds is derived with a physically motivated proof. Remarkably, symmetry analysis shows that the lack of certain symmetry elements in the Hamiltonian is responsible for this degeneracy, which is unique to rings with size N = 4l + 2 (l being an integer).
Effect of internal flows on Sunyaev-Zeldovich measurements of cluster peculiar velocities

Galaxy clusters are potentially powerful probes of the large-scale velocity field in the universe because their peculiar velocity can be estimated directly via the kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (kSZ). Using high-resolution cosmological simulations of an evolving cluster of galaxies, we evaluate how well the average velocity obtained via a kSZ measurement reflects the actual cluster peculiar velocity. We find that the internal velocities in the intracluster gas are comparable to the overall cluster peculiar velocity: 20%-30% of the sound speed even when a cluster is relatively relaxed. Nevertheless, the velocity averaged over the kSZ map inside a circular aperture matched to the cluster virial region provides an unbiased estimate of a cluster's radial peculiar velocity with a dispersion of 50-100 km s-1, depending on the line of sight and dynamical state of the cluster. This dispersion puts a lower limit on the accuracy with which cluster peculiar velocity can be measured. Although the dispersion of the average is relatively small, the velocity distribution is broad; regions of low signal must be treated with care to avoid bias. We discuss the extent to which systematic errors might be modeled and the resulting limitations on using galaxy clusters as cosmological velocity tracers.
Transport properties of mid-infrared colloidal quantum dot films

The transport and thermal properties of HgTe colloidal quantum dot films with cut-off wavelengths in the mid-IR are investigated. The cut-off wavelength of this material can be tuned over the 3-5 μm range, which makes it a promising alternative to existing high cost detectors. Post deposition processes such as ligand exchange and atomic layer deposition are investigated as a way to increase the carrier mobility.
A Temporary Epoch of Stalled Spin-down for Low-mass Stars: Insights from NGC 6811 with Gaia and Kepler

Stellar rotation was proposed as a potential age diagnostic that is precise, simple, and applicable to a broad range of low-mass stars ($\leq$1 $M_\odot$). Unfortunately, rotation period $(P_{\rm rot})$ measurements of low-mass members of open clusters have undermined the idea that stars spin down with a common age dependence (i.e., $P_{\rm rot} \propto \sqrt{\rm age}$): K dwarfs appear to spin down more slowly than F and G dwarfs. Ag\"ueros et al. (2018) interpreted data for the $\approx$1.4-Gyr-old cluster NGC 752 differently, proposing that after having converged onto a slow-rotating sequence in their first 600-700 Myr (by the age of Praesepe), K dwarf $P_{\rm rot}$ stall on that sequence for an extended period of time. We use data from Gaia DR2 to identify likely single-star members of the $\approx$1-Gyr-old cluster NGC 6811 with Kepler light curves. We measure $P_{\rm rot}$ for 171 members, more than doubling the sample relative to the existing catalog and extending the mass limit from $\approx$0.8 to $\approx$0.6 $M_\odot$. We then apply a gyrochronology formula calibrated with Praesepe and the Sun to 27 single G dwarfs in NGC 6811 to derive a precise gyrochronological age for the cluster of 1.04$\pm$0.07 Gyr. However, when our new low-mass rotators are included, NGC 6811's color-$P_{\rm rot}$ sequence deviates away from the naive 1 Gyr projection down to $T_{\rm eff} \approx 4295$ K (K5V, 0.7 $M_\odot$), where it clearly overlaps with Praesepe's. Combining these data with $P_{\rm rot}$ for other clusters, we conclude that the assumption that mass and age are separable dependencies is invalid. Furthermore, the cluster data show definitively that stars experience a temporary epoch of reduced braking efficiency where $P_{\rm rot}$ stall, and that the duration of this epoch lasts longer for lower-mass stars.
On Fourier coefficients of certain residual representations of symplectic groups

In the theory of automorphic descents developed by Ginzburg, Rallis and Soudry in (GRS11), the structure of Fourier coefficients of the residual representations of certain special Eisen- stein series plays important roles. Started from (JLZ13), the au- thors are looking for more general residual representations, which may yield more general theory of automorphic descents. In this paper, we investigate the structure of Fourier coefficients of cer- tain residual representations of symplectic groups, corresponding to certain interesting families of global Arthur parameters. On one hand, the results partially confirm a conjecture proposed by the first named author in (J14) on relations between the global Arthur parameters and the structure of Fourier coefficients of t he automorphic representations in the corresponding global Arthur packets. On the other hand, the results of this paper can be re- garded as a first step towards more general automorphic descents for symplectic groups, which will be considered in our future work.
Quantum Computation and Visualization of Hamiltonians using Discrete Quantum Mechanics and IBM QISKit

Quantum computers have the potential to transform the ways in which we tackle some important problems. The efforts by companies like Google, IBM and Microsoft to construct quantum computers have been making headlines for years. Equally important is the challenge of translating problems into a state that can be fed to these machines. Because quantum computers are in essence controllable quantum systems, the problems that most naturally map to them are those of quantum mechanics. Quantum chemistry has seen particular success in the form of the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithm, which is used to determine the ground state energy of molecular systems. The goal of our work has been to use the matrix formulation of quantum mechanics to translate other systems so that they can be run through this same algorithm. We describe two ways of accomplishing this using a position basis approach and a Gaussian basis approach. We use this translation to compute finite temperature quantities such as the average energy as a function of temperature. We do this by constructing a 0+1 dimensional thermal field theory, constructing a thermal double of the system and using tensor products to construct operators in the system coupled to a heat bath. We also discuss how to include a chemical potential in the quantum computations. We then connect the 0+1 formalism to gauge theory by using an effective matrix model description used in nuclear theory. We study effective potentials for components of the gauge field and use the VQE algorithm to calculate the ground state energies. We also visualize the wave functions from the eigensolver and make comparisons to theoretical results obtained with continuous operators.
THE STELLAR INITIAL MASS FUNCTION IN EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES FROM ABSORPTION LINE SPECTROSCOPY. II. RESULTS

The spectral absorption lines in early-type galaxies contain a wealth of information regarding the detailed abundance pattern, star formation history, and stellar initial mass function (IMF) of the underlying stellar population. Using our new population synthesis model that accounts for the effect of variable abundance ratios of 11 elements, we analyze very high quality absorption line spectra of 38 early-type galaxies and the nuclear bulge of M31. These data extend to 1 μm and they therefore include the IMF-sensitive spectral features Na I, Ca II, and FeH at 0.82 μm, 0.86 μm, and 0.99 μm, respectively. The models fit the data well, with typical rms residuals 1%. Strong constraints on the IMF and therefore the stellar mass-to-light ratio, (M/L)stars, are derived for individual galaxies. We find that the IMF becomes increasingly bottom-heavy with increasing velocity dispersion and [Mg/Fe]. At the lowest dispersions and [Mg/Fe] values the derived IMF is consistent with the Milky Way (MW) IMF, while at the highest dispersions and [Mg/Fe] values the derived IMF contains more low-mass stars (is more bottom-heavy) than even a Salpeter IMF. Our best-fit (M/L)stars values do not exceed dynamically based M/L values. We also apply our models to stacked spectra of four metal-rich globular clusters in M31 and find an (M/L)stars that implies fewer low-mass stars than a MW IMF, again agreeing with dynamical constraints. We discuss other possible explanations for the observed trends and conclude that variation in the IMF is the simplest and most plausible.
A gluing theorem for the Kapustin–Witten equations with a Nahm pole

In the present paper, we establish a gluing construction for the Nahm pole solutions to the Kapustin-Witten equations over manifolds with boundaries and cylindrical ends. Given two Nahm pole solutions with some convergence assumptions on the cylindrical ends, we prove that there exists an obstruction class for gluing the two solutions together along the cylindrical end. In addition, we establish a local Kuranishi model for this gluing picture. As an application, we show that over any compact four-manifold with $S^3$ or $T^3$ boundary, there exists a Nahm pole solution to the obstruction perturbed Kapustin-Witten equations. This is also the case for a four-manifold with hyperbolic boundary under some topological assumptions.
Iterative subsampling in solution path clustering of noisy big data

We develop an iterative subsampling approach to improve the computational efficiency of our previous work on solution path clustering (SPC). The SPC method achieves clustering by concave regularization on the pairwise distances between cluster centers. This clustering method has the important capability to recognize noise and to provide a short path of clustering solutions; however, it is not sufficiently fast for big datasets. Thus, we propose a method that iterates between clustering a small subsample of the full data and sequentially assigning the other data points to attain orders of magnitude of computational savings. The new method preserves the ability to isolate noise, includes a solution selection mechanism that ultimately provides one clustering solution with an estimated number of clusters, and is shown to be able to extract small tight clusters from noisy data. The method's relatively minor losses in accuracy are demonstrated through simulation studies, and its ability to handle large datasets is illustrated through applications to gene expression datasets. An R package, SPClustering, for the SPC method with iterative subsampling is available at this http URL
How Perpetrator Identity (Sometimes) Influences Media Framing Attacks as “Terrorism” or “Mental Illness”

Do media frame attacks with Muslim perpetrators as “terrorism” and attacks with White perpetrators as the result of “mental illness”? Despite public speculation and limited academic work with relat...
FEER for the CFA Franc

We investigate the behaviour of the real effective exchange rates (REER) of the two CFA franc zone monetary unions – CEMAC and WAEMU – vis-a-vis their long-run equilibrium paths. A reduced form of the Edwards’ (1989) fundamentals equilibrium exchange rate (FEER) model is estimated using the Johansen's (1995) cointegration methodology, and equilibrium paths and associated misalignments are derived for the period 1970 to 2005. Our results suggest that, for both CEMAC and WAEMU, the fundamentals account for most of the exchange rates’ fluctuation: increases in the terms-of-trade, government consumption and productivity tend to appreciate the exchange rate, while increases in investment and openness tend to depreciate it. At end of 2005, we find no evidence that either the CEMAC or WAEMU REERs were significantly over-valued, which suggests that no exchange rate action is currently needed. Our analysis also reveals significant differences in the fundamentals’ marginal impact, and speed of reversion to equilibr...
in situ classification of cell types in human kidney tissue using 3D nuclear staining.

To understand the physiology and pathology of disease, capturing the heterogeneity of cell types within their tissue environment is fundamental. In such an endeavor, the human kidney presents a formidable challenge because its complex organizational structure is tightly linked to key physiological functions. Advances in imaging-based cell classification may be limited by the need to incorporate specific markers that can link classification to function. Multiplex imaging can mitigate these limitations, but requires cumulative incorporation of markers, which may lead to tissue exhaustion. Furthermore, the application of such strategies in large scale 3-dimensional (3D) imaging is challenging. Here, we propose that 3D nuclear signatures from a DNA stain, DAPI, which could be incorporated in most experimental imaging, can be used for classifying cells in intact human kidney tissue. We developed an unsupervised approach that uses 3D tissue cytometry to generate a large training dataset of nuclei images (NephNuc), where each nucleus is associated with a cell type label. We then devised various supervised machine learning approaches for kidney cell classification and demonstrated that a deep learning approach outperforms classical machine learning or shape-based classifiers. Specifically, a custom 3D convolutional neural network (NephNet3D) trained on nuclei image volumes achieved a balanced accuracy of 80.26%. Importantly, integrating NephNet3D classification with tissue cytometry allowed in situ visualization of cell type classifications in kidney tissue. In conclusion, we present a tissue cytometry and deep learning approach for in situ classification of cell types in human kidney tissue using only a DNA stain. This methodology is generalizable to other tissues and has potential advantages on tissue economy and non-exhaustive classification of different cell types.
A magnetic velocity Verlet method

We discuss an extension of the velocity Verlet method that accurately approximates the kinetic-energy-conserving charged particle motion that comes from magnetic forcing. For a uniform magnetic field, the method is shown to conserve both particle kinetic energy and magnetic dipole moment better than midpoint Runge–Kutta. We then use the magnetic velocity Verlet method to generate trapped particle trajectories, both in a cylindrical magnetic mirror machine setup and for dipolar fields like the earth's magnetic field. Finally, the method is used to compute an example of (single) mirror motion in the presence of a magnetic monopole field, where the trajectory can be described in closed form.
Coupling spins to nanomechanical resonators: Toward quantum spin-mechanics

Spin-mechanics studies interactions between spin systems and mechanical vibrations in a nanomechanical resonator and explores their potential applications in quantum information processing. In this review, we summarize various types of spin-mechanical resonators and discuss both the cavity-QED-like and the trapped-ion-like spin-mechanical coupling processes. The implementation of these processes using negatively charged nitrogen vacancy and silicon vacancy centers in diamond is reviewed. Prospects for reaching the full quantum regime of spin-mechanics, in which quantum control can occur at the level of both a single spin and a single phonon, are discussed with an emphasis on the crucial role of strain coupling to the orbital degrees of freedom of the defect centers.
Estimating Malaria Vaccine Efficacy in the Absence of a Gold Standard Case Definition: Mendelian Factorial Design

Accurate estimates of malaria vaccine efficacy require a reliable definition of a malaria case. However, the symptoms of clinical malaria are unspecific, overlapping with other childhood illnesses....
Health and economic outcomes of newborn screening for infantile-onset Pompe disease.

Purpose To estimate health and economic outcomes associated with newborn screening (NBS) for infantile-onset Pompe disease in the United States. Methods A decision analytic microsimulation model simulated health and economic outcomes of a birth cohort of 4 million children in the United States. Universal NBS and treatment was compared with clinical identification and treatment of infantile-onset Pompe disease. Main outcomes were projected cases identified, costs, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) over the life course. Results Universal NBS for Pompe disease and confirmatory testing was estimated to cost an additional $26 million annually. Additional medication costs associated with earlier treatment initiation were $181 million; however, $8 million in medical care costs for other services were averted due to delayed disease progression. Infants with screened and treated infantile-onset Pompe disease experienced an average lifetime increase of 11.66 QALYs compared with clinical detection. The ICER was $379,000/QALY from a societal perspective and $408,000/QALY from the health-care perspective. Results were sensitive to the cost of enzyme replacement therapy. Conclusion Newborn screening for Pompe disease results in substantial health gains for individuals with infantile-onset Pompe disease, but with additional costs.
Interaction between neuronal encoding and population dynamics during categorization task switching in parietal cortex

Primates excel at categorization, a cognitive process for assigning stimuli into behaviorally relevant groups. Categories are encoded in multiple brain areas and tasks, yet it remains unclear how neural encoding and dynamics support cognitive tasks with different demands. We recorded from parietal cortex during flexible switching between categorization tasks with distinct cognitive and motor demands and also studied recurrent neural networks (RNNs) trained on the same tasks. In the one-interval categorization task (OIC), monkeys rapidly reported their decisions with a saccade. In the delayed match-to-category (DMC) task, monkeys decided whether sequentially presented stimuli were categorical matches. Neuronal category encoding generalized across tasks, but categorical encoding was more binary-like in the DMC task and more graded in the OIC task. Furthermore, analysis of trained RNNs supports the hypothesis that binary-like encoding in DMC arises through compression of graded feature encoding by attractor dynamics underlying stimulus maintenance and/or comparison in working memory.
Probing phase transitions of holographic entanglement entropy with fixed area states

Recent results suggest that new corrections to holographic entanglement entropy should arise near phase transitions of the associated Ryu-Takayanagi (RT) surface. We study such corrections by decomposing the bulk state into fixed-area states and conjecturing that a certain ‘diagonal approximation’ will hold. In terms of the bulk Newton constant G, this yields a correction of order O(G−1/2) near such transitions, which is in particular larger than generic corrections from the entanglement of bulk quantum fields. However, the correction becomes exponentially suppressed away from the transition. The net effect is to make the entanglement a smooth function of all parameters, turning the RT ‘phase transition’ into a crossover already at this level of analysis. We illustrate this effect with explicit calculations (again assuming our diagonal approximation) for boundary regions given by a pair of disconnected intervals on the boundary of the AdS3 vacuum and for a single interval on the boundary of the BTZ black hole. In a natural large-volume limit where our diagonal approximation clearly holds, this second example verifies that our results agree with general predictions made by Murthy and Srednicki in the context of chaotic many-body systems. As a further check on our conjectured diagonal approximation, we show that it also reproduces the O(G−1/2) correction found Penington et al. for an analogous quantum RT transition. Our explicit computations also illustrate the cutoff-dependence of fluctuations in RT-areas.
Cooperative Multi-Agent Bandits with Heavy Tails

We study the heavy-tailed stochastic bandit problem in the cooperative multi-agent setting, where a group of agents interact with a common bandit problem, while communicating on a network with delays. Existing algorithms for the stochastic bandit in this setting utilize confidence intervals arising from an averaging-based communication protocol known as~\textit{running consensus}, that does not lend itself to robust estimation for heavy-tailed settings. We propose \textsc{MP-UCB}, a decentralized multi-agent algorithm for the cooperative stochastic bandit that incorporates robust estimation with a message-passing protocol. We prove optimal regret bounds for \textsc{MP-UCB} for several problem settings, and also demonstrate its superiority to existing methods. Furthermore, we establish the first lower bounds for the cooperative bandit problem, in addition to providing efficient algorithms for robust bandit estimation of location.
Learning Optimal Solutions for Extremely Fast AC Optimal Power Flow

We develop, in this paper, a machine learning approach to optimize the real-time operation of electric power grids. In particular, we learn feasible solutions to the AC optimal power flow (OPF) problem with negligible optimality gaps. The AC OPF problem aims at identifying optimal operational conditions of the power grids that minimize power losses and/or generation costs. Due to the computational challenges with solving this nonconvex problem, many efforts have focused on linearizing or approximating the problem in order to solve the AC OPF on faster timescales. However, many of these approximations can be fairly poor representations of the actual system state and still require solving an optimization problem, which can be time consuming for large networks. In this work, we learn a mapping between the system loading and optimal generation values, enabling us to find near-optimal and feasible AC OPF solutions. This allows us to bypass solving the traditionally nonconvex AC OPF problem, resulting in a significant decrease in computational burden for grid operators.
Diarrhea prevalence in a randomized, controlled prospective trial of point-of-use water filters in homes and schools in the Dominican Republic

Lack of sustainable access to clean drinking water continues to be an issue of paramount global importance, leading to millions of preventable deaths annually. Best practices for providing sustainable access to clean drinking water, however, remain unclear. Widespread installation of low-cost, in-home, point of use water filtration systems is a promising strategy. We conducted a prospective, randomized, controlled trial whereby 16 villages were selected and randomly assigned to one of four treatment arms based on the installation location of Sawyer® PointONE™ filters (filter in both home and school; filter in home only; filter in school only; control group). Water samples and self-reported information on diarrhea were collected at multiple times throughout the study. Self-reported household prevalence of diarrhea decreased from 25.6 to 9.76% from installation to follow-up (at least 7 days, and up to 200 days post-filter installation). These declines were also observed in diarrhea with economic or educational consequences (diarrhea which led to medical treatment and/or missing school or work) with baseline prevalence of 9.64% declining to 1.57%. Decreases in diarrhea prevalence were observed across age groups. There was no evidence of a loss of efficacy of filters up to 200 days post-filter installation. Installation of filters in schools was not associated with decreases in diarrhea prevalence in school-aged children or family members. Unfiltered water samples both at schools and homes contained potential waterborne bacterial pathogens, dissolved heavy metals and metals associated with particulates. All dissolved metals were detected at levels below World Health Organization action guidelines. This controlled trial provides strong evidence of the effectiveness of point-of-use, hollow fiber membrane filters at reducing diarrhea from bacterial sources up to 200 days post-installation when installed in homes. No statistically significant reduction in diarrhea was found when filters were installed in schools. Further research is needed in order to explore filter efficacy and utilization after 200 days post-installation. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03972618 . Registered 3 June 2019—retrospectively registered.
The Existence of Partially Localized Periodic–Quasiperiodic Solutions and Related KAM-Type Results for Elliptic Equations on the Entire Space

We consider the equation 1 $$\begin{aligned} \Delta _x u+u_{yy}+f(u)=0,\quad x=(x_1,\dots ,x_N)\in {{\mathbb {R}}}^N,\ y\in {{\mathbb {R}}}, \end{aligned}$$ where $$N\ge 2$$ and f is a sufficiently smooth function satisfying $$f(0)=0$$ , $$f'(0)<0$$ , and some natural additional conditions. We prove that equation (1) possesses uncountably many positive solutions (disregarding translations) which are radially symmetric in $$x'=(x_1,\ldots ,x_{N-1})$$ and decaying as $$|x'|\rightarrow \infty $$ , periodic in $$x_N$$ , and quasiperiodic in y. Related theorems for more general equations are included in our analysis as well. Our method is based on center manifold and KAM-type results.
White-Box Evaluation of Fingerprint Matchers: Robustness to Minutiae Perturbations

Prevailing evaluations of fingerprint recognition systems have been performed as end-to-end black-box tests of fingerprint identification or authentication accuracy. However, performance of the end-to-end system is subject to errors arising in any of its constituent modules, including: fingerprint scanning, preprocessing, feature extraction, and matching. Conversely, white-box evaluations provide a more granular evaluation by studying the individual subcomponents of a system. While a few studies have conducted stand-alone evaluations of the fingerprint reader and feature extraction modules of fingerprint recognition systems, little work has been devoted towards white-box evaluations of the fingerprint matching module. We report results of a controlled, white-box evaluation of one open-source and two commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) minutiae-based matchers in terms of their robustness against controlled perturbations (random noise and non-linear distortions) introduced into the input minutiae feature sets. Our white-box evaluations reveal that the performance of fingerprint minutiae matchers are more susceptible to non-linear distortion and missing minutiae than spurious minutiae and small positional displacements of the minutiae locations.
The effects of progestin-only hormone treatment on QT interval in the adolescent female

Abstract Background Prolongation of the ECG derived QT interval predicts increased risk for sudden life-threatening arrhythmias. Many medicines are known to prolong the QT interval though current data demonstrate that progesterone given to premenopausal females 18 years old. The effects of this treatment on the corrected QT (QTc) in this population are unknown. Objective To describe the effect of exogenous progestin on the QTc in adolescent females. Methods In post-menarcheal females, Results There were 40 controls and 21 treated participants. The age range was 10 – 17 years. There were no differences between the groups with regard to race, height, weight, BMI, or blood pressure. In the controls, the mean QTc was 403 +/-19 milliseconds (ms) vs. 397 +/-15 ms in those treated (p=0.22). Those on progestin therapy had a shorter QTc by the same magnitude difference (six ms) as the hormonal naive group in the adult literature. Conclusions We report no adverse effects of progestin associated with QTc prolongation and a trend suggesting a decreased QTc in a population of post menarcheal-adolescent females.
Predominant contribution of direct laser acceleration to high-energy electron spectra in a low-density self-modulated laser wakefield accelerator

The two-temperature relativistic electron spectrum from a low-density ($3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{17}\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$) self-modulated laser wakefield accelerator (SM-LWFA) is observed to transition between temperatures of $19\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.65$ and $46\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2.45\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MeV}$ at an electron energy of about 100 MeV. When the electrons are dispersed orthogonally to the laser polarization, their spectrum above 60 MeV shows a forking structure characteristic of direct laser acceleration (DLA). Both the two-temperature distribution and the forking structure are reproduced in a quasi-3D osiris simulation of the interaction of the 1-ps, moderate-amplitude (${a}_{0}=2.7$) laser pulse with the low-density plasma. Particle tracking shows that while the SM-LWFA mechanism dominates below 40 MeV, the highest-energy ($g60\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MeV}$) electrons gain most of their energy through DLA. By separating the simulated electric fields into modes, the DLA-dominated electrons are shown to lose significant energy to the longitudinal laser field from the tight focusing geometry, resulting in a more accurate measure of net DLA energy gain than previously possible.
Synergy via Redundancy: Adaptive Replication Strategies and Fundamental Limits

The maximum possible throughput (or the rate of job completion) of a multi-server system is typically the sum of the service rates of individual servers. Recent work shows that launching multiple replicas of a job and canceling them as soon as one copy finishes can boost the throughput, especially when the service time distribution has high variability. This means that redundancy can, in fact, create synergy among servers such that their overall throughput is greater than the sum of individual servers. This work seeks to find the fundamental limit of the throughput boost achieved by job replication and the optimal replication policy to achieve it. While most previous works consider upfront replication policies, we expand the set of possible policies to delayed launch of replicas. The search for the optimal adaptive replication policy can be formulated as a Markov Decision Process, using which we propose two myopic replication policies, MaxRate and AdaRep, to adaptively replicate jobs. In order to quantify the optimality gap of these and other policies, we derive upper bounds on the service capacity, which provide fundamental limits on the throughput of queueing systems with redundancy.
Unsupervised Bitext Mining and Translation via Self-Trained Contextual Embeddings

We describe an unsupervised method to create pseudo-parallel corpora for machine translation (MT) from unaligned text. We use multilingual BERT to create source and target sentence embeddings for nearest-neighbor search and adapt the model via self-training. We validate our technique by extracting parallel sentence pairs on the BUCC 2017 bitext mining task and observe up to a 24.5 point increase (absolute) in F1 scores over previous unsupervised methods. We then improve an XLM-based unsupervised neural MT system pre-trained on Wikipedia by supplementing it with pseudo-parallel text mined from the same corpus, boosting unsupervised translation performance by up to 3.5 BLEU on the WMT'14 French-English and WMT'16 German-English tasks and outperforming the previous state-of-the-art. Finally, we enrich the IWSLT'15 English-Vietnamese corpus with pseudo-parallel Wikipedia sentence pairs, yielding a 1.2 BLEU improvement on the low-resource MT task. We demonstrate that unsupervised bitext mining is an effective way of augmenting MT datasets and complements existing techniques like initializing with pre-trained contextual embeddings.
Estimation of causal effects of multiple treatments in healthcare database studies with rare outcomes

The preponderance of large-scale healthcare databases provide abundant opportunities for comparative effectiveness research. Evidence necessary to making informed treatment decisions often relies on comparing effectiveness of multiple treatment options on outcomes of interest observed in a small number of individuals. Causal inference with multiple treatments and rare outcomes is a subject that has been treated sparingly in the literature. This paper designs three sets of simulations, representative of the structure of our healthcare database study, and propose causal analysis strategies for such settings. We investigate and compare the operating characteristics of three types of methods and their variants: Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART), regression adjustment on multivariate spline of generalized propensity scores (RAMS) and inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) with multinomial logistic regression or generalized boosted models. Our results suggest that BART and RAMS provide lower bias and mean squared error, and the widely used IPTW methods deliver unfavorable operating characteristics. We illustrate the methods using a case study evaluating the comparative effectiveness of robotic-assisted surgery, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery and open thoracotomy for treating non-small cell lung cancer.
A Chance Constraint Predictive Control and Estimation Framework for Spacecraft Descent with Field Of View Constraints

Recent studies of optimization methods and GNC of spacecraft near small bodies focusing on descent, landing, rendezvous, etc., with key safety constraints such as line-of-sight conic zones and soft landings have shown promising results; this paper considers descent missions to an asteroid surface with a constraint that consists of an onboard camera and asteroid surface markers while using a stochastic convex MPC law. An undermodeled asteroid gravity and spacecraft technology inspired measurement model is established to develop the constraint. Then a computationally light stochastic Linear Quadratic MPC strategy is presented to keep the spacecraft in satisfactory field of view of the surface markers while trajectory tracking, employing chance based constraints and up-to-date estimation uncertainty from navigation. The estimation uncertainty giving rise to the tightened constraints is particularly addressed. Results suggest robust tracking performance across a variety of trajectories.
Exploring the link between principal leadership and family engagement across elementary and middle school.

Abstract As leaders in the school, principals play an important role in fostering family engagement. Unfortunately, little is known about specific aspects of leadership that promote family engagement. Collegial leadership, an aspect of principal leadership that promotes organizational health via trusting relationships and a sense of community, may be particularly useful to understanding how principals influence family engagement. Drawing on data from two randomized controlled trials evaluating the effects of teacher training in universal classroom management practices, the current study explores the relationship between teacher reports of family engagement and principal collegial leadership. Participants included 3208 students and 207 teachers across 18 elementary and middle schools in the Midwest United States. Utilizing hierarchical linear modeling, results revealed a significant positive relationship between family engagement and overall collegial leadership in addition to specific collegial leadership practices/characteristics. Further, baseline collegial leadership predicted increased end-of-year family engagement when controlling for baseline family engagement, developmental context, intervention status, and student-level characteristics. Overall, results provide empirical evidence for an important link between principal leadership practices and family engagement. Albeit promising, more research is needed to identify and explain the particular mechanisms by which principal collegial leadership may promote family engagement.
Financial Wealth Effect: Evidence from Threshold Estimation ∗

Using Hansen's (1999) threshold estimation technique and Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data set for the waves of 2001, 2003 and 2005, we estimate the effects of the fluctuations in financial wealth on the consumption behaviour of households for different endogenously determined income groups. We found a threshold income level of almost $130 000, below which the financial wealth effect is insignificant, and above which the effect is 0.004.
"You Can Lead a Horse to Water...": The Supreme Court's Refusal to Allow the Exercise of Original Jurisdiction Conferred by Congress

This article, a part of a symposium issue, addresses primarily the lack of textual and historical support for the Supreme Court's narrow construction of federal jurisdictional provisions, which cause it to deny the existence of jurisdiction. The article also discusses the lack of historical support for the Court's independent development of the abstention doctrines and their consequent illegitimacy. Both areas share share democratic theory and institutional legitimacy concerns that Professor Redish's paper, "Judge-Made Abstention and the Fashionable Art of Democracy Bashing," 40 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 1023 (1990), addresses. This article suggests that one can best understand these issues in the light of the congressional thought underlying the Title 28 jurisdictional authorizations.
Informed consent law and the forgotten duty of physician inquiry.

Courts and commentators have forgotten that embedded in the duty of physicians to obtain a patient's informed consent is a prior obligation for physicians to get to know that patient. This is most clear in jurisdictions employing the reasonable person standard of disclosure. That standard requires physicians to disclose to a patient information that a reasonable person would want to know if that person were in the patient's position or, more precisely, if that person were "in what the physician should know to be the patient's position." Thus, a physician must learn some minimal information about each patient's "position." An examination of common law reveals that, with rare exception, courts interpret the patient's position to mean nothing more than the patient's medical condition. This article argues that such an understanding of each patient is insufficient for the purposes of achieving efficient use of clinical time, healthy outcomes, and patient autonomy. Instead, the law should require physicians to make a reasonable inquiry about each patient's treatment goals. Such an inquiry will dispel incorrect assumptions that can result from a mere medical assessment of each patient. Under a reasonable inquiry rule, patients would be less likely to receive unnecessary treatment, more likely to play a role in planning their own treatments, more likely to comply with treatment plans and more likely to perceive their physicians as caring professionals. The article concludes that the rule of reasonable inquiry about patients' treatment goals strikes an appropriate balance between the need for autonomy and the need for clinical efficiency.
The repeat time-on-the-market index

Abstract We propose two new indices that measure the evolution of the time it takes a home to sell or “time-on-the-market” (TOM). The key features of both indices are a) their ability to control for unobserved heterogeneity exploiting repeat listings, b) their use of censored durations (listings that are expired and/or withdrawn from the market), and c) their computational simplicity. The first index computes proportional displacements in the home sale hazard rate. The second estimates the relative change in median marketing time. The indices are computed using about 1.8 million listings in 15 US urban areas. Results suggest that it is important to account for both censoring and unobserved heterogeneity in measuring housing market liquidity.
When Claimant Characteristics and Prior Performance Predict Bureaucratic Error

The public administration literature has paid scant attention to bureaucratic errors as performance measures. This has largely been due to a lack of data. Unlike most programs, the unemployment ins...
Not "The Framers' Design": How the Framing-Era Ban Against Hearsay Evidence Refutes the Crawford-Davis "Testimonial" Formulation of the Scope of the Original Confrontation Clause

In opinions for the Court in Crawford v. Washington (2004) and Davis v. Washington (2006), Justice Scalia asserted that the Framers' design for regulating hearsay evidence under the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause was limited to testimonial out-of-court statements, but that the Framers did not intend the Clause to apply to less formal nontestimonial hearsay statements at all. This article documents that this claim is merely another instance of fictional originalism. It begins by pointing out that although Justice Scalia endorsed construing the confrontation right according to those [hearsay] exceptions established at the time of the founding, he did not actually survey the framing-era authorities regarding the treatment of criminal hearsay. The article then examines the treatment of hearsay in the framing-era treatises and justice of the peace manuals used in framing-era America and documents that hearsay was defined to include all unsworn out-of-court statements. It also documents that only two forms of out-of-court statements could be admitted as evidence of a defendant's guilt: the written record of a sworn Marian witness examination of a person who died prior to trial (which was not hearsay) and the dying declaration of a murder victim (which was hearsay). The article also identifies two other limited-purpose hearsay exceptions that did not permit hearsay to be used as direct proof of a defendant's guilt: one allowed hearsay to corroborate a witness's trial testimony and the other allowed hearsay to prove the general existence of a conspiracy (but not the defendant's involvement). Otherwise, the article concludes that hearsay statements, including those that could be deemed non-testimonial under Crawford, were banned by framing-era criminal evidence doctrine. The article also documents that, contrary to statements in Crawford, the confrontation right was understood to require the exclusion of hearsay statements at the time of the framing. Thus, contrary to Justice Scalia's analysis, the Framers understood that the ban against criminal hearsay was a component of the confrontation right. In sum, the testimonial/nontestimonial hearsay distinction announced in Crawford and Davis contravenes the settled evidentiary principles that shaped the original meaning of the Confrontation Clause.