cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Direct Catalytic Asymmetric Mannich Reactions for the Construction of Quaternary Carbon Stereocenters

Herein, we report a Zn-ProPhenol catalyzed Mannich reaction using α-branched ketones as nucleophilic partners for the direct enantio- and diastereoselective construction of quaternary carbon stereocenters. The reaction can be run on a gram-scale with a low catalyst loading without impacting its efficiency. Moreover, the Mannich adducts can be further elaborated with complete diastereocontrol to access molecules possessing complex stereotriads.
Palladium-Catalyzed Synthesis of Allylic Ureas via an Isocyanate Intermediate

A palladium-catalyzed coupling of allylic carbonates with trimethylsilylisocyanate to provide allylic isocyanates is reported. Amines are added in a second step to yield allylic ureas in this one-pot procedure. Use of a bidentate phosphine ligand with a large bite angle was found to be important in this transformation. The scope of allylic carbonates has been examined, as well as amines compatible with these reaction conditions.
Do Better Monitoring Institutions Increase Leadership Quality in Community Organizations? Evidence from Uganda

We offer a framework for analyzing the impact of monitoring—a commonly recommended solution to poor leadership—on the quality of democratically elected leaders in community organizations in low-income countries. In our model, groups may face a trade-off between leader ability and effort. If the group’s ability to monitor the leader is low, then the leader may exert too little effort. A higher level of monitoring increases leader effort, raising the value of the public good. However, more intense monitoring may also drive higher-ability members to opt out of candidacy, reducing public-goods value. The result isaninvertedU-shapedrelationshipbetweenthelevelofmonitoringandthevalueofthepublicgood.Thetrade-offbetween leader effort and ability, however, only exists in the presence of sufficient private-income opportunities. These predictions are assessed using original data gathered from Ugandan farmer associations.
Experimental Investigation of Metal-Diamond Thermal Interface Conductance With Different Diamond Surface Terminations

Synthetic diamond has potential as a heat spreading material due to its uniquely high thermal conductivity. In small-scale devices, interfaces can dominate the resistance to heat transport, and thus play an important role in determining device performance. Here we use transient thermoreflectance techniques to measure the thermal interface conductance at metal-diamond interfaces. We study single crystal diamond samples with various surface terminations. We measure thermal interface conductance values over a range of temperatures from 88 K to 300 K, and find roughly 60 percent higher thermal interface conductance between Al and oxygenated diamond samples as compared to hydrogen terminated samples. The results reported here will be useful for device design and for advancing models of interfacial heat transport.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
Estimation, inference, and specification analysis

1. Introductory remarks 2. Probability densities, likelihood functions and the quasi-maximum likelihood estimator 3. Consistency of the QMLE 4. Correctly specified models of density 5. Correctly specified models of conditional expectation 6. The asymptotic distribution of the QMLE and the information matrix equality 7. Asymptotic efficiency 8. Hypothesis testing and asymptotic covariance matrix estimation 9. Specification testing via m-tests 10. Applications of m-testing 11. Information matrix testing 12. Conclusion Appendix 1. Elementary concepts of measure theory and the Radon-Nikodym theorem Appendix 2. Uniform laws of large numbers Appendix 3. Central limit theorems.
Domains of discontinuity for almost-Fuchsian groups

An almost-Fuchsian group is a quasi-Fuchsian group such that the quotient hyperbolic manifold contains a closed incompressible minimal surface with principal curvatures contained in (-1,1). We show that the domain of discontinuity of an almost-Fuchsian group contains many balls of a fixed spherical radius in the visual boundary of hyperbolic 3-space. This yields a necessary condition for a quasi-Fuchsian group to be almost-Fuchsian which involves only conformal geometry. As an application, we prove that there are no doubly-degenerate geometric limits of almost-Fuchsian groups.
The Eavesdropping Employer: A Twenty-First Century Framework for Employee Monitoring

The twenty-first century continues to usher in new and increasingly-powerful technology. This technology is both a blessing and a curse in the employment arena. Sophisticated monitoring software and hardware allow businesses to conduct basic business transactions, avoid liability, conduct investigations and, ultimately, achieve success in a competitive global environment. Employees can also benefit when monitoring provides immediate feedback, keeps the workforce efficient and focused and discourages unethical/illegal behavior. The same technology, however, allows employers to monitor every detail of their employees’ actions, communications and whereabouts both inside and outside the workplace. As more and more employers conduct some form of monitoring, the practice will shortly become ubiquitous. This trend is problematic because excessive and unreasonable monitoring can: (1) invade an employee’s reasonable expectation of privacy, (2) lead employees to sneak around to conduct personal activities on work time, (3) lower morale, (4) cause employees to complain and, potentially, quit and (5) cause employees to fear using equipment even for benign work purposes. The American legal system’s effort to protect employee privacy is a patchwork of federal and state laws combined with the common law tort of intrusion upon seclusion. This regime is not properly equipped to defend against excessive invasions of privacy that come from increasingly-sophisticated monitoring practices. This article analyzes the problems with the current monitoring regime, evaluates the top contemporary monitoring techniques and proposes a framework around which Congress can craft new and more effective legislation dealing with employee monitoring. This framework classifies the top contemporary monitoring practices into four categories designed to balance employee privacy with enterprise protection protection that occurs in the form of completing business transactions, protecting the company from liability and conducting or assisting in internal and external investigations. The categories form a sliding scale able to dictate the minimum amount of monitoring necessary to achieve the enterprise protection sought by management without excessively invading employee privacy.
Patent Settlements as a Barrier to Entry

We formulate a model of entry with two incumbent firms—a patent holder and an infringer—and a potential entrant, with asymmetric information about the validity of the infringed patent (patent strength) between incumbent firms and the entrant. Within this framework we show that patent settlements between theincumbentfirmscanbemutuallybeneficialevenwhenthecostoftrialiszero and the settlement agreement takes the form of a simple fixed license fee. For patents of intermediate strength, settlements are a tool for entry deterrence. The two parties agree on a high settlement amount which sends a credible signal to “outsiders” that the patent is not weak and therefore entry will not be profitable. This provides a novel explanation for the role of settlements and to the recent observation of high license fees negotiated in settlement agreements. It suggests that firms should disclose the settlement amount if they want to keep out further entrants. We also show that even nonreverse settlements that entail only a fixed fee can be anticompetitive because they are used to block entry.
Recurrences in Pneumococcus Pneumonia

A survey of the literature has failed to reveal any considerable body of data from which one may draw any conclusions regarding the actual immunity against reinfection that is conferred upon an individual as a result of an attack of pneumonia. It is of interest, therefore, to review certain features of a series of 57 cases with repeated attacks of pneumonia from which serologically identified pneumococci were obtained during each of 2 or more attacks.
Correlation of endoscopic optical coherence tomography with histology

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive optical imaging technique that allows high-resolution cross- sectional imaging of tissue microstructure. We have recently developed a system for endoscopic OCT (EOCT) to examine the gastrointestinal tract of humans in vivo. Compared to endoscopic ultrasonic devices it offers a higher resolution and does not require coupling gels or fluids. EOCT may lead to a versatile tool for biopsy site selection or optical biopsy itself. The EOCT unit is comprised of an interferometer unit with a high speed scanning reference arm and an endoscopically compatible radially scanning probe as the sample arm. Fast data acquisition allows real-time display. Temporal averaging for speckle reduction and a transformation to correct nonlinear scanning were included in the EOCT control software, both in real-time. During in vivo clinical trials, we have observe the structure of the mucosa and submucosa in several gastrointestinal organs as well as glands, blood vessels, pits, villi and crypts. The purpose of this study was to correlate images acquired in vitro with EOCT to corresponding histological sections. EOCT images were obtained on fresh specimens, which were then fixed in formalin and submitted for standard histology. Tissues examined were normal specimens, which were then fixed in formalin and submitted for standard histology. Tissues examined were normal specimens of stomach, ileum, colon and rectum. It was shown that he thickness of the mucosa correlates well with the first bright layer in EOCT. The R2-value was determined to be 0.69. The submucosa and the muscularis propria could be identified. Furthermore, we were able to show the effect of pressure on the tissue on the visible details in the EOCT images.
Dynamic weakening by nanoscale smoothing during high-velocity fault slip

Slip during large earthquakes occurs along faults that are hundreds of kilometers long, yet the dynamic weakening that drives these earthquakes is controlled by nano- to micro-scale frictional processes. We analyzed these processes along experimental faults that slipped at rates approaching seismic velocity, and which displayed intense dynamic weakening of 50%–70%. Sheared fault surfaces were extracted, and then atomic force microscopy was used to (1) measure friction on a sub-micron scale, and (2) determine the three-dimensional morphology at the nano- to micro-scale. The sheared surfaces developed a prevalent anisotropy with a weaker and smoother axis along the slip direction. The nanoscale friction coefficient correlates well with sheared-surface roughness: the friction coefficients dropped only on surfaces with root mean square (RMS) values of
ProPhenol-Catalyzed Asymmetric Additions by Spontaneously Assembled Dinuclear Main Group Metal Complexes

ConspectusThe development of catalytic enantioselective transformations has been the focus of many research groups over the past half century and is of paramount importance to the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. Since the award of the Nobel Prize in 2001, the field of enantioselective transition metal catalysis has soared to new heights, with the development of more efficient catalysts and new catalytic transformations at increasing frequency. Furthermore, catalytic reactions that allow higher levels of redox- and step-economy are being developed. Thus, alternatives to asymmetric alkene dihydroxylation and the enantioselective reduction of α,β-unsaturated ketones can invoke more strategic C–C bond forming reactions, such as asymmetric aldol reactions of an aldehyde with α-hydroxyketone donors or enantioselective alkynylation of an aldehyde, respectively. To facilitate catalytic enantioselective addition reactions, including the aforementioned aldol and alkynylation reactions, our lab has devel...
Translation Differences and Pragmatics-Based MT

This paper examines differences between two professional translations into English of the same Spanish newspaper article. Among other explanations for these differences, such as outright errors and free variation, we find a significant number of differences are due to differing beliefs on the part of the translators about the subject matter and about what the author wished to say. Furthermore, these differences are consistent with divergent global views of the translators about the likelihood of future events (earthquakes and tidal waves) and about (rational or irrational) reactions of people to such likelihood. We discuss the requirements for a pragmatics-based model of translation that would account for these differences.
Models and metrics to assess humanitarian response capacity

Abstract The race to meet vital needs following sudden onset disasters leads response organizations to establish stockpiles of inventory that can be deployed immediately. These government or non-government organizations dynamically make stockpile decisions independently. Even though the value of one organization's stock deployment is contingent on others' decisions, decision makers lack evidence regarding sector capacity to assess the marginal contribution (positive or negative) of their action. To our knowledge, there exist no metrics describing the system capacity across many agents to respond to disasters. To address this gap, our analytical approach yields new humanitarian logistics metrics based on stochastic optimization models. Our study incorporates empirical data on inventory stored by various organizations in United Nations facilities and in their own warehouses to offer practical insights regarding the current humanitarian response capabilities and strategies. By repositioning inventory already deployed, the system could respond to disasters in the same expected time with a range of 7.4%–20.0% lower cost for the items in our sample.
Grain boundary wetness of partially molten dunite

Samples of Fo90 olivine and basaltic melt were annealed at a range of temperatures and a pressure of 1 GPa in a piston cylinder apparatus from 1 to 336 h. Post-run samples have melt contents from 0.3 to 6.8 % and mean grain sizes from 4.3 to 84.5 μm. Grain boundary wetness, a measure of the intergranular melt distribution, was determined by analyzing scanning electron microscope images with sufficiently high resolution to detect thin layers wetting grain boundaries, as well as small triple junctions. The measurements show that grain boundary wetness increases with increasing melt content to values well above those predicted by the idealized isotropic equilibrium model for a finite dihedral angle. Additionally, the melt geometry changes with grain size, with grain boundary wetness increasing with increasing grain size at fixed melt content. Grain boundary wetness and dihedral angle of samples annealed at a range of temperatures, but constant melt content does not depend on temperature. These observations emphasize that the dihedral angle alone is not adequate to characterize the melt distribution in partially molten rocks, as the idealized isotropic model does not account for the influence of grain growth. Diffusion creep viscosities calculated from the measured wetness reflect the grain size and melt content dependence. Accordingly, experimentally measured viscosities at small grain sizes underestimate the effect of melt to weaken partially molten rocks for coarser grain sizes. The presence of melt in the mantle may therefore enhance diffusion creep relative to dislocation creep.
Palladium--phosphinous acid-catalyzed Sonogashira cross-coupling reactions in water.

A palladium–phosphinous acid-catalyzed Sonogashira cross-coupling reaction that proceeds in water under air atmosphere in the absence of organic co-solvents has been developed. Disubstituted alkynes have been prepared in up to 91% yield by POPd-catalyzed coupling of various aryl halides including chlorides in the presence of tetrabutylammonium bromide and pyrrolidine or NaOH.
Pareto efficiency in the dynamic one-dimensional bargaining model:

Pareto-dominated agreements are shown to prevail with positive probability in an open set of status quo in a Markov perfect equilibrium of a one-dimensional dynamic bargaining game. This equilibrium is continuous, symmetric, with dynamic preferences that satisfy the single-plateau property. It is also shown that there does not exist a symmetric equilibrium with single-peaked preferences.
Learning Action Maps of Large Environments via First-Person Vision

When people observe and interact with physical spaces, they are able to associate functionality to regions in the environment. Our goal is to automate dense functional understanding of large spaces by leveraging sparse activity demonstrations recorded from an ego-centric viewpoint. The method we describe enables functionality estimation in large scenes where people have behaved, as well as novel scenes where no behaviors are observed. Our method learns and predicts "Action Maps", which encode the ability for a user to perform activities at various locations. With the usage of an egocentric camera to observe human activities, our method scales with the size of the scene without the need for mounting multiple static surveillance cameras and is well-suited to the task of observing activities up-close. We demonstrate that by capturing appearance-based attributes of the environment and associating these attributes with activity demonstrations, our proposed mathematical framework allows for the prediction of Action Maps in new environments. Additionally, we offer a preliminary glance of the applicability of Action Maps by demonstrating a proof-of concept application in which they are used in concert with activity detections to perform localization.
Prolactin and Neuroleptic Drugs

Serum prolactin is reliably elevated by the antipsychotic drugs. Prolactin levels have been followed in psychotic patients during the use of these drugs as an indicator of underlying pathophysiology or as a reflection of drug activity. Considerable research is underway to elucidate further the potential clinical and research utility of the prolactin response to neuroleptic drugs.
Phosphatase Rtr1 Regulates Global Levels of Serine 5 RNA Polymerase II C-Terminal Domain Phosphorylation and Cotranscriptional Histone Methylation

In eukaryotes, the C-terminal domain (CTD) of Rpb1 contains a heptapeptide repeat sequence of (Y1S2P3T4S5P6S7)n that undergoes reversible phosphorylation through the opposing action of kinases and phosphatases. Rtr1 is a conserved protein that colocalizes with RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) and has been shown to be important for the transition from elongation to termination during transcription by removing RNAPII CTD serine 5 phosphorylation (Ser5-P) at a selection of target genes. In this study, we show that Rtr1 is a global regulator of the CTD code with deletion of RTR1 causing genome-wide changes in Ser5-P CTD phosphorylation and cotranscriptional histone H3 lysine 36 trimethylation (H3K36me3). Using chromatin immunoprecipitation and high-resolution microarrays, we show that RTR1 deletion results in global changes in RNAPII Ser5-P levels on genes with different lengths and transcription rates consistent with its role as a CTD phosphatase. Although Ser5-P levels increase, the overall occupancy of RNAPII either decreases or stays the same in the absence of RTR1 Additionally, the loss of Rtr1 in vivo leads to increases in H3K36me3 levels genome-wide, while total histone H3 levels remain relatively constant within coding regions. Overall, these findings suggest that Rtr1 regulates H3K36me3 levels through changes in the number of binding sites for the histone methyltransferase Set2, thereby influencing both the CTD and histone codes.
Maps as Politics: Mapping the West Bank Barrier

ABSTRACTThe West Bank Barrier increasingly reshapes Israeli and Palestinian land- and cityscapes. Its physical infrastructure - which consists of walls and an elaborate fence system - is depicted prominently in some maps, but disappears or is omitted in others. This article examines how different Israeli, Palestinian, and international governmental and non-governmental cartographic institutions delineate the West Bank Barrier in maps. The focus is on how various visual and textual devices as well as spatial markers are used to communicate certain social and political concerns, construct particular spatial orders, and portray the West Bank Barrier as either a negligible feature of the landscape or as a significant obstacle to the freedom of movement. The cartographic construction of the barrier in maps shows how cartographers' assumptions concerning its function, the map's target audience, and the adequacy of various national and trans-national cartographic standards may provide an authoritative and legiti...
Triiodide-Mediated δ-Amination of Secondary C−H Bonds

The Cδ -H amination of unactivated, secondary C-H bonds to form a broad range of functionalized pyrrolidines has been developed by a triiodide (I3 (-) )-mediated strategy. By in situ 1) oxidation of sodium iodide and 2) sequestration of the transiently generated iodine (I2 ) as I3 (-) , this approach precludes undesired I2 -mediated decomposition which can otherwise limit synthetic utility to only weak C(sp(3) )-H bonds. The mechanism of this triiodide-mediated cyclization of unbiased, secondary C(sp(3) )-H bonds, by either thermal or photolytic initiation, is supported by NMR and UV/Vis data, as well as intercepted intermediates.
External Transitional Justice Funding: Introducing a New Dataset:

The international community has long played an important role in transitional justice (TJ) processes around the world, including the funding of TJ initiatives. Early TJ processes in Southern Europe...
Information Theoretic Anomaly Detection Framework for Web Application

Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a popular approach to detect attacks in web applications. Signature-based IDS may not know all possible attack signatures in advance, thus a complementary anomaly-based IDS is deployed to and detect new attacks. In this paper, we propose an anomaly detection approach that utilizes three measures: cross entropy for parameter, value, and data type. The measures are intended to compare the deviation between learned request profiles and a new web request. To reduce the number of incorrect detections, we consider requests accessing similar resource paths to learn entropy parameter's value. We evaluate this approach by generating log datasets from a large scale web application (Content Management System). The initial results show that the proposed approach can detect all malicious web requests and demonstrate lower false positive rates. It outperformed when comparing two other approaches: length of parameter value and Mahalanobis Distance.
The Causes of Two-way U.S.-Brazil Ethanol Trade and the Consequences for Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Abstract Biofuel policies in the U.S. and Brazil can influence two-way ethanol trade, in which the countries export to and import from each other simultaneously. A multi-market, multi-region partial equilibrium economic model is used to assess the interactions of the biofuel policies and markets of these two countries. The market effects are converted to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission effects using calculations that include the emissions associated with the transportation of ethanol between Brazil and the U.S. Results show that under certain conditions ethanol and feedstock producer prices decrease in a “No Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)” scenario, while GHG emission could rise. If the RFS is maintained in the U.S., but Brazilian gasoline prices are allowed to move freely with rising global crude oil prices, then ethanol and feedstock prices increase and GHG emissions decrease as the use of ethanol increases. We find that two-way ethanol trade can have important, if moderate, GHG emission impacts.
Controlled Fluxes of Silicon Nanoparticles to a Substrate in Pulsed Radio-Frequency Argon–Silane Plasmas

It has been hypothesized that high-energy impact of very small silicon nanoparticles on a substrate may lead to epitaxial growth of silicon films at low substrate temperature. A possible means for producing such energetic nanoparticle fluxes involves pulsing an RF silane-containing plasma, and applying a positive DC bias to the substrate during the afterglow phase of each pulse so as to collect the negatively charged particles generated during the RF power on phase. We here report numerical modeling to provide a preliminary assessment of the feasibility of this scheme. The system modeled is a parallel-plate capacitively-coupled RF argon–silane plasma at pressures around 100 mTorr. Simulation results indicate that it is possible to achieve a periodic steady state in which each pulse delivers a controlled flux of nanoparticles to the biased substrate, that average particle sizes can be kept below 2–3 nm, that impact energies of the negatively-charged nanoparticles that are attracted by the applied bias can be maintained in the ~1 eV/atom range thought to be conducive to epitaxial growth without causing film damage, and that the volume fraction of neutral nanoparticles that deposit by low-velocity diffusion can be kept well below 1 %. The effects of several operating parameters are explored, including RF voltage, pressure, the value of the applied DC bias, and RF power on and off time during each pulse.
Harmonic sum-based method for heart rate estimation using PPG signals affected with motion artifacts

Wearable photoplethysmography has recently become a common technology in heart rate (HR) monitoring. General observation is that the motion artifacts change the statistics of the acquired PPG signal. Consequently, estimation of HR from such a corrupted PPG signal is challenging. However, if an accelerometer is also used to acquire the acceleration signal simultaneously, it can provide helpful information that can be used to reduce the motion artifacts in the PPG signal. By dint of repetitive movements of the subjects hands while running, the accelerometer signal is found to be quasi-periodic. Over short-time intervals, it can be modeled by a finite harmonic sum (HSUM). Using the HSUM model, we obtain an estimate of the instantaneous fundamental frequency of the accelerometer signal. Since the PPG signal is a composite of the heart rate information (that is also quasi-periodic) and the motion artifact, we fit a joint HSUM model to the PPG signal. One of the harmonic sums corresponds to the heart-beat component in PPG and the other models the motion artifact. However, the fundamental frequency of the motion artifact has already been determined from the accelerometer signal. Subsequently, the HR is estimated from the joint HSUM model. The mean absolute error in HR estimates was 0.7359 beats per minute (BPM) with a standard deviation of 0.8328 BPM for 2015 IEEE Signal Processing cup data. The ground-truth HR was obtained from the simultaneously acquired ECG for validating the accuracy of the proposed method. The proposed method is compared with four methods that were recently developed and evaluated on the same dataset.
HERA: Illuminating our early universe

The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Arrays (HERA) roadmap is a staged plan for using the unique properties of the 21cm line from neutral hydrogen to probe our cosmic dawn, from the birth of the first stars and black holes, through the full reionization of the primordial intergalactic medium (IGM). HERA is a collaboration between the Precision Array Probing the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER), US-Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), and MIT Epoch of Reionization (MITEOR) teams.
Single Pass PCA of Matrix Products

In this paper we present a new algorithm for computing a low rank approximation of the product $A^TB$ by taking only a single pass of the two matrices $A$ and $B$. The straightforward way to do this is to (a) first sketch $A$ and $B$ individually, and then (b) find the top components using PCA on the sketch. Our algorithm in contrast retains additional summary information about $A,B$ (e.g. row and column norms etc.) and uses this additional information to obtain an improved approximation from the sketches. Our main analytical result establishes a comparable spectral norm guarantee to existing two-pass methods; in addition we also provide results from an Apache Spark implementation that shows better computational and statistical performance on real-world and synthetic evaluation datasets.
Rapidly convergent quasi-periodic Green functions for scattering by arrays of cylinders—including Wood anomalies

This paper presents a full-spectrum Green-function methodology (which is valid, in particular, at and around Wood-anomaly frequencies) for evaluation of scattering by periodic arrays of cylinders of arbitrary cross section—with application to wire gratings, particle arrays and reflectarrays and, indeed, general arrays of conducting or dielectric bounded obstacles under both transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarized illumination. The proposed method, which, for definiteness, is demonstrated here for arrays of perfectly conducting particles under transverse electric polarization, is based on the use of the shifted Green-function method introduced in a recent contribution (Bruno & Delourme 2014 J. Computat. Phys. 262, 262–290 (doi:10.1016/j.jcp.2013.12.047)). A certain infinite term arises at Wood anomalies for the cylinder-array problems considered here that is not present in the previous rough-surface case. As shown in this paper, these infinite terms can be treated via an application of ideas related to the Woodbury–Sherman–Morrison formulae. The resulting approach, which is applicable to general arrays of obstacles even at and around Wood-anomaly frequencies, exhibits fast convergence and high accuracies. For example, a few hundreds of milliseconds suffice for the proposed approach to evaluate solutions throughout the resonance region (wavelengths comparable to the period and cylinder sizes) with full single-precision accuracy.
Production of Deoxynivalenol and Zearalenone by Isolates of Fusarium graminearum Schw.

Production of deoxynivalenol (DON) on rice, corn, wheat, and barley grains by Fusarium graminearum Schw. NRRL 5883 was investigated. Highest yields (91.9-202 ppm) were obtained on rice; yields on the other substrates were: corn (34.1-84.5 ppm), wheat (3.6-24.4 ppm), and barley (0-6.6 ppm). Fusarium isolates (49) from corn inoculated in the field with strains of F. graminearum , collected from corn plants infected with stalk rot, were tested for DON production on corn. Twenty of these were also tested for zearalenone production. One isolate produced more than 200 ppm DON, 13 produced 20-50 ppm, 17 produced 10-20 ppm, and the rest produced less than 10 ppm. All 20 isolates tested produced zearalenone; 18 produced higher levels of zearalenone (15.4-369 ppm) than of DON. The other 2 isolates formed essentially the same levels of zearalenone and DON-37 and 30 ppm, and 15 and 16 ppm, respectively.
Reaching approximate Byzantine consensus with multi-hop communication☆

Abstract We are interested in approximate Byzantine consensus problem, wherein all the fault-free processes reach consensus asymptotically (approximately in finite time). In particular, we focus on the algorithms under which each process communicates with other processes that are up to l hops away and maintains minimal states across iterations. For a given l, we identify a necessary and sufficient condition on the network structure for the existence of iterative algorithms of interest. Our necessary and sufficient condition generalizes the tight condition identified in prior work for l = 1 . For l ≥ l ⁎ , where l ⁎ is the length of a longest cycle-free path in the given network, our condition is equivalent to the necessary and sufficient conditions for exact consensus in undirected and directed networks both.
Thymoquinone Promotes Pancreatic Cancer Cell Death and Reduction of Tumor Size through Combined Inhibition of Histone Deacetylation and Induction of Histone Acetylation

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is virtually therapy-resistant. As noninvasive lesions progress to malignancy, the precursor period provides a window for cancer therapies that can interfere with neoplastic progression. Thymoquinone (Tq), a major bioactive component of essential oil from Nigella sativa’s seeds, has demonstrated antineoplastic activities in multiple cancers. In this study, we investigated antineoplastic potential of Tq in human PDAC cell lines, AsPC-1 and MiaPaCa-2. Tq (10–50 μM) inhibited cell viability and proliferation and caused partial G2 cycle arrest in dose-dependent manner in both cell lines. Cells accumulated in subG0/G1 phase, indicating apoptosis. This was associated with upregulation of p53 and downregulation of Bcl-2. Independently of p53, Tq increased p21 mRNA expression 12-fold. Tq also induced H4 acetylation (lysine 12) and downregulated HDACs activity, reducing expression of HDACs 1, 2, and 3 by 40–60%. In vivo, Tq significantly reduced tumor size in 67% of established tumor xenografts ( ), along with increased H4 acetylation and reduced HDACs expression. Our results showed that Tq mediated posttranslational modification of histone acetylation, inhibited HDACs expression, and induced proapoptotic signaling pathways. These molecular targets demonstrate rationale for using Tq as a promising antineoplastic agent to prevent postoperative cancer recurrence and to prolong survival of PDAC patients after surgical resection.
Evaluating automatic speech recognition systems in comparison with human perception results using distinctive feature measures

This paper describes methods for evaluating automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems in comparison with human perception results, using measures derived from linguistic distinctive features. Error patterns in terms of manner, place and voicing are presented, along with an examination of confusion matrices via a distinctive-feature-distance metric. These evaluation methods contrast with conventional performance criteria that focus on the phone or word level, and are intended to provide a more detailed profile of ASR system performance, as well as a means for direct comparison with human perception results at the sub-phonemic level.
Status of BTeV — a dedicated B physics experiment at the Fermilab tevatron collider

BTeV is a program whose long term goal is to carry out precision studies of CP violation, mixing, and rare decays of bottom and charmed quarks in the forward direction at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. It is planned for the new interaction region, C0, currently being constructed. We describe the techniques, physics reach, and status of BTeV.
Unpacking instructional alignment: The influence of teachers’ use of assessment data on instruction

The use of assessment data to inform instruction is an important component of a comprehensive standards-based assessment programme. Examining teachers’ data use for instruction can reveal the extent to which instruction is aligned with established content standards and assessment. This paper describes results of a qualitative study of teachers’ data use in a mid-Atlantic metropolitan area in the United States. Focus group interviews with 60 upper elementary and middle school teachers from 45 schools were conducted. Findings indicate teachers aligned instruction and assessments with the state curriculum with the goal of improving student performance. While teachers found day-to-day informal assessments essential to shaping instruction, periodic formal assessments helped them monitor student progress and remediation efforts. Teachers described challenges associated with the misalignment of periodic assessments with instructional content, the breadth of content and higher cognitive demand expected in the newer state curriculum and the lack of infrastructure to support data use.
"The cough game": Are there characteristic urethrovesical movement patterns associated with stress incontinence?

This study was carried out to determine whether five experts in female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) could discover a pattern of urethrovesical movement characteristic of SUI on dynamic perineal ultrasound. A secondary analysis of data from a case–control study was performed. Ultrasounds from 31 cases (daily SUI) and 42 controls (continent volunteers) of similar age and parity were analyzed. Perineal ultrasound was performed during a single cough. The five experts, blinded to continence status and urodynamics, classified each woman as stress continent or incontinent. Correct responses ranged from 45.7% to 65.8% (mean 57.4 ± 7.6). Sensitivity was 53.0 ± 8.8% and specificity 61.2 ± 12.4%. The positive predictive value was 48.8 ± 8.2% and negative predictive value was 65.0 ± 7.3%. Inter-rater reliability, evaluated by Cohen’s kappa statistic, averaged 0.47 [95% CI 0.40–0.50]. Experts could not identify a pattern of urethrovesical movement characteristic of SUI on ultrasound.
Secure contactless smartcard ASIC with DPA protection

A secure contactless smartcard is presented. No batteries are required as device power is extracted from the RF field. With the exception of an inductive loop antenna, no external components are required. The transceiver adheres to the ISO 14443 type B specification. This system-on-a-chip integrates the RF circuitry with a large digital circuit without benefit of external bypass capacitors. An isolation circuit is introduced that prevents coupling of digital noise into the receiver. A measured bit error rate of 3E-10 is achieved. Security is also improved as the isolation circuit increases the required time for differential power analysis (DPA) attack by a factor of 2/sup 22/. Three-pass mutual authentication is presented and an algorithm for data restoration in the event of a tear is shown. This device was fabricated in a 0.6-/spl mu/m double-poly, triple-metal CMOS process. The chip is 2.8 mm/spl times/2.9 mm and it requires 500 uA or approximately 2.5 mW of power.
Anchoring biases in international estimates of the value of a statistical life

U.S. labor market estimates of the value of a statistical life (VSL) were the first revealed preference estimates of the VSL in the literature and continue to constitute the majority of such market estimates. The VSL estimates in U.S. studies consequently may have established a reference point for the estimates that researchers analyzing data from other countries are willing to report and that journals are willing to publish. This article presents the first comparison of the publication selection biases in U.S. and international estimates using a sample of 68 VSL studies with over 1000 VSL estimates throughout the world. Publication selection biases vary across the VSL distribution and are greater for the larger VSL estimates. The estimates of publication selection biases distinguish between U.S. and international studies as well as between government and non-government data sources. Empirical estimates that correct for the impact of these biases reduce the VSL estimates, particularly for studies based on international data. This pattern of publication bias effects is consistent with international studies relying on U.S. estimates as an anchor for the levels of reasonable estimates. U.S. estimates based on the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries constitute the only major set of VSL studies for which there is no evidence of statistically significant publication selection effects. Adjusting a baseline bias-adjusted U.S. VSL estimate of $9.6 million using estimates of the income elasticity of the VSL may be a sounder approach for generating international estimates of the VSL than relying on direct estimates from international studies.
Nonrelativistic grey Sn-transport radiative-shock solutions

Abstract We present semi-analytic radiative-shock solutions in which grey S n -transport is used to model the radiation, and we include both constant cross sections and cross sections that depend on temperature and density. These new solutions solve for a variable Eddington factor (VEF) across the shock domain, which allows for interesting physics not seen before in radiative-shock solutions. Comparisons are made with the grey nonequilibrium-diffusion radiative-shock solutions of Lowrie and Edwards [1] , which assumed that the Eddington factor is constant across the shock domain. It is our experience that the local Mach number is monotonic when producing nonequilibrium-diffusion solutions, but that this monotonicity may disappear while integrating the precursor region to produce S n -transport solutions. For temperature- and density-dependent cross sections we show evidence of a spike in the VEF in the far upstream portion of the radiative-shock precursor. We show evidence of an adaptation zone in the precursor region, adjacent to the embedded hydrodynamic shock, as conjectured by Drake [2] , [3] , and also confirm his expectation that the precursor temperatures adjacent to the Zel’dovich spike take values that are greater than the downstream post-shock equilibrium temperature. We also show evidence that the radiation energy density can be nonmonotonic under the Zel’dovich spike, which is indicative of anti-diffusive radiation flow as predicted by McClarren and Drake [4] . We compare the angle dependence of the radiation flow for the S n -transport and nonequilibrium-diffusion radiation solutions, and show that there are considerable differences in the radiation flow between these models across the shock structure. Finally, we analyze the radiation flow to understand the cause of the adaptation zone, as well as the structure of the S n -transport radiation-intensity solutions across the shock structure.
The unnatural policies of natural resource agencies: fishery policy on the Sacramento River

The collapse of California’s salmon stocks and what we do about it is a critical environmental policy issue for our time. Pacific salmon may be one of our most powerful litmus tests for evaluating successful human coevolution with nature. Biologists call them an ‘indicator species’, for they provide us a window into the viability of landed and aquatic life. As ‘fresh water species that have invaded the ocean for part of their lives’ (Healey, 1993), Chinook salmon bind together vast ecological regions, from wilderness headwater spawning grounds to downstream wetlands, estuaries and the ocean itself. From Monterey to the Arctic Circle, the main way to define a western river is to say that it is a watercourse frequented by migratory salmon. Salmon respond like exquisitely sensitive barometers to instream swings in water temperature, oxygenation or sedimentation. Their capacity to thrive is undercut by, among others, clear-cutting forests, diminished water flows, destruction of wetlands or urban and agricultural pollution. Throw any of these conditions out of kilter and fish populations plummet.
Food Security Implications of Staple Food Substitution in Sahelian West Africa

Abstract Low-income households in Sahelian West Africa face multiple shocks that risk compressing their already-low food consumption levels. This paper develops a multi-market simulation model to evaluate the impact of common production and world-price shocks on food consumption of vulnerable groups in Sahelian West Africa. Empirical analysis confirms that poor households bear the brunt of ensuing consumption risks, particularly in closed markets, where trade barriers restrict imports, and the poor find themselves in a bidding war with richer consumers for limited food supplies. In the absence of trade, a drought that reduces domestic rainfed cereal production by 20% would compress already low calorie consumption of the rural poor by as much as 15%, four times as much as other household groups. Conversely, a 50% spike in world rice prices hits the urban poor hardest, compressing calorie consumption by up to 8%. Policy responses need to focus on two basic mechanisms that can help to moderate this pressure – consumer substitution among staple foods and trade. Immediately south of the Sahel, coastal West African countries enjoy higher rainfall, dual rainy seasons, more stable staple food production based on root crops (cassava and yams) as well as frequent double cropping of maize. Our simulation results suggest that regional trade in maize, yams and cassava-based prepared foods like gari and attieke could fill over one-third of the consumption shortfall resulting from a major drought in the Sahel. Increasing substitutability across starchy staples, for example through expansion of maize, cassava and sorghum-based convenience foods, would further moderate consumption pressure by expanding the array of food alternatives and hence supply responses available during periods of stress.
Optimizations of cooperative spectrum sensing with reporting errors over myriad fading channels

This paper investigates the energy detection based cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) and develops a generalized error rate with reporting errors at the fusion center (FC) for decision fusion and provides optimization schemes by developing optimized voting rule (k-out-of-N) and energy-detection threshold over myriad fading channels. The optimization scheme is based on the Bayesian criterion (BC) where BC risk is formulated as the total error rate (sum of the weighted false alarm and missed detection probability) at the fusion center. The BC risk factor is minimized for optimizing the operating parameters. A fast sensing scheme is also explored with the optimum voting rule by satisfying the target error rate. This work has presented simple framework with reporting errors for decision fusion and the resulting observations are new. Our studies enhance the existing theoretical knowledge of co-operative spectrum sensing over myriad fading channels and will be useful for actual implementation of cooperative relay systems.
Magnetic resonance imaging findings in children with spasmus nutans

Background Spasmus nutans (SN) is a rare pediatric ophthalmologic syndrome characterized by nystagmus, head bobbing, and abnormal head positioning. Historically, SN has been associated with underlying optic pathway gliomas (OPG); however, evidence of this association is based primarily on a small number of isolated case reports. Prior retrospective analyses have found the rate of OPG to be Methods Neuroradiology databases at three institutions spanning January 2010 to May 2016 were queried for examinations ordered for evaluation of SN; MRI examinations of the brain and/or orbits were included and evaluated for OPG and other structural abnormalities. Medical records were reviewed to confirm a diagnosis of SN, presence of other underlying neurological disease, or preexisting diagnoses. Results A total of 40 patients with eligible MRI examinations were identified. None had optic nerve pathway gliomas. Two children had optic nerve hypoplasia; no other patients had optic pathway abnormalities. None had intracranial or orbital masses. MRI examinations were normal in 25 patients. Conclusions This series represents the largest collection of MRI examinations for SN in the literature to date and shows no association between OPG and SN. In children presenting with SN but no other findings suggesting OPG or neurological abnormalities, neuroimaging may not be required.