cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Public Good, Private Protections: Competing Values in German Transplantation Law

Organ transplantation has become almost routine practice in many industrialized countries. Policy, ethical, and legal debates tend to center on fairness of allocation rules or alternatives to promote greater numbers of donations. There are also certain beliefs about the use of bodily materials that are often presumed to be homogenous across Euro–American societies. In Germany, however, the idea of using the bodies of some for the good of others, and the right to proclaim some bodies dead for large–scale medical and political purposes is highly charged. This is due to the historical context of medical experimentation, selection, and euthanasia under National Socialism, and the former East German socialist policies which intervened in the private lives and bodies of citizens. This article is based on an ethnography of organ procurement practices during the period when German policymakers struggled with writing a transplant law. Active public resistance revealed deep concern about state intervention in private matters and amplified the growing unrest over definitions of moral community in a changing, post–reunification society. The article shows how public disputes about health policy become a way through which societies deal with other social conflicts.
Evaluating Katrina: A Snapshot of Renters' Rights Following Disasters

Hurricane Katrina destroyed the homes of many people living in parts of the Gulf Region. The storm displaced as many as 800,000 victims and it is still difficult for them to return home. Consequently, many homeowners have turned to renting because of the slow recovery process. Renters face added difficulties; they are often the last in line for government benefits and other assistance. There is much hostility towards the rights of renters, creating even more difficulties for them. This article focuses on the difficulties facing evacuee renters in New Orleans following the disaster. These renters face such obstacles as scarcity of land, increases in costs for repairs, higher insurance, infrastructure uncertainty, rental property inflation, uncertainty over flood protection, zoning restrictions, and criminalization. This article discusses legislation and attempted legislation impacting renters post Katrina. The article explores the increase in rent after disasters and a suggested control. It further discusses the manner in which criminal backgrounds determine rental options following disasters. Specifically, the article focuses on legislation limiting access to rentals and suggests, with the right legislation in place, New Orleans will be able to successfully rebuild its lower and middle income housing.
Many happy returns? The Pro-Bowl, mega-events, and tourism in Hawaii:

We use daily airplane arrival data from 2004 to 2015 from Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism to determine the net change in arrivals around a variety of sporting events. We find that only one event generates a positive and significant net impact on airplane arrivals: the Honolulu Marathon, which generates roughly 9800 additional arrivals. No other sporting events result in a measurable increase in arrivals including, notably, the National Football League’s Pro Bowl, which receives the largest subsidy from the state’s tourism authority.
Regulating scientific research: intellectual property rights and the norms of science.

This article employs the burgeoning literature on law-and-norms theory to take a fresh look at the debate over patent rights in basic scientific research. After reviewing how the issue of patent rights in this research implicates not only intellectual property law but also research norms, it argues that patent policy has been insufficiently sensitive to contexts in which the central instrumental goals of patent law -- creation, disclosure, and development -- would be maximized not through stronger property rights but through norms that emphasize the public domain. Equally important, because of the relative imprecision of the law; the difficulty it often has in dealing with rapid technological change; and the poor access that legal actors often have to relevant technological information, formulating laws that reinforce and reflect efficient norms may be a better way of achieving creation, disclosure, and devlopment than the alternative of strictly legal change.
Heuristics and Biases in Retirement Savings Behavior

Standard economic theories of saving implicitly assume that households have the cognitive ability to solve the relevant optimization problem and the willpower to execute the optimal plan. Both of the implicit assumptions are suspect. Even among economists, few spend much time calculating a personal optimal savings rate. Instead, most people cope by adopting simple heuristics, or rules of thumb. In this paper, we investigate both the heuristics and the biases that emerge in the area of retirement savings. We examine the decisions employees make about whether to join a savings plan, how much to contribute, and how to invest. Saving for retirement is a difficult problem, and most employees have little training upon which to draw in making the relevant decisions. Perhaps as a result, investors are relatively passive. They are slow to join advantageous plans; they make infrequent changes; and they adopt naive diversification strategies. In short, they need all the help they can get. We discuss the possible role of interventions aiming to improve retirement decision making. Fortunately, many effective ways to help participants are also the least costly interventions: namely, small changes in plan design, sensible default options, and opportunities to increase savings rates and rebalance portfolios automatically.
The Gerstenhaber bracket as a Schouten bracket for polynomial rings extended by finite groups

We apply new techniques to compute Gerstenhaber brackets on the Hochschild cohomology of a skew group algebra formed from a polynomial ring and a finite group (in characteristic 0). We show that the Gerstenhaber brackets can always be expressed in terms of Schouten brackets on polyvector fields. We obtain as consequences some conditions under which brackets are always 0, and show that the Hochschild cohomology is a graded Gerstenhaber algebra under the codimension grading, strengthening known results.
Goal independent central banks: Why politicians decide to delegate

Abstract A motivation for central bank independence (CBI) is that policy delegation helps politicians manage diverse coalitions. This paper develops a model of coalition formation that predicts when delegation will occur. An analysis of policy preferences survey data and CBI indicators supports the predictions. The model also explains why the expected negative relationship between CBI and inflation is not empirically robust: endogenous selection biases the estimated effect towards zero. The data confirm this.
Frame of reference rater training issues: recall, time and behavior observation training

This study investigated three controversial issues regarding frame of reference training (FOR), a type of rater training: (1) Does it improve behavioral recall, (2) Can it be improved by incorporating behavior observation training (BOT), and (3) Can its effects persist over time? Results suggested that even though FOR training increases the number of behaviors recalled, it does not necessarily improve the quality of the recalled behaviors, but a combined FOR + BOT program does improve recall quality. Lastly, results suggested that FOR training can improve rating accuracy, even after a two-week delay between rater training and the rating task.
Beyond Prediction: First Steps toward Automatic Intervention in MOOC Student Stopout.

High attrition rates in massive open online courses (MOOCs) have motivated growing interest in the automatic detection of student “stopout”. Stopout classifiers can be used to orchestrate an intervention before students quit, and to survey students dynamically about why they ceased participation. In this paper we expand on existing stop-out detection research by (1) exploring important elements of classifier design such as generalizability to new courses; (2) developing a novel framework inspired by control theory for how to use a classifier’s outputs to make intelligent decisions; and (3) presenting results from a “dynamic survey intervention” conducted on 2 HarvardX MOOCs, containing over 40000 students, in early 2015. Our results suggest that surveying students based on an automatic stopout classifier achieves higher response rates compared to traditional post-course surveys, and may boost students’ propensity to “come back” into the course.
Delegating to the quango: Ex ante and ex post ministerial constraints

This article examines delegation in the environment of quasi-governmental, special purpose bodies. Better known as “quangos,” these agencies present a challenge for the theory of delegation, because their tasks are often comprised of routine administration, such as the distribution of benefits and the collection of user fees, rather than more politically salient policymaking. Do (spatial) policy conflict and legislative capacity affect the conditions under which authority is delegated to quangos? What effect do “good government” ideology and legislative capacity have on the presence of ex ante and ex post control over quangos? Theoretical predictions are examined with data from a study of Dutch public bodies as well as issue scales from the Manifesto Research Group. Multinomial logit statistical models produce evidence that although policy conflict and legislative capacity measures affect the probabilities of enacting both ex ante and ex post controls, their contributions to ex post measures, as expected in the presence of important hidden action incentives, are much stronger.
Resurrecting the weak credibility hypothesis in models of exchange-rate-based stabilization

Abstract We analyze how weak credibility affects the volatility of consumption spending in a model of exchange-rate-based stabilization that allows for both durable and nondurable goods. The inclusion of durables greatly improves the explanatory power of the weak credibility hypothesis. The hypothesis can account for the main qualitative properties of the boom–bust cycle provided the elasticity of durables expenditure with respect to Tobin's q is greater than the intertemporal elasticity of substitution. Moreover, the quantitative effects are very large. In numerical simulations based on conservative assumptions about the expenditure share of durables (20%) and wealth effects (none), aggregate consumption increases 17–22% and the real exchange rate appreciates 24–26% when the crawl decreases from 100% to zero for 3 years. In variants of the model that incorporate supply effects, the consumption boom is equally strong but appreciation of the real exchange rate rises to 30–40%.
Reshaping the public radio newsroom for the digital future

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the United States National Public Radio’s journey as it strives to become a more Web and multimedia-savvy company. The paper offers a qualitative account of a significant transition phase in the news organization’s development: What started as a 400-person retraining of the newsroom and ended as a re-thinking of the newsroom’s digital development. The paper looks at how NPR created the conditions of ambiguity that allowed for innovation to take place.
Bounds for discrete multilinear spherical maximal functions in higher dimensions

We find the sharp range for boundedness of the discrete bilinear spherical maximal function for dimensions $d \geq 5$. That is, we show that this operator is bounded on $l^{p}(\mathbb{Z}^d)\times l^{q}(\mathbb{Z}^d) \to l^{r}(\mathbb{Z}^d)$ for $\frac{1}{p} + \frac{1}{q} \geq \frac{1}{r}$ and $r>\frac{d}{2d-2}$ and we show this range is sharp. Our approach mirrors that used by Jeong and Lee in the continuous setting. For dimensions $d=3,4$, our previous work, which used different techniques, still gives the best known bounds. We also prove analogous results for higher degree $k$, $\ell$-linear operators.
Home Ownership Risk Beyond a Subprime Crisis: The Role of Delinquency Management

Public investment in and promotion of homeownership and the home mortgage market often relies on three justifications to supplement shelter goals: to build household wealth and economic self-sufficiency, to generate positive social-psychological states, and to develop stable neighborhoods and communities. Homeownership and mortgage obligations do not inherently further these objectives, however, and sometimes undermine them. The most visible triggers of the recent surge in subprime delinquency have produced calls for emergency foreclosure avoidance interventions (as well as front-end regulatory fixes). Whatever their merit, I contend that a system of mortgage delinquency management should be an enduring component of housing policy. Furtherance of housing and household policy objectives hinges in part on the conditions under which homeownership is obtained, maintained, leveraged, and - in some situations - exited. Given that high leverage or trigger events such as job loss and medical problems play significant roles in mortgage delinquency independent of loan terms, better origination practices cannot eliminate the need for delinquency management. One function of this brief essay is to identify an existing rough framework for managing delinquency. Legal scholarship should no longer discuss mortgage enforcement primarily in terms of foreclosure law and instead should include other debtor-creditor laws such as bankruptcy, industry loss mitigation efforts, and third-party interventions such as delinquency housing counseling. In terms of analyzing this framework, it is tempting to focus on its impact on mortgage credit cost and access or on the absolute number of homes temporarily saved, but my proposed analysis is based on whether the system honors and furthers the goals of wealth building, positive social psychological states, and community development. Because those ends are not inexorably linked to ownership generally or owning a particular home, a system of delinquency management that honors these objectives should strive to provide fair, transparent, humane, and predictable strategies for home exit as well as for home retention. Although more empirical research is needed, this essay starts the process of analyzing mortgage delinquency management tools in the proposed fashion.
Gendered performance differences in introductory physics: A study from a large land-grant university

Introductory physics student performance on exams and their final letter grades are, at most, only weakly dependent on gender.
Constant Depth Formula and Partial Function Versions of MCSP are Hard

Attempts to prove the intractability of the Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP) date as far back as the 1950s and are well-motivated by connections to cryptography, learning theory, and average-case complexity. In this work, we make progress, on two fronts, towards showing MCSP is intractable under worst-case assumptions. While Masek showed in the late 1970s that the version of MCSP for DNF formulas is NP-hard, extending this result to the case of depth-3 AND/OR formulas was open. We show that determining the minimum size of a depth- $d$ formula computing a given Boolean function is N P-hard under quasipolynomial-time randomized reductions for all constant $d\geq 2$ . Our approach is based on a method to “lift” depth- $d$ formula lower bounds to depth-( $d+1$ ). This method also implies the existence of a function with a $2^{\Omega_{d}(n^{1/5}}$ ) additive gap between its depth-d and depth-( $d+1$ ) formula complexity. We also make progress in the case of general, unrestricted circuits. We show that the version of MCSP where the input is a partial function (represented by a string in $\{0,1, ?\}^{\ast}$ ) is not in P under the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH). Intriguingly, we formulate a notion of lower bound statements being (P/poly)-recognizable that is closely related to Razborov and Rudich's definition of being (P/poly)-constructive. We show that unless there are subexponential-sized circuits computing SAT, the lower bound statements used to prove the correctness of our reductions cannot be (P/poly)-recognizable.
Quivers with additive labelings: Classification and algebraic entropy

We show that Zamolodchikov dynamics of a recurrent quiver has zero algebraic entropy only if the quiver has a weakly subadditive labeling, and conjecture the converse. By assigning a pair of generalized Cartan matrices of affine type to each quiver with an additive labeling, we completely classify such quivers, obtaining $40$ infinite families and $13$ exceptional quivers. This completes the program of classifying Zamolodchikov periodic and integrable quivers.
The vanishing surface tension limit of the Muskat problem

The Muskat problem, in its general setting, concerns the interface evolution between two incompressible fluids of different densities and viscosities in porous media. The interface motion is driven by gravity and capillarity forces, where the latter is due to surface tension. To leading order, both the Muskat problems with and without surface tension effect are scaling invariant in the Sobolev space $$H^{1+\frac{d}{2}}({\mathbb {R}}^d)$$ , where d is the dimension of the interface. We prove that for any subcritical data satisfying the Rayleigh-Taylor condition, solutions of the Muskat problem with surface tension $${\mathfrak {s}}$$ converge to the unique solution of the Muskat problem without surface tension locally in time with the rate $$\sqrt{\mathfrak {s}}$$ when $${\mathfrak {s}}\rightarrow 0$$ . This allows for initial interfaces that have unbounded or even not locally square integrable curvature. If in addition the initial curvature is square integrable, we obtain the convergence with optimal rate $${\mathfrak {s}}$$ .
Design and Control of SQUEEZE: A Spring-augmented QUadrotor for intEractions with the Environment to squeeZE-and-fly

This paper presents the design and control of a novel quadrotor with a variable geometry to physically interact with cluttered environments and fly through narrow gaps and passageways. This compliant quadrotor with passive morphing capabilities is designed using torsional springs at every arm hinge to allow for rotation driven by external forces. We derive the dynamic model of this variable geometry quadrotor (SQUEEZE), and develop an adaptive controller for trajectory tracking. The corresponding Lyapunov stability proof of attitude tracking is also presented. Further, an admittance controller is designed to account for changes in yaw due to physical interactions with the environment. Finally, the proposed design is validated in flight tests with two setups: a small gap and a passageway. The experimental results demonstrate the unique capability of the SQUEEZE in navigating through constrained narrow spaces.
No Cryosphere-Confined Aquifer Below InSight on Mars

The seismometer deployed by the InSight lander measured the seismic velocity of the Martian crust. We use a rock physics model to interpret those velocities and constrain hydrogeological properties. The seismic velocity of the upper ~10 km is too low to be ice-saturated. Hence there is no cryosphere that confines deeper aquifers. An increase in seismic velocity at depths of ~10 km could be explained by a few volume percent of mineral cement (1-5%) in the pores and may document the past or present depth of aquifers.
Resolving tensions surrounding massive pulleys

The distribution of string tension on the contact line between an ideal string and a massive pulley is a frequently discussed but incompletely posed problem that confronts students in introductory mechanics. We highlight ambiguities in the usual presentation of this problem by the massive Atwood's machine and discuss two compact resolutions that treat situations where the pulley or the string elastically deforms. We propose experiments that can be developed in an intermediate laboratory to determine the tension profile.
Neuroticism alters the transcriptome of the frontal cortex to contribute to the cognitive decline and onset of Alzheimer's disease

Accumulating evidence has suggested that the molecular transcriptional mechanism contributes to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and its endophenotypes of cognitive decline and neuropathological traits, β-amyloid (Aβ) and phosphorylated tangles (TAU). However, it is unknown what is the impact of the AD risk factors, personality characteristics assessed by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, on the human brain’s transcriptome. Using postmortem human brain samples from 466 subjects, we found that neuroticism has a significant overall impact on the brain transcriptome (omnibus P = 0.005) but not the other four personality characteristics. Focused on those cognitive decline related gene co-expressed modules, neuroticism has nominally significant associations (P < 0.05) with four neuronal modules, which are more related to PHFtau than Aβ across all eight brain regions. Furthermore, the effect of neuroticism on cognitive decline and AD might be mediated through the expression of module 7 and TAU pathology (P = 0.008). To conclude, neuroticism has a broad impact on the transcriptome of human brains, and its effect on cognitive decline and AD may be mediated through gene transcription programs related to TAU pathology.
Anisotropic Kappa Distributions. I. Formulation Based on Particle Correlations

We develop the theoretical basis for the connection of the variety of anisotropic distributions with the statistical correlations among particles velocity components. By examining the most common anisotropic distribution, we derive the correlation coefficient among particle energies, show how this correlation is connected to the effective dimensionality of the velocity distribution, and derive the connection between anisotropy and adiabatic polytropic index. Having established the importance of correlation among particles in the formulation of anisotropic kappa distributions, we generalize these distributions within the framework of nonextensive statistical mechanics and based on the types of homogeneous or heterogeneous correlations among the particles velocity components. The formulation of the developed generalized distributions mediates the main two types of anisotropic kappa distributions, considering (a) equal correlations, or (b) zero correlations, among different velocity components. Finally, the developed anisotropic kappa distributions are expressed in terms of the energy and pitch angle in arbitrary reference frames.
Aerosol emissions from water-lean solvents for post-combustion CO2 capture

Abstract Advanced water-lean solvents (WLS) for post-combustion CO2 capture have been gaining interest due to their ability to reduce the parasitic penalty from energy needed for solvent regeneration. Commercial implementation of these novel CO2 capture technologies hinges on successful control of amine emissions. RTI conducted a parametric study of fundamental and operational variables influence on overall amine aerosol and vapor emissions from our water-lean solvent eCO2Sol™ using our 6-kW equivalent bench-scale gas absorption system. The parametric testing used a simulated flue gas with 15 % CO2, 2.3–4.2 % H2O, and 0–6 ppm sulfite (SO3) to examine the impact of the presence of aerosols to the capture performance and amine emissions from the system. The SO3 reacts with water in the flue gas to create H2SO4, which forms liquid aerosol droplets and provide nucleation sites for growth of aerosols. Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer and Aerodynamic Particle Sizer instruments monitored the aerosol particle size distribution. Parametric testing results suggested that the presence of the aerosols in the flue gas could increase the overall amine emissions by 10X compared to the baseline emissions from WLS’s vapor pressure. Principal component analysis (PCA) and projection to latent squares (PLS) developed models to predict the aerosol-based amine emissions from process data. The predictive PLS model had a correlation coefficient (Q2) of 0.92 and could predict the aerosol-based emissions from the NAS process with ±15 % accuracy (average absolute deviation, AAD). The PLS regression model also identified key variables affecting aerosol-based emissions from WLS.
Superconvergent Flux Recovery of the Rannacher–Turek Nonconforming Element

This work presents superconvergence estimates of the nonconforming Rannacher–Turek element for second order elliptic equations on any cubical meshes in $$\mathbb {R}^{2}$$ and $$\mathbb {R}^{3}$$ . In particular, a corrected numerical flux is shown to be superclose to the Raviart–Thomas interpolant of the exact flux. We then design a superconvergent recovery operator based on local weighted averaging. Combining the supercloseness and the recovery operator, we prove that the recovered flux superconverges to the exact flux. As a by-product, we obtain a superconvergent recovery estimate of the Crouzeix–Raviart element method for general elliptic equations.
Broadly Reactive Human Monoclonal Antibodies Targeting the Pneumococcal Histidine Triad Protein Protect against Fatal Pneumococcal Infection

ABSTRACT Streptococcus pneumoniae remains a leading cause of bacterial pneumonia despite the widespread use of vaccines. While vaccines are effective at reducing the incidence of most serotypes included in vaccines, a rise in infection due to nonvaccine serotypes and moderate efficacy against some vaccine serotypes have contributed to high disease incidence. Additionally, numerous isolates of S. pneumoniae are antibiotic or multidrug resistant. Several conserved pneumococcal proteins prevalent in the majority of serotypes have been examined for their potential as vaccines in preclinical and clinical trials. An additional, yet-unexplored tool for disease prevention and treatment is the use of human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) targeting conserved pneumococcal proteins. Here, we isolated the first human MAbs (PhtD3, PhtD6, PhtD7, PhtD8, and PspA16) against the pneumococcal histidine triad protein (PhtD) and the pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA), two conserved and protective antigens. MAbs to PhtD target diverse epitopes on PhtD, and MAb PspA16 targets the N-terminal segment of PspA. The PhtD-specific MAbs bind to multiple serotypes, while MAb PspA16 serotype breadth is limited. MAbs PhtD3 and PhtD8 prolong the survival of mice infected with pneumococcal serotype 3. Furthermore, MAb PhtD3 prolongs the survival of mice in intranasal and intravenous infection models with pneumococcal serotype 4 and in mice infected with pneumococcal serotype 3 when administered 24 h after pneumococcal infection. All PhtD and PspA MAbs demonstrate opsonophagocytic activity, suggesting a potential mechanism of protection. Our results identify new human MAbs for pneumococcal disease prevention and treatment and identify epitopes on PhtD and PspA recognized by human B cells.
The communication complexity of addition

Suppose each of k≤no(1) players holds an n-bit number xi in its hand. The players wish to determine if ?i≤kxi=s. We give a public-coin protocol with error 1% and communication O(k logk). The communication bound is independent of n, and for k?3 improves on the O(k logn) bound by Nisan (Bolyai Soc. Math. Studies; 1993). Our protocol also applies to addition modulo m. In this case we give a matching (public-coin) Ω(k logk) lower bound for various m. We also obtain some lower bounds over the integers, including Ω (k log logk) for protocols that are one-way, like ours. We give a protocol to determine if ?xi >s with error 1% and communication O(k logk) log n. For k?3 this improves on Nisan's O(k log2n) bound. A similar improvement holds for computing degree-(k?1) polynomial-threshold functions in the number-on-forehead model. We give a (public-coin, 2-player, tight) Ω(logn) lower bound to determine if x1 >x2. This improves on the Ω(?logn) bound by Smirnov (1988). Troy Lee informed us in January 2013 that an Ω(logn) lower bound may also be obtained by combining a result in learning theory by Forster et al. (2003) with a result by Linial and Shraibman (2009). As an application, we show that polynomial-size AC0 circuits augmented with O(1) threshold (or symmetric) gates cannot compute cryptographic pseudorandom functions, extending the result about AC0 by Linial, Mansour, and Nisan (J. ACM; 1993).
Two-Dimensional Variable Selection and Its Applications in the Diagnostics of Product Quality Defects

The root cause diagnostics of product quality defects in multistage manufacturing processes often requires a joint identification of crucial stages and process variables. To meet this requirement, ...
The quantum Hall effect in the absence of disorder

It is widely held that disorder is essential to the existence of a finite interval of magnetic field in which the Hall conductance is quantized, i.e., for the existence of “plateaus” in the quantum Hall effect. Here, we show that the existence of a quasi-particle Wigner crystal (QPWC) results in the persistence of plateaus of finite extent even in the limit of vanishing disorder. Several experimentally detectable features that characterize the behavior in the zero disorder limit are also explored.
REMIC Tax Enforcement as Financial-Market Regulator

Lawmakers, prosecutors, homeowners, policymakers, investors, news media, scholars and other commentators have examined, litigated, and reported on numerous aspects of the 2008 Financial Crisis and the role that residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) played in that crisis. Big banks create RMBS by pooling mortgage notes into trusts and selling interests in those trusts as RMBS. Absent from prior work related to RMBS securitization is the tax treatment of RMBS mortgage-note pools and the critical role tax enforcement should play in ensuring the integrity of mortgage-note securitization. This Article is the first to examine federal tax aspects of RMBS mortgagenote pools formed in the years leading up to the Financial Crisis. Tax law provides favorable tax treatment to real estate mortgage investment conduits (REMICs), a type of RMBS pool. To qualify for the favorable REMIC tax treatment, an RMBS pool must meet several requirements relating to the ownership and quality of mortgage notes. The practices of loan originators and RMBS organizers in the years leading up to the Financial Crisis jeopardize the tax classification of a significant portion of the RMBS pools. Nonetheless, the IRS appears to believe that there is no legal or policy basis for challenging REMIC classification of even the worst RMBS pools. This Article takes issue with the IRS’s inaction and presents both the legal and policy grounds for enforcing tax law by challenging the REMIC classification of at least the worst types of RMBS pools. The Article urges the IRS to take action, recognizing that its failure to police these arrangements prior to the Financial Crisis is partly to blame for the economic meltdown in 2008. The IRS’s continued failure to police RMBS arrangements provides latitude to industry participants, which facilitates future economic catastrophes. Even without the IRS taking action, private parties can rely upon the blueprint set forth in the Article to bring qui tam or whistleblower claims to accomplish the purposes of the REMIC rules and obtain the beneficial results that would occur if the IRS enforced the REMIC rules. * Brad and David are Professors of Law at Brooklyn Law School. They thank Emily Berman, Anita Bernstein, Dana Brakman Reiser, Neil Cohen, Steve Dean, Ted Janger, Steve Landsman, and Alan Lederman for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this Article. They also thank Orly Graber and Tobias Schad for excellent research assistance. © 2013 Bradley T. Borden & David J. Reiss. 2 15 U. PA. J. BUS. L. ____ (forthcoming 2014)
How to create better Hawala regulations: a case study of Hawala regulations in Afghanistan

Hawala is an ancient system of remittance that originated from South Asia. Far from being an anachronism, it continues to play an important role in many developing countries. Hawala provides a user-friendly and inexpensive but also opaque way to move funds within a dense network of Hawaladars across disparate locals. Hawala was historically used to facilitate long-distance trade; however, more recently, migrant workers, criminals, and terrorists also use Hawala to move funds outside the formal financial system. The dominant approach to Hawala regulations fails to consider the context of Hawala usage. This article studies the recent failed attempt by Afghanistan’s Central Bank to regulate Hawala markets to illustrate the shortcomings of the dominant approach. It illustrates how, in Afghanistan, Hawaladars help finance supply chains. It then proposes a new approach to Hawala regulations: formalizing informal credit practices of Hawaladars. Instead of outlawing Hawaladars’ credit practices, Afghanistan should use the offer of inclusion in the formal financial system to incentivize Hawaladars to comply with anti-money laundering regulations. This approach will also improve access to credit for Afghan merchants by ensuring the continued supply of credit by Hawaladars. While here this approach is applied to Hawala regulations, it has broader applications.
No-substitution k-means Clustering with Adversarial Order

We investigate $k$-means clustering in the online no-substitution setting when the input arrives in \emph{arbitrary} order. In this setting, points arrive one after another, and the algorithm is required to instantly decide whether to take the current point as a center before observing the next point. Decisions are irrevocable. The goal is to minimize both the number of centers and the $k$-means cost. Previous works in this setting assume that the input's order is random, or that the input's aspect ratio is bounded. It is known that if the order is arbitrary and there is no assumption on the input, then any algorithm must take all points as centers. Moreover, assuming a bounded aspect ratio is too restrictive -- it does not include natural input generated from mixture models. We introduce a new complexity measure that quantifies the difficulty of clustering a dataset arriving in arbitrary order. We design a new random algorithm and prove that if applied on data with complexity $d$, the algorithm takes $O(d\log(n) k\log(k))$ centers and is an $O(k^3)$-approximation. We also prove that if the data is sampled from a ``natural" distribution, such as a mixture of $k$ Gaussians, then the new complexity measure is equal to $O(k^2\log(n))$. This implies that for data generated from those distributions, our new algorithm takes only $\text{poly}(k\log(n))$ centers and is a $\text{poly}(k)$-approximation. In terms of negative results, we prove that the number of centers needed to achieve an $\alpha$-approximation is at least $\Omega\left(\frac{d}{k\log(n\alpha)}\right)$.
Age Optimal Information Gathering and Dissemination on Graphs

We consider the problem of timely exchange of updates between a central station and a set of ground terminals V, via a mobile agent that traverses across the ground terminals along a mobility graph G = (V, E). We design the trajectory of the mobile agent to minimize average-peak and average age of information (AoI), two recently proposed metrics for measuring timeliness of information. We consider randomized trajectories, in which the mobile agent travels from terminal i to terminal j with probability Pi,j. For the information gathering problem, we show that a randomized trajectory is average-peak age optimal and factor-8H average age optimal, where H is the mixing time of the randomized trajectory on the mobility graph G. We also show that the average age minimization problem is NP-hard. For the information dissemination problem, we prove that the same randomized trajectory is factor-O(H) peak and average age optimal. Moreover, we propose an age-based trajectory, which utilizes information about current age at terminals, and show that it is factor-2 average age optimal in a symmetric setting.
Comparison of a trauma comorbidity index with other measures of comorbidities to estimate risk of trauma mortality.

BACKGROUND Comorbidities influence the outcomes of injured patients, yet a lack of consensus exists regarding how to quantify that association. This study details the development and internal validation of a trauma comorbidity index (TCI) designed for use with trauma registry data and compares its performance to other existing measures to estimate the association between comorbidities and mortality. METHODS Indiana state trauma registry data (2013-2015) were used to compare the TCI with the Charlson and Elixhauser comorbidity indices, a count of comorbidities, and comorbidities as separate variables. The TCI approach utilized a randomly selected training cohort and was internally validated in a distinct testing cohort. The C-statistic of the adjusted models was tested using each comorbidity measure in the testing cohort to assess model discrimination. C-statistics were compared using a Wald test, and stratified analyses were performed based on predicted risk of mortality. Multiple imputation was used to address missing data. RESULTS The study included 84,903 patients (50% each in training and testing cohorts). The Indiana TCI model demonstrated no significant difference between testing and training cohorts (p = 0.33). It produced a C-statistic of 0.924 in the testing cohort, which was significantly greater than that of models using the other indices (p < 0.05). The C-statistics of models using the Indiana TCI and the inclusion of comorbidities as separate variables-the method used by the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Program-were comparable (p = 0.11) but use of the TCI approach reduced the number of comorbidity-related variables in the mortality model from 19 to one. CONCLUSIONS When examining trauma mortality, the TCI approach using Indiana state trauma registry data demonstrated superior model discrimination and/or parsimony compared to other measures of comorbidities.
Research Trends in Artificial Intelligence Applications in Human Factors Health Care: Mapping Review.

Background: Despite advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) to develop prediction and classification models, little research has been devoted to real-world translations with a user-centered design approach. AI development studies in the health care context have often ignored two critical factors of ecological validity and human cognition, creating challenges at the interface with clinicians and the clinical environment. Objective: The aim of this literature review was to investigate the contributions made by major human factors communities in health care AI applications. This review also discusses emerging research gaps, and provides future research directions to facilitate a safer and user-centered integration of AI into the clinical workflow. Methods: We performed an extensive mapping review to capture all relevant articles published within the last 10 years in the major human factors journals and conference proceedings listed in the “Human Factors and Ergonomics” category of the Scopus Master List. In each published volume, we searched for studies reporting qualitative or quantitative findings in the context of AI in health care. Studies are discussed based on the key principles such as evaluating workload, usability, trust in technology, perception, and user-centered design. Results: Forty-eight articles were included in the final review. Most of the studies emphasized user perception, the usability of AI-based devices or technologies, cognitive workload, and user’s trust in AI. The review revealed a nascent but growing body of literature focusing on augmenting health care AI; however, little effort has been made to ensure ecological validity with user-centered design approaches. Moreover, few studies (n=5 against clinical/baseline standards, n=5 against clinicians) compared their AI models against a standard measure. Conclusions: Human factors researchers should actively be part of efforts in AI design and implementation, as well as dynamic assessments of AI systems’ effects on interaction, workflow, and patient outcomes. An AI system is part of a greater sociotechnical system. Investigators with human factors and ergonomics expertise are essential when defining the dynamic interaction of AI within each element, process, and result of the work system.
The Norton algebra of a Q-polynomial distance-regular graph

Abstract We consider the Norton algebra associated with a Q-polynomial primitive idempotent of the adjacency matrix for a distance-regular graph. We obtain a formula for the Norton algebra product that we find attractive.
Near Infrared Spectroscopic Evaluation Of Water In Hyaline Cartilage

In diseased conditions of cartilage such as osteoarthritis, there is typically an increase in water content from the average normal of 60–85% to greater than 90%. As cartilage has very little capability for self-repair, methods of early detection of degeneration are required, and assessment of water could prove to be a useful diagnostic method. Current assessment methods are either destructive, time consuming, or have limited sensitivity. Here, we investigated the hypotheses that non-destructive near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) of articular cartilage can be used to differentiate between free and bound water, and to quantitatively assess water content. The absorbances centered at 5200 and 6890 cm−1 were attributed to a combination of free and bound water, and to free water only, respectively. The integrated areas of both absorbance bands were found to correlate linearly with the absolute water content (R = 0.87 and 0.86) and with percent water content (R = 0.97 and 0.96) of the tissue. Partial least square models were also successfully developed and were used to predict water content, and percent free water. These data demonstrate that NIRS can be utilized to quantitatively determine water content in articular cartilage, and may aid in early detection of degenerative tissue changes in a laboratory setting, and with additional validations, possibly in a clinical setting.
How to measure the environmental and health risk of exposure to future epidemics in cities

Abstract. This paper suggests a metrics that measures the environmental risk of exposure of cities to future waves of COVID-19 and epidemics of similar vital agents. The proposed index combines environmental, socioeconomic and health risk factors of cities to assess their vulnerability to the diffusion of infectious diseases. The statistical evidence here seems in general to support the predictive results of the index in assessing the risk of exposure of cities to the spread of infectious diseases. The metrics here can be important to help policymakers in decision making to constrain new waves of the COVID-19 and/or diffusion of new infectious diseases similar to COVID-19 with appropriate control measures on environment and socioeconomic system. Keywords. COVID-19, Vulnerability index, Infectious diseases, Public health, Risk assessment, Critical decisions. JEL. Q12, Q13, Q15, Q18 .
On the optimal design of the randomized unbiased Monte Carlo estimators

Abstract We consider a class of unbiased Monte Carlo estimators and develop an efficient algorithm to produce the distribution of the optimal random truncation level. We establish the convergence and optimality results of the associated algorithm and also derive its exact complexity. We find this algorithm has a much lower complexity as compared to the existing one in the literature. The proposed algorithm is also applicable to optimization problems arising in supply chain management, such as economic reorder interval problem.
Abortive intussusceptive angiogenesis causes multi-cavernous vascular malformations.

Mosaic inactivation of CCM2 in humans causes cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) containing adjacent dilated blood-filled multi-cavernous lesions. We used CRISPR-Cas9 mutagenesis to induce mosaic inactivation of zebrafish ccm2 resulting in a novel lethal multi-cavernous lesion in the embryonic caudal venous plexus (CVP) caused by obstruction of blood flow by intraluminal pillars. These pillars mimic those that mediate intussusceptive angiogenesis; however, in contrast to the normal process, the pillars failed to fuse to split the pre-existing vessel in two. Abortive intussusceptive angiogenesis stemmed from mosaic inactivation of ccm2 leading to patchy klf2a over-expression and resultant aberrant flow signaling. Surviving adult fish manifested histologically-typical hemorrhagic CCM. Formation of mammalian CCM requires the flow-regulated transcription factor KLF2; fish CCM and the embryonic CVP lesion failed to form in klf2a null fish indicating a common pathogenesis with the mammalian lesion. These studies describe a zebrafish CCM model and establish a mechanism that can explain the formation of characteristic multi-cavernous lesions.
Witnessing the survival of time-energy entanglement through biological tissue and scattering media

We demonstrate the preservation of the time-energy entanglement of near-IR photons through thick biological media (≤1.55 mm) and tissue (≤ 235 μm) at room temperature. Using a Franson-type interferometer, we demonstrate interferometric contrast of over 0.9 in skim milk, 2% milk, and chicken tissue. This work supports the many proposed opportunities for nonclassical light in biological imaging and analyses from sub-shot noise measurements to entanglement-enhanced fluorescence imaging, clearly indicating that the entanglement characteristics of photons can be maintained even after propagation through thick, turbid biological samples.
Droplet and fibril formation of the functional amyloid Orb2.

The functional amyloid Orb2 belongs to the cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding (CPEB) protein family and plays an important role in long-term memory formation in Drosophila. The Orb2 domain structure combines RNA recognition motifs with low-complexity sequences similar to many RNA-binding proteins shown to form protein droplets via liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) in vivo and in vitro. This similarity suggests that Orb2 might also undergo LLPS. However, cellular Orb2 puncta have very little internal protein mobility, and Orb2 forms fibrils in Drosophila brains that are functionally active indicating that LLPS might not play a role for Orb2. In the present work, we reconcile these two views on Orb2 droplet formation. Using fluorescence microscopy, we show that soluble Orb2 can indeed phase separate into protein droplets. However, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) data shows that these droplets have either no or only an extremely short-lived liquid phase and appear maturated right after formation. Orb2 fragments that lack the C-terminal RNA-binding domain (RBD) form fibrils out of these droplets. Solid-state NMR shows that these fibrils have well-ordered static domains in addition to the Gln/His-rich fibril core. Further, we find that full-length Orb2B, which is by far the major component of Orb2 fibrils in vivo, does not transition into fibrils but remains in the droplet phase. Together, our data suggest that phase separation might play a role in initiating the formation of functional Orb2 fibrils.