cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Can Scientific Impact Be Predicted

A widely used measure of scientific impact is citations. However, due to their heavy-tailed distribution, citations are fundamentally difficult to predict. Instead, to characterize scientific impact, we address two analogous questions asked by many scientific researchers: “How will my h -index evolve over time, and which of my previously or newly published papers will contribute to it?” To answer these questions, we perform two related tasks. First, we develop a model to predict authors’ future h -indices based on their current scientific impact. Second, we examine the factors that drive papers—either previously or newly published—to increase their authors’ predicted future h -indices. By leveraging relevant factors, we can predict an author's h -index in five years with an $R^2$ value of 0.92 and whether a previously (newly) published paper will contribute to this future h -index with an $F_1$ score of 0.99 (0.77). We find that topical authority and publication venue are crucial to these effective predictions, while topic popularity is surprisingly inconsequential. Further, we develop an online tool that allows users to generate informed h -index predictions. Our work demonstrates the predictability of scientific impact, and can help researchers to effectively leverage their scholarly position of “standing on the shoulders of giants.”
CT Evaluation of Effects of Cranial Radiation Therapy in Children

A retrospective evaluation was completed of 49 children who received conventional cranial radiation therapy for primary central nervous system and/or skull-base neoplasia and who had follow-up CT studies. In these children, abnormalities in normal parenchyma away from the tumor itself were surprisingly frequent, with or without chemotherapy. Generalized volume loss or atrophy was the most frequent abnormality (51%), but in this population it may have resulted from a variety of causes. Calcification in nontumorous parenchyma was common (28%) with or without chemotherapy. The most frequent site of calcification was subcortical at the gray-white junction. Calcification was progressive over 1–2 years and correlated pathologically with mineralizing microangiopathy and dystrophic calcification with demyelination. White-matter abnormalities other than those associated with shunt malfunction and tumor edema occurred in 26% of the patients. Both white-matter abnormalities and calcification occurred predominantly in younger children, particularly those under 3 years old at the time of radiation therapy. Of the 21 children who received chemotherapy in this series, only two received methotrexate. White-matter abnormalities and calcifications occurred with similar frequency in children with and without chemotherapy; thus, radiation therapy is the most likely cause of these findings.
Degree of Dependence and Independence of the (Sub)Components of Fuzzy Set and Neutrosophic Set

We have introduced for the first time the degree of dependence (and consequently the degree of independence) between the components of the fuzzy set, and also between the components of the neutrosophic set in our 2006 book’s fifth edition. Now we extend it for the first time to the refined neutrosophic set considering the degree of dependence or independence of subcomponets.
Alcohol outlets, social disorganization, and non-violent crimes in urban neighborhoods

AbstractMany studies show an association between alcohol outlets and violence, though fewer consider non-violent crime. We add to this literature using block group data from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to explore whether (1) on- and off-premise alcohol outlet density is related to thefts from vehicles and vandalism and (2) social disorganization moderates these associations. Using spatially informed regression models, we found positive effects of on-premise alcohol outlet density on thefts from vehicles. We also found positive effects of on- and off-premise alcohol outlet density on vandalism. Social disorganization was not a consistent moderator of these associations.
Idempotent distributed counters using a forgetful bloom filter

Distributed key-value stores power the backend of high-performance web services and cloud computing applications. Key-value stores such as Cassandra rely heavily on counters to track occurrences of various kinds of events. However, modern implementations of counters do not provide exactly-once semantics. E.g., a client may request a counter increment, time out waiting for a response, and create a duplicate request resulting in a double increment at the server. In this paper, we address this problem by presenting, analyzing, and evaluating a novel server-side data structure called the forgetful bloom filter (FBF). Like a traditional Bloom filter, an FBF is a compact representation of a set of elements (e.g., client requests). However, an FBF: (i) can forget older elements (e.g., requests that are too old to apply), and (ii) adapts itself to meet a desired false positive rate under a varying workload. We present experimental results from a prototype implementation of FBFs and an implementation of FBFs in the Cassandra key-value store. Our results show that the FBF is highly accurate in maintaining correct counter values.
Hybrid CPU-GPU scheduling and execution of tree traversals

GPUs offer the promise of massive, power-efficient parallelism. However, exploiting this parallelism requires code to be carefully structured to deal with the limitations of the SIMT execution model. In recent years, there has been much interest in mapping irregular applications to GPUs: applications with unpredictable, data-dependent behaviors. While most of the work in this space has focused on ad hoc implementations of specific algorithms, recent work has looked at generic techniques for mapping a large class of tree traversal algorithms to GPUs, through careful restructuring of the tree traversal algorithms to make them behave more regularly. Unfortunately, even this general approach for GPU execution of tree traversal algorithms is reliant on ad hoc, hand-written, algorithm-specific scheduling (i.e., assignment of threads to warps) to achieve high performance.The key challenge of scheduling is that it is a highly irregular process, that requires the inspection of thread behavior and then careful sorting of those threads into warps. In this paper, we present a novel scheduling and execution technique for tree traversal algorithms that is both general and automatic. The key novelty is a hybrid, inspector-executor approach: the GPU partially executes tasks to inspect thread behavior and transmits information back to the CPU, which uses that information to perform the scheduling itself, before executing the remaining, carefully scheduled, portion of the traversals on the GPU. We applied this framework to six tree traversal algorithms, achieving significant speedups over optimized GPU code that does not perform application-specific scheduling. Further, we show that in many cases, our hybrid approach is able to deliver better performance even than GPU code that uses handtuned, application-specific scheduling.
The dexamethasone suppression test and depression. Approaches to the use of a laboratory test in psychiatry.

The current status of the utility of the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) in clinical psychiatry is reviewed. Data taken from an exhaustive review of the field shows it has a sensitivity of 45 per cent and specificity of 85 per cent. Presently, the DST has limited utility in routine clinical practice for the diagnosis, prognosis, and clinical outcome of depression. It may help distinguish psychotic affective illness from schizophrenia and may aid in ascertaining risk of relapse in certain patients. Additional research on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis dys- regulation in depression and the possible contribution of dexamethasone pharmacokinetics to false-positive and falsenegative outcome may improve test performance in the future. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis is described as a method that may better analyze test results in the future.
Optically Modulated Photoswitchable Fluorescent Proteins Yield Improved Biological Imaging Sensitivity

Photoswitchable fluorescent proteins (PS-FPs) open grand new opportunities in biological imaging. Through optical manipulation of FP emission, we demonstrate that dual-laser modulated synchronously amplified fluorescence image recovery (DM-SAFIRe) improves signal contrast in high background through unambiguous demodulation and is linear in relative fluorophore abundance at different points in the cell. The unique bright-to-dark state interconversion rates of each PS-FP not only enables discrimination of different, yet spectrally indistinguishable FPs, but also allows signal rejection of diffusing relative to bound forms of the same PS-FP, rsFastLime. Adding to the sensitivity gains realized from rejecting non-modulatable background, the selective signal recovery of immobilized vs diffusing intracellular rsFastLime suggests that DM-SAFIRe can detect weak protein–protein interactions that are normally obscured by large fractions of unbound FPs.
Association of baseline bleeding pattern on amenorrhea with levonorgestrel intrauterine system use

Abstract Objective This study aims to evaluate the effect of baseline bleeding patterns on rates of amenorrhea reported at 12 months in levonorgestrel (LNG) 52 mg intrauterine system (IUS) users. We also assessed the effect of baseline bleeding patterns at 3 and 6 months postinsertion. Study design In this secondary analysis of the Contraceptive CHOICE Project, we included participants who had an LNG-IUS inserted within 1 month of enrollment and continued use for 12 months. Using 12-month telephone survey data, we defined amenorrhea at 12 months of use as no bleeding or spotting during the previous 6 months. We used chi-square and multivariable logistic regression to assess the association of baseline bleeding pattern with amenorrhea while controlling for confounding variables. Results Of 1802 continuous 12-month LNG-IUS users, amenorrhea was reported by 4.9%, 14.8% and 15.4% of participants at 3, 6 and 12 months, receptively. Participants with light baseline bleeding or short duration of flow reported higher rates of amenorrhea at 3 and 6 months postinsertion (p adj , 0.36; 95% CI, 0.16–0.69). Conclusion Women with heavier menstrual bleeding are less likely than women with moderate flow to report amenorrhea following 12 months of LNG-IUS use. Implications Baseline heavy menstrual flow reduces the likelihood of amenorrhea with LNG-IUS use, information that could impact contraceptive counseling. Anticipatory counseling can improve method satisfaction and continuation, an important strategy to continue to reduce unintended pregnancy and abortion rates.
The flight of ISEE-3/ice: Origins, mission history, and a legacy

A brief history of the ISEE-3/ICE mission is presented. ISEE-3/ICE was the first spacecraft to use a "halo orbit" and lunar gravity-assist maneuvers to achieve its mission objectives. Using these innovative trajectory techniques, ISEE-3/ICE was able to carry out a number of important scientific mission tasks including: the first continuous measurements of solar-wind conditions upstream from the Earth; the first exploration of the Earth's magnetotail between 80 and 240 Earth radii; and the first encounter with a comet. The account of the ISEE-3/ICE flight history is augmented by discussions of the political and programmatic hurdles that had to be overcome to gain approval to redirect ISEE-3/ICE to the distant geotail region, and then on to a comet. Key documents related to the approval of these extended missions are reproduced in the appendices. Finally, it is shown that, by successfully demonstrating the usefulness and practicality of halo orbits and lunar gravity-assist trajectories, ISEE-3/ICE has paved the way for numerous follow-on missions such as Hiten, Geotail, Wind, SOHO, ACE, MAP, Genesis, Triana, FIRST, Planck, and NGST.
Thermotherapy reduces blood pressure and circulating endothelin-1 concentration and enhances leg blood flow in patients with symptomatic peripheral artery disease

Leg thermotherapy (TT) application reduces blood pressure (BP) and increases both limb blood flow and circulating levels of anti-inflammatory mediators in healthy, young humans and animals. The purpose of the present study was to determine the impact of TT application using a water-circulating garment on leg and systemic hemodynamics and on the concentrations of circulating cytokines and vasoactive mediators in patients with symptomatic peripheral artery disease (PAD). Sixteen patients with PAD and intermittent claudication (age: 63 ± 9 yr) completed three experimental sessions in a randomized order: TT, control intervention, and one exercise testing session. The garment was perfused with 48°C water for 90 min in the TT session and with 33°C water in the control intervention. A subset of 10 patients also underwent a protocol for the measurement of blood flow in the popliteal artery during 90 min of TT using phase-contrast MRI. Compared with the control intervention, TT promoted a significant reduction in systolic (∼11 mmHg) and diastolic (∼6 mmHg) BP (P < 0.05) that persisted for nearly 2 h after the end of the treatment. The serum concentration of endothelin-1 (ET-1) was significantly lower 30 min after exposure to TT (Control: 2.3 ± 0.1 vs. TT: 1.9 ± 0.09 pg/ml, P = 0.026). In addition, TT induced a marked increase in peak blood flow velocity (∼68%), average velocity (∼76%), and average blood flow (∼102%) in the popliteal artery (P < 0.01). These findings indicate that TT is a practical and effective strategy to reduce BP and circulating ET-1 concentration and enhance leg blood flow in patients with PAD.
Spirituality, emotional distress, and post-traumatic growth in breast cancer survivors and their partners: an actor–partner interdependence modeling approach

Background The association between spirituality and emotional health has been well documented in healthy individuals. A small literature has shown that spirituality plays a role in well-being for some breast cancer (BC) survivors; however, this link is virtually unexplored in partners/spouses of survivors. The current study aimed to assess the relationship between spirituality, emotional distress, and post-traumatic growth for BC survivors and their partners using a dyadic analyses approach. Methods A total of 498 couples who were 3–8 years post-BC diagnosis were recruited from the Eastern Oncology Group database. Results For BC survivors and their partners, greater levels of spirituality were associated with increases in their own post-traumatic growth. There was no relation between BC and partner spirituality and their own emotional distress, but partner's spirituality was associated with reduced occurrence of intrusive thoughts in the BC survivor. In contrast, BC survivors' spirituality was found to be wholly unrelated to partner's mental health and adjustment. Conclusions Following diagnosis and treatment, spirituality appears to associate with positive growth in BC survivors and their partners. However, BC survivor and partner spirituality seem to be ineffective at impacting the other's post-traumatic growth or emotional distress, with the exception of intrusive thoughts. Dyadic analysis takes into account the reciprocal influence of close relationships on health and is an important and under-utilized methodology in behavioral oncology research and clinical practice. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mitigating MPI Message Matching Misery

To satisfy MPI ordering semantics in the presence of wildcards, current implementations store posted receive operations and unexpected messages in linked lists. As applications scale up, communication patterns that scale with the number of processes or the number of threads per process can cause those linked lists to grow and become a performance problem. We propose new structures and matching algorithms to address these performance challenges. Our scheme utilizes a hash map that is extended with message ordering annotations to significantly reduce time spent searching for matches in the posted receive and the unexpected message structures. At the same time, we maintain the required MPI ordering semantics, even in the presence of wildcards. We evaluate our approach on several benchmarks and demonstrate a significant reduction in the number of unsuccessful match attempts in the MPI message processing engine, while at the same time incurring low space and time overheads.
Direct carbon–carbon bond formation via reductive soft enolization: a syn-selective Mannich addition of α-iodo thioesters

The β-amino carboxylic acid moiety is a key feature of numerous important biologically active compounds. We describe a syn-selective direct Mannich addition reaction that uses α-iodo thioesters and sulfonyl imines and produces β-amino thioesters. Enolate formation is achieved by reductive soft enolization. The products of the reaction provide straightforward access to biologically important β-lactams through a variety of known reactions.
Dynamical Systems Method for Solving Operator Equations

Preface Contents 1. Introduction 2. Ill-posed problems 3. DSM for well-posed problems 4. DSM and linear ill-posed problems 5. Some inequalities 6. DSM for monotone operators 7. DSM for general nonlinear operator equations 8 DSM for operators satisfying a spectral assumption 9. DSM in Banach spaces 10. DSM and Newton-type methods without inversion of the derivative 11. DSM and unbounded operators 12. DSM and nonsmooth operators 13. DSM as a theoretical tool 14. DSM and iterative methods 15. Numerical problems arising in applications 16. Auxiliary results from analysis Bibliographical notes Bibliography Index
Reply to Yang et al.: GCTA produces unreliable heritability estimates.

In our recent paper in PNAS (1), and subsequently (2), we have analyzed the mathematical model that is stated precisely by Yang et al. (3). As written, their model assumes that ( i ) the Genetic Relatedness Matrix (GRM) is known exactly, ( ii ) the phenotypic contributions of each of the P SNPs are independent identically distributed draws from the same normal distribution with mean 0 and variance σ 2 , and ( iii ) σ 2 is independent of P . The empirical facts … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: sidkk86{at}stanford.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
An approach to processing queries in a logic-based query language

We summarize the “capture rule” approach to planning queries in a rule-oriented database management system. Selecting from among strategies for the application of logical rules to data may be viewed as an advanced form of query optimization. Capture rules provide a framework within which a system can make such decisions. They also assist in the development of a theory of optimal strategies for logic processing. This paper surveys some of the known capture rules and suggests how they can be fit together into a system that provides “knowledge processing” with database management.
Boilerplate and Economic Power in Auto-Manufacturing Contracts

Manufacturing contracts in the automotive industry have served a canonical role in the economic theory of contract and bargaining. The famous story of General Motors' relationship with its supplier...
Surgical Management of Benign Adnexal Masses in the Pediatric/Adolescent Population: An 11-Year Review

Abstract Study Objective The purpose of this study was to compare ovarian conservation rates and surgical approach in benign adnexal surgeries performed by surgeons vs gynecologists at a tertiary care institution. Design A retrospective cohort review. Setting Children's and adult tertiary care university-based hospital. Participants Patients 21 years of age and younger who underwent surgery for an adnexal mass from January 2003 through December 2013. Interventions Patient age, demographic characteristics, menarchal status, clinical symptoms, radiologic imaging, timing of surgery, surgeon specialty, mode of surgery, rate of ovarian conservation, and pathology were recorded. Patients were excluded if they had a uterine anomaly or pathology-proven malignancy. Main Outcome Measures The primary outcome was the rate of ovarian conservation relative to surgical specialty; secondary outcome was surgical approach relative to surgical specialty. Results Of 310 potential cases, 194 met inclusion criteria. Gynecologists were more likely than surgeons to conserve the ovary (80% vs 63%; odds ratio, 2.28; 95% confidence interval, 1.16-4.48). After adjusting for age, body mass index, mass size, and urgency of surgery, the difference was attenuated (adjusted odds ratio, 1.84; 95% confidence interval, 0.88-3.84). Surgeons and gynecologists performed minimally invasive surgery at similar rates (62% vs 50%; P = .11). A patient was more likely to receive surgery by a gynecologist if she was older ( P P = .005). Conclusion Results of our study suggest that gynecologists are more likely to perform ovarian-conserving surgery. However, our sample size precluded precise estimates in our multivariable model. Educational efforts among all pediatric and gynecologic surgeons should emphasize ovarian conservation and fertility preservation whenever possible.
Intra- and inter- data center networking architectures for future cloud computing

This paper covers (1) extremely high throughput and low-latency inter-data center networking with high-radix AWGR optical switches, and (2) elastic optical networking for interconnection of large data centers and telecommunication systems in the cloud.
THE NEUMANN PROBLEM ON ELLIPSOIDS.

The Neumann problem on an ellipsoid in \(\mathbf {R}^n\) asks for a function harmonic inside the ellipsoid whose normal derivative is some specified function on the ellipsoid. We solve this problem when the specified function on the ellipsoid is a normalized polynomial (a polynomial divided by the norm of the normal vector arising from the definition of the ellipsoid). Specifically, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for a solution to exist, and we show that if a solution exists then it is a polynomial whose degree is at most the degree of the polynomial giving the specified function. Furthermore, we give an algorithm for computing this solution. We also solve the corresponding generalized Neumann problem and give an algorithm for computing its solution.
Sampling random spanning trees faster than matrix multiplication

We present an algorithm that, with high probability, generates a random spanning tree from an edge-weighted undirected graph in (n5/3 m1/3) time. The tree is sampled from a distribution where the probability of each tree is proportional to the product of its edge weights. This improves upon the previous best algorithm due to Colbourn et al. that runs in matrix multiplication time, O(nω). For the special case of unweighted graphs, this improves upon the best previously known running time of O(min{nω,m√n,m4/3}) for m ⪢ n7/4 (Colbourn et al. '96, Kelner-Madry '09, Madry et al. '15). The effective resistance metric is essential to our algorithm, as in the work of Madry et al., but we eschew determinant-based and random walk-based techniques used by previous algorithms. Instead, our algorithm is based on Gaussian elimination, and the fact that effective resistance is preserved in the graph resulting from eliminating a subset of vertices (called a Schur complement). As part of our algorithm, we show how to compute -approximate effective resistances for a set S of vertex pairs via approximate Schur complements in O(m+(n + |S|)e-2) time, without using the Johnson-Lindenstrauss lemma which requires O( min{(m + |S|)e2, m+ne-4 +|S|e2}) time. We combine this approximation procedure with an error correction procedure for handling edges where our estimate isn't sufficiently accurate.
Digital Signatures Based on the Hardness of Ideal Lattice Problems in All Rings

Many practical lattice-based schemes are built upon the Ring-SIS or Ring-LWE problems, which are problems that are based on the presumed difficulty of finding low-weight solutions to linear equations over polynomial rings $$\mathbb {Z}_q[\mathbf{x}]/\langle \mathbf{f}\rangle $$ . Our belief in the asymptotic computational hardness of these problems rests in part on the fact that there are reduction showing that solving them is as hard as finding short vectors in all lattices that correspond to ideals of the polynomial ring $$\mathbb {Z}[\mathbf{x}]/\langle \mathbf{f}\rangle $$ . These reductions, however, do not give us an indication as to the effect that the polynomial $$\mathbf{f}$$ , which defines the ring, has on the average-case or worst-case problems. As of today, there haven't been any weaknesses found in Ring-SIS or Ring-LWE problems when one uses an $$\mathbf{f}$$ which leads to a meaningful worst-case to average-case reduction, but there have been some recent algorithms for related problems that heavily use the algebraic structures of the underlying rings. It is thus conceivable that some rings could give rise to more difficult instances of Ring-SIS and Ring-LWE than other rings. A more ideal scenario would therefore be if there would be an average-case problem, allowing for efficient cryptographic constructions, that is based on the hardness of finding short vectors in ideals of $$\mathbb {Z}[\mathbf{x}]/\langle \mathbf{f}\rangle $$ for every $$\mathbf{f}$$ . In this work, we show that the above may actually be possible. We construct a digital signature scheme based in the random oracle model on a simple adaptation of the Ring-SIS problem which is as hard to break as worst-case problems in every $$\mathbf{f}$$ whose degree is bounded by the parameters of the scheme. Up to constant factors, our scheme is as efficient as the highly practical schemes that work over the ring $$\mathbb {Z}[\mathbf{x}]/\langle \mathbf{x}^n+1\rangle $$ .
Familial Factors, Victimization, and Psychological Health Among Sexual Minority Adolescents in Sweden

Objectives. To determine the influences of victimization experience and familial factors on the association between sexual minority status and psychological health outcomes among adolescents.Methods. We used data from the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden, a prospective, population-based study of all twins born in Sweden since 1992. Cross-sectional analyses included individuals who completed assessments at age 18 years (n = 4898) from 2000 to 2013. We also compared psychological health among sexual minority adolescents and their nonminority co-twins.Results. Sexual minority adolescents were more likely than were unrelated nonminority adolescents to report victimization experiences, including emotional abuse, physical abuse or neglect, and sexual abuse. Sexual minority adolescents also reported significantly more symptoms of anxiety, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, disordered eating, and substance misuse in addition to increased parent-reported behavior problems. Victimization...
Poisson Cluster Process Based Analysis of HetNets With Correlated User and Base Station Locations

This paper develops a new approach to the modeling and analysis of heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNets) that accurately incorporates coupling across the locations of users and base stations, which exists due to the deployment of small cell base stations (SBSs) at the places of high user density (termed user hotspots in this paper). Modeling the locations of the geographical centers of user hotspots as a homogeneous Poisson point process (PPP), we assume that the users and SBSs are clustered around each user hotspot center independently with two different distributions. The macrocell BS locations are modeled by an independent PPP. This model is consistent with the user and SBS configurations considered by 3GPP. Using this model, we study the performance of a typical user in terms of coverage probability and throughput for two association policies: 1) Policy 1 , under which a typical user is served by the open-access BS that provides maximum averaged received power and 2) Policy 2 , under which the typical user is served by the small cell tier if the maximum averaged received power from the open-access SBSs is greater than a certain power threshold ; and macro tier otherwise. A key intermediate step in our analysis is the derivation of distance distributions from a typical user to the open-access and closed-access interfering SBSs. Our analysis demonstrates that as the number of SBSs reusing the same resource block increases, coverage probability decreases, whereas throughput increases. Therefore, contrary to the usual assumption of orthogonal channelization, it is reasonable to assign the same resource block to multiple SBSs in a given cluster as long as the coverage probability remains acceptable. This approach to HetNet modeling and analysis significantly generalizes the state-of-the-art approaches that are based on modeling the locations of BSs and users by independent PPPs.
Spontaneous atomicity for polynomial rings with zero-divisors

Abstract In this paper, we show that it is possible for a commutative ring with identity to be non-atomic (that is, there exist nonzero nonunits that cannot be factored into irreducibles) and yet have a strongly atomic polynomial extension. In particular, we produce a commutative ring with identity, R, that is antimatter (that is, R has no irreducibles whatsoever) such that R [ t ] is strongly atomic. What is more, given any nonzero nonunit f ( t ) ∈ R [ t ] then there is a factorization of f ( t ) into irreducibles of length no more than deg ( f ( t ) ) + 2 .
Nanoscale heat transfer and nanostructured thermoelectrics

Heat transfer at nanoscales differs significantly from that in macroscales because of size effects on the phonon and electron transport. Nanoscale heat transfer effects have significant implications for the microelectronic and microphotonic industries, from the thermal management, the device design and reliability, and the active cooling considerations. Past studies have shown that heat conduction in nanostructures can be significantly impeded below that of the predictions of the Fourier theory. Such size effects imply higher device temperatures than anticipated and demands more stringent thermal management measures. On the other hand, same size effects can be exploited for developing highly efficient thermoelectric (TE) materials for direct cooling. This paper starts with a discussion on some nanoscale heat transfer effects and their impacts on the device performance, particularly using thermal conductivity reduction in superlattices as an example, followed by a review of recent developments in nanostructured TE materials
THE SAFETY IMPLICATIONS OF EMERGING SOFTWARE PARADIGMS

Abstract This paper addresses some of the emerging software paradigms that may be used in developing safety-critical software applications. Paradigms considered in this paper include knowledge-based systems, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and fuzzy systems. !t presents one view of the software verification and validation activities that should be associated with each paradigm. The paper begins with a discussion of the historical evolution of software verification and validation. Next, a comparison is made between the verification and validation processes used for conventional and emerging software systems. Several verification and validation issues for the emerging paradigms are discussed, and some specific research topics are identified.
Pecuniary Externalities in Economies with Financial Frictions

This article characterizes the efficiency properties of competitive economies with financial constraints, in which phenomena such as fire sales and financial amplification may arise. We show that financial constraints lead to two distinct types of pecuniary externalities: distributive externalities that arise from incomplete insurance markets and collateral externalities that arise from price-dependent financial constraints. For both types of externalities, we identify three sufficient statistics that determine optimal taxes on financing and investment decisions to implement constrained efficient allocations. We also show that fire sales and financial amplification are neither necessary nor sufficient to generate inefficient pecuniary externalities. We demonstrate how to employ our framework in a number of applications. Whereas collateral externalities generally lead to over-borrowing, the distortions from distributive externalities may easily flip sign, leading to either under- or over-borrowing. Both types of externalities may lead to under- or over-investment.
THE STIFF KNEE: THE TIN MAN SAGAS

Stiffness after a TKA might be said to be present when reasonable functions of daily living cannot be performed or can only be performed with difficulty or pain. This will certainly be true if flexion is less than 75 degrees and/or there is a 15-degree lack of full extension. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the causes of a stiff TKA, consider the aspects of surgical technique that are associated with the occurrence of stiffness, present post-surgical management that impacts on the development of stiffness and summarise the results of the surgical treatment of a stiff TKA. Pre-operative stiffness is strongly correlated with post-operative limitation of motion. Therefore, pre-surgical measures to optimise motion should be carried out. These include appropriate physical therapy, adequate pain management and a discussion with the patient of the issues likely to affect post-operative range of motion. It is particularly important to discuss with the patient appropriate expectations with regard to the likely range of motion that will be achieved following TKA surgery. There are a number of steps that can be taken during the performance of a TKA that have an impact on range of motion. Osteophytes must be removed. Correctly sized implants must be used to avoid over-stuffing the tibio-femoral and patello-femoral compartments. Mal-positioning implants and the extremity can adversely affect range of motion. Inadequate bone resection will also lead to a reduced range of motion. Improper soft tissue balancing in both flexion and extension may be associated with post-surgical stiffness. Post-operative management must include adequate pain management as well as appropriate rehabilitation. Close post-surgical surveillance will help identify those patients likely to achieve unsatisfactory range of motion. Manipulation of appropriate patients within the first 6 weeks following surgery is usually associated with a satisfactory final range of motion. When persistent stiffness occurs, an attempt must be made to identifying possible causes, including component mal-alignment or mal-rotation, component mis-sizing or mis-positioning and inadequate soft tissue balancing. The surgical treatment of a stiff total knee include: 1) arthroscopic debridement and manipulation; 2) arthrotomy with debridement; and 3) single or complete component revision. Although surgical intervention often results in improved range of motion, the results are variable and somewhat limited.
Dynamics and Stability of Surface Waves with Bulk-Soluble Surfactants

In this paper we study the dynamics of a layer of incompressible viscous fluid bounded below by a rigid boundary and above by a free boundary, in the presence of a uniform gravitational field. We assume that a mass of surfactant is present both at the free surface and in the bulk of the fluid, and that conversion from one species to the other is possible. The surfactants couple to the fluid dynamics through the coefficient of surface tension, which depends on the surface density of surfactants. Gradients in this concentration give rise to Marangoni stress on the free surface. In turn, the fluid advects the surfactants and distorts their concentration through geometric distortions of the free surface. We model the surfactants in a way that allows absorption and desorption of surfactant between the surface and bulk. We prove that small perturbations of the equilibrium solutions give rise to global-in-time solutions that decay to equilibrium at an exponential rate. This establishes the asymptotic stability of the equilibrium solutions.
Medicaid, Family Spending, and the Financial Implications of Crowd-Out

A primary purpose of health insurance is to protect families from medical expenditure risk. Despite this goal and despite the fact that research has found that Medicaid can crowd out private coverage, little is known about the effect of Medicaid on families' spending patterns. This paper implements a simulated instrumental variables strategy with data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey to estimate the effect of an additional family member becoming eligible for Medicaid on family-level health insurance coverage and spending. The results indicate that an additional family member becoming eligible for Medicaid increases the number of people in the family with Medicaid coverage by about 0.135-0.142 and decreases the likelihood that a family has any medical spending in a quarter by 2.7 percentage points. As previous research often finds with different data sets, I find evidence that Medicaid expansions crowd out some private coverage. Unlike most other data sets, the Consumer Expenditure Survey allows for considering the financial implications of crowd-out. The results indicate that families that transition from private coverage to Medicaid are able to spend significantly less on health insurance expenses, meaning Medicaid expansions can be welfare improving for families even when crowd-out occurs.
A Programmable Capacitor for Inductance Measurements

This paper describes a programmable capacitor intended for use as the reference impedance in an inductance measurement system. The capacitor is programmable from 1 pF to 39 $\mu \text{F}$ with a resolution of 1 pF and consists of a parallel combination of commercially available capacitors with values that follow the Fibonacci series progression. This paper presents a novel calibration procedure for the programmable capacitor that uses an $LCR$ meter performing only difference measurements and requires only three reference capacitance standards within the device’s programmable range. Design details and major sources of error for the use of the capacitor in an inductance measurement system are also discussed.
An application of group expansion to the Anderson-Bernoulli model

We establish smoothness of the density of states for 1D lattice Schrodinger operators with potential taking values \({\pm\lambda}\), for \({\lambda}\) in a class of small algebraic numbers and energy \({E \in\,) -2, 2(}\) suitably restricted away from \({\pm2}\).
Electoral cycles in government employment: Evidence from US gubernatorial elections

Abstract Incumbents may opportunistically design policies increasing employment before elections or postpone cuts until afterwards. I investigate electoral cycles in public sector employment around US gubernatorial elections. Exploiting staggered gubernatorial election cycles across states, I use both county fixed effects models and a geographic discontinuity design that compares neighboring counties at state borders with a difference in gubernatorial election cycles. Consistent with manipulation, state and local government employment per capita are higher leading up to elections; afterwards, employment abruptly returns to normal. Political and spatial heterogeneities are investigated, including by election competitiveness, term limits, incumbent party affiliation, and ideological alignment between the incumbent and the state legislature or local citizens. Differences across types of government employment, and private sector employment, are also explored.
Simons’ equation and minimal hypersurfaces in space forms

In this paper, we show that the catenoids and the Clifford minimal hypersurfaces are the only complete minimal hypersurfaces satisfying the Simons' equation (3.9) in the space forms.
Does competition aggravate moral hazard? A Multi-Principal-Agent experiment

Abstract We conduct an experiment to determine whether market structure affects financial intermediary behavior. The intermediaries (Agents) are perfectly informed regarding project types and can recommend that their clients (Principals) either proceed or discontinue a project. Intermediaries earn revenues only when they recommend proceeding with the transaction. Thus, our design captures some of the incentives faced by financial advisers in commercial banks, where compensation depends on sales performance, and also by money-managers, whose income depends on the size of their portfolios. We find that a monopolist intermediary protects the interest of clients better than when intermediaries compete. Our results are robust to a significant fee increase and provide additional evidence on the impact of market structure on individual incentives and equilibrium outcomes.
Is there a relationship between TELs and default? Evidence from US municipalities

The economic effects of tax and expenditure limits (TELs) have been often studied in the literature. However, little research has addressed how TELs might influence the propensity for a jurisdiction to default on its obligations. This study specifically fills that void. Overall, the results indicate that while the likelihood of default increases as TELs become more restrictive, the magnitude is not particularly large. Once decomposed, it would appear that property tax limits increase the likelihood, while expenditure limits have the opposite effect, though the latter result is insignificant. The findings are robust to a number of specifications and provide potential policy implications. Los efectos economicos de los limites de impuestos y gastos (TEL, por sus siglas en ingles) se han estudiado a menudo en la literatura. Sin embargo, pocos estudios han abordado la forma en que los TEL podrian influir en la propension de una jurisdiccion a incumplir sus obligaciones. Este estudio llena ese vacio especifico. En general, los resultados indican que, si bien la probabilidad de incumplimiento aumenta a medida que los TEL se vuelven mas restrictivos, la magnitud no es particularmente grande. Una vez desagregados, parece ser que los limites del impuesto sobre inmuebles aumentan la probabilidad, mientras que los limites en el gasto tienen el efecto contrario, aunque este ultimo resultado no es significativo. Los resultados son robustos respecto a una serie de especificaciones y ofrecen posibles implicaciones para las politicas. 税および支出に関する制限事項 (tax and expenditure limits: TELs)の経済効果については、これまでに多数の論文において検討されてきた。しかし、TELsがどのように租税管轄が債務不履行に陥る傾向に影響を与え得るのかについて取り組んだ研究はほとんど行われておらず、本研究は特にその空白を埋めるものである。概して、結果からTELsによる制限が強くなるほど債務不履行に陥る確率が上昇するものの、その規模は特に大きいわけではないことが指摘される。分析によると、固定資産税の制限が債務不履行に陥る確率を上げ、一方で支出の制限はその反対の効果があると考えられるが、後者の結果は取るに足らないものである。この知見は、多数の仕様に対して頑健であり政策的な意義を有すると考えられる。
Simple and Efficient Budget Feasible Mechanisms for Monotone Submodular Valuations

We study the problem of a budget limited buyer who wants to buy a set of items, each from a different seller, to maximize her value. The budget feasible mechanism design problem requires the design a mechanism that incentivizes the sellers to truthfully report their cost and maximizes the buyer’s value while guaranteeing that the total payment does not exceed her budget. Such budget feasible mechanisms can model a buyer in a crowdsourcing market interested in recruiting a set of workers (sellers) to accomplish a task for her. This budget feasible mechanism design problem was introduced by Singer in 2010. We consider the general case where the buyer’s valuation is a monotone submodular function. There are a number of truthful mechanisms known for this problem. We offer two general frameworks for simple mechanisms, and by combining these frameworks, we significantly improve on the best known results, while also simplifying the analysis. For example, we improve the approximation guarantee for the general monotone submodular case from 7.91 to 5 and for the case of large markets (where each individual item has negligible value) from 3 to 2.58. More generally, given an r approximation algorithm for the optimization problem (ignoring incentives), our mechanism is a r + 1 approximation mechanism for large markets, an improvement from 2r2. We also provide a mechanism without the large market assumption, where we achieve a 4r + 1 approximation guarantee. We also show how our results can be used for the problem of a principal hiring in a Crowdsourcing Market to select a set of tasks subject to a total budget.
Retrieval-Based Learning: A Decade of Progress

This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the past decade of research on retrieval-based learning. It describes common approaches used to study retrieval practice and outlines theoretical accounts of retrieval-based learning. This chapter reviews research that has manipulated initial retrieval practice activities in a wide variety of ways, extended the benefits of retrieval practice to final assessments that measure educationally meaningful learning outcomes, and generalized retrieval-based learning across learner populations, to different types of materials, and to authentic educational contexts.
Position adjusted turnover ratio and mutual fund performance

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of position adjusted turnover ratio on mutual fund performance.,The author calculates position adjusted turnover ratio in the same three steps as Edelen et al. (2013). Position adjusted turnover ratio is intended to be a trading cost proxy that captures both fund trading volume and per-trade costs. A metric of eight Morningstar performance measures is utilized.,Results show that funds with a higher position adjusted turnover ratio tend to have a lower risk-adjusted performance, such as indicated by both Sharpe and Sortino ratios, and even though these funds may have a higher annualized return.,The sample selection process is subject to a survival bias. Also, this study utilizes Morningstar performance measures rather than the widely used factors models.,This study examines the impact of invisible costs from fund trading. These findings encourage fund managers to take strategic steps to reduce the overall invisible cost impact to improve fund performance.,Few studies have investigated fund trading cost measured by position adjusted turnover ratio and its impact on fund performance. Further, this study contributes to current literature by using eight Morningstar fund performance variables, which are practitioner-oriented and are accessible by investors.
Disclosure Dynamics and Investor Learning

This paper examines whether investor learning about profitability (i.e., the mean of earnings distribution) leads to persistence in disclosure decisions. A repeated single-period model shows that p...
Discovering evolutionary stepping stones through behavior domination

Behavior domination is proposed as a tool for understanding and harnessing the power of evolutionary systems to discover and exploit useful stepping stones. Novelty search has shown promise in overcoming deception by collecting diverse stepping stones, and several algorithms have been proposed that combine novelty with a more traditional fitness measure to refocus search and help novelty search scale to more complex domains. However, combinations of novelty and fitness do not necessarily preserve the stepping stone discovery that novelty search affords. In several existing methods, competition between solutions can lead to an unintended loss of diversity. Behavior domination defines a class of algorithms that avoid this problem, while inheriting theoretical guarantees from multiobjective optimization. Several existing algorithms are shown to be in this class, and a new algorithm is introduced based on fast non-dominated sorting. Experimental results show that this algorithm outperforms existing approaches in domains that contain useful stepping stones, and its advantage is sustained with scale. The conclusion is that behavior domination can help illuminate the complex dynamics of behavior-driven search, and can thus lead to the design of more scalable and robust algorithms.