cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Churn Tolerance Algorithm for State Machine Replication

State machine replication is a general approach for building a Byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) distributed systems like a grid or a cloud or a data center. Various BFT protocols based on state machine replication have been introduced for modern distributed systems to tolerate byzantine failures and thus provide more reliable services. However, most of them have not fully considered the adverse affects of Churn (nodes entering and leaving the system at will) on the correctness and availability of services. In this paper, we propose a new churn tolerance algorithm based on the BFT protocol approach using state machine replication. It is capable of tolerating both Byzantine failures and arbitrary churn when the constraint on the number of faults in the distributed system is satisfied.
Environmental policy and performance in Africa: implications of structural economic transformation for sustainable development

This paper examines the ability of environmental policy in facilitating projected structural transformative changes to achieve sustainable development in African countries. Simple non-parametric trend analyses are employed on proxies to assess the performance of environmental policy. The implications of this performance for prospects of a sustainable structural transformation are then examined. The analysis is based on nascent evidence of structural transformation in African countries whose effect, among others, includes strains on the capacity of policy and institutions to address the resulting environmental externalities. The analyses illustrate that structural changes within the current state of environmental policy will invariably lead to poor environmental outcomes, and hence impair the ability to achieve sustainable development. It is argued that a new approach to environmental regulation in African countries will require more than grandiose pronouncements of 'green' economy strategies; it will need specific investments in capacity development on environmental matters and regulatory issues.
Towards automatic resource bound analysis for OCaml

This article presents a resource analysis system for OCaml programs. The system automatically derives worst-case resource bounds for higher-order polymorphic programs with user-defined inductive types. The technique is parametric in the resource and can derive bounds for time, memory allocations and energy usage. The derived bounds are multivariate resource polynomials which are functions of different size parameters that depend on the standard OCaml types. Bound inference is fully automatic and reduced to a linear optimization problem that is passed to an off-the-shelf LP solver. Technically, the analysis system is based on a novel multivariate automatic amortized resource analysis (AARA). It builds on existing work on linear AARA for higher-order programs with user-defined inductive types and on multivariate AARA for first-order programs with built-in lists and binary trees. This is the first amortized analysis, that automatically derives polynomial bounds for higher-order functions and polynomial bounds that depend on user-defined inductive types. Moreover, the analysis handles a limited form of side effects and even outperforms the linear bound inference of previous systems. At the same time, it preserves the expressivity and efficiency of existing AARA techniques. The practicality of the analysis system is demonstrated with an implementation and integration with Inria's OCaml compiler. The implementation is used to automatically derive resource bounds for 411 functions and 6018 lines of code derived from OCaml libraries, the CompCert compiler, and implementations of textbook algorithms. In a case study, the system infers bounds on the number of queries that are sent by OCaml programs to DynamoDB, a commercial NoSQL cloud database service.
Carbon Auction Revenue and Market Power: An Experimental Analysis

State and regional governments in the U.S. and abroad are looking to market-based approaches to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from the electric sector, and in the U.S. as a compliance approach to meeting the aggressive targets of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Clean Power Plan. Auction-based approaches, like those used in the Northeast U.S. and California, are both recommended strategies under the Plan and attractive to state governments because they can generate significant revenue from the sale of emissions permits. However, given the nature of imperfect competition in existing electricity markets, particularly at the state and regional level, the issue of market power is a concern at the forefront. This paper provides the results from a controlled laboratory experiment of an auction-based emissions market in the electricity sector. The results show that government revenue from auctioning emissions permits is substantially lower when market concentration is only moderately increased. The results hold significant implications for states and other subnational governments that have high revenue expectations from the auctioning of emissions permits.
Debt Incentives and Bank Risk‐Taking

We examine how executive pension and deferred compensation plans affect bank risk-taking. We show that banks with more inside debt incentives are 5-8% less likely to approve risky mortgages. Using state individual tax rates as instruments, we show that the effect is likely to be causal. Further evidence shows that the effect comes mainly from executive pension plans. This result is robust and statistically significant after controlling for other potential reasons affecting mortgage origination and various fixed effects.
A direct-conversion receiver for the 3G WCDMA standard

A highly integrated direct-conversion receiver that satisfies requirements of the third-generation wide-band code-division multiple-access mobile phone standard is described. The receiver integrated circuit includes the front-end low-noise amplifier, downconversion mixers, baseband variable-gain amplifiers, channel-select filters, and the frequency synthesizer. External components are limited to matching elements required for the low-noise amplifier and the mixers and two passive band-select filters. The receiver is implemented in a SiGe BiCMOS process and consumes a total current of 46 mA from a 2.7-V supply.
Field-Programmable Crossbar Array (FPCA) for Reconfigurable Computing

For decades, advances in electronics were directly driven by the scaling of CMOS transistors according to Moore's law. However, both the CMOS scaling and the classical computer architecture are approaching fundamental and practical limits, and new computing architectures based on emerging devices, such as resistive random-access memory (RRAM) devices, are expected to sustain the exponential growth of computing capability. Here, we propose a novel memory-centric, reconfigurable, general purpose computing platform that is capable of handling the explosive amount of data in a fast and energy-efficient manner. The proposed computing architecture is based on a uniform, physical, resistive, memory-centric fabric that can be optimally reconfigured and utilized to perform different computing and data storage tasks in a massively parallel approach. The system can be tailored to achieve maximal energy efficiency based on the data flow by dynamically allocating the basic computing fabric for storage, arithmetic, and analog computing including neuromorphic computing tasks.
In-Medium Similarity Renormalization Group Approach to the Nuclear Many-Body Problem

We present a pedagogical discussion of Similarity Renormalization Group (SRG) methods, in particular the In-Medium SRG (IMSRG) approach for solving the nuclear many-body problem. These methods use continuous unitary transformations to evolve the nuclear Hamiltonian to a desired shape. The IMSRG, in particular, is used to decouple the ground state from all excitations and solve the many-body Schrodinger equation. We discuss the IMSRG formalism as well as its numerical implementation, and use the method to study the pairing model and infinite neutron matter. We compare our results with those of Coupled cluster theory (Chap. 8), Configuration-Interaction Monte Carlo (Chap. 9), and the Self-Consistent Green’s Function approach discussed in Chap. 11 The chapter concludes with an expanded overview of current research directions, and a look ahead at upcoming developments.
Top quark physics and searches for new phenomena at the Tevatron

The CDF and DO collaborations each have collected over 110pb−1 of data. The following article will describe near final results from two currently topical analyses: results from top quark physics and searches for first generation leptoquarks (LQ), using the entire statistics of these large data sets. After careful selection, both collaborations have collected top quark data samples consisting of several dozen events each. From these events both experiments have measured the top quark mass and pair production cross section in a variety of decay channels, including the so-called dilepton, lepton plus jets, and all jets channels. The combined top quark mass from both experiments in the lepton plus jets channels is mt = 175.6 ± 5.5GeV/c2. CDF and DO have also performed optimized searches for the pair production of first generation leptoquarks. No candidate events were found. Combining the results from the ee+jets, eν+jets, and νν+jets channels both experiments set 95% confidence level (CL) upper limits on the LQ pair production cross section as a function of mass and of β, the branching fraction to a charged lepton.
A data-driven compressive sensing framework tailored for energy-efficient wearable sensing

Compressive sensing (CS) is a promising technology for realizing energy-efficient wireless sensors for long-term health monitoring. However, conventional model-driven CS frameworks suffer from limited compression ratio and reconstruction quality when dealing with physiological signals due to inaccurate models and the overlook of individual variability. In this paper, we propose a data-driven CS framework that can learn signal characteristics and personalized features from any individual recording of physiologic signals to enhance CS performance with a minimized number of measurements. Such improvements are accomplished by a co-training approach that optimizes the sensing matrix and the dictionary towards improved restricted isometry property and signal sparsity, respectively. Experimental results upon ECG signals show that the proposed method, at a compression ratio of 10×, successfully reduces the isometry constant of the trained sensing matrices by 86% against random matrices and improves the overall reconstructed signal-to-noise ratio by 15dB over conventional model-driven approaches.
Discrete Uniformizing Metrics on Distributional Limits of Sphere Packings

Suppose that { $${{G_n}}$$ } is a sequence of finite graphs such that each $${G_n}$$ is the tangency graph of a sphere packing in $${\mathbb{R}^d}$$ . Let $${\rho_n}$$ be a uniformly random vertex of $${G_n}$$ and suppose that $${(G,\rho)}$$ is the distributional limit of { $${{(G_n,\rho_n)}}$$ } in the sense of Benjamini and Schramm. Then the conformal growth exponent of $${(G,\rho)}$$ is at most d. In other words, there exists a unimodular “unit volume" weighting of the graph metric on $${(G,\rho)}$$ such that the volume growth of balls in the weighted path metric is bounded by a polynomial of degree d. This assertion generalizes to limits of graphs that can be “quasi-packed” in an Ahlfors d-regular metric measure space. It implies that, under moment conditions on the degree of the root ρ, the almost sure spectral dimension of G is at most d. This fact was known previously only for graphs packed in $${\mathbb{R}^2}$$ (planar graphs), and the case d > 2 eluded approaches based on extremal length. In the process of bounding the spectral dimension, we establish that the spectral measure of $${(G,\rho)}$$ is dominated by a variant of the d-dimensional Weyl law.
State Estimation with Secrecy against Eavesdroppers

Abstract We study the problem of remote state estimation, in the presence of an eavesdropper. An authorized user estimates the state of a linear plant, based on the data received from a sensor, while the data may also be intercepted by the eavesdropper. To maintain confidentiality with respect to state, we introduce a novel control-theoretic definition of perfect secrecy requiring that the user’s expected error remains bounded while the eavesdropper’s expected error grows unbounded. We propose a secrecy mechanism which guarantees perfect secrecy by randomly withholding sensor information, under the condition that the user’s packet reception rate is larger than the eavesdropper’s interception rate. Given this mechanism, we also explore the tradeoff between user’s utility and confidentiality with respect to the eavesdropper, via an optimization problem. Finally, some examples are studied to provide insights about this tradeoff.
quFiles: the right file at the right time

A quFile is a unifying abstraction that simplifies data management by encapsulating different physical representations of the same logical data. Similar to a quBit (quantum bit), the particular representation of the logical data displayed by a quFile is not determined until the moment it is needed. The representation returned by a quFile is specified by a data-specific policy that can take into account context such as the application requesting the data, the device on which data is accessed, screen size, and battery status. We demonstrate the generality of the quFile abstraction by using it to implement six case studies: resource management, copy-on-write versioning, data redaction, resource-aware directories, application-aware adaptation, and platform-specific encoding. Most quFile policies were expressed using less than one hundred lines of code. Our experimental results show that, with caching and other performance optimizations, quFiles add less than 1% overhead to application-level file system benchmarks.
DISCHARGE DISPOSITION AFTER BILATERAL TOTAL KNEE ARTHROPLASTY: AN ANALYSIS OF PLACEMENT RISK FACTORS AND RECENT TRENDS

BACKGROUND This study aims to identify recent trends in discharge disposition following bilateral total knee arthroplasty (TKA) as well as factors that predispose patients to enter inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF) or skilled nursing facilities (SNF) versus home-rehabilitation (HR). The goal was to identify risk factors that predispose prolonged hospital stays and identify changes in management over time that may be responsible for decreased length of stay (LOS) and a HR program. METHODS A retrospective cohort study design was used to collect and analyze clinical and demographic data for 404 consecutive bilateral primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) procedures. Patients who underwent elective primary bilateral total knee arthroplasty from 2011 to 2016 were identified from hospital records at a single institution. Clinical and demographic data including sex, age, and disposition were analyzed RESULTS 404 bilateral TKAs were performed by 17 surgeons at a single institution from 2011 to 2016. The average age for bilateral TKA was 63y (31.4–86.6) and 59% were females (239/404). From 2011 to 2016, an increase of 61% (10% to 71%) was noted with regards to home discharge (22.035, 70 (0.118, 0.001), the use of TXA (3.52, 70 (1.723, 0.032), active cancer (0.256, 0.027), low postoperative Hg (1.674, 0.020), and postoperative transfusion (1.667, 0.015). Multivariate regression for factors associated with a home discharge showed aggregate significance for BMI 70 (−1.627, 0.036). Multivariate logistic regression for factors associated with a prolonged LOS showed aggregate significance for active cancer (−1.654, 0.015), postoperative transfusion (0.485, 0.023), and age >70 (0.600, 0.024). CONCLUSION There has been a significant trend towards postoperative home-rehabilitation programs rather than inpatient rehabilitation following bilateral total knee arthroplasty. There has also been a trend towards an increasing age for those undergoing bilateral total knee arthroplasty. Factors predisposing patients towards non-home discharge disposition include increased age and female gender. The increased use of both TXA and patient specific implants has led to a decrease in operative time and postoperative transfusion rates, and thus a decrease in the overall length of inpatient hospital stay.
Lipschitz structure and minimal metrics on topological groups

We discuss the problem of deciding when a metrisable topological group $G$ has a canonically defined local Lipschitz geometry. This naturally leads to the concept of minimal metrics on $G$, that we characterise intrinsically in terms of a linear growth condition on powers of group elements. Combining this with work on the large scale geometry of topological groups, we also identify the class of metrisable groups admitting a canonical global Lipschitz geometry. In turn, minimal metrics connect with Hilbert's fifth problem for completely metrisable groups and we show, assuming that the set of squares is sufficiently rich, that every element of some identity neighbourhood belongs to a $1$-parameter subgroup.
Maximal increasing sequences in fillings of almost-moon polyominoes

It was proved by Rubey that the number of fillings with zeros and ones of a given moon polyomino that do not contain a northeast chain of a fixed size depends only on the set of column lengths of the polyomino. Rubey’s proof uses an adaption of jeu de taquin and promotion for arbitrary fillings of moon polyominoes and deduces the result for 01-fillings via a variation of the pigeonhole principle. In this paper we present the first completely bijective proof of this result by considering fillings of almost-moon polyominoes, which are moon polyominoes after removing one of the rows. More precisely, we construct a simple bijection which preserves the size of the largest northeast chain of the fillings when two adjacent rows of the polyomino are exchanged. This bijection also preserves the column sum of the fillings. In addition, we also present a simple bijection that preserves the size of the largest northeast chains, the row sum and the column sum if every row of the filling has at most one 1. Thereby, we not only provide a bijective proof of Rubey’s result but also two refinements of it.
Bank size, returns to scale, and cost efficiency

Abstract Since the Great Recession, government regulators have become more interested than ever in the significant increase of bank size in the US financial sector. We contribute to the literature by studying the dynamic and bidirectional interactions between size, cost efficiency, and returns to scale using a newly constructed bank-level dataset. We first estimate scale economies for 198 US commercial bank holding companies using Fourier flexible form. We find that all banks except the too-big-to-fail banks exhibit increasing returns to scale. Proving the bidirectional relationship, we find that bank size Granger-causes both returns to scale and cost efficiency. On the other hand, cost efficiency also Granger-causes bank size. Taking this endogeneity into account, PVAR and Bayesian PVAR analyses demonstrate that banks enjoy cost efficiency as they grow, but lose scale economies gains even after controlling for bank-level characteristics, macroeconomic factors, and the regulatory environment. Our findings further suggest that regulations help decrease the costs of most banks, potentially encouraging them to grow further.
Community-Empowered Air Quality Monitoring System

Developing information technology to democratize scientific knowledge and support citizen empowerment is a challenging task. In our case, a local community suffered from air pollution caused by industrial activity. The residents lacked the technological fluency to gather and curate diverse scientific data to advocate for regulatory change. We collaborated with the community in developing an air quality monitoring system which integrated heterogeneous data over a large spatial and temporal scale. The system afforded strong scientific evidence by using animated smoke images, air quality data, crowdsourced smell reports, and wind data. In our evaluation, we report patterns of sharing smoke images among stakeholders. Our survey study shows that the scientific knowledge provided by the system encourages agonistic discussions with regulators, empowers the community to support policy making, and rebalances the power relationship between stakeholders.
The “Make and/or Buy” Decisions of Corporate Political Lobbying: Integrating the Economic Efficiency and Legitimacy Perspectives

In this article I examine political lobbying and investigate firms’ decisions to employ internal functionalities (i.e., to “make” or insource), to contract with external professionals (i.e., to “buy” or outsource), or to do both (i.e., to “make and buy” or plural source). I first develop an integrated framework based on the twin perspectives of economic efficiency and legitimacy. When the political audience faces little uncertainty about lobbying content, firms make sourcing decisions to maximize economic efficiency in producing such content in line with transaction cost economics and the capabilities view. However, when the political audience faces substantial uncertainty about lobbying content, it relies on the perceived legitimacy of the lobbying entity to draw inferences about the quality of such content; therefore, the legitimacy of a potential lobbying entity matters to firms making sourcing decisions related to lobbying. I then connect firms’ sourcing decisions with several concrete characteristics...
Multi-fidelity Bayesian optimisation with continuous approximations

Bandit methods for black-box optimisation, such as Bayesian optimisation, are used in a variety of applications including hyper-parameter tuning and experiment design. Recently, multi-fidelity methods have garnered considerable attention since function evaluations have become increasingly expensive in such applications. Multi-fidelity methods use cheap approximations to the function of interest to speed up the overall optimisation process. However, most multi-fidelity methods assume only a finite number of approximations. On the other hand, in many practical applications, a continuous spectrum of approximations might be available. For instance, when tuning an expensive neural network, one might choose to approximate the cross validation performance using less data N and/or few training iterations T. Here, the approximations are best viewed as arising out of a continuous two dimensional space (N, T). In this work, we develop a Bayesian optimisation method, BOCA, for this setting. We characterise its theoretical properties and show that it achieves better regret than than strategies which ignore the approximations. BOCA outperforms several other baselines in synthetic and real experiments.
Interactive SIGHT demo: textual summaries of simple bar charts

Interactive SIGHT is intended to provide people with visual impairments access to the kind of information graphics found in popular media. It works as a browser extension, and is able to generate a summary of a simple bar chart containing its high-level intention as natural language text. The user may request further information about the graphic through a follow-up question facility.
Absenteeism in Head Start and Children's Academic Learning

Using nationally representative data from the Family and Child Experiences Survey 2009 cohort (n = 2,842), this study examined the implications of 3- and 4-year-old's absences from Head Start for their early academic learning. The findings from this study revealed that children who missed more days of school, and especially those who were chronically absent, demonstrated fewer gains in areas of math and literacy during the preschool year. Moreover, excessive absenteeism was found to detract from the potential benefits of quality preschool education and was especially problematic for the early learning of children who entered the Head Start program with a less developed skill set. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.
Dynamics and trajectory optimization for a soft spatial fluidic elastomer manipulator

The goal of this work is to develop a soft-robotic manipulation system that is capable of autonomous, dynamic, and safe interactions with humans and its environment. First, we develop a dynamic model for a multi-body fluidic elastomer manipulator that is composed entirely from soft rubber and subject to the self-loading effects of gravity. Then, we present a strategy for independently identifying all of the unknown components of the system; these are the soft manipulator, its distributed fluidic elastomer actuators, as well as the drive cylinders that supply fluid energy. Next, using this model and trajectory-optimization techniques we find locally-optimal open-loop policies that allow the system to perform dynamic maneuvers we call grabs. In 37 experimental trials with a physical prototype, we successfully perform a grab 92% of the time. Last, we introduce the idea of static bracing for a soft elastomer arm and discuss how forming environmental braces might be an effective manipulation strategy for this class of robots. By studying such an extreme example of a soft robot, we can begin to solve hard problems inhibiting the mainstream use of soft machines.
SALVAGE OF FAILED IN-SITU PINNING IN SEVERE UNSTABLE SLIPPED CAPITAL PHYSIS BY SURGICAL DISLOCATION AND CAPITAL REALIGNMENT: A CASE SERIES

Purpose We share our experience in management of failed in-situ pinning in severe unstable Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis (SCFE) by surgical dislocation approach. Method A retrospective review of hip database from 2006 to 2013 showed 41 children underwent surgical dislocation for SCFE. We identified seven who had severe slip with failed in-situ pinning. Results The mean age at presentation was 11.9 years (10–14 years). The average interval between in-situ pinning and surgical dislocation was 10 months (2 to 18 months). The mean follow-up was 50.14 months (25 – 66 months). The mean preoperative slip angle in the oblique plane was 76° (61.1° – 121.5°), the mean preoperative alpha angle was 127.3° (93.1° – 145°), and preoperative head neck offset was −12.7mm (0 – −21.2mm). The mean corrections at latest follow-up were oblique plane slip angle 20.6° (4.2° – 41.8°), alpha angle 51.3° (45.3° – 58°), and head-neck offset 9.5mm (1 – 16.2mm). The mean Modified Harris Hip Score (MHHS) preoperatively was 19.57 (0 – 56) and the mean non-arthritic hip score (NAHS) was 21.07 (5 – 51.5). The mean MHHS at the last visit was 88.97 (71 – 96) and NAHS was 84.28 (69.5 – 91). All patients had gross external rotation deformity at presentation; mean internal rotation of 25° ranging from (0 – 40°) was achieved at follow-up. Four patients had avascular necrosis identified on subtraction MRI scan preoperatively. These four underwent second stage hinged distraction of the hip. Mean duration of hinged distraction was 7.6 months. At follow-up 4 had Tonnis 0, one Tonnis 1 and two Tonnis 2 grade of osteoarthritis. Conclusion The short-term result of our protocol for management of failed in-situ pinning by staged surgical dislocation and hinged distraction has been encouraging. This could potentially prolong the life of native hip to the third decade of life before definitive salvage procedures could be contemplated.
Obstructions to Quantization

Quantization is not a straightforward proposition, as demonstrated by Groenewold’s and Van Hove’s discovery, more than fifty years ago, of an “obstruction” to quantization. Their “no-go theorems” assert that it is in principle impossible to consistently quantize every classical polynomial observable on the phase space R 2n in a physically meaningful way. Similar obstructions have been recently found for S 2 and T*S 1, buttressing the common belief that no-go theorems should hold in some generality. Surprisingly, this is not so—it has just been proven that there are no obstructions to quantizing either T 2 or T*R +.
Incorporating inductances in tissue-scale models of cardiac electrophysiology

In standard models of cardiac electrophysiology, including the bidomain and monodomain models, local perturbations can propagate at infinite speed. We address this unrealistic property by developing a hyperbolic bidomain model that is based on a generalization of Ohm’s law with a Cattaneo-type model for the fluxes. Further, we obtain a hyperbolic monodomain model in the case that the intracellular and extracellular conductivity tensors have the same anisotropy ratio. In one spatial dimension, the hyperbolic monodomain model is equivalent to a cable model that includes axial inductances, and the relaxation times of the Cattaneo fluxes are strictly related to these inductances. A purely linear analysis shows that the inductances are negligible, but models of cardiac electrophysiology are highly nonlinear, and linear predictions may not capture the fully nonlinear dynamics. In fact, contrary to the linear analysis, we show that for simple nonlinear ionic models, an increase in conduction velocity is obtained for small and moderate values of the relaxation time. A similar behavior is also demonstrated with biophysically detailed ionic models. Using the Fenton–Karma model along with a low-order finite element spatial discretization, we numerically analyze differences between the standard monodomain model and the hyperbolic monodomain model. In a simple benchmark test, we show that the propagation of the action potential is strongly influenced by the alignment of the fibers with respect to the mesh in both the parabolic and hyperbolic models when using relatively coarse spatial discretizations. Accurate predictions of the conduction velocity require computational mesh spacings on the order of a single cardiac cell. We also compare the two formulations in the case of spiral break up and atrial fibrillation in an anatomically detailed model of the left atrium, and we examine the effect of intracellular and extracellular inductances on the virtual electrode phenomenon.
Biochemical Nature of the Prostate-Associated Antigen Identified by the Monoclonal Antibody, KR-P8

The KR-P8 monoclonal antibody identifies an organ-specific antigen that is associated with normal as well as malignant specimens of human prostate tissue. The antigen is secreted by cells of the prostate and is present in samples of seminal plasma. Data presented here describe the biochemical nature of the antigen that is recognized by KR-P8 as it occurs in seminal plasma and in extracts prepared from cells of the prostate tumor line, PC3. Antigen contained in seminal plasma migrated as a broad band on SDS-polyacrylamide gels in the molecular weight range of 48,000-75,000 d. A similar pattern was observed for antigen prepared from detergent extracts of PC3 cells. The antigen was found to be sensitive to treatment with trypsin and chymotrypsin and the contribution of carbohydrate residues to the structure of the molecule was shown by studies that demonstrated binding of the antigen to Concanavalin A and Soybean Agglutinin lectins. Loss of antigenicity subsequent to periodate oxidation suggested that carbohydrate units are involved in the recognition site for KR-P8 on the antigen.
A Criterion for Uniqueness of Tangent Cones at Infinity for Minimal Surfaces

We partially resolve a conjecture of Meeks on the asymptotic behavior of minimal surfaces in $$\mathbb {R}^3$$ with quadratic area growth.
Effect of the Electrostatic Interactions on Stretching of Semiflexible and Biological Polyelectrolytes

Using combination of the molecular dynamics simulations and theoretical calculations, we have demonstrated that the bending rigidity of biological polyelectrolytes (semiflexible charged polymers) i...
Regulation of price increases

Abstract U.S. federal and state governments rarely regulate healthcare price levels, but do regulate price changes for pharmaceuticals, hospitals, and health insurance. Previous research showed that limiting price increases can raise launch prices and reduce both profit and social welfare, assuming consumers are myopic. We show that with forward-looking consumers, limiting price increases can have the opposite effect, that is, launch prices fall while profit and social welfare rise. Ironically, inflation regulation can cause inflation to rise, but only because firms are reducing launch prices to make the regulation bind and credibly commit to future prices.
Methods and Measures for Analyzing Complex Street Networks and Urban Form

Complex systems have been widely studied by social and natural scientists in terms of their dynamics and their structure. Scholars of cities and urban planning have incorporated complexity theories from qualitative and quantitative perspectives. From a structural standpoint, the urban form may be characterized by the morphological complexity of its circulation networks – particularly their density, resilience, centrality, and connectedness. This dissertation unpacks theories of nonlinearity and complex systems, then develops a framework for assessing the complexity of urban form and street networks. It introduces a new tool, OSMnx, to collect street network and other urban form data for anywhere in the world, then analyze and visualize them. Finally, it presents a large empirical study of 27,000 street networks, examining their metric and topological complexity relevant to urban design, transportation research, and the human experience of the built environment.
Anterior segment parameters as predictors of intraocular pressure reduction after phacoemulsification in eyes with open-angle glaucoma.

Purpose To evaluate intraocular pressure (IOP) change after cataract surgery in eyes with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) and its relationship to angle and anterior segment parameters measured by anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT). Setting University of California, San Francisco, California, USA. Design Prospective case series. Methods Eyes were placed into a narrow-angle group or open-angle group based on gonioscopy grading. Biometric parameters were measured using AS-OCT (Visante) preoperatively, and IOP 4 months after surgery was obtained. The IOP change and its relationship to AS-OCT parameters were evaluated. Results Eighty-one eyes of 69 patients were enrolled. The mean age of the patients was 76.8 years. The preoperative IOP was 15.02 mm Hg on 1.89 glaucoma medications. The average mean deviation of preoperative visual field was −4.58 dB. The mean IOP reduction was 2.1 mm Hg (12.8%) from a preoperative mean of 15.0 mm Hg. The IOP reduction was significantly greater in eyes with narrow angles than in eyes with open angles (20.4% versus 8.0%) ( P = .002). In multivariate analysis, preoperative IOP (β = −0.53, P R 2 = 0.40), angle-opening distance at 500 mm (β = 5.83, P = .02, R 2 = 0.45), angle-opening distance at 750 mm (β = 5.82, P = .001, R 2 = 0.52), and lens vault (β = −0.002, P = .009, R 2 = 0.47) were associated with IOP reduction postoperatively. Conclusion In eyes with OAG, IOP reduction after cataract surgery was greater in eyes with narrower angles. Preoperative IOP, angle-opening distance, and lens vault were predictors for IOP reduction.
Elucidating the role of surface passivating ligand structural parameters in hole wave function delocalization in semiconductor cluster molecules

This article describes the mechanisms underlying electronic interactions between surface passivating ligands and (CdSe)34 semiconductor cluster molecules (SCMs) that facilitate band-gap engineering through the delocalization of hole wave functions without altering their inorganic core. We show here both experimentally and through density functional theory calculations that the expansion of the hole wave function beyond the SCM boundary into the ligand monolayer depends not only on the pre-binding energetic alignment of interfacial orbitals between the SCM and surface passivating ligands but is also strongly influenced by definable ligand structural parameters such as the extent of their π-conjugation [π-delocalization energy; pyrene (Py), anthracene (Anth), naphthalene (Naph), and phenyl (Ph)], binding mode [dithiocarbamate (DTC, –NH–CS2−), carboxylate (–COO−), and amine (–NH2)], and binding head group [–SH, –SeH, and –TeH]. We observe an unprecedentedly large ∼650 meV red-shift in the lowest energy optical absorption band of (CdSe)34 SCMs upon passivating their surface with Py-DTC ligands and the trend is found to be Ph- < Naph- < Anth- < Py-DTC. This shift is reversible upon removal of Py-DTC by triethylphosphine gold(I) chloride treatment at room temperature. Furthermore, we performed temperature-dependent (80–300 K) photoluminescence lifetime measurements, which show longer lifetime at lower temperature, suggesting a strong influence of hole wave function delocalization rather than carrier trapping and/or phonon-mediated relaxation. Taken together, knowledge of how ligands electronically interact with the SCM surface is crucial to semiconductor nanomaterial research in general because it allows the tuning of electronic properties of nanomaterials for better charge separation and enhanced charge transfer, which in turn will increase optoelectronic device and photocatalytic efficiencies.
Mating in the Closest Living Relatives of Animals Is Induced by a Bacterial Chondroitinase.

Summary We serendipitously discovered that the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri induces sexual reproduction in one of the closest living relatives of animals, the choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta . Although bacteria influence everything from nutrition and metabolism to cell biology and development in eukaryotes, bacterial regulation of eukaryotic mating was unexpected. Here, we show that a single V. fischeri protein, the previously uncharacterized EroS, fully recapitulates the aphrodisiac-like activity of live V. fischeri. EroS is a chondroitin lyase; although its substrate, chondroitin sulfate, was previously thought to be an animal synapomorphy, we demonstrate that S. rosetta produces chondroitin sulfate and thus extend the ancestry of this important glycosaminoglycan to the premetazoan era. Finally, we show that V. fischeri , purified EroS, and other bacterial chondroitin lyases induce S. rosetta mating at environmentally relevant concentrations, suggesting that bacteria likely regulate choanoflagellate mating in nature.
Rolando Hinojosa-Smith’s Sense of Place: Sociolinguistic Aspects

In the short story “The Kid from the Alamo” by Beatriz de la Garza the narrator remembers his grade school years in Poggendorf (formerly Los Robles) in Southeast Texas. In particular, he focuses on Texan history, because even at that tender age, what they were studying seemed strange to him. The book started with a few pages about the native American pre-Columbian population, a few more on the Spanish explorers and some more on missions and missionaries. That was nothing but a prelude to the “real history of Texas” which started with the arrival of the English speaking settlers.
Endogenous Productivity of Demand-Induced R&D: Evidence from Pharmaceuticals

We examine trends in the productivity of the pharmaceutical sector over the past three decades. Motivated by Ricardo’s insight that productivity and rents are endogenous to demand when inputs are scarce, we examine the industry’s aggregate R&D production function. Using exogenous demand shocks to instrument investments, we find that demand growth can explain a large portion of R&D growth. Returns to scale have been stable whereas total factor productivity has declined significantly. Predicted rents based on our estimates and Ricardo’s theory closely match the trends we observe.
Professional Development for Data-Based Instruction in Early Writing: Tools, Learning, and Collaborative Support:

Few teachers receive adequate preparation to provide effective individualized instruction for children with intensive early writing needs. In this article, the authors describe an attempt to close ...
Observation of Quantum Zeno Blockade on Chip

Overlapping in an optical medium with nonlinear susceptibilities, lightwaves can interact, changing each other's phase, wavelength, waveform shape, or other properties. Such nonlinear optical phenomena, discovered over a half-century ago, have led to a breadth of important applications. Applied to quantum-mechanical signals, however, these phenomena face fundamental challenges that arise from the multimodal nature of the interaction between the electromagnetic fields, such as phase noises and spontaneous Raman scattering. The quantum Zeno blockade allows strong interaction between lightwaves without physical overlap between them, thus offering a viable solution for the aforementioned challenges, as indicated in recent bulk-optics experiments. Here, we report on the observation of quantum Zeno blockade on chip, where a lightwave is modulated by another in a distinct "interaction-free" manner. For quantum applications, we also verify its operations on single-photon signals. Our results promise a scalable platform for overcoming several longstanding challenges in applied nonlinear and quantum optics, enabling manipulation and interaction of quantum signals without decoherence.
Allosteric Activation Dictates PRC2 Activity Independent of Its Recruitment to Chromatin

PRC2 is a therapeutic target for several types of cancers currently undergoing clinical trials. Its activity is regulated by a positive feedback loop whereby its terminal enzymatic product, H3K27me3, is specifically recognized and bound by an aromatic cage present in its EED subunit. The ensuing allosteric activation of the complex stimulates H3K27me3 deposition on chromatin. Here we report a stepwise feedback mechanism entailing key residues within distinctive interfacing motifs of EZH2 or EED that are found to be mutated in cancers and/or Weaver syndrome. PRC2 harboring these EZH2 or EED mutants manifested little activity in vivo but, unexpectedly, exhibited similar chromatin association as wild-type PRC2, indicating an uncoupling of PRC2 activity and recruitment. With genetic and chemical tools, we demonstrated that targeting allosteric activation overrode the gain-of-function effect of EZH2Y646X oncogenic mutations. These results revealed critical implications for the regulation and biology of PRC2 and a vulnerability in tackling PRC2-addicted cancers.
Garbled Protocols and Two-Round MPC from Bilinear Maps

In this paper, we initiate the study of garbled protocols &#x2014; a generalization of Yaos garbled circuits construction to distributed protocols. More specifically, in a garbled protocol construction, each party can independently generate a garbled protocol component along with pairs of input labels. Additionally, it generates an encoding of its input. The evaluation procedure takes as input the set of all garbled protocol components and the labels corresponding to the input encodings of all parties and outputs the entire transcript of the distributed protocol.We provide constructions for garbling arbitrary protocols based on standard computational assumptions on bilinear maps (in the common random string model). Next, using garbled protocols we obtain a general compiler that compresses any arbitrary round multiparty secure computation protocol into a two-round UC secure protocol. Previously, two-round multiparty secure computation protocols were only known assuming witness encryption or learning-with errors. Benefiting from our generic approach we also obtain protocols (i) for the setting of random access machines (RAM programs) while keeping communication and computational costs proportional to running times, while (ii) making only a black-box use of the underlying group, eliminating the need for any expensive non-black-box group operations. Our results are obtained by a simple but powerful extension of the non-interactive zero-knowledge proof system of Groth, Ostrovsky and Sahai [Journal of ACM, 2012].
Effective Inertial Frame in an Atom Interferometric Test of the Equivalence Principle.

In an ideal test of the equivalence principle, the test masses fall in a common inertial frame. A real experiment is affected by gravity gradients, which introduce systematic errors by coupling to initial kinematic differences between the test masses. Here we demonstrate a method that reduces the sensitivity of a dual-species atom interferometer to initial kinematics by using a frequency shift of the mirror pulse to create an effective inertial frame for both atomic species. Using this method, we suppress the gravity-gradient-induced dependence of the differential phase on initial kinematic differences by 2 orders of magnitude and precisely measure these differences. We realize a relative precision of $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}g/g\ensuremath{\approx}6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}11}$ per shot, which improves on the best previous result for a dual-species atom interferometer by more than 3 orders of magnitude. By reducing gravity gradient systematic errors to one part in $1{0}^{13}$, these results pave the way for an atomic test of the equivalence principle at an accuracy comparable with state-of-the-art classical tests.
Experimental and simulation study of irradiated silicon pad detectors for the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter

The foreseen upgrade of the LHC to its high luminosity phase (HL-LHC), will maximize the physics potential of the facility. The upgrade is expected to increase the instantaneous luminosity by a factor of 5 and deliver an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb−1 after 10 years of operation. As a result of the corresponding increase in radiation and pileup, the electromagnetic calorimetry in the CMS endcaps will sustain maximum integrated doses of 1.5 MGy and neutron fluences above 1016 n eq cm−2, necessitating their replacement for HL-LHC operation.The CMS collaboration has decided to replace the existing endcap electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters by a High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) that will provide unprecedented information on electromagnetic and hadronic showers in the very high pileup of the HL-LHC. In order to employ Si detectors in HGCAL and to address the challenges brought by the intense radiation environment, an extensive R&D program has been initiated, comprising production of prototype sensors of various types, sizes and thicknesses, their qualification before and after irradiation to the expected levels, and accompanying simulation studies.The ongoing investigation presented here includes measurements of current-voltage and capacitance-voltage characteristics, along with predicted charge collection efficiences of the sensors irradiated to levels expected for the HGCAL at HL-LHC. The status of the study and the first results of the performance of neutron irradiated Si detectors, as well as their comparison with numerical simulations, are presented.
Race/Ethnicity, and Behavioral Health Status: First Arrest and Outcomes in a Large Sample of Juvenile Offenders

The objective of this study was to assess the simultaneous effects of gender, race/ethnicity, and pre-arrest behavioral health (BH) service-use on age at first arrest, and first arrest outcomes. Between January 2004 and December 2011, arrest and medical records were collected on a retrospective longitudinal cohort of 12,476 first-time offenders, ages 8–18 years. Black youth were arrested at younger ages than white or Hispanic youth. Youth with psychiatric problems were arrested at younger ages than youth with substance-use, dual-diagnoses, or no BH problems. Compared to white males, black males had lower odds of detention and BH referrals. Compared to white females, black females had higher odds of release and lower odds of probation, detention, and BH referrals. A significant gender-by-BH problem interaction revealed males and females with previous psychiatric problems were arrested at younger ages than youth with substance, dual-diagnosis, or no prior problems. Implications are discussed.