cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Algorithmic psychometrics and the scalable subject

Recent public controversies, ranging from the 2014 Facebook 'emotional contagion' study to psychographic data profiling by Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 American presidential election, Brexit referendum and elsewhere, signal watershed moments in which the intersecting trajectories of psychology and computer science have become matters of public concern. The entangled history of these two fields grounds the application of applied psychological techniques to digital technologies, and an investment in applying calculability to human subjectivity. Today, a quantifiable psychological subject position has been translated, via 'big data' sets and algorithmic analysis, into a model subject amenable to classification through digital media platforms. I term this position the 'scalable subject', arguing it has been shaped and made legible by algorithmic psychometrics - a broad set of affordances in digital platforms shaped by psychology and the behavioral sciences. In describing the contours of this 'scalable subject', this paper highlights the urgent need for renewed attention from STS scholars on the psy sciences, and on a computational politics attentive to psychology, emotional expression, and sociality via digital media.
Living in Pasteur’s Quadrant: How Conversational Duets Spark Language at Home and in the Community

In 1995 scientists, educators, and policymakers were startled by the claim that low-income children in the United States heard 30 million fewer words than their middle-income peers. Because languag...
Halo effect or fallen angel effect? Firm value consequences of greenhouse gas emissions and reputation for corporate social responsibility

Abstract Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are perceived to have negative consequences for society at large by contributing to potential climate change and represent a potential cash drain from firms from exposure to future regulatory, abatement, and compliance costs. Beginning in 2010, US companies are required to report their GHG emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We utilize these data for 2010–2014 to examine whether the possible adverse firm value impact of these GHG emissions is alleviated or exacerbated by the firm’s reputation for corporate social responsibility. Our findings suggest that there is no halo effect, i.e., a firm’s reputation for social responsibility (as reflected in its CSR score) does not protect the firm from the adverse firm value effects of GHG emissions. Rather, our findings suggest a fallen angel effect, i.e., for any given level of GHG emissions, the higher the firm’s CSR score, the greater the adverse impact on firm value. In other words, the decline in firm value due to the adverse impact of GHG emissions is compounded by the hit to the firm’s reputation for corporate social performance. Our paper contributes to the sparse prior US literature on the firm value effects of GHG emissions. Further, by providing scholarly evidence on the existence of a fallen angel effect, our findings suggest that boards and managers of firms that provide voluntary CSR disclosures cannot afford to be complacent about their GHG emissions.
Randomized web-based physical activity intervention in adolescent survivors of childhood cancer.

102Background: This study of adolescent survivors of childhood cancer evaluated the initial efficacy of a web-delivered, interactive, rewards-based physical activity intervention that aimed to incr...
Generative probabilistic novelty detection with adversarial autoencoders

Novelty detection is the problem of identifying whether a new data point is considered to be an inlier or an outlier. We assume that training data is available to describe only the inlier distribution. Recent approaches primarily leverage deep encoder-decoder network architectures to compute a reconstruction error that is used to either compute a novelty score or to train a one-class classifier. While we too leverage a novel network of that kind, we take a probabilistic approach and effectively compute how likely it is that a sample was generated by the inlier distribution. We achieve this with two main contributions. First, we make the computation of the novelty probability feasible because we linearize the parameterized manifold capturing the underlying structure of the inlier distribution, and show how the probability factorizes and can be computed with respect to local coordinates of the manifold tangent space. Second, we improve the training of the autoencoder network. An extensive set of results show that the approach achieves state-of-the-art performance on several benchmark datasets.
School Spirit: Legislator School Ties and State Funding for Higher Education

Abstract We explore a new mechanism to understand state funding for public colleges and universities by leveraging data on the educational experiences of state legislators, specifically if and where they received postsecondary education. Using novel, hand-collected data from 2002 through 2014, we provide comprehensive documentation – for the first time in the literature – on the educational backgrounds of state legislators. We find a statistically significant, positive association between the share of legislators who attended their states' public institutions and state funding for their entire public higher-education system. We also find a similar positive relationship between the share of state legislators who attended particular campuses of the state's public university system and funding for those campuses. This relationship is more pronounced among publicly educated legislators who represent legislative districts close to their alma mater's district, and becomes most consequential when the legislator's district contains his or her alma mater. We discuss the implications of our findings for academic studies on how politics and legislators' personal experiences influence support for higher education.
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL SECURITY SURVIVORS INSURANCE

This paper develops a heterogeneous agents model to analyze the effects of Social Security survivors insurance. The model features a negative mortality-income gradient, asymmetric information of individual mortality rates, and a warm-glow bequest motive that varies by age and family structure. The model matches lifecycle changes in life insurance coverage, and generates advantageous selection in the insurance market. For male agents, reducing survivors benefits for dependent children generates welfare losses, while reducing survivors benefits for aged spouses produces welfare gains. The opposing welfare results are explained by differences in the timing of benefits and in the funding cost.
A Relax-and-Round Approach to Complex Lattice Basis Reduction

We propose a relax-and-round approach combined with a greedy search strategy for performing complex lattice basis reduction. Taking an optimization perspective, we introduce a relaxed version of the problem that, while still nonconvex, has an easily identifiable family of solutions. We construct a subset of such solutions by performing a greedy search and applying a projection operator (element-wise rounding) to enforce the original constraint. We show that, for lattice basis reduction, such a family of solutions to the relaxed problem is the set of unitary matrices multiplied by a real, positive constant and propose a search strategy based on modifying the complex eigenvalues. We apply our algorithm to lattice-reduction aided multipleinput multiple-output (MIMO) detection and show a considerable performance gain compared to state of the art algorithms. We perform a complexity analysis to show that the proposed algorithm has polynomial complexity.
Incorporating Scalability in Unsupervised Spatio- Temporal Feature Learning

Deep neural networks are efficient learning machines which leverage upon a large amount of manually labeled data for learning discriminative features. However, acquiring substantial amount of supervised data, especially for videos can be a tedious job across various computer vision tasks. This necessitates learning of visual features from videos in an unsupervised setting. In this paper, we propose a computationally simple, yet effective, framework to learn spatio-temporal feature embedding from unlabeled videos. We train a Convolutional 3D Siamese network using positive and negative pairs mined from videos under certain probabilistic assumptions. Experimental results on three datasets demonstrate that our proposed framework is able to learn weights which can be used for same as well as cross dataset and tasks.
Can Network Theory-Based Targeting Increase Technology Adoption?

Can targeting information to network-central farmers induce more adoption of a new agricultural technology? By combining social network data and a field experiment in 200 villages in Malawi, we find that targeting central farmers is important to spur the diffusion process. We also provide evidence of one explanation for why centrality matters: a diffusion process governed by complex contagion. Our results are consistent with a model in which many farmers need to learn from multiple people before they adopt themselves. This means that without proper targeting of information, the diffusion process can stall and technology adoption remains perpetually low.
Large-scale Cloze Test Dataset Created by Teachers.

Cloze tests are widely adopted in language exams to evaluate students’ language proficiency. In this paper, we propose the first large-scale human-created cloze test dataset CLOTH, containing questions used in middle-school and high-school language exams. With missing blanks carefully created by teachers and candidate choices purposely designed to be nuanced, CLOTH requires a deeper language understanding and a wider attention span than previously automatically-generated cloze datasets. We test the performance of dedicatedly designed baseline models including a language model trained on the One Billion Word Corpus and show humans outperform them by a significant margin. We investigate the source of the performance gap, trace model deficiencies to some distinct properties of CLOTH, and identify the limited ability of comprehending the long-term context to be the key bottleneck.
Surface MIMO: Using Conductive Surfaces For MIMO Between Small Devices

As connected devices continue to decrease in size, we explore the idea of leveraging everyday surfaces such as tabletops and walls to augment the wireless capabilities of devices. Specifically, we introduce Surface MIMO, a technique that enables MIMO communication between small devices via surfaces coated with conductive paint or covered with conductive cloth. These surfaces act as an additional spatial path that enables MIMO capabilities without increasing the physical size of the devices themselves. We provide an extensive characterization of these surfaces that reveal their effect on the propagation of EM waves. Our evaluation shows that we can enable additional spatial streams using the conductive surface and achieve average throughput gains of 2.6-3x for small devices. Finally, we also leverage the wideband characteristics of these conductive surfaces to demonstrate the first Gbps surface communication system that can directly transfer bits through the surface at up to 1.3Gbps.
On Optimal Sensing and Capacity Trade-off in Cognitive Radio Systems with Directional Antennas

We consider a cognitive radio system, in which the secondary users (SUs) and primary users (PUs) coexist. The SUs are equipped with steerable directional antennas. In our system, the secondary transmitter (SU tx ) first senses the spectrum (with errors) for a duration of τ, and, then transmits data to the secondary receiver (SU rx ) if spectrum is sensed idle. The sensing time as well as the orientation of SU tx ’s antenna affect the accuracy of spectrum sensing and yield a trade-off between spectrum sensing and capacity of the secondary network. We formulate the ergodic capacity of secondary network which uses energy detection for spectrum sensing. We obtain optimal SU tx transmit power, the optimal sensing time τ and the optimal directions of SU tx transmit antenna and SU rx receive antenna by maximizing the ergodic capacity, subject to peak transmit power and outage interference probability constraints. Our simulation results show the effectiveness of these optimizations to increase the ergodic capacity of the secondary network.
A simulation-based approach to improve decoded neurofeedback performance

The neural correlates of specific brain functions such as visual orientation tuning and individual finger movements can be revealed using multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) of fMRI data. Neurofeedback based on these distributed patterns of brain activity presents a unique ability for precise neuromodulation. Recent applications of this technique, known as decoded neurofeedback, have manipulated fear conditioning, visual perception, confidence judgements and facial preference. However, there has yet to be an empirical justification of the timing and data processing parameters of these experiments. Suboptimal parameter settings could impact the efficacy of neurofeedback learning and contribute to the 'non-responder' effect. The goal of this study was to investigate how design parameters of decoded neurofeedback experiments affect decoding accuracy and neurofeedback performance. Subjects participated in three fMRI sessions: two 'finger localizer' sessions to identify the fMRI patterns associated with each of the four fingers of the right hand, and one 'finger finding' neurofeedback session to assess neurofeedback performance. Using only the localizer data, we show that real-time decoding can be degraded by poor experiment timing or ROI selection. To set key parameters for the neurofeedback session, we used offline simulations of decoded neurofeedback using data from the localizer sessions to predict neurofeedback performance. We show that these predictions align with real neurofeedback performance at the group level and can also explain individual differences in neurofeedback success. Overall, this work demonstrates the usefulness of offline simulation to improve the success of real-time decoded neurofeedback experiments.
A structural mechanism for directing corepressor-selective inverse agonism of PPARγ

Small chemical modifications can have significant effects on ligand efficacy and receptor activity, but the underlying structural mechanisms can be difficult to predict from static crystal structures alone. Here we show how a simple phenyl-to-pyridyl substitution between two common covalent orthosteric ligands targeting peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) gamma converts a transcriptionally neutral antagonist (GW9662) into a repressive inverse agonist (T0070907) relative to basal cellular activity. X-ray crystallography, molecular dynamics simulations, and mutagenesis coupled to activity assays reveal a water-mediated hydrogen bond network linking the T0070907 pyridyl group to Arg288 that is essential for corepressor-selective inverse agonism. NMR spectroscopy reveals that PPARγ exchanges between two long-lived conformations when bound to T0070907 but not GW9662, including a conformation that prepopulates a corepressor-bound state, priming PPARγ for high affinity corepressor binding. Our findings demonstrate that ligand engagement of Arg288 may provide routes for developing corepressor-selective repressive PPARγ ligands.
Quantifying Functional Increases Across a Large-Scale Wetland Restoration Chronosequence

Over 300,000 ha of forested wetlands have undergone restoration within the Mississippi Alluvial Valley region. Restored forest successional stage varies, providing opportunities to document wetland functional increases across a large scale restoration chronosequence using the Hydrogeomorphic (HGM) approach. Results from >600 restored study sites spanning a 25 year chronosequence indicate that: 1) wetland functional assessment variables increased toward reference conditions; 2) restored wetlands generally follow expected recovery trajectories; and 3) wetland functions display significant improvements across the restoration chronosequence. A functional lag between restored areas and mature reference wetlands persists in most instances. However, a subset of restored sites have attained mature reference wetland conditions in areas approaching or exceeding tree diameter and canopy closure thresholds. Study results highlight the importance of site selection and the benefits of evaluating a suite of wetland functions in order to identify appropriate restoration success milestones and design monitoring programs. For example wetland functions associated with detention of precipitation (a largely physical process) rapidly increased under post restoration conditions, while improvements in wetland habitat functions (associated with forest establishment and maturation) required additional time. As the wetland science community transitions towards larger scale restoration efforts, effectively quantifying restoration functional improvements will become increasingly important.
FOXO transcription factors promote cardiomyocyte survival upon induction of oxidative stress

Transcriptional regulatory mechanisms of cardiac oxidative stress resistance are not well defined. FoxO transcription factors are critical mediators of oxidative stress resistance in multiple cell types, but cardioprotective functions have not been reported previously. FoxO function in oxidative stress resistance was investigated in cultured cardiomyocytes and in mice with cardiomyocyte-specific combined deficiency of FoxO1 and FoxO3 subjected to myocardial infarction (MI) or acute ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Induction of oxidative stress in cardiomyocytes promotes FoxO1 and FoxO3 nuclear localization and target gene activation. Infection of cardiomyocytes with a dominant-negative FoxO1(Δ256) adenovirus results in a significant increase in reactive oxygen species and cell death, whereas increased FoxO1 or FoxO3 expression reduces reactive oxygen species and cell death. Mice generated with combined conditional deletion of FoxO1 and FoxO3 specifically in cardiomyocytes were subjected to I/R or MI. Loss of FoxO1 and FoxO3 in cardiomyocytes results in a significant increase in infarct area with decreased expression of the antiapoptotic molecules, PTEN-induced kinase1 (PINK1) and CBP/P300-interacting transactivator (CITED2). Expressions of the antioxidants catalase and manganese superoxide dismutase-2 (SOD2) and the autophagy-related proteins LC3II and Gabarapl1 also are decreased following I/R compared with controls. Mice with cardiomyocyte-specific FoxO deficiency subjected to MI have reduced cardiac function, increased scar formation, induction of stress-responsive signaling, and increased apoptotic cell death relative to controls. These data support a critical role for FoxOs in promoting cardiomyocyte survival during conditions of oxidative stress through induction of antioxidants and cell survival pathways.
Improving palliative care with deep learning

Access to palliative care is a key quality metric which most healthcare organizations strive to improve. The primary challenges to increasing palliative care access are a combination of physicians over-estimating patient prognoses, and a shortage of palliative staff in general. This, in combination with treatment inertia can result in a mismatch between patient wishes, and their actual care towards the end of life. In this work, we address this problem, with Institutional Review Board approval, using machine learning and Electronic Health Record (EHR) data of patients. We train a Deep Neural Network model on the EHR data of patients from previous years, to predict mortality of patients within the next 3-12 month period. This prediction is used as a proxy decision for identifying patients who could benefit from palliative care. The EHR data of all admitted patients are evaluated every night by this algorithm, and the palliative care team is automatically notified of the list of patients with a positive prediction. In addition, we present a novel technique for decision interpretation, using which we provide explanations for the model’s predictions. The automatic screening and notification saves the palliative care team the burden of time consuming chart reviews of all patients, and allows them to take a proactive approach in reaching out to such patients rather then relying on referrals from the treating physicians.
Infringing use as a path to legal consumption: Evidence from a field experiment

Copyright infringement may result from frictions preventing legal consumption, but may also reveal demand. Motivated by this fact, we run a field experiment in which we contact firms that are caught infringing on expensive digital images. Emails to all firms include a link to the licensing page of the infringed image; for treated firms, we add links to a significantly cheaper licensing site. Making infringers aware of the cheaper option leads to a fourteen-fold increase in the ex-post licensing rate. Two additional experimental interventions are designed to reduce search costs for (i) price and (ii) product information. Both interventions-immediate price comparison and recommendation of images similar to those infringed-have large positive effects. Our results highlight the importance of mitigating user costs in small-value transactions.
Student perceptions of the ophthalmology curriculum in medical school

Purpose There is no national standard for ophthalmology curricula in U.S. and Canadian medical schools. We aim to evaluate medical students' perceptions of the current ophthalmology curriculum without mandatory rotation at New York University School of Medicine (NYUSOM). Design A cross-sectional Internet survey. Methods A cross-sectional Internet survey was distributed to all NYUSOM students in March to May 2017. The main parameters measured in the study were students' self-reported confidence with ophthalmology skills and satisfaction with curriculum. Results Response rate was 27.5% (166 of 604) of NYUSOM students. Many students reported they were not comfortable diagnosing eye emergencies (64%), using a direct ophthalmoscope (71%), or testing visual acuity (50%). The majority of students did not want ophthalmology to become a mandatory rotation, but reported additional in-person training would be most helpful, compared with videos, web-based didactics, lectures, or virtual training. Completion of an ophthalmology elective and more hours of ophthalmology training were associated with increased confidence with eye examination and greater satisfaction with the curriculum. Conclusions It is critical for all physicians-in-training to have adequate skills in eye examination. Identifying areas of improvement and determining the best teaching modality will be important in updating the ophthalmology curriculum for medical students. The majority of medical students are not at all or only slightly confident with eye examinations. Increasing the amount of in-person ophthalmology training in medical school improves confidence with eye examination.
Comparing Folic Acid Dosage Strengths to Prevent Reduction in Fetal Size Among Pregnant Women Who Smoked Cigarettes: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

This randomized clinical trial examines the effect of folic acid supplementation in pregnant women who smoke tobacco on infant birth weight, infant status as small for gestational age, and fetal growth restriction.
Global expansion and redistribution of Aedes-borne virus transmission risk with climate change.

Forecasting the impacts of climate change on Aedes-borne viruses—especially dengue, chikungunya, and Zika—is a key component of public health preparedness. We apply an empirically parameterized model of viral transmission by the vectors Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus, as a function of temperature, to predict cumulative monthly global transmission risk in current climates, and compare them with projected risk in 2050 and 2080 based on general circulation models (GCMs). Our results show that if mosquito range shifts track optimal temperature ranges for transmission (21.3–34.0°C for Ae. aegypti; 19.9–29.4°C for Ae. albopictus), we can expect poleward shifts in Aedes-borne virus distributions. However, the differing thermal niches of the two vectors produce different patterns of shifts under climate change. More severe climate change scenarios produce larger population exposures to transmission by Ae. aegypti, but not by Ae. albopictus in the most extreme cases. Climate-driven risk of transmission from both mosquitoes will increase substantially, even in the short term, for most of Europe. In contrast, significant reductions in climate suitability are expected for Ae. albopictus, most noticeably in southeast Asia and west Africa. Within the next century, nearly a billion people are threatened with new exposure to virus transmission by both Aedes spp. in the worst-case scenario. As major net losses in year-round transmission risk are predicted for Ae. albopictus, we project a global shift towards more seasonal risk across regions. Many other complicating factors (like mosquito range limits and viral evolution) exist, but overall our results indicate that while climate change will lead to increased net and new exposures to Aedes-borne viruses, the most extreme increases in Ae. albopictus transmission are predicted to occur at intermediate climate change scenarios.
High-fidelity bosonic quantum state transfer using imperfect transducers and interference

We consider imperfect two-mode bosonic quantum transducers that cannot completely transfer an initial source-system quantum state due to insufficient coupling strength or other Hamiltonian non-idealities. We show that such transducers can generically be made perfect by using interference and phase-sensitive amplification. Our approach is based on the realization that a particular kind of imperfect transducer (one which implements a swapped quantum non-demolition (QND) gate) can be made into a perfect one-way transducer using feed-forward and/or injected squeezing. We show that a generic imperfect transducer can be reduced to this case by repeating the imperfect transduction operation twice, interspersed with amplification. Crucially, our scheme only requires the ability to implement squeezing operations and/or homodyne measurement on one of the two modes involved. It is thus ideally suited to schemes where there is an asymmetry in the ability to control the two coupled systems (e.g., microwave-to-optics quantum state transfer). We also discuss a correction protocol that requires no injected squeezing and/or feed-forward operation.
Speech difficulties and patient health communication mediating effects on worry and health‐related quality of life in children, adolescents, and young adults with Neurofibromatosis Type 1

The objective was to investigate the serial mediating effects of speech difficulties, patient health communication, and disease-specific worry in the relationship between neurofibromatosis (NF) symptoms (pain and skin symptoms) and total generic health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in children, adolescents, and young adults with NF Type 1 (NF1) from the patient perspective. The Speech, Communication, Worry, Pain, Skin Itch Bother, and Skin Sensations Scales from the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) NF1 Module and the PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales were completed in a multi-site national study by 305 patients ages 5-25 years. A serial multiple mediator model analysis was conducted to test the hypothesized sequential mediating effects of speech difficulties, health communication, and worry as intervening variables in the association between NF1 symptoms and HRQOL. Symptoms predictive effects on total generic HRQOL were serially mediated by speech difficulties, patient health communication, and worry. In predictive analytics models utilizing hierarchical multiple regression analyses with age and gender demographic covariates, the pain, skin itch bother, and skin sensations multiple mediator models accounted for 61%, 59%, and 56% of the variance in generic HRQOL (p < .001), reflecting large effect sizes. Speech difficulties, patient health communication, and disease-specific worry explain in part the mechanism of symptoms predictive effects on total generic HRQOL in pediatric patients with NF1. Identifying NF1-specific predictors and serial mediators of total generic HRQOL in pediatric patients with NF1 from the patient perspective enables a patient-centered comprehensive care approach for children, adolescents, and young adults with NF1.
Domain Adaptation for Enterprise Email Search

In the enterprise email search setting, the same search engine often powers multiple enterprises from various industries: technology, education, manufacturing, etc. However, using the same global ranking model across different enterprises may result in suboptimal search quality, due to the corpora differences and distinct information needs. On the other hand, training an individual ranking model for each enterprise may be infeasible, especially for smaller institutions with limited data. To address this data challenge, in this paper we propose a domain adaptation approach that fine-tunes the global model to each individual enterprise. In particular, we propose a novel application of the Maximum Mean Discrepancy (MMD) approach to information retrieval, which attempts to bridge the gap between the global data distribution and the data distribution for a given individual enterprise. We conduct a comprehensive set of experiments on a large-scale email search engine, and demonstrate that the MMD approach consistently improves the search quality for multiple individual domains, both in comparison to the global ranking model, as well as several competitive domain adaptation baselines including adversarial learning methods.
WTFgenes: What's The Function of these genes? Static sites for model-based gene set analysis

A common technique for interpreting experimentally-identified lists of genes is to look for enrichment of genes associated with particular ontology terms. The most common test uses the hypergeometric distribution; more recently, a model-based test was proposed. These approaches must typically be run using downloaded software, or on a server. We develop a collapsed likelihood for model-based gene set analysis and present WTFgenes, an implementation of both hypergeometric and model-based approaches, that can be published as a static site with computation run in JavaScript on the user's web browser client. Apart from hosting files, zero server resources are required: the site can (for example) be served directly from Amazon S3 or GitHub Pages. A C++11 implementation yielding identical results runs roughly twice as fast as the JavaScript version. WTFgenes is available from https://github.com/evoldoers/wtfgenes under the BSD3 license. A demonstration for the Gene Ontology is usable at https://evoldoers.github.io/wtfgo.
Development of gold contacted flip-chip detectors with imarad czt

We present initial results from our evaluation of a gold- contacted pixellated detector using cadmium zinc telluride substrate produced by IMARAD Imaging Systems. The Horizontal Bridgman (HB) grown crystals from IMARAD have been shown to produce high resolution photopeaks, but they are also seen to have large leakage current. Our previous tests with IMARAD CZT showed that the use of indium anodes and gold cathode improved the resistivity compared to the standard indium-contacted detectors. We seek to test whether simple evaporated gold contacts alone could also reduce the leakage current and thus improve the spectral resolution, especially in the 10 - 100 keV energy range. We have fabricated several metal- semiconductor-metal (MSM) detectors with a 4 X 4 array of pixels on 10 X 10 mm substrates. Measurements of the detectors' leakage current, spectral response, and temperature sensitivity are presented and compared to IMARAD's ohmic contact detector and gold contact MSM detectors made of High Pressure Bridgman (HPB) material. Finally, we show preliminary results from a tiled flip-chip pixellated detector made using the IMARAD detectors.
Enantioselective epoxidation of terminal olefins by chiral dioxirane.

This paper describes an enantioselective epoxidation of terminal olefins using chiral ketone 3 as catalyst and Oxone as oxidant. Up to 85% ee has been obtained.
Microwave-assisted synthesis of ethynylarylboronates for the construction of boronic acid-based fluorescent sensors for carbohydrates

Abstract A reliable and operationally simple procedure for the synthesis of 2,2-dimethylpropane-1,3-diyl ethynylaryl boronates 4 was developed. The key step is microwave-facilitated selective formation of 2,2-dimethylpropane-1,3-diyl trimethylsilylethynylaryl boronates by Sonogashira reaction from the corresponding bromides. The use of microwave was found to significantly improve the reaction yield and shorten the reaction time. The 2,2-dimethylpropane-1,3-diyl ethynylaryl boronates 4 prepared can be used in the construction of diboronic acid libraries through [2+3] Huisgen cycloaddition for carbohydrate fluorescent sensor development.
Cation, carbene, and radical centers in a [4.4.4.5]Fenestrane

Abstract Carbocation 2a, formed on photolysis of iodide 3a in methanol is captured by solvent to yield 4d exclusively. Carbene 2b, formed on photolysis of salt 1b in methanol, also yields only 4d. Radical 2c, formed on photochemical initiation of reaction between 3a and tributylstannane, abstracts hydrogen without rearrangement to give only 3c. These reactions and relevant MNDO calculations are discussed.
THE ENANTIOSELECTIVE TOTAL SYNTHESIS OF THE ANTITUMOR MACROLIDE NATURAL PRODUCT RHIZOXIN D

Abstract A convergent, enantioselective total synthesis of rhizoxin D (didesepoxy-rhizoxin), a potent antitumor natural product, was achieved via three critical olefinations, including a Horner-Emmons macrocyclization.
Improved syntheses of some monochloro- and monobromo-8-quinolinols

Procedures were developed for the preparation of the 2-, 3-, 4-, and 6-monosubstituted chloro and bromo 8-quinolinols which afforded greater yields and/or reduced the number of steps in the preparation. 100 MHz1H-NMR spectra for the 12 possible monochloro and monobromo analogues are given.
Asymmetric cyclopentannelation: camphor-derived auxiliary.

The scope of an enantioselective cyclopentannelation reaction that makes use of allenyl ether-derived nucleophiles has been probed. The enantioselectivity is induced by a traceless chiral auxiliary that is easily derived from camphor. It has been shown that for γ-substituted allene ethers that are axially chiral, very high enantiomeric excesses of cyclopentenone products are observed in the matched cases. Two fundamentally different mechanisms are observed, one for the cyclizations of allenyl ketones (see eq 7), the other for the cyclizations of allenyl alcohols (see eq 11). The methodology is versatile, efficient, and well-suited for applications in synthesis.
Cycloaddition Reaction of Mesoionic Betaines as an Approach toward Trialkylindoline Alkaloids.

Intramolecular 1,4-dipolar cycloaddition of an anhydro-4-hydroxy-2-oxo-1,3-thiazium hydroxide across a tethered indole π-bond has been used for the construction of the pentacyclic skeleton of epi-16,17-dihydroeburnamenine. The reaction of 3-ethyl-3-(alkenyl)piperidinones with diketene and trimethylsilyl triflate in benzene at ambient temperature produced annulated pyridones in good yield. The initial reaction involved formation of a N-acetoacetylated amide which was further converted to the pyridone with TMSOTf. The overall process was found to proceed with complete stereospecificity. Treating a sample of 3-ethyl-3-[(E)-4-phenyl-3-butenyl]-2-piperidone with diketene and TMSOTf produced a cycloadduct in 63% yield whose stereochemistry was elucidated by a X-ray crystallographic study. The epimeric Z-isomer produced a different stereoisomer of the annulated dihydropyridone. The mechanism of the annulation involves a TMSOTf induced cyclization followed by proton removal and generation of a cross-conjugated he...
A Function Emulation Approach for Doubly Intractable Distributions

Doubly intractable distributions arise in many settings, for example, in Markov models for point processes and exponential random graph models for networks. Bayesian inference for these models is c...
Synthesis of stable seleno[3,4-b]quinoxaline derivatives.

The unstable seleno[2,3-b]quinoxoline was generated and functionalized in situ to give the stable dialdehyde and diester derivatives. The dicyano compound was made in several steps from biscyanomethyl selenide and was found to be very stable.
Efficient, stereoselective synthesis of trans-2,5-disubstituted morpholines.

Enantio- and diastereoselective syntheses of trans-2,5-disubstituted morpholine derivatives are described. The routes are initiated by the reaction of enantiopure epoxides (2) with amino alcohols (3) and address the problem of regioselective hydroxyl activation−ring closure of the resulting amino diol adducts for (amino alcohol-derived) alkyl substituents of different steric demands.
Rapid adaptation in large populations with very rare sex: Scalings and spontaneous oscillations.

Abstract Genetic exchange in microbes and other facultative sexuals can be rare enough that evolution is almost entirely asexual and populations almost clonal. But the benefits of genetic exchange depend crucially on the diversity of genotypes in a population. How very rare recombination together with the accumulation of new mutations shapes the diversity of large populations and gives rise to faster adaptation is still poorly understood. This paper analyzes a particularly simple model: organisms with two asexual chromosomes that can reassort during rare matings that occur at a rate r . The speed of adaptation for large population sizes, N , is found to depend on the ratio ∼ log ( N r ) ∕ log ( N ) . For larger populations, the r needed to yield the same speed decreases as a power of N . Remarkably, the population undergoes spontaneous oscillations alternating between phases when the fittest individuals are created by mutation and when they are created by reassortment, which – in contrast to conventional regimes – decreases the diversity. Between the two phases, the mean fitness jumps rapidly. The oscillatory dynamics and the strong fluctuations this induces have implications for the diversity and coalescent statistics. The results are potentially applicable to large microbial populations, especially viruses that have a small number of chromosomes. Some of the key features may be more broadly applicable for large populations with other types of rare genetic exchange.
N-Allyl-1,3-oxazines via a facile keto-ene/cyclization tandem reaction ☆

Abstract The intramolecular keto-ene/cyclization tandem reaction of γ-N-allylamino ketones is an effective means of producing 1,3-oxazines. The reaction usually requires high temperatures and/or pressures. We discovered that N,N-diallyl amines undergo the reaction at lower temperatures than their monoallyl analogs. An extreme example, 1-N,N-diallylamino-9,10-anthraquinone, undergoes the keto-ene reaction near ambient temperature. In the case of 1-N,N′-dialkylaminoanthraquinones, electron deficient ene components can even be used, allowing the preparation of a broad spectrum of oxazines. Furthermore, the N-allyl-1,3-oxazine can be easily deallylated to produce a 1,3-oxazine that contains a secondary amine.
Two-body modes of B mesons and the CP-b triangle

The study of charmless two-body decays of B mesons is currently one of the hottest topics in B physics. QCD factorization provides the theoretical framework for a systematic analysis of such decays. A global fit to → πK, ππ branching fractions, combined with knowledge on |Vub|, establishes the existence of a CP-violating phase in the bottom sector of the CKM matrix and tends to favor values of γ near 90°, somewhat larger than those suggested by the standard analysis of the unitarity triangle. A novel construction of the unitarity triangle is presented, which is independent of B-B and K-K mixing.
MULTILEVEL BLOCKING MONTE CARLO SIMULATIONS FOR QUANTUM DOTS

This article provides an introduction to the ideas behind the multilevel blocking (MLB) approach to the fermion sign problem in path-integral Monte Carlo simulations, and also gives a detailed discussion of MLB results for quantum dots. MLB can turn the exponential severity of the sign problem into an algebraic one, thereby enabling numerically exact studies of otherwise inaccessible systems. Low-temperature simulation results for up to eight strongly correlated electrons in a parabolic 20 quantum dot are presented.
Synthesis of some new thieno[3,4-d]pyrimidines and their C-nucleosides

The synthesis of several new thieno[3,4-d]pyrimidine C-nucleosides 5-8 is described. The known 5-ribosyl-ated methyl 4-(formylamino)thiophene-3-carboxylate key intermediate 20 was obtained as a mixture of anomers in significantly improved yield by condensation of the sugar 15 with methyl 4-(formylamino)thio-phene-3-carboxylate 19 in nitromethane at 60° in the presence of stannic chloride. Attempts to prepare the C-7 ribosylated compound 21β by direct condensation of the bicyclic base 10 with 15 gave instead the N-1 ribosylated nucleoside 16. The synthesis of the corresponding and previously unknown thieno[3,4-d]pyrimi-dine bases 12 and 13 is described along with stability studies on the 4-methylthio derivative 12. Preliminary biological studies indicate that adenosine analogue 7 is a potent growth inhibitor of several mammalian tumor cell lines.
Efficient synthesis of 2- and 3-substituted indenes from 2-bromobenzyl bromide through an enolate alkylation/Cr(II)/Ni(II)-mediated carbonyl addition sequence

Abstract An efficient new synthesis of 2- and 3-substituted indenes has been developed based on the nickel-catalyzed chromium(II)-promoted addition of aryl bromides to a tethered ketone carbonyl. Several tethered bromoaryl ketones were prepared through enolate alkylation of acyclic or cyclic ketones with 2-bromobenzyl bromide. Nozaki-Takai-Hiyama-Kishi closure of the resulting bromoaryl ketones followed by acid promoted dehydration gave substituted indenes in overall yields for the three-step sequence ranging from 29 to 58%.
The Meyers Reaction (1994-2010)

Abstract: The Meyers reaction, i.e. the nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction between aryloxazolines with organolithium and organomagnesium reagents is a very efficient and reliable method for the formation of new carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds. The aim of this review is to present a general overview of this reaction in chiral and racemic form, emphasizing its scope and limitations. The literature is covered since 1994.
The ring opening of substituted cyclopropylidenes to substituted allenes: the effects of steric and long-range electrostatic interactions

It is shown that all stereospecific preferences found experimentally for the ring opening of substituted cyclopropylidenes are satisfactorily reproduced by adding steric and long-range electrostatic interactions to the cyclopropylidene reaction surface. The corresponding surface for dimethyl cyclopropylidene is mapped out in detail. The surface for 3-methyl- and 2-bromo-3-methyl-cyclopropylidene is explored around the transition region. From the success of this approach it is inferred that short-range covalent interactions are unlikely to be responsible for sterospecific preferences found in these systems.
An open-hardware platform for optogenetics and photobiology

In optogenetics, researchers use light and genetically encoded photoreceptors to control biological processes with unmatched precision. However, outside of neuroscience, the impact of optogenetics has been limited by a lack of user-friendly, flexible, accessible hardware. Here, we engineer the Light Plate Apparatus (LPA), a device that can deliver two independent 310 to 1550 nm light signals to each well of a 24-well plate with intensity control over three orders of magnitude and millisecond resolution. Signals are programmed using an intuitive web tool named Iris. All components can be purchased for under $400 and the device can be assembled and calibrated by a non-expert in one day. We use the LPA to precisely control gene expression from blue, green, and red light responsive optogenetic tools in bacteria, yeast, and mammalian cells and simplify the entrainment of cyanobacterial circadian rhythm. The LPA dramatically reduces the entry barrier to optogenetics and photobiology experiments.
Osmium-catalyzed asymmetric dihydroxylation by carbon dioxide-activated hydrogen peroxide and N-methylmorpholine

An improved process has been developed for the osmium-catalyzed dihydroxylation of olefins via in situ formation of NMO from NMM using CO2 catalysis and H2O2. All olefins examined were selectively cis-dihydroxylated to their corresponding diols in good to excellent yields, and by the use of chiral ligands, high enantiomeric excesses were obtained.
Investment in EV Charging Spots for Parking

As demand for electric vehicles (EVs) is expanding, meeting the need for charging infrastructure, especially in urban areas, has become a critical issue. One method of adding charging stations is to install them at parking spots. This increases the value of these spots to EV drivers needing to charge their vehicles. However, there is a cost to constructing these spots and such spots may preclude drivers not needing to charge from using them, reducing the parking options for such drivers. We look at two models for how decisions surrounding investment in charging stations on existing parking spots may be undertaken. First, we analyze two firms who compete overinstalling stations under government set mandates or subsidies. Given the cost of constructing spots and the competitiveness of the markets, we find it is ambiguous whether setting higher mandates or higher subsidies for spot construction leads to better aggregate outcomes. Second, we look at a system operator who faces uncertainty on the size of the EV market. If they are risk neutral, we find a relatively small change in the uncertainty of the EV market can lead to large changes in the optimal charging capacity.
Rhodium-Catalyzed and Zinc(II)-Triflate-Promoted Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Tetrasubstituted α,β-Unsaturated Ketones

The asymmetric hydrogenation of tetrasubstituted α,β-unsaturated ketones has been accomplished using an in situ formed rhodium-Josiphos catalyst. The reaction is enhanced by addition of catalytic zinc(II) triflate, which significantly improves turnover frequency while suppressing epimerization of the products.
Platinum chalcogenido MCM-41 analogues. High hexagonal order in mesostructured semiconductors based on Pt2+ and [Ge4Q10]4 (Q = S, Se) and [Sn4Se10]4- adamantane clusters

Highly periodic hexagonal honeycombs of platinum-germanium chalcogenide and platinum-tin selenide frameworks were prepared by linking corresponding [Ge(4)Q(10)](4)(-) (Q = S, Se) and [Sn(4)Se(10)](4)(-) clusters with Pt(2+) ions. The non-oxidic honeycombs designated as C(n)PyPtGeQ and C(n)PyPtSnSe were templated by the lyotropic liquid-crystalline phase of alkylpyridinium surfactant [C(n)H(2)(n)(+1)NC(5)H(5)]Br (C(n)PyBr) with n= 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, and 22. Although the materials are amorphous at the microscale, they have crystalline mesoporosity with well-ordered and aligned surfactant-filled cylindrical pores. In addition to high mesoscopic order, the pore-pore separation is adjustable with the surfactant chain length (i.e., value of n). The quality of these materials, as judged by the degree of hexagonal order, rivals or exceeds that reported for the highest quality MCM-41 silicates. The materials have the lowest band gap reported so far for mesostructured chalcogenides solids, in the range 1.5 < E(g)< 2.3 eV. The C(n)PyPtGeS analogues show intense photoluminescence at 77 K when excited with light above the band gap.