cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Diels−Alder Approach to Isoprostanes. Total Synthesis of iPF2α-V

Isoprostanes (iPs) are a group of natural products formed in vivo by a free-radical oxygenation of arachidonic acid. They are isomeric with prostaglandins; whereas enzymatically produced prostaglandins, such as PGF2α have the two side chains in the trans stereochemistry, the side chains of the isoprostanes are mostly in the cis configuration. A novel synthesis of iPs is described and illustrated with the synthesis of iPF2α-V, 8. The synthetic material allowed us to identify this iP in human urine. Because of this cis relationship between the two side chains in the structures of iPs, we selected a synthetic design based on the Diels−Alder rection which will guarantee that the two side chains, which will be derived from the diene part, will be cis to each other. By substituting the OH of the hydroxycyclopentenone 14 with a bulky TBDPS group, we controlled the face selectivity of the approaching diene 17a from the less hindered top face of the five-membered ring. We would obtain eventually the two OH groups ...
The correct space group of NaPF6.H2O

The structure of sodium hexafluorophosphate monohydrate, NaPF(6) x H(2)O, has been inadvertently redetermined, revealing that the previously reported space group, Imma, was assigned incorrectly, with the a and b axes interchanged. The correct space group is Pnna. The program PLATON [Spek (2003). J. Appl. Cryst. 36, 7-13] suggested both Imma and Pmma as possible space groups, but only Pnna is consistent with the systematic absences. The inter-ionic and hydrogen-bonding interactions in the lattice form a three-dimensional network.
MULTICOMPONENT REACTIONS: SYNTHESIS OF SPIROCYCLIC TETRAHYDROPYRAN DERIVATIVES BY PRINS CYCLIZATION.

Substituted spirocyclic tetrahydropyranyl mesylates and tosylates have been synthesized in good yields using a Prins-type cyclization of various cyclic ketones, a homoallylic alcohol and either methanesulfonic or p-toluenesulfonic acid under non-aqueous conditions. The mesylates thus produced could then be transformed into the corresponding Boc-protected amines using an efficient two step procedure.
Microwave-enhanced nucleophilic fluorination in the synthesis of fluoropyridyl derivatives of [3,2-c]pyrazolo-corticosteroids, potential glucocorticoid receptor-mediated imaging agents

Abstract Fluoropyridyl derivatives of [3,2-c]pyrazolo-corticosteroids have high affinity for the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and are highly active glucocorticoids. They are thus considered to be excellent candidates for PET imaging of GR containing tissues when labeled with fluorine-18 (t1/2 = 110 min). Previously reported syntheses of these fluorinated glucocorticoids were accomplished by conventional thermal nucleophilic halogen exchange reactions with chloropyridyl precursors. These reactions were found to proceed at rates too slow for feasible application to radiosynthesis using [18F]fluoride. We have applied microwave-heating methods to these reactions and found that significant rate enhancements can be realized. Kinetic experiments showed an average relative rate ratio of 3/1 for microwave versus conventional heating and preparative experiments showed an average relative conversion ratio of 4.5/1 during the initial 120 min, a period approximating one half-life of the isotope. The microwave method described was used to prepare previously unreported 2′-(2-fluoro-4-pyridyl)-11β,17,21-trihydroxy-16α-methyl-20-oxo-pregn-4-eno-[3,2-c]-pyrazole, which was evaluated for biological activity.
Gallium substitutions as a means to stabilize alkaline-earth and rare-earth metal pnictides with the cubic Th3P4 type: Synthesis and structure of A7Ga2Sb6 (A=Sr, Ba, Eu)

Abstract Three new compounds—Sr 7.04(2) Ga 1.94(2) Sb 6 , Ba 7.02(3) Ga 1.98(3) Sb 6 and Eu 7.04(3) Ga 1.90(3) Sb 6 —have been synthesized from reactions of the corresponding elements using gallium as a metal flux. Their crystal structures (space group I 4¯3 d (No. 220), Z =2 with unit cell parameters: a =9.9147(9) A for the Sr-compound; a =10.3190(9) A for the Ba-compound; and a =9.7866(8) A for the Eu-compound) have been established by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The structures are best described as Ga-stabilized derivatives of the hypothetical Sr 4 Sb 3 , Ba 4 Sb 3 and Eu 4 Sb 3 phases with the cubic Th 3 P 4 type. Such an inclusion of interstitial Ga atoms in this atomic arrangement results in the formation of isolated [Ga 2 Sb 6 ] 14− fragments, isoelectronic and isostructural with the [Sn 2 Te 6 ] 6− anions in the K 3 SnTe 3 type, and allows for the attainment of a charge-balanced electron count. In that sense, the Sr 4 Sb 3 , Ba 4 Sb 3 and Eu 4 Sb 3 binaries, which are expected to be electron-deficient and are currently unknown, can be “turned” into Sr 7 Ga 2 Sb 6 , Ba 7 Ga 2 Sb 6 and Eu 7 Ga 2 Sb 6 , whose structures are readily rationalized following the Zintl concept.
Sleep Benefits Memory for Semantic Category Structure While Preserving Exemplar-Specific Information

Semantic memory encompasses knowledge about both the properties that typify concepts (e.g. robins, like all birds, have wings) as well as the properties that individuate conceptually related items (e.g. robins, in particular, have red breasts). We investigate the impact of sleep on new semantic learning using a property inference task in which both kinds of information are initially acquired equally well. Participants learned about three categories of novel objects possessing some properties that were shared among category exemplars and others that were unique to an exemplar, with exposure frequency varying across categories. In Experiment 1, memory for shared properties improved and memory for unique properties was preserved across a night of sleep, while memory for both feature types declined over a day awake. In Experiment 2, memory for shared properties improved across a nap, but only for the lower-frequency category, suggesting a prioritization of weakly learned information early in a sleep period. The increase was significantly correlated with amount of REM, but was also observed in participants who did not enter REM, suggesting involvement of both REM and NREM sleep. The results provide the first evidence that sleep improves memory for the shared structure of object categories, while simultaneously preserving object-unique information.
Single olfactory receptors set odor detection thresholds

In many species, survival depends on olfaction, yet the mechanisms that underlie olfactory sensitivity are not well understood. Here we examine how a conserved subset of olfactory receptors, the trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs), determine odor detection thresholds of mice to amines. We find that deleting all TAARs, or even single TAARs, results in significant odor detection deficits. This finding is not limited to TAARs, as the deletion of a canonical odorant receptor reduced behavioral sensitivity to its preferred ligand. Remarkably, behavioral threshold is set solely by the most sensitive receptor, with no contribution from other highly sensitive receptors. In addition, increasing the number of sensory neurons (and glomeruli) expressing a threshold-determining TAAR does not improve detection, indicating that sensitivity is not limited by the typical complement of sensory neurons. Our findings demonstrate that olfactory thresholds are set by the single highest affinity receptor and suggest that TAARs are evolutionarily conserved because they determine the sensitivity to a class of biologically relevant chemicals.
A Solid-State 93Nb and 19F NMR Spectroscopy and X-ray Diffraction Study of Potassium Heptafluoroniobate(V): Characterization of 93Nb, 19F Coupling, and Fluorine Motion

A variety of NMR interactions have been characterized by solid-state NMR spectroscopy in potassium heptafluoroniobate, K2NbF7, which contains fluorine atoms arranged about a central niobium atom in a heptacoordinate, capped trigonal prism arrangement. Simulations of 93Nb MAS NMR spectra acquired at 11.7 T and at high spinning speeds (35 kHz) yielded the nuclear quadrupole coupling constant, CQ(93Nb), the asymmetry parameter, η, and the isotropic chemical shift, δiso. From the analysis of 93Nb NMR spectra of stationary samples of K2NbF7, the niobium chemical shielding anisotropy (span, Ω = 200 ppm) and the relative orientation of the electric field gradient (EFG) and chemical shielding (CS) tensors were determined. The 93Nb MAS NMR spectra acquired at lower spinning speeds, where the spinning sidebands are not separated from the centerband, were also simulated by using an efficient time propagation algorithm based on Floquet theory. The CQ(93Nb) is seen to increase with decreasing temperature, varying from...
An unusually reactive phosphodiester

Abstract 4-Nitro-1,8-naphthyl phosphate ( 4 , NNP) is 2–3 orders of magnitude more reactive to basic and metal cation-mediated hydrolysis than its acyclic analogue ( 7 ); origins of the rate enhancements are discussed.
Synthesis of the Sialidase Inhibitor Siastatin B

The resolved piperidinecarboxylate (R)-7 was converted to siastatin B (1) by an efficient and stereoselective sequence that includes a bromo-β-lactonization and an N-acyliminium azidation. Two analogues (3 and 4) of siastatin were also prepared.
A facile method for the solution and solid-phase synthesis of substituted [3.3.1] bicycles.

Interest in bicyclic natural products from the Guttiferae classification has led to the development of an improved method for the selenium-mediated cyclization of alkenyl-substituted β-dicarbonyls (I) to form a variety of bicyclo[3.3.1]nonan-9-ones (II) both in solution and on solid support.
Confinement and the short type I′ flux tube

We show that the recent worldsheet analysis of the quantum fluctuations of a short flux tube in type II string theory leads to a simple and precise description of a pair of “stuck” D0-branes in an orientifold compactification of the type I′ string theory. The existence of a stable type I′ flux tube of substring-scale length is a consequence of the confinement of quantized flux associated with the scalar dualized ten-form background field strength ∗F10, evidence for a −2-brane in the BPS spectrum of M-theory. Using heterotic-type I duality, we infer the existence of an M2-brane of finite width O(α′) in M-theory, the strong coupling resolution of a spacetime singularity in the D=9 twisted and toroidally compactified E8×E8 heterotic string. This phenomenon has a bosonic string analog in the existence of a stable short electric flux tube arising from the confinement of photons due to tachyon field dynamics. The appendix clarifies the appearance of nonperturbative states and enhanced gauge symmetry in toroidal compactifications of the type I′ string. We account for all of the known disconnected components of the moduli space of theories with sixteen supercharges, in striking confirmation of heterotic-type I duality.
Synthesis of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-6-O-methyl-2′-deoxyguanosine and its use as a probe to study DNA-base excision by MutY enzyme

A 23mer oligomer containing 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-6-O-methyl-2′-deoxyguanosine (1) has been synthesized from 2′-deoxyguanosine. The activity of MutY protein toward this and a related oligomer containing 8-methoxy-dG has been studied.
Conflict termination, signals of state weakness and violent urban social disorder in the developing world

ABSTRACTWarfare often spills over into contentious mobilisation in cities. However, violent urban social disorder is not simply a reflection of broader conflict dynamics. In this article, I argue t...
Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 searches DNA via a ‘monkey bar’ mechanism

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) is both a first responder to DNA damage and a chromatin architectural protein. How PARP1 rapidly finds DNA damage sites in the context of a nucleus filled with undamaged DNA, to which it also binds, is an unresolved question. Here, we show that PARP1 association with DNA is diffusion-limited, and release of PARP1 from DNA is promoted by binding of an additional DNA molecule that facilitates a 'monkey bar' mechanism, also known as intersegment transfer. The WGR-domain of PARP1 is essential to this mechanism, and a point mutation (W589A) recapitulates the altered kinetics of the domain deletion. Demonstrating the physiological importance of the monkey bar mechanism for PARP1 function, the W589A mutant accumulates at sites of DNA damage more slowly following laser micro-irradiation than wild-type PARP1. Clinically relevant inhibitors of PARP1 did not alter the rate or mechanism of the release of PARP1 from DNA.
It’s about building a book of business: incentives of insurance salespersons from future renewals

Most property-liability insurance contracts are short-term contracts which can be renewed at expiration. With an average policy renewal rate of 89%, selling a policy not only generates immediate revenue but also results in expected future revenue for an agency. Outside employment options give salespersons negotiating power to claim a fraction of their increased production. This link between current performance and future compensation creates implicit incentives. Our empirical analysis documents a strong positive relationship between the fraction of renewals and salespersons’ output, and between output and salespersons’ compensation. These results hold regardless of whether salespersons receive a fixed salary, a combination of salary and commission, or compensation entirely based on commission. Overall, these findings support the view that property-liability insurance salespersons have strong incentives to build a book of business, and that these indirect sales incentives allow insurance agencies to offer compensation schemes with a fixed salary component.
Checking-in on network functions

When programming network functions, changes within a packet tend to have consequences---side effects which must be accounted for by network programmers or administrators via arbitrary logic and an innate understanding of dependencies. Examples of this include updating checksums when a packet's contents has been modified or adjusting a payload length field of a IPv6 header if another header is added or updated within a packet. While static-typing captures interface specifications and how packet contents should behave, it does not enforce precise invariants around runtime dependencies like the examples above. Instead, during the design phase of network functions, programmers should be given an easier way to specify checks up front, all without having to account for and keep track of these consequences at each and every step during the development cycle. In keeping with this view, we present a unique approach for adding and generating both static checks and dynamic contracts for specifying and checking packet processing operations. We develop our technique within an existing framework called NetBricks and demonstrate how our approach simplifies and checks common dependent packet and header processing logic that other systems take for granted, all without adding much overhead during development.
Identifying gene expression programs of cell-type identity and cellular activity with single-cell RNA-Seq

Identifying gene expression programs underlying both cell-type identity and cellular activities (e.g. life-cycle processes, responses to environmental cues) is crucial for understanding the organization of cells and tissues. Although single-cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) can quantify transcripts in individual cells, each cell's expression profile may be a mixture of both types of programs, making them difficult to disentangle. Here, we benchmark and enhance the use of matrix factorization to solve this problem. We show with simulations that a method we call consensus non-negative matrix factorization (cNMF) accurately infers identity and activity programs, including their relative contributions in each cell. To illustrate the insights this approach enables, we apply it to published brain organoid and visual cortex scRNA-Seq datasets; cNMF refines cell types and identifies both expected (e.g. cell cycle and hypoxia) and novel activity programs, including programs that may underlie a neurosecretory phenotype and synaptogenesis.
System optimum dynamic traffic assignment with departure time choice on two-terminal networks

This paper addresses the system optimum dynamic traffic assignment (SO-DTA) problem with departure time choice on a two-terminal network, where the travel cost consists of travel time and an early ...
Faster eigenvector computation via shift-and-invert preconditioning

We give faster algorithms and improved sample complexities for the fundamental problem of estimating the top eigenvector. Given an explicit matrix A ∈ Rn×d, we show how to compute an e approximate top eigenvector of AτA in time O ([nnz(A) + d sr(A)/gap2] ċ log 1/e . Here nnz(A) is the number of nonzeros in A, sr(A) is the stable rank, and gap is the relative eigengap. We also consider an online setting in which, given a stream of i.i.d. samples from a distribution D with covariance matrix Σ and a vector x0 which is an O(gap) approximate top eigenvector for Σ, we show how to refine x0 to an e approximation using O (v(D)/gapċe) samples from D. Here v(D) is a natural notion of variance. Combining our algorithm with previous work to initialize x0, we obtain improved sample complexities and runtimes under a variety of assumptions on D. We achieve our results via a robust analysis of the classic shift-and-invert preconditioning method. This technique lets us reduce eigenvector computation to approximately solving a series of linear systems with fast stochastic gradient methods.
Comparing Population Means Under Local Differential Privacy: With Significance and Power

A statistical hypothesis test determines whether a hypothesis should be rejected based on samples from populations. In particular, randomized controlled experiments (or A/B testing) that compare population means using, e.g., t-tests, have been widely deployed in technology companies to aid in making data-driven decisions. Samples used in these tests are collected from users and may contain sensitive information. Both the data collection and the testing process may compromise individuals’ privacy. In this paper, we study how to conduct hypothesis tests to compare population means while preserving privacy. We use the notation of local differential privacy (LDP), which has recently emerged as the main tool to ensure each individual’s privacy without the need of a trusted data collector. We propose LDP tests that inject noise into every user’s data in the samples before collecting them (so users do not need to trust the data collector), and draw conclusions with bounded type-I (significance level) and type-II errors (1 - power). Our approaches can be extended to the scenario where some users require LDP while some are willing to provide exact data. We report experimental results on real-world datasets to verify the effectiveness of our approaches.
Beam Discovery Using Linear Block Codes for Millimeter Wave Communication Networks

The surge in mobile broadband data demands is expected to surpass the available spectrum capacity below 6 GHz. This expectation has prompted the exploration of millimeter wave (mm-wave) frequency bands as a candidate technology for next generation wireless networks. However, numerous challenges to deploying mm-wave communication systems, including channel estimation, need to be met before practical deployments are possible. This paper addresses the mm-wave channel estimation problem and treats it as a beam discovery problem in which locating beams with strong path reflectors is analogous to locating errors in linear block codes. We show that a significantly small number of measurements (compared to the original dimensions of the channel matrix) is sufficient to reliably estimate the channel. We also show that this can be achieved using a simple and energy-efficient transceiver architecture.
Embedding Estimates and Fractional Smoothness

A short intrinsic proof is given for the Bourgain-Brezis-Mironescu theorem with an extension for higher-order gradient forms. This argument illustrates the role of functional geometry and Fourier analysis for obtaining embedding estimates. New Hausdorff-Young inequalities are obtained for fractional embedding as an extension of the classical Aronszajn-Smith formula. These results include bilinear fractional embedding as suggested by the Landau collision operator in plasma dynamics.
Rigidity of Ext and Tor with coefficients in residue fields of a commutative noetherian ring

Let 𝔭 be a prime ideal in a commutative noetherian ring R. It is proved that if an R-module M satisfies (k (𝔭), M) are proved, and applications to the theory of homological dimensions are explored.
Theory of temporal fluctuations in isolated quantum systems

When an isolated quantum system is driven out of equilibrium, expectation values of general observables start oscillating in time. This paper reviews the general theory of such temporal fluctuations. We first survey some results on the strength of such temporal fluctuations. For example temporal fluctuations are exponentially small in the system's volume for generic systems whereas they fall-off algebraically in integrable systems. We then concentrate on the so-called quench scenario where the system is driven out-of-equilibrium under the application of a sudden perturbation. For sufficiently small perturbations, temporal fluctuations of physical observables can be characterized in full generality and can be used as an effective tool to probe quantum criticality of the underlying model. In the off-critical region the distribution becomes Gaussian. Close to criticality the distribution becomes a universal function uniquely characterized by a single critical exponent, that we compute explicitly. This contrasts standard equilibrium quantum fluctuations for which the critical distribution depends on a numerable set of critical coefficients and is known only for limited examples. The possibility of using temporal fluctuations to determine pseudo-critical boundaries in optical lattice experiments is further reviewed.
Limits for Partial Maxima of Gaussian Random Vectors

We obtain almost sure limit theorems for partial maxima of norms of a sequence of Banach-valued Gaussian random variables.
A submodularity-based approach for multi-agent optimal coverage problems

We consider the optimal coverage problem where a multi-agent network is deployed in an environment with obstacles to maximize a joint event detection probability. We first show that the objective function is monotone submodular, a class of functions for which a simple greedy algorithm is known to be within 1-1/e of the optimal solution. We then derive two tighter lower bounds by exploiting the curvature information of the objective function. We further show that the tightness of these lower bounds is complementary with respect to the sensing capabilities of the agents. Simulation results show that this approach leads to significantly better performance relative to previously used algorithms.
Transition fronts in time heterogeneous and random media of ignition type

Abstract The current paper is devoted to the investigation of wave propagation phenomenon in reaction–diffusion equations with ignition type nonlinearity in time heterogeneous and random media. It is proven that such equations in time heterogeneous media admit transition fronts with time dependent profiles and that such equations in time random media admit transition fronts with random profiles. Important properties of transition fronts, including the boundedness of propagation speeds and the uniform decaying estimates of the propagation fronts, are also obtained.
Green's function asymptotics near the internal edges of spectra of periodic elliptic operators. Spectral edge case†

Precise asymptotics known for the Green's function of the Laplace operator have found their analogs for periodic elliptic operators of the second order at and below the bottom of the spectrum. Due to the band-gap structure of the spectra of such operators, the question arises whether similar results can be obtained near or at the edges of spectral gaps. As the result of this work shows, this is possible at a spectral edge when the dimension d ≥ 3.
Canonical Cohomology as an Exterior Module

albX : X −→ Alb(X) over its image. It was established in [LP] that QX is k-regular as an E-module: it is generated in degrees 0, . . . ,−k; the first syzygies among these generators have potential degrees−1, . . . ,−(k+ 1); and so on. In particular, if X has maximal Albanese dimension – i.e. when k(X) = 0 – then QX is generated in degree 0 and has a linear resolution. The purpose of this note is to prove a more precise statement in case k > 0.
Learning to Attend On Essential Terms: An Enhanced Retriever-Reader Model for Open-domain Question Answering

Open-domain question answering remains a challenging task as it requires models that are capable of understanding questions and answers, collecting useful information, and reasoning over evidence. Previous work typically formulates this task as a reading comprehension or entailment problem given evidence retrieved from search engines. However, existing techniques struggle to retrieve indirectly related evidence when no directly related evidence is provided, especially for complex questions where it is hard to parse precisely what the question asks. In this paper we propose a retriever-reader model that learns to attend on essential terms during the question answering process. We build (1) an essential term selector which first identifies the most important words in a question, then reformulates the query and searches for related evidence; and (2) an enhanced reader that distinguishes between essential terms and distracting words to predict the answer. We evaluate our model on multiple open-domain QA datasets, notably achieving the level of the state-of-the-art on the AI2 Reasoning Challenge (ARC) dataset.
Elliptic curves with bounded ranks in function field towers

Let $k$ denote an algebraically closed field. We revisit a construction of the author of families of elliptic curves over the rational function field $k(t)$. Combining a combinatorial analysis with a rank formula of Ulmer we prove that, for all but finitely many families of these curves, the Mordell-Weil groups over $k(t^{1/d})$ have rank zero, as $d$ ranges over positive integers prime to the characteristic of $k$.
Conditional Global Existence and Scattering for a Semi-Linear Skyrme Equation with Large Data

We study a generalization of energy super-critical wave maps due to Adkins and Nappi that can also be viewed as a simplified version of the Skyrme model. These are maps from 1 + 3 dimensional Minkowski space that take values in the 3-sphere, and it follows that every finite energy Adkins–Nappi wave map has a fixed topological degree which is an integer. Here we initiate the study of the large data dynamics for Adkins–Nappi wave maps by proving that there is no type II blow-up in the class of maps with topological degree zero. In particular, any degree zero map whose critical norm stays bounded must be global-in-time and scatter to zero as \({t \to \pm \infty}\).
Interpreting CNN Knowledge via an Explanatory Graph

This paper learns a graphical model, namely an explanatory graph, which reveals the knowledge hierarchy hidden inside a pre-trained CNN. Considering that each filter in a conv-layer of a pre-trained CNN usually represents a mixture of object parts, we propose a simple yet efficient method to automatically disentangles different part patterns from each filter, and construct an explanatory graph. In the explanatory graph, each node represents a part pattern, and each edge encodes co-activation relationships and spatial relationships between patterns. More importantly, we learn the explanatory graph for a pre-trained CNN in an unsupervised manner, i.e., without a need of annotating object parts. Experiments show that each graph node consistently represents the same object part through different images. We transfer part patterns in the explanatory graph to the task of part localization, and our method significantly outperforms other approaches.
End-to-end Sequence Labeling via Bi-directional LSTM-CNNs-CRF

State-of-the-art sequence labeling systems traditionally require large amounts of taskspecific knowledge in the form of handcrafted features and data pre-processing. In this paper, we introduce a novel neutral network architecture that benefits from both word- and character-level representations automatically, by using combination of bidirectional LSTM, CNN and CRF. Our system is truly end-to-end, requiring no feature engineering or data preprocessing, thus making it applicable to a wide range of sequence labeling tasks. We evaluate our system on two data sets for two sequence labeling tasks — Penn Treebank WSJ corpus for part-of-speech (POS) tagging and CoNLL 2003 corpus for named entity recognition (NER). We obtain state-of-the-art performance on both datasets — 97.55% accuracy for POS tagging and 91.21% F1 for NER.
Solution of Sondow's problem: a synthetic proof of the tangency property of the parbelos

In a recent paper titled The parbelos, a parabolic analog of the arbelos, Sondow asks for a synthetic proof to the tangency property of the parbelos. In this paper, we resolve this question by intr...
Towards Semi-Supervised Learning for Deep Semantic Role Labeling

Neural models have shown several state-of-the-art performances on Semantic Role Labeling (SRL). However, the neural models require an immense amount of semantic-role corpora and are thus not well suited for low-resource languages or domains. The paper proposes a semi-supervised semantic role labeling method that outperforms the state-of-the-art in limited SRL training corpora. The method is based on explicitly enforcing syntactic constraints by augmenting the training objective with a syntactic-inconsistency loss component and uses SRL-unlabeled instances to train a joint-objective LSTM. On CoNLL-2012 English section, the proposed semi-supervised training with 1%, 10% SRL-labeled data and varying amounts of SRL-unlabeled data achieves +1.58, +0.78 F1, respectively, over the pre-trained models that were trained on SOTA architecture with ELMo on the same SRL-labeled data. Additionally, by using the syntactic-inconsistency loss on inference time, the proposed model achieves +3.67, +2.1 F1 over pre-trained model on 1%, 10% SRL-labeled data, respectively.
Robust hierarchical clustering

One of the most widely used techniques for data clustering is agglomerative clustering. Such algorithms have been long used across many different fields ranging from computational biology to social sciences to computer vision in part because their output is easy to interpret. Unfortunately, it is well known, however, that many of the classic agglomerative clustering algorithms are not robust to noise. In this paper we propose and analyze a new robust algorithm for bottom-up agglomerative clustering. We show that our algorithm can be used to cluster accurately in cases where the data satisfies a number of natural properties and where the traditional agglomerative algorithms fail. We also show how to adapt our algorithm to the inductive setting where our given data is only a small random sample of the entire data set. Experimental evaluations on synthetic and real world data sets show that our algorithm achieves better performance than other hierarchical algorithms in the presence of noise.
A direct solution to the Generic Point Problem

We provide a new proof of a recent theorem of Ben-Yaacov, Melleray, and Tsankov. If $G$ is a Polish group and $X$ is a minimal, metrizable $G$-flow with all orbits meager, then the universal minimal flow $M(G)$ is non-metrizable. In particular, we show that given $X$ as above, the universal highly proximal extension of $X$ is non-metrizable.
A No-Go Theorem for Derandomized Parallel Repetition: Beyond Feige-Kilian

In this work we show a barrier towards proving a randomness-efficient parallel repetition, a promising avenue for achieving many tight inapproximability results. Feige and Kilian (STOC'95) proved an impossibility result for randomness-efficient parallel repetition for two prover games with small degree, i.e., when each prover has only few possibilities for the question of the other prover. In recent years, there have been indications that randomness-efficient parallel repetition (also called derandomized parallel repetition) might be possible for games with large degree, circumventing the impossibility result of Feige and Kilian. In particular, Dinur and Meir (CCC'11) construct games with large degree whose repetition can be derandomized using a theorem of Impagliazzo, Kabanets and Wigderson (SICOMP'12). However, obtaining derandomized parallel repetition theorems that would yield optimal inapproximability results has remained elusive. This paper presents an explanation for the current impasse in progress, by proving a limitation on derandomized parallel repetition. We formalize two properties which we call "fortification-friendliness" and "yields robust embeddings". We show that any proof of derandomized parallel repetition achieving almost-linear blow-up cannot both (a) be fortification-friendly and (b) yield robust embeddings. Unlike Feige and Kilian, we do not require the small degree assumption. Given that virtually all existing proofs of parallel repetition, including the derandomized parallel repetition result of Dinur and Meir, share these two properties, our no-go theorem highlights a major barrier to achieving almost-linear derandomized parallel repetition.
Wigner's theorem for an infinite set

It is well known that the closed subspaces of a Hilbert space form an orthomodular lattice. Elements of this orthomodular lattice are the propositions of a quantum mechanical system represented by the Hilbert space, and by Gleason's theorem atoms of this orthomodular lattice correspond to pure states of the system. Wigner's theorem says that the automorphism group of this orthomodular lattice corresponds to the group of unitary and anti-unitary operators of the Hilbert space. This result is of basic importance in the use of group representations in quantum mechanics. The closed subspaces $A$ of a Hilbert space $\mathcal{H}$ correspond to direct product decompositions $\mathcal{H}\simeq A\times A^\perp$ of the Hilbert space, a result that lies at the heart of the superposition principle. It has been shown that the direct product decompositions of any set, group, vector space, and topological space form an orthomodular poset. This is the basis for a line of study in foundational quantum mechanics replacing Hilbert spaces with other types of structures. It is the purpose of this note to prove a version of Wigner's theorem: for an infinite set $X$, the automorphism group of the orthomodular poset Fact $(X)$ of direct product decompositions of $X$ is isomorphic to the permutation group of $X$. The structure Fact $(X)$ plays the role for direct product decompositions of a set that the lattice of equivalence relations plays for surjective images of a set. So determining its automorphism group is of interest independent of its application to quantum mechanics. Other properties of Fact $(X)$ are determined in proving our version of Wigner's theorem, namely that Fact $(X)$ is atomistic in a very strong way.
Effective Straggler Mitigation: Which Clones Should Attack and When?

Redundancy for straggler mitigation, originally in data download and more recently in distributed computing context, has been shown to be effective both in theory and practice. Analysis of systems with redundancy has drawn significant attention and numerous papers have studied pain and gain of redundancy under various service models and assumptions on the straggler characteristics. We here present a cost (pain) vs. latency (gain) analysis of using simple replication or erasure coding for straggler mitigation in executing jobs with many tasks. We quantify the effect of the tail of task execution times and discuss tail heaviness as a decisive parameter for the cost and latency of using redundancy. Specifically, we find that coded redundancy achieves better cost vs. latency and allows for greater achievable latency and cost tradeoff region compared to replication and can yield reduction in both cost and latency under less heavy tailed execution times. We show that delaying redundancy is not effective in reducing cost.
geometry on nodal curves

given a family x/b of nodal curves we construct canonically and compatibly with base-change, via an explicit blow-up of the cartesian product xr/b, a family wr(x/b) that we show is isomorphic to the relative flag hilbert scheme parametrizing flags of subschemes of fibres of x/b with colengths . although wr(x/b) is singular, the important sheaves on it are locally free, which allows us to study some intersection theory on it and deduce enumerative applications, including some relative multiple point formulae enumerating the length-r schemes contained simultaneously in some fibre of x/b and some fibre of a given map from x to a smooth variety.
Incremental sampling-based motion planners using policy iteration methods

Recent progress in randomized motion planning has led to the development of a new class of sampling-based algorithms that provide asymptotic optimality guarantees, almost surely, notably the RRT* algorithm among others. The recently proposed RRT# algorithm utilizes dynamic programming ideas (namely, asynchronous value iteration) and implements them incrementally on randomly generated graphs to improve on RRT* and thus obtain high quality solutions with enhanced rates of convergence. In this work we explore a different class of dynamic programming algorithms for solving shortest-path problems on random graphs generated by iterative sampling, which utilize policy iteration instead of value iteration and that are better suited for massive parallelization.
Highly multiplexible thermal kinetic inductance detectors for x-ray imaging spectroscopy

For X-ray imaging spectroscopy, high spatial resolution over a large field of view is often as important as high energy resolution, but current X-ray detectors do not provide both in the same device. Thermal Kinetic Inductance Detectors (TKIDs) are being developed as they offer a feasible way to combine the energy resolution of transition edge sensors with pixel counts approaching CCDs and thus promise significant improvements for many X-ray spectroscopy applications. TKIDs are a variation of Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) and share their multiplexibility: working MKID arrays with 2024 pixels have recently been demonstrated and much bigger arrays are under development. In this work, we present a TKID prototype, which is able to achieve an energy resolution of 75 eV at 5.9 keV, even though its general design still has to be optimized. We further describe TKID fabrication, characterization, multiplexing, and working principle and demonstrate the necessity of a data fitting algorithm in order to extract photon energies. With further design optimizations, we expect to be able to improve our TKID energy resolution to less than 10 eV at 5.9 keV.
p-Euler equations and p-Navier–Stokes equations

Abstract We propose in this work new systems of equations which we call p-Euler equations and p-Navier–Stokes equations. p-Euler equations are derived as the Euler–Lagrange equations for the action represented by the Benamou–Brenier characterization of Wasserstein-p distances, with incompressibility constraint. p-Euler equations have similar structures with the usual Euler equations but the ‘momentum’ is the signed ( p − 1 )-th power of the velocity. In the 2D case, the p-Euler equations have streamfunction-vorticity formulation, where the vorticity is given by the p-Laplacian of the streamfunction. By adding diffusion presented by γ-Laplacian of the velocity, we obtain what we call p-Navier–Stokes equations. If γ = p , the a priori energy estimates for the velocity and momentum have dual symmetries. Using these energy estimates and a time-shift estimate, we show the global existence of weak solutions for the p-Navier–Stokes equations in R d for γ = p and p ≥ d ≥ 2 through a compactness criterion.
An Algorithm for the Unification of Fusion Theories (UFT)

Since no fusion theory neither rule fully satisfy all needed applications, the author proposes an algorithm for the Unification of Fusion Theories and a combination of fusion rules in solving problems/applications. For each particular application, one selects the most appropriate model, rule(s), and algorithm of implementation.
Cech Cohomology of Semiring Schemes

Abstract A semiring scheme generalizes a scheme in such a way that the underlying algebra is that of semirings. We generalize Cech cohomology theory and invertible sheaves to semiring schemes. In particular, when X = P M n , a projective space over a totally ordered idempotent semifield M , we show that H ˇ m ( X , O X ) is in agreement with the classical computation for all m . Finally, we classify all invertible sheaves on X = P M n by computing Pic ( X ) explicitly.
On the Ristic–Balakrishnan distribution: Bivariate extension and characterizations

ABSTRACTOver the last few decades, a significant development has been made toward the augmentation of some well-known lifetime distributions by various strategies. These newly developed models have enjoyed a considerable amount of success in modeling various real life phenomena. Motivated by this, Ristic and Balakrishnan developed a special class of univariate distributions. We call this family of distribution the RB-G family of distributions. The RB-G family has the same parameters of the baseline distribution plus an additional positive shape parameter a. Several RB-G distributions can be obtained from a specified G distribution. For , the baseline G distribution is a basic exemplar of the RB-G family with a continuous crossover toward cases with various shapes. In this article we focus our attention on the characterizations of this family and discuss some structural properties of the bivariate RB-G family of distributions that are not discussed in detail by Ristic and Balakrishnan.
On the pro-semisimple completion of the fundamental group of a smooth variety over a finite field

Abstract Let Π be the fundamental group of a smooth variety X over F p . Let Q ‾ be an algebraic closure of Q . Given a non-Archimedean place λ of Q ‾ prime to p, consider the λ-adic pro-semisimple completion of Π as an object of the groupoid whose objects are pro-semisimple groups and whose morphisms are isomorphisms up to conjugation by elements of the neutral connected component. We prove that this object does not depend on λ. If dim ⁡ X = 1 we also prove a crystalline generalization of this fact. We deduce this from the Langlands conjecture for function fields (proved by L. Lafforgue) and its crystalline analog (proved by T. Abe) using a reconstruction theorem in the spirit of Kazhdan–Larsen–Varshavsky. We also formulate two related Conjecture E.8.1 , Conjecture E.9.1 . Each of them is a kind of “reciprocity law” involving a sum over all l-adic cohomology theories (including the crystalline theory for l = p ).
On the Hilbert polynomial of the HOMFLYPT homology

We prove that the degree of the Hilbert polynomial of the HOMFLYPT homology of a closed braid B is l − 1, where l is the number of components of B. This controls the growth of the HOMFLYPT homology with respect to its polynomial grading. The Hilbert polynomial also reveals a link polynomial hidden in the HOMFLYPT polynomial.
Diffusion approximations for double-ended queues with reneging in heavy traffic

We study a double-ended queue consisting of two classes of customers. Whenever there is a pair of customers from both classes, they are matched and leave the system. The matching is instantaneous following the first-come–first-match principle. If a customer cannot be matched immediately, he/she will stay in a queue. We also assume customers are impatient with generally distributed patience times. Under suitable heavy traffic conditions, we establish simple linear asymptotic relationships between the diffusion-scaled queue length process and the diffusion-scaled offered waiting time processes and show that the diffusion-scaled queue length process converges weakly to a diffusion process that admits a unique stationary distribution.
A penalty method for rank minimization problems in symmetric matrices

The problem of minimizing the rank of a symmetric positive semidefinite matrix subject to constraints can be cast equivalently as a semidefinite program with complementarity constraints (SDCMPCC). The formulation requires two positive semidefinite matrices to be complementary. This is a continuous and nonconvex reformulation of the rank minimization problem. We investigate calmness of locally optimal solutions to the SDCMPCC formulation and hence show that any locally optimal solution is a KKT point. We develop a penalty formulation of the problem. We present calmness results for locally optimal solutions to the penalty formulation. We also develop a proximal alternating linearized minimization (PALM) scheme for the penalty formulation, and investigate the incorporation of a momentum term into the algorithm. Computational results are presented.
Multilinear subspace clustering

In this paper we present a new model and an algorithm for unsupervised clustering of 2-D data such as images. We assume that the data comes from a union of multilinear sub-spaces (UOMS) model, which is a specific structured case of the much studied union of subspaces (UOS) model. For segmentation under this model, we develop Multilinear Subspace Clustering (MSC) algorithm and evaluate its performance on the YaleB and Olivietti image data sets. We show that MSC is highly competitive with existing algorithms employing the UOS model in terms of clustering performance while enjoying improvement in the computational complexity.
Hausdorff measure of SLE curves

Abstract In this paper we prove that the Hausdorff d -measure of S L E κ is zero when d = 1 + κ 8 for κ 8 .
Calibrating Noise to Variance in Adaptive Data Analysis

Datasets are often used multiple times and each successive analysis may depend on the outcome of previous analyses. Standard techniques for ensuring generalization and statistical validity do not account for this adaptive dependence. A recent line of work studies the challenges that arise from such adaptive data reuse by considering the problem of answering a sequence of "queries" about the data distribution where each query may depend arbitrarily on answers to previous queries. The strongest results obtained for this problem rely on differential privacy -- a strong notion of algorithmic stability with the important property that it "composes" well when data is reused. However the notion is rather strict, as it requires stability under replacement of an arbitrary data element. The simplest algorithm is to add Gaussian (or Laplace) noise to distort the empirical answers. However, analysing this technique using differential privacy yields suboptimal accuracy guarantees when the queries have low variance. Here we propose a relaxed notion of stability that also composes adaptively. We demonstrate that a simple and natural algorithm based on adding noise scaled to the standard deviation of the query provides our notion of stability. This implies an algorithm that can answer statistical queries about the dataset with substantially improved accuracy guarantees for low-variance queries. The only previous approach that provides such accuracy guarantees is based on a more involved differentially private median-of-means algorithm and its analysis exploits stronger "group" stability of the algorithm.
Milnor numbers of projective hypersurfaces and the chromatic polynomial of graphs

The chromatic polynomial χG(q) of a graph G counts the num- ber of proper colorings of G. We give an affirmative answer to the conjecture of Read and Rota-Heron-Welsh that the absolute values of the coefficients of the chromatic polynomial form a log-concave sequence. The proof is obtained by identifying χG(q) with a sequence of numerical invariants of a projective hypersurface analogous to the Milnor number of a local analytic hypersurface. As a by-product of our approach, we obtain an analogue of Kouchnirenko’s