cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Star Cluster Formation from Turbulent Clumps. I. The Fast Formation Limit

We investigate the formation and early evolution of star clusters assuming that they form from a turbulent starless clump of given mass bounded inside a parent self-gravitating molecular cloud characterized by a particular mass surface density. As a first step we assume instantaneous star cluster formation and gas expulsion. We draw our initial conditions from observed properties of starless clumps. We follow the early evolution of the clusters up to 20 Myr, investigating effects of different star formation efficiencies, primordial binary fractions and eccentricities and primordial mass segregation levels. We investigate clumps with initial masses of $M_{\rm cl}=3000\:{\rm M}_\odot$ embedded in ambient cloud environments with mass surface densities, $\Sigma_{\rm cloud}=0.1$ and $1\:{\rm g\:cm^{-2}}$. We show that these models of fast star cluster formation result, in the fiducial case, in clusters that expand rapidly, even considering only the bound members. Clusters formed from higher $\Sigma_{\rm cloud}$ environments tend to expand more quickly, so are soon larger than clusters born from lower $\Sigma_{\rm cloud}$ conditions. To form a young cluster of a given age, stellar mass and mass surface density, these models need to assume a parent molecular clump that is many times denser, which is unrealistic compared to observed systems. We also show that in these models the initial binary properties are only slightly modified by interactions, meaning that binary properties, e.g., at 20 Myr, are very similar to those at birth. With this study we set up the basis of future work where we will investigate more realistic models of star formation compared to this instantaneous, baseline case.
Review and comparisons of D/R models of equilibrium adsorption of binary mixtures of organic vapors on activated carbons

Abstract Published models and options for predicting equilibrium adsorption capacities of multicomponent mixtures using single component Dubinin/Radushkevich isotherm equations and parameters were reviewed. They were then tested for abilities to predict total and component capacities reported for 93 binary adsorbed mixtures. The best model for calculating molar distributions was the Ideal Adsorbed Solution Theory (IAST), which balances spreading pressures. Combined with the IAST, total and component capacities were best calculated using either the Lewis or original Bering equation with the Ideal Adsorbed Solution (Raoult’s Law) assumption.
A nearly-linear time framework for graph-structured sparsity

We introduce a framework for sparsity structures defined via graphs. Our approach is flexible and generalizes several previously studied sparsity models. Moreover, we provide efficient projection algorithms for our sparsity model that run in nearly-linear time. In the context of sparse recovery, our framework achieves an information-theoretically optimal sample complexity for a wide range of parameters. We complement our theoretical analysis with experiments showing that our algorithms also improve on prior work in practice.
Prioritizing Hepatitis C Treatment in U.S. Prisons

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence in prison systems is about 10 times higher than in the community. As such, prison systems offer a unique opportunity to control the HCV epidemic. New HCV-treatmen...
Wideband distributed spectrum sharing with multichannel immediate multiple access

This paper describes a radio architecture for distributed spectrum sharing of multiple channels among secondary users (SUs) in a wide band of frequencies and a localized area. A novel multichannel immediate multiple access (MIMA) physical layer is developed such that each SU can monitor all the channels simultaneously for incoming signals and achieve fast rendezvous within the multiple channels. The spectrum utilized by an SU pair can be changed dynamically based upon spectrum sensing at the transmitter and tracking synchronization and control messages at the receiver. Although information about the number of active SUs can be used to improve the spectrum sharing efficiency, the improvement is small relative to the cost of obtaining such information. Therefore, the architecture adopts multichannel carrier sense multiple access for medium access control regardless of the number of active SUs. A prototype implementation of the architecture has been developed using an advanced software defined radio platform. System tests demonstrate that the spectrum sharing efficiency of the prototype is close to an upper bound if the signal-to-noise ratio is sufficiently high. Among other practical issues, imaged interference caused by hardware IQ imbalance limits system performance. In the prototype, the MIMA is based on an LTE waveform. Therefore, the spectrum sharing radio can be potentially applied to the 3.5 GHz radar band for citizens broadband radio service (CBRS).
A Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic Disequilibrium model for business cycle analysis

Abstract A Dynamic Stochastic Disequilibrium model is proposed for business cycle analysis. The core innovation and fundamental deviation from the corresponding full-employment Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium model is the assumption that the nominal wage is a policy variable with no tendency to clear the labor market. As a consequence, disequilibrium unemployment arises which crucially alters the transmission of macroeconomic shocks. Solving the puzzle of low fiscal multipliers in conventional general equilibrium models, the effects of spending shocks become considerably more pronounced in the disequilibrium model because idle labor can be quickly utilized to accommodate aggregate demand without requiring households to increase their supply. In contrast to the standard model, technology and labor supply shocks are partly absorbed by unemployment and, hence, only moderately expansionary. Despite its simplicity and unlike the corresponding general equilibrium model, the disequilibrium model is able to generate shock responses which are broadly in line with empirical evidence.
Bernstein--Nikolskii inequalities and Riesz interpolation formula on compact homogeneous manifolds

Bernstein-Nikolskii inequalities and Riesz interpolation formula are established for eigenfunctions of Laplace operators and polynomials on compact homogeneous manifolds.
Photoelastic force measurements in granular materials

Photoelastic techniques are used to make both qualitative and quantitative measurements of the forces within idealized granular materials. The method is based on placing a birefringent granular material between a pair of polarizing filters, so that each region of the material rotates the polarization of light according to the amount of local stress. In this review paper, we summarize the past work using the technique, describe the optics underlying the technique, and illustrate how it can be used to quantitatively determine the vector contact forces between particles in a 2D granular system. We provide a description of software resources available to perform this task, as well as key techniques and resources for building an experimental apparatus.
Good reduction and Shafarevich-type theorems for dynamical systems with portrait level structures

Let $K$ be a number field, let $S$ be a finite set of places of $K$, and let $R_S$ be the ring of $S$-integers of $K$. A $K$-morphism $f:\mathbb{P}^1_K\to\mathbb{P}^1_K$ has simple good reduction outside $S$ if it extends to an $R_S$-morphism $\mathbb{P}^1_{R_S}\to\mathbb{P}^1_{R_S}$. A finite Galois invariant subset $X\subset\mathbb{P}^1_K(\bar{K})$ has good reduction outside $S$ if its closure in $\mathbb{P}^1_{R_S}$ is etale over $R_S$. We study triples $(f,Y,X)$ with $X=Y\cup f(Y)$. We prove that for a fixed $K$, $S$, and $d$, there are only finitely many $\text{PGL}_2(R_S)$-equivalence classes of triples with $\text{deg}(f)=d$ and $\sum_{P\in Y}e_f(P)\ge2d+1$ and $X$ having good reduction outside $S$. We consider refined questions in which the weighted directed graph structure on $f:Y\to X$ is specified, and we give an exhaustive analysis for degree $2$ maps on $\mathbb{P}^1$ when $Y=X$.
Single-Event Effects and Total Dose Testing of the Intersil ISL72027SEH CAN Bus Transceiver

We provide a discussion of the Controller Area Network (CAN) networking protocol as used in space applications and then report the results of destructive and nondestructive single-event effects (SEE) testing of the Intersil ISL72027SEH CAN bus transceiver. We conclude with a brief discussion of 60Co total ionizing dose (TID) testing results.
Three dimensional view of the SYK/AdS duality

We show that the spectrum of the SYK model can be interpreted as that of a 3D scalar coupled to gravity. The scalar has a mass which is at the Breitenholer-Freedman bound of AdS2, and subject to a delta function potential at the center of the interval along the third direction. This, through Kaluza-Klein procedure on AdS2 × (S 1)/Z 2, generates the spectrum reproducing the bi-local propagator at strong coupling. Furthermore, the leading 1/J correction calculated in this picture reproduces the known correction to the poles of the SYK propagator, providing credence to a conjecture that the bulk dual of this model can be interpreted as a three dimensional theory.
Hybrid functional pseudopotentials

The consistency between the exchange-correlation functional used in pseudopotential construction and in the actual density functional theory calculation is essential for the accurate prediction of fundamental properties of materials. However, routine hybrid density functional calculations at present still rely on generalized gradient approximation pseudopotentials due to the lack of hybrid functional pseudopotentials. Here, we present a scheme for generating hybrid functional pseudopotentials, and we analyze the importance of pseudopotential density functional consistency for hybrid functionals. For the PBE0 hybrid functional, we benchmark our pseudopotentials for structural parameters and fundamental electronic gaps of the Gaussian-2 (G2) molecular dataset and some simple solids. Our results show that using our PBE0 pseudopotentials in PBE0 calculations improves agreement with respect to all-electron calculations.
Documenting and harnessing the biological potential of molecules in Distributed Drug Discovery (D3) virtual catalogs

Virtual molecular catalogs have limited utility if member compounds are (i) difficult to synthesize or (ii) unlikely to have biological activity. The Distributed Drug Discovery (D3) program addresses the synthesis challenge by providing scientists with a free virtual D3 catalog of 73,024 easy-to-synthesize N-acyl unnatural α-amino acids, their methyl esters, and primary amides. The remaining challenge is to document and exploit the bioactivity potential of these compounds. In the current work, a search process is described that retrospectively identifies all virtual D3 compounds classified as bioactive hits in PubChem-cataloged experimental assays. The results provide insight into the broad range of drug-target classes amenable to inhibition and/or agonism by D3-accessible molecules. To encourage computer-aided drug discovery centered on these compounds, a publicly available virtual database of D3 molecules prepared for use with popular computer docking programs is also presented.
Distinguisher-Dependent Simulation in Two Rounds and its Applications

We devise a novel simulation technique that makes black-box use of the adversary as well as the distinguisher. Using this technique we construct several round-optimal protocols, many of which were previously unknown even using non-black-box simulation techniques: Two-round witness indistinguishable (WI) arguments for \(\mathrm {NP}\) from different assumptions than previously known. Two-round arguments and three-round arguments of knowledge for \(\mathrm {NP}\) that achieve strong WI, witness hiding (WH) and distributional weak zero knowledge (WZK) properties in a setting where the instance is only determined by the prover in the last round of the interaction. The soundness of these protocols is guaranteed against adaptive provers. Three-round two-party computation satisfying input-indistinguishable security as well as a weaker notion of simulation security against malicious adversaries. Three-round extractable commitments with guaranteed correctness of extraction from polynomial hardness assumptions.
Free energy calculations along entropic pathways. III. Nucleation of capillary bridges and bubbles

Using molecular simulation, we analyze the capillary condensation and evaporation processes for argon confined in a cylindrical nanopore. For this purpose, we define the entropy of the adsorbed fluid as a reaction coordinate and determine the free energy associated with both processes along entropic pathways. For capillary condensation, we identify a complex free energy profile resulting from the multi-stage nature of this phenomenon. We find capillary condensation to proceed through the nucleation of a liquid bridge across the nanopore, followed by its expansion throughout the pore to give rise to the stable phase of high density. In the case of capillary evaporation, the free energy profile along the entropy pathway also exhibits different regimes, corresponding to the initial destabilization of the layered structure of the fluid followed by the formation, and subsequent expansion, of a bubble across the nanopore.
Breaking the Sub-Exponential Barrier in Obfustopia

Indistinguishability obfuscation (\(i\mathcal {O}\)) has emerged as a surprisingly powerful notion. Almost all known cryptographic primitives can be constructed from general purpose \(i\mathcal {O}\) and other minimalistic assumptions such as one-way functions. A major challenge in this direction of research is to develop novel techniques for using \(i\mathcal {O}\) since \(i\mathcal {O}\) by itself offers virtually no protection for secret information in the underlying programs. When dealing with complex situations, often these techniques have to consider an exponential number of hybrids (usually one per input) in the security proof. This results in a sub-exponential loss in the security reduction. Unfortunately, this scenario is becoming more and more common and appears to be a fundamental barrier to many current techniques.
Pediatric Lung Transplantation

Pediatric lung transplant is a viable option for treatment of end-stage lung disease in children, with > 100 pediatric lung transplants reported to the Registry of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation each year. Long-term success is limited by availability of donor organs, debilitation as a result of chronic disease, impaired mucus clearance resulting from both surgical and pharmacologic interventions, increased risk for infection resulting from immunosuppression, and most importantly late complications, such as chronic lung allograft dysfunction. Opportunities for investigation and innovation remain in all of these domains: (1) Ex vivo lung perfusion is a promising technology with the potential for increasing the lung donor pool, (2) evolving extracorporeal support strategies coupled with effective rehabilitation will effectively bridge critically ill patients to transplant, and most importantly, (3) research efforts intended to increase our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of chronic lung allograft dysfunction will ultimately lead to the development of effective therapies to prevent or treat the variety of chronic lung allograft dysfunction presentations.
Exotic Uses of Aquifers

Ground-water basin managers must be prepared to monitor and counteract potential hazards to conjunctive operation of ground-water basins. These hazards arise from legitimate activities, including the use of wells for disposal of liquid wastes, operation of sanitary land fills, storage of gas in aquifers, mining of valuable minerals that involves dewatering, and the mining of sand and gravel (that removes a part of the aquifer) which may also impair the recharge capability of the water-bearing formation. All of these activities may be safely accomplished within a ground-water management program if provisions are made for monitoring to detect the impact of such activities on the water supply before deleterious effects occur.
The arithmetic Tutte polynomials of the classical root systems

Many combinatorial and topological invariants of a hyperplane arrangement can be computed in terms of its Tutte polynomial. Similarly, many invariants of a hypertoric arrangement can be computed in terms of its arithmetic Tutte polynomial. We compute the arithmetic Tutte polynomials of the classical root systems $A_n, B_n, C_n$, and $D_n$ with respect to their integer, root, and weight lattices. We do it in two ways: by introducing a \emphfinite field method for arithmetic Tutte polynomials, and by enumerating signed graphs with respect to six parameters.
Multilocular Cyst of the Kidney: A Case Report

A 69-year-old female was referred to Roswell Park Memorial Institute for management of a right kidney tumor. Her evaluation included excretory urography, ultrasound, computerized axial tomography (CT scan), and selective renal angiography. Fine needle aspiration cytology was felt to be consistent with primary renal cell carcinoma. In spite of the radiological appearance of a benign lesion, a right radical nephrectomy was performed because of the positive cytology on fine needle aspiration. The pathological diagnosis was a solitary multilocular cyst of the kidney.
Herpes Virus Infections in Patients With Neoplastic Disease. Diagnosis and Therapy

Herpes viruses are among the most common and troublesome opportunistic pathogens infecting patients with neoplastic diseases. The recent development of partially effective and relatively nontoxic antiviral agents offers promise for the prophylaxis or therapy of these infections in high-risk groups. Vidarabine and acyclovir have shown efficacy in several herpes virus infections and are now licensed in the United States. Alpha interferon may also be useful in the prophylaxis or early therapy of certain herpes virus infections. Newer antiviral agents and combination therapies are under study. Early and rapid diagnosis of such infections is critical to the development of effective therapy.
Radionuclide Diagnosis of Allograft Rejection

Interaction with one or more anatomical and physiopathological characteristics of the rejecting renal allograft is suggested by those radioagents utilized specifically for the diagnosis of allograft rejection. Rejection, the most common cause of declining allograft function, is frequently mimicked clinically or masked by other immediate or long term post transplant complications. Understanding of the anatomical pathological features and kinetics of rejection and their modification by immunosuppressive maintenance and therapy are important for the proper clinical utilization of these radioagents. Furthermore, in selecting these radionuclides, one has to consider the comparative availability, preparatory and procedural simplicity, acquisition and display techniques and the possibility of timely report. The clinical utilities of radiofibrinogen, 99m Tc sulfur colloid and gallium-67 in the diagnosis of allograft rejection have been evaluated to a variable extent in the past. The potential usefulness of the recently developed preparations of 111 In labeled autologous leukocytes and platelets are presently under investigation.
Characterization of the Heterogeneity of R3327 Rat Prostatic Tumors Derived From Single-Cell Clones

Prostatic adenocarcinoma is characterized by cellular diversity, which is well demonstrated in the Dunning R3327 rat prostatic adenocarcinoma. This heterogeneity may arise from epigenetic influences, ie, cellular adaptation or selection, and/or from genetic changes. To investigate the question of genetic instability, four tissue culture cell lines were derived from single cells isolated from the uncloned late (UCL) passage of the Dunning R3327H prostate cell culture. Each of these clonally derived tissue cultures was injected into castrated and intact young adult male rats for tumor production. Uncloned early (UCE) and UCL passage tissue cultures were also propagated as solid tumors. Tumors and the cultures from which they were derived were examined for evidence of phenotypic and genetic changes using morphological and cytometric methods. Transmission and scanning electron microscopy revealed only slight differences among the cell cultures. A single population of diploid cells was demonstrated in each of the cell cultures by propidium iodide staining and subsequent flow cytometric measurement of DNA content/nucleus. Tumors of unicellular as well as multicellular origin exhibited extreme heterogeneity of histological features, both among animals as well as within a single tumor. Tumors were surveyed and tissue types were characterized and cataloged. Clone 3 was generally better differentiated than the others; tumors from castrated animals were better differentiated than those from intact animals. Flow cytometry revealed multiple hyperdiploid cell populations that were variable from one sample to another. We concluded that changes in genotype as well as phenotype occurred in the tumors derived from single cells. Some of these changes may have occurred in the cells while still in culture.
Effect of Donor-Specific Transfusions on Renal Transplantation in Children

Most family members who are evaluated as kidney donors for children have high reactivity in a mixed lymphocyte culture test and are thus excluded from donation. Fifty children, most of whom had highly reactive mixed lymphocyte cultures with their donors, were challenged with three blood transfusions from their donors before transplantation and were tested for the development of lymphocytotoxic antibodies. Ten children (20%) became sensitized and had a positive T-cell or B-cell crossmatch. Sensitization occurred less frequently in children treated with azathioprine during donor-specific transfusions (11%) than in those not treated (26%), but the difference was not significant. Thirty-seven children received renal transplants from their blood donors after the donor-specific transfusions. There were no deaths, and only two patients had kidney failure. Actuarial kidney survival was 93% after 6 years. The use of donor-specific transfusion has increased the number of related-donor transplants performed and the results have been highly successful.
Anatomical Considerations Relevant to Fecal Continence

A brief description is given of the anatomical operative findings considered relevant to fecal incontinence. The posterior sagittal approach and the importance of the electrical muscle stimulator in effecting meticulous repair are stressed. New viewpoints are presented with regard to the functions of the anatomical structures and their roles in fecal continence.
Cytotoxic T-Cell Allotaxis in Human Kidney Rejection

The purpose of this study was to characterize the mononuclear inflammatory cells infiltrating human renal allografts and to compare these to other lymphoid populations. Lymphocyte phenotypes were identified by immunohistochemical staining of frozen sections with murine monoclonal antibodies and heteroantisera to lymphocyte antigens. Lymph nodes and native kidney nephrectomies both had approximately equal numbers of B and T lymphocytes. The T lymphocytes were predominately T helper/inducer phenotype. In contrast, the three renal allografts had a predominance of T cells over B ceils. Furthermore, the majority of the T cells were the cytotoxic/suppressor phenotype with a minority of T helper/inducer cells. In general, immunohistochemical studies of lymphocyte antigens should help further our understanding of the inflammatory response. In human transplantation, these technics should allow better differentiation of cellular rejection reactions from other kinds of cellular inflammatory reactions.
Silicon Photonic wafer fabrication for education

Silicon Photonics is a promising new technology for realizing efficient, high performance interconnects. There is a growing need for educating future engineers on how to design, fabricate, test and package Silicon photonic circuits. Here we demonstrate a Silicon photonic process suitable for an educational institution with i-line lithography capabilities. We have developed a suitable process for realizing passive photonic devices (i.e. waveguides, interferometric structures and fiber-chip grating couplers). The process is realized in a CMOS compatible environment which has been in use since 1986 to teach microelectronic engineering. And is now also being used to support the AIM Photonics Academy education mission. Specifically, an array of TM-polarized grating couplers with a ring resonator was fabricated with a lithographic resolution of 0.325 µm on an SOI wafer. The setup time and run time required was 3 days in comparison to the long wait time in the industry. Optimization of the resolution using ARC i-CON-7, diluted OiR 620 and the etch selectivity of the Silicon to the 1∶1 OiR 620:PGMEA was key to the student run fabrication process and is supported by the Optical microscope and SEM results.
Direct vehicle collision detection from motion in driving video

The objective of this work is the instantaneous computation of Time-to-Collision (TTC) for potential collision only from motion information captured with a vehicle borne camera. The contribution is the detection of dangerous events and degree directly from motion divergence in the driving video, which is also a clue used by human drivers, without applying vehicle recognition and depth measuring in prior. Both horizontal and vertical motion divergence are analyzed simultaneously in several collision sensitive zones. Stable motion traces of linear feature components are obtained through filtering in the motion profiles. As a result, this avoids object recognition, and sophisticated depth sensing. The fine velocity computation yields reasonable TTC accuracy so that the video camera can achieve collision avoidance alone from size changes of visual patterns.
3D Genome Structure Modeling by Lorentzian Objective Function

Reconstructing 3D structure of a genome from chromosomal conformation capturing data such as Hi-C data has emerged as an important problem in bioinformatics and computational biology in the recent years. In this talk, I will present our latest method that uses Lorentzian function to describe distance restraints between chromosomal regions, which will be used to guide the reconstruction of 3D structures of individual chromosomes and an entire genome. The method is more robust against noisy distance restraints derived from Hi-C data than traditional objective functions such as squared error function and Gaussian probabilistic function. The method can handle both intra- and inter-chromosomal contacts effectively to build 3D structures of a big genome such as the human genome consisting of a number of chromosomes, which are not possible with most existing methods. We have released the Java source code that implements the method (called LorDG) at GitHub (https://github.com/BDM-Lab/LorDG), which is being used by the community to model 3D genome structures. We are currently further improving the method to build very high-resolution (e.g. 1KB base pair) 3D genome and chromosome models.
Immunophenotypic Comparison of Testicular Sclerosing Sertoli Cell Tumors and Sertoli Cell Tumors Not Otherwise Specified

Testicular Sertoli cell tumors (SCTs) are rare, and most fall into the category of SCT-not otherwise specified (SCT-NOS). Only a few additional types of SCT are recognized. Sclerosing SCT (S-SCT), originally described in 1991, comprises a small fraction of SCTs and was considered a specific entity until the 2016 revision of the World Health Organization classification of non-germ cell tumors, where it was classified as a morphologic variant of SCT-NOS. In a recent study, differences in expression of PAX2/PAX8, inhibin, androgen receptor, and S100 protein between SCT-NOS and S-SCT were noted in a small number of cases. In this interinstitutional study, we compared the expression of these markers and β-catenin in 11 cases each of SCT-NOS and S-SCT to determine if differences exist that could justify keeping a separate classification of these neoplasms. PAX2/PAX8 cocktail was the only marker that was significantly overexpressed in S-SCT. Expression of androgen receptors was strong in S-SCT and variable in SCT-NOS but did not reach statistical significance. Expression of β-catenin was common in both, whereas inhibin was infrequent. The available material was insufficient for a conclusive evaluation of S100 protein expression. Overall, our results support the inclusion of S-SCT as a morphologic variant of SCT-NOS. Expression of PAX2/PAX8 in S-SCT may reflect an overactive epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition as has been shown in experimental models of acute and chronic seminiferous tubular injury and might be related to the process generating the stroma in these tumors.
Ecosystem functional response across precipitation extremes in a sagebrush steppe

Background Precipitation is predicted to become more variable in the western United States, meaning years of above and below average precipitation will become more common. Periods of extreme precipitation are major drivers of interannual variability in ecosystem functioning in water limited communities, but how ecosystems respond to these extremes over the long-term may shift with precipitation means and variances. Long-term changes in ecosystem functional response could reflect compensatory changes in species composition or species reaching physiological thresholds at extreme precipitation levels. Methods We conducted a five year precipitation manipulation experiment in a sagebrush steppe ecosystem in Idaho, United States. We used drought and irrigation treatments (approximately 50% decrease/increase) to investigate whether ecosystem functional response remains consistent under sustained high or low precipitation. We recorded data on aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP), species abundance, and soil moisture. We fit a generalized linear mixed effects model to determine if the relationship between ANPP and soil moisture differed among treatments. We used nonmetric multidimensional scaling to quantify community composition over the five years. Results Ecosystem functional response, defined as the relationship between soil moisture and ANPP, was similar among irrigation and control treatments, but the drought treatment had a greater slope than the control treatment. However, all estimates for the effect of soil moisture on ANPP overlapped zero, indicating the relationship is weak and uncertain regardless of treatment. There was also large spatial variation in ANPP within-years, which contributes to the uncertainty of the soil moisture effect. Plant community composition was remarkably stable over the course of the experiment and did not differ among treatments. Discussion Despite some evidence that ecosystem functional response became more sensitive under sustained drought conditions, the response of ANPP to soil moisture was consistently weak and community composition was stable. The similarity of ecosystem functional responses across treatments was not related to compensatory shifts at the plant community level, but instead may reflect the insensitivity of the dominant species to soil moisture. These species may be successful precisely because they have evolved life history strategies that buffer them against precipitation variability.
Settlement in Transition: a Transformation of a Village into a Small Town in Western Sudan

UN-Habitat projects Sub-Saharan Africa’s global share of the urban population to increase from 11.3% in 2010 to 20.2% by 2050. Yet little is documented about the underlying urbanization processes, particularly of emergence of small towns. This article uses household interviews, focus groups, observation, and secondary data to examine the spontaneous transformation of a western Sudanese village, Shubbola, into a small town. We use changes in building construction approach, materials, and style as an indicator of development and provide rare documentation of the process, the main actors, choices taken, timescales, and outcomes of the rapid urbanization of Shubbola between 2006 and 2013. Housing transformation was variable but involved a gradual process of replacing traditional non-durable building materials (wood and straw) with modern durable ones (sun- or fire-cured bricks, cement blocks, and metal roofs). Unlike traditional top-down models of urbanization generally driven by government investment, Shubbola epitomizes an organic, bottom-up process dependent on self-reliance and agriculture development fueled by remittances from urban-based relatives. While many small towns with similar origins fail to do so, Shubbola already provided important urban services to its inhabitants and surrounding rural areas. The study enhances understanding of small towns and underlying urbanization processes and their contribution to often neglected bottom-up, low-cost processes that do not fit traditional top-down models. It also contributes to literature and policy on sustainable cities and their role in sustainable development as encapsulated in UN Sustainable Development Goal 11. The study contributes to understanding the processes and implications of rapid urbanization in the Sudan and Africa and other world regions.
Auditor-Provided Tax Services and Earnings Management in Tax Expense: The Importance of Audit Committees

Regulators do not prohibit auditors from providing tax services to their audit clients, provided that these services are preapproved by audit committees. I examine whether the association between auditor-provided tax services and earnings management in tax expense varies with audit committee effectiveness. I develop a composite proxy for audit committee effectiveness by combining six audit committee characteristics. I find that auditor-provided tax services are less positively associated with earnings management in tax expense as audit committee effectiveness increases. My findings suggest that the knowledge spillover effect of auditor-provided tax services is more likely to dominate the independence impairment effect when auditor-provided tax services are preapproved by more effective audit committees.
Performance of CURB-65 in predicting mortality of patients with community-acquired pneumonia in Saudi Arabia.

INTRODUCTION Various objective scoring systems were developed to standardize the approach to the designation of severity of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). There is limited data on the use of CURB-65 among admitted CAP patients in Saudi Arabia. METHODOLOGY: The retrospective study included CAP patients, admitted to a general hospital in Eastern Saudi Arabia. The CURB-65 was extracted from the available medical records. RESULTS During the study period, from 2013 to 2016, a total of 1786 adults were admitted with a mean age of 63.9 ± 21.7 (range 14-108 years). The majority of the patients (51.7%) had CURB-65 score 0 or 1 followed by the score 2, 3 and 4/5 (29%, 15.2%, and 4.1%, respectively). The mean CURB-65 was 1.4 ± 1.12 for those who survived and 2.27 ± 1.03 for those who died (p < 0.001). The mean age was 63.01± 21.9 years for survived patients and 75.1 ± 15.58 years for fatal cases (p < 0.001). The overall 30-day crude mortality rate was 7.6%. The mortality rates for CURB-65 scores 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4/5 were 1.8%, 4.3%, 10.2%, 14%, and 21.9%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The mortality rates of admitted patients with CAP did not differ from those reported in the literature. However, the utilization of CURB-65 score was low and there is a need for wider implementation of pneumonia severity index for patients presenting with CAP.
Efficient Generation of Transcriptomic Profiles by Random Composite Measurements

RNA profiles are an informative phenotype of cellular and tissue states but can be costly to generate at massive scale. Here, we describe how gene expression levels can be efficiently acquired with random composite measurements-in which abundances are combined in a random weighted sum. We show (1) that the similarity between pairs of expression profiles can be approximated with very few composite measurements; (2) that by leveraging sparse, modular representations of gene expression, we can use random composite measurements to recover high-dimensional gene expression levels (with 100 times fewer measurements than genes); and (3) that it is possible to blindly recover gene expression from composite measurements, even without access to training data. Our results suggest new compressive modalities as a foundation for massive scaling in high-throughput measurements and new insights into the interpretation of high-dimensional data.
Millennials' retirement saving behavior : account ownership and balance

Among the generations, the Millennials are the largest group in the United States. Compared with their parents and grandparents, the Millennials need to assume more responsibility to prepare financially for retirement. Few studies have analyzed this generation's retirement saving behavior. Using data from the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances, this study examined the state of Millennials’ retirement savings, including retirement account ownership and balance. Results showed that only 37.2% of Millennials had any account designated for retirement. Among those with a retirement account, the average accumulated amount was $21,333. Factors that affected retirement saving behavior included age, education, total household income and assets, job tenure, self-employment, having a retirement saving motive, having a defined benefit plan, overspending, and risk tolerance. This study provided insight that can help financial planners and educators, as well as policymakers, understand the Millennials’ current retirement savings behavior. Also, the results can help the Millennials engage in saving for their retirement.
Labor unions and information asymmetry among investors

Abstract We investigate whether and how labor unions affect information asymmetry among investors. To account for the endogeneity of unionization, we adopt an IV 2SLS model, a differences-in-differences technique, and Heckman’s (1979) two-stage procedure. We also explore an exogenous proxy for employees’ collective bargaining power. Using two samples, we find that after controlling for endogeneity, both industry- and firm-level unionization rates are significantly and negatively related to measures of information asymmetry among investors. The findings are consistent with the notion that labor unions or more broadly, employees with bargaining power, help reduce information asymmetry in capital markets.
Bonhoeffer, status confessionis , and the Lutheran tradition

It has frequently been suggested that Bonhoeffer’s resistance did not draw substantively from his own Lutheran theological tradition. Nonetheless, his reliance on the Lutheran tradition’s resistance resources is evident in his use of the phrase status confessionis. The phrase is a hallmark of the gnesio-Lutheran position in the sixteenth-century intra-Lutheran adiaphora controversy, the position authoritatively endorsed in the Formula of Concord. Bonhoeffer demonstrably knew this tradition of Lutheranism and in the early Church Struggle deployed the idea of status confessionis in a way that was faithful to it. Because status confessionis arguably more than any other term conveys the theological reasoning of his early resistance activity, this alone merits the conclusion that Bonhoeffer’s resistance drew substantively from the Lutheran tradition.
Educational assistance and education quality in Indonesia: The role of decentralization

We examine the evolution of educational assistance in Indonesia, following two decades of government decentralization, and its effect on education quality. Using Indonesia Family Life Survey data, we exploit as exogenous rule the variation in the implementation of government decentralization to compute difference-in-difference estimators. Indicative evidence suggests decentralization has facilitated collusion between village authorities and marginalized private schools, with substantial increases in educational assistance and financial resources, especially to religious schools. Despite dominant rent-seeking behaviour and self-interest motives, increased public resource allocation to private schools impacted positively on student achievement. Our results also emphasize the role of social norms in undermining efficient public goods allocation after decentralization.
An evolutionary transcriptomics approach links CD36 to membrane remodeling in replicative senescence

Cellular senescence, the irreversible ceasing of cell division, has been associated with organismal aging, prevention of cancerogenesis, and developmental processes. As such, the evolutionary basis and biological features of cellular senescence remain a fascinating area of research. In this study, we conducted comparative RNAseq experiments to detect genes associated with replicative senescence in two different human fibroblast cell lines and at different time points. We identified 841 and 900 genes (core senescence-associated genes) that are significantly up- and downregulated in senescent cells, respectively, in both cell lines. Our functional enrichment analysis showed that downregulated core genes are primarily involved in cell cycle processes while upregulated core gene enrichment indicated various lipid-related processes. We further demonstrated that downregulated genes are significantly more conserved than upregulated genes. Using both transcriptomics and genetic variation data, we identified one of the upregulated, lipid metabolism genes, CD36, as an outlier. We found that overexpression of CD36 induces a senescence-like phenotype and, further, the media of CD36-overexpressing cells alone can induce a senescence-like phenotype in proliferating young cells. Moreover, we used a targeted lipidomics approach and showed that phosphatidylcholines accumulate during replicative senescence in these cells, suggesting that upregulation of CD36 could contribute to membrane remodeling during senescence. Overall, these results contribute to the understanding of evolution and biology of cellular senescence and identify several targets and questions for future studies.
Unsupervised Disambiguation of Syncretism in Inflected Lexicons

Lexical ambiguity makes it difficult to compute useful statistics of a corpus. A given word form might represent any of several morphological feature bundles. One can, however, use unsupervised learning (as in EM) to fit a model that probabilistically disambiguates word forms. We present such an approach, which employs a neural network to smoothly model a prior distribution over feature bundles (even rare ones). Although this basic model does not consider a token’s context, that very property allows it to operate on a simple list of unigram type counts, partitioning each count among different analyses of that unigram. We discuss evaluation metrics for this novel task and report results on 5 languages.
Leakage resilient one-way functions: The auxiliary-input setting

Abstract Most cryptographic schemes are designed in a model where perfect secrecy of the secret key is assumed. In most physical implementations, however, some form of information leakage is inherent and unavoidable. To deal with this, a flurry of works showed how to construct basic cryptographic primitives that are resilient to various forms of leakage. Dodis et al. (FOCS '10) formalized and constructed leakage resilient one-way functions. These are one-way functions f such that given a random image f ( x ) and leakage g ( x ) it is still hard to invert f ( x ) . Based on any one-way function, Dodis et al. constructed such a one-way function that is leakage resilient assuming that an attacker can leak any lossy function g of the input. In this work we consider the problem of constructing leakage resilient one-way functions that are secure with respect to arbitrary computationally hiding leakage (a.k.a. auxiliary-input). We consider both types of leakage – selective and adaptive – and prove various possibility and impossibility results. On the negative side, we show that if the leakage is an adaptively-chosen arbitrary one-way function, then it is impossible to construct leakage resilient one-way functions. The latter is proved both in the random oracle model (without any further assumptions) and in the standard model based on a strong vector-variant of DDH. On the positive side, we observe that when the leakage is chosen ahead of time, there are leakage resilient one-way functions based on a variety of assumption.
Compact Energy and Delay-Aware Authentication

Authentication and integrity are fundamental security services that are critical for any viable system. However, some of the emerging systems (e.g., smart grids, aerial drones) are delay-sensitive, and therefore their safe and reliable operation requires delay-aware authentication mechanisms. Unfortunately, the current state-of-the-art authentication mechanisms either incur heavy computations or lack scalability for such large and distributed systems. Hence, there is a crucial need for digital signature schemes that can satisfy the requirements of delay-aware applications. In this paper, we propose a new digital signature scheme that we refer to as Compact Energy and Delay-aware Authentication (CEDA). In CEDA, signature generation and verification only require a small-constant number of multiplications and Pseudo Random Function (PRF) calls. Therefore, it achieves the lowest end-to-end delay among its counterparts. Our implementation results on an ARM processor and commodity hardware show that CEDA has the most efficient signature generation on both platforms, while offering a fast signature verification. Among its delay-aware counter-parts, CEDA has a smaller private key with a constant-size signature. All these advantages are achieved with the cost of a larger public key. This is a highly favorable trade-0ff for applications wherein the verffier is not memory-limited. We open-sourced our implementation of CEDA to enable its broad testing and adaptation.
Age of Martian Air: Time Scales for Martian Atmospheric Transport

Abstract The mean time since air in the Martian atmosphere was in the low-latitude boundary layer is examined using simulations of an idealized “mean age” tracer with the MarsWRF general circulation model. The spatial distribution and seasonality of the mean age in low- and mid-latitudes broadly follow contours of the mean meridional circulation, with the mean age increasing from 0 at the surface to a maximum of 60–100 sols in the upper atmosphere. Substantially older mean ages (exceeding 300 sols) are found in polar regions, with oldest ages in the lower atmosphere (10–100 Pa), above a near-surface layer with very young ages (around 20 sols). The annual maximum ages occur around the equinoxes, and the age in the polar lower atmosphere decreases during the autumn to winter transition. This autumn-winter decrease in age occurs because of mixing of polar and mid-latitude air when the polar vortex exhibits an annulus of high potential vorticity (PV) with a local minimum near the pole. There is no autumn-winter decrease and old ages persist throughout autumn and winter in simulations with CO2 phase changes disabled, and thus no latent heating, where there is a monopolar vortex (i.e., a monotonic increase in PV from equator to pole) forms. The altitudinal and seasonal variations in the mean age indicates similar variations in the transport of dust into polar regions and the mixing of polar air (with, e.g., low water vapor and high ozone concentrations during winter) into mid-latitudes.