cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
LLNet: A deep autoencoder approach to natural low-light image enhancement

Abstract In surveillance, monitoring and tactical reconnaissance, gathering visual information from a dynamic environment and accurately processing such data are essential to making informed decisions and ensuring the success of a mission. Camera sensors are often cost-limited to capture clear images or videos taken in a poorly-lit environment. Many applications aim to enhance brightness, contrast and reduce noise content from the images in an on-board real-time manner. We propose a deep autoencoder-based approach to identify signal features from low-light images and adaptively brighten images without over-amplifying/saturating the lighter parts in images with a high dynamic range. We show that a variant of the stacked-sparse denoising autoencoder can learn from synthetically darkened and noise-added training examples to adaptively enhance images taken from natural low-light environment and/or are hardware-degraded. Results show significant credibility of the approach both visually and by quantitative comparison with various techniques.
Power plant and fusion chamber considerations for fast ignition

AbstractUsing a simple inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant economic model, it is demonstrated that there are several potential advantages of an IFE power plant based upon fast ignition targets compared with one based upon central ignition targets. The fast ignition version can have a lower cost of electricity (COE) at the same output power, and a smaller fast ignition plant can have the same COE as a larger central ignition plant. This paper also considers the chamber issues raised by using fast ignition targets. Some direct-drive chamber concepts must be larger for cone-focus fast ignition targets because of the increase in the X-ray output. On the other hand, the use of fast ignition hohlraum targets may allow the use of thick-liquid-wall chambers, bringing the benefits of a smaller chamber and containment building, smaller amounts of hazardous waste, and a faster and cheaper development path. However, many technology issues need resolution before these benefits can become a reality.
Mapping and Exploring the Collagen-I Proteostasis Network

Collagen-I is the most abundant protein in the human body, yet our understanding of how the endoplasmic reticulum regulates collagen-I proteostasis (folding, quality control, and secretion) remains immature. Of particular importance, interactomic studies to map the collagen-I proteostasis network have never been performed. Such studies would provide insight into mechanisms of collagen-I folding and misfolding in cells, an area that is particularly important owing to the prominence of the collagen misfolding-related diseases. Here, we overcome key roadblocks to progress in this area by generating stable fibrosarcoma cells that inducibly express properly folded and modified collagen-I strands tagged with distinctive antibody epitopes. Selective immunoprecipitation of collagen-I from these cells integrated with quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics permits the first mapping of the collagen-I proteostasis network. Biochemical validation of the resulting map leads to the assignment of numerous new pl...
Nonparametric estimation and inference under shape restrictions

Abstract Economic theory often provides shape restrictions on functions of interest in applications, such as monotonicity, convexity, non-increasing (non-decreasing) returns to scale, or the Slutsky inequality of consumer theory; but economic theory does not provide finite-dimensional parametric models. This motivates nonparametric estimation under shape restrictions. Nonparametric estimates are often very noisy. Shape restrictions stabilize nonparametric estimates without imposing arbitrary restrictions, such as additivity or a single-index structure, that may be inconsistent with economic theory and the data. This paper explains how to estimate and obtain an asymptotic uniform confidence band for a conditional mean function under possibly nonlinear shape restrictions, such as the Slutsky inequality. The results of Monte Carlo experiments illustrate the finite-sample performance of the method, and an empirical example illustrates its use in an application.
Gibbs Phenomenon for Dispersive PDEs on the Line

We investigate the Cauchy problem for linear, constant-coefficient evolution PDEs on the real line with discontinuous initial conditions (ICs) in the small-time limit. The small-time behavior of the solution near discontinuities is expressed in terms of universal, computable special functions. We show that the leading-order behavior of the solution of dispersive PDEs near a discontinuity of the ICs is characterized by Gibbs-type oscillations and gives exactly the Wilbraham--Gibbs constants.
Integrated interleaved codes as locally recoverable codes: properties and performance

Considerable interest has been paid in recent literature to codes combining local and global properties for erasure correction. Applications are in cloud type of implementations, in which fast recovery of a failed storage device is important, but additional protection is required in order to avoid data loss, and in RAID type of architectures, in which total device failures coexist with silent failures at the page or sector level in each device. Existing solutions to these problems require in general relatively large finite fields. The techniques of integrated interleaved codes which are closely related to generalised concatenated codes are proposed to reduce significantly the size of the finite field, and it is shown that when the parameters of these codes are judiciously chosen, they outperform codes optimising the minimum distance with respect to the average number of erasures that the code can correct.
Intensive College Counseling and the Enrollment and Persistence of Low Income Students

Though counseling is one commonly pursued intervention to improve college enrollment and completion for disadvantaged students, there is relatively little causal evidence on its efficacy. We use a ...
Stability of metal-rich very massive stars

We revisit the stability of very massive nonrotating main-sequence stars at solar metallicity, with the goal of understanding whether radial pulsations set a physical upper limit to stellar mass. Models of up to 938 solar masses are constructed with the Mesa code, and their linear stability in the fundamental mode, assumed to be the most dangerous, is analysed with a fully nonadiabatic method. Models above 100 MSun have extended tenuous atmospheres ("shelves") that affect the stability of the fundamental. Even when positive, this growth rate is small, in agreement with previous results. We argue that small growth rates lead to saturation at small amplitudes that are not dangerous to the star. A mechanism for saturation is demonstrated involving nonlinear parametric coupling to short-wavelength g modes and the damping of the latter by radiative diffusion. The shelves are subject to much more rapidly growing strange modes. This also agrees with previous results but is extended here to higher masses. The strange modes probably saturate via shocks rather than mode coupling but have very small amplitudes in the core, where almost all of the stellar mass resides. Although our stellar models are hydrostatic, the structure of their outer parts suggests that optically thick winds, driven by some combination of radiation pressure, transsonic convection, and strange modes, are more likely than pulsation in the fundamental mode to limit the main-sequence lifetime.
Container port efficiency and output measures

The output of container ports has generally been measured by its TEU throughput, the number of TEUs interchanged from one carrier to another. Unlike TEU throughput, an increase in the container port output measure, TEU throughput per unit of TEU time in port, in the short-run time period (for which port infrastructure is fixed) does imply a decrease in the port’s technical inefficiency. This output measure is consistent with measurements utilized by container port managers for investigating reductions in technical inefficiency at their ports – ship loading and unloading service rates. The time that TEUs are in port can be obtained from RFID sensors that are attached to containers.
The Right to a Public Trial and Closing the Courtroom to Disruptive Spectators

The Supreme Court, in Waller v. Georgia, set forth a test to determine whether a courtroom closure conforms to the Sixth Amendment. Some courts, however, take a “short form” approach to determining whether to close a courtroom to disruptive spectators. This cursory form of review is at odds with the Supreme Court’s holdings; Waller does not anticipate exceptions. Moreover, the goals of the right to a public trial under the Sixth Amendment are best achieved by applying Waller. Finally, the Waller test is easily administered in disruptive spectator situations. There is no good reason to apply a courtroom exclusion test for “peaceable” spectators that is separate from the one applied to disruptive spectators.
Packings of Equal Disks in a Square Torus

Packings of equal disks in the plane are known to have density at most $$\pi /\sqrt{12}$$ , although this density is never achieved in the square torus, which is what we call the plane modulo the square lattice. We find packings of disks in a square torus that we conjecture to be the most dense for certain numbers of packing disks, using continued fractions to approximate $$1/\sqrt{3}$$ and $$2-\sqrt{3}$$ . We also define a constant to measure the efficiency of a packing motived by a related constant due to Markov for continued fractions. One idea is to use the unique factorization property of Gaussian integers to prove that there is an upper bound for the Markov constant for grid-like packings. By way of contrast, we show that an upper bound by Gruber [In many cases optimal configurations are almost regular hexagonal, vol. 65, pp. 121–145, 1999; Geom Dedicata 84(1–3):271–320, 2001] for the error for the limiting density of a packing of equal disks in a planar square, which is on the order of $$1/\sqrt{N}$$ , is the best possible, whereas for our examples for the square torus, the error for the limiting density is on the order of 1 / N, where N is the number of packing disks.
Strain Tester for Rubber

Abstract A tester for measuring the strain of rubber vulcanizates when subjected to a predetermined stress is described. The operation of the tester and a description of the apparatus for cutting and measuring the test specimens are presented. With this equipment routine determinations of a point on the stress-strain curve can be made with greater accuracy and precision than has hitherto been possible with the usual stress-strain equipment. This strain test also requires less labor than the customary stress tests.
Organic chemistry: Reactions triggered electrically

Single-molecule experiments have revealed that chemical reactions can be controlled using electric fields — and that the reaction rate is sensitive to both the direction and the strength of the applied field. See Letter p.88 Theory suggests that many chemical reactions — not simply, as is often thought, redox reactions — might be catalysed by an applied electrical field. Experimental evidence for this is now provided from single-molecule studies of the formation of carbon–carbon bonds in a Diels–Alder reaction. In a series of scanning tunnelling microscopy break-junction experiments, the authors observe a fivefold increase in the frequency of single-molecule junction formation when the electrical field is present and aligned in the direction to favour electron flow from the dienophile to the diene. The demonstration that it is possible to manipulate chemical reactions with electric fields offers proof-of-principle for a novel approach to heterogeneous catalysis.
Perverse Effects in Defense of Computer Systems: When More is Less

With computer security spending on the rise, organizations seem to have accepted the notion that buying more -- and more expensive -- defenses allows them to better protect their computer systems and, accordingly, their business and customers. In the context of complex computer systems, however, defenses can also have the opposite effect, creating new, unforeseen vulnerabilities in the systems they are intended to protect. Advocacy for defense-in-depth and diverse security measures has contributed to creating this "more is better" mentality for defending computer systems which fails to consider the complex interaction of different components in these systems, especially with regard to what impact new security controls may have the operation and functionality of other, pre-existing defenses. In this paper, we describe and give examples of several categories of perverse effects in defending computer systems and draw on the theory of unintended consequences and the duality of technology to provide some analysis of the origins of these perverse effects as well as some methods for avoiding them and directions for future research.
Testing the 2-TeV resonance with trileptons

The CMS collaboration has reported a 2.8σ excess in the search of the SU(2) R gauge bosons decaying through right-handed neutrinos into the two electron plus two jets (eejj) final states. This can be explained if the SU(2) R charged gauge bosons W ± have a mass of around 2 TeV and a right-handed neutrino with a mass of $$ \mathcal{O} $$ (1) TeV mainly decays to electron. Indeed, recent results in several other experiments, especially that from the ATLAS diboson resonance search, also indicate signatures of such a 2 TeV gauge boson. However, a lack of the same-sign electron events in the CMS eejj search challenges the interpretation of the right-handed neutrino as a Majorana fermion. Taking this situation into account, in this paper, we consider a possibility of explaining the CMS eejj excess based on the SU(2) L ⊗ SU(2) R ⊗ U(1) B−L gauge theory with pseudo-Dirac neutrinos. We find that both the CMS excess events and the ATLAS diboson anomaly can actually be explained in this framework without conflicting with the current experimental bounds. This setup in general allows sizable left-right mixing in both the charged gauge boson and neutrino sectors, which enables us to probe this model through the trilepton plus missing-energy search at the LHC. It turns out that the number of events in this channel predicted in our model is in good agreement with that observed by the CMS collaboration. We also discuss prospects for testing this model at the LHC Run-II experiments.
High Fidelity Simulation and Safety Training for Transport Teams for Potential Accidents/Incidents

The purpose of the abstract is to inform transport teams around the country of the educational, communication and skill improvement in team dynamics with the use of simulation training using high fidelity mannequins, live video feed recordings for debriefing in the Safety Training Environment (aircraft/ambulance). This training is a collaboration of Simulation Center Personnel, Transport Flight Team and …
Trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias.

Purpose of Review: This article covers the clinical manifestations and differential diagnosis of the trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (TACs).Recent Findings: TACs comprise a subgroup of primary headache disorders presenting with lateralized, often severe, pain accompanied by cranial autonomic featu
Palladium-Catalyzed Enantioselective Heck Alkenylation of Acyclic Alkenols Using a Redox-Relay Strategy

We report a highly enantioselective intermolecular Heck reaction of alkenyl triflates and acyclic primary or racemic secondary alkenols. The mild reaction conditions permit installation of a wide range of alkenyl groups at positions β, γ, or δ to a carbonyl group in high enantioselectivity. The success of this reaction is attributed to the use of electron-withdrawing alkenyl triflates, which offer selective β-hydride elimination followed by migration of the catalyst through the alkyl chain to give the alkenylated carbonyl products. The synthetic utility of the process is demonstrated by a two-step modification of a reaction product to yield a tricyclic core structure, present in various natural products.
Distribution Planning to Optimize Profits in the Motion Picture Industry

We consider the distribution planning problem in the motion picture industry. This problem involves forecasting theater-level box office revenues for a given movie and using these forecasts to choose the best locations to screen a movie. We first develop a method that predicts theater-level box office revenues over time for a given movie as a function of movie attributes and theater characteristics. These estimates are then used by the distributor to choose where to screen the movie. The distributor's location selection problem is modeled as an integer programming-based optimization model that chooses the location of theaters in order to optimize profits. We tested our methods on realistic box office data and show that it has the potential to significantly improve the distributor's profits. We also develop some insights into why our methods outperform existing practice, which are crucial to their successful practical implementation.
The Future of Workplace Affirmative Action After Fisher

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin raises interesting questions about its relevance for employment discrimination law and what employers may be able to do to achieve employee diversity in the workplace. Although Fisher dealt with the constitutionality of an affirmative action program used in the university setting to promote student body diversity, Fisher’s analysis would further apply to race-conscious affirmative action efforts in the public sector workplace and also offers considerations for private sector employers to keep in mind when engaging in similar efforts. Fisher adds to the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on higher education affirmative action and confirms that the Court’s earlier holdings in Regents of University of California v. Bakke, Grutter v. Bollinger, and Gratz v. Bollinger serve as good precedent. Thus it remains unchanged that a state university has a compelling interest in attaining a diverse student body for educational purposes that could make it constitutionally permissible under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause to use race as a factor in admissions decisions. Fisher does not prohibit the use of race in affirmative action programs per se by public universities, and would not prohibit the use of race in affirmative action programs by public employers either. In clarifying the judiciary’s role in reviewing governmental decisionmaking involving race, Fisher closely examines the narrowly-tailored part of the strict scrutiny standard under the Equal Protection Clause. In providing this clarification, Fisher provides further guidance to public sector employers who engage in affirmative action initiatives—guidance that may also be applicable to private sector employers on this issue.
Benchmarking Advertising Efficiency

ABSTRACT Advertising accountability demands that advertising efficiency be measured, maximized, and benchmarked. In this paper we demonstrate the application of Data Envelopment Analysis to benchmark advertising efficiency. Data Envelopment Analysis can be used to estimate the relative efficiency of advertising campaigns characterized by multiple inputs and multiple outputs.
How backup plans can harm goal pursuit: The unexpected downside of being prepared for failure

Abstract When pursuing a goal, making a backup plan has many benefits, including reducing the psychological discomfort associated with uncertainty. However, we suggest that making a backup plan can also have negative effects. Specifically, we propose that the mere act of thinking through a backup plan can reduce performance on your primary goal by decreasing your desire for goal achievement. In three experimental studies, we find that individuals randomly assigned to think through a backup plan subsequently performed worse on their primary goal (Studies 1–3). We further show that this effect is mediated by study participants’ decreased desire to attain their primary goal (Study 3). This research provides a fresh perspective on plan-making, highlighting an important yet previously unexplored negative consequence of formulating plans.
Using Option Market Liquidity to Predict REIT Leverage Changes

Recent literature has shown that liquidity is important in explaining price effects for firms and firm decisions. For example, see Morellec (Journal of Financial Economics, 61(2), 173–206, 2001) and Bharath et al. (Review of Financial Studies, 22(8), 3211–3243, 2009). We follow and extend that literature by looking at the liquidity of market based options to forecast REIT capital structure changes. REITs, unlike typical listed firms, tend to have high leverage and a more dynamic capital structure because of regulation. Thus, understanding potential management behavior could be important to investors. By looking at actions of the managers as revealed through the liquidity in the option’s market, we are able to estimate what REIT managers are likely to do in terms of future capital structure changes. We do so using option data which update at higher frequency than traditional accounting characteristics. Our results are similar to those of Borochin and Yang (2016) who study this issue for non-REIT firms. We find that REITs with higher historical volatility or lower option market liquidity (as measured by number of daily unique call options, daily call open interest, and daily volume of option traded) are less likely to increase leverage in the following quarter. REITs with higher option liquidity or lower realized volatility are more likely to increase net long-term debt (issuing more debt or retire less debt) in the following quarter.
Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma: CT and Pathologic Correlation

CT findings of 15 patients with histologically proven primary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma were reviewed with pathologic correlation in order to evaluate variable CT patterns. There were a total of 32 lesions. Of the 15 patients studied, seven had acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), all diagnosed within the past 3 years. The CT observations of eight non-AIDS patients were consistent with findings reported previously. Most of the lymphomatous lesions were either hyper- or isodense, round or oval masses with homogeneous contrast enhancement and variable surrounding edema. Pathologic examination showed tightly packed preserved lymphoma cells without necrosis. in AIDS patients, rim or ring enhancement of lymphoma, indistinguishable from brain abscess, was frequently seen. Histologic examination consistently showed extensive tumor necrosis with preservation of viable tumor cells at the periphery. A third and infrequent CT pattern was multiple infiltrative nonnodular solid enhancement with extensive edema. Pathologic correlation showed infiltrating viable tumor cells without necrosis. The rim- or ring-enhancing brain lesion seen in AIDS patients can either be an abscess or a primary lymphoma; proper tissue collection is essential for correct diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
Ethnic Attrition and the Observed Health of Later-Generation Mexican Americans.

Abstract Numerous studies find that U.S.-born Hispanics differ significantly from non-Hispanic whites on important measures of human capital, including health. Nevertheless, almost all studies rely on subjective measures of ethnic self-identification to identify immigrants' U.S.-born descendants. This can lead to bias due to “ethnic attrition,” which occurs whenever a U.S.-born descendant of a Hispanic immigrant fails to self-identify as Hispanic. This paper shows that Mexican American ethnic attritors are generally more likely to display health outcomes closer to those of non-Hispanic whites. This biases conventional estimates of Mexican American health away from suggesting patterns of assimilation and convergence with non-Hispanic whites.
The Prevalence of Inappropriate Image Duplication in Biomedical Research Publications

ABSTRACT Inaccurate data in scientific papers can result from honest error or intentional falsification. This study attempted to determine the percentage of published papers that contain inappropriate image duplication, a specific type of inaccurate data. The images from a total of 20,621 papers published in 40 scientific journals from 1995 to 2014 were visually screened. Overall, 3.8% of published papers contained problematic figures, with at least half exhibiting features suggestive of deliberate manipulation. The prevalence of papers with problematic images has risen markedly during the past decade. Additional papers written by authors of papers with problematic images had an increased likelihood of containing problematic images as well. As this analysis focused only on one type of data, it is likely that the actual prevalence of inaccurate data in the published literature is higher. The marked variation in the frequency of problematic images among journals suggests that journal practices, such as prepublication image screening, influence the quality of the scientific literature.
Organic Photoredox Catalysis

In this review, we highlight the use of organic photoredox catalysts in a myriad of synthetic transformations with a range of applications. This overview is arranged by catalyst class where the photophysics and electrochemical characteristics of each is discussed to underscore the differences and advantages to each type of single electron redox agent. We highlight both net reductive and oxidative as well as redox neutral transformations that can be accomplished using purely organic photoredox-active catalysts. An overview of the basic photophysics and electron transfer theory is presented in order to provide a comprehensive guide for employing this class of catalysts in photoredox manifolds.
Optimal dynamic data layouts for 2D FFT on 3D memory integrated FPGA

FPGAs have been widely used for accelerating various applications. For many data intensive applications, the memory bandwidth limits the performance. 3D memories with through-silicon-via connections provide potential solutions to the latency and bandwidth limitations. In this paper, we revisit the classic 2D FFT problem to evaluate the performance of 3D memory integrated FPGA. To fully utilize the fine-grained parallelism in 3D memory, data layouts which take into account the structure and organization of the memory are required. We propose dynamic data layouts for optimizing the performance of the 3D architecture. In 2D FFT, data are accessed in row major order in the first phase, whereas the data are accessed in column major order in the second phase. This column major order results in high memory latency and low bandwidth due to high row activation overhead of memory. Using the proposed dynamic data layouts, we improve memory access performance in the second phase without degrading the performance of the first phase. With parallelism employed in the third dimension of the memory, data parallelism can be increased to further improve the performance. We adopt a model-based approach for 3D memory and we perform experiments on the FPGA to validate our analysis and evaluate the performance. Compared with the baseline architecture, our approach achieves up to $$40\times $$40? peak memory bandwidth utilization for columnwise FFT, thus resulting in approximately $$97\,\,\%$$97% improvement in throughput for the complete 2D FFT application.
Imaging and therapeutic applications of zinc(II)-dipicolylamine molecular probes for anionic biomembranes

This feature article describes the development of synthetic zinc(ii)-dipicolylamine (ZnDPA) receptors as selective targeting agents for anionic membranes in cell culture and living subjects. There is a strong connection between anionic cell surface charge and disease, and ZnDPA probes have been employed extensively for molecular imaging and targeted therapeutics. Fluorescence and nuclear imaging applications include detection of diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration, arthritis, and microbial infection, and also quantification of cell death caused by therapy. Therapeutic applications include selective targeting of cytotoxic agents and drug delivery systems, photodynamic inactivation, and modulation of the immune system. The article concludes with a summary of expected future directions.
Impact of climate change and aquatic salinization on mangrove species and poor communities in the Bangladesh Sundarbans

This paper investigates possible impacts of climate change on the poor communities of the Bangladesh Sundarbans via changes in aquatic salinity and mangrove species. The implications for poor communities are assessed by computing changes in high-value mangrove species for the five sub-districts in the Sundarbans. The results of the impact analysis indicate highly varied patterns of gain and loss across the five sub-districts. Overall, however, the results indicate that salinity-induced mangrove migration will have a strongly regressive impact on the value of timber stocks because of the loss of the highest value timber of Heretiera fomes. In addition, augmented potential for honey production is likely to increase conflicts between humans and wildlife in the region.
Southern Demands and a Constructive Alternative

Advocates of laissez-faire and free trade have traditionally urged a posture of ‘trade not aid’ as the keystone of North-South economic relations. Friedman’s essay (1958) is the classic statement of this position and derives from what Reder calls the Tight Prior Equilibrium’ theory, which is the essence of Chicago Economics (1982, p. 11). Built into this set of assumptions is the presumption that income-distributional factors can be neglected in the determination of the efficiency of a policy prescription. This postulate is no different from that which dominates formal welfare economics; such analysis also assumes that the economic system will eventually attain the foreseen long-run equilibrium without any incidental breakdown in the tendency toward equilibrium either cyclically or politically (Gray and Gray, 1982, Section VI). Under extreme conditions, the assumption of stability may not be warranted within a nation and poverty is an essential ingredient in many instances of anarchy and in revolutions. When the component economic units are nation states, the assumption that income-distributional aspects can be safely neglected is tenuous to the point that the postulate becomes misleading in any pragmatic context. None of this means that a ‘trade not aid’ posture is entirely without merit and needs to be discarded in its entirety.
Virtual communities and social capital

Putnam has developed a theory of social capital to explain the effect of decreasing community participation and civic engagement on declining institutional performance. Subsequently, there has been much speculation as to whether emerging virtual communities can counteract this trend. The authors apply the findings of computer-mediated communication and virtual communities to the networks, norms, and trust of social capital and also examine the possible effects of virtual communities on the privatization of leisure time. They conclude that social capital and civic engagement will increase when virtual communities develop around physically based communities and when these virtual communities foster additional communities of interest. Through a preliminary analysis, the authors identify potential communities of interest including education, exchange of general community information, and opportunities for government and political participation. They conclude with a discussion of current trends and research needs.
Does the Median Voter or Special Interests Determine State Highway Expenditures? Recent Evidence

Using cross-sectional data from 50 states of the United States and the District of Columbia for two different time periods, this paper examines the degree to which special interests or the median voter determine state highway expenditures. In addition to finding that previous estimates of the determinants of state highway expenditures are robust, we find that that special interests that were important in 1984 were no longer significant nearly 20 years later. Like the previous literature, we conclude that the reduced form median voter model performs well in explaining state highway expenditures.
Weathering the Great Recession: Variation in Employment Responses, by Establishments and Countries

This paper finds that U.S. employment changed differently relative to output in the Great Recession and recovery than in most other advanced countries or in the United States in earlier recessions. Instead of hoarding labor, U.S. firms reduced employment proportionately more than output in the Great Recession, with establishments that survived the downturn contracting jobs massively. Diverging from the aggregate pattern, U.S. manufacturers reduced employment less than output while the elasticity of employment to gross output varied widely among establishments. In the recovery, growth of employment was dominated by job creation in new establishments. The variegated responses of employment to output challenges extant models of how enterprises adjust employment over the business cycle.
Decoding of low-density parity-check codes over finite-state binary Markov channels

We propose a modified algorithm for decoding of low-density parity-check codes over finite-state binary Markov channels. The proposed approach clearly outperforms systems in which the channel statistics are not exploited in the decoding, even when the channel parameters are not known a priori at the decoder.
A standardized instrument programming language based on IEEE Std 488.2

The author describes the features of TMSL (Test and Measurement System Language) and how they relate to compatibility. TMSL implements a tree-structured command set, rather than a traditional flat instrument language, allowing keywords to be reusable and identifiable in context. Reusable keywords also allow for simple and regular mnemonic generation rules. TMSL also addresses parameters through the use of regular parameter forms, a say-what-you-mean philosophy for discrete switch settings, and the minimization of obscure side effects. In addition, TMSL addresses the need for horizontally compatible, signal-oriented measurements, as well as the traditional programming of instrument-specific hardware. The model of an instrument developed for TMSL and the importance of such a standardized model are discussed. The author outlines the advantages realized, including the ease of adding capabilities in the future, the ease of learning, the self-documenting features, the opportunities for reuse of instrument firmware, including increased reliability of parsers, and the ease of integrating instruments into existing test systems. >
Effects of a Community-based Lifestyle Intervention on Change in Physical Activity Among Economically Disadvantaged Adults With Prediabetes

Background: Moderate weight loss and physical activity (PA) can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes however there is a need for innovative, effective programs to promote PA in high-risk individuals. Purpose: We examined the effect of a group-based adaption of the DPP lifestyle intervention implemented in partnership with the YMCA (YDPP) on changes in moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in economically disadvantaged adults with prediabetes. The effects of psychosocial and community-level factors were explored. Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to YDPP or brief counseling. Accelerometer data from 216 participants were used to identify: 1) change in MVPA and 2) sedentary behavior over 24 months. Results: YDPP had no significant effect on either outcome. Baseline PA and crime were associated with less MVPA while higher perceived health and green space were associated with more MVPA over time. Baseline sedentary behavior, perceived health, and green space were inversely related to being sedentar...
SCAPHOTRAPEZIAL-TRAPEZOID JOINT: A CT-BASED ANATOMICAL STUDY OF 113 CASES

The scaphotrapeziotrapezoid (STT) joint is one of the key link joints between the proximal and the distal carpal rows. We assessed the relationship between the scaphotrapezium (STm) andscaphotrapezoid (STd) joints using computerised tomographyand hypothesised the ratio of STm is =/ The sex distribution included 68 males and 29 females, 49 left and 64 right wrists. The STm area was larger in 86 (76%) as compared to STd in 27(24%). Average trapezium to trapezoid ratio was 1:1.5. Ratio of area of trapezium: trapezoid joint is 0.30. The anatomic ratio of the STm in the coronal and sagittal planesis 0.3 and that of the STd joint is 0.2. Ratio of the STm: STd in the coronal plane is 0.29. Pearson9s coefficient A small subset of patients undergoing trapeziectomy alonefor stage II- IV carpometacarpal arthritis of the thumb are at risk of impingement of the first metacarpal due to collapse. Our assessment of the anatomical relationship of the STT joint with CT scan proves that although the area the STm joint is generally larger than the STd joint, there is no significant correlation on the whole.
CORRECTIVE MIDFOOT FUSION FOR CHARCOT NEUROPATHY: THE KING's EXPERIENCE

The mid foot joints are usually the first to be affected in Charcot neuroarthropathy(CN). Reconstruction is technically demanding and fraught with complications. Fixation methods have evolved over time from cancellous screws, plates, bolts and a combination of these. We present our experience of mid foot fusion in CN from a tertiary diabetic foot centre. In this series we undertook mid foot corrective fusion in 27 feet (25patients) and are presenting the results of those with a minimumof six months follow up. Twelve of these had concurrent hindfoot fusion. Eleven patients had type 1 diabetes, 12 had type 2 and 2 were non-diabetics. 23 patients were ASA grade3 and 2 were ASA 2. 21 feet had ulcers preoperatively and mean HbA1c was 8.2. 13 patients had diabetic retinopathy and 6 had nephropathy. Average patient age was 59 (43 to 80) and our mean follow up was 35 months (7 to 67). One patient was lost to follow up and 2 patients died. 18 patients had plates, 3 had bolts and 6 had a combination. Complete follow up data was available for 26 feet in 24 patients. Satisfactory correction of deformity was achieved in all patients. The mean correction of calcaneal pitch was from 0.6 preoperatively to 10.6 degrees postoperatively, mean Meary angle from 22 to 9 degrees, talo- metatarsal angle on AP view from 33 to 13 degree. Bony union was achieved in 21 out of 26 feet and atleast one joint failed to fuse in 5. 19 out of 24 patients were able to mobilize fully or partially weight bearing. We had 6 patients with persisting and 3 withrecurrent ulceration. Seven repeat procedures were carried out which included 2 revision fixations. 4 out of 5 non-unions were seen where bolts were used alone or supplemented with plates. With our technique and a strict protocol 100% limb salvage and 81% union was achieved. 80% patients were mobile and ulcer healing was achieved in 72%.Corrective mid foot fusion is an effective procedure in these complex casesbut require the input of a multidisciplinary team for perioperative care.
Causes and Consequences of Disaggregating Earnings Guidance

Whether managers should provide earnings guidance, especially quarterly guidance, has been a hotly debated policy issue. Influential organizations have urged firms to stop providing earnings guidance to reduce earnings fixation and short-termism in the capital markets. Little attention has been paid to an alternative proposal: instead of ceasing earnings guidance, companies could provide disaggregated earnings guidance. No archival evidence exists regarding the determinants of disaggregated earnings guidance and its effects on the firm and its information environment. We find that once managers provide guidance, the decision to disaggregate this guidance is primarily driven by demand-and-supply factors that exhibit little change from year to year rather than by strategic factors. We find more timely analyst forecast revisions (with no compromise of forecast accuracy), a greater magnitude of revisions, and a larger reduction in analyst disagreement for disaggregating firms than for non-disaggregating firms. These findings suggest that disaggregation enriches a firm's information environment. We also find that disaggregation helps managers align analyst expectations with their own, but firms are punished by investors for providing multiple performance targets but missing them.
Simulations of Magnetic Fields in Tidally-Disrupted Stars

We perform the first magnetohydrodynamical simulations of tidal disruptions of stars by supermassive black holes. We consider stars with both tangled and ordered magnetic fields, for both grazing and deeply disruptive encounters. When the star survives disruption, we find its magnetic field amplifies by a factor of up to 20, but see no evidence for a self-sustaining dynamo that would yield arbitrary field growth. For stars that do not survive, and within the tidal debris streams produced in partial disruptions, we find that the component of the magnetic field parallel to the direction of stretching along the debris stream only decreases slightly with time, eventually resulting in a stream where the magnetic pressure is in equipartition with the gas. Our results suggest that the returning gas in most (if not all) stellar tidal disruptions is already highly magnetized by the time it returns to the black hole.
Scalable nuclear density functional theory with Sky3D

Abstract In nuclear astrophysics, quantum simulations of large inhomogeneous dense systems as they appear in the crusts of neutron stars present big challenges. The number of particles in a simulation with periodic boundary conditions is strongly limited due to the immense computational cost of the quantum methods. In this paper, we describe techniques for an efficient and scalable parallel implementation of Sky3D, a nuclear density functional theory solver that operates on an equidistant grid. Presented techniques allow Sky3D to achieve good scaling and high performance on a large number of cores, as demonstrated through detailed performance analysis on a Cray XC40 supercomputer.
User characterization for online social networks

Online social network analysis has attracted great attention with a vast number of users sharing information and availability of APIs that help to crawl online social network data. In this paper, we study the research studies that are helpful for user characterization as online users may not always reveal their true identity or attributes. We especially focused on user attribute determination such as gender and age; user behavior analysis such as motives for deception; mental models that are indicators of user behavior; user categorization such as bots versus humans; and entity matching on different social networks. We believe our summary of analysis of user characterization will provide important insights into researchers and better services to online users.
On subsurface fracture opening and closure

Abstract Understanding of subsurface fracture opening and closure is of great importance to oil/gas production, geothermal energy extraction, radioactive waste disposal, and carbon sequestration and storage. Fracture opening and closure involve a complex set of thermal, hydrologic, mechanical and chemical (THMC) processes. In this paper, a fully coupled THMC model for fracture opening and closure is formulated by explicitly accounting for the stress concentration on aperture surface, stress-activated mineral dissolution, pressure solution at contacting asperities, and channel flow dynamics. A model analysis, together with reported laboratory observations, shows that a tangential surface stress created by a far-field compressive normal stress may play an important role in controlling fracture aperture evolution in a stressed geologic medium, a mechanism that has not been considered in any existing models. Based on the model analysis, a necessary condition for aperture opening has been derived. The model provides a reasonable explanation for many salient features of fracture evolution in laboratory experiments, including a spontaneous switch from a permeability reduction to a permeability increase in a static limestone experiment. The work may also help develop a new method for estimating in-situ stress in a reservoir.
Fractional Vortex Hilbert’s Hotel

We demonstrate theoretically how the unusual mathematics of infinite sets appears in the propagation of light through fractional vortex spiral waveplates. It is shown how Hilbert’s famous hotel is manifested in a singularity of vortices.
A new self-propelled magnetic bearing with helical windings

In this work, a design is proposed for an active, permanent magnet based, self-propelled magnetic bearing, i.e. levitating motor having the following features: (i) simple winding structure, (ii) high load supporting capacity, (iii) no eccentricity sensors, (iv) stable confinement in all translational dimensions, (v) stable confinement in all rotational dimensions, and (vi) high efficiency. This design uses an architecture consisting of a helically wound three-phase stator, and a rotor with the magnets also arranged in a helical manner. Active control is used to excite the rotor at a torque angle lying in the second quadrant. This torque angle is independent of the rotor9s position inside the stator cavity; hence the control algorithm is similar to that of a conventional permanent magnet synchronous motor. It is motivated through a physical argument that the bearing rotor develops a lift force proportional to the output torque and that it remains stably confined in space. These assertions are then proved rigorously through a calculation of the magnetic fields, forces and torques. The stiffness matrix of the system is presented and a discussion of stable and unstable operating regions is given.
Altruism: primary motivation of remittances

ABSTRACTThis article examines primary incentives of remittances. After controlling for host country’s GNI per capita, real exchange rates and real interest rates, a rise in home country’s GNI per capita leads to fewer remittances. A rise in host country’s GNI per capita motivates migrants to remit more. Real interest rates have no effect on remittances. These results indicate primary incentive of remittances is altruism.
Defect size distribution in VLSI chips

Very large scale integration (VLSI) patterns consisting of parallel lines of polycrystalline Si have been fabricated and electrically tested for shorts. The number of observed shorts was related to the line spacings by using an analytical model for defect-sensitive pattern areas. It was found that the simple defect size distribution function h(x)=k*x/sup -n/ used previously with values of n around three, projects that total number of shorts arising from a given defect density with reasonable accuracy. However, actual defect size distributions observed microscopically are bimodal or multimodal. This complication has only a minor influence on the results projected by the model because the smaller defects are more numerous than the larger ones that make up the secondary distributions. >