Small Deviations for Time-Changed Brownian Motions and Applications to Second-Order Chaos

We prove strong small deviations results for Brownian motion under independent time-changes satisfying their own asymptotic criteria. We then apply these results to certain stochastic integrals which are elements of second-order homogeneous chaos.Comment: 23 page

Zinc Finger Targeter (ZiFiT): an engineered zinc finger/target site design tool

Zinc Finger Targeter (ZiFiT) is a simple and intuitive web-based tool that facilitates the design of zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) that can bind to specific DNA sequences. The current version of ZiFiT is based on a widely employed method of ZFP design, the ‘modular assembly’ approach, in which pre-existing individual zinc fingers are linked together to recognize desired target DNA sequences. Several research groups have described experimentally characterized zinc finger modules that bind many of the 64 possible DNA triplets. ZiFiT leverages the combined capabilities of three of the largest and best characterized module archives by enabling users to select fingers from any of these sets. ZiFiT searches a query DNA sequence for target sites for which a ZFP can be designed using modules available in one or more of the three archives. In addition, ZiFiT output facilitates identification of specific zinc finger modules that are publicly available from the Zinc Finger Consortium. ZiFiT is freely available at http://bindr.gdcb.iastate.edu/ZiFiT/

Anisotropic winds from close-in extra-solar planets

We present two-dimensional hydrodynamic models of thermally driven winds from highly irradiated, close-in extra-solar planets. We adopt a very simple treatment of the radiative heating processes at the base of the wind, and instead focus on the differences between the properties of outflows in multidimensions in comparison to spherically symmetric models computed with the same methods. For hot (T > 2 x 10^{4} K) or highly ionized gas, we find strong (supersonic) polar flows are formed above the planet surface which produce weak shocks and outflow on the night-side. In comparison to a spherically symmetric wind with the same parameters, the sonic surface on the day-side is much closer to the planet surface in multidimensions, and the total mass loss rate is reduced by almost a factor of four. We also compute the steady-state structure of interacting planetary and stellar winds. Both winds end in a termination shock, with a parabolic contact discontinuity which is draped over the planet separating the two shocked winds. The planetary wind termination shock and the sonic surface in the wind are well separated, so that the mass loss rate from the planet is essentially unaffected. However, the confinement of the planetary wind to the small volume bounded by the contact discontinuity greatly enhances the column density close to the planet, which might be important for the interpretation of observations of absorption lines formed by gas surrounding transiting planets.Comment: ApJ accepte

Young Adult E-Cigarette Exposure: Implications for Policy and Prevention

Objective. The purpose of this study is to examine factors associated with e-cigarette use among college students to better understand their behavior. Using Ajzen’s Reasoned Action Approach, this study sought to better understanding the influence of attitudes, Social norms, and perceived behavioral controls (PBCs) on college students’ intention to try e-cigarettes (even one puff) in the next 30 days. Methodology. This study employed three phases for a mixed methods design that took place between December 2015 and April 2016. Phase 1 used Middlestadt’s salient belief elicitation procedure to capture responses through an open ended survey (n=58). Phase 2, a pilot sample (n=49), was employed to develop and validate a quantitative measure of the underlying RAA constructs, using responses from Phase 1. For Phase 3, a convenience samples (n=499) allowed for the assessment of the measurement models of both the underlying and global constructs of the RAA using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. All samples consisted of University of Arkansas students between the ages of 18 and 26 years of age. Results. Responses from Phase 1 were used to develop a 162 item measure of the underlying constructs that was reduced to 78 items during Phase 2. During Phase 3, the underlying constructs, attitude, injunctive norms, and PBC were found to significantly predict their respective global measure. Global constructs loaded onto the predicted four factors: intent, attitude, Social norms and PBC, after removing six items. In the final path model, global constructs attitude (.27, p Conclusion. The RAA allows for a better understanding of the values and beliefs people have about a given behavior and how these beliefs influence behavioral intention. College students’ attitudes toward e-cigarettes (e.g., cessation device, fear of addiction) may influence their intention to try these products. Moreover, disapproving referents (e.g., family, parents, and friends) may discourage the use of e-cigarettes for some college students

REACT: Recognize Every Action Everywhere All At Once

Group Activity Recognition (GAR) is a fundamental problem in computer vision, with diverse applications in sports video analysis, video surveillance, and social scene understanding. Unlike conventional action recognition, GAR aims to classify the actions of a group of individuals as a whole, requiring a deep understanding of their interactions and spatiotemporal relationships. To address the challenges in GAR, we present REACT (\textbf{R}ecognize \textbf{E}very \textbf{Act}ion Everywhere All At Once), a novel architecture inspired by the transformer encoder-decoder model explicitly designed to model complex contextual relationships within videos, including multi-modality and spatio-temporal features. Our architecture features a cutting-edge Vision-Language Encoder block for integrated temporal, spatial, and multi-modal interaction modeling. This component efficiently encodes spatiotemporal interactions, even with sparsely sampled frames, and recovers essential local information. Our Action Decoder Block refines the joint understanding of text and video data, allowing us to precisely retrieve bounding boxes, enhancing the link between semantics and visual reality. At the core, our Actor Fusion Block orchestrates a fusion of actor-specific data and textual features, striking a balance between specificity and context. Our method outperforms state-of-the-art GAR approaches in extensive experiments, demonstrating superior accuracy in recognizing and understanding group activities. Our architecture's potential extends to diverse real-world applications, offering empirical evidence of its performance gains. This work significantly advances the field of group activity recognition, providing a robust framework for nuanced scene comprehension.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 5 table

Termites Create Spatial Structure And Govern Ecosystem Function By Affecting N-2 Fixation In An East African Savanna

The mechanisms by which even the clearest of keystone or dominant species exert community-wide effects are only partially understood in most ecosystems. This is especially true when a species or guild influences community-wide interactions via changes in the abiotic landscape. Using stable isotope analyses, we show that subterranean termites in an East African savanna strongly influence a key ecosystem process: atmospheric nitrogen fixation by a monodominant tree species and its bacterial symbionts. Specifically, we applied the N-15 natural abundance method in combination with other biogeochemical analyses to assess levels of nitrogen fixation by Acacia drepanolobium and its effects on co-occurring grasses and forbs in areas near and far from mounds and where ungulates were or were not excluded. We find that termites exert far stronger effects than do herbivores on nitrogen fixation. The percentage of nitrogen derived from fixation in Acacia drepanolobium trees is higher (55-80%) away from mounds vs. near mounds (40-50%). Mound soils have higher levels of plant available nitrogen, and Acacia drepanolobium may preferentially utilize soil-based nitrogen sources in lieu of fixed nitrogen when these sources are readily available near termite mounds. At the scale of the landscape, our models predict that termite/soil derived nitrogen sources influence \u3e50% of the Acacia drepanolobium trees in our system. Further, the spatial extent of these effects combine with the spacing of termite mounds to create highly regular patterning in nitrogen fixation rates, resulting in marked habitat heterogeneity in an otherwise uniform landscape. In summary, we show that termite-associated effects on nitrogen processes are not only stronger than those of more apparent large herbivores in the same system, but also occur in a highly regular spatial pattern, potentially adding to their importance as drivers of community and ecosystem structure