Alternative Public Spending Rules and Output Volatility

One of the central lessons learned from the Great Depression was that adjusting government spending each year to balance the budget increases the volatility of output. We compare this policy with one that involves running temporary deficits and surpluses and an average budget balance of zero. Our analysis allows monetary policy to adjust to a change in fiscal regime, and the specifications for aggregate demand and supply are consistent with the "new neoclassical synthesis." Our results give only limited support to the conventional wisdom on fiscal rules and stability of output.Built-in stability; expectational IS; foward-looking Phillips curve.

Look-ahead with mini-bucket heuristics for MPE

The paper investigates the potential of look-ahead in the con-text of AND/OR search in graphical models using the Mini-Bucket heuristic for combinatorial optimization tasks (e.g., MAP/MPE or weighted CSPs). We present and analyze the complexity of computing the residual (a.k.a Bellman update) of the Mini-Bucket heuristic and show how this can be used to identify which parts of the search space are more likely to benefit from look-ahead and how to bound its overhead. We also rephrase the look-ahead computation as a graphical model, to facilitate structure exploiting inference schemes. We demonstrate empirically that augmenting Mini-Bucket heuristics by look-ahead is a cost-effective way of increasing the power of Branch-And-Bound search.Postprint (published version

Corrigendum to “Synthesis and anodic electrochemistry of cymanquine and related complexes” [J. Organomet. Chem. 817 (15 August 2016) 15–20]

The authors regret that the oxidation potentials given for compound 5 in the paper are incorrect. The correct values, referenced to ferrocene, are 0.88 V for the first oxidation and 1.14 V for the second oxidation

Do Android Taint Analysis Tools Keep Their Promises?

In recent years, researchers have developed a number of tools to conduct taint analysis of Android applications. While all the respective papers aim at providing a thorough empirical evaluation, comparability is hindered by varying or unclear evaluation targets. Sometimes, the apps used for evaluation are not precisely described. In other cases, authors use an established benchmark but cover it only partially. In yet other cases, the evaluations differ in terms of the data leaks searched for, or lack a ground truth to compare against. All those limitations make it impossible to truly compare the tools based on those published evaluations. We thus present ReproDroid, a framework allowing the accurate comparison of Android taint analysis tools. ReproDroid supports researchers in inferring the ground truth for data leaks in apps, in automatically applying tools to benchmarks, and in evaluating the obtained results. We use ReproDroid to comparatively evaluate on equal grounds the six prominent taint analysis tools Amandroid, DIALDroid, DidFail, DroidSafe, FlowDroid and IccTA. The results are largely positive although four tools violate some promises concerning features and accuracy. Finally, we contribute to the area of unbiased benchmarking with a new and improved version of the open test suite DroidBench

Glucocorticoids modulate CHO cell glycosylation in chemically-defined media

Product quality attributes are critical to the therapeutic activity of manufactured biologics. One key quality attribute is glycosylation, which can dramatically affect antibody activity, specificity, and/or immunogenicity. As such, a high priority during drug development is to control the glycosylation profile. Glycosylation is significantly influenced by the composition of cell culture media, including sugars, amino acids, vitamins, trace metals, and even metabolic waste products. Formulation of chemically-defined growth and feed media provides the ability to fine tune the concentrations of media components that regulate glycosylation through metabolic shifts and cell signaling. For example, some of the current strategies for modulating glycosylation involve combinations of guanosine, uridine, MnCl2, galactose, and other sugars. While these components can be adjusted to alter glycosylation, they can also negatively impact cell growth or productivity. Therefore, identifying a broad array of glycosylation control strategies is necessary for tailoring media to different cell lines. Glucocorticoids are a class of compounds commonly found in cell culture media that have demonstrated viability enhancing properties in growth of CHO cells. This class of steroid hormones regulates programmed cell death in CHO cells by triggering increased expression of the anti-apoptotic gene Tsc22d3 [Jing et al., Biotechnol Prog. 2012; 28:490496]. Using our chemically-defined media system, we demonstrate an additional property of glucocorticoids as a regulator of antibody glycosylation in CHO cell culture. Our results show reductions in fucosylated and galactosylated glycan species and a concomitant increase in mannosylated glycan species. This is notable because fucosylation and mannosylation affect potency if the mechanism of action relies on antibodydependent, cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) and galactosylation affects potency if the mechanism of action relies on complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC). Therefore, understanding the effect of glucocorticoids on glycosylation is important for tuning cell culture media in the pursuit of more desirable product quality attributes of biologic

Examining Individual Differences in Temporal Profiles of Cardiovascular Responses to the Head Down Tilt during Fluid Loading

Upon returning to Earth after an extended exposure to micro-gravity in space many astronauts have experienced symptoms of light headedness and fainting associated with post-flight orthostatic intolerance (low blood pressure). The main reason for this condition is the reduced fluid volume in the body while in space. A preventative treatment was proposed to prevent this condition by fluid loading to restore lost plasma volume by giving crew members salt tablets and water prior to re-entry. In order to simulate micro-gravity effects on earth test subjects are placed in a supine position with their head below the level of their heart (6 head down tilt-HDT). The purpose of the present study is to define individual differences in the time course of cardiac stroke volume responses to HDT (6 hours) and the effectiveness of fluid loading for mitigating orthostatic intolerance when standing . Echocardiography and impedance cardiography data will be collected on 8 men and 8 women to examine heart function to HDT. A second objective is to determine if the effects of fluid loading vary due to individual differences (e.g., age, gender, height, weight, physical fitness, etc.)

Computational Methods for the Analysis of Array Comparative Genomic Hybridization

Array comparative genomic hybridization (array CGH) is a technique for assaying the copy number status of cancer genomes. The widespread use of this technology has lead to a rapid accumulation of high throughput data, which in turn has prompted the development of computational strategies for the analysis of array CGH data. Here we explain the principles behind array image processing, data visualization and genomic profile analysis, review currently available software packages, and raise considerations for future software development

Additive manufacturing of chopped fiber ultra-high ceramic composites

Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract