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Religion and food culture are two closely related topics in the Christian discourse and have been the subject of extensive anthropological research. This paper takes the Boston Chinese Catholics as a case study, and it adopts an ethnographic research methodology to explore the ways in which the sense of belonging develops in the Church community, based on the analysis of food culture in this context. Chinese Catholics in Boston are mainly Fujian and Hong Kong immigrants, and the class, status, and economic differences between these two communities are well apparent. The Boston Chinese Catholic Church divides food into sacred and secular. During religious rituals, all Catholics share the sacred food, the Holy Body and the Holy Blood, which symbolize the unity of the Catholic Church. In everyday life, Fujian Catholic and Hong Kong Catholic community members follow the dietary habits of their community to maintain a division between each community's traditions. Over the years, the Boston Chinese Catholic Church has developed a flexible strategy—externally consistent and internally differentiated—to maintain the unity of the Church while embracing the cultural differences of its members. This flexible strategy has also influenced the way in which the Boston Chinese Catholic Church operates. This study indicates that we need to place more emphasis on the diversity and complexity of the members of the overseas Chinese Catholic Church and the specificities of the Catholic religion's discourse so that we can better understand the overall practices and methods of overseas Chinese Catholicism. This study is a catalyst for the study of overseas Chinese Catholicism, as well as the study of food culture, religion, community, and identity in that context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial units typically vary over many of their characteristics, introducing potential unobserved heterogeneity which invalidates commonly used homoskedasticity conditions. In the presence of unobserved heteroskedasticity, methods based on the quasi-likelihood function generally produce inconsistent estimates of both the spatial parameter and the coefficients of the exogenous regressors. A robust generalized method of moments estimator as well as a modified likelihood method have been proposed in the literature to address this issue. The present paper constructs an alternative indirect inference (II) approach which relies on a simple ordinary least squares procedure as its starting point. Heteroskedasticity is accommodated by utilizing a new version of continuous updating that is applied within the II procedure to take account of the parameterization of the variance–covariance matrix of the disturbances. Finite-sample performance of the new estimator is assessed in a Monte Carlo study. The approach is implemented in an empirical application to house price data in the Boston area, where it is found that spatial effects in house price determination are much more significant under robustification to heterogeneity in the equation errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 19th century brought on much economic growth and advancement in accounting in the United States. The teaching of accounting began to veer away from rules and instead sought the logical underpinnings of the system. It was a time when accounting evolved into accountancy through the development of theory, such as the proprietary theory and the theory of two-account series. The Townsend Journal (1840–1841), which chronicles the joint venture between two young men in the Boston maritime trade, is a case study of this progression in commerce and accounting during this pivotal time. B. F. Foster's contemporaneous Boston publications on bookkeeping provide the framework to understand this evolution in accountancy, as well as the recordings in the Townsend Journal. Through the examination of the Townsend Journal alongside B. F. Foster's texts, this paper preserves and illustrates a historical link in the evolution of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Interpretation of neuropsychological (NP) tests depends on the quality of the normative standards available for the tests. Co-norming across tests is necessary when interpreting differences between scores on different tests. The relevance of specific norms for an individual examinee further depends on multiple design features of the standardization studies, including: when the studies were conducted, sampling strategy, inclusion/exclusion criteria, age, sex/gender, education, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and region. This paper examines the standardization studies of the most widely used NP tests, identifies their strengths and weaknesses, and makes recommendations for interpretive caveats based on these analyses. Participants and Methods: We reviewed the standardization strategies and coded information about the sampling frames, inclusion/exclusion criteria, stratification methods, demographic characteristics, and sample sizes overall and within each stratum where relevant. These methods were applied to the WAIS-IV, WMS-IV, CVLT3, D-KEFS, Pearson Advanced Clinical Solutions (ACS), Rey Complex Figure Test, WCST, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, RBANS, BVMT-R, HVLT, Halstead-Reitan ("Heaton et al") Norms for Boston Naming, Finger Tapping, Grooved Pegboard), MOANS, and MOAANS (Boston Naming, Trail Making Test, Judgement of Line Orientation). We calculated multiple indexes for each test, including standard errors and confidence intervals for scaled scores. Results: Most tests used age only as a stratification factor, providing "age corrected" scores for selected age bands. The sample sizes for the age strata range from 1 to ∼200 but were usually less than 100 participants/stratum. Sex differences were rarely reported and some studies had markedly uneven distributions of sex. Education was not used as a stratification factor in any study, and few norms attempted corrections for education. The possible interactions of age and education on test scores are seldom reported and cell sizes for combinations of age and education may be too small to enable robust estimates of scores, especially at lower levels of education and older ages. The possible impact of race and ethnicity are rarely interrogated except in ACS, Heaton and MOAANS norms, which all focus on "African American" participants. Discrepancies in scores across ACS, Heaton and MOAANS suggest marked sampling differences. Conclusions: Existing norms have major limitations which may impact the clinical assessment of individuals and result in inappropriate treatment recommendations as well as lead to inappropriate classification in clinical trials, which may include score "cutoffs" based on widely used normative standards. Most norms use only age as a stratification factor, despite robust impacts of education on scores. Race and ethnicity are poorly represented, fail to reflect current demographic characteristics of the United States, and existing norms present major conflicts for African American groups, with the same raw scores differing by a full standard deviation depending only on the source of normative data. Sex differences are examined infrequently and it remains unclear to what extent sex or gender differences may affect some scores. There is an urgent need for new, preferably "dynamic" normative standards, that include sampling by socially and demographically meaningful metrics, to provide greater precision in assessment of neuropsychological scores and score discrepancies, and for evaluating the inclusion/exclusion criteria, and criteria for efficacy in clinical trials that use neurocognitive endpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we draw upon three case studies of American cities bidding to host the Summer Olympic Games to explore the role media, particularly new media, plays in the formation of anti-bid protest movements. Using data gathered from in-depth interviews with leaders of several activist campaigns and a content analysis of related websites and social media accounts, the paper demonstrates the increasing role new media plays in enabling resistant movements to form and articulate messages oppositional to boosterist coverage of mega sport event bids. However, it also highlights the limits of such new media activism in terms of both reach and capacity to effect change in isolation. Rather, the paper demonstrates that new media activitsm is at its most potent when it links and interacts with other actors, including legacy media outlets. The paper therefore concludes by highlighting the need for connectivity to both legacy media and physical acts of resistance and protest in order to generate meaningful impact and generate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine learning has dramatically expanded the range of tools for evaluating economic panel data. This paper applies a variety of machine-learning methods to the Boston housing dataset, an iconic proving ground for machine learning. Though machine learning often lacks the overt interpretability of linear regression, methods based on decision trees score the relative importance of dataset features. In addition to addressing the theoretical tradeoff between bias and variance, this paper discusses practices rarely followed in traditional economics: the splitting of data into training, validation, and test sets; the scaling of data; and the preference for retaining all data. The choice between traditional and machine-learning methods hinges on practical rather than mathematical considerations. In settings emphasizing interpretative clarity through the scale and sign of regression coefficients, machine learning may best play an ancillary role. Wherever predictive accuracy is paramount, however, or where heteroskedasticity or high dimensionality might impair the clarity of linear methods, machine learning can deliver superior results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the eighteenth century transactions at The Boston Bookstore of bookseller Benjamin Guild in Massachusetts based on the manuscript daybook maintained by Guild. Topics explored include the sale of books on politics and religion to early American readers, observations on the pricing structure of the bookstore, and the non-book items sold by Guild which range from quills to ink powder.

We compare responses from an online survey among 700 customers of transportation network companies (TNC) in Boston and Philadelphia to investigate TNC's impact on vehicle ownership, trip making, and mode choice. We first use a qualitative comparative analysis to examine changes in respondents' travel behavior and vehicle ownership after adopting TNC. We then use a random parameter logit regression analysis to investigate customers' preferences between transit and TNC based on a choice experiment. We find that in both cities, TNC allows customers, including those who currently do not own a car, to either delay purchasing a car or forgo a car altogether. TNC enables customers across income levels to take trips that they otherwise would not have taken. Meanwhile, TNC substitutes for more than complementing transit. The random parameter logit analysis indicates that when choosing between TNC and transit, individuals in both cities consider waiting time and overall travel time for transit to be more burdensome than those for TNC. Bostonians perceive the time spent walking to and from transit to be less burdensome, and the time spent traveling in vehicle to be more burdensome than do Philadelphians. Differences in built environment, mode share within transit systems, and income likely contribute to respondents' different values of time between the two cities. Our paper is the first to compare individual trade-off between transit and TNC in two cities with different urban settings and transit services. The findings have implications on transit service planning, station area improvements, parking regulations, and traffic management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the relational dimension and the knowledge transfer mechanisms in an innovation ecosystems (IEs), assuming that the bottom-up creation of synergies and cooperative mechanisms between local actors are the drivers of a regional smart growth. More specifically, the study explores the configuration of the network structure and the variety of inter-organizational relationships in a case of a smart IE by capturing the heterogeneous nature of IE demography, whether most studies limit their analyses to inter-firm relationships and at the node-level. Secondly, the paper provides insights into the network portfolio composition, which has been underexplored in IE literature, allowing for the identification of those relationships considered more fruitful to enhance innovation processes from a local perspective. To capture both aspects of IE's relational dimension (i.e. network structure and network portfolio of relationships) our paper adopts an explorative approach, by taking evidence from the empirical study of the biopharma IE in greater Boston area, which has been exemplified as a successful case. Our empirical study combines two methods, namely social network analysis and expert interviews. Firstly, we conduct a social network analysis to gain insights about the optimal network structure and secondly, we conduct a round of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in the ecosystem to explore the characteristics of the desirable network portfolio. Our findings show that a smart IE presents an open network structure with structural holes, a high level of modularity and a portfolio of relationships that privileges informal and non-redundant ties within small communities focused on specific themes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Process evaluation can illuminate barriers and facilitators to intervention implementation as well as the drivers of intervention outcomes. However, few obesity intervention studies have documented process evaluation methods and results. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) requires that process evaluation methods be developed to (a) prioritize community members' power to adapt the program to local needs over strict adherence to intervention protocols, (b) share process evaluation data with implementers to maximize benefit to participants, and (c) ensure partner organizations are not overburdened. Co-designed with low-income parents using CBPR, Communities for Healthy Living (CHL) is a family-centered intervention implemented within Head Start to prevent childhood obesity and promote family well-being. We are currently undertaking a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of CHL in 23 Head Start centers in the greater Boston area. In this protocol paper, we outline an embedded process evaluation designed to monitor intervention adherence and adaptation, support ongoing quality improvement, and examine contextual factors that may moderate intervention implementation and/or effectiveness.Methods: This mixed methods process evaluation was developed using the Pérez et al. framework for evaluating adaptive interventions and is reported following guidelines outlined by Grant et al. Trained research assistants will conduct structured observations of intervention sessions. Intervention facilitators and recipients, along with Head Start staff, will complete surveys and semi-structured interviews. De-identified data for all eligible children and families will be extracted from Head Start administrative records. Qualitative data will be analyzed thematically. Quantitative and qualitative data will be integrated using triangulation methods to assess intervention adherence, monitor adaptations, and identify moderators of intervention implementation and effectiveness.Discussion: A diverse set of quantitative and qualitative data sources are employed to fully characterize CHL implementation. Simultaneously, CHL's process evaluation will provide a case study on strategies to address the challenges of process evaluation for CBPR interventions. Results from this process evaluation will help to explain variation in intervention implementation and outcomes across Head Start programs, support CHL sustainability and future scale-up, and provide guidance for future complex interventions developed using CBPR.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03334669 . Registered on October 10, 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, two papers, previously published in A Theological Odyssey. My Life in Writing (2014a), both based on Christianity, Art and Transformation (2001), are conflated. The first is a paper on "Christianity and Transformation" presented at a symposium on "Christianity and the Arts" at Andover - Newton Theological Seminary, Boston, 26 October, 1999. The second is a paper on "Art, Culture and Transformation" presented at the Conference on Arts and Reconciliation in Civil Society, University of Pretoria, 14-20 March 2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voluntary resilience standards are an emerging tool for cities to incentivize developers to incorporate climate change adaptation strategies. Urban planners and researchers, however, are still assessing their relative impacts on the design of recent large-scale development projects. This paper answers the question of whether, and at what scale, anticipated changes to mapped flood risk are associated with mitigation actions to accommodate climate change. A case study of the Climate Change Preparedness and Resiliency Checklist in Boston, Massachusetts presents a database of 171 unique survey responses from 104 proposed projects. Comparing developments with documentation to an internal subset of 54 projects in the Boston Planning and Development Agency's projected Sea Level Rise – Flood Hazard Area (SLR-FHA), this paper finds projects impacted by updated Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) are associated with different building uses, higher sea level rise assumptions and greater abilities to endure inundation. There are also neighbourhood-level differences in climate expertise and the projects' ability to withstand utility disruption. Both of these observed impacts may have important implications for the formulation and application of voluntary resilience standards in other coastal cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Conor Herlihy is first author on 'Suv420 enrichment at the centromere limits Aurora B localization and function', published in JCS. Conor is a Postdoc in the lab of Dr Ting Wu at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, where he is interested in understanding how the genome organizes and regulates itself in order to enable normal development and prevent the onset of diseases such as cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the special issue of the periodical "IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques" which focuses on papers presented in the 2009 Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium held in Boston, Massachusetts in June. She reports that the acceptance rate for the papers submitted was high due to the good quality of the revised manuscripts. She explains how the reviewers for the special issue were selected.

Children experience and grapple with the ongoing effects of climate change in their daily lives. While they did not cause climate change nor should they have to solve it, children deserve educational opportunities to understand why and how it occurs as they prepare to address it. In this Methods and Strategies article, we share how children engaged in place-based art, science, and literacy activities designed to support them in further cultivating relationships with their ecological community and to communicate their findings with other children engaging in the same process across the three coastal communities of Boston, Toronto, and San Diego. Specifically, we highlight how crafting representations of their noticings and wonderings from family walks in their ecological communities supported children to analyze the interactions within ecosystems and express concern and care for the natural world as they engaged in the science practice of asking questions. We share how elementary teachers can support children in cultivating relationships with their local community as they make observations and ask questions to understand how climate change impacts their ecological communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions the historical and biographical significance of the papers Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote as a divinity student at Crozer Theological Seminary and as a doctoral student at Boston University. Instances of plagiarism; Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers Projects; Evidence of King's effort to construct an identity as a theologian and preacher; Desire to stress social and political implications of theological training.

Heteroscedasticity is often encountered in spatial-data analysis, so a new class of heterogeneous spatial autoregressive models is introduced in this paper, where the variance parameters are allowed to depend on some explanatory variables. Here, we are interested in the problem of parameter estimation and the variable selection for both the mean and variance models. Then, a unified procedure via double-penalized quasi-maximum likelihood is proposed, to simultaneously select important variables. Under certain regular conditions, the consistency and oracle property of the resulting estimators are established. Finally, both simulation studies and a real data analysis of the Boston housing data are carried to illustrate the developed methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues concerning spatial dependence among cross-sectional units in econometrics have received more and more attention. Motivated by a Boston housing price data analysis, this paper studies the sparse inference of varying coefficient partially linear spatial autoregressive model, which is quite valuable in econometrics with high-dimensional data. A novel, efficient and convenient one-step variable selection procedure is proposed by using a twofold penalty for simultaneous estimation and variable selection of the parametric components and varying coefficient functions, in which the varying coefficient functions are approximated by the B-spline basis. Under some regularity conditions, asymptotic properties of the resulting estimators are established, including consistency, asymptotic normality and the oracle property. Besides, the optimal choices of the tuning parameters are discussed and a practical iterative algorithm based on the locally quadratic approximation approach is presented for implementation. Finally, extensive numerical simulations and a Boston housing price data analysis are conducted to confirm the finite sample performance and theoretical findings of the new method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The name John Cookson is associated with Lorenzoni-type magazine repeating flintlocks of high quality, assumed to have been made in London during the last decade or so of the 17th century. Nothing is known of this gunmaker. A John Cookson is known to have been a gunsmith in Boston during the first half of the 18th century and, while he is given credit in the US for inventing the magazine repeater, there is no evidence that he ever made such a gun in America. Over the years, there has been much speculation about a connection between these John Cooksons but none has ever been established. A recently discovered flintlock fowler signed Cookson appears to be late 17th century and shares a number of features which suggest manufacture by the same John Cookson who made the magazine repeaters. The paper examines the details of this fowler, comparing them to those of the known magazine repeaters and argues that they were all made by the same maker. An extensive archival search was also made of the John Cooksons of the UK and of Boston, the results of which are summarized here. While no direct connection could be established, the evidence strongly suggests that they were the same person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the aim is to help uncover some facts about who the Twitter users really are. To this purpose, geotagged twitter data from the city of Boston together with socio-economic data were used. In the first step, tweets in each census block were counted and using the Getis-Ord Gi* index the hotspots and coldspots of tweet locations were extracted. Then, a multiple linear regression was employed, having the number of tweets as the response variable and the population data, age, education, occupation and income as the explanatory variables. Hence, more insight into the relationship between the number of tweets and some socio-economic factors is obtained. Results show that the central parts of Boston are the hotspot and the southern areas are the coldspot locations with regard to tweet numbers. The regression results imply that the number of tweets shared by users in an area is related to the income, the number of people having a university degree and the number of people having each type of job in that spatial unit. The results achieved in this paper could lead to a better vision and understanding in analyzing the tweeter users' behavior in any area of research and application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper examines public discourse on race, whiteness and Muslims through an in-depth exploration of an online media controversy following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. On 16 April, the day after the attacks, the liberal magazine Salon.com published David Sirota's article, 'Let's Hope the Boston Marathon Bomber is a White American'. A firestorm of commentary followed, with conservatives defending the profiling of Muslims, and accusing Sirota of anti-white racism. Anchored in questions of race, racism and Muslims and marked by a sharp partisan polarisation, these discussions intensified after 18 April, when the Tsarnaev brothers were identified as the perpetrators. The ensuing debate surrounding the racial identity of the Tsarnaevs displays how Muslim racialisation occurs and operates within a conservative discourse strongly committed to a colour-blind ideology. Our paper moves beyond this affirmation of literature on Muslim racialisation and sets this process within a relationally constructed and performative white racial identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the Thirty-second General Conference to be held in Boston, Massachusetts on August 5-11, 2012.

The article offers information on the Thirty-second General Conference to be held in Boston, Massachusetts from August 5-11, 2012.

The article discusses the highlights of the Annual Meetings of the Knee Society Symposium held in Boston, Massachusetts in October 2009. The meetings tackled various issues concerning knee surgery including the risk factors for patellar crepitus following total knee arthroplasty, the use of debridement and irrigation, and the analysis of synovial fluid.

Background and Aims: Accurately documenting mammography use is essential to assess quality of care for early breast cancer detection in underserved populations. Self-reports and medical record reports frequently result in different accounts of whether a mammogram was performed. We hypothesize that electronic medical records (EMRs) provide more accurate documentation of mammography use than paper records, as evidenced by the level of agreement between women's self-reported mammography use and mammography use documented in medical records. Methods: Black women aged 40–75 were surveyed in six primary care sites in Boston, Massachusetts ( n = 411). Survey data assessed self-reported mammography prevalence within 2 years of study entry. Corresponding medical record data were collected at each site. Positive predictive value (PPV) of self-report and kappa statistics compared data agreement among sites with and without EMRs. Logistic regression estimated effects of site and patient characteristics on agreement between data sources. Results: Medical records estimated a lower prevalence of mammography use (58%) than self-report (76%). However, self-report and medical record estimates were more similar in sites with EMRs. PPV of self-report was 88% in sites with continuous access to EMRs and 61% at sites without EMRs. Kappa statistics indicated greater data agreement at sites with EMRs (0.72, 95% CI 0.56-0.88) than without EMRs (0.46, 95% CI 0.29-0.64). Adjusted for covariates, odds of data agreement were greatest in sites where EMRs were available during the entire study period (OR 4.31, 95% CI 1.67-11.13). Conclusions: Primary care sites with EMRs better document mammography use than those with paper records. Patient self-report of mammography screening is more accurate at sites with EMRs. Broader access to EMRs should be implemented to improve quality of documenting mammography use. At a minimum, quality improvement efforts should confirm the accuracy of paper records with supplemental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known of the relationship between exposure to the smallest particles of air pollution and socio-demographic characteristics. This paper explores linkages between ultrafine particle (UFP) concentrations and indicators of both race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. We used estimates of UFP based on a highly-resolved land-use regression model of concentrations. In multivariate linear regression models census block groups with high proportions of Asians were associated with higher levels of UFP in comparison to block groups with majority White or other minority groups. Lower UFP concentrations were associated with higher homeownership (indicating higher SES) and with higher female head of household (indicating lower socioeconomic status). One explanation for the results include the proximity of specific groups to traffic corridors that are the main sources of UFP in Boston. Additional studies, especially at higher geographic resolution, are needed in Boston and other major cities to better characterize UFP concentrations by sociodemographic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Elatina glaciation of Snowball Earth, at least four distinct glacial advances and sea-level retreats punctuated Ediacaran time: Gaskiers glaciation (580 Ma), Fauquier glaciation (571 Ma), Bou-Azzer glaciation (566 Ma) and Hankalchough glaciation (551 Ma). Tillites or diamictites are commonly controversial, but periglacial paleosols with distinctive physical structure and degree of chemical weathering offer supporting evidence of glaciation and sea-level change useful for stratigraphic correlation. This paper reviews glacial advances of the Ediacaran stratotype and other sequences, and also reveals the value of paleosols and chemical index of alteration to understand the upper Squantum and Brookline members of the Roxbury Conglomerate near Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Bay ice wedges are periglacial paleosols, and evidence of maritime glacial climate like that of modern coastal Greenland and Arctic Canada. Simple discoidal vendobiont fossils (Aspidella terranovica) in the Dorchester Member of the Roxbury Conglomerate and in the Cambridge Argillite are in heterolithic shale–siltstone facies that are interpreted as intertidal to shallow marine environments. Local marine transgressions and other paleosols showing significant chemical weathering represent temperate interglacial paleoclimates. Short glacial advances affecting climate and sea-level enable subdivision of the Ediacaran Period. Four distinct glacial advances and sea-level retreats punctuated Ediacaran time: Gaskiers (580 Ma), Fauquier (571 Ma), Bou-Azzer (566 Ma), Hankalchough (551 Ma). Paleosols with distinctive structures such as ice wedges were periglacial. Squantum Member diamictites near Boston, Massachusetts are Gaskiers age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider problem of variable selection in higher-order partially linear spatial autoregressive model with a diverging number of parameters. By combining series approximation method, two-stage least squares method and a class of non-convex penalty function, we propose a variable selection method to simultaneously select both significant spatial lags of the response variable and explanatory variables in the parametric component and estimate the corresponding nonzero parameters. Unlike existing variable selection methods for spatial autoregressive models, the proposed variable selection method can simultaneously select significant explanatory variables and spatial lags of the response variable. Under appropriate conditions, we establish rate of convergence of the penalized estimator of the parameter vector in the parametric component and uniform rate of convergence of the series estimator of the nonparametric component, and show that the proposed variable selection method enjoys the oracle property. That is, it can estimate the zero parameters as exact zero with probability approaching one, and estimate the nonzero parameters as efficiently as if the true model was known in advance. Simulation studies show that the proposed variable selection method is of satisfactory finite sample properties. Especially, when the sample size is moderate, the proposed variable selection method even works well in the case where the correlation among the explanatory variables in the parametric component is strong. An application of the proposed variable selection method to the Boston house price data serves as a practical illustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the uniform and weak Lopatinskiĭ conditions associated with classical (Lax) shock fronts of arbitrary amplitude for compressible hyperelastic materials of Hadamard type in several space dimensions. Thanks to the seminal works of Majda (Mem Amer Math Soc 43(281):v+93, 1983, 41(275):iv+95, 1983) and Métivier (Trans Am Math Soc 296:431–479, 1986, Commun Partial Differ Eqs 15(7):983–1028, 1990, Stability of multidimensional shocks, in: Freistühler H, Szepessy A (eds) Advances in the theory of shock waves, vol 47 of progress in nonlinear differential equations and their applications. Birkhäuser, Boston, pp 25–103, 2001), the uniform Lopatinskiĭ condition ensures the local-in-time, multidimensional, nonlinear stability of such fronts. The stability function (also called Lopatinskiĭ determinant) for shocks of arbitrary amplitude in this large class of hyperelastic materials is computed explicitly. This information is used to establish the conditions for uniform and weak shock stability in terms of the parameters of the shock and of the elastic moduli of the material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar forecasting plays a key part in the renewable energy transition. Major challenges, related to load balancing and grid stability, emerge when a high percentage of energy is provided by renewables. These can be tackled by new energy management strategies guided by power forecasts. This paper presents a data-driven and contextual optimisation forecasting (DCF) algorithm for solar irradiance that was comprehensively validated using short- and long-term predictions, in three US cities: Denver, Boston, and Seattle. Moreover, step-by-step implementation guidelines to follow and reproduce the results were proposed. Initially, a comparative study of two machine learning (ML) algorithms, the support vector machine (SVM) and Facebook Prophet (FBP) for solar prediction was conducted. The short-term SVM outperformed the FBP model for the 1- and 2- hour prediction, achieving a coefficient of determination (R2) of 91.2% in Boston. However, FBP displayed sustained performance for increasing the forecast horizon and yielded better results for 3-hour and long-term forecasts. The algorithms were optimised by further contextual model adjustments which resulted in substantially improved performance. Thus, DCF utilised SVM for short-term and FBP for long-term predictions and optimised their performance using contextual information. DCF achieved consistent performance for the three cities and for long- and short-term predictions, with an average R2 of 85%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a tractable methodology for designing an optimal priority system for assigning agents to heterogeneous items while accounting for agents' choice behavior. The space of mechanisms being optimized includes deferred acceptance and top trading cycles as special cases. In contrast to previous literature, I treat the inputs to these mechanisms, namely the priority distribution of agents and quotas of items, as parameters to be optimized. The methodology is based on analyzing large market models of one-sided matching using techniques from revenue management and solving a certain assortment planning problem whose objective is social welfare. I apply the methodology to school choice and show that restricting choices may be beneficial to student welfare. Moreover, I compute optimized choice sets and priorities for elementary school choice in Boston. This paper was accepted by Gabriel Weintraub, revenue management and market analytics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE YEAR 2000 MARKED THE TWENTY-FIFTH MEETING of the Boston University Conference on Language Development, now one of the largest and most important annual events in the various sub-fields of linguistics and psychology concerned with language learning. For three days during early November, researchers and educators who study how children and adults acquire language converged on the campus of Boston University, as they have every year since 1976, as guests of the BU Program in Applied Linguistics. Several hundred strong, they argued, compared data, swapped ideas, and provoked each other to keep on probing into the many intriguing mysteries of how humans learn to talk. In recognition of the conference's birthday, Margaret Thomas presented this overview of the first quarter-century of the BUCLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1990s, labs on both sides of the Atlantic performed the largest genetic mutagenesis screen at that time using an emerging model organism: the zebrafish. Led by Christiane Nü sslein-Volhard in Tü bingen, Germany, and Wolfgang Driever in Boston, USA, these colossal screens culminated in 1996 with the publication of 37 articles in a special issue of Development, which remains the journal's largest issue to this day. To celebrate the anniversary of the zebrafish issue and reflect on the 25 years since its publication, five zebrafish researchers share what the issue means to them, how it has contributed to their career and its impact on the zebrafish community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let G be a real linear reductive group and K be a maximal compact subgroup. Let P be a minimal parabolic subgroup of G with complexified Lie algebra p, and n be its nilradical. In this paper we show that: for any admissible finitely generated moderate growth smooth Fréchet representation V of G, the inclusion VK ⊂ V induces isomorphisms Hi(n,VK) ≅ Hi(n,V) (i ≥ 0), where VK denotes the (g,K) module of K finite vectors in V. This is called Casselman's comparison theorem (see Henryk Hecht and Joseph L. Taylor [ A remark on Casselman's comparison theorem , Birkhäuser Boston, Boston, Ma, 1998, pp. 139–146]). As a consequence, we show that: for any k ≥ 1, nkV is a closed subspace of V and the inclusion VK ⊂ V induces an isomorphism VK/nkVK = V/nkV. This strengthens Casselman's automatic continuity theorem (see W. Casselman [Canad. J. Math. 41 (1989), pp. 385–438] and Nolan R. Wallach [ Real reductive groups , Academic Press, Boston, MA, 1992]). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pediatric asthma is currently the most prevalent chronic disease in the United States, with children in lower income families disproportionately affected. This increased health burden is partly due to lower-quality and insufficient maintenance of affordable housing. A movement towards 'green' retrofits that improve energy efficiency and increase ventilation in existing affordable housing offers an opportunity to provide cost-effective interventions that can address these health disparities.Methods: We combine indoor air quality modeling with a previously developed discrete event model for pediatric asthma exacerbation to simulate the effects of different types of energy retrofits implemented at an affordable housing site in Boston, MA.Results: Simulation results show that retrofits lead to overall better health outcomes and healthcare cost savings if reduced air exchange due to energy-saving air tightening is compensated by mechanical ventilation. Especially when exposed to indoor tobacco smoke and intensive gas-stove cooking such retrofit would lead to an average annual cost saving of over USD 200, while without mechanical ventilation the same children would have experienced an increase of almost USD 200/year in health care utilization cost.Conclusion: The combination of indoor air quality modeling and discrete event modeling applied in this paper can allow for the inclusion of health impacts in cost-benefit analyses of proposed affordable housing energy retrofits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper reveals a significant under-reported emergent phenomenon: the graduates of the well-established 'Elite Traditional International Schools' worldwide are beginning to cluster in certain universities, in certain 'global cities'. As one might expect, New York and London are central to this clustering, alongside Boston, Toronto and Vancouver. Surprisingly, these destinations are not the world's top, elite universities, showing that the forms of class reasoning which we might expect of the 'Trans-National Capitalist Class' do not seemingly apply to this model of elite education. We explore the emerging evidence, and discuss its character and implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the new medical science of endocrinology, scientific sex researchers in the 1920s and 1930s began studying sex hormone excretion as a means to search for the biological basis of human sexuality. One of these researchers was Abraham Myerson, a leading psychiatrist and researcher from Boston who conducted a series of innovative endocrine experiments between 1938 and 1942 in an effort to establish a relationship between sex hormone excretion patterns and homosexuality in men. While prevailing cultural models of heteronormativity identified male homosexuality as an abnormal case of biological femininity in men, Myerson's framework and experimental research transcended this limiting duality of sexual biology. Adopting the theory of bisexuality, he argued that all men possessed a natural variability of masculine and feminine traits in their biological, social, and sexual characteristics, and that the disparity among these traits could be quantified and understood using sex hormones. In reconstructing Myerson's research methods and data analysis, this paper uncovers how he established a distinctive diagnostic method and classification system for male homosexuality and illuminates how he conceptualized and categorized male sexuality as quantifiable and independent of personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corneal blindness is a leading cause of visual impairment worldwide. The most common treatment is to replace the diseased cornea with standard corneal transplantation. In eyes at high risk of graft failure, the Boston keratoprosthesis type 1 (KPro) can be used to restore vision and is currently the most frequently used artificial cornea in the world. However, glaucoma is a well‐known complication of KPro surgery and is the most important threat to vision in KPro‐implanted eyes. This chronic disease is influenced by elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) and damages the optic nerve, leading to progressive vision loss. In KPro patients, glaucoma is highly prevalent and extremely challenging to manage, yet its exact cause remains unknown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Fact vs. Fancy" details the extent of Nathaniel Hawthorne's use of four specific newspapers from 1739--the Boston Weekly News-Letter, the Boston Gazette, the New England Weekly Journal, and the Boston Evening-Post--as source material for his sketch "Old News I." Demonstrating the care with which Hawthorne drew from the papers, the essay also proposes a likely timeline for the composition of "Old News I," sets it within the context of Hawthorne's early experimentation with forms and sources, and argues that it likely began as a part of Hawthorne's Provincial Tales project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban design context continually influences cognition and behavior and shapes human responses for pedestrians. Researchers have studied established the role of context well (Sussman and Hollander 2015; Robinson and Pallasmaa 2015; Zeisel et al. 2003; Wells et al. 2007), but less is known about how variations in the built environment impact behavior performance. The book, Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to the Built Environment (Sussman and Hollander 2015), argues that a set of four architectural principles might explain impacts on human mental states. This study uses those four principles to provide a framework to empirically test the relationship between variations in the built environment and behavior performance using a go–no-go task. The findings suggest that context matters and the paper offers key implications for urban design theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]