cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Impact of hydrogen refueling configurations and market parameters on the refueling cost of hydrogen

Abstract The cost of hydrogen in early fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) markets is dominated by the cost of refueling stations, mainly due to the high cost of refueling equipment, small station capacities, lack of economies of scale, and low utilization of the installed refueling capacity. Using the hydrogen delivery scenario analysis model (HDSAM), this study estimates the impacts of these factors on the refueling cost for different refueling technologies and configurations, and quantifies the potential reduction in future hydrogen refueling cost compared to today's cost in the United States. The current hydrogen refueling station levelized cost, for a 200 kg/day dispensing capacity, is in the range of $6–$8/kg H2 when supplied with gaseous hydrogen, and $8–$9/kg H2 for stations supplied with liquid hydrogen. After adding the cost of hydrogen production, packaging, and transportation to the station's levelized cost, the current cost of hydrogen at dispensers for FCEVs in California is in the range of $13–$15/kg H2. The refueling station capacity utilization strongly influences the hydrogen refueling cost. The underutilization of station capacity in early FCEV markets, such as in California, results in a levelized station cost that is approximately 40% higher than it would be in a scenario where the station had been fully utilized since it began operating. In future mature hydrogen FCEV markets, with a large demand for hydrogen, the refueling station's levelized cost can be reduced to $2/kg H2 as a result of improved capacity utilization and reduced equipment cost via learning and economies of scale.
How Primordial Germ Cells Destroy Somatic Signals.

The Germ Cell-Less (GCL) protein is a key regulator of primordial germ cell (PGC) formation in Drosophila embryos. Reporting in this issue of Developmental Cell, Pae et al. (2017) show that GCL blocks somatic cell fate by specifically destroying the Torso Receptor Tyrosine Kinase.
Social work and interprofessional education: integration, intersectionality, and institutional leadership

Over the last decade healthcare policies and practices in the US have placed significant emphasis on healthcare integration, mental health parity, and implementation of team-based practice models t...
The more attacks, the more retweets: Trump’s and Clinton’s agenda setting on Twitter

Abstract The present study aims to contribute to the agenda setting theory and political campaign literature by examining candidates’ tweets and their effects on voter reactions in the context of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Content analysis of Donald Trump’s and Hillary Clinton’s 3-month tweets (N = 1575) revealed that half of their tweets were attacks, and those attacks were effective in attracting favorites and retweets for both candidates. Their tweets reflected their issue agendas highlighted on campaign websites, and they mainly emphasized issues owned by their parties in both venues. Some of the issues Trump stressed in his tweets (i.e., media bias and Clinton’s alleged dishonesty) drew significantly more favorites and retweets, suggesting public agenda setting possibilities through Twitter. None of the issues Clinton emphasized were significant predictors of favorites and retweets. However, visual elements such as pictures and videos were effective in bringing voter reactions for Clinton. While Clinton sent twice as many tweets as Trump did during the three months, Trump’s tweet received in average three times as many favorites and retweets as Clinton’s. Overall, the results show that Trump was more successful than Clinton in drawing public attention to preferred issues through Twitter.
“See One, Do One, Teach One?” A Story of How Surgeons Learn

Becoming an expert surgeon is a grueling endeavor. It is a transformation that occurs over decades of observation, practice, and participation in the ever-changing world of surgical work. How does a trainee’s tortured path eventually lead to advanced technical skill, sharply honed thought processes, and professional identification as a surgeon? And how can educators help? Do traditional models of surgical learning (e.g., “See one, do one, teach one.”) prepare educators for the complexity of trainee development in modern surgical practice? Answering the first question can help educators address the latter two. Toward this end, this chapter employs the latest theory of how surgeons learn to describe the journey surgical trainees undertake when they embark on their quest for surgical expertise. It begins by characterizing the surgical learning context, presenting the trainee as a legitimate participant in the work of the surgical team, yet still a learner subject to constraints on his autonomy and needing supplemental training to safely improve performance. The story continues by describing surgical expertise and how it is reflected in deepening participation in the profession. It illustrates the vital role that educators, the trainee, other care team members, the teaching context, and even technology play in the learning process, highlighting the never-ending nature of this cooperative journey to expertise. The moral of this story is that educating the surgeon requires educational practices situated in the work itself, external learning opportunities designed and organized to improve surgical work, and models of learning that are adaptive to change. This requires surgical educators to approach education in much the same way as a complex surgery—planfully, with heightened awareness and commitment to navigating uncertainty—so as to achieve success and improve continuously.
Incorporating DNA Methyltransferase Inhibitors (DNMTis) in the Treatment of Genitourinary Malignancies: A Systematic Review.

Inhibition of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) has emerged as a novel treatment strategy in solid tumors. Aberrant hypermethylation in promoters of critical tumor suppressor genes is the basis for the idea that treatment with hypomethylating agents may lead to the restoration of a “normal” epigenome and produce clinically meaningful therapeutic outcomes. The aim of this review article is to summarize the current state of knowledge of DNMT inhibitors in the treatment of genitourinary malignancies. The efficacy of these agents in genitourinary malignancies was reported in a number of studies and suggests a role of induced DNA hypomethylation in overcoming resistance to conventional cytotoxic treatments. The clinical significance of these findings should be further investigated.
Approach to detect non-adversarial overlapping collusion in crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing services have become one of the most common ways organizations can gather ideas for new products and services from large crowds of consumers by offering monetary rewards depending on the tasks. However, this monetary reward has begun to attract malicious crowds of users who wish to complete the task with minimal effort through collaboration. For instance, a task based on reviews of a product can be degraded when malicious users copy each other with minimal edits of the review, giving a misrepresentation of the true quality of the product. More specifically, we investigate the case where different malicious crowd sizes cooperate on different tasks, known as overlapping groups. Such sophisticated and hard to detect malicious crowds provide unfair evaluations and misleading results to the crowdsourcers. To overcome this type of attack, we propose two methods to point out such groups with high accuracy. The first method detects similar reviews by including a new proposed similarity between review texts and show the results outperform the vectorial similarity measures used in prior works. The second method is based on community detection on networks and exploits the semantic similarity of the reviews. The experiments were conducted on reviews from Ott dataset on Amazon Mechanical Turk.
CSR Communication and Environmental Issue Networks in Virtual Space: A Cross-National Study

Nowadays, a significant portion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication takes place online. The current article attends to an essential, yet often overlooked element of online CSR co...
Identification of compounds that decrease glioblastoma growth and glucose uptake in vitro

Tumor heterogeneity has hampered the development of novel effective therapeutic options for aggressive cancers, including the deadly primary adult brain tumor glioblastoma (GBM). Intratumoral heterogeneity is partially attributed to the tumor initiating cell (TIC) subset that contains highly tumorigenic, stem-like cells. TICs display metabolic plasticity but can have a reliance on aerobic glycolysis. Elevated expression of GLUT1 and GLUT3 is present in many cancer types, with GLUT3 being preferentially expressed in brain TICs (BTICs) to increase survival in low nutrient tumor microenvironments, leading to tumor maintenance. Through structure-based virtual screening (SBVS), we identified potential novel GLUT inhibitors. The screening of 13 compounds identified two that preferentially inhibit the growth of GBM cells with minimal toxicity to non-neoplastic astrocytes and neurons. These compounds, SRI-37683 and SRI-37684, also inhibit glucose uptake and decrease the glycolytic capacity and glycolytic reserve ...
STIMULATION OF SPECIFIC SUPPRESSOR T CELLS BY THE TERPOLYMER L-GLUTAMIC ACID60-L-ALANINE30-L-TYROSINE10 IN GENETIC NONRESPONDER MICE

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a study in which specific suppressor T cells is stimulated by the terpolymer L-glutamic acid60-L-alanine30-L-tyrsine10 (GAT) in genetic nonresponder mice. The antibody responses to both GAT and GAT-MBSA are T cell-dependent. Furthermore, spleen cells from GAT-primed, irradiated responder mice are able to provide GAT-specific helper T cell function for B cell responses to GAT, while no GAT-specific helper T cell function could be demonstrated in spleen cells from GAT-primed, nonresponder mice. These data suggested that the defect in genetic nonresponder mice is indeed the failure of their T cells, after interaction with GAT, to provide appropriate helper T cell function for the initiation of the B cell response to GAT. The antibody response to GAT in vitro provides, therefore, a suitable system to explore the possibility that GAT-specific suppressor T cells are present and function in nonresponder animals.
The objectives: what do we want to achieve by patient education?

Special considerations in the treatment of the elderly hypertensive include altered pathophysiology, the increasing likelihood of coexisting disease, and the question of whether reduction of left ventricular (LV) mass should be a therapeutic goal. The objective of our study was to compare the ability of a calcium blocker, verapamil, and a beta-blocker, atenolol, to induce reduction of LV mass and to determine the effects of any such reduction on LV filling and contractile performance. Forty-two hypertensive patients over 60 years of age were randomized to progressively increasing doses of long-acting verapamil or atenolol in a double-blind fashion and followed over a six-month period. Blood pressure decreased in both groups but atenolol-treated subjects more frequently required the addition of chlorthalidone. Despite similar blood pressure reductions, mean LV mass index, determined by two-dimensional echocardiography, was significantly reduced in the verapamil group magnitude of [104 +/- 5 g/m2 to 85 +/- 5 g/m2 (P less than 0.01)] but was not changed in the atenolol group. Following withdrawal of therapy, gated blood pool scan determined peak filling rate and the ratio of peak filling to peak ejection significantly increased in the group evidencing reduction (2.42 +/- 0.2 to 3.31 +/- 0.4 EDV/sec and 0.61 +/- 0.03 to 0.85 +/- 0.05, respectively) but did not change in the group which showed no reduction. Cardiac output and ejection fraction were maintained, both at rest and during mild upright exercise in the group evidencing reduction. Reduction of LV mass occurs more frequently with verapamil than with atenolol therapy in elderly hypertensives. Reduction improves diastolic filling and does not impair contractile performance.
A Hellenistic First Testament: The Views of Minimalist Scholars:

This article summarizes the views of six significant “minimalist” scholars and others, who theorize that the Primary History in the First Testament was generated in the Hellenistic Era after 300 BCE. Some critique of their views is provided combined with a theoretic counter-response. The purpose of this article is primarily to expose the American audience to the writings of the “Copenhagen School” of biblical studies.
A pilot study of shortwave spectral fingerprints of smoke aerosols above liquid clouds

Abstract Absorbing aerosols like smoke heat the atmosphere by absorbing solar radiation, and such heating is enhanced when aerosols are above liquid clouds. To reduce uncertainty in estimates of the aerosol radiative forcing, it is desirable to characterize the size, index of refraction, optical depth, and altitude of smoke aerosols and underlying cloud droplets. While past work with remotely sensed multi-spectral data have made progress toward such characterization, it remains unclear if those radiatively important parameters can be fully and simultaneously retrieved from shortwave hyperspectral measurements. This issue is studied here first by examining the spectral fingerprints of above-cloud aerosols in the shortwave region (wavelength from 330 nm to 4000 nm) using hyperspectral radiative transfer simulations. These simulations are further explored to analyze the information content for hyperspectral inversion of aerosol and cloud optical depths as well as their microphysical properties over an ocean surface. The analysis shows that the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), with limited spectral bands in the solar spectrum, has partial information required for retrieving the optical depth and the effective radius of smoke and cloud. In contrast, hyperspectral measurements have about 5 extra pieces of information (double the degrees of freedom for signals of MODIS), allowing for the retrieval of additional aerosol and cloud microphysical parameters, including the smoke layer height above cloud, the imaginary part of smoke refractive index, and partially the effective variance of cloud droplet size. Thus, hyperspectral measurements can provide valuable constraints on heating rate estimates of absorbing aerosols above clouds.
Pre-departure Training for Healthcare Students Going Abroad: Impact on Preparedness.

Background: Many medical and nursing schools offer opportunities for students to participate in global health experiences abroad, but little is known about the efficacy of pre-departure training in preparing students for these experiences. Objectives: The primary aim was to identify characteristics of pre-departure training associated with participants’ reporting a high level of preparedness for their global health experiences. Secondary objectives included identifying students’ preferred subjects of study and teaching modalities for pre-departure training. Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to all medical and nursing students at our institution from 2013 to 2015. Questions addressed prior global health experiences and pre-departure training, preferences for pre-departure training, and demographic information. Findings: Of 517 respondents, 55% reported having a prior global health experience abroad, 77% of whom felt prepared for their experience. Fifty-three percent received pre-departure training. Simply receiving pre-departure training was not associated with perceived preparedness, but pre-departure training in the following learning domains was: travel safety, personal health, clinical skills, cultural awareness, and leadership. Perceiving pre-departure training as useful was also independently associated with self-reported preparedness. Students’ preferred instruction methods included discussion, lecture, and simulation, and their most desired subjects of study were travel safety (81%), cultural skills (87%), and personal health (82%). Conclusions: Incorporating travel safety, personal health, clinical skills, cultural awareness, and/or leadership into pre-departure training may increase students’ preparedness for global health experiences. Student perceptions of the usefulness of pre-departure training is also associated with self-reported preparedness, suggesting a possible “buy-in” effect.
“Rapt with sweet pleasure”: The Rhetoric of Dance in Sir John Davies’ Orchestra or A Poem of Dancing

This article examines the trope of dance in Orchestra or a Poem of Dancing, specifically the ways in which dance functions as a form of rhetoric and, ultimately, out-performs the seduction rhetoric of Antinous. Presented literally and metaphorically, dance as the subject of Antinous' rhetoric repels Penelope, while the image of dance that appears in Love's mirror enraptures her so strongly that she esteems the weaving and unweaving of bodies above her own weaving and unweaving of thread. This activity of chaste waiting is attended to also in metaphorical terms, as it provides a parallel with the ongoing weaving and simultaneous unweaving of Antinous' argument that Penelope should dance with him. The conclusion reached is that the verbal rhetoric of Antinous, while theoretically sound in its rhetorical characteristics and presentation, fails to sway Penelope. Ultimately, it is dance that proves the successful rhetor, as it performs eloquently and persuasively to move Penelope's mind toward accepting dance ...
The Wisdom of Looking Forward Through Ecological Design and Planning

Ecosystem services are presented as a framework for design and planning in the current geological age, the Anthropocene. This time is defined by human modifications of the earth’s biophysical processes. Four types of ecosystem services are discussed: those which provide, regulate, support, and contribute to human health and welfare. Eight examples illustrate how ecosystem services concepts can be applied in the built environment. These applications underscore the necessity of ecological wisdom for regenerative design and planning for resilience. Wisdom is grounded in knowledge, experience, and sound judgement. The application of ecological wisdom certainly has practical benefits for people but extends to concern for all life with advantages for other species and our shared futures on this planet.
Sources of stress in a pharmacy student population.

Abstract Objective To assess the sources of stress for pharmacy students and relationships to demographic factors and perceived stress. Methods Survey study of students at three pharmacy schools investigating student stress using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS10), a two-tiered sources of stress questionnaire and demographic information. Results Student perceived stress levels were significantly higher than standard populations, but consistent with other pharmacy student populations. The strongest predictor of perceived stress was when students anticipated lower stress levels than actually experienced, followed by pressure to succeed. Additional variables were self-reported grade point average (GPA) and stress from relationships and experiential rotations. For first year (P1) students, having less than a bachelor's degree significantly influenced perceived stress. For the entire sample, male gender and health-related stress were significant. Academic performance (81%) and pressure to succeed (77%) were the most frequently reported general sources of stress. School B students were significantly less likely to report stress about postgraduate opportunities, career choices, and health issues. Students at school C were significantly less likely to report stress about academic issues. Conclusions Pharmacy students' perceived stress is associated with their expectations, several general stressor categories, and demographic characteristics. Sources of stress appear to differ between pharmacy programs. Programs could examine their policies to see if there were more effective and timely means to address student stress. By better understanding the specific reasons for stress, we may be better able to mitigate its negative effects.
Using Quantile Regression to Estimate Intervention Effects Beyond the Mean.

This study discusses quantile regression methodology and its usefulness in education and social science research. First, quantile regression is defined and its advantages vis-a-vis vis ordinary least squares regression are illustrated. Second, specific comparisons are made between ordinary least squares and quantile regression methods. Third, the applicability of quantile regression to empirical work to estimate intervention effects is demonstrated using education data from a large-scale experiment. The estimation of quantile treatment effects at various quantiles in the presence of dropouts is also discussed. Quantile regression is especially suitable in examining predictor effects at various locations of the outcome distribution (e.g., lower and upper tails).
Contact Lens Based Drug Delivery to the Posterior Segment Via Iontophoresis in Cadaver Rabbit Eyes.

A drug loaded contact lens combined with electrodes positioned diametrically opposite and beyond the limbus can potentially deliver ionic drugs directly to the vitreous. Commercial lenses are loaded with nile blue or fluorescein as the drug analogs and placed on cadaver rabbit eyes. Electrodes (19.6 mm2) are placed atop at opposite sides of the sclera to apply a constant current (0.125–0.250 mA) for 1-2 h. COMSOL simulations are conducted to determine the field distribution and the potential drop across various tissue layers and equivalent circuit model is developed to calculate the electrophoretic velocity and estimate the drug flux. The device delivered both hydrophobic and hydrophilic dyes to the tissue. The amount of fluorescein delivered to the vitreous directly correlated with the applied current and time duration. The electrophoretic mobility from the experimental data agreed with the model estimates. Confocal microscopy showed that nile blue penetrated through the conjunctiva-sclera barrier to reach the retina showing that the electric field can transport molecules through the ocular tissue and into the vitreous. The ex vivo model neglects transport into flowing capillaries in the choroid. However, the time scale for electrophoretic transport across the choroid was found to be 550–1300 fold shorter than that for uptake into the choroidal capillaries. Incorporation of an electric field with multiple electrodes on a single lens can effectively deliver ionic drugs to the posterior region at levels comparable to current methods with the benefits of being safer and less invasive.
Status of naturalized parrots in the United States

The contiguous United States (USA) originally had two endemic parrot species, the Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) and the Thick-billed Parrot (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha). The Carolina Parakeet is now globally extinct, and the Thick-billed Parrot was extirpated from the USA. Otherwise, over the last century, the USA has become home to an increasing number of naturalized parrots, originally introduced through the pet trade. In this paper, we use historical records as well as data from citizen science (eBird and Christmas Bird Count, CBC) to summarize the current status of each of the naturalized parrots in the USA. During the 15-year period 2002–2016, eBird and CBC contain sighting records of 56 species of parrots in the wild in 43 states. Of these, 25 species are now breeding and 23 states have at least one species of parrot breeding there. The three most common species are the Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus), the Red-crowned Amazon (Amazona viridigenalis), and the Nanday Parakeet (Aratinga nenday). Collectively, these three species comprise a total of 61% of all sightings on eBird and CBC over the last 15 years. Three states—Florida, Texas, and California—collectively support populations of all 25 species of breeding parrots in the USA. Naturalized parrots are now common species in local avifaunas in many areas in the USA, and they highlight complex issues, from the conservation of endangered species to the management of invasive species.
Achieving Better Educational Practices Through Research Evidence: A Critical Analysis and Case Illustration of Benefits and Challenges:

Purpose:We examine considerations regarding the positive contributions of evidence accountability and challenges that frustrate educators in gaining access to the needed product information.Design/...
Mucocutaneous Manifestations of Scurvy.

Mucocutaneous Manifestations of Scurvy A 72-year-old woman with poor oral intake presented with gingival bleeding, petechiae on both legs, and corkscrew hairs. A diagnosis of scurvy was made.
Post cyber-attack state reconstruction for nonlinear processes using machine learning

Abstract This work proposes state-reconstruction strategies to effectively regain and/or maintain controllability of the system following the detection of cyber-attacks on sensor measurements. Working with a general class of nonlinear systems, of which the sensor measurements may be subject to cyber-attacks, robust control frameworks have been previously proposed to maintain the stability of the process in the presence of cyber-attacks. Moreover, machine-learning-based detection mechanisms could be employed to effectively detect the presence of and distinguish the particular types of cyber-attacks. This work further explores recuperation measures to be taken after the detection of cyber-attacks to mitigate their impact, and proposes a machine-learning-based state reconstruction approach to provide estimated state measurements based on the falsified state measurements. This approach ensures stable operation of the process before reliable sensor measurements are installed back online.
Impact of self-management of hypertension on self efficacy among community residents

Objective To evaluate the impact of hypertension self-management on self efficacy of community residents. Methods November 2011 to February 2012 , twenty-eight medium-sized and better adherence to community was selected from fourteen districts and counties in Beijing.In this community-based randomized controlled trial, 323 hypertensive patients were randomly assigned to the treatment group (n=159, receiving hypertension self-management) and the control group (n=164, receiving standard hypertension management). A questionary survey was completed at baseline and 6 weeks.Rank sum test or Chi-square test was used for data analysis. Results The average age of the treatment group or the control group was (61.9±9.1) vs (61.8±9.0) years old, respectively.No significant difference in mean age, gender and education level was found between the two groups (F=0.164, χ2 values were 0.782 and 2.093, respectively; all P>0.05). In the treatment group, the scores of fatigue, headache and shortness of breath were declined (when compared with the controlled females, Z=-5.198, -3.873, -2.781; P 0.05). Conclusion Six-week self-management program may improve self efficacy among hypertensive patients. Key words: 【key words】 Hypertension; Community medicine; Self efficacy
A new method for discriminating African-American from European-American skeletons using postcranial osteometrics reflective of body shape.

A discriminant function analysis based on seven postcranial measurements for the metric assessment of race is presented. A sample from the Terry Collection (NMNH) was used to create independent functions for African-American males and females, and European-American males and females. The functions were tested using known forensic cases from the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory. Based on the Terry Collection sample, correct classification of race for males was 87.0%, and for females 100.0%. For the independent test population, correct classification for males was 81.8%, and for females only 57.1%. The low classification for females is most likely due to sample bias.
PhotoGal4: A Versatile Light-Dependent Switch for Spatiotemporal Control of Gene Expression in Drosophila Explants

We present here PhotoGal4, a phytochrome B-based optogenetic switch for fine-tuned spatiotemporal control of gene expression in Drosophila explants. This switch integrates the light-dependent interaction between phytochrome B and PIF6 from plants with regulatory elements from the yeast Gal4/UAS system. We found that PhotoGal4 efficiently activates and deactivates gene expression upon red- or far-red-light irradiation, respectively. In addition, this optogenetic tool reacts to different illumination conditions, allowing for fine modulation of the light-dependent response. Importantly, by simply focusing a laser beam, PhotoGal4 induces intricate patterns of expression in a customized manner. For instance, we successfully sketched personalized patterns of GFP fluorescence such as emoji-like shapes or letterform logos in Drosophila explants, which illustrates the exquisite precision and versatility of this tool. Hence, we anticipate that PhotoGal4 will expand the powerful Drosophila toolbox and will provide a new avenue to investigate intricate and complex problems in biomedical research.
Stability of Whole Blood Lactate Specimens at Room Temperature Versus Slushed Ice Conditions.

BACKGROUND: There are limited data on lactate stability in whole blood. The purpose of this study was to determine whole blood lactate stability at room temperature and in slushed ice conditions. METHODS: An equal number of arterial and venous samples were obtained from 202 subjects hospitalized for various pathophysiological conditions. Whole blood lactate concentration was measured over 5 different times spanning 80–90 min in a blood gas lab at a major hospital center. Samples were stored at room temperature (22–24°C) or in slushed ice conditions (0.1–0.2°C) before analysis. RESULTS: The mean increase in lactate concentration was 0.001 mmol/L/min in samples on slushed ice over 90 min. However, at room temperature conditions, the mean increase in lactate concentration was 0.008 mmol/L/min regardless of whether the sample was arterial or venous. An increase in whole blood lactate concentration of ≥ 0.4 mmol/L occured after 45 min at room temperature, with 5% of all whole blood specimens demonstrating a meaningful change at ≤ 20 min. The ≥ 0.4 mmol/L change in whole blood lactate is considered significant based on the College of American Pathologists instrument peer-group standards. CONCLUSIONS: Considering that a change in whole blood lactate concentration of ≥ 0.4 mmol/L is unacceptable instrument peer-group variation as defined by the College of American Pathologists, ice is no longer needed to stabilize whole blood lactate specimens when the draw time to analyze time is
Deep eutectic solvent extracted lignin from waste biomass: Effects as a plasticizer in cement paste

Abstract Sourced from biomass as a byproduct from cellulose separation, lignin has the potential to be valorized as a bioproduct. A low-pressure process that uses ecofriendly chemicals to separate out lignin from waste biomass has been investigated. Deep eutectic solvents are biodegradable, low volatility solvents that are capable of biomass deconstruction, even of recalcitrant secondary agricultural residues from food processing. In this study, lignin has been extracted from sugarcane bagasse and coffee chaff using deep eutectic solvents. In addition, lignin from sugarcane bagasse has been carboxymethylated. These lignins were added to cement to explore their effect on workability of the mix, and subsequent compressive strength and porosity. Pretreatment with deep eutectic solvent was found to successfully extract lignin-rich material from sugarcane bagasse and coffee chaff. These lignins extracted from waste biomass were found to be feasible plasticizer candidates, since when used as plasticizers at 0.3 wt% they increased the workability of cement paste.
Multi-Task Learning Via Sharing Inexact Low-Rank Subspace

Multi-task learning algorithms enhance learning performance by exploring the relations among multiple tasks. By pooling data from different yet relevant tasks together, tasks can benefit from each other in this jointly learning mechanism. In this paper, we study the relations among multiple tasks by properly learning their shared common subspace. Previous works usually constrain the shared subspace to be low-rank since tasks are assumed to be intrinsically related. However, this constraint is too strict for real applications when noise exists. Instead, we propose to detect an inexact low-rank subspace, which provides an approximation of the low-rank subspace. This makes our learned multi-task parameter matrix more robust in the circumstances of noise. We use alternating optimization algorithm to optimize our new objective and obtain an algorithm with the same time complexity as the single task learning. We provide extensive empirical results on both synthetic and benchmark datasets to illustrate the superiority of our method over other related multi-task learning methods. Our method shows apparent robustness in high portion of noise. Moreover, it possesses a major superiority when few training data are available. This is important in practical use, especially when accessing more data involves arduous work.
Creating a community-based protocol to prevent unintended pregnancy in homeless women in north central Appalachia.

Abstract Homeless women are pregnant about twice the rate of other U.S. women of reproductive age. It is estimated that at the time of conception, approximately three out of four pregnancies among homeless women are unintended. In addition, children born into homelessness have about 12 times the chance of other children being placed into foster care. This rapid-cycle improvement project focused on developing a community-based protocol to address unintended pregnancy in homeless women in north central Appalachia. Phone interviews with four homeless women and a focus group of ten community stakeholders were used to develop the protocol. The protocol was positively evaluated by the stakeholders based on the acceptability of the development process and its usefulness in the community. This project also served as a pilot for a larger community-based participatory research study to address unintended pregnancy in homeless women using the developed protocol.
Disparities and Inequities in Youth Sports.

ABSTRACT Participation in youth sports can have a positive, lasting impact on a child's general health and physical well-being. Unfortunately, some youth populations are unable to participate and/or reap the benefits of sports because of existing inequities. Youth from lower socioeconomic status and ethnic minority children have been found to participate in sports less. These disparities are unfortunately pervasive and likely the result of multiple barriers, including financial and time constraints, limited resources and the inability to access facilities both in and out of school, and lack of familial support. There also exist inequities with regard to sports injury management, including knowledge, access to athletic trainers, and care. This article provides a review of the numerous disparities and inequities in youth sports. Compiling and understanding these data may help develop a framework to make youth sports more equitable and beneficial for all.
A discrete-time infectious disease model for global pandemics.

The ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has raised concerns about the effectiveness of current preventive pharmaceutical and nonpharmaceutical interventions (1). In addition, the upward global trends in the numbers of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, as evidenced by the reported cases of Ebola, Zika, Chikungunya, SARS, West Nile virus, and other serious infections, have dramatically expanded the demand for mathematical models of infectious diseases across multiple entities that include the pharmaceutical industry, health and medical organizations, and local and international governments, and that span the public and private sectors (2, 3). With this increased demand comes the opportunity to meaningfully reassess the variety of existing mathematical epidemic models. Such an assessment is an important step in capturing the ways in which these models contribute to the understanding of infectious disease surveillance data and the policies, programs, and practices that emerge from these data (1). Mathematical models of infectious diseases are powerful tools that are used in extending societal understanding and forecasting of disease transmission dynamics and for evaluating the effects of different interventions and changing on-the-ground conditions for epidemiological outcomes. Thus, it is important that we make use of the full range of the available models and disease data to study disease dynamics. Mathematical … [↵][1]1 Email: ayakubu{at}howard.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Characterizing and predicting fake news spreaders in social networks

Due to its rapid spread over social media and the societal threat of changing public opinion, fake news has gained massive attention. Users’ role in disseminating fake news has become inevitable with the increase in popularity of social media for daily news diet. People in social media actively participate in the creation and propagation of news, favoring the proliferation of fake news intentionally or unintentionally. Thus, it is necessary to identify the users who tend to share fake news to mitigate the rampant dissemination of fake news over social media. In this article, we perform a comprehensive analysis on two different datasets collected from Twitter and investigate the patterns of user characteristics in social media in the presence of misinformation. Specifically, we study the correlation between the user characteristics and their likelihood of being fake news spreaders and demonstrate the potential of the proposed features in identifying fake news spreaders. Our proposed approach achieves an average precision ranging between 0.80 and 0.99 on the considered datasets, consistently outperforming baseline models. Furthermore, we also show that the user personality traits, emotions, and writing style are strong predictors of fake news spreaders.
The Critical Zone of Coastal Barrier Systems

Barrier Islands represent some of the most dynamic and complex systems within the Critical Zone worldwide. Although coastal systems tend not to be recognized as Critical Zone environments, the evolution of Barrier Islands and the ecological functions they provide can be characterized in terms of a complex feedback among sediment supply (lithosphere), hydrology, the atmosphere, and ecology (biosphere). This represents an interesting departure from the traditional view of Barrier Island evolution (either regression or transgression) as a result of variations in sea level, sediment supply, and accommodation space. This chapter takes a Critical Zone approach to the response of Barrier Island evolution to sea-level rise and storm activity, explicitly recognizing the feedback among sediment supply, aeolian transport, disturbance regimes, vegetation development, and hydrology.
Fusarium Genetics and Pathogenicity

Various members of the Fusarium genus are associated with plant diseases and the production of various classes of mycotoxins, with many secondary metabolites still only poorly characterized. The conditionally dispensable chromosome of F. solani appears to contain many pea pathogenicity genes that are important for host range determinants but are dispensable for normal growth in culture. Several well-conserved signal transduction pathways have been studied in some Fusarium species. Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) genes homologous to the M. grisea PMK1 have been characterized in F. oxysporum (FMK1) and F. graminearum (GPMK1/MAK1). All of the sequenced Fusarium genomes contain multiple copies of genes encoding cutinases, xylanases, polygalacturonases (PG), and other cell wall-degrading enzyme (CWDE) genes, indicating the importance of these hydrolytic enzymes. Fusarium head scab has been linked to deoxynivalenol (DON) in two ways. First there were mechanistic studies conducted by researchers showing that strains that produced more DON were more aggressive than strains that produced nivalenol as an alternative to DON or that produced no trichothecenes whatsoever. Second, in a quantitative trait locus analysis, another group of researchers showed that the cluster of genes responsible for trichothecene biosynthesis was at the heart of the only major quantitative trait locus in a cross between fungal strains that differed in their ability to cause fusarium head scab. Genetics- and genomics-based approaches will certainly further improve our understanding of molecular mechanisms and evolution of Fusarium pathogenesis.
Information resource preferences by general pediatricians in office settings: a qualitative study

Background Information needs and resource preferences of office-based general pediatricians have not been well characterized.
Mismatch Negativity Links to Information Processing in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) (P4.165)

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the event-related potential (ERP) as a biomarker of cognitive function in adults with multiple sclerosis (MS) compared to controls. BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment affects more than half of all individuals with MS and there is a need for biomarkers. The MMN is a negative deflection in the ERP that is automatically evoked with detection of sensory change. MMN has the advantage of being recorded under passive conditions and does not depend on participant attention. Blunted MMN is an indicator of abnormalities in early sensory processing and has been associated with cognitive impairment and risk for decline in a range of neurodegenerative disorders. DESIGN/METHODS: Participants were 14 outpatients with MS compared to 15 locally-recruited healthy controls. Both groups completed cognitive testing and an electrophysiology session. Neuropsychological measures included the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), a sensitive measure of MS-related cognitive impairment also correlated with MS specific neural changes reported using fMRI. Other tests provide estimated IQ and measures of attention, verbal and visual learning, and visuomotor integration. MMN was quantified as the mean amplitude from 150 to 250 ms at the Fz electrode site. RESULTS: The MS and control groups did not differ in age (51 ± 9 vs. 52 ± 12 years, p=0.81) or gender (ten women in each group). MMN was significantly blunted to frequency deviant tones (p=0.03) in MS participants relative to controls. The MS group performed worse than controls on SDMT (p=0.002) and measures requiring visuomotor integration, but did not differ in IQ or the other measures. Additionally, MMN to duration deviant tones significantly correlated with SDMT performance (r=-0.38, p=0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Compared to matched controls, MS participants had blunted MMN which was associated with impaired SDMT performance. MMN may serve as a biomarker of cognitive impairment in MS. Disclosure: Dr. Jackson has nothing to disclose. Dr. Charvet has received personal compensation for activities with Biogen Idec as a consultant. Dr. Charvet holds stock and/or stock options in Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Amella has nothing to disclose. Dr. Proudfit has nothing to disclose. Dr. Krupp has received personal compensation for activities with Teva Neurosciences, Biogen Idec, EMD Serono, Betaseron/Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Guidepoint Consultants, and Novartis. Dr. Krupp has received royalty payments from Genzyme Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Biogen Idec, and Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Krupp has received research support from EMD Serono and Biogen Idec.
Competitive intelligence in service marketing: A new approach with practical application

Purpose – The paper aims to give a new look at competitive intelligence (CI) and the resulting benefits to growing companies.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 20 questions are presented, competitive information sources are listed, and the four core components of CI are displayed to explain how a company can implement CI into the business planning. Two case studies summarize a CI system that shows how successful this technique can be.Findings – This research will inspire marketers to take a look at their CI and reactivate it based on what is presented. The overall practice of CI shows the rewards a company that develops this program can gain.Research limitations/implications – All data were collected by Latitude Consulting. Reference is made to journal and newspaper articles.Practical implications – The paper will explain how to use CI in a meaningful way.Originality/value – This is an extremely new and original concept for businesses to apply.
An Investigation into Laboratory Misidentification of a Bloodstream Klebsiella variicola Infection

Bloodstream infections represent a major burden on the United States health care system, with the number of cases of severe sepsis exceeding 750,000 per year ([1][1]) and representing 10% of all intensive care unit (ICU) admissions ([2][2]). It has also been shown that patient survival rates
Lyman Spitzer. 26 June 1914 31 March 1997

One of the leading theoretical astrophysicists of the twentieth century, Lyman Spitzer showed a renaissance or even a classical figure in both his character and personal style. I once speculated that a biographer would some day remark on the importance of Spitzer9s early exposure to ancient literature, and his family assured me that he had in fact been strongly influenced throughout his life by classical, especially Latin, models. If ever I have known an individual who fitted the renaissance ideal of the gentleman scholar (based, of course, on earlier Latin archetypes), it was Lyman. The upright bearing, courteous speech, clarity, and total independence of mind were the dress of a person seemingly dropped into our midst from another age. Born in 1914 into a prosperous Toledo, Ohio, commercial family, he later married into the local, still wealthier clan of the Canadays. After attending Scott High School in Toledo and then Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, he received his BA at Yale in 1935 and then went to Cambridge University for a year (1935–36), where he was influenced by Sir Arthur Eddington FRS and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (FRS 1944), who was an almost exact contemporary. Returning to the USA, he received his PhD in 1938 at Princeton, under the legendary Henry Norris Russell ForMemRS. Spitzer then went briefly to Harvard as a postdoctoral fellow, followed by a move to Yale, where he was appointed as instructor in 1939. It was shortly after moving to Yale that he married Doreen D. Canaday, herself a Bryn Mawr graduate, a totally charming and strong-willed woman with whom he raised a family of four children born between 1942 and 1954: Nicholas C., Dionis C., Sarah L. and Lydia S.