cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
On the Interplay of International Law of the Sea and the Prevention of Maritime Pollution - How Far Can a State Proceed in Protecting Itself from Conflicting Norms in International Law

International law is evolving. While states recognize consensual "norms" established by years of traditional practice, there are times when these norms reached by states need to be revisited; for example, in order to prevent damage to fragile ecosystems. At the heart of this article is the following question: may a coastal state enact anti-pollution standards that go beyond those agreed upon in international conventions and enforce said standards even if they hamper innocent passage of vessels either in international straits or in territorial and internal waters? In addressing this question, this article will analyze two examples in which the evolution of treaty concepts might be necessary to accomplish consistency between national and international law. The case studies of the State of Washington's efforts to protect its coastal environment and Turkey's right to monitor traffic in the Bosporus Straits provide the focus of discussion. These two case studies will demonstrate that, in order to achieve national and international legal congruity, depending on the urgency of the danger, unilateral actions of various states may need to occur first.There have been numerous incidents regarding oil spills and ships losing their bearings and crashing into seaside homes. As a result, Turkey is desirous of "regulating" ships passing "innocently" through the Bosporus, i.e., a unilateral action proposed to prevent environmental and property damage to its citizens. Other states complain that Turkey wants to profit from the Caspian oil and gas boom, even though the ships may wind up bumper to bumper in the not-so distant future. However, Turkey's complaint is political. It is obvious that the 1936 Montreux Treaty never envisioned this amount of traffic by such large tankers. There remains the question of how Turkey can protect itself without limiting the flow of traffic. Is placing pilots aboard ships in "innocent passage" the answer? Is the passage still "innocent" if it can create a disaster? Certain principles of international law will be explored in conjunction with these two problems: unilateral actions in international law, reciprocity, self-defense and uniformity. Before proceeding with this exploration, it will be necessary for the reader to have an understanding of law of the sea terminology as utilized in this article.
Economic Operation System Construction Based on Unified Control and Management Platform in Smart Hydropower Plant

With the optimization of generation and reservoir dispatching isolated,the economic operation system of traditional hydropower plants has insufficient integrity,coordination and meticulousness,having negative impact on the stability of the power generation process.The idea and principle of economic operation system design in smart hydropower plant have been studied,and the architecture of the economic operation system based on unified control and management platform has been researched in this article.Besides,key technologies of coupling mechanisms of generation and reservoir dispatching,cascade economic dispatching control,short-term optimal generation scheduling and fine gate optimal scheduling have been analyzed,to laid the foundation for further research.
Analysis of occupational health examination results of 1 239 workers in Guangming New Area of Shenzhen City

[Objective]To analyze the health examination results of 1 239 on-job workers with dust,noise and BTEX exposure in Guangming New Area of Shenzhen City in 2011. [Methods]The occupational health examination reports of 6 industrial enterprises which had representative occupation hazards in the area in 2011 were collected for analysis. [Results] A total of 1 239 workers from the 6 industrial enterprises received on-job health examination in 2011,the detection rate of occupational contraindication was 5.6%(69 cases),that of other non-target diseases was 12.1%(150 cases). [Conclusion]The proportions of occupational health examination workers and occupational contraindication detected workers are relatively high.The occupational health hazards of noise can not be ignored,and related prevention should be enhanced.
Prevalence and incidence of HIV infection among drug users in Zhongshan,Guangdong,2010-2014

Objective To understand the prevalence and incidence of HIV infection among drug users in Zhongshan,Guangdong province,from 2010 to 2014,and provide evidence for the evaluation of HIV epidemic in this population.Methods The analysis was conducted by using the HIV test data in drug rehabilitation center in Zhongshan and HIV sentinel surveillance data in Zhongshan during this period. By Spectrum / EPP model estimation,first CD+4T-cell count detection and open cohort study,the HIV incidence among the drug users was determined. Results From 2010 to 2014,the prevalence of HIV infection among the drug users in drug rehabilitation center were 2. 88%( 52 /1804),3. 33%( 64 /1920),3. 51%( 62 /1764),3. 40%( 94 /2765) and 3. 94%( 86 /2183) respectively,the differences were not statistical significant( χ2= 3. 44,P = 0. 49). According to the sentinel surveillance,the prevalence of HIV infection among injection drug users were 5. 13%( 12 /234),6. 36%( 18 /283),4. 26%( 12 /282),4. 94%( 12 /243) and4. 93%( 10 /203) respectively,the differences were not statistical significant( χ2= 1. 36,P = 0. 85); while the prevalence of HIV infection among other drug users were 1. 81%( 3 /166),1. 13%( 2 /177),0. 78%( 1 /129),0. 60%( 1 /166) and 0. 00%( 0 /197) respectively,the differences were not statistical significant( χ2= 4. 35,P = 0. 36). According to the estimation of Spectrum / EPP model,the incidence of HIV infection among the drug users remained to be 0. 23% approximately and based on the first CD+4T-cell count detection,the incidence of HIV infection among the drug users were 0. 28%,0. 16%,0. 29%,0. 11% and 0. 10% respectively during this period,the differences were not statistical significant( χ2= 3. 83,P = 0. 43). Among 1971 drug users receiving repeat HIV test in the opencohort,4473 person-years were followed with 4 drug users became HIV sero-conversion,the incidence of HIV infection was 0. 09 per 100 person-years( 95% CI: 0. 01-0. 18). Conclusion From 2010 to 2014,the prevalence of HIV infection among drug users remained to be less than 0. 5% and the incidence of HIV infection among the drug users remained to be less than 0. 3% in Zhongshan.
Determination of nonylphenol in cosmetics by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with solid phase extraction

Objective To establish an ultra-performance liquid chromatography with solid phase extraction method for the determination of nonylphenol in cosmetics. Methods The samples were processed by solid phase extraction and determined by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with PDA detector. The separation of nonylphenol was carried out by an ACQUITY UPLCTMBEH Phenyl column(50 mm×2.1 mm, 1.7 μm) and quantification was based on detection wavelength at 224 mn. Results The linear ranges of the calibration curves for nonylphenol was 2-50 μg/ml. The correlation coefficients of the standard curves was 0.999 5; The limits of detection(LODs) for nonylphenol was 1 μg/g; The average recoveries were 92%-102%. Relative standard deviations were all less than 9%. Conclusion The method is simple,rapid and can meet the requirement of routine analysis of the nonylphenol in cosmetics.
HUMOR AS AN INNOVATIVE METHOD FOR TEACHING SENSITIVE TOPICS

Guidelines for including geriatric content in six health care disciplines recommend training in topics such as fear of aging, death, dying, grieving, and suicide. The psychoanalytic theory of humor provides a basis for using humor to teach these sensitive topics. Humor used in clinical settings relieves anxiety, decreases discomfort, and provides a coping mechanism for both patients and health care providers. Humor used in educational settings increases comprehension, enhances retention, and improves faculty ratings. Suggestions are provided for incorporating humor into lesson plans and assignments. The use of humor contributes to learning and to improved health care for older people.
Location matters: Population density and carbon emissions from residential building energy use in the United States

Abstract We study how carbon emissions from U.S. housing stock change with urban location and associated population density, using data from the U.S. Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) and American Community Survey (ACS) in a mediation model to quantify direct and indirect effects of population density on carbon emissions. Urban living in the United States today is generally associated with lower levels of residential carbon emissions, with some of the more significant effects being indirect. For example, more densely populated areas are associated with decreased housing size, which in turn decreases carbon emissions. One of the largest indirect effects observed is from the prevalence of natural gas heating in urban areas. We also observe large indirect effects from the urban prevalence of attached and multi-family housing. A policy question is whether emissions-reducing housing choices could be effectively promoted in non-urban areas.
Multimerization of the Virulence-Enhancing Group A Streptococcus Transcription Factor RivR Is Required for Regulatory Activity.

Group A Streptococcus (GAS) (Streptococcus pyogenes) causes more than 700 million human infections each year. The significant morbidity and mortality rates associated with GAS infections are in part a consequence of the ability of this pathogen to coordinately regulate virulence factor expression during infection. RofA-like protein IV (RivR) is a member of the Mga-like family of transcriptional regulators, and previously we reported that RivR negatively regulates transcription of the hasA and grab virulence factor-encoding genes. Here, we determined that RivR inhibits the ability of GAS to survive and to replicate in human blood. To begin to assess the biochemical basis of RivR activity, we investigated its ability to form multimers, which is a characteristic of Mga-like proteins. We found that RivR forms both dimers and a higher-molecular-mass multimer, which we hypothesize is a tetramer. As cysteine residues are known to contribute to the ability of proteins to dimerize, we created a library of expression plasmids in which each of the four cysteines in RivR was converted to serine. While the C68S RivR protein was essentially unaffected in its ability to dimerize, the C32S and C377S proteins were attenuated, while the C470S protein completely lacked the ability to dimerize. Consistent with dimerization being required for regulatory activity, the C470S RivR protein was unable to repress hasA and grab gene expression in a rivR mutant. Thus, multimer formation is a prerequisite for RivR activity, which supports recent data obtained for other Mga-like family members, suggesting a common regulatory mechanism. Importance The modulation of gene transcription is key to the ability of bacterial pathogens to infect hosts to cause disease. Here, we discovered that the group A Streptococcus transcription factor RivR negatively regulates the ability of this pathogen to survive in human blood, and we also began biochemical characterization of this protein. We determined that, in order for RivR to function, it must self-associate, forming both dimers (consisting of two RivR proteins) and higher-order complexes (consisting of more than two RivR proteins). This functional requirement for RivR is shared by other regulators in the same family of proteins, suggesting a common regulatory mechanism. Insight into how these transcription factors function may facilitate the development of novel therapeutic agents targeting their activity.
Speaker Adaptation Using Speaker Similarity Score on DNN Features

This paper proposes a novel speaker adaptation algorithm for classifying speech based on deep neural networks (DNNs). The adaptation algorithm consists of two steps. In the first step a deep neural network is trained using raw Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) features to discover hidden structures in the data and employing the activations of the last hidden layers of the DNN as acoustic features. In the second step using nearest neighbor, an adaptation algorithm learns speaker similarity scores based on a small amount of adaptation data from each target speaker using the DNN-based acoustic features. Based on the speaker similarity score, classification is done using a k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) classifier. The novelty of this work is that instead of modifying and re-training the DNN for speaker adaptation, which comprises a large number of parameters and is computationally expensive, activations of the learned DNN are used to project features from MFCC to a sparse DNN space, then speaker adaptation is performed based on similarity (i.e. nearest neighbor) using k-NN algorithm. With only a small amount of adaptation data, it reduces the number of phoneme classification error in the TIMIT dataset by 23%. This work also analyzes impact of deep neural networks architecture on speaker adaptation performance.
The lossy one-helper conjecture is false

We describe a scheme for rate-distortion with distributed encoding in which the sources to be compressed contain a common component. We show that this scheme is optimal in some situations and that it strictly improves upon existing schemes, which do not make full use of common components. This resolves in the negative an open question regarding whether independent quantization followed by independent binning is optimal for the two-encoder problem with a distortion constraint on one source. We also show that independent quantization and binning is suboptimal for the three-encoder problem in which the goal is to reproduce one of the sources losslessly. This provides a counterexample that is fundamentally different from one provided earlier by Korner and Marton. The proofs rely on the binary analogue of the entropy power inequality and the existence of a rate loss for the binary symmetric Wyner-Ziv problem.
Husserl’s Phenomenology of Validity

What is a practical intention, particularly an evaluating intention? Are values representational states that work differently from epistemological truths? Are our perceptual experiences representational states? To simplify the inquiry, I will theoretically divide the questions into two groups: the former concerning the distinction between signitive and practical intention and the latter pertaining to the objectivity of a value. The texts I will refer to are Husserl’s Ideas and Analysis.
KRAS gene mutation status and sensitivity to pemetrexed: A retrospective analysis.

e19154 Background: KRAS is the most frequently mutated oncogene (25%) in lung adenocarcinoma. KRAS mutations are a negative prognostic factor for survival. Recent phase II trial with a MEK inhibitor has shown promising efficacy albeit at the cost of higher adverse events. Preclinical work by Moran et al showed that antifolate therapies like pemetrexed decrease KRAS gene expression in KRAS wild type and KRAS mutant but do not do so in KRAS mutant amplified cells. Targeted therapies for EGFR, ALK and ROS1 have increased the survival for lung adenocarcinoma expressing these actionable targets. No therapies are yet approved for KRAS mutant subsets. Hence therapeutic strategies that target this cohort represent an unmet medical need. Methods: We reviewed data from patients (pts) in our thoracic oncology clinic with stage IIIB and stage IV lung adenocarcinoma with KRAS mutation positive tumours who received pemetrexed either during induction or maintenance therapy. Pt characteristics including age, sex, race, s...
Enabling Non-expert Sustainable Manufacturing Process and Supply Chain Analysis During the Early Product Design Phase

Abstract Consumers are pressuring companies to produce products with superior sustainability performance, yet educators are disadvantaged in training students about sustainable engineering and many engineers are often not well-positioned to perform product sustainability assessments. In particular, quantifying environmental impacts is a key aspect of achieving improved product sustainability performance that has garnered much attention over the past two decades, but tools remain deficient to assist manufacturing decision making. In light of efforts undertaken to develop sustainability assessment methodologies, we review recent developments in quantifying a widely adopted environmental performance metric, carbon footprint, in manufacturing processes and supply chain networks. We also present a methodology to address the deficit identified from this review for simple, easy-to-use sustainability assessment methods and tools. We suggest a questionnaire-based methodology to provide non-experts with a better understanding of sustainability performance, specifically during the product design phase. An application of the methodology is demonstrated to quantify and compare environmental impacts for the production of two quadcopter upper shell designs. The review presented can help the sustainable design and manufacturing community in identifying research gaps, while non-expert engineers and engineering students can benefit from application of the presented methodology in learning and in practice.
Does Prescription Opioid Shopping Increase Overdose Rates in Medicaid Beneficiaries

Study objective The link between prescription opioid shopping and overdose events is poorly understood. We test the hypothesis that a history of prescription opioid shopping is associated with increased risk of overdose events. Methods This is a secondary analysis of a linked claims and controlled substance dispense database. We studied adult Medicaid beneficiaries in 2014 with prescription opioid use in the 6 months before an ambulatory care or emergency department visit with a pain-related diagnosis. The primary outcome was a nonfatal overdose event within 6 months of the cohort entry date. The exposure of interest (opioid shopping) was defined as having opioid prescriptions by different prescribers with greater than or equal to 1-day overlap and filled at 3 or more pharmacies in the 6 months before cohort entry. We used a propensity score to match shoppers with nonshoppers in a 1:1 ratio. We calculated the absolute difference in outcome rates between shoppers and nonshoppers. Results We studied 66,328 patients, including 2,571 opioid shoppers (3.9%). There were 290 patients (0.4%) in the overall cohort who experienced a nonfatal overdose. In unadjusted analyses, shoppers had higher event rates than nonshoppers (rate difference of 4.4 events per 1,000; 95% confidence interval 0.8 to 7.9). After propensity score matching, there were no outcome differences between shoppers and nonshoppers (rate difference of 0.4 events per 1,000; 95% confidence interval –4.7 to 5.5). These findings were robust to various definitions of opioid shoppers and look-back periods. Conclusion Prescription opioid shopping is not independently associated with increased risk of overdose events.
The relation of parent alcohol disorder to young adult drinking outcomes mediated by parenting: Effects of developmentally limited versus persistent parent alcohol disorder

Abstract Background Parent alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a well-established risk factor for the development of offspring AUD and is associated with poor parenting. However, few studies have examined heterogeneity in trajectories of parental AUD and its influence on adolescent offspring drinking, and no studies to date have considered the differential risk to offspring conferred by parental AUDs that are limited to early adulthood. Specifically, AUDs limited to the period of emerging adulthood may confer less risk to a child's environment as recovery following emerging adulthood coincides with the typical ages of entry into the parenting role. The present study tested whether parental AUDs developmentally limited to emerging adulthood (DLAUD) transmit less risk for alcohol problems and alcohol consumption in offspring compared to offspring of parents with AUDs spanning across multiple developmental periods (persistent AUD), as mediated by positive parenting strategies. Method Pathways were examined using longitudinal mediation models (N = 361) comparing offspring with parental DLAUD, persistent AUD, and no AUD. Results Parents with DLAUD do not transmit the same risk for alcohol problems to offspring as parents with persistent AUD (B = 0.173, SE = 0.067, p Conclusion Findings suggest that the developmental period in which parents' recovery occurs is a useful way to categorize “recovered” AUDs versus current AUDs.
“May You Live in Interesting Times”: Moral Philosophy and Empirical Psychology [Review of The Moral Psychology Handbook ]

The Moral Psychology Handbook is a contribution to a relatively new genre of philosophical writing, the “handbook.” In the first section, I comment on an expectation about handbooks, namely that handbooks contain works representative of a field, and raise concerns about The Moral Psychology Handbook in this regard. In the rest of the article I comment in detail on two Handbook articles, “Moral Motivation” by Timothy Schroeder, Adina Roskies, and Shaun Nichols, and “Character” by Maria W. Merritt, John M. Doris, and Gilbert Harman. Both articles illustrate the perils as well as the promise of reliance on empirical studies for philosophers who work in moral psychology.
Bernoulli Learning Models: Uppuluri Numbers

When an operator works on a machine, it is reasonable to assume that in a learning situation the probability of making an error changes from trial to trial, thus leading to a general Bernoulli process. In this paper, some results concerning two random variables—S n , the number of errors made in a fixed number n of trials and T r , the waiting time for the r-th success in this general Bernoulli process are studied. The probability distributions of S n and T r satisfy certain recursive relations and lead to interesting connections with the results found in combinatorial theory. The details of some interesting results which lead to what we call Uppuluri numbers, and in some special cases, relate to signless Stirling numbers of the first kind and to Pascal’s triangle are alsopresented.
Neurotransmitter transporters synthesis and degradation rates.

Abstract The synthesis rate, half-life and degradation rate constant of dopamine and serotonin transporter proteins have been determined using RTI-76, an irreversible inhibitor of ligand binding at transporters, and a model assuming that synthesis rate is zero order and degradation rate is a first order process. The half-lives of transporter recovery after inactivation with RTI-76 are approximately 2–3 days, which are similar to those for other synaptic proteins.
A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial Examining the Effects of Tai Chi and Electronic Tablet Use on Older Adults’ Cognition and Health:

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of Tai Chi (TC) and electronic tablet (ET) interventions on older adults’ cognition and health and to explore participants’ perceptions of intervention activiti...
Prediabetes and Diabetes Screening in Dental Care Settings: NHANES 2013 to 2016.

Introduction:Early recognition of prediabetes may prevent progression to diabetes, yet not all adults are aware of their prediabetes risk. To reach all adults unaware of their risk, additional risk...
Gradient Reversal against Discrimination: A Fair Neural Network Learning Approach

No methods currently exist for inducing fairness in arbitrary neural network architectures. In this work we introduce GRAD, a new and simplified method for producing fair neural networks that can be used for auto-encoding fair representations or directly with predictive networks. It is easy to implement and add to existing architectures, has only one (insensitive) hyper-parameter, and provides improved individual and group fairness. We use the flexibility of GRAD to demonstrate multi-attribute protection.
The Rise in Popularity of Cryptocurrency and Associated Criminal Activity

Cryptocurrency such as bitcoin, Ethereum, and, more recently, Monero has become the currency of choice for many drug dealers and extortionists. The criminal activities extend to tax evasion, money ...
Did a Minimum Case Requirement Improve Resident Surgical Volume for Closed Wrist and Forearm Fracture Treatment in Orthopedic Surgery

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to determine whether the 2013 implementation of ACGME minimum case requirements was associated with increased documented case volume of closed manipulation of forearm and wrist fractures (CMFWF) for graduating orthopedic surgery residents. DESIGN We reviewed ACGME case log data for CMFWF among graduating orthopedic surgery residents from 2007 to 2016. Annual national mean, and median number of CMFWF performed by residents in the 10th, 30th, 50th, and 90th case volume percentile were evaluated. Preminimum (2007-2010) data was compared to postminimum (2013-2016) values to assess the impact of ACGME minimum requirements on resident case volume. SETTING Review of publically available ACMGE Orthopedic Surgery Residency Program case log data. PARTICIPANTS ACGME case log data for orthopedic surgery residents graduating between 2007 and 2016. RESULTS National mean number of CMFWF increased significantly pre- to postminimum requirement (30.0 ± 2.84 to 45.0 ± 3.36, p CONCLUSIONS ACGME's 2013 case minimum requirement corresponded to an increase in case counts for CMFWF; the greatest increase occurred in residents below the 50th percentile of case volume. Implementation of case minimum requirements may allow for more accurate depiction of resident experience and program strengths with regards to procedural exposure. However, the current case log system measures only case quantity, which may inaccurately depict mastery of given procedures. Future work should focus not only on improving case counts in underperforming residents and training sites, but also on refining metrics that ensure accurate assessment of resident skill for essential orthopedic procedures prior to graduation.
Implementation capital: merging frameworks of implementation outcomes and social capital to support the use of evidence-based practices

Although there is growing recognition that the implementation of evidence-based practices is a social process, the conceptualization of social capital in implementation frameworks often conflates bonding and bridging social capital. This conflation makes it difficult to concretely operationalize social capital and limits the concept’s utility for explaining implementation outcomes. We propose a new framework of implementation capital that merges an existing conceptual framework of implementation outcomes with an existing operational framework of social capital. First, we review a conceptual framework of implementation outcomes, which includes the acceptability, appropriateness, adoption, feasibility, fidelity, cost, penetration, and sustainability of evidence-based practices. Second, we describe an operational framework of social capital that grounds bonding and bridging social capital in the structure of implementers’ social networks. Third, we bring these two frameworks together to create a merged framework of implementation capital that shows how specific aspects of social capital can support specific implementation outcomes. Implementation outcomes of acceptability, appropriateness, and adoption are linked to bonding social capital through mechanisms of trust and norm enforcement, while outcomes of feasibility and fidelity are linked to bridging social capital through mechanisms of increased access to information and resources. Additionally, setting-level implementation outcomes of cost, penetration, and sustainability are associated with small worldliness at the setting level, which simultaneously optimizes both bonding and bridging social capital in a setting. The implementation capital framework is helpful because it separates two distinct forms of social capital—bonding and bridging—that are often conflated in the implementation literature, and offers concrete ways to operationalize them by examining the structure of implementers’ social networks and the networks of their settings. This framework offers specific guidance about how individual and setting networks might be shifted to support implementation outcomes.
Revisiting the Reproductive Concerns After Cancer (RCAC) scale

Objective The aims of this study were to examine the factor structure and reliability of the multidimensional Reproductive Concerns After Cancer (RCAC) scale in a sample of female cancer survivors during their reproductive years, younger than age 45. Methods Female reproductive-aged survivors (N = 238; current age, 18 to 44 y) with a variety of cancer diagnoses completed a web-based survey that included the RCAC scale. Three structural models were examined via confirmatory factor analysis: (a) one-factor, (b) higher-order with one second-order factor and six first-order factors, and (c) oblique six-factor. Reliability was examined using omega total and Revelle omega total. Results Only the oblique six-factor model of the RCAC scale fits well. Omega total and Revelle omega total estimates for all of the six three-item subscales were in the nearly satisfactory to good range (.66 to.87). Conclusions The RCAC scale was found to have satisfactory factor structure and reliability when measuring a range of reproductive concerns experienced by female reproductive-aged survivors. The RCAC scale is a multidimensional measure of varying aspects of reproductive concerns, and results suggest that the scale may be best represented as a profile of subscale scores. The subscale scores would be useful for tailoring recommendations and interventions to more effectively address the diverse reproductive concerns of female reproductive-aged survivors.
Organic materials. From insulator to superconductor

A new way of converting insulators into superconductors - rather like turning water into wine - involves injecting them with lots of charge carriers. This technique has successfully created superconductors from simple organic crystals.
HEMATOLOGIC STUDIES ON ERYTHROPOIETIC PORPHYRIA: A NEW CASE WITH SEVERE HEMOLYSIS, CHRONIC THROMBOCYTOPENIA, AND FOLIC ACID DEFICIENCY.

An unusual case of erythropoietic porphyria with a severe hemolytic component and thrombocytopenia has been presented. The relationship between the porphyria and the thrombocytopenia, although unclear, showed definite evidence of persistent megakaryocytic hypoplasia. Additional information emphasizing the severity and chronicity of the anemic process included elevated F and A2 hemoglobins, hyperferremia and extramedullary hematopoiesis. The nature of the hemolytic process appeared to be intracorpuscular and not correctible by normal plasma, glucose or ATP. The abnormal in vitro hemolysis, coupled with the appearance of the abnormal nucleated and mature red cells, are suggestive of the defect in heme synthesis seen in some of the hypochromic hypersideremic anemias. A description of therapeutic attempts as well as the appearance of a folate deficiency are included in the report.
An Averaging Processes on Hypergraphs

Consider the following iterated process on a hypergraph $H$. Each vertex $v$ has an initial vertex weight. At each step, we uniformly at random select an edge $F$ in $H$, and for each vertex $v$ in $F$ we replace the weight of $v$ by the average value of the vertex weights over all vertices in $F$. This is a generalization of an interactive process on graphs, first proposed by Aldous and Lanoue. In this paper, we use the eigenvalues of a Laplacian for hypergraphs to bound the rate of convergence for the iterated averaging process.
Human Robot Team Design

Human-robot teams offer both benefits and new challenges. Human robot teams combine the advantages of automation such as high accuracy, speed, and repeat-ability with the flexibility, adaptability, and creative problem-solving commonly associated with humans. Several challenges, however, must first be addressed to effectively leverage such teams. One challenge is understanding effective human-robot team design (HRTD). HRTD is vital as the wrong team can lead to potentially negative outcomes. The theoretical model and methodology presented are the planned first steps towards the establishment of guidelines based on statistical models that can recommend an optimal human-robot team design based on a given set of criteria.
Association of Skilled Nursing Facility Participation in a Bundled Payment Model With Institutional Spending for Joint Replacement Surgery.

Importance Medicare recently concluded a national voluntary payment demonstration, Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) model 3, in which skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) assumed accountability for patients’ Medicare spending for 90 days from initial SNF admission. There is little evidence on outcomes associated with this novel payment model. Objective To evaluate the association of BPCI model 3 with spending, health care utilization, and patient outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries undergoing lower extremity joint replacement (LEJR). Design, Setting, and Participants Observational difference-in-difference analysis using Medicare claims from 2013-2017 to evaluate the association of BPCI model 3 with outcomes for 80 648 patients undergoing LEJR. The preintervention period was from January 2013 through September 2013, which was 9 months prior to enrollment of the first BPCI cohort. The postintervention period extended from 3 months post-BPCI enrollment for each SNF through December 2017. BPCI SNFs were matched with control SNFs using propensity score matching on 2013 SNF characteristics. Exposures Admission to a BPCI model 3–participating SNF. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was institutional spending, a combination of postacute care and hospital Medicare-allowed payments. Additional outcomes included other categories of spending, changes in case mix, admission volume, home health use, length of stay, and hospital use within 90 days of SNF admission. Results There were 448 BPCI SNFs with 18 870 LEJR episodes among 16 837 patients (mean [SD] age, 77.5 [9.4] years; 12 173 [72.3%] women) matched with 1958 control SNFs with 72 005 LEJR episodes among 63 811 patients (mean [SD] age, 77.6 [9.4] years; 46 072 [72.2%] women) in the preintervention and postintervention periods. Seventy-nine percent of matched BPCI SNFs were for-profit facilities, 85% were located in an urban area, and 85% were part of a larger corporate chain. There were no systematic changes in patient case mix or episode volume between BPCI-participating SNFs and controls during the program. Institutional spending decreased from $17 956 to $15 746 in BPCI SNFs and from $17 765 to $16 563 in matched controls, a differential decrease of 5.6% (−$1008 [95% CI, −$1603 to −$414];P Conclusions and Relevance Among Medicare patients undergoing lower extremity joint replacement from 2013-2017, the BPCI model 3 was significantly associated with a decrease in mean institutional spending on episodes initiated by admission to SNFs. Further research is needed to assess bundled payments in other clinical contexts.
Elucidation of the Genomic-Epigenomic Interaction Landscape of Aggressive Prostate Cancer

Background Majority of prostate cancer (PCa) deaths are attributed to localized high-grade aggressive tumours which progress rapidly to metastatic disease. A critical unmet need in clinical management of PCa is discovery and characterization of the molecular drivers of aggressive tumours. The development and progression of aggressive PCa involve genetic and epigenetic alterations occurring in the germline, somatic (tumour), and epigenomes. To date, interactions between genes containing germline, somatic, and epigenetic mutations in aggressive PCa have not been characterized. The objective of this investigation was to elucidate the genomic-epigenomic interaction landscape in aggressive PCa to identify potential drivers aggressive PCa and the pathways they control. We hypothesized that aggressive PCa originates from a complex interplay between genomic (both germline and somatic mutations) and epigenomic alterations. We further hypothesized that these complex arrays of interacting genomic and epigenomic factors affect gene expression, molecular networks, and signaling pathways which in turn drive aggressive PCa. Methods We addressed these hypotheses by performing integrative data analysis combining information on germline mutations from genome-wide association studies with somatic and epigenetic mutations from The Cancer Genome Atlas using gene expression as the intermediate phenotype. Results The investigation revealed signatures of genes containing germline, somatic, and epigenetic mutations associated with aggressive PCa. Aberrant DNA methylation had effect on gene expression. In addition, the investigation revealed molecular networks and signalling pathways enriched for germline, somatic, and epigenetic mutations including the STAT3, PTEN, PCa, ATM, AR, and P53 signalling pathways implicated in aggressive PCa. Conclusions The study demonstrated that integrative analysis combining diverse omics data is a powerful approach for the discovery of potential clinically actionable biomarkers, therapeutic targets, and elucidation of oncogenic interactions between genomic and epigenomic alterations in aggressive PCa.
Why Lottery Ticket Wins? A Theoretical Perspective of Sample Complexity on Pruned Neural Networks

The \textit{lottery ticket hypothesis} (LTH) states that learning on a properly pruned network (the \textit{winning ticket}) improves test accuracy over the original unpruned network. Although LTH has been justified empirically in a broad range of deep neural network (DNN) involved applications like computer vision and natural language processing, the theoretical validation of the improved generalization of a winning ticket remains elusive. To the best of our knowledge, our work, for the first time, characterizes the performance of training a pruned neural network by analyzing the geometric structure of the objective function and the sample complexity to achieve zero generalization error. We show that the convex region near a desirable model with guaranteed generalization enlarges as the neural network model is pruned, indicating the structural importance of a winning ticket. Moreover, when the algorithm for training a pruned neural network is specified as an (accelerated) stochastic gradient descent algorithm, we theoretically show that the number of samples required for achieving zero generalization error is proportional to the number of the non-pruned weights in the hidden layer. With a fixed number of samples, training a pruned neural network enjoys a faster convergence rate to the desired model than training the original unpruned one, providing a formal justification of the improved generalization of the winning ticket. Our theoretical results are acquired from learning a pruned neural network of one hidden layer, while experimental results are further provided to justify the implications in pruning multi-layer neural networks.
Ecological Uniqueness for Understanding Line Importance in Power Grids

The identification of critical components in electric power grids is an important challenge power engineers face. Similarly, many ecologists face the challenge of identifying important species in food web networks. Drawing similarities between power grid networks and food web networks, this study utilizes proposed identification methods from ecology literature to identify critical components in electric power grids. These ecological methods used include measures of Sum of the Trophic Overlap (STO) and Weighted Trophic Overlap (WTO). We also study a method proposed from power engineering literature that uses the Normalized Line Outage Distribution Factor (NLODF) to compare the different methods. The intention of this study is to determine if bio-inspiration in criticality metrics provides a feasible tool to use in power grid analysis. The proposed engineering method utilizing NLODF is found to be more accurate in identifying critical lines in power grids when considering all lines in the grid. However, the ecological metric STO is found to be as good as NLODF when considering the top 10,20, or 30% of lines. STO was the most accurate metric in the largest grid analyzed, suggesting STO may be more accurate in larger grids. The comparable performance of the ecological and engineering methods suggests the ecological methods can be used to accurately identify critical components in electric power grids.
Real world adverse events of interspinous spacers using Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience data.

Background Lumbar spinal stenosis is a condition of progressive neurogenic claudication that can be managed with lumbar decompression surgery or less invasive interspinous process devices after failed conservative therapy. Popular interspinous process spacers include X-Stop, Vertiflex and Coflex, with X-Stop being taken off market due to its adverse events profile. Methods A disproportionality analysis was conducted to determine whether a statistically significant signal exists in the three interspinous spacers and the reported adverse events using the Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database maintained by the US Food and Drug Administration. Results Statistically significant signals were found with each of the three interspinous spacer devices (Coflex, Vertiflex, and X-Stop) and each of the following adverse events: fracture, migration, and pain/worsening symptoms. Conclusions Further studies such as randomized controlled trials are needed to validate the findings.
Compound heterozygous NOTCH1 mutations underlie impaired cardiogenesis in a patient with hypoplastic left heart syndrome

Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a severe congenital heart defect (CHD) that necessitates staged, single ventricle surgical palliation. An increased frequency of bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) has been observed among relatives. We postulated number of mutant alleles as a molecular basis for variable CHD expression in an extended family comprised of an HLHS proband and four family members who underwent echocardiography and whole-genome sequencing (WGS). Dermal fibroblast-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) were procured from the proband–parent trio and bioengineered into cardiomyocytes. Cardiac phenotyping revealed aortic valve atresia and a slit-like left ventricular cavity in the HLHS proband, isolated bicuspid pulmonary valve in his mother, BAV in a maternal 4° relative, and no CHD in his father or sister. Filtering of WGS for rare, functional variants that segregated with CHD and were compound heterozygous in the HLHS proband identified NOTCH1 as the sole candidate gene. An unreported missense mutation (P1964L) in the cytoplasmic domain, segregating with semilunar valve malformation, was maternally inherited and a rare missense mutation (P1256L) in the extracellular domain, clinically silent in the heterozygous state, was paternally inherited. Patient-specific iPSCs exhibited diminished transcript levels of NOTCH1 signaling pathway components, impaired myocardiogenesis, and a higher prevalence of heterogeneous myofilament organization. Extended, phenotypically characterized families enable WGS-derived variant filtering for plausible Mendelian modes of inheritance, a powerful strategy to discover molecular underpinnings of CHD. Identification of compound heterozygous NOTCH1 mutations and iPSC-based functional modeling implicate mutant allele burden and impaired myogenic potential as mechanisms for HLHS.
Virtual microdissection identifies distinct tumor- and stroma-specific subtypes of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains a lethal disease with a 5-year survival rate of 4%. A key hallmark of PDAC is extensive stromal involvement, which makes capturing precise tumor-specific molecular information difficult. Here we have overcome this problem by applying blind source separation to a diverse collection of PDAC gene expression microarray data, including data from primary tumor, metastatic and normal samples. By digitally separating tumor, stromal and normal gene expression, we have identified and validated two tumor subtypes, including a 'basal-like' subtype that has worse outcome and is molecularly similar to basal tumors in bladder and breast cancers. Furthermore, we define 'normal' and 'activated' stromal subtypes, which are independently prognostic. Our results provide new insights into the molecular composition of PDAC, which may be used to tailor therapies or provide decision support in a clinical setting where the choice and timing of therapies are critical.
Multilingual miniskirt discourses in motion: the discursive construction of the female body in public space

This paper presents illustrative findings from analysis of taxi inscriptions as gendered discourse. Feminist Critical Discourse analysis is used to explore the ways the female body is discursively constructed in public space, gender as an ideological structure, and the complexity of gender and power relations. Of interest is how discourses on dress, especially the miniskirt, are used as discursive strategies for inscribing power over the female body. Using a corpus of 50 inscriptions, the findings suggest that the inscription writers draw on a local repository of lexical, phrasal, and sentential metaphors that invoke African culture, heritage, or tradition to discursively construct the female body as a subject of intervention or social control and clothing as a means of maintaining inequality and asserting male dominance. Ce document presente des resultats illustratifs d'analyse des inscriptions sur les taxis comme discours de genre. L'analyse critique du discours feministe est employee pour explorer la facon dont le corps feminin est decrit d'une maniere decousue dans l'espace public, le genre comme structure ideologique, et la complexite des relations de genre et de pouvoir. D'interet, comment les discours sur l'habillement, particulierement la mini-jupe, sont employes comme des strategies decousues pour affirmer l'autorite sur le corps feminin. Utilisant un recueil de 50 inscriptions, les resultats suggerent que les auteurs des inscriptions tirent sur une mine locale des metaphores lexicales, syntagmatiques, et des phrases qui invoquent la culture, l'heritage, ou la tradition africaine pour decrire d'une maniere decousue le corps feminin comme un sujet d'intervention ou de controle social et l'habillement comme un moyen de maintien de l'inegalite et de l'affirmation de la domination masculine.