cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Science and Politics of Targeting: Who Gets What, When, and How

Targeting has been defined as a method by which goods, services, or other programmatic actions are delivered to groups or individuals who have specific characteristics. Similarly, politics refers to the social processes that determine who gets what, when, and how. This similarity suggests there may be utility in undertaking an explicit analysis of how the science and the politics of targeting relate to one another. Accordingly, this article outlines a technical/scientific framework regarding targeting and, using one element of this framework [sensitivity and specificity analysis], demonstrates that recent shifts in politics and policy in the United States can be more clearly understood when viewed from this angle. Then, the article outlines a basic framework on politics and uses it to demonstrate that one of the most fundamental features of our training, practices, and outlook (specialization) holds obvious benefits for advancing research but has three undesirable effects in the realm of policy: 1) it directly or indirectly encourages narrow, partial solutions to complex problems, some of which may have unintended effects on health or well-being for the very people we seek to help; 2) it creates a cumulative demand for research dollars, specialized interventions, and policy attention that far exceeds available resources and capabilities; and 3) it often prevents us from developing and advancing the common agendas and mutual support required to be effective in political and policy realms. The article concludes that more explicit analysis along these lines could strengthen our effectiveness in the policy realm.
A rehabilitation engineering course for biomedical engineers

This paper describes an upper division elective course in rehabilitation engineering that addresses prosthetics and orthotics, wheelchair design, seating and positioning, and automobile modifications for individuals with disabilities. Faculty lectures are enhanced by guest lectures and class field trips. Guest lecturers include a prosthetist and a lower extremity amputee client, an engineer/prosthetist specializing in the upper extremity, and a rehabilitation engineer. The lower extremity prosthetist and his client present a case study for prosthetic prescription, fabrication, fitting, alignment, and evaluation. The engineer/prosthetist contrasts body-powered versus externally powered upper extremity prostheses and associated design, fitting, and functional considerations; he also discusses myoelectric signal conditioning, signal processing, and associated control strategies for upper extremity prosthetic control. Finally, the rehabilitation engineer presents case studies related to assessment and prescription of mobility aids, environmental control systems, and children's toys. The course also includes visits to a local prosthetic and orthotic facility to observe typical fabrication, fitting, and alignment procedures and a driver rehabilitation program for exposure to driver assessment, training, and common vehicle modifications. These applications of biomedical engineering to persons with disabilities have been well received by the students and have furthered interdisciplinary design and research projects.
Constructing ensembles of ASR systems using randomized decision trees

Building multiple automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems and combining their outputs using voting techniques such as ROVER is an effective technique for lowering the overall word error rate. A successful system combination approach requires the construction of multiple systems with complementary errors, or the combination will not outperform any of the individual systems. In general, this is achieved empirically, for example by building systems on different input features. In this paper, we present a systematic approach for building multiple ASR systems in which the decision tree state-tying procedure that is used to specify context-dependent acoustic models is randomized. Experiments carried out on two large vocabulary recognition tasks, MALACH and DARPA EARS, illustrate the effectiveness of the approach.
Optimized fault location

A continuous and reliable electrical energy supply is the objective of any power system operation. However, faults inevitably occur in power system due to bad weather conditions, equipment damage, equipment failure, environment changes, human or animal interference and many other reasons. Since it is very important that correct information about fault location and its nature is provided as fast as possible, an automated system is proposed to track status of equipment and to calculate fault location. Calculated results are available to users through detailed graphical representation. This paper presents elements of proposed solution and describes the benefits.
Public policy for growth and poverty reduction

In this paper, I would like to outline an approach to public policy that is focused on fighting poverty and is based on an understanding of growth and develop- ment. Such a public policy requires answering two key questions. First, what are the key determinants of a development that benefits poor people - or what has been la- belled "pro-poor growth"? And second, we need to answer the policy question: how can public action influence the key determinants we identify? In putting the questions this way, we are setting ourselves the task of building a dynamic public economics - a public economics of development. Given that development is the objective, this task will require a better understanding of how to measure it. And we must also achieve a better grasp of changes of behaviour in the process of development, since changing perspec- tives and behaviour are usually an integral part of the development story. In laying out our task of advancing a dynamic public economics, however, let me emphasise that we should be building on - not overturning - past theory. In much of the work I will de- scribe, the empirics seem to be ahead of theory. Thus one of my purposes is to highlight some elements of an agenda for theoretical research. (JEL E6)
Quantitation of fecal carbohydrate excretion in patients with short bowel syndrome

Abstract We performed inpatient balance studies in 11 patients to evaluate the role of carbohydrate malabsorption in the pathogenesis of the diarrhea seen in short bowel syndrome. Stool weight, total reducing substance as measured by Clinitest, and total fecal carbohydrate as measured by anthrone were determined. Patients had markedly increased fecal carbohydrate excretion, up to 65% of dietary carbohydrate intake. When the diet contained oligosaccharides, measures of total reducing substance greatly underestimated fecal carbohydrate excretion and were unreliable for quantitation. Stool weight correlated with total fecal carbohydrate excretion and with total reducing substance (r = 0.79, p
NATURAL CONVECTION IN A VERTICAL ENCLOSURE FILLED WITH ANISOTROPIC POROUS MEDIA

Test data are correlated in Fig. 2 in the form of a Nu versus Ra graph with the diameter of the heating surface as the char­ acteristic length. Included for comparison are the empirical formulas recommended by McAdams (1955) for a heated hor­ izontal plate facing upward. Fixing the exponents based on the McAdams recommendations, one finds the coefficients that best fit the data of the composite surface. This yields: Nu = 1.125 Ra1/4 for 10 4 <Ra<5x 105 (laminar flow) ~) Nu = 0.264 Ra1/3 for 5x 10 6 <Ra<10 u (turbulent flow)] (2) The higher heat transfer performance of the composite surface can be explained as follows: For the same temperature drop over the same thickness, the heat flux through the composite material (in the fiber direction) will be 3 to 4 times higher than through pure copper because the thermal conductivity of the composite is 3 to 4 times higher than that of pure copper. Therefore, a higher heat flux is transferred to the ambient from the composite surface than from a pure copper surface. It is important to note that the evaporation of Freon 113 during experiments caused data scattering, especially at higher heating surface temperatures (at higher Ra). In contrast, data scattering in the case of air is minimal in the absence of phase change. The uncertainty estimations are evaluated by the method of Kline and McClintack (1953). The uncertainty in­ tervals are ±10 percent for air and ±15 percent for Freon 113, since at high heat fluxes, the temperature differences in the Gr-Cu composite become very small. The sharp drop in Nu at Ra of approximately 104 in Fig. 2 suggests the lower limit of validity of the correlation formulas.
Shallowly driven fluctuations in lava lake outgassing (gas pistoning), Kīlauea Volcano

Abstract Lava lakes provide ideal venues for directly observing and understanding the nature of outgassing in basaltic magmatic systems. Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake has persisted for several years, during which seismic and infrasonic tremor amplitudes have exhibited episodic behavior associated with a rise and fall of the lava surface (“gas pistoning”). Since 2010, the outgassing regime of the lake has been tied to the presence or absence of gas pistoning. During normal behavior (no gas pistoning), the lake is in a “spattering” regime, consisting of higher tremor amplitudes and gas emissions. In comparison, gas piston events are associated with an abrupt rise in lava level (up to 20 m), during which the lake enters a “non-spattering” regime with greatly decreased tremor and gas emissions. We study this episodic behavior using long-term multidisciplinary monitoring of the lake, including seismicity, infrasound, gas emission and geochemistry, and time-lapse camera observations. The non-spattering regime (i.e. rise phase of a gas piston cycle) reflects gas bubbles accumulating near the top of the lake, perhaps as a shallow foam, while spattering regimes represent more efficient decoupling of gas from the lake. We speculate that the gas pistoning might be controlled by time-varying porosity and/or permeability in the upper portions of the lava lake, which may modulate foam formation and collapse. Competing models for gas pistoning, such as deeply sourced gas slugs, or dynamic pressure balances, are not consistent with our observations. Unlike other lava lakes which have cyclic behavior that is thought to be controlled by deeply sourced processes, external to the lake itself, we show an example of lava lake fluctuations driven by cycles of activity at shallow depth and close to the lake's surface. These observations highlight the complex and unsteady nature of outgassing from basaltic magmatic systems.
Medium-Range Forecast Errors Associated with Active Episodes of theMadden–Julian Oscillation

Abstract Systematic forecast errors associated with active episodes of the tropical Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) are examined using five winters of dynamical extended range forecasts from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction reanalysis model. Active episodes of the MJO are identified as those periods when the amplitude of either of the first two empirical orthogonal functions of intraseasonally filtered outgoing longwave radiation, which efficiently capture the MJO, is large. Forecasts initialized during active episodes of the MJO are found not to capture the eastward propagation of the tropical precipitation and circulation anomalies associated with the MJO. Rather, the MJO-induced anomalies of precipitation and winds are systematically forecast to weaken and even retrograde. By about day 7 of the forecast the convectively coupled, tropical circulation anomalies produced by the MJO are largely gone. Systematic errors in the extratropical 200-mb streamfunction also fully develop by day 10....
Decreased core-to-skin heat transfer in mild essential hypertensives exercising in the heat.

In previous reports (1,2) we examined the physiological responses of normotensive and essentially hypertensive men to steady state leg exercise (at 40% V02max) in a warm (38°C dry-bulb, 28°C wet-bulb) environment. Those results are reviewed. Additionally, in this paper we report relative core-to-skin heat transfer (HT) characteristics of these two groups, matched for age, aerobic fitness, and body composition, but differing in resting blood pressure. Forearm skin blood flow (as measured from changes in total forearm blood flow) was relatively reduced in the hypertensives. This resulted in a similar (but slightly compensated) reduction in HT, e.g., at minute 30, the hypertensives had 81% less skin blood flow and 56% less HT than their normotensive counterparts. This finding has important implications for unmedicated mild hypertensives exercising or working in hot environments.
Efficacy of Superovulation and Intrauterine Insemination in the Treatment of Infertility

Background Induction of superovulation with gonadotropins and intrauterine insemination are frequently used to treat infertility. We conducted a large, randomized, controlled clinical trial of these treatments. Methods We studied 932 couples in which the woman had no identifiable infertility factor and the man had motile sperm. The couples were randomly assigned to receive intracervical insemination, intrauterine insemination, superovulation and intracervical insemination, or superovulation and intrauterine insemination. Treatment continued for four cycles unless pregnancy was achieved. Results The 231 couples in the group treated with superovulation and intrauterine insemination had a higher rate of pregnancy (33 percent) than the 234 couples in the intrauterine-insemination group (18 percent), the 234 couples in the group treated with superovulation and intracervical insemination (19 percent), or the 233 couples in the intracervical-insemination group (10 percent). Stratified, discrete-time Cox proporti...
Study on the risk factors of hand-foot-mouth disease among children in Jiangmen city

Objective To assess the risk factors of hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD)among the children scatterly living in Jiangmen city. Methods A unified questionnaire was used to survey the innate immunity factors and acquired factors , including the rearing pattern and the living standard related to HFMD. Statistical analyses were conducted with SPSS 13.0. Results The results of univariate analysis showed that visible garbage nearing the gate within 10 meters , visible fly nearing the gate,toilet use,history of medical exposure and education level of mother were related to HFMD. The results of multivariate analyses showed that the history of medical exposure (OR =24.982,P 0.05), visible garbage nearing the gate within 10 meters (OR=5.246, P=0.002),visible fly nearing the gate (OR=1.565,P=0.004) and toilet use (OR =2.373,P =0.006) were significantly related to HFMD. Conclusion Improvement of health habits and the isolation of the children with HFMD in the medical institution are beneficial to prevent HFMD in Jiangmen city.
Modeling Clinical Time Series Using Gaussian Process Sequences.

Development of accurate models of complex clinical time series data is critical for understanding the disease, its dynamics, and subsequently patient management and clinical decision making. Clinical time series differ from other time series applications mainly in that observations are often missing and made at irregular time intervals. In this work, we propose and test a new probabilistic approach for modeling clinical time series data that is optimized to handle irregularly sampled observations. Our model is defined by a sequence of Gaussian processes (GPs), each restricted to a window of a finite size, where dependencies among two consecutive Gaussian processes are represented using a linear dynamical system. We develop algorithms supporting both model learning and inference. Experiments on real-world clinical time series data show that our model is better for modeling clinical time series and that it outperforms or is close to alternative time series prediction models.
Carotid endarterectomy. Current indications for elective and emergency surgery.

PreviewCarotid endarterectomy has evolved from a radical procedure involving excision of the diseased segment with end-to-end anastomosis of the parent vessel to a routine and uncomplicated operation for patients at high risk for impending stroke. But exactly which patients are these? And what are the risks and complications of the procedure? Dr Loftus reviews the recent findings.
V&V on a NASA technology demonstration project: Low density supersonic decelerator

Given their smaller budgets, but higher allowed risk posture, technology demonstration missions face different Verification and Validation (V&V) challenges than typical NASA missions. Despite these challenges, the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), has been extremely successful in testing new supersonic atmospheric decelerator technologies. A contribution to the project's success is the unique V&V program that emphasized efficiency and flexibility. This paper will provide an overview of LDSD test objectives, Supersonic Flight Dynamics Tests (SFDT) performed so far, unique requirements structure and V&V processes implemented. The paper will focus on the V&V of the SFDT test architecture. Furthermore, lessons learned will also be presented at the end of the paper to aid future technology demonstration projects.
Achieving production-level use of HEP software at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility

HEP's demand for computing resources has grown beyond the capacity of the Grid, and these demands will accelerate with the higher energy and luminosity planned for Run II. Mira, the ten petaFLOPs supercomputer at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, is a potentially significant compute resource for HEP research. Through an award of fifty million hours on Mira, we have delivered millions of events to LHC experiments by establishing the means of marshaling jobs through serial stages on local clusters, and parallel stages on Mira. We are running several HEP applications, including Alpgen, Pythia, Sherpa, and Geant4. Event generators, such as Sherpa, typically have a split workload: a small scale integration phase, and a second, more scalable, event-generation phase. To accommodate this workload on Mira we have developed two Python-based Django applications, Balsam and ARGO. Balsam is a generalized scheduler interface which uses a plugin system for interacting with scheduler software such as HTCondor, Cobalt, and TORQUE. ARGO is a workflow manager that submits jobs to instances of Balsam. Through these mechanisms, the serial and parallel tasks within jobs are executed on the appropriate resources. This approach and its integration with the PanDA production system will be discussed.
Teaching MPI from mental models

The Message Passing Interface (MPI) is the de facto standard for programming large scale parallelism, with up to millions of individual processes. Its dominant paradigm of Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) programming is different from threaded and multicore parallelism, to an extent that students have a hard time switching models. In contrast to threaded programming, which allows for a view of the execution with central control and a central repository of data, SPMD programming has a symmetric model where all processes are active all the time, and none is priviliged in any sense, and where data is distributed.This model is counterintuitive to the novice parallel programmer, so care needs to be taken how to instill the proper ‘mental model'.We identify problems with the currently common way of teaching MPI, and propose a way that is geared to explicit reinforcing the symmetric model. Additionally, we teach starting from realistic scenarios, rather than writing artificial code just to exercise a newly-learned routine.This motivation implies that we reverse the commonly used order of presenting MPI routines, starting with collectives, and later introducing point-to-point routines only as support for certain symmetric operations, avoiding the process-to-process model.
Combining Phototherapy with Cyclosporine “Cool Down”

Cyclosporine is one of the most powerful and quick acting therapeutic options when it comes to decreasing the intensity of skin inflammation in psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. “Cooling down” severely inflamed skin is necessary prior to initiation phototherapy. When patients cannot be “cooled down” with topical corticosteroids alone, cyclosporine is an excellent option provided that the patient is generally healthy and does not have any contraindications to cyclosporine therapy. After completing the cyclosporine “cool down”, patients can be started on phototherapy using a very conservative dosimetry protocol. After initiating phototherapy, cyclosporine can be slowly tapered off while maintaining treatment response with phototherapy.
Abstract P144: The Adoption of Prospective ECG Gating in Cardiac Computed Tomography Angiography Reduces Radiation Exposure

INTRODUCTION The mean effective radiation dose values of a conventional cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) can reach 41 millisieverts (mSv). Radiation doses above 10 mSv can cause 1 additional cancer in 1000 patients. Prospective gating reduces radiation exposure during CCTA since the radiation exposure occurs only during a portion of diastole as compared to whole cardiac cycle in conventional CCTA. Effective radiation dose value is a quality measure used across the CCTA centers to determine radiation dose exposure. This aim of this analysis evaluates the impact of this method in reducing radiation dose in real life setting. METHODS This is a non randomized, controlled, prospective study which included 663 consecutive patients that underwent CCTA during 2.5 years at a single center. Prospective ECG gating was employed after June 2008. The main outcome measure was the total effective radiation dose. Image quality was assessed as excellent, good, adequate and non-diagnostic. RESULTS For maintaining homogeniety and comparison of data, patients were divided into 5 cohorts based on 6-month periods in which they were exposed to radiation. The patients did not differ regarding sex, age, BMI, race, Framingham score, diabetes, hyperlipidemia or hypertension (p>0.1) across the cohorts. The image quality did not differ before and afer June 2008 (p>0.3). Radiation dose reduced by 55% after June 2008 with 36% (90 of 251) patients having CONCLUSION The study demonstrated that the quality improvement initiative of employing prospective ECG gating in CCTA reduced the radiation dose exposure without compromising the image quality.
Rapid and Sensitive ELISA Screening Assay for Several Paralytic Shellfish Toxins in Human Urine

Paralytic shellfish poisoning is caused by a group of paralytic shellfish toxins that are produced by dinoflagellates. Toxins in this group include saxitoxin, neosaxitoxin and gonyautoxins. A rapid diagnostic test to identify poisoning by these toxins can be helpful in guiding the appropriate treatment of victims. Additionally, quick receipt of diagnostic results can provide timely proof that shellfish harvesting should be stopped in a given area, thereby preventing additional exposures. We have developed and validated a rapid urinary enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based screening test to diagnose exposure to several major paralytic shellfish toxins. The lower limit of detection (LLOD) for multiple paralytic shellfish toxins was characterized as 0.02, 0.10, 0.10, 1.0, 1.0 and 15 ng/mL for saxitoxin, gonyautoxin 2,3, decarbamoyl gonyautoxin 2,3, decarbamoyl saxitoxin, neosaxitoxin and gonyautoxin 1,4, respectively. No interferences were identified in unspiked pooled urine or in specimens collected from unexposed individuals indicating that this method is specific for the paralytic shellfish toxins tested. The accuracy of this test was demonstrated in 10 individual urine specimens with osmolalities ranging from 217 to 1,063 mOsmol/kg and pHs ranging between 5.06 and 7.45. These specimens were spiked with toxins at their LLODs and the presence of toxins at these concentrations was accurately identified in all cases. These results indicate that this diagnostic test can be used to rapidly and accurately screen urine for paralytic shellfish toxins.
Attaining Melt Processing of Complementary Semiconducting Polymer Blends at 130 °C via Side-Chain Engineering.

Complementary semiconducting polymer blends (c-SPBs) have been proposed and tested to achieve melt-processed high-performance organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Prior to this study, melt processing requires temperatures as high as 180 °C. To implement this technique into low-cost and large-area thin-film manufacturing for flexible organic electronics, semiconducting materials meltable at temperatures tolerable by ubiquitous plastic substrates are still needed. We report here the design and melt processing of a c-SPB consisting of a matrix polymer (DPP-C5) and its fully conjugated analogue. By utilizing a siloxane-terminated alkyl chain and a branched alkyl chain as solubilizing groups, the matrix polymer DPP-C5 presents a melting temperature of 115 °C. The resulting c-SPB containing as low as 5% of the fully conjugated polymer could be melt-processed at 130 °C. The obtained OFET devices exhibit hole mobility approaching 1.0 cm2/(V s), threshold voltages below 5 V, and ION/IOFF around 105. This comb...
Some Non Standard Applications of the Laplace Method

In this paper we consider two nonstandard applications of the Laplace method. The first one is referred to the Inversion Formula of D.V. Widder and E.L. Post, from which a maximal theorem is proved. The second one is a special Calderon–Zygmund partition that gives us a genuine generalization of Natanson’s lemma in this context.
Einflüsse der Atmung auf die Verteilung des Wasserstoffions

Wesentliche Teile dieses Stoffes sind eigentlich schon behandelt worden. Sowohl der Transport von CO2 als auch der von O2 fuhrt vorubergehend zu der Freisetzung betrachtlicher Mengen Wasserstoffionen. Obwohl sie nur vorubergehend auftreten, konnte es doch zu gefahrlichen Situationen kommen, wenn sie sich nicht weitgehend aufhoben, indem Bicarbonat als H+-Acceptor wirkt, wahrend Hamoglobin H+-Donator sein mus und umgekehrt.
U.S. assisted housing programs and poverty deconcentration: A critical geographic review

The personal and social costs of concentrating low-income (typically minority) households in neighbourhoods with high proportions of similarly disadvantaged households has long been of concern in the U.S. In this chapter, Galster explores four federal housing programs tasked with reducing poverty concentrations over the last 25 years: (1) scattered-site public housing; (2) tenant-based Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV); (3) private developments subsidized through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC); and (4) mixed-income redevelopment of distressed public housing estates (HOPE VI). Based on a synthesis of the evidence, four conclusions are drawn. Residents of U.S. public housing on average reside in significantly more disadvantaged neighbourhoods compared to participants in any other assisted housing program. Residents of other types of site-based assisted housing programs (particularly LIHTC) do not reside in significantly different residential environments than tenant-based HCV holders. HCV households live in somewhat lower-poverty neighbourhoods than equivalent households who do not receive housing subsidies, but the comparative differences are more modest for residents in LIHTC units. HCV holders typically do not substantially improve their neighbourhood circumstances with subsequent moves. In understanding how these post-public housing policy efforts have not produced more significant deconcentration of poverty the chapter identifies both the scale and structure of the housing programs, characteristics and needs of residents, and structural barriers. In conclusion, an amalgam of supply-side and demand-side housing program reforms is suggested, coupled with non-housing strategies. Importantly, the US experience offers selective lessons for housing policymakers in Western Europe, though there are vast differences in the origins and policy options available for addressing concentrated poverty.
Calculated Estimates of Plasma Volume in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure-Comparison With Measured Volumes.

ABSTRACT Background Calculated estimates of plasma volume (PV) have been developed with the use of hemoglobin/hematocrit-body weight–based methods. The accuracy of such formula-derived values has not been thoroughly evaluated. The objective of this analysis was to compare the calculated estimate and a quantitative measure of PV in patients with chronic heart failure (HF). Methods and Results PV was measured with the use of a standardized computer-based indicator-dilution–labeled albumin technique in 110 patients with clinically stable chronic HF and correlated with paired Kaplan-Hakim (K-H) and Strauss formula estimates of PV. The K-H formula underestimated (3.4 ± 0.7 L) and the Strauss formula overestimated (5.3 ± 1.5 L) PV relative to the measured volume (4.3 ± 1.1 L). Calculated PV was only moderately correlated with measured PV by the K-H formula (r = 0.64; P Conclusions Calculated estimates of PV demonstrate limited association with measured volumes. These findings indicate that although formula-based estimates of PV have been shown to have prognostic value, they are limited in their reliability for volume management in patients with chronic HF.
Characterizing Participants in Activities Protecting the Environment: A Focus on Donating, Recycling, and Conservation Behaviors:

This study characterizes participants in three related, but different environmental protection activities. The activities studied here are donating items for reuse, recycling newspapers, and walkin...
Predictors of High Costs of Care among Otolaryngology Patients.

ObjectivesIdentify predictors of high-cost otolaryngology care.Study DesignCross-sectional.SettingTertiary academic multispecialty hospital.Subjects/MethodsAll patients undergoing ≥1 otolaryngologi...
Three Cheers for the Decline of the Corporate Income Tax

n recent years, governments around the world have slashed corporate tax rates -- with the average rate falling from 38 to 27 percent from 1992 to 2006 in a large sample of countries -- in response to global competitive pressures. Fearing that governments will lose a valuable revenue source, some observers have called for international cooperation to protect the corporate income tax from competitive pressures. These calls should be rejected. The corporate income tax causes needless distortions by penalizing saving for the future and penalizing particular kinds of financial securities issued by particular kinds of firms. Rather than colluding to maintain the corporate income tax, countries should switch to better-designed revenue sources.
Patterns of diuretic use in the intensive care unit.

Purpose To inform future outcomes research on diuretics, we sought to describe modern patterns of diuretic use in the intensive care unit (ICU), including diuretic type, combination, and dosing. We also investigated two possible quality improvement targets: furosemide dosing in renal impairment and inclusion of an initial bolus with continuous furosemide infusions. Materials and methods In this descriptive study, we retrospectively studied 46,037 adult ICU admissions from a publicly available database of patients in an urban, academic medical center. Results Diuretics were employed in nearly half (49%, 22,569/46,037) of ICU admissions. Mechanical ventilation, a history of heart failure, and admission to the post-cardiac surgery unit were associated with a higher frequency of diuretic use. Combination use of different diuretic classes was uncommon. Patients with severely impaired kidney function were less likely to receive diuretics. Furosemide was by far the most common diuretic given and the initial intravenous dose was only 20 mg in more than half of ICU admissions. Among patients treated with a continuous infusion, 30% did not receive a bolus on the day of infusion initiation. Conclusions Patterns of diuretic use varied by patient-specific factors and by ICU type. Diuretic dosing strategies may be suboptimal.
Culture in Corporate Law, or: A Black Corporation, a Christian Corporation, and a Maori Corporation Walk into a Bar...

Recent Supreme Court cases have entrenched a new image of corporate civic identity, assigning to the corporate person rights and abilities based upon the cultural characteristics, social ties, civic commitments, and internal lives of the human beings involved in it. This vision of the corporation is exemplified in recent cases implicating a corporate right to engage in political speech (Citizens United v Federal Election Commission) and a right of corporations to be free of government interference regarding religious convictions (Burwell v Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.). Although much is being written about the soundness of the results in these cases and potential inconsistencies of the legal analysis that led to these results, this article uses them to introduce a normatively potent theoretical perspective on corporate law that has for too long been exiled to the periphery of legal theorizing. When persons interact within a social system, social theories of culture – not just microeconomic theories of individual incentives or ethical theories of individual duty – are required to fully understand the rights, norms, behaviors, and duties of such persons. The law’s transformation of the corporation into a unique civic person capable of holding and expressing opinions and beliefs to other members of its social community thus urgently demands that corporate law scholars take cultural theory seriously if they are to fully understand the rights, norms, behaviors, and duties of modern corporations. This article makes the case for this increased centrality of cultural theory within corporate law and lays out some of the major challenges and implications that lie ahead as this development takes hold.
Comparing Front-End Enhancement Techniques and Multiconditioned Training for Robust Automatic Speech Recognition

We present comparison of various front-end enhancement techniques and multiconditioned training for robust Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) for additive noise. We compare De-noising Autoencoders (DAEs) based on Deep Neural Network (DNN), Time-Delay Neural Network (TDNN) architecture, and Time-Frequency (T-F) masking based DNN based front-ends. We train these front-ends and evaluate their performance on various seen/unseen noise conditions. In multiconditioned training, we train acoustic model on various noise conditions and test on seen/unseen noises along with Noise Aware Training (NAT). The results suggest that all front-ends provide performance improvement for seen noise conditions while degrading performance for unseen noise conditions. TDNN-DAE provides the most improvement for seen conditions while giving the most degradation for unseen conditions. We use a method to improve performance of TDNN-DAE in unseen conditions by training it on features enhanced using Vector Taylor Series with Acoustic Masking (VTS-AM) and Spectral Subtraction (SS). We show that these enhancement techniques improve the efficacy of the TDNN-DAE significantly in unseen noise conditions. Overall we observed that multiconditioned training still gives better performance in case of both seen/unseen noise conditions, although the enhanced TDNN-DAE comes closest among all the front-ends to the performance of multiconditioned training.
¿POR QUÉ LOS ESTADOS ADOPTAN INSTITUCIONES INEFICIENTES? EXPLICANDO EL ORIGEN DEL RÉGIMEN ANTI-CORRUPCIÓN INTERNACIONAL

Since the mid-1990s, corruption began to be understood as a global problem. In this context, an international regime oriented towards curbing corruption emerged, which led to a large number of countries to adopt its prescriptions, namely: anti-corruption legislation and agencies focused on the public sector. This article proposes a constructivist explanation to this phenomenon, arguing that an anti-corruption culture was strengthen by a set of international bureaucracies, which reproduced and legitimized a discourse against corruption through epistemic communities which linked corruption and underdevelopment. Thus, these bureaucracies fixed the meaning of corruption and diffused a series of specific policies, despite the fact that their efficiency had not yet been proven.
Using the accelerated failure time model to analyze current status data with misclassified covariates

Current status data arise commonly in applications when there is only one feasible observation time to check if the failure time has occurred, but the exact failure time remains unknown. To accommodate the covariate effect on failure time, the accelerated failure time (AFT) model has been widely used to analyze current status data with the distribution of the failure time assumed to be specified or unspecified. In this paper, we consider a logistic regression with a misclassfied covariate from the current status observation scheme. A semiparametric AFT model was built to model current status data to eliminate the bias caused by this misclassification. This model is also robust to the misspecification of the failure time compared to the parametric AFT model, as we assume an unknown distribution of the failure time in the proposed model. Furthermore, incorporating the covariate effect on the failure time increases the flexibility of the model. Finally, we adapt the Expectation-Maximization algorithm for estimation, which guarantees the convergence of the estimate. Both theory and empirical studies show the consistency of the estimator.
All Hands on Deck: Addressing Adolescent Depression in Pediatric Primary Care.

OBJECTIVE This study examines prevalence rates of elevated depression symptoms utilizing the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Item Modified for Adolescents (PHQ-9A), characterizes recommendations and interventions by primary care providers (PCPs) and behavioral health clinicians (BHCs) in response to elevated PHQ-9As, and identifies factors associated with improved PHQ-9A scores at follow-up pediatric primary care visits. METHODS A mixed methods approach was taken. Visit data, demographics, and PHQ-9A scores for 2,107 adolescents aged 11-18 were extracted using clinical informatics between January 3, 2017 and August 31, 2018. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analyses were conducted, followed by conventional content analysis of electronic medical records to examine qualitative results. Qualitative analyses were transformed into quantitative results and analyzed using point biserial correlations. RESULTS Of the 2,107 adolescents, 277 (13%) had an elevated PHQ-9A. Content analysis resulted in 40 actions (17 PCP codes, 23 BHC codes) in response to an elevated PHQ-9A. Significant correlations were found between an improved PHQ-9A at a follow-up visit and the PCP referring to integrated behavioral health (r = .20, p < .01), and BHCs recommending and checking in at a follow-up visit (r = .20, p < .05), conducting a risk assessment (r = .15, p < .05), and providing psychoeducation about mood symptoms (r = .15, p < .05). CONCLUSIONS Primary care is an ideal setting to address the public health crisis of untreated adolescent depression. Implications for screening processes, practice implications for PCPs and BHCs, future directions, and limitations are discussed.
Synthesis and fundamental studies of a photoresponsive oligonucleotide-upconverting nanoparticle covalent conjugate

Photo-mediated systems present a highly attractive route for controlling the intracellular delivery of their cargo. Of particular interest, oligonucleotides are a promising class of molecule that are highly versatile for intracellular applications, but lack the necessary in vivo stability on their own. A novel, greener synthetic route to a photocleavable phosphoramidite was developed. The amidite was incorporated into an oligonucleotide by solid-phase synthesis, which was covalently linked to UV-emissive lanthanide-doped upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) through click chemistry. The nanosystem was fully characterized for energy transfer dynamics between the photocleavable oligonucleotide and UCNP using 976 nm excitation. The practical and green synthesis of the photocleavable phosphoramidite, combined with the fundamental understanding of the interactions between the oligonucleotide and nanoparticle during excitation paves the way for future in vitro applications for this type of system.
Iminodiacetic Acid (IDA) Cation-Exchange Nonwoven Membranes for Efficient Capture of Antibodies and Antibody Fragments.

There is strong need to reduce the manufacturing costs and increase the downstream purification efficiency of high-value therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). This paper explores the performance of a weak cation-exchange membrane based on the coupling of IDA to poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) nonwoven fabrics. Uniform and conformal layers of poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (GMA) were first grafted to the surface of the nonwovens. Then IDA was coupled to the polyGMA layers under optimized conditions, resulting in membranes with very high permeability and binding capacity. This resulted in IgG dynamic binding capacities at very short residence times (0.1–2.0 min) that are much higher than those achieved by the best cation-exchange resins. Similar results were obtained in the purification of a single-chain (scFv) antibody fragment. As is customary with membrane systems, the dynamic binding capacities did not change significantly over a wide range of residence times. Finally, the excellent separation efficiency and potential reusability of the membrane were confirmed by five consecutive cycles of mAb capture from its cell culture harvest. The present work provides significant evidence that this weak cation-exchange nonwoven fabric platform might be a suitable alternative to packed resin chromatography for low-cost, higher productivity manufacturing of therapeutic mAbs and antibody fragments.
State Interests and Arbitration: The Russian Model

This article explores original aspects of the Russian approach to international arbitration, which differs in a number of key ways from practices elsewhere.
Post-Transcriptional Control of Mating-Type Gene Expression during Gametogenesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Gametogenesis in diploid cells of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae produces four haploid meiotic products called spores. Spores are dormant until nutrients trigger germination, when they bud asexually or mate to return to the diploid state. Each sporulating diploid produces a mix of spores of two haploid mating types, a and α. In asexually dividing haploids, the mating types result from distinct, mutually exclusive gene expression programs responsible for production of mating pheromones and the receptors to sense them, all of which are silent in diploids. It was assumed that spores only transcribe haploid- and mating-type-specific genes upon germination. We find that dormant spores of each mating type harbor transcripts representing all these genes, with the exception of Mata1, which we found to be enriched in a spores. Mata1 transcripts, from a rare yeast gene with two introns, were mostly unspliced. If the retained introns reflect tethering to the MATa locus, this could provide a mechanism for biased inheritance. Translation of pheromones and receptors were repressed at least until germination. We find antisense transcripts to many mating genes that may be responsible. These findings add to the growing number of examples of post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression during gametogenesis.
University of Benin F**K Porn: Lesbian Sex, Internet Voyeurism, and Corrective Rape at a Nigerian University

On July 3, 2012, three UniBen female students recorded themselves performing a strip tease and lap dance. The women then sent their recording to one or more friends. Within the space of a few hours, their video clip had gone viral. Numerous internet sex sites and discussion blogs captured the women temporary lapse of judgment; but none so poignantly as a website which boldly proclaimed: University of Benin F**k Porn. This paper explores the events of July 3. It considers the action of a group of male hooligans who forced the women to perform sex acts on themselves; and in a final assertion of their masculinity, raped them straight.  This paper is as much about the attitudes of an anonymous spectator audience, which refused to remain silent. The striptease, consequential rape, and internet feedback, highlight the precarious plight of Nigerian sexual minorities in a country where the government has made it their business to legislate about the sexual rights of its citizens. It also calls into question the role of the Internet in providing, on one hand a safe haven for sexual minorities; but on the other, easy access for unscrupulous men to exercise violent control over Nigerian women bodies.
Understanding the Effects of DRAM Correctable Error Logging at Scale

Fault tolerance poses a major challenge for future large-scale systems. Current research on fault tolerance has been principally focused on mitigating the impact of uncorrectable errors: errors that corrupt the state of the machine and require a restart from a known good state. However, correctable errors occur much more frequently than uncorrectable errors and may be even more common on future systems. Although an application can safely continue to execute when correctable errors occur, recovery from a correctable error requires the error to be corrected and, in most cases, information about its occurrence to be logged. The potential performance impact of these recovery activities has not been extensively studied in HPC. In this paper, we use simulation to examine the relationship between recovery from correctable errors and application performance for several important extreme-scale workloads. Our paper contains what is, to the best of our knowledge, the first detailed analysis of the impact of correctable errors on application performance. Our study shows that correctable errors can have significant impact on application performance for future systems. We also find that although the focus on correctable errors is focused on reducing failure rates, reducing the time required to log individual errors may have a greater impact on overheads at scale. Finally, this study outlines the error frequency and durations targets to keep correctable overheads similar to that of today’s systems. This paper provides critical analysis and insight into the overheads of correctable errors and provides practical advice to systems administrators and hardware designers in an effort to fine-tune performance to application and system characteristics.