cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Poppers: Epidemiology and Clinical Management of Inhaled Nitrite Abuse

Commonly referred to as "poppers," inhaled nitrites have a long history of abuse. Poppers are rapid-onset, short-acting potent vasodilators that produce a rush characterized by warm sensations and feelings of dizziness. Poppers sometimes are used to facilitate anal intercourse because of their actions on the anal sphincter. Epidemiologically, the frequent use of nitrites by men who have sex with men has led some experts to implicate these chemicals in the pathogenesis of Kaposi's sarcoma and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Controlled clinical trials to examine this potential correlation have not been conducted, and the use of nitrites simply may be a marker for other high-risk behaviors such as unprotected sex. Although regulated in the United States, many nitrite compounds and isomers are sold at various venues including bars, bookstores, and over the Internet. Adverse effects associated with these products vary from mild allergic reactions to life-threatening methemoglobinemia. The potential for drug-drug interactions and a propensity toward unsafe sex also exist. Clinicians should be familiar with the populations most likely to abuse these agents and with the clinical effects and management guidelines for acute ingestions.
Isoenzyme Polymorphism in Flowering Plants III Gel Electrophoretic Methods and Applications

Gel electrophoretic methods and equipment which were devised or modified for rapid and economic application to angiosperm tissues are described. Staining schedules are outlined that proved effective on a wide variety of tissues for elucidation of isoenzymes with the following activities; eslerase, peroxidase, catalase, leucine amino peptidase, phosphatase, amylase, and glutamic-oxalacetic-transaminase. Illustrative applications are discussed.
Attitudes of college football officials regarding NCAA mouthguard regulations and player compliance

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) mandates the use of brightly colored, intraoral mouthguards by football players to reduce the frequency and severity of craniofacial and intraoral morbidity and mortality, and to enhance the ability of officials to observe player compliance. The purpose of this 12-question mail survey was to determine the attitudes of on-field game officials regarding current NCAA mouthguard regulations and patterns of utilization by college football players. The sample consisted of all 50 Big East Football Conference officials; a response rate of 100 percent was achieved. Only 42 percent of the officials reported observing all players in compliance, and quarterbacks were identified by others as the least compliant group (52%). The majority (88%) indicated that the 1990 rule for brightly colored mouthguards had been beneficial to them in determining player compliance, and 52 percent reported that this rule had resulted in more frequent use by these athletes. Nearly all officials (96%) indicated that they would issue a warning for noncompliance to the player or coach, rather than charging a timeout for a violation as prescribed by NCAA regulations. The majority (70%) believe current enforcement is appropriate, but expressed the opinion that coaches should be held more accountable for player compliance.
Bayesian Model of Protein Primary Sequence for Secondary Structure Prediction

Determining the primary structure (i.e., amino acid sequence) of a protein has become cheaper, faster, and more accurate. Higher order protein structure provides insight into a protein’s function in the cell. Understanding a protein’s secondary structure is a first step towards this goal. Therefore, a number of computational prediction methods have been developed to predict secondary structure from just the primary amino acid sequence. The most successful methods use machine learning approaches that are quite accurate, but do not directly incorporate structural information. As a step towards improving secondary structure reduction given the primary structure, we propose a Bayesian model based on the knob-socket model of protein packing in secondary structure. The method considers the packing influence of residues on the secondary structure determination, including those packed close in space but distant in sequence. By performing an assessment of our method on 2 test sets we show how incorporation of multiple sequence alignment data, similarly to PSIPRED, provides balance and improves the accuracy of the predictions. Software implementing the methods is provided as a web application and a stand-alone implementation.
Microcomputer Applications: Facts, Functions, Fads, and Fallacies.

Successful and effective applications for microcomputers demands an understanding of the distinctions between the fads and fallacies from the actual facts and functions about this potentially powerful clinical tool. Without such information, users may end up being sold technology rather than buying desired applications. This article discusses issues and controversies about microcomputers that could blur the users ability to differentiate appropriate users from fadishness and gimmickry.
Who's skipping school: characteristics of truants in 8th and 10th grade.

Background: Truancy is a serious concern that affects most school districts in the United States; however, we do not have accurate estimates of the prevalence of truancy due to inconsistent tracking and reporting practices of schools. As a result, our best current estimates of the national state of truancy may be from self-reported data. In this article, the first objective is to present the prevalence of self-reported recent truancy (ie, truancy within the past 4 weeks) among 8th- and 10th-grade students. The second objective is to explore associations between recent truant behavior, demographic and family characteristics, school-related risk factors, and drug use. Methods: The 2003 wave of the Monitoring the Future data was analyzed. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between many potential predictors and the probability of recent truancy. Results: Nearly, 11% of 8th graders and over 16% of 10th graders reported recent truancy. Among the most salient predictors of recent truancy were parental education, having large amounts of unsupervised time after school, school disengagement variables (eg, poor grades and low educational aspirations), and drug use. Conclusions: Truancy is a common behavior among adolescents and can have potentially deleterious effects. This paper offers insight into the types of students who may be prone to skipping school and suggests potential target audiences for truancy prevention initiatives.
A reconstruction of an unknown 3-D surface from a collection of its cross sections; an implementation

In biological research, medical diagnosis and therapy, as well as in architecture, automobile, and ship design a three dimensional solid must be reconstructed from a set of sections, either to aid in the comprehension of the object's structure or to facilitate its automatic manipulation and analysis. This paper presents a mathematical solution to that problem which is due to Fuchs, Kedem and Uselton [3] and an algorithm that implements that solution; the solution of the problem requires the approximation of each lateral surface band delimited by two neighbouring contour lines by tiles. To determine the set of tiles needed to approximate each lateral band, one has to find a certain minimum cost cycle in a directed toroidal graph. It is shown that the search for this cycle could be restricted to a planar graph. An algorithm for finding that cycle is given and its implementation is presented.
Late Outcome of Patients With Premature Carotid Atherosclerosis After Carotid Endarterectomy

Background and Purpose The durability of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) in young adults with premature carotid atherosclerosis has not been adequately assessed. This study examined the late recurrence and mortality rates in young adults undergoing CEA. Methods We studied 42 young patients (mean age, 45.5±0.5 years) who underwent CEA and compared them with 110 older control subjects (mean age, 65.8±0.4 years) undergoing CEA during the same period. Data were collected regarding demographics, operative indications, follow-up carotid duplex studies, recurrent symptoms, and deaths. Results Demographics and atherosclerotic risk factors were similar between the two groups. During a mean follow-up of 57.9±6.0 months, 10 (24%) young patients and 3 (3%) control subjects developed significant, recurrent ipsilateral stenoses (≥50% diameter loss) (P<.001). Six (14%) young patients and 1 control subject had recurrent ipsilateral symptoms (P=.002). Nine (21%) young patients and 26 (24%) older control subjects required con...
Presence of antibrain antibodies in obsessive-compulsive disorder secondary to pineal gland germinoma: a case report.

Received March 26, 2013; revised April 30, 2014; accepted May 1, 2014. From Department of Psychiatry, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, David-Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA. Send correspondence and reprint requests to Weiguo Zhu, Department of Psychiatry, Harbor-UCLAMedical Center, 1000W Carson Street, Torrance, Los Angeles, CA 90509; e-mail: wzhumd@ ucla.edu Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. Introduction
Computational electronics in the 21 st century: Challenges, opportunities, issues

Semiconductor electronics transformed the 20th century, and computational electronics played an important role in its success. As we embark on a new century, it is worth reflecting on where electronics is heading and on how computational electronics can continue to play a vital role. This talk presents that authorpsilas personal reflections on this topic and will, he hopes, spark a discussion within the community.
Insight into the sporulation phosphorelay: Crystal structure of the sensor domain of Bacillus subtilis histidine kinase, KinD.

The Bacillus subtilis KinD signal-transducing histidine kinase is a part of the sporulation phosphorelay known to regulate important developmental decisions such as sporulation and biofilm formation. We have determined crystal structures of the extracytoplasmic sensing domain of KinD, which was copurified and crystallized with a pyruvate ligand. The structure of a ligand-binding site mutant was also determined; it was copurified and crystallized with an acetate ligand. The structure of the KinD extracytoplasmic segment is similar to that of several other sensing domains of signal transduction proteins and is composed of tandem Per-Arnt-Sim (PAS)-like domains. The KinD ligand-binding site is located on the membrane distal PAS-like domain and appears to be highly selective; a single mutation, R131A, abolishes pyruvate binding and the mutant binds acetate instead. Differential scanning fluorimetry, using a variety of monocarboxylic and dicarboxylic acids, identified pyruvate, propionate, and butyrate but not lactate, acetate, or malate as KinD ligands. A recent report found that malate induces biofilm formation in a KinD-dependent manner. It was suggested that malate might induce a metabolic shift and increased secretion of the KinD ligand of unknown identity. The structure and binding assays now suggests that this ligand is pyruvate and/or other small monocarboxylic acids. In summary, this study gives a first insight into the identity of a molecular ligand for one of the five phosphorelay kinases of B. subtilis.
Analysis off scheduling algorithms for integrated-services networks using a semi-fluid-flow model

An approach to evaluating performance with such algorithms as the cost-based scheduling, occupancy-based, priority token bank, and leaky bucket algorithms in the realistic case in which data arrivals are highly bursty, but voice and video packets are not, is presented. The mean queuing delay for data bursts is determined analytically in some important scenarios, and an efficient simulation approach based on the same model is described for cases in which analysis is not currently possible. The model is a semi-fluid-flow model in which voice or video packets are assumed to arrive as a continuous-bit-rate fluid flow, whereas bursts of data arrive according to a Poisson process. The extent to which performance for a given load can be improved by using one of the above algorithms, rather than the static priority algorithm, is shown. >
Social Powers and Effective Classroom Management: Enhancing Teacher–Student Relationships

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specific conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.
Discriminating precursors of common fragments for large-scale metabolite profiling by triple quadrupole mass spectrometry

Motivation: The goal of large-scale metabolite profiling is to compare the relative concentrations of as many metabolites extracted from biological samples as possible. This is typically accomplished by measuring the abundances of thousands of ions with high-resolution and high mass accuracy mass spectrometers. Although the data from these instruments provide a comprehensive fingerprint of each sample, identifying the structures of the thousands of detected ions is still challenging and time intensive. An alternative, less-comprehensive approach is to use triple quadrupole (QqQ) mass spectrometry to analyze predetermined sets of metabolites (typically fewer than several hundred). This is done using authentic standards to develop QqQ experiments that specifically detect only the targeted metabolites, with the advantage that the need for ion identification after profiling is eliminated. Results: Here, we propose a framework to extend the application of QqQ mass spectrometers to large-scale metabolite profiling. We aim to provide a foundation for designing QqQ multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) experiments for each of the 82 696 metabolites in the METLIN metabolite database. First, we identify common fragmentation products from the experimental fragmentation data in METLIN. Then, we model the likelihoods of each precursor structure in METLIN producing each common fragmentation product. With these likelihood estimates, we select ensembles of common fragmentation products that minimize our uncertainty about metabolite identities. We demonstrate encouraging performance and, based on our results, we suggest how our method can be integrated with future work to develop large-scale MRM experiments. Availability and implementation: Our predictions, Supplementary results, and the code for estimating likelihoods and selecting ensembles of fragmentation reactions are made available on the lab website at http://pattilab.wustl.edu/FragPred. Contact: ude.ltsuw@jittapjg Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
A dual-fitting 3/2-approximation algorithm for some minimum-cost graph problems

In an ESA 2011 paper, Couetoux [2] gives a beautiful $\frac{3}{2}$-approximation algorithm for the problem of finding a minimum-cost set of edges such that each connected component has at least k vertices in it. The algorithm improved on previous 2-approximation algorithms for the problem. In this paper, we reanalyze Couetoux's algorithm using dual-fitting and show how to generalize the algorithm to a broader class of graph problems previously considered in the literature.
Parallel indirect solution of optimal control problems

SUMMARY This paper presents an algorithm for the indirect solution of optimal control problems that contain mixed state and control variable inequality constraints. The necessary conditions for optimality lead to an inequality constrained two-point BVP with index-1 differential-algebraic equations (BVP-DAEs). These BVP-DAEs are solved using a multiple shooting method where the DAEs are approximated using a single-step linearly implicit Runge–Kutta (Rosenbrock–Wanner) method. An interior-point Newton method is used to solve the residual equations associated with the multiple shooting discretization. The elements of the residual equations, and the Jacobian of the residual equations, are constructed in parallel. The search direction for the interior-point method is computed by solving a sparse bordered almost block diagonal (BABD) linear system. Here, a parallel-structured orthogonal factorization algorithm is used to solve the BABD system. Examples are presented to illustrate the efficiency of the parallel algorithm. It is shown that an American National Standards Institute C implementation of the parallel algorithm achieves significant speedup with the increase in the number of processors used. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Comparative assessment of three standardized robotic surgery training methods

Objectives To evaluate three standardized robotic surgery training methods, inanimate, virtual reality and in vivo, for their construct validity. To explore the concept of cross-method validity, where the relative performance of each method is compared. Materials and Methods Robotic surgical skills were prospectively assessed in 49 participating surgeons who were classified as follows: ‘novice/trainee’: urology residents, previous experience <30 cases (n = 38) and ‘experts’: faculty surgeons, previous experience ≥30 cases (n = 11). Three standardized, validated training methods were used: (i) structured inanimate tasks; (ii) virtual reality exercises on the da Vinci Skills Simulator (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA, USA); and (iii) a standardized robotic surgical task in a live porcine model with performance graded by the Global Evaluative Assessment of Robotic Skills (GEARS) tool. A Kruskal–Wallis test was used to evaluate performance differences between novices and experts (construct validity). Spearman's correlation coefficient (ρ) was used to measure the association of performance across inanimate, simulation and in vivo methods (cross-method validity). Results Novice and expert surgeons had previously performed a median (range) of 0 (0–20) and 300 (30–2000) robotic cases, respectively (P < 0.001). Construct validity: experts consistently outperformed residents with all three methods (P < 0.001). Cross-method validity: overall performance of inanimate tasks significantly correlated with virtual reality robotic performance (ρ = −0.7, P < 0.001) and in vivo robotic performance based on GEARS (ρ = −0.8, P < 0.0001). Virtual reality performance and in vivo tissue performance were also found to be strongly correlated (ρ = 0.6, P < 0.001). Conclusions We propose the novel concept of cross-method validity, which may provide a method of evaluating the relative value of various forms of skills education and assessment. We externally confirmed the construct validity of each featured training tool.
Postthaw survival of rhesus macaque sperm: variation in the response of individual males to different freezing protocols

This study was designed to assess the effects of various cryopreservation protocols on the postthaw survival of rhesus macaque sperm. Multiple ejaculates of five mature males were collected and frozen by each of four different methods. Cryopreservation significantly reduced motility in all samples, regardless of the method, and the response of different ejaculates of the same male to each method proved to be consistent. The freezing method was a significant factor in determining the immediate postthaw motility, although this effect disappeared after 4 hr. Moreover, there was a significant interaction between individual males and freezing method suggesting that developing a single freezing protocol that is universally suitable may be difficult. Am. J. Primatol. 70:1093–1096, 2008. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Payback of solar systems

Abstract A variety of solar conversion systems is studied in a dynamic economical model in which the real cost of energy inflates. Payback times and dates of probable market entries are estimated. A distributed system to convert solar energy into heat and electricity in direct proximity to the consumer (Solar One system) is economically attractive even for solar cells with well below 10 per cent conversion efficiency when these can be installed in flat plate collectors for less than $30/m 2 , in addition to the collector cost.
Cash Flow Information And The Prediction Of Financially Distressed Mining, Oil And Gas Firms: A Comparative Study

This study tests whether cash flow information is more useful to creditors in predicting financially distressed mining, oil and gas firms than it is in predicting financial distress in other industries. The results of this study suggest that cash flows are more useful to creditors in predicting financially distressed mining, oil and gas firms than they are predicting financially distressed firms in other industries. Results also show that different cash flows are useful in predicting financial distressed mining, oil and gas firms than are useful in predicting financially distressed control firms.
Accelerated mirror descent in continuous and discrete time

We study accelerated mirror descent dynamics in continuous and discrete time. Combining the original continuous-time motivation of mirror descent with a recent ODE interpretation of Nesterov's accelerated method, we propose a family of continuous-time descent dynamics for convex functions with Lipschitz gradients, such that the solution trajectories converge to the optimum at a O(1/t2) rate. We then show that a large family of first-order accelerated methods can be obtained as a discretization of the ODE, and these methods converge at a O(1/k2) rate. This connection between accelerated mirror descent and the ODE provides an intuitive approach to the design and analysis of accelerated first-order algorithms.
Effects of midbrain and spinal cord transections on sympathetic nerve responses to heating

In the present study, we investigated the contributions of forebrain, brain stem, and spinal neural circuits to heating-induced sympathetic nerve discharge (SND) responses in chloralose-anesthetize...
Optical magnetism

Magnetic dipole radiation one fourth as intense as electric dipole radiation, as well as a novel nonlinear magneto-optical effect are reported in dielectric media.
Tissue limited mosaicism for unbalanced autosomal translocation in a child with congenital anomalies and mental retardation.

We studied a patient with a sporadic mental retardation/multiple congenital anomalies syndrome. Chromosome analysis showed a 46,XX, inv(9)(p11;q13) karyotype in all lymphocytes. Fibroblasts from two separate skin biopsies revealed a mosaic karyotype. Some 22.5% of fibroblasts had a karyotype like that of the lymphocytes, while 77.5% of fibroblasts had a karyotype 46,XX,inv(9)(p11;q13),der(12),t(12;?)(p13;?). The data in this case emphasize the drawbacks of confining cytogenetic analysis to lymphocytes.
High Temperature Strength of Ordered and Disordered Ni4Mo

The alloy Ni−20 at. % Mo is FCC and disordered at high temperatures, but below 868°C forms a superlattice of the D1a type. The disordered structure can be retained by quenching, and subsequent aging below 868°C can develop a variety of ordered domain structures. In the disordered condition, the yield stength at 25°C is typically 140– The tensile properties were measured for two ordered domain sizes: 24 nm and 3,000 nm. For the 24 nm domain size, the yield strength at 25°C was 862 MPa (125,000 psi). This decreased with increasing test temperature to about 690 MPa (100,000 psi) at 800°C, then decreased greatly to about 210 MPa (30,000 psi) at 1000°C. In the ordered condition, the alloy had a very low ductility (1% elongation or less) from 25°C to the disordering temperature of 868°C, above which it increased considerably (e.g., 30% elongation). The alloy with the 3,000 nm domain size showed similar behavior, although the strength was less. (The ordered alloy with 24 nm domain size had a yield strength-temperature curve similar to that of Waspaloy.) These results are correlated with fractography of the tensile samples.
A comparison of earthquake damage areas as a function of magnitude across the United States

This study investigates the relationship between earthquake magnitude and the size of damage areas in the eastern and western United States. To quantify damage area as a function of moment magnitude (M), 149 MMI VI and VII areas for 109 earthquakes (88 in the western United States, 21 in the eastern United States and Canada) were measured. Regression of isoseismal areas versus M indicated that areas in the East were larger than those in the West, at both intensity levels, by an average 5 × in the M 4.5 to 7.5 range. In terms of radii for circles of equivalent area, these results indicate that damaging ground motion from shocks of the same magnitude extend 2 × the epicentral distance in eastern North America compared to the West. To determine source and site parameters consistent with the above results, response spectral levels for eastern North America were stochastically simulated and compared with response spectral ordinates derived from recorded strong ground motion data in the western United States. Stress-drop values of 200 bars, combined with a surficial 2-km-thick low velocity “sedimentary” layer over rock basement, produced results that are compatible with the intensity observations, i.e., similar response spectral levels in the east at approximately twice their epicentral distance in the western U.S. distance. These results suggest that ground motion modeling in eastern North America may need to incorporate source and site parameters different from those presently in general use. The results are also of importance to eastern U.S. hazard assessments as they require allowance for the larger damage areas in preparedness and mitigation programs.
Analysis on Dynamic Characteristic of Control Mode for ±800 kV Yun-Guang UHVDC

When Yun-Guang ±800 kV ultra high voltage direct current(UHVDC) project is completed,a parallel AC/DC power system with long distance and heavy capacity will come out.And the UHVDC control mode has important influence on the power system stability.Consequently,Yun-Guang ±800 kV UHVDC bipolar model was established in EMTDC.The effect of AC system faults on the UHVDC transmission system in both constant current and constant power control modes and the response of UHVDC control system were computed and analyzed,respectively.Moreover,the dynamic characteristic of the AC/DC system in two control strategies was comparatively analyzed.The results show that,compared with the constant current mode,all the electrical variables change more slowly than in constant power mode during the power system fault.After the fault is cleared,a sudden increase of DC current may cause short time commutation failure.And the system needs more time to come back to normal operation.
Thinking about Food and Drug Safety in New Situation

At present,food and drug safety is an important component of public safety and becomes a public hotspot in China.This paper analyzed the situation of food and drug safety in China and pointed out many existent problems and emphasized the importance of enhancing the surverillance and management for food and drug.We should continually bring forth new ideas in the surverillance and management for food and drug in many ways, including concept, system, technology, information systems management and so on.We should inaugurate newprospects of the surverillance and management for food and drug.
A Cigarette in a Powder Magazine: The Frontier, Nationalism, and Reform, 1919–1930

In August 1917, the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, announced Britain’s long-term goals in India. He declared that the British intended to increase the number of Indians in “every branch of the administration,” and develop self-governing institutions, “with a view to the progressive realization of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire.”1 This declaration, made in the heat of war and in a time of growing opposition to British rule, opened the way for the enactment of the cautious and gradualist Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919.
Cholinergic activation of phospholipase D in lacrimal gland acini is independent of protein kinase C and calcium.

To determine if rat lacrimal gland acini contain phospholipase D (PLD) activity, we took advantage of PLD9s unique ability, in the presence of ethanol, to catalyze a transphosphatidylation reaction to produce phosphatidylethanol (PEth). Lacrimal gland acini were labeled for 3 h with [14C]stearic acid, preincubated for 20 min in the presence of 2% ethanol, and incubated for 20 min with or without agonists. Total cellular lipids were then extracted and analyzed by thin-layer chromatography, and the radioactivity was determined by liquid scintillation counting. Carbachol (1 mM), a cholinergic agonist, stimulated the production of both [14C]PEth and [14C]phosphatidic acid ([14C]PA) twofold. This effect was completely blocked by the muscarinic antagonist atropine (10 microM). [14C]PEth accumulation was also stimulated twofold by the active phorbol esters, 4 beta-phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate and 4 beta-phorbol 12,13-dibutyrate at 1 microM. Ionomycin (1 microM), a Ca2+ ionophore, also stimulated the production of [14C]PEth twofold. In contrast to carbachol, neither phorbol esters nor ionomycin stimulated [14C]PA production. Neither [14C]PEth nor [14C]PA production was altered by epinephrine (1 mM), a nonselective adrenergic agonist, or phenylephrine (0.1 and 1 mM), a specific alpha 1-adrenergic agonist. We concluded that PLD activity, modulated by muscarinic receptors, protein kinase C, and Ca2+, but not by adrenergic receptors, is present in rat lacrimal gland acini. We also concluded that cholinergic activation of PLD appears to be independent of PKC and Ca2+.
The interactive effects of drinking motives, age, and self-criticism in predicting hazardous drinking

ABSTRACTBackground: Individuals who disclose hazardous drinking often report strong motives to drink, which may occur to modulate views of the self. Investigating self-criticism tendencies in models of drinking motives may help explain who is more susceptible to drinking for internal or external reasons. As much of the research on drinking motives and alcohol use is conducted in young adult or college student samples, studying these relations in a wider age range is clearly needed. Objectives: The current study examined the interactive relationship between drinking motives (internal: coping, enhancement; external: social, conformity), levels of self-criticism (internalized, comparative), and age to predict hazardous drinking. Methods: Participants (N = 427, Mage = 34.16, 54.8% female) who endorsed drinking within the last year completed an online study assessing these constructs. Results: Results indicated internalized self-criticism and drinking to cope interacted to predict hazardous drinking for middle...
HIV-1 and breastfeeding in the United States.

While breastfeeding remains a significant source of mother-to-child HIV transmission (MTCT) globally, it is the recommended infant feeding option for HIV-infected women in resource-limited settings [1]. However, HIV-infected women in the USA—where breast milk alternatives are acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable, and safe—have been counseled to avoid all breastfeeding since 1985 [2]. A number of studies have found that despite such recommendations against breastfeeding by HIV-infected women, a very small proportion of HIV-infected women in the USA continue to breastfeed their infants [3–5] for various reasons. Many of these women received late or no prenatal care, inadequate antiretroviral (ARV) prophylaxis, or were not diagnosed with HIV until at or after labor and delivery. While breastfeeding has never been a major source of perinatal HIV infections in the USA, studies have identified the practice as a risk factor for MTCT in the USA [4]. Complete avoidance remains the only sure way to prevent late postnatal HIV transmission through breastfeeding.
Maximal leakage minimization for the Shannon cipher system

A variation of the Shannon cipher system, in which lossy communication is allowed and performance of an encryption scheme is measured in terms of maximal leakage (recently proposed by the authors [1]), is investigated. The asymptotic behavior of normalized maximal leakage is studied, and a single-letter characterization of the optimal limit is derived. Moreover, asymptotically-optimal encryption schemes are demonstrated.
Shifting Patterns of Supply and Demand in the World Copper Industry

Copper industry analysts are predicting the continued decline of traditional copper producing centers in the developed world, particularly the United States, in contrast to the continued robust growth of the industry in underdeveloped countries and consuming centers outside the U.S. These predictions are based on current trends and the theory suggested by Malenbaum of demand maturation, according to which declines in the intensity of metals' use may be an inevitable function of rising per capita income and industrial aging. On supply side, falling grades of ore, rising costs and constraints on environmental damage would aggravate the rate of such declines. This paper examines the economic, geo-technical and engineering bases for making such predictions of significant shifts in the pattern of copper supplies and demands within the framework of a multi-market equilibrium model under free trade. It finds little under competitive conditions to demonstrate that either rapid world growth of copper demands or dr...
Energy-efficient routing for 2D grid wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks have become possible because of the on-going improvements in smart sensor technology. One important issue in wireless sensor networks is to achieve energy-efficient operation in order to extend network lifetime. For many applications, placement of sensing nodes can be pre-determined. In this paper, we propose several power-efficient routing algorithms for a sensor network with 2D grid topology, demonstrating that optimal routings are operation-specific and energy consumption can be minimized by optimally selecting data paths and base station location.
Online learning and integration of complex action and word lexicons for language grounding

This paper presents a computational framework for the development and integration of action and language capabilities through symbol grounding. Our approach is based around the fundamental technique of building lexicons of perceptual “simulators” which link noisy sensory experiences to internal symbolic representations. These sensory representations are paired with a basic model of association, allowing for the grounding of linguistic symbols directly in action knowledge - a grounding which is then exploited to bootstrap the development of more advanced capabilities. The performance of this computational framework is tested in the context of online tutoring scenarios using the iCub robotic platform. Such an experimental environment requires development of techniques and algorithms suited for incremental learning and real-time processing.
An Evaluation of the Equilibrium Value of the Euro and Its Predecessors Based on Economic Fundamentals

ABSTRACTThis study presents constructed equilibrium exchange rates (EERs) of the euro and its predecessors the European Unit of Account and the European Currency Unit, as well as the euro’s member states using a relative version of purchasing power parity (PPP) equilibrium. The revealed patterns of over- and undervaluation demonstrate how well suited the northern member states, in contrast to the southern states, were for the monetary union. Moreover, a relative persistent overvaluation for Greece and Portugal suggests that their ambition to join the euro reduced their competitiveness. The constructed EERs of the euro suggest the European Commission was able to set the initial value of the euro with a high degree of accuracy. Furthermore, the EERs indicate a successive strengthening of the fundamental value of the euro versus the U.S. dollar from 1999 to 2015. The analysis shows a close correlation between the deviations from equilibrium and the events of Greece’s sovereign debt crisis. In addition, the p...
When Words Speak Louder Without Actions

Information and control rights are central aspects of leadership, management, and corporate governance. This paper studies a principal-agent model that features both communication and intervention as alternative means to exert influence. The main result shows that a principal's power to intervene in an agent's decision limits the ability of the principal to effectively communicate her private information. The perverse effect of intervention on communication can harm the principal, especially when the cost of intervention is low or the underlying agency problem is severe. These novel results are applied to managerial leadership, corporate boards, private equity, and shareholder activism.
Conceptualizing holistic community resilience to climate events: Foundation for a climate resilience screening index

The concept of resilience has been evolving over the past decade as a way to address the current and future challenges nations, states and cities face from a changing climate. Understanding how the environment (natural and built), climate event risk, societal interactions and governance reflect community resilience for adaptive management is critical for envisioning urban and natural environments that can persist through extreme weather events and longer-term shifts in climate. To be successful, this interaction of these five domains must result in maintaining quality of life and ensuring equal access to the benefits or the protection from harm for all segments of the population. An exhaustive literature review of climate resilience approaches was conducted examining the two primary elements of resilience - vulnerability and recoverability. The results of this review were examined to determine if any existing frameworks addressed the above five major areas in an integrated manner. While some aspects of a resilience model were available for existing sources, no comprehensive approach was available. A new conceptual model for resilience to climate events is proposed that incorporates some available structures and addresses these five domains at a national, regional, state and county spatial scale for a variety of climate-induced events ranging from superstorms to droughts and their concomitant events such as wildfires, floods, and pest invasions. This conceptual model will be developed in a manner that will permit comparisons among governance units (e.g., counties) and permit an examination of best reliance practices.
Emulating a mobile spatially distributed sensor by mobile pointwise sensors in state estimation of partial differential equations via spatial interpolation

In the estimation of spatially distributed processes, one comes across three factors that greatly affect the convergence properties of the estimation error. The architecture of the estimator, the number of the sensing devices and their statistics, and finally the sensor models. The last factor is described by the spatial distribution of the sensing device itself. It is a fact that the “more” information over the spatial domain a given sensing device has, the better the convergence properties of the estimation error will be. As realistic sensing devices have a spatial support that is defined over an extremely small region within the spatial domain, an idealized sensor with a large spatial support appears to be unrealizable. However, when a small number of sensing devices, with a sensor model given by the Dirac spatial function (pointwise measurement) is optimally positioned over the support of such an idealized sensing device, an approximation of the idealized measurement can be attained. This is examined in this work, in which an a priori given number of sensing devices is optimally distributed within the spatial support of such an idealized device using either a uniform gridding or gridding based on a modification of the Centroidal Voronoi Tessellations which places the sensors in locations that divide the spatial support of the filter kernel in regions of equal areas. To further improve on the convergence properties, a guidance scheme repositions the centroid of the pointwise sensors using spatial gradient arguments. Numerical studies provide further insights and comparison between the use of a single idealized sensing device and that of multiple realistic sensors that are guided within the spatial domain using the proposed spatial gradient-based guidance.
A matter of fact? Adolescents' assumptions about crime, laws, and authority and their domain-specific beliefs about punishment.

This study examined adolescents' beliefs about the amount of punishment individuals should receive for violating different laws and whether these beliefs are connected with their informational assumptions (i.e., perceived facts) about crime, laws, and authority. American adolescents (N = 340; Mage = 16.64, 58.2% female) reported their judgments concerning the appropriate punishment for violating laws regulating domain-specific behaviors and their informational assumptions regarding the prevalence and causes of crime, beliefs that authority is knowledgeable, and the purpose of punishment. Greater internal attributions for crime was associated with stronger punishment judgments for violating laws that regulate moral and conventional issues. Greater beliefs that punishment teaches right from wrong was associated with stronger punishment judgments for violating laws that regulate drug-related prudential issues, and lower punishment judgments for violating laws that regulate personal issues. Greater beliefs that authorities are more knowledgeable than others was associated with stronger punishment judgments for violating laws that regulate personal issues.
Downscaling of climate model output for Alaskan stakeholders.

Abstract The paper summarizes an end-to-end activity connecting the global climate modeling enterprise with users of climate information in Alaska. The effort included retrieval of the requisite observational datasets and model output, a model evaluation and selection procedure, the actual downscaling by the delta method with its inherent bias-adjustment, and the provision of products to a range of users through visualization software that empowers users to explore the downscaled output and its sensitivities. An additional software tool enables users to examine skill metrics and relative rankings of 21 global models for Alaska and six other domains in the Northern Hemisphere. The downscaled temperatures and precipitation are made available as calendar-month decadal means under three different greenhouse forcing scenarios through 2100 for more than 4000 communities in Alaska and western Canada. The visualization package displays the uncertainties inherent in the multi-model ensemble projections. These uncertainties are often larger than the projected changes.
Reflections on a 30-Year Career of Research on Work and Personality by Melvin Kohn and Colleagues

When Class and Conformity (Kohn, 1969) appeared in my life it was in my second undergraduate sociology course, Soc. 123, Social Stratification. It was a red and white paperback with little pseudo-people hierarchically arranged on the cover. The Cold War and the Vietnam War were in full swing. What was happening in the streets pushed me into sociology classes; the little red and white book helped keep me there. The thesis could be remembered for the final exam (memorable came later), never mind that canonical correlation had to wait several years for statistics classes to be grasped fully. How and why did parents' social class matter in the lives of sons and daughters? Why did middle class parents value self-direction for their children while working class parents valued obedience, cleanliness, and neatness. It was because these class-related patterns were linked to the conditions of people's work lives-levels of routinization, closeness of supervision, and substantive complexity of their work. Two phenomena that one always sensed were linked in everyday life, social class and values, had a deeper causal explanation in work conditions. Earlier research had established clearly the empirical correlation between social class and values, but a puzzle remained as to the underlying mechanisms. The puzzle was solved when Kohn and colleagues dug deeper into the structured conditions of everyday life than the abstract labels of middle and working class that had dominated previous studies. I passed the exam. The red and white book had more than a decade of research to draw on before its birth. It was to become the first of a trilogy of books by Kohn
A Publication-Based Popularity Index (PPI) for Healthcare Dataset Ranking

Data are critical in this age of big data and machine learning. Due to their inherent complexity, health-related data are unique in that the datasets are usually acquired for specific purposes and with special designs. As more and more healthcare datasets become available, of which many are public, choosing a quality dataset that is suitable for specific research inquiries is becoming a challenging question for health informatics researchers, especially the learners of this field. On the other hand, from the data provider's perspective, it is important to identify features of datasets that make some datasets more valuable than others so as to improve the design and acquisition of future datasets. To address these questions, we need to develop formal mechanisms to measure the goodness of datasets according to certain criteria. In this study, we propose one way of measuring the value of healthcare datasets that is based on how often the datasets are used and reported by researchers, which we call the Publication-based Popularity Index (PPI). In this article, we describe the design of the PPI and discuss its properties. We demonstrate the utility of the PPI by ranking 14 representative healthcare datasets. We believe that the PPI can enable an overall ranking of all healthcare datasets and thus provide an important dimension to sort search results for dataset integration systems as well as a starting point for identifying and examining the design of the most valuable healthcare datasets so that features of these datasets can inform future designs.