cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Functional Connectivity DOT: Development and Clinical Implications in Infants

Resting-state functional connectivity is a powerful tool for assessing brain networks in the absence of cognitive asks (ideal for clinical and infant populations). We demonstrate fc-DOT and use it to assess infants.
Thermal Mapping of the Friction Stir Welding Process

Friction Stir Welding is a solid state ‘green’ welding method developed by The Welding Institute (UK). An internal thermal mapping instrument has been developed which allows for symmetrical mapping of the thermal fields developed by a Friction Stir Welding tool as it passes through the material being welded. This symmetrical mapping conclusively documents statistically the asymmetrical nature of the heat sources within the friction stir welding process. The various models in the literature are compared against these results. A model developed by the authors using classic metal cutting theory predicts the observed thermal fields. A successful predictive model will facilitate tool optimization and welding schedules, while optimizing the mechanical properties of the weld.© 2009 ASME
Dynamic analysis for epidemiological characteristics of measles during different immunization periods

Objective With wide use of measles vaccine,ages of at onset of measles tend to be in a "two-phase" mode.It is purposed to analyze epidemiological characteristics of measles,including dynamic changes in incidence and age structure of the patients with measles,to provide scientific evidence for development of current strategies for measles control.Methods Based on data of changes in epidemiological characteristics of measles,as well as outcomes of sero-epidemiologic surveillance,during the past 30 years after regular measles immunization,rules of measles incidence were described analyzed and predicted.Results Incidence of measles declined continuously during the past 30 years in Tongzhou District,Beijing,sustaining at a lower level of 3 per 100000,with fewer complications,less typical and mild clinical manifestations,and changing in age structure of the patients,but the incidence increased significantly after the year of 2005,showing a "two-phase" mode,i.e,peaks at ages younger than 8 months and older than 20 years,which mostly occurred in migrant population with outbreaks.Results of sero-epidemiologic surveillance showed that positive conversion rate for infants with primary immunization was higher during 1982～1991 and 1992～2006,respectively(χ2=0.189,P=0.921),and geometric mean titer(GMT)of antibodies against measles achieved a higher level with statistical significance,as compared to that in healthy population(χ2=12.784,P0.01),during those periods.Positive conversion rate in child-bearing women was 95.94 percent and 92.51 percent,respectively,significantly different from those in healthy population(χ2=1.524,P=0.900),but their GMT of antibodies were lower.Conclusion Both epidemiologic and sero-epidemiologic characteristics of measles changed,which formed immunological basis of measles outbreaks in varied periods.It suggests that development of immunization strategies for women at child-bearing ages and older children is an effective measure to cut "two-phase" age peak of measles incidence.
History of postpartum depression and the odds of maternal corporal punishment

Introduction Corporal punishment is closely related to physical abuse of children and is associated with several negative characteristics and experiences in children and youths. This study examined the relative unique contribution of 6 variables (social support, socioeconomic status, depression, self-efficacy, knowledge of child development, and history of postpartum depression) to maternal corporal punishment of children. Method A sample of 76 mothers was dichotomized into those who never spanked or hit with an object and those who have spanked or hit with an object. The mothers were recruited from a community mental health agency, an urban community center, and a court of common pleas. The measures in the present study were administered prior to mothers' participation in a parent training program. Mothers referred by the court of common pleas were mandated to participate in the parent training program, and the mothers from the community mental health agency and the urban community center volunteered to participate in the parent training program. However, all participants voluntarily completed the research measures. Results Binary logistic regression identified postpartum depression as the only variable to significantly increase the odds of corporal punishment (odds ratio = 6.307, 95% confidence interval = 1.098-36.214, p = .039). Discussion The findings demonstrate increased odds of corporal punishment among a high-risk sample of women with postpartum depression. The generalizability of these findings may be limited to low socioeconomic class and White and African American mothers enrolled in parent-training programs. (PsycINFO Database Record
Mesenteric venous thrombosis.

Objective This review explores the current literature on the natural history, diagnosis, and management of mesenteric venous thrombosis (MVT) in the modern era. Methods A review of the contemporary literature from 1997 to 2016 on MVT and its pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment was performed. Results MVT is an insidious and lethal disease associated with acute mesenteric ischemia. The prevalence of MVT has increased sharply during the past two decades commensurate with an increase in radiographic imaging for abdominal complaints. The optimal treatment of and approach to MVT is controversial, given the poorly understood natural history of this rare disease. Both endovascular and open surgical strategies in addition to systemic anticoagulation have been used as adjuncts to treat MVT with limited success. Despite advances in treatment, mortality associated with MVT is still high. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that failure to recanalize the portomesenteric venous system leads to an increased risk for development of sequelae of portal hypertension. Conclusions MVT is a challenging disease to treat, given the difficulty in establishing a prompt initial diagnosis and the inability to reliably monitor patients for evidence of impending bowel infarction. Careful selection of patients for endovascular, open, or hybrid approaches is key to achieving improved outcomes. However, the paucity of prospective data and our evolving understanding of the natural history of MVT make consensus treatment strategies difficult to ascertain.
Atopic dermatitis: the spectrum of disease.

The history of atopic dermatitis (AD) has been complicated by the lack of recognition of the full clinical and pathogenic spectrum of this disease. A review of the many names given to this entity reveals the intent of the early physicians to implicate but one of the many features (e.g., infantile eczema, allergic eczema, eczema flexorum, neurodermatitis, prurigo Besnier). It was not until 1933 that Drs. Wise and Sulzberger coined the phrase Atopic Eczema when they noted the high incidence of atopy and absence of positive patch tests 1 in cases that were all given different labels, but all had the same disease. In 1980, Hanifin and Rajka published diagnostic criteria for AD 2 that have been generally accepted by most allergists and dermatologists. Since then, there have been many variations on those criteria presented by other experts. 3,4 Despite the fact that AD is usually easy to diagnose, many of the controversies result from the fact that AD is claimed by two specialties, namely allergy and dermatology, and quandary still exists regarding the immunologic implications of the term atopy, compounded by the many dermatologic manifestations seen in patients with AD. As an allergist/dermatologist, I will attempt to objectively untangle some of the confusion and disagreement. Then, hopefully, we can better appreciate the full spectrum of the disease.
Reproducing the Motherboard: The Invisible Labor of Discourses that Gender Digital Fields

Within the digital workforce, women are disappearing. While there are many factors that could be ‘blamed’ for this phenomenon, this article takes issue with the sexist and patriarchal discourses that are deployed within the digital workforce. In many ways, sexist discourses are taken for granted within the digital workplace; and in that way, the discourses themselves are rendered invisible through a lack of concerted uncovering of the ways that these sexist discourses produce—and reproduce—women as sexual objects and outsiders in this field of work. The sexist and patriarchal discourses I address in this article validate the gender binary even as there is gendered play. It is this ‘play’ that also makes counter-hegemonic discourse and discursive acts productive (and reproductive), as I argue toward the end of the paper. Schools are a place where counter-hegemonic discourses and acts can be nurtured and, hopefully, affect and counteract the disappearance of women in digital fields.
The missing link in grassland restoration: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inoculation increases plant diversity and accelerates succession

Summary 1.Because soil microbial communities are often altered by anthropogenic disturbance, successful plant community restoration may require the restoration of beneficial soil microbes, such as arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. Recent evidence suggests that later successional grassland species are more strongly affected by AM fungi relative to early successional plants and that late successional plants consistently benefit from some AM fungi but not other AM fungal species. Many of these late successional species are also often missing in restorations despite being heavily seeded. 2.To assess the effects of AM fungal composition within grassland restorations, we inoculated plots with six different AM fungal community treatments including one of four different AM fungal species isolated from a prairie, a mixture of all four fungal species, and a non-inoculated control. AM fungi were introduced by planting sixteen different inoculated nurse plants into replicated plots. We also seeded the restoration with a diverse, 54-species prairie seed mixture. 3.We found that AM fungal inoculation drove plant community composition; plots inoculated with certain AM fungal treatments were dominated by desirable prairie plants whereas plots inoculated with other AM fungal species and the non-inoculated control were dominated by non-desirable plants including weeds and exotic species. Specifically, we found that many early successional species established well regardless of AM fungal inoculation, while the establishment and growth of many late successional species was strongly dependent on the presence of specific AM fungal species. Many conservative late successional species did not occur without inoculation. Overall, total plant community richness, diversity, and floristic quality index were all significantly improved with AM fungal inoculation, whereas we observed that non-desirable plant abundance was significantly greater in the non-inoculated plots. 4.Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that the lack of late successional establishment reported in many previous restorations may be due to ineffective arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal communities at these sites. We conclude that the reintroduction of AM fungi from reference prairie environments could improve restoration outcomes by promoting plant diversity and richness, especially for desirable later successional plant species, while simultaneously inhibiting less desirable weedy plants. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Effects of early‐life exposure to THIP on brainstem neuronal excitability in the Mecp2‐null mouse model of Rett syndrome before and after drug withdrawal

Rett syndrome (RTT) is mostly caused by mutations of the X‐linked MECP2 gene. Although the causal neuronal mechanisms are still unclear, accumulating experimental evidence obtained from Mecp2 −/Y mice suggests that imbalanced excitation/inhibition in central neurons plays a major role. Several approaches may help to rebalance the excitation/inhibition, including agonists of GABAA receptors (GABAAR). Indeed, our previous studies have shown that early‐life exposure of Mecp2 ‐null mice to the extrasynaptic GABAAR agonist THIP alleviates several RTT‐like symptoms including breathing disorders, motor dysfunction, social behaviors, and lifespan. However, how the chronic THIP affects the Mecp2 −/Y mice at the cellular level remains elusive. Here, we show that the THIP exposure in early lives markedly alleviated hyperexcitability of two types of brainstem neurons in Mecp2 −/Y mice. In neurons of the locus coeruleus (LC), known to be involved in breathing regulation, the hyperexcitability showed clear age‐dependence, which was associated with age‐dependent deterioration of the RTT‐like breathing irregularities. Both the neuronal hyperexcitability and the breathing disorders were relieved with early THIP treatment. In neurons of the mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus (Me5), both the neuronal hyperexcitability and the changes in intrinsic membrane properties were alleviated with the THIP treatment in Mecp2 ‐null mice. The effects of THIP on both LC and Me5 neuronal excitability remained 1 week after withdrawal. Persistent alleviation of breathing abnormalities in Mecp2 −/Y mice was also observed a week after THIP withdrawal. These results suggest that early‐life exposure to THIP, a potential therapeutic medicine, appears capable of controlling neuronal hyperexcitability in Mecp2 −/Y mice, which occurs in the absence of THIP in the recording solution, lasts at least 1 week after withdrawal, and may contribute to the RTT‐like symptom mitigation.
An novel spectrum sensing scheme combined with machine learning

Cognitive radio (CR) network technology is widely used as a approach to the solve the scarce radio spectrum by allowing the unlicensed users to access the licensed spectrum. Since in the CR network, the licensed users are easily be affected by the introduce of the unlicensed user, we have to avoid to bring the interference to the licensed users when the unlicensed users try to transmit the data on the licensed radio spectrum. It is very difficult to solve this problem especially when the licensed users are mobile. The situation becomes even worse when the distribution of the licensed users is unknown. In this paper, in order to improve the throughput under the mobile network, we propose a novel algorithm which combines the random forest to decrease the interference of the unlicensed user to the licensed users, thus, the network throughput can be dramatically improved. The simulation results show that our proposed novel algorithm has good performance in improving the mobile network throughput.
Trends in late HIV diagnosis among men who have sex with men in Jiangsu province, China: Results from four consecutive community-based surveys, 2011-2014.

Objectives To examine trends in HIV testing, late HIV diagnosis and associated factors among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Jiangsu province, China. Methods Four consecutive community-based cross-sectional surveys were conducted among MSM from 2011 to 2014 in eight cities in the province. Participants were recruited from MSM venues and via the internet. HIV bio-behavioral surveys were conducted to collect demographic and behavioral data and measure HIV infection. HIV-infected participants with CD4 counts less than 350 cells/uL were defined as having a late HIV diagnosis. Chi-square trend tests were used to compare temporal changes over the years and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with late diagnosis. Results A total of 2,441, 2,677, 2,591 and 2,610 participants were enrolled in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively. Testing for HIV in the last 12 months decreased over the time period, from 59.9% to 52.5% (p<0.001). Late HIV diagnosis remained high and steady, ranging from 33.3% to 44.2% over the years with no significant change over time (p = 0.418). MSM who were older than 24 years (aOR = 1.748, p = 0.020 for 25–39 years old; aOR = 3.148, p<0.001 for 40 years old or older), were recruited via internet (aOR = 1.596, p = 0.024), and did not have an HIV test in the past 12 months (aOR = 3.385, p<0.001) were more likely to be late diagnosed. Conclusions Our study showed a plateau in HIV testing among MSM in China, in parallel to high levels of late diagnosis. Emerging and innovative strategies such as HIV self-testing and reaching more MSM by internet, both highly acceptable to MSM in China, may reduce late diagnosis.
A comprehensive analysis of BRAF and KRAS mutation status in low-grade serous (LGS) and serous borderline (SB) ovarian cancer (OC).

5030 Background: LGS OC develops in a step-wise pattern from serous cystadenoma to SB tumor to invasive LGSOC. LGSOC accounts for 6-22% of serous OC and is a chemoresistant disease. Prior studies h...
Economics and the Political Economy of Adult Education

This chapter provides a critical overview of the contribution of economics to research and policy on adult education. It discusses three distinct political economy perspectives and links these to the shifting policy agenda related to adult education at the OECD over the last five decades. This is done to reveal the link between different political economy perspectives and the implications for analytical as well as political perspectives when approaching the study and policy of adult education. Some implications and challenges for research on adult education are discussed.
The Effect of Asymmetric Performance on Asynchronous Task Based Runtimes

It is generally accepted that future supercomputing workloads will consist of application compositions made up of coupled simulations as well as in-situ analytics. While these components have commonly been deployed using a space-shared configuration to minimize cross-workload interference, it is likely that not all the workload components will require the full processing capacity of the CPU cores they are running on. For instance, an analytics workload often does not need to run continuously and is not generally considered to have the same priority as simulation codes. In a space-shared configuration, this arrangement would lead to wasted resources due to periodically idle CPUs, which are generally unusable by traditional bulk synchronous parallel (BSP) applications. As a result, many have started to reconsider task based runtimes owing to their ability to dynamically utilize available CPU resources. While the dynamic behavior of task-based runtimes had historically been targeted at application induced load imbalances, the same basic situation arises due to the asymmetric performance resulting from time sharing a CPU with other workloads. Many have assumed that task based runtimes would be able to adapt easily to these new environments without significant modifications. In this paper, we present a preliminary set of experiments that measured how well asynchronous task-based runtimes are able to respond to load imbalances caused by the asymmetric performance of time shared CPUs. Our work focuses on a set of experiments using benchmarks running on both Charm++ and HPX-5 in the presence of a competing workload. The results show that while these runtimes are better suited at handling the scenarios than traditional runtimes, they are not yet capable of effectively addressing anything other than a fairly minimal level of CPU contention.
Intravesical Botulinum Toxin for Neurogenic Bladder—Can We Just Irrigate the Bladder with Botulinumtoxin?

Historically, patients failing treatment with anti-muscarinic medications were subjected to bladder augmentation or urinary diversion, invasive procedures with significant complications. The approval of botulinum toxin A (BTX-A) intravesical injections revolutionized the treatment of neurogenic bladder (NGB). Ongoing research efforts to find even less invasive methods of treatments are exploring the possibility of intravesical botulinum toxin instillations for the treatment of neurogenic bladder. This paper reviews BTX-A in the treatment of neurogenic bladder, intravesical instillation of other medications in the treatment of this disease, available research on intravesical instillation of BTX-A for neurogenic bladder, and other forms of voiding dysfunction. Initial research has been done on rodents and human subjects. Some studies on BTX-A intravesical instillations have shown preliminary success and others have shown no improvement compared to placebo. Research groups have used a variety of mechanisms to overcome the low permeability of the bladder wall, including protamine sulfate, DMSO, and liposomes. While studies have shown improvements in markers of bladder pain response, a variety of urodynamic study (UDS) parameters, and patient satisfaction scores, none have shown a decrease in contraction amplitude. The most recent development is the use of liposomes as a delivery system for intravesical instillation of BTX. They have seen some preliminary success as some endpoints were met, others not. There is limited research on intravesical instillation of BTX-A for neurogenic detrusor overactivity. While available data suggests some degree of success in modulating symptoms, the data does not show an increase in bladder capacity or decreased voiding pressure. Further research is needed on the impact of BTX-A intravesical instillations in the NGB patient population.
Using software-based performance counters to expose low-level open MPI performance information

This paper details the implementation and usage of software-based performance counters to understand the performance of a particular implementation of the MPI standard, Open MPI. Such counters can expose intrinsic features of the software stack that are not available otherwise in a generic and portable way. The PMPI-interface is useful for instrumenting MPI applications at a user level, however it is insufficient for providing meaningful internal MPI performance details. While the Peruse interface provides more detailed information on state changes within Open MPI, it has not seen widespread adoption. We introduce a simple low-level approach that instruments the Open MPI code at key locations to provide fine-grained MPI performance metrics. We evaluate the overhead associated with adding these counters to Open MPI as well as their use in determining bottlenecks and areas for improvement both in user code and the MPI implementation itself.
‘Our periodic table of hate’: The archive of 1984 Punjab in Jaspreet Singh’s Helium

Highly critical of the Indian government's cover up of the 1984 Sikh pogroms, Indian-Canadian author Jaspreet Singh offers a scathing expose of the anti-Sikh violence in his 2013 novel Helium. Sing...
Metallocene influence on poly(cyclosilane) structure and properties

Poly(cyclosilane)s, conjugated polymers inspired by crystalline silicon, are synthesized by group 4 metallocene-promoted dehydrocoupling polymerization. Changes in metallocene structure and reactivity are correlated with changes in poly(cyclosilane) chain length and optical properties. This work demonstrates the ability of target-directed synthesis to afford tunable, complex polymeric architectures.
Area and International Studies: Development in Eastern Europe

Eastern European political development has been driven by two factors in the past century. First, economic backwardness has created the need to catch up with the West. Second, the adoption of foreign political models has been altered and corrupted by local resistance and circumstance. All four East European regime types in the twentieth century have been decisively influenced by these factors: liberalism (1900–1930), fascism (1930–1945), communism (1945–1989/91), postcommunist democracy (1989–present) have all confronted the confining conditions of economic backwardness and political geography. At century's end it appeared that history was repeating itself with Eastern Europe once again trying to integrate itself into the larger liberal capitalist world order. The difference between today and a century ago, however, is the capacity and willingness of the West to integrate a selected few countries of the formerly communist world into its economic and security structures. Those that remain in the ‘new East’ can be expected to repeat the long established pattern of historical development of the region.
Resonant spectra of multipole-bound anions

In multipole-bound anions, the excess electron is attached by a short-range multipole potential of a neutral molecule. Such anions are prototypical marginally bound open quantum systems. In particular, around the critical multipole moment required to attach the valence electron, multipole-bound anions exhibit critical behavior associated with a transition from bound states dominated by low-$\ensuremath{\ell}$ partial waves to the electron continuum. In this work, multipole-bound anions are described using a nonadiabatic electron-plus-rotor model. The electron-molecule pseudopotential is represented by a short-range multipole field with a Gaussian form factor. The resulting coupled-channel Schr\"odinger equation is solved by means of the Berggren expansion method, in which the electron's wave function is decomposed into bound states, narrow resonances, and the nonresonant scattering continuum. We show that the Gaussian model predicts the critical transition at the detachment threshold. Resonant states, including bound states, decaying resonances, subthreshold resonances, and antibound states are studied, and exceptional points where two resonant states coalesce are predicted. We discuss the transition of rotational band structures around the threshold and study the effects of channel coupling on the decay width of resonant poles.
Assessment of non-technical skills: why aren’t we there yet?

Knowledge and application of non-technical skills (NTS) may represent the greatest challenge facing medical education today. For centuries, medical education focused on developing individual clinical knowledge and technical skills. But, the modern complexities of healthcare delivery and rapid expansion of medical knowledge necessitate a high-functioning team approach, which requires human factors engineering and NTS to operate effectively. Other complex high-risk industries—like aviation, oil drilling, nuclear power and the military—have aligned their educational systems to match.1–3 While certain healthcare disciplines have developed frameworks to ensure the acquisition and maintenance of clinical and technical skills, no standard framework for NTS exists. With the increasing computational support for clinical and technical skills—decision aids, predictive algorithms, robotic surgery and image interpretation—the true added value of human clinicians may lie with their mastery of NTS. Failure of NTS has been linked to poor quality and safety of care.2 A prospective observational study of 28 laparoscopic cholecystectomies found a strong correlation between surgical team situational awareness and fewer technical errors.4 In Japan, a 3-year retrospective review of fatal medical accidents submitted to a third-party safety organisation found roughly half to be due to failures of NTS, most often related to situational awareness, teamwork and decision-making.5 A review of malpractice claims identified >1 personnel involved in 83% of errors, but only 24% directly attributable to communication breakdown, which was the only NTS specifically studied.6 A review of trauma and orthopaedic-related adverse events from the National Reporting and Learning System found many to be related to NTS—situational awareness (52%), communication/teamwork (21%), leadership (16%) and decision-making (12%).7 Prospective direct observation of 293 surgical procedures found a strong association between less effective teamwork behaviours—as measured by the Behavioural Marker Risk …
Homogeneity tests of covariance matrices with high-dimensional longitudinal data

This paper deals with the detection and identification of changepoints among covariances of high-dimensional longitudinal data, where the number of features is greater than both the sample size and the number of repeated measurements. The proposed methods are applicable under general temporal-spatial dependence. A new test statistic is introduced for changepoint detection, and its asymptotic distribution is established. If a changepoint is detected, an estimate of the location is provided. The rate of convergence of the estimator is shown to depend on the data dimension, sample size, and signal-to-noise ratio. Binary segmentation is used to estimate the locations of possibly multiple changepoints, and the corresponding estimator is shown to be consistent under mild conditions. Simulation studies provide the empirical size and power of the proposed test and the accuracy of the changepoint estimator. An application to a time-course microarray dataset identifies gene sets with significant gene interaction changes over time.
Learning for lensless mask-based imaging

We demonstrate a learned, unrolled image reconstruction algorithm for lensless mask-based cameras. We train on simulated data and test on experimental data, showing a 10× improvement in reconstruction speed.
A proof of Hecke’s formula for binary quadratic forms

In Mathematische Werke, Hecke defines the operator Tp and describes their utility in conjunction with theta series of quadratic forms. In particular, he shows that the image of theta series associa...
Tracking penguins, sensing petroleum: “Data gaps” and the politics of marine ecology in the South Atlantic:

Drawing on ethnographic research in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), this paper analyzes how disputed oil interests become embedded in data infrastructures for environmental governance. Nearly four...
Building a Culture of Scholarship Within a Family Medicine Department: a Successful Eight-Year Journey of Incremental Interventions Following a Historical Perspective of Family Medicine Research.

Family medicine (FM), a discipline that eschewed worshiping the ivory tower of research in favor of patient care, has struggled with its role in the world of scholarly activity. FM residencies mirror this conflict despite the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s requirements for creating an environment of inquiry and scholarship. Because of this, the faculty within the Department of Family and Community Health (dFCH) at Marshall University changed its culture of scholarship. A faculty-driven needs-based assessment of the department’s strengths and deficiencies for enhancing scholarship was conducted. A three-pronged approach of creating motivation, developing an infrastructure, and consolidating resources was created. This process was periodically re-evaluated and augmented. Departmental scholarly activity, defined as both publications and presentations, was tracked for an eight year period. Scholarly output increased by 483% (6 to 29) in year 1 and 10-fold by year 8 (6 to 60) from the pre-culture change baseline. This represents one- and eight-year increases for both publications (4 to 6 and 4 to 18 respectively) and presentations (2 to 23 and 2 to 42 respectively). Scholarly involvement became more widespread among faculty (n = 30) and increased linearly for residents (n = 19) and students (n = 13). Through a series of needs-based interventions with consistent reanalysis, the dFCH changed its culture of scholarship. Understanding that other departments have similar competing interests to negotiate, the principles of creating motivation, developing research infrastructure, and consolidating resources could be successfully applied elsewhere.
The Calculus and Quotients of Social Illiteracy: Equations of Race, Responsibility & Critical-Ethical Literacy in Schools.

Should students in public schools learn to think critically about racial (in)justice and social (in)equity? The results of a recent mixed methods survey for educators revealed that a significant nu...
Private Equity in the Hospital Industry

This paper studies the growing presence of private equity (PE) acquirers in the hospital industry. We examine employment, operational efficiency and patient outcomes at hospitals acquired by PE firms. While the total employment at target hospitals significantly declines, the proportion of physicians and nurses in the total workforce (skilled worker ratio) increases for hospitals acquired by a publicly traded PE backed hospital. Employment cuts also occur in hospitals acquired by non-PE acquirers, but skilled worker ratio does not increase in those hospitals. PE-backed acquirers, especially publicly traded ones, are also uniquely associated with reductions in overhead costs. Consistent with PE acquirers increasing skilled worker ratio, patient satisfaction scores do not decline at PE-acquired hospitals and even improve along some dimensions. In contrast, patient satisfaction significantly worsens at hospitals acquired by non-PE acquirers. Examining real patient outcomes, we find that PE acquirers are not associated with higher mortality and readmission rates at target hospitals than non-PE acquirers. Overall, our paper provides a comprehensive look at the role of PE acquirers in the hospital industry, and documents nuanced differences between PE and non-PE acquirers, as well as between PE backed acquirers with and without access to public capital markets.
Modeling the Relationship between Natural Disasters and Crime in the United States

AbstractThis research explores the relationship between disaster and crime in the continental United States to investigate the question of whether disasters of different magnitudes differentially affect crime rates. Three sociological theories inform the analyses. First, sociology of disaster researchers, using the therapeutic community hypothesis, have long asserted that disasters reduce criminal activity both during and after the event. Second, criminologists using social disorganization theory assert that disaster may increase the likelihood and occurrence of crime. Third, researchers using routine activity theory suggest that disaster may increase or decrease criminal activity, depending on how a disaster restructures formal and informal mechanisms of social control and criminal opportunity. The research utilizes geographic and longitudinal analyses of 14 years of county-level data on sociodemographic predictors of crime, property and violent crime rates, and disaster impacts. Using hierarchical linea...
Joint Scene and Signal Modeling for Wavelet-Based VideoCoding with Cellular Neural Network Architecture

This paper presents a joint scene and signal modeling for the design of an adaptive quantization scheme applied to the wavelet coefficients in subband video coding applications. The joint modeling includes two integrated components: the scene modeling characterized by the neighborhood binding with Gibbs random field and the signal modeling characterized by the matching of the wavelet coefficient distribution. With this joint modeling, the quantization becomes adaptive to not only wavelet coefficient signal distribution but also the prominent image scene structures. The proposed quantization scheme based on the joint scene and signal modeling is accomplished through adaptive clustering with spatial neighborhood constraints. Such spatial constraint allows the quantization to shift its bit allocation, if necessary, to those perceptually more important coefficients so that the preservation of scene structure can be achieved. This joint modeling enables the quantization to reach beyond the limit of the traditional statistical signal modeling-based approaches which often lack scene adaptivity. Furthermore, the dynamically enforced spatial constraints of the Gibbs random field are able to overcome the shortcomings of the artificial block division which are usually the major source of distortion when the video is coded by block-based approaches at low bit rate. In addition, we introduce a cellular neural network architecture for the hardware implementation of this proposed adaptive quantization. We prove that this cellular neural network does converge to the desired steady state with the suggested update scheme. The adaptive quantization scheme based on the joint scene and signal modeling has been successfully applied to videoconferencing application and very favorable results have been obtained. We believe that this joint modeling-based video coding will have an impact on many other applications because it is able to simultaneously perform signal adaptive and scene adaptive quantization.
Upper mantle P wave velocity structure and transition zone thickness beneath the Arabian Shield

[1] We use P wave tomography and receiver function analysis to place new constraints on the nature of the thermal anomaly in the upper mantle beneath the Arabian Shield. A broad, low velocity anomaly is found in the upper mantle characterized by a strong lateral velocity gradient, with a peak to peak anomaly of at least 4–6% extending from the Red Sea eastward into the interior of the shield. The lowest velocities are found under the region adjacent to the Red Sea where elevations are more than 1 km higher than elsewhere in the Arabian Shield. We infer that large lateral temperature variations exist beneath the Arabian Shield associated with the higher elevations near the Red Sea. Receiver function stacks of P to S conversions from the 410 and 660 km discontinuities do not indicate thinning of the transition zone, suggesting that the broad, low velocity anomaly is likely confined to depths shallower than 410 km.
Microsaccadic eye movements and binocular rivalry.

Eye movements were monitored with a sensitive binocular measuring device during presentation of stimuli that caused binocular rivalry. It was found that the number of microsaccades was approximately 50% higher when measured during rivalry than when measured during periods of normal viewing. The level of microsaccadic activity is greater at the beginning than toward the end of the suppression interval. The results suggest that the depth of suppression associated with binocular rivalry is not constant over the duration of a rivalry interval.
Thermal Degradation of Texture in Apples

Thermal degradation of texture in Cortland and Spigold varieties of apples was studied using instrumental Texture Profile Analysis. The loss of hardness was modeled as a first order reaction and the activation energy was found to be 26.5 kcal/mole and 15.6 kcal/mole for Cortland and Spigold, respectively. The z value for the loss of hardness was found to be 24.8°C and 42.2°C, respectively, for Cortland and Spigold. The temperature of processing was found to significantly change hardness, cohesiveness, and chewiness in both the varieties. In the case of Spigold, time of processing was found to significantly affect hardness and cohesiveness. And in the case of Cortland, time of processing was found to significantly change hardness, springiness and chewiness.
Maternal diet and juvenile quality in the sea star Leptasterias aequalis

Abstract Nutritional provisioning that passes from a mother to her offspring can produce maternal carryover effects. Though the importance of maternal carryover effects on embryos and early juveniles is well established, it is less clear how long the effects persist and whether they can be detected in subsequent life stages of the offspring. Manipulating the amount of food available to a maternal organism is one way to manipulate maternal investment ability and thereby test maternal carryover. We collected adult brooding Leptasterias aequalis from three beaches with varying prey communities in the northern Puget Sound. When broods were released, we measured size and survival of the juveniles under starvation conditions. The maternal sea stars were then assigned to different feeding treatments and their diets were controlled for a full year until they spawned again. We measured size and growth of juveniles released from these second broods. Juvenile L. aequalis from the initial broods showed surprising resistance to starvation with 80% survival after 6 months and some juveniles living a full year with no food. Juvenile survival over time varied significantly among the mothers from the three study beaches, but we were unable to demonstrate a significant difference in the mean month of juvenile death. Juvenile size also varied significantly among mothers from the three study beaches, even when differences in female size by beach were accounted for. Adult female feeding treatments had no effect on the size of juveniles in the second broods. The patterns of juvenile performance mirrored those seen in the first year regardless of feeding treatment. The beach that a female came from seemed to have a stronger effect than a year of diet treatment. When looking at multiple generations of carryover in L. aequalis , it seems that genetic legacies, and possibly full female feeding history, have a greater effect on juvenile quality than a single year of maternal feeding.
Natural Resource Assessment: An Approach to Science Based Planning in National Parks

We conducted a natural resource assessment at two national parks, New River Gorge National River and Shenandoah National Park, to help meet the goals of the Natural Resource Challenge—a program to help strengthen natural resource management at national parks. We met this challenge by synthesizing and interpreting natural resource information for planning purposes and we identified information gaps and natural significance of resources. We identified a variety of natural resources at both parks as being globally and/or nationally significant, including large expanses of unfragmented, mixed-mesophytic forests that qualify for wilderness protection, rare plant communities, diverse assemblages of neotropical migratory birds and salamanders, and outstanding aquatic recreational resources. In addition, these parks function, in part, as ecological reserves for plants in and wildlife. With these significant natural resources in mind, we also developed a suite of natural resource management recommendations in light of increasing threats from within and outside park boundaries. We hope that our approach can provide a blueprint for natural resource conservation at publically owned lands.
The long and the short of aberrant ciliogenesis in Huntington disease

Huntington disease (HD) is a dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorder that is caused by a mutant huntingtin (HTT) gene encoding a version of the Htt protein with an expanded polyglutamine stretch. Although the HTT gene was discovered more than 18 years ago, the functions of normal Htt and the mechanisms by which mutant Htt causes disease are not well defined. In this issue of the JCI, Keryer et al. uncovered a novel function for normal Htt in ciliogenesis and report that mutant Htt causes hypermorphic ciliogenesis and ciliary dysfunction. These observations suggest that it is now critical to understand the extent to which ciliary dysfunction contributes to the different symptoms of HD and to determine whether therapeutic strategies designed to normalize ciliary function can ameliorate the disease.
microRNAs at the regulatory frontier: an investigation into how microRNAs impact the development and effector functions of CD4 T cells

CD4 T cells are an integral part of adaptive immunity. microRNAs have been identified as fundamental regulators of post-transcriptional programs and to play roles in T lymphocytes’ development, differentiation, and effector functions. To better understand the role of miRNAs in T cells and to identify potential therapeutic tools and targets, we have undertaken studies of miRNAs that modulate or are modulated by T-cell receptor signaling. We identified miR-181a as a key regulator of TCR signaling strength, and hence T-cell development, and the miR-17-92 cluster as an important player in CD4 T cells’ response against antigens. These discoveries, coupled with work by other researchers, reveal the power and importance of miRNA-mediated regulation in T-cell responses and offer new insights into the burgeoning field of immunoregulation.
Statistical mechanical models for dissociative adsorption of O2 on metal(100) surfaces with blocking, steering, and funneling

We develop statistical mechanical models amenable to analytic treatment for the dissociative adsorption of O2 at hollow sites on fcc(100) metal surfaces. The models incorporate exclusion of nearest-neighbor pairs of adsorbed O. However, corresponding simple site-blocking models, where adsorption requires a large ensemble of available sites, exhibit an anomalously fast initial decrease in sticking. Thus, in addition to blocking, our models also incorporate more facile adsorption via orientational steering and funneling dynamics (features supported by ab initio Molecular Dynamics studies). Behavior for equilibrated adlayers is distinct from those with finite adspecies mobility. We focus on the low-temperature limited-mobility regime where analysis of the associated master equations readily produces exact results for both short- and long-time behavior. Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation is also utilized to provide a more complete picture of behavior. These models capture both the initial decrease and the saturation of the experimentally observed sticking versus coverage, as well as features of non-equilibrium adlayer ordering as assessed by surface-sensitive diffraction.
Efficient pattern recognition and classification using a combination of maximum average correlation height and polynomial distance classifier correlation filters

A new technique using a combination of maximum average correlation height (MACH) filter and polynomial distance classifier correlation filter (PDCCF) for simultaneous detection and classification of single/multiple identical and dissimilar targets is proposed in this paper. In this technique, a MACH filter is formulated for each desired target class from the training images of the corresponding target with expected size and orientation variations such that the size of the filter is the same as the input scene. Then a multi-class PDCCF is formulated from the training images of all target classes such that the size of the filter is the same as the expected targets. For real time applications, the input scene is first correlated with all MACH filters and the correlation outputs are combined. The regions of interest (ROI) containing the probable targets are selected from the input scene based on the ROIs with higher correlation peak values in the combined correlation output. The PDCCF filter is then applied to these ROIs to identify target types and reject clutters and/or backgrounds. To increase the robustness of the proposed technique, multiple filters are formulated for multiple ranges of target size and/or orientation variations. This two-stage system is faster and yields more accurate results compared to the existing three-stage system, which involves wide area prescreening, detection using MACH filters, and classification using distance classifier correlation filter. The simulation results using real life imagery show that the proposed technique can detect and classify the desired targets with higher efficiency irrespective of their distortion or the number of targets present in the input scene, when compared to the alternate techniques.