cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
One month of cocaine abstinence potentiates rapid dopamine signaling in the nucleus accumbens core.

Cocaine addiction is a chronic relapsing disorder that is difficult to treat in part because addicts relapse even after extended periods of abstinence. Given the importance of the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system in drug addiction, we sought to characterize cocaine abstinence induced changes in rapid DA signaling in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Here, rats were trained to self-administer cocaine for 14 consecutive days, then divided into two groups. Day 1 rats (D1; n = 7) underwent 24 h of abstinence; Day 30 rats (D30; n = 7) underwent one month of abstinence. After abstinence, all rats underwent a single extinction session. Immediately after, rats were deeply anesthetized and fast scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) was used to measure DA release and uptake dynamics in the NAc core before and following a single cocaine injection. We show that one month of cocaine abstinence potentiates the peak concentration of electrically evoked DA in the NAc core following an acute injection of cocaine. This potentiation is not related to alterations in DA uptake parameters, which are unchanged following abstinence, but may reflect alterations in release. These results further support the abundance of literature showing that cocaine abstinence induces neuroplasticity in brain areas implicated in drug reward and relapse. The present findings also demonstrate critical differences between abstinence-induced neuroadaptations in DA signaling and those caused by drug exposure itself.
Intraabdominal Lymphatic Malformations: Pearls and Pitfalls of Diagnosis and Differential Diagnoses in Pediatric Patients.

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this article is to review the practical imaging workup and characteristic imaging appearances of intraabdominal lymphatic malformations (LMs) in the pediatric population with a brief discussion of some common differential diagnoses found in a vascular anomaly clinic. CONCLUSION. LMs are uncommon pediatric lesions. Because of their rarity among LMs overall, a tendency to present later in life than superficial LMs, and often incidental identification, intraabdominal LMs pose a particular diagnostic challenge, and pathologic entities that are more prevalent must be carefully excluded first. Although the diagnosis of most intraabdominal LMs can be reliably based on clear understanding of characteristic imaging findings, histologic correlation may be necessary in some cases.
Rap as Korean Rhyme: Local Enregisterment of the Foreign

This article investigates how a “foreign” register of rap is emerging among South Korean rappers through debates and experiments. It focuses on a dispute about the essentiality and translatability of rhyming, a novel verbal-artistic device, and traces how rhyme has become understood as a defining feature of the register of Korean rap. Korean rappers have grappled with metapragmatic definitions of the semiotic linkage between rhyme and rap and the realization of rhyme at a pragmatic level, performatively bringing into being new forms of rhyming, based on their knowledge of local registers and of the linguistic differences between Korean and English. This ongoing pragmatic/metapragmatic practice contributes to the register-formation of Korean rap as a dynamic process that remains open to the creation of new strategies for realizing “Korean rhyme” in its genre-history.
MHC-Matched Stem Cell Transplantation in Rhesus Macaques Using a Costimulation Blockade-Based Immunomodulation Platform.

Abstract A strategy for producing high-level hematopoietic chimerism after non-myeloablative conditioning has been established in the rhesus macaque. This strategy relies on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation after induction with a non-myeloablative dose of busulfan and blockade of the IL2-receptor in the setting of mTOR inhibition with sirolimus and combined CD28/CD154 costimulation blockade. Hematopoietic stem cells derived from bone marrow and leukopheresis products both were found to be successful in inducing high-level chimerism. When transplants were performed between animals that were totally unmatched at the MHC, mean peripheral blood peak donor chimerism was 81% with a median chimerism duration of 145 days. Additional immune modulation strategies, such as pre-transplant CD8 depletion, donor-specific transfusion, recipient thymectomy or peritransplant deoxyspergualin treatment did not improve the level or durability of chimerism in the setting of these MHC-unmatched transplants. Recipient immunologic assessment suggested that chimerism occurred amidst donor-specific down-regulation of alloreactive T cells, and the reappearance of vigorous T-mediated alloreactivity accompanied rejection of the transplants. Furthermore, viral reactivation constituted a significant transplant-related toxicity and may have negatively impacted the ability to achieve indefinite survival of transplanted stem cells. In order to address the dual complications of lack of indefinite chimerism and viral reactivation, we sought to increase the level of MHC matching between donor and recipient transplant pairs. This necessitated a large-scale analysis of an NIH-sponsored rhesus macaque colony in order to determine the familial relationships and MHC-disparity between potential transplant pairs. We have analyzed over 500 animals from this colony, which has resulted in the first primate transplant series between donors and recipients with known degrees of MHC disparity. Our results suggest that viral reactivation is vastly improved when transplant occurs with even one shared MHC haplotype, but that the current immunomodulation strategy is insufficient to achieve immune tolerance in these haplo-identical transplants. However, we have observed long-term mixed chimerism in fully MHC matched transplant pairs that is stable even years after withdrawl of costimulation blockade-based immunomodulation. These results suggest that costimulation blockade may be an important addition to current immunomodulation strategies for producing stable engraftment after nonmyeloablative pre-transplant preparation, with potential application to non-malignant hematologic diseases and genetic disorders.
A search for neutrons in single-phase palladium-deuterium

A palladium rod is charged to relatively high levels of deuterium without passing through the two-phase region of this system. This is accomplished by a combination of gaseous high-temperature–high...
Developing the Next Generation of Community-Based Scholars

As we train the next generation of scholars, we should be cognizant that the academy is increasingly being asked to justify its value to broader society. We discuss ways in which students can prepare for the changing directions of the academy as they participate in a community geography research training program. Our results reveal the impacts of our program, contextualize lessons learned from creating community-based research experiences, and provide data to support a framework for other scholars to develop community-based research training programs.
Internación Psiquiátrica Involuntaria. Antecedentes, Reflexiones y Desafíos

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Article 12 General Commentary, explicitly states that persons with mental illnesses must always have full exercise of their legal rights in all their aspects. Assistants or support persons must not substitute or have undue influence on the decisions of persons with disabilities, including the expression of their consent. However, the number of involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations appears to be increasing globally and in our country. This article reviews the national and international context of involuntary hospitalizations, including the Chilean legislation and administrative rules, the published evidence about patients' outcomes and clinician attitudes. The authors conclude that the conflict in this issue is not limited to the respect for autonomy and the obligation to provide care. We are now experiencing a new way of caring patients. The complex local, social and cultural realities, require a renewed knowledge and documentation of experiences.
Questions on Research and Education

This chapter contains questions from across medical disciplines. The questions are designed to test the learner’s understanding of the concepts of professionalism and ethics in medicine as they apply to research and training. Correct answers are listed at the end of the section. The learner may refer back to the relevant chapter in Part I for the conceptual framework.
G Protein Deactivation Mechanisms in Vertebrate Phototransduction

Heterotrimeric G proteins are widely used in nature to facilitate cellular responses to extracellular stimuli. In humans, these G proteins mediate vision and other senses, modulate neurotransmission, and are required for hormonal actions. The signaling system involves three groups of molecules, namely, the receptors with heptahelical transmembrane motifs, the trimeric G proteins themselves, and the effectors through which G proteins alter cellular homeostasis. Advances in genome sciences have revealed the full complement of this system in multiple species, and the current challenges are to elucidate which, when, where, and how each component is used. The field of phototransduction has historically provided unrivaled details in describing general principles of G-protein signaling. This chapter intends to cover the reactions that dominate the rate of phototransduction recovery in rod and cone photoreceptors.
Release of Prostacyclin into the Coronary Venous Blood in Patients with Coronary Arterial Disease

Voluntary patients with a history of myocardial infarction and with typical effort angina underwent catheterization of the coronary sinus and a brachial artery. Healthy young males, serving as controls, were subjected to the same procedure. Arterial and coronary venous blood was drawn at rest and during atrial pacing to angina (patients) or to a heart rate of 140 beats/min (healthy volunteers) for analysis of 6-ketoprostaglandin F1α (6-keto-PGF1α) and pros-tacyclin-like activity (PILA). 6-Keto-PGF1α levels were measured using radioimmunoassay; PILA in the blood was assayed by rapid preparation of platelet-rich plasma followed by determination of the ADP-induced platelet aggregation. Increased arterial levels of PILA and of radioimmunoactive 6-keto-PGF1α (RIA-6-keto-PGF1α) were observed in the patients at rest as well as during pacing. No obvious release of RIA-6-keto-PGF1α occurred at rest, either in the patients or in the controls. However, during pacing, increased amounts of RIA-6-keto-PGF1α appeared in the coronary venous blood of the patients. The results demonstrate that an increased cardiac prostacyclin formation prevails in patients with signs of impaired coronary flow and suggest that ischemic heart disease is characterized by an insufficient vascular response to this vasodilator prostaglandin rather than by its insufficient endogenous production.
Two-level adaptive branch prediction and instruction fetch mechanisms for high performance superscalar processors

As the issue width and depth of pipelining of high performance superscalar processors increase, the importance of an effective instruction fetch mechanism becomes vital to delivering the potential performance of a wide-issue, deep pipelined microarchitecture. In this thesis a new dynamic branch predictor (Two-Level Adaptive Branch Prediction) and a new instruction fetch mechanism suitable for superscalar processors are proposed to reduce the branch execution penalty in instruction fetch. The branch predictor uses two levels of branch history information to make predictions: the history of the last k branches encountered, and the branch behavior for the last s occurrences of the specific pattern of these k branches. Its nine variations are identified according to how finely the history information is gathered. The cost-effectiveness of the variations is compared. Simulation results show that the average misprediction rate for the Two-Level Adaptive branch predictor with a reasonable implementation cost is 3% over nine programs in the SPEC89 benchmark suite, while other known schemes achieve at least 5.6% average misprediction rate. The branch predictor is integrated into an instruction fetch mechanism that is able to fetch multiple instructions each cycle and change instruction flow without incurring any pipeline bubbles. Compared with designs which use other branch predictors, the proposed design significantly reduces the branch execution penalty.
The HRM Simulation Effectiveness in Teaching HRM

In this study, the effectiveness of a technology delivered instruction (TDI), the Human Resource Management simulation, was investigated using a within-subjects design. Sixty-nine upper level under...
A Monte Carlo Simulation of a Simple Shear Flow of Granular Materials

Summary A Monte Carlo simulation method is developed to produce the stresses generated in simple shear flow of circular, spherical and polygonal grains. In contrast to existing analytical methods, this method creates the velocity distribution exactly, instead of deriving it approximately with various perturbation techniques. The construction of this method and its computational simplicity are demonstrated. Excellent agreement is observed between the results obtained with this method and the full dynamic simulations.
Balancing Market Power in Agrarian Contracts: Consequences for Social Efficiency, Cooperation, and Distribution

I study the inclusion of a Bargaining Group (BG) formed by sellers in the context of relational contracts in a market where buyers traditionally hold significant market power. The formation of a BG transfers market power to sellers. Existing theories of relational contracts predict that such a transfer will have no impact on market efficiency. In developing contexts, however, a standard assumption from existing theories of relational contracts - the existence of an enforceable base payment - may not hold. In contract settings prevalent in developing contexts, no payments from buyer to seller may be enforceable. In this case, I show that a transfer of bargaining power can erode market efficiency in a dynamic relational contracting environment, which contradicts findings from existing models of relational contracting. When buyers hold significant market power, they forgo short-term opportunistic behavior by honoring promised performance bonuses in order to keep sellers engaged in trade over time and to accumulate surplus over many periods. With a market power eroded by the BG, buyers' long-run gains to trade shirk. When this is coupled with the absence of an enforceable base payment, short-term opportunistic behavior becomes more appealing and trade is more likely to break down. The results here provide policy-makers insight into the economic consequences of enacting policies attempting to balance market power within a framework of fully informal contract enforcement.
Effect of Leading Edge on Sound Receptivity

Experiments are conducted to determine the acoustic receptivity in the leading-edge region of a Blasius boundary layer. Receptivity coefficients are determined for two different leading edges under different frequency and speed conditions. It is shown that only a rather narrow band of frequencies generate measurable unstable wave amplitudes. Comparisons are made with existing theory.
Corrigendum to "Effects of particle composition on thorium scavenging in the North Atlantic" [Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 233 (2018) 115-134]

Abstract The authors regret an error in Fig. 6 c, which incorrectly shows results from a regression performed using a nonlinear least squares procedure. Here we provide the corrected figure, which shows results from a regression performed using ordinary least squares.
Assessment of a mouse xenograft model of primary colorectal cancer with special reference to perfluorooctane sulfonate.

Colorectal cancer ranks third among the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the United States. Current therapies have a range of side effects, and the development of a reliable animal model to speed the discovery of safe effective preventative therapies would be of great value. A cross-sectional study in a large Appalachian population recently showed an association between low circulating levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and a reduced prevalence of colorectal cancer. A study using APCmin (C57BL/6J-ApcMin/J) mice prone to familial adenomatous polyposis found PFOS was protective when exposure occurred during tumor development. To test the possible benefit of PFOS on spontaneous colorectal cancer, we developed a mouse model utilizing primary patient colorectal cancer implants into NSG (NOD.Cg-PrkdcscidIl2rgtm1Wjl /Sz) mice. Study goals included: (1) to assess potential factors supporting the successful use of colorectal cancer from heterogeneous tumors for PDX studies; and, (2) evaluate PFOS as a therapy in tumor matched pairs of mice randomized to receive PFOS or vehicle. The time in days for mice to grow primary tumors to 5 mm took almost 2 months (mean = 53.3, se = 5.7, range = 17-136). Age of mice at implantation, patient age, gender and race appeared to have no discernable effect on engraftment rates. Engraftment rates for low and high-grade patient tumors were similar. PFOS appeared to reduce tumor size dramatically in one group of tumors, those from the right ascending colon. That is, by 5 weeks of treatment in two mice, PFOS had eliminated their 52.4 mm3 and 124.6 mm3 masses completely, an effect that was sustained for 10 weeks of treatment; in contrast, their corresponding matched vehicle control mice had tumors that grew to 472.7 mm3 and 340.1 mm3 in size respectively during the same period. In a third xenograft mouse, the tumor growth was dramatically blunted although not eliminated, and compared favorably to their matched vehicle controls over the same period. These preliminary findings suggested that this mouse model may be advantageous for testing compounds of potential value in the treatment of colorectal cancer, and PFOS may have utility in selected cases.
Differentiable invariants

Invariants that incrementally maintain the value of expressions under assignments to their variables are a natural abstraction to build high-level local search algorithms. But their functionalities are not sufficient to allow arbitrary expressions as constraints or objective functions as in constraint programming. Differentiable invariants bridge this expressiveness gap. A differentiable invariant maintains the value of an expression and its variable gradients, it supports differentiation to evaluate the effect of local moves. The benefits of differentiable invariants are illustrated on a number of applications which feature complex, possibly reified, expressions and whose models are essentially similar to their CP counterparts. Experimental results demonstrate their practicability.
Mixing hot and cold with sound

An acoustically forced fluid system is known to generate a time-averaged mean, or streaming, flow that evolves on a slow time scale compared to the acoustic-wave period. Classical acoustic streaming in a homogeneous fluid is typically associated with a one-way coupled system wherein the oscillatory acoustic fields inform the streaming mean flow, without any appreciable feedback. In contrast, Michel & Chini (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 858, 2019, pp. 536–564) investigate acoustic streaming in a stratified fluid and demonstrate that the streaming is sufficiently strong to induce significant rearrangements of the background temperature and density fields, resulting in a strong coupling between the acoustic waves and mean flow. This new class of streaming, referred to as baroclinic acoustic streaming, is shown to result in altered streaming patterns with enhanced heat transport that makes possible a range of new applications.
The Structure of the Nuclear Pore Complex (An Update).

The nuclear pore complex (NPC) serves as the sole bidirectional gateway of macromolecules in and out of the nucleus. Owing to its size and complexity (∼1,000 protein subunits, ∼110 MDa in humans), the NPC has remained one of the foremost challenges for structure determination. Structural studies have now provided atomic-resolution crystal structures of most nucleoporins. The acquisition of these structures, combined with biochemical reconstitution experiments, cross-linking mass spectrometry, and cryo–electron tomography, has facilitated the determination of the near-atomic overall architecture of the symmetric core of the human, fungal, and algal NPCs. Here, we discuss the insights gained from these new advances and outstanding issues regarding NPC structure and function. The powerful combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches toward determining the structure of the NPC offers a paradigm for uncovering the architectures of other complex biological machines to near-atomic resolution.
Understanding hydrogen in perovskites from first principles

Abstract The behavior of hydrogen in oxides is important to understand their functions; for example, some perovskites are fast proton conductors. Herein we study in detail the geometry, energetics, and chemical bonding of hydrogen in ABO3 perovskites from first principles. We find that hydrogen absorption to a lattice oxygen leads to structure distortion, especially in the (1 0 0) BO2 plane, and ~1.5% volume expansion. Density-of-states and crystal orbital Hamilton population (COHP) analyses indicate that the electron from hydrogen occupies the states at the conduction band minimum which correspond to the B O antibonding states and thereby weakens the B O covalent bonding. More interestingly, oxygen vacancy formation energy (OVFE), the integrated COHP of the B O bond, and the electronegativity difference between A and B are all found to be useful descriptors that correlate with hydrogen absorption energy (HAE).
Predictors of depression outcomes in adults with cancer: A 12 month longitudinal study.

Objectives The prevalence of depression in patients with cancer ranges from 8% to 24% within the first year of receiving a cancer diagnosis. Identifying predictors of depression outcomes may facilitate tailored or more intensive treatment in patient subgroups with a poorer prognosis for depression improvement. The objective of this study was to determine predictors of depression severity and improvement over 12 months among adults with cancer. Methods Longitudinal analysis of data from the Indiana Cancer Pain and Depression trial was performed in 309 patients (n = 309) with cancer-related depression. Depression outcomes were assessed at baseline, 1, 3, 6, and 12 months and included depression severity (Hopkins Symptom Checklist-20) and global improvement (Depression Global Rating of Improvement (DGRI)). Multivariable repeated measures analyses, adjusting for treatment group, baseline depression, and time point, were conducted to determine symptom (pain), demographic, and clinical predictors of depression outcomes over 12 months. Results Pain was particularly important, with a clinically meaningful reduction in pain predicting a 12-24% greater odds of depression global improvement. Other factors that independently predicted better depression outcomes over 12 months included female sex, newly-diagnosed or maintainence/disease-free cancer, fewer comorbid medical conditions, and higher socioeconomic status. As expected, the three covariates adjusted for in the model (treatment group, passage of time, and baseline depression severity) also predicted depression outcomes. Conclusion Pain as well as several demographic and clinical factors predict depression outcomes over 12 months. These findings may help identify patient subgroups requiring closer monitoring and more intensive or tailored depression treatment. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00313573.
A Rare Case of Acute Cord Compression From Spinal Myeloid Sarcoma: A Complication of Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common malignancy in the acute leukemia category. AML is a very aggressive cancer with high mortality. The most common presentations include pancytopenia, bleeding, and recurrent infections. Unlike lymphoma, it rarely presents as a mass. Myeloid sarcoma is a peripheral collection of myeloid cells. Myeloid sarcoma most commonly involves the skin and gingival tissue and rarely it affects the central nervous system. Myeloid sarcoma involving the central nervous system is associated with high mortality. We present a patient with AML which evolved from myelofibrosis presented with acute spinal cord compression and found to have myeloid sarcoma involving the thoracic spinal cord. Despite acute radiation therapy, the patient could not recover her neurological function and passed away shortly after the diagnosis. We discuss the importance of early recognition of the complication due to myeloid sarcoma and treatment with neurosurgical intervention just like other mass causing acute cord compression.
Ideology and Specific Support for the Supreme Court

We develop and assess an account of ideological asymmetries in public support for the Supreme Court. We find that specific support for the Supreme Court is more strongly negatively related to perce...
Exceptionally High O-H Bond Dissociation Free Energy of a Dicopper(II) μ-Hydroxo Complex and Insights into the Geometric and Electronic Structure Origins Thereof.

The strength of the relevant bonds in bond-making and bond-breaking processes can directly affect the overall efficiency of the process. Copper–oxygen sites are known to catalyze reactions with som...
A global database of photosynthesis model parameters, and phylogenetically controlled analysis of photosynthetic responses from every major terrestrial plant clade

ABSTRACT Plant photosynthesis is a major part of the global carbon cycle and climate system. Carbon capture by C3 plants is most often modelled using the Farquhar-von-Caemmerer-Berry (FvCB) equations. We undertook a global synthesis of all parameters required to solve the FvCB model. The publicly available dataset we assembled includes 3663 observations from 359 different plant species among 96 taxonomic families coming from every major vascular plant clade (lycophytes, ferns, gymnosperms, magnoliids, eudicots and monocots). Geographically, the species in the database have distributions that span the majority of the globe. We used the model to predict photosynthetic rates for the average plant in each major terrestrial plant clade and find that generally plants have dramatically increased their photosynthetic abilities through evolutionary time, with the average monocot (the youngest clade) achieving maximum rates of photosynthesis almost double that of the average lycophyte (the oldest clade). However, there was no evidence of niche conservatism with most variance occurring within, rather than among clades (K=0.357, p=0.001). We also solved the model for different average plant functional types (PFTs) and find that herbaceous species generally have much higher rates of photosynthesis compared to woody plants. Indeed, the maximum photosynthetic rate of graminoids is almost three times the rate of the average tree. The resulting functional responses to increasing CO2 suggest that most groups are already at or near their maximum rate of photosynthesis. Unfortunately, only graminoids seem to have the capacity to continue to increase photosynthetic rates with increasing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. We view this as version 1.0 of a database for global photosynthesis parameters and functional responses and hope that the publicly available dataset can improve models of photosynthesis.
Referral patterns and demographic factors predict treatment dropout in suicidal youth.

INTRODUCTION Due to increasing suicide rates, treatment engagement among suicidal youth is paramount. Identification of factors that predict treatment dropout could aid in bolstering treatment engagement. In this study, we examine whether demographic factors, specific treatment referrals, and interactions among referrals predict treatment dropout in youth deemed at risk for suicide. METHODS Youth (N = 3606) were screened for suicide using the Early Identification, Referral, and Follow-up (EIRF) system across three community behavioral health centers. If considered at-risk, all were provided mental health referrals and some were provided family support, crisis hotline, and/or school support referrals. Analyses were performed to analyze dropout patterns based on the binary logistic regression framework. RESULTS Being older (OR = 1.06, p < 0.001) and being male (OR = 1.28, p < 0.001) were related to greater odds of dropping out from referrals, while being referred to family support (OR = 0.13, p < 0.001), and being referred to a crisis hotline (OR = 0.58, p < 0.001) were associated with smaller odds of dropping out. Interactions were also analyzed. CONCLUSION Monitoring utilization and referral patterns is essential to appropriately meet the needs of youth at-risk for suicide. Specifically, referring youth for family support and to use a crisis hotline may be particularly helpful in retaining treatment engagement.
Biomechanically superior treatments do not translate into improved outcomes in randomized controlled trials.

Significant time and resources are devoted to conducting orthopaedic biomechanics research; however, it is not known how these studies relate to their subsequent clinical studies. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether biomechanically superior treatments were associated with improved clinical outcomes as determined by analogous randomized controlled trials (RCTs). A systematic review was conducted to find RCTs that tested a research question based on a prior biomechanical study. PubMed and SCOPUS databases were queried for orthopaedic randomized controlled trials, and full text articles were reviewed to find RCTs which cited biomechanical studies with analogous comparison groups. A random-effects multi-level logistic regression model was conducted examining the association between RCT outcome and biomechanics outcome, adjusting for multiple outcomes nested within study. In total, 20,261 articles were reviewed yielding 21 RCTs citing a total of 43 analogous biomechanical studies. In 7 instances (16.2%), the RCT and a cited biomechanical study showed concordant results (i.e. the superior treatment in the RCT was also the superior construct in the biomechanical study). RCT outcome was not associated with biomechanical outcome (β = −1.50, standard error = 0.78, p = .05). This study assessed 21 orthopaedic RCTs with 43 corresponding biomechanical studies and found no association between superior biomechanical properties of a given orthopaedic treatment and improved clinical outcomes. Favourable biomechanical properties alone should not be the primary reason for selecting one treatment over another. Furthermore, RCTs based on biomechanical studies should be carefully designed to maximize the chance of providing clinically relevant insights.
Optimal Policy for Integration of Automated Vehicles into the Auto Market: A Control-Theoretic Perspective

With the advent of emerging technologies, such as 5G network, wireless communications, among many others, automated vehicles (AVs) are expected to come into the existing auto market in the foreseeable future. It is anticipated that there will be a transitional period when legacy vehicles (LVs) are being replaced gradually by AVs before AVs take up a full penetration in the auto market. As a result, these two types of vehicles will inevitably coexist during this period experiencing an interactive temporal evolution in terms of their market shares. Inspired by the well-known Lotka-Volterra equations, we develop a dynamic model capable of capturing precisely such temporal evolution. A discrete choice model is constructed and incorporated into the dynamic model to describe the likelihood of choosing AVs and LVs. The average price of AVs is assumed to be regulatable, and is considered, together with the amount of investment in AV-specific transportation infrastructure, as control (decision) variables to ensure a desired gradual integration of AVs into the auto market subject to practical constraints. Further, a Meyer problem is formulated with the objective of reaching a desired target, i.e., a specific market penetration rate (MPR) of AVs, at the end of the planning period. Using the Pontryagin's minimum principle (PMP), the formulated optimal control problem is solved giving the temporal AV integration policy which allows for appropriate regulations of the average AV price and for adjustments of the amount of investment in AV-specific infrastructure. A series of numerical results is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Since the dynamic model is general and the control inputs, i.e., the average AV price and amount of investment in infrastructure, are easy to implement, it is believed that the procedures presented in this paper will provide significant insights, for government agencies, into developing long-term strategic planning policies in the era of AVs.
Leading While Female: A Personal Journey

Growth in the administrative function of universities along with the fragility of academic culture creates challenges for academic leaders invested in change. In my own case, these challenges were compounded by my gender: my status as an immigrant woman in a leadership role. In this chapter I outline the basic requirements of a democratic culture—allowing individuals to preserve their identity while positively contributing to the community in which they're embedded—and question the gender stereotypes that see men but not women as “naturally” suited to leadership. This prejudice can translate into implicit or even explicit bias and discrimination when women attempt to fill roles that historically have been reserved for men, and thereby violate gender expectations. As a consequence, women leaders may be marginalized and their authority resisted or unrecognized. This chapter is a personal journey detailing my own experiences of “leading while female.”
Waiting for what comes later: capuchin monkeys show self-control even for nonvisible delayed rewards

Self-control tasks used with nonhuman animals typically involve the choice between an immediate option and a delayed, but more preferred option. However, in many self-control scenarios, not only does the more impulsive option come sooner in time, it is often more concrete than the delayed option. For example, studies have presented children with the option of eating a visible marshmallow immediately, or foregoing it for a better reward that can only be seen later. Thus, the immediately available option is visible and concrete, whereas the delayed option is not visible and more abstract. We tested eight capuchin monkeys to better understand this potential effect by manipulating the visibility of the response options and the visibility of the baiting itself. Monkeys observed two food items (20 or 5 g pieces of banana) each being placed either on top of or inside of one of the two opaque containers attached to a revolving tray apparatus, either in full view of monkeys or occluded by a barrier. Trials ended when monkeys removed a reward from the rotating tray. To demonstrate self-control, monkeys should have allowed the smaller piece of food to pass if the larger piece was forthcoming. Overall, monkeys were successful on the task, allowing a smaller, visible piece of banana to pass from reach in order to access the larger, nonvisible banana piece. This was true even when the entire baiting process took place out of sight of the monkeys. This finding suggests that capuchin monkeys succeed on self-control tasks even when the delayed option is also more abstract than the immediate one—a situation likely faced by primates in everyday life.
RECOVERY OF GASTRIC MUCOSAL STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION IN PERNICIOUS ANEMIA DURING PREDNISOLONE THERAPY.

Summary A patient with pernicious anemia was treated with prednisolone, 20 mg daily, for 4 months. During this therapy, there was a return of acid and intrinsic factor secretion, normal vitamin B 12 absorption, and a regeneration of gastric mucosal glands containing abundant chief and parietal cells. Although there was a decrease in the titer of intrinsic factor antibody in the patient's serum, there was no change in the titer of parietal cell antibodies. This steroid effect is consistent with the hypothesis that gastric mucosal atrophy in pernicious anemia is due to autoimmune destruction of the gastric glands, and that prolonged suppression of these immunologic processes may lead to mucosal regeneration with acid and intrinsic factor secretion.
A Review of “A Professor, a President, and a Meteor: The Birth of American Science”

Journalist Cathryn J. Prince's A Professor, a President, and a Meteor: The Birth of American Science purports to tell the story of how one man—Benjamin Silliman Sr.—singlehandedly put American scie...
Software and Hardware Testing Using Combinatorial Covering Suites

In the 21st century our society is becoming more and more dependent on software systems. The safety of these systems and the quality of our lives is increasingly dependent on the quality of such systems. A key element in the manufacture and quality assurance process in software engineering is the testing of software and hardware systems. The construction of efficient combinatorial covering suites has important applications in the testing of hardware and software. In this paper we define the general problem, discuss the lower bounds on the size of covering suites, and give a series of constructions that achieve these bounds asymptotically. These constructions include the use of finite field theory, extremal set theory, group theory, coding theory, combinatorial recursive techniques, and other areas of computer science and mathematics. The study of these combinatorial covering suites is a fascinating example of the interplay between pure mathematics and the applied problems generated by software and hardware engineers. The wide range of mathematical techniques used, and the often unexpected applications of combinatorial covering suites make for a rewarding study.
Investigation of Depth-Area Relationships Associated with Nanoindentations

Hardness, an important property of materials, is traditionally determined by indentation testing and the measurement of the resulting contact area using optical microscopy. Often hardness needs to be measured on a very small scale, for example in the characterization of thin films, multiphase materials such as superconductors, and ion implanted surfaces. For indents generated at very low loads (<20 mN) or shallow depths (<250 nm), optical methods do not have sufficient resolution. One approach that avoids the limitations associated with optics involves the use of a mechanical properties microprobe (MPM). The MPM shown in Fig. 1 is a special microhardness tester which operates at very low loads (0.02 to 12 grams). The indent is made using a three-sided (Berkovich) diamond pyramid which has a face angle of 65.3° (with respect to the normal). The indenter load is generated electromagnetically and controlled by varying the current in the coil surrounding the indenter shaft. A capacitive sensor measures the indenter shaft displacement, which can be related to the contact area using the appropriate geometrical relationship for the indenter. Consequently, load and displacement can be continuously measured during the indentation process.
Wandering Souls: Protestant Migrations in America, 1630–1865

Review of: "Wandering Souls: Protestant Migrations in America, 1630–1865," by S. Scott Rohrer.
Social and Institutional Factors Affecting the Daily Experiences of the Spouses of International Students: Voices from the Midwest and Implications to Academic Institutions.

The decades after WWII witnessed a substantial increase in the number of international students coming to the U.S. In the course of decades, international students and their families have become essential both to the economic and cultural life of campus communities throughout the country. Yet, academic institutions continue to overlook the needs of a very important segment of this constituency: accompanying spouses of international students. Currently, appropriate programs and services targeting the needs of spouses of international students are lacking. Except sporadic efforts by a few institutions, suitable programs targeting the contemporary needs of accompanying spouses are virtually absent. Based on interviews with twelve women from eleven different countries, this study examines the day-to-day experiences of female spouses of international students as they reside in the U.S. with legally dependent status. While accompanying spouses are both men and women, due to the disproportionately small number of men who come as accompanying spouses, this study focuses on the experiences of women who sojourn in the U.S. to await the completion of the studies of an undergraduate or graduate student spouse. This study provides insights into the challenges as well as benefits of coming to the U.S. as an accompanying spouse. From the stories these women told, large numbers of accompanying international spouses are well-educated individuals, some with years of professional experience. The study revealed that these women, due to their legally restricted status, tend to live for years in a type of social isolation filled with economic and emotional struggle. A strong message for academic institutions emerges: while there has been a historical link between international spouses and community volunteer organizations serving this
Preparation of (E)‐1‐Dimethylamino‐3‐tert‐Butyldimethylsiloxy‐1,3‐Butadiene

(E)-1-Dimethylamino-3-tert-butyldimethylsiloxy-1,3-butadiene R Acetylacetaldehyde dimethyl acetal I (E)-4-Dimethylamino-3-buten-2-one 1 P (E)-1-Dimethyl-3-tert-butyldimethylsiloxy-1,3-butadiene 2 Keywords: amines (and salts), aliphatic; ketones, monoketones, amino and acylamino ketones; elimination, miscellaneous; replacement reactions, alkoxy by amino; 1-amino-3-siloxy-1,3-butadienes, highly reactive dienes for diels-alder reactions
Prebriefing in Nursing Simulation: A Concept Analysis Using Rodger's Methodology

Abstract The before phase of simulation, prebriefing, is a concept that is not clearly portrayed in the nursing literature. A concept analysis, utilizing Rodger's evolutionary framework, was performed to provide clarity to prebriefing. More than 20 articles were reviewed to construct the proposed definitive description of prebriefing which can be used to support the rigors of simulation research and development.
Chapter 25. Current Status of Neurotransmitters

Publisher Summary This chapter examines the developments of neurotransmitters. The theory of neurohumoral transmission holds that nerves produce their physiologic effects by releasing chemical substances that act on the cell that the nerve endings innervate, rather than by the continuous flow of bioelectric current. The identification of a putative transmitter substance as the neurotransmitter for a defined neural pathway is generally attempted by gathering data to satisfy criteria in the manner of Koch's postulates for the identification of a specific disease-producing microbe. In the central nervous system attempts to identify monoamine-containing nerves have also made extensive use of pharmacological depleting agents, particularly reserpine, α-methyl- m -tyrosine and p -C1-phenylalanine as well as monoamine oxidase inhibitor, in efforts to observe changes in the frequency with which brain granular vesicles occur. By means of refined micro-methods for the measurement of the ACh-synthesizing enzyme, it is possible to show that the levels of the two enzymes are also not correlated with each other in a variety of sites in mammalian central nervous system.
The neurobiological basis of seeing words

This review summarizes recent ideas about the cortical circuits for seeing words, an important part of the brain system for reading. Historically, the link between the visual cortex and reading has been contentious. One influential position is that the visual cortex plays a minimal role, limited to identifying contours, and that information about these contours is delivered to cortical regions specialized for reading and language. An alternative position is that specializations for seeing words develop within the visual cortex itself. Modern neuroimaging measurements-including both functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion weighted imaging with tractography (DTI) data-support the position that circuitry for seeing the statistical regularities of word forms develops within the ventral occipitotemporal cortex, which also contains important circuitry for seeing faces, colors, and forms. This review explains new findings about the visual pathways, including visual field maps, as well as new findings about how we see words. The measurements from the two fields are in close cortical proximity, and there are good opportunities for coordinating theoretical ideas about function in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex.
Targeting IL-33 in autoimmunity and inflammation.

Interleukin-33 (IL-33) belongs to the IL-1 family of cytokines. Whereas IL-1 is processed and released by live immune cells in response to infection or other triggers, IL-33 is mostly released as a danger signal ("alarmin") from damaged cells. IL-33 may also be processed and released from activated mast cells (MCs) with subsequent autocrine and paracrine actions. IL-33 augments the stimulatory effects of IgE and substance P on MCs but can also trigger release of cytokines from MCs on its own. Blood IL-33 levels are increased in asthma, atopic dermatitis, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and Sjogren's syndrome. However, prolonged elevation of IL-33 downregulates FceRI and may be protective in atherosclerosis, suggesting different roles in immune-regulated diseases. Even though neutralizing IL-33, knocking-down its receptor, or using its soluble "decoy" receptor has resulted in anti-inflammatory effects, there appear to be different outcomes in different tissues. Hence, selective regulation of IL-33 synthesis, release, and signaling may be required to provide effective treatment options.