cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Method of Successive Corrections of the Control Subspace in the Reduced-Order Variational Data Assimilation*

A version of the reduced control space four-dimensional variational method (R4DVAR) of data assimilation into numerical models is proposed. In contrast to the conventional 4DVAR schemes, the method does not require development of the tangent linear and adjoint codes for implementation. The proposed R4DVAR technique is based on minimization of the cost function in a sequence of low-dimensional subspaces of the control space. Performance of the method is demonstrated in a series of twin-data assimilation experiments into a nonlinear quasigeostrophic model utilized as a strong constraint. When the adjoint code is stable, R4DVAR’s convergence rate is comparable to that of the standard 4DVAR algorithm. In the presence of strong instabilities in the direct model, R4DVAR works better than 4DVAR whose performance is deteriorated because of the breakdown of the tangent linear approximation. Comparison of the 4DVAR and R4DVAR also shows that R4DVAR becomes advantageous when observations are sparse and noisy.
Repetitive Behavior in Children with Down Syndrome: Functional Analysis and Intervention

Children with Down syndrome frequently display repetitive behavior including unusual routines, rituals, and stereotypy. Interventions for repetitive behavior in individuals with Down syndrome often include aversive procedures and are not informed by functional assessments despite effective function-based treatments for repetitive behavior with other populations. We used an analogue functional analysis to evaluate reinforcers maintaining repetitive behavior in three children with Down syndrome. Following identification of automatic functions, we used an ABAB design and a multiple-probe design to demonstrate the effectiveness of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) in reducing repetitive behavior. DRO was effective in decreasing repetitive behavior and, for one participant, repetitive behavior remained low at 1, 2, and 3-month follow-up sessions. This study extends current functional analysis methodologies to decrease repetitive behavior for learners with Down syndrome.
Exploring the process of doing data science via an ethnographic study of a media advertising company

This paper presents the results of an ethnographic study focused on how data science projects were conducted within a global media advertising company. Observations, via embedding a researcher within the team, as well as more structured interviews and surveys, are documented. Recommendations to improve the current data science methodology within the company are also discussed. Overall, there had been little focus on the team's process methodology and the suggested process improvements would result in the company's data science projects having less risk and shorter timelines. Other big data teams might also benefit from reviewing and refining their work processes, but more work needs to be done to validate this assumption.
Abstract 311: Risk Factor Profile and Outcome in Young Adults Presenting With Acute Myocardial Infarction Compared to Older Adults.

Background: Management of acute myocardial infarction has improved but preventing the first myocardial infarction in the first place continues to be a challenge. Guidelines for prevention have focused on ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. With the nation’s changing trends in risk factor profile (Diabetes mellitus, obesity and tobacco use), we aimed to examine the risk factor profile for young adults ( 50 years). Methods: The Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), a part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization project (HCUP) is the largest publicly available inpatient database designed to provide information on patients discharged from United States community hospitals. Using the NIS database from 2008 to 2010, 374,173 adults with AMI were identified. Results: Younger adults had a significantly higher incidence of smoking (51% vs. 18.8%; P< 0.001) and obesity (17.3% vs. 9.9%; P<0.001). The rate of hypertension was similar in both groups. Younger adults were more likely to present with ST elevation myocardial infarction (42 % vs. 27%) and undergo percutaneous revascularization (62% vs. 41%) as compared to older adults. In-hospital mortality was lower in younger adults presenting with AMI (1.7 % vs. 6.2%) as expected. Conclusion: 1). Acute MI in the young adult is more likely to present as STEMI. 2). Young adults are more likely to be obese and use tobacco. 3). The results suggest that there is opportunity to improve AMI in the young by focusing on modifiable risk factors. 4). The lower short term mortality may imply that young adults with MI are beset with greater or long standing burden for complications. ![][1] [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Auditor Confidence versus Audit Effectiveness

This research examines auditor confidence in a fraud detection task to establish whether or not there is a relationship between auditors' confidence and audit effectiveness. The research used a sample of 342 seniors from 40 offices of five international accounting firms. These participants were assigned to different client types: high integrity clients, low integrity clients and a control group. Given the average detection rate for fraud of 42.1 percent and an expressed rate of decision confidence of 78.8 percent, the research finds that auditors overestimate their effectiveness (i.e., actual fraud detection rate) when compared to their estimated decision confidence.
Big Deal? Or No Big Deal!

This note consists of three vignettes that depict three typical yet unique experiences. The issues discussed provide the student with a chance to compare and contrast ethical frameworks. The note is relevant to both managers and nonmanagers in the business arena.
Additional Measurements of the 235(n, f) Cross Section in the 0.2- to 8.2-MeV Range

The fission cross sections of /sup 235/U for neutrons having energies between 0.2 and 8.2 MeV have been measured with neutrons from the /sup 7/Li(p,n) reaction. The neutron energy scale was calibrated by the /sup 7/Li(p,n) and /sup 10/B(p,n) neutron thresholds, and the flux was measured with a black neutron detector. The fission cross sections, averaged over the /sup 252/Cf fission neutron spectrum, were determined as 1.202 b, with an uncertainty of 2 to 3 percent.
Crime-Event Criminology: An Overview

Traditional criminology is overwhelmingly offender-focused, with the primary question driving the field being, “What explains variation in criminal behavior—why do some individuals offend while others do not?” This criminology, which seeks to unearth the underlying causes of offending, provides us with many theories. Each theory identifies a unique variable or set of variables thought to explain an individual’s inclination to offend, or “criminality.” For example, theories suggest that low selfcontrol, school failure, peer pressure, unemployment, and community poverty—to name just a few—predispose one toward offending. Thus, individuals exposed to higher levels of such variables are presumed to be “at risk” of initiating or continuing criminal behavior. Approaches to crime prevention often follow suit by attempting to reduce or prevent criminality. In particular, (social) developmental crime prevention focuses on tackling the underlying risk factors for becoming an offender (e.g., Welsh & Farrington, 2012). Indeed, a whole host of programs or policies exist in an attempt to reverse the criminogenic risk factors identified by traditional criminological theories. Programs teaching social competency to youth, providing pre-school education to disadvantaged children, and (re)training potential employees for workforce demands are just but a few examples. A number of such programs have been shown to be at least modestly successful in reducing crime (see, for example, Losel & Bender, 2012; Schindler & Yoshikawa, 2012; Sherman et al., 1997). Still, the potential risk factors for offending are incredibly numerous, as indicated by the dauntingly long list of criminological theories. In fact, the recently published Encyclopedia of Criminological Theory documented nearly 300 such theories (Cullen & Wilcox, 2010). With so many potential causes of offending—and, thus, so many risk factors to address if criminality is to be prevented—it is no wonder that a significant number of individuals fall through the
An Institutional Theory of the Nonprofit Toll Goods and Voluntary Action

The evolution of activity within the nonprofit sector (and nonprofit-type activity without the sector) has outpaced the ability of nonprofit theory to describe it. In contrast to legalistic, sector...
Effects of Height and Blood Volume on Venous Enhancement After Gadolinium-Based Contrast Administration in MR Venography: A Paradigm Challenge and Implications for Clinical Imaging

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to analyze quantitative and qualitative effects of estimated blood volume on venous enhancement in patients undergoing cerebral MR venography (MRV) with standard weight-based dosing of a gadolinium-based contrast agent. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Fifty-two patients with normal 1.5-T cerebral MRV findings and contemporaneous height and weight measurements were included. Estimated blood volume was calculated with the Nadler formula for blood volume. Standard weight-based cerebral MRV was performed after administration of gadobenate dimeglumine (0.1 mmol/kg up to 20 mL). Venous enhancement within the superior sagittal sinus, right jugular bulb, and left jugular bulb was measured. Patients were dichotomized on the basis of administration of less than versus a maximum weight-based gadolinium-based contrast dose of 20 mL. Venographic quality was assigned by two neuroradiologists. Correlational and multiple linear regression analyses were performed. RESULTS. Among patients re...
What Health Reform Reveals about Health Law

This chapter describes the arc of health reform in the U.S. over the Twentieth Century and explores how the most-recent major reform, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, offers a window into the idiosyncrasies of U.S. health care law and the values that have shaped this field. This chapter considers themes such as the influence of market-based ideology, federalism, and professionalism on health law. It illustrates how the Affordable Care Act policies that most strongly push against these preexisting values have resulted in conflict, yet, these same policies may over time initiate a gradual transformation of these legal norms.
Investigation of UV/H2O2 pretreatment effects on humic acid fouling on polysulfone/titanium dioxide—And polysulfone/multiwall carbon nanotube—Nanocomposite ultrafiltration membranes

Membrane fouling is an important concern for membrane separation technology. Preparation of the feed before entering into the membrane and physicochemical modifications of membrane are both important approaches toward enhancing the permeability and separation in membrane processes. The present report combines both approaches. In terms of membrane characterization, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that the addition of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles and multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) resulted in increased pore numbers at the top surface and more interconnected pores in the porous membrane structure. The surface hydrophilicity and porosity of the PSF/TiO2 and PSF/MWCNT increased compared with pure PSF membranes. PSF/TiO2 nanocomposites showed just 10% flux decline and improved 95% flux recovery ratio (FRR%). UV/H2O2 pretreatment changed the physicochemical properties of humic acid (HA) aggregates by reducing the super-micrometer size range (>1 μm) aggregates to a bimodal distribution of two submicrometer size ranges <1 μm (10–100 nm and 100–1000 nm) and increased the zeta potential of HA solution due to the production of new functional groups. The oxidation pretreatment alone improved flux decline at 120 min from 21% to 80% and increased the FRR from 58% to 80% for the pure PSF. The oxidative pretreatment also improved purification for the PSF/TiO2 nanocomposite membranes. The flux decline improved from 81% to 95% with only a slight improvement on the 94% FRR increasing to about 99% FRR. The FRR in the case of PSF/MWCNT actually declined with the pretreatment. The hybrid process of UV/H2O2 pretreatment and PSF/TiO2 nanocomposite membranes exhibited optimal permeability and antifouling properties. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 36: 27–37, 2017
A new region aware invisible robust blind watermarking approach

The multimedia revolution has made a strong impact on our society. The explosive growth of Internet access to this digital information has generated new opportunities and challenges. The ease of editing and duplicating information in the digital domain has created copyright protection concerns for content providers. Various schemes to embed secondary data in digital media have been investigated to preserve copyright and to discourage unauthorized duplication. In order to achieve the required level of protection to digital information, digital watermarking is a viable solution. This paper proposes a novel invisible watermarking scheme: a Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) domain based watermark embedding and blind extraction algorithm for copyright protection of color images. The proposed algorithm is optimized in terms of robustness, computational load, and quality of the image. Testing of the proposed watermarking scheme’s robustness and security via different benchmarks as well as comparison with a Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) approach proves its resilience to digital attacks. The results show that the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) value obtained under no attack conditions in the proposed algorithm is above 41.81 dB, which is higher than most of the existing watermark algorithms. The results from the detector’s response also show that the proposed algorithm has a better security performance than most of the existing algorithms. The architecture for hardware implementation of the proposed algorithm is also presented and the results from the architecture show a PSNR value of 44.37 dB. This verifies that the presented algorithm is more effective than existing algorithms such as image adaptive watermarking, image adaptive watermark creation, zerotree wavelet, and 9/7 biorthogonal wavelet lifting.
Seven Myths of Corporate Governance

In recent years, there has been much discussion over how to improve governance systems broadly. In the process, certain myths have developed that continue to be accepted, despite a lack of robust supporting evidence. These myths include the beliefs that: 1. The structure of the board always tells you something about the quality of the board; 2. CEOs in the U.S. are overpaid; 3. Pay for performance does not exist in CEO compensation contracts; 4. Companies are prepared to replace the CEO if needed; 5. Regulation improves corporate governance; 6. The voting recommendations of proxy advisory firms are correct; 7. Best practices are the solution to bad governance. We examine each of these myths in closer detail and explain why they are false. So long as these myths are accepted by practitioners and the public, how can we expect managerial behavior and firm performance to improve? Read the attached Closer Look and let us know what you think! Topics, Issues and Controversies in Corporate Governance and Leadership: The Closer Look series is a collection of short case studies through which we explore topics, issues, and controversies in corporate governance. In each study, we take a targeted look at a specific issue that is relevant to the current debate on governance and explain why it is so important. Larcker and Tayan are co-authors of the book Corporate Governance Matters, and A Real Look at Real World Corporate Governance.
Retroviral Reverse Transcriptases: Error Frequencies and Mutagenesis

For most organisms the fidelity of genomic replication is an exceptionally accurate process. This accuracy must be high enough to guarantee that the nucleotide sequence of the parent is transmitted to subsequent generations with few if any errors. Infrequent errors are required, however, to produce mutations that drive the evolution of species through selection. Survival within a hostile environment is governed by the selection of variants, generating new organisms best able to survive in the environment that surrounds them. Survival within an exceptionally hostile environment might be favored by populations containing a wide spectrum of pre-existing mutants that provide a diverse repertoire for selection.
Multiphasic control of hepatic protein degradation by regulatory amino acids. General features and hormonal modulation.

Previous studies with livers from fed rats perfused in the single-pass mode have shown that regulatory amino acids (Leu, Tyr, Gln, Pro, Met, His, and Trp) as a group as well as leucine alone inhibit deprivation-induced protein degradation optimally at 0.5 and 4 times (X) normal plasma amino acid concentrations. However, they lose inhibitory effectiveness almost completely within a narrow zone centered at normal (1 X) levels (Poso, A. R., Wert, J. J., Jr., and Mortimore, G.E. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 12114-12120; Poso, A. R., and Mortimore, G. E. (1984) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 81, 4270-4274). We now report similar effects for tyrosine and glutamine and suggest that this multiphasic dose response is a general feature of the regulatory group. Insulin (2.4 micrograms h-1) selectively modulated the response by abolishing the zonal loss, whereas glucagon (10 micrograms h-1) blocked the initial inhibition (0.5 X); proteolytic suppression was restored at 4 X normal plasma levels. Although the zonal loss of inhibition at 1 X was associated with a near maximal increase in the volume density of macroautophagy, the vacuoles differed from those induced by stringent amino acid deprivation in containing 4.5-fold more smooth than rough endoplasmic reticulum and thus represented a separate population. Surprisingly, the leucine analog, L-alpha-hydroxyisocaproate, elicited multiphasic responses identical to those of L-leucine, including inhibition at 0.1 mM (equivalent to 0.5 X Leu). Inasmuch as alpha-ketoisocaproate is not effective at this concentration, the initial suppression of protein degradation could be mediated from a site that recognizes structural features common to leucine and its hydroxyl analog.
Single-stage MHz mid-IR OPA using LiGaS2and a fiber laser pump source.

We present the design and characterization of a tunable mid-IR optical parametric amplifier (OPA) with a 1 MHz 1033 nm fiber laser pump source. The OPA generates >10 nJ/pulse tunable from 3-7.5 μm with 85-165 cm-1 bandwidth and 140-540 fs pulse durations. The design utilizes a single stage of collinear, Type I amplification in lithium gallium sulfide (LGS) seeded by the near-IR portion of a super-continuum (SC) generated in yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG). The resulting mid-IR idler beam is isolated as the output. This single-stage OPA is a simple and convenient source of high-repetition-rate, tunable mid-IR radiation for high-throughput ultrafast infrared spectroscopy.
Evaluation of Vasectomy Trends in the United States.

Objective To use the Truven Health MarketScan database to better approximate the annual rate of vasectomies performed in the US population, to determine changes over time, regional differences, providers performing this, and to know if there is any monthly variation in vasectomy rates. Materials and Methods Claims data were evaluated from 2007 to 2015 to determine the annual prevalence of vasectomy by patient age and region in the United States. The cohort included men aged 18-64 years with at least 1 claim in any given year in Truven Health MarketScan. Provider type and place of service were evaluated in 2014 and 2015. Monthly evaluation of vasectomy prevalence compared with total claims was performed. Results The prevalence of vasectomies decreased from 2007 to 2015, across all age groups and in all locations of the country (P Conclusion An estimated 527,476 vasectomies were performed in the United States in 2015. From 2007 to 2015 there was a decrease in the proportion of vasectomies performed in all age groups and in all locations of the country. The end of the year and the month of March are when the most vasectomies are performed.
REVERSIBLE PULMONARY HYPERTENSION AND CLINICAL RIGHT HEART FAILURE ASSOCIATED WITH GRAVES DISEASE

Heart failure is typically seen in patients with hyperthyroidism because of longstanding untreated disease with or without concomitant atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular rates at an average reported age of 66 years. Approximately 6% of hyperthyroid patients have left heart failure but
Does salvage logging erase a key physical legacy of a tornado blowdown? A case study of tree tip-up mounds

While large-scale wind disturbances are rare, they are nonetheless powerful drivers of plant community reassembly in temperate forests worldwide. These disturbances cause the formation of tree tip-up mounds that serve as regeneration niches, but the time scale at which novel plant communities develop on mounds is unknown. Moreover, salvage logging can cause mounds to “tip back down” and could therefore erase these microsites. Here, we test three hypotheses with a replicated field experiment: (1) novel plant communities rapidly form on tip-up mounds; (2) salvaging erases these microsites; and (3) “tipped-down” tip-up mounds are novel intermediate microsites. We salvaged a random half of four 3–6 ha blowdowns created by an F1 tornado, measured 249 mounds, and censused the vegetation on 48 mounds and 48 reference plots. Plant communities on mounds had two to three fewer species, 50% less cover, and lower diversity than reference communities. However, salvaging caused modest increases in species richness and ...
Complex Permittivity and Dipole Correlations

The relation of Glarum between macroscopic and microscopic relaxation functions has been derived by molecular response function theory, with effects of induced polarization included. A modified form of Zwanzig’s theory of rotational diffusion of interacting dipoles, based on Kirkwood’s theory of transport processes, is shown to give correlation functions in agreement with the relation, and with no new relaxation times from long range dipole forces.
The Equation of Cinquini-Cibrario

Although the study of mixed elliptic–hyperbolic equations goes back at least toRiemann’s computation of the Laplacian in toroidal coordinates (c.f. [47] or p. 461, (B) of [7]), the first systematic study of well-posedness for boundary value problemsappears to be the memoir by Tricomi [50]
Television’s Interface With Kennedy, Nixon, and Trump: Two Politicians and One TV Celebrity:

With the historical televised first presidential debates of John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, television made its national debut as a political influence. Television became a third player in th...
SLA and the Study of Equitable Multilingualism

The Douglas Fir Group (2016) sought to articulate a transdisciplinary agenda for SLA but said little about multilingualism specifically. Moreover, many multilinguals are under siege in a worrisome world where threats to human difference have risen to the mainstream in the aftermath of Brexit and the 2016 U.S. presidential election. I argue that considering multilingualism as the central object of inquiry and embracing social justice as an explicit disciplinary goal are two moves necessary to provide sustainable support for the kind of transdisciplinary SLA that the Douglas Fir Group (2016) envisioned. I examine some missing pieces of the puzzle of transdisciplinary transformation that may make it possible for SLA researchers, and particularly those who investigate linguistic?cognitive dimensions of language learning, to contribute knowledge about the human capacity for language while supporting equitable multilingualism for all.
Abstract A06: LINC00261 acts as a tumor suppressor in lung adenocarcinoma

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality, with a 5-year mortality rate approaching 85%. My lab focuses on the major histologic subtype, lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Using a combination of bioinformatics and biologic analyses, we have uncovered a role for novel regulatory RNAs in the etiology of LUAD development. Our current research focuses primarily on a long noncoding RNA with effects on proliferation and metastasis of lung cancer cells. It is our hope to identity key regulators of cancer development and progression, so that targeted therapeutics can be developed to help improve the overall survival rate for this deadly disease. Citation Format: Jonathan Castillo, Shandy Shahabi, Vishaly Kumaran, Crystal Marconett. LINC00261 acts as a tumor suppressor in lung adenocarcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Fifth AACR-IASLC International Joint Conference: Lung Cancer Translational Science from the Bench to the Clinic; Jan 8-11, 2018; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2018;24(17_Suppl):Abstract nr A06.
Visual Data Analysis as an Integral Part of Environmental Management

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (DOE/EM) currently supports an effort to understand and predict the fate of nuclear contaminants and their transport in natural and engineered systems. Geologists, hydrologists, physicists and computer scientists are working together to create models of existing nuclear waste sites, to simulate their behavior and to extrapolate it into the future. We use visualization as an integral part in each step of this process. In the first step, visualization is used to verify model setup and to estimate critical parameters. High-performance computing simulations of contaminant transport produces massive amounts of data, which is then analyzed using visualization software specifically designed for parallel processing of large amounts of structured and unstructured data. Finally, simulation results are validated by comparing simulation results to measured current and historical field data. We describe in this article how visual analysis is used as an integral part of the decision-making process in the planning of ongoing and future treatment options for the contaminated nuclear waste sites. Lessons learned from visually analyzing our large-scale simulation runs will also have an impact on deciding on treatment measures for other contaminated sites.
Examining Cultural Responsiveness in Large-Scale Assessment: The Matrix of Evidence for Validity Argumentation

As cultural products, assessment systems and instruments are a reflection of the cultures in which they originate and reproduce the characteristics of those cultures. Accordingly, cultural responsiveness in large-scale assessment concerns the entire process of assessment, not simply its tests or the analysis of test scores. This paper focuses on validity as argumentation in the testing of culturally diverse populations in both national and international large-scale assessment programs. It examines the intersection of m procedural assumptions (conceptual and methodological criteria that need to be met in order to validly, fair test culturally diverse populations) and n components of the process of assessment. The paper explains the development and use of the matrix of evidence for validity argumentation. In this matrix, a cell [i, j] contains confirming and disconfirming evidence that Procedural Assumption i is met by the practices enacted and the artifacts used or generated in Assessment Process Component j. An argument of validity is constructed by integrating the information contained in the cells of the matrix. A series of examples illustrate how each procedural assumption intersects with each assessment process component in the matrix. These examples show the ubiquity of cultural issues in assessment. Attaining cultural responsiveness in large-scale national and international assessment programs entails a serious systemic, societal, global effort.
Outcomes from international teaching placements – what’s in it for the receiving side? A case of Norwegian preservice teachers in Indian schools

International teaching placements are offered to students in many Initial Teacher Education institutions. The outcomes for preservice teachers in these international settings are widely researched ...
Under the Eagles Wings: America, God Shed a Tear on Thee:

Bob Marley says one good thing about music—when it hits you, you feel no pain. So hit me with music. On the transition of Aretha Franklin, and the vitriolic trolling of her funeral and Childish Gam...
The Network Layer

Computer–to–computer connections are made by connecting physical media at Layer 1 or the Physical Layer. The problems encountered are well understood and improvements in speed and reliability have removed virtually all problems, other than connector or “wire” problems, from consideration. Once the building wiring is in and tested, it is simply a matter of plugging in jumper cables to build the physical network. To construct a network of any size or complexity, a logical network of shared media and addressable devices must be built on top of the Layer 1 wiring.
Linear Discriminant Analysis

Please download the sample Excel files from https://github.com/hhohho/Learn-Data-Mining-through-Excel for this chapter’s exercises.
Classification of Aortic Stenosis Before and After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Using Cardio-mechanical Modalities *

This paper reports our study on the impact of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) on the classification of aortic stenosis (AS) patients using cardio-mechanical modalities. Machine learning algorithms such as decision tree, random forest, and neural network were applied to conduct two tasks. Firstly, the pre- and post-TAVR data are evaluated with the classifiers trained in the literature. Secondly, new classifiers are trained to classify between pre- and post-TAVR data. Using analysis of variance, the features that are significantly different between pre- and post-TAVR patients are selected and compared to the features used in the pre-trained classifiers. The results suggest that pre-TAVR subjects could be classified as AS patients but post-TAVR could not be classified as healthy subjects. The features which differentiate pre- and post-TAVR patients reveal different distributions compared to the features that classify AS patients and healthy subjects. These results could guide future work in the classification of AS as well as the evaluation of the recovery status of patients after TAVR treatment.
Veganism as Affirmative Biopolitics: Moving Towards a Posthumanist Ethics?

This article addresses tensions within the emerging field of animal studies, which have arisen in the process of trying to craft an ethics that is not grounded in humanist rights-frameworks, by--firstly--mapping how these debates are manifested and--secondly--positing Cary Wolfe’s concept of "affirmative biopolitics" as means of overcoming these conceptual rifts. Building on work that attributes these tensions to the influence of posthumanism (Weisberg; Pedersen; Giraud), it argues that the embrace of posthumanist thought has marginalised critique by (misleadingly) framing perspectives such as ecofeminism and critical animal studies as irredeemably humanist (thus of no use in forging a non-anthropocentric ethics). To counter this marginalisation, Wolfe’s recent work on biopolitics is used to create a much-needed conversation between these perspectives. Debates surrounding veganism provide a route into instigating this dialogue, due to it being a contested practice that crystallises the differences between "mainstream" and critical animal studies. This framing of veganism not as a totalising practice but as a form of "affirmative biopolitics," however, is not solely intended to highlight affinities between apparently antagonistic perspectives, but offered as a contribution to broader debates about how a "posthumanist ethics" could be enacted in practice.
An adaptive digital stain separation method for deep learning-based automatic cell profile counts

Abstract Background Quantifying cells in a defined region of biological tissue is critical for many clinical and preclinical studies, especially in the fields of pathology, toxicology, cancer and behavior. As part of a program to develop accurate, precise and more efficient automatic approaches for quantifying morphometric changes in biological tissue, we have shown that both deep learning-based and hand-crafted algorithms can estimate the total number of histologically stained cells at their maximal profile of focus in Extended Depth of Field (EDF) images. Deep learning-based approaches show accuracy comparable to manual counts on EDF images but significant enhancement in reproducibility, throughput efficiency and reduced error from human factors. However, a majority of the automated counts are designed for single-immunostained tissue sections. New Method To expand the automatic counting methods to more complex dual-staining protocols, we developed an adaptive method to separate stain color channels on images from tissue sections stained by a primary immunostain with secondary counterstain. Comparison with Existing Methods The proposed method overcomes the limitations of the state-of-the-art stain-separation methods, like the requirement of pure stain color basis as a prerequisite or stain color basis learning on each image. Results Experimental results are presented for automatic counts using deep learning-based and hand-crafted algorithms for sections immunostained for neurons (Neu-N) or microglial cells (Iba-1) with cresyl violet counterstain. Conclusion Our findings show more accurate counts by deep learning methods compared to the handcrafted method. Thus, stain-separated images can function as input for automatic deep learning-based quantification methods designed for single-stained tissue sections.
Universal Germline Testing of Unselected Cancer Patients Detects Pathogenic Variants Missed by Standard Guidelines without Increasing Healthcare Costs

Purpose: To accurately ascertain the frequency of pathogenic germline variants (PGVs) in a pan-cancer patient population with universal genetic testing and to assess the economic impact of receiving genetic testing on healthcare costs. Methods: In this prospective study, germline genetic testing using a 105-gene panel was administered to an unselected pan-cancer patient population irrespective of eligibility by current guidelines. Financial records of subjects were analyzed to assess the effect of PGV detection on cost of care one year from the date of testing. Results: A total of 284 patients participated in this study, of which 44 patients (15%) tested positive for a PGV in 14 different cancer types. Of the patients with PGVs, 23 patients (52%) were ineligible for testing by current guidelines. Identification of a PGV did not increase cost of care. Conclusion: Implementation of universal genetic testing for cancer patients in the clinic, beyond that specified by current guidelines, is necessary to accurately assess and treat hereditary cancer syndromes and does not increase healthcare costs.
Managing variable-dimension structural optimization problems using generative algorithms

This article introduces a novel design abstraction concept for efficient truss topology and geometry optimization. The core advancement introduced here is to represent truss topology and geometry using rules of generative algorithms, and to operate on generative algorithm rules using a genetic algorithm rather than directly on the design description. This indirect design representation supports efficient exploration of variable and high-dimension design topologies. Generative design strategies are also independent of any kind of ground structure, thus avoiding the inherent limitations of ground structure approaches that may hinder innovative design solutions by defining a priori what topologies may be considered. We present new generative algorithm strategies that automatically satisfy structural stability constraints, and that can produce truss topologies with a diversity of patterns within an individual truss design. Truss topology and geometry is optimized in an outer-loop by a genetic algorithm that operates on generative algorithm rules, and size optimization is performed in an inner-loop for each candidate topology using sequential linear programming. The proposed methodology supports concurrent optimization of truss topology, geometry, and size. The generative algorithm abstraction layer also supports the design of variable-dimension structures, which can be generated from the same fixed-dimension rule set. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the new methodology by examining archetypal two- and three-dimensional truss design optimization problems.
Got Pain? Racial Bias in Perceptions of Pain

In the days of slavery, White people assumed that Black people felt less pain than did White people. This belief was used to justify slavery; it was also used to justify the inhumane treatment of Black men and women in medical research. Today, White Americans continue to believe that Black people feel less pain than do White people although this belief has changed from its historical, explicitly racist form. Racial attitudes do not moderate the bias, suggesting that racial bias in perceptions of others' pain is not rooted (solely) in racial prejudice. Moreover, Black Americans too believe that Black people feel less pain than do White people, suggesting that the bias is no longer grounded in intergroup dynamics. Rather, contemporary forms of this bias stem from assumptions that Black people face more hardship and “thus” can withstand more pain and assumptions that Black people's bodies are not only different but also superhuman. Although this new instantiation of the pain perception bias is decidedly more “benevolent”, it can nonetheless lead to negative outcomes. Here, we consider how racial bias in perceptions of others' pain may affect racial disparities in health care and intergroup relations more generally. We also discuss potential avenues for interventions aimed at preventing this bias among children and reducing this bias among adults.
Localization of damage in progressive hydroxychloroquine retinopathy on and off the drug: inner versus outer retina, parafovea versus peripheral fovea.

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is toxic to the retina in proportion to daily dose and duration of use, causing a characteristic retinopathy in Caucasian patients with loss of photoreceptors and eventually RPE changes in a ring around the fovea.1,2 The mechanism of this toxicity is unclear, as animal experiments have shown the drug can affect all retinal layers,3 whereas the damage seen in clinical imaging is primarily to the outer retina.4 We showed recently that HCQ retinopathy can progress even after the drug is stopped, sometimes for years, but that the degree of progression is related to the severity of retinopathy and is minimal when the toxicity is detected at early stages of damage.5 However, that study left a number of important questions unanswered, including the relative involvement of inner and outer retina, the relative involvement of parafovea and peripheral fovea, and potential differences between progression of retinopathy while using the drug or after stopping the drug. The present report addresses these issues and presents new results. Some previous reports have suggested mild inner retina damage during HCQ usage as observed in spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) images.6–8 However, we have identified technical limitations in a commonly used commercial ganglion cell segmentation program in SD-OCT images in the presence of focal damage to the outer retina, which led us to use an experimental pixel-by-pixel segmentation paradigm and address this issue with more accurate segmentation of the retinal layers. Previous studies of HCQ retinopathy also have focused on damage to the parafovea, whereas in this report we address the nature of damage more broadly in the macula, differentiating between damage to the center of the fovea, parafovea, and the peripheral fovea ring, as well in pixel-by-pixel topographic macula maps. We also compare patterns of macular damage between different stages of maculopathy while using HCQ to the way maculopathy progresses after cessation of HCQ.
In vitro synthesis of G protein beta gamma dimers.

Abstract The guanine nucleotide-binding proteins (G proteins), which play a central role in coupling membrane-bound receptors to intracellular effectors, are heterotrimers composed of alpha, beta, and gamma subunits. The beta and gamma subunits form a functional monomer that does not appear to separate under physiological conditions. This has made it difficult to differentiate the individual roles of beta and gamma subunits in signal transduction. To characterize the individual subunits, the 36-kDa beta subunit (beta 1), brain gamma (gamma 2), and transducin gamma (gamma t) were translated in vitro in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate system. Hydrodynamic studies and tryptic proteolysis were used to compare the physical properties of the in vitro translation products with those of beta gamma dimers purified from bovine brain. The hydrodynamic studies indicate that, without gamma subunits, the beta subunits are not stable but tend to aggregate into high molecular weight complexes. When beta and gamma subunits were co-translated, stable beta gamma dimers formed that bound alpha 0 in a guanine nucleotide-dependent manner. The beta gamma dimers were less hydrophobic than those purified from bovine brain. This may reflect a lack of post-translational modification in the reticulocyte lysate or other differences between the in vitro translation products and the purified beta gamma. When beta and gamma were translated separately and then mixed, beta gamma dimers also formed. Analysis of in vitro translated beta gamma subunits will provide ways to assess the function of these subunits and to determine the structural requirements for beta gamma formation.
Modeling Compassion in Critical, Justice-Oriented Teacher Education

As the work of teacher education becomes increasingly focused on the challenges of helping mostly white, monolingual, middle-class prospective teachers become compassionate, successful teachers of racially, culturally, linguistically, economically, and academically diverse students, some teacher educators struggle to find compassion for the prospective teachers they teach. Motivated by this concern and drawing on feminist and Buddhist theories, Hilary Conklin argues that many teacher educators would benefit from a renewed consideration of modeling the pedagogy they hope prospective teachers will employ. In this article, she analyzes and brings together the work on critical, justice-oriented approaches to teacher education, relationships in teaching, modeling as pedagogy, and the Buddhist notion of compassion to articulate a pedagogy of modeling in critical, justice-oriented teacher education. Conklin proposes that such a pedagogy has the potential to move us closer to transformative teacher education.
Storage alternatives for video service

In the next decade, video-on-demand (VOD) services will be widely available to customers and potentially highly profitable to service providers. In order to provide access to many movies, video storage servers may contain not only magnetic disks but also high-capacity tertiary storage devices. In this paper, we study two storage device alternatives: an array of magnetic disks and an array of magnetic tapes. Magnetic disk arrays provide high-bandwidth, low-latency retrieval and moderate storage capacity at high cost. Magnetic tape arrays provide low-bandwidth, high-latency retrieval and high storage capacity at low cost. We evaluate these two storage system alternatives to determine the number of users that each can support. Our simulations show that magnetic disk arrays can support considerably more users, at a lower cost per user, than magnetic tape arrays. >
The Economic Deterioration of the Family: Historical Contingencies Preceding the Great Recession

The "Great Recession" in the United States exposed con- tradictions between the economic well-being of families and capital that developed in the decades prior to this latest downturn. Using social structure of accumulation theory, a qualitative institutional analysis, and quantitative time-series models, this article investigates historically contingent relations between the nature of public assist- ance, family economic deterioration, and capital accumulation. To sustain the circuit of capital, I argue that the family propped up economic growth first through public cash assistance and then through private expenditures, the latter of which lead to the economic deterioration of families dependent on unprecedented levels of debt.
Real-time collaborative planning with the crowd

Planning is vital to a wide range of domains, including robotics, military strategy, logistics, itinerary generation and more, that both humans and computers find difficult. Collaborative planning holds the promise of greatly improving performance on these tasks by leveraging the strengths of both humans and automated planners. However, this requires formalizing the problem domain and input, which must be done by hand, a priori, restricting its use in general real-world domains.We propose using a real-time crowd of workers to simultaneously solve the planning problem, formalize the domain, and train an automated system. As plans are developed, the system is able to learn the domain, and contribute larger segments of work.
The effect of chlorpromazine on lipid absorption.

Summary 1.The use of small doses of I 131 -labeled corn oil as a test of lipid absorption has been explored in a series of normal patients and compared with absorption curves after 50-gm. doses of the same material. 2.The effect of chlorpromazine on the absorption curves of I 131 -labeled fat in normal patients has been studied. 3.In doses of 200 mg. per day chlorpromazine has a moderate effect in delaying or decreasing the absorption of corn oil as measured by labeling techniques.
Surgical repair of anomalous origin of the coronary artery from the pulmonary artery in children

Abstract Objective: To evaluate surgical management of children with coronary artery anomalies, including patients with rare abnormalities (left anterior descending artery or right coronary artery originating from the pulmonary artery). Methods: A retrospective review of eight patients (aged 2 months–10 yr; median 3.5 yr), treated for coronary artery anomalies between 1989 and 1999. Coronary vessels were reimplanted to the aorta in four children, while the remaining four were subjected to the Takeuchi procedure. Results: All children survived. None required mechanical circulatory support. In six patients significant mitral valve insufficiency developed, nevertheless, no intraoperative mitral valvuloplasty was performed. Follow-up was 2 months–10 yr. All patients developed normally and are currently in NYHA class I. Echocardiography revealed normal FS and EF values within 1–17 months postoperatively. Conclusions: In children with coronary artery anomalies, the best results are achieved with an early diagnosis and aggressive management. In our opinion coronary vessel reimplantation and the Takeuchi procedure yields comparable results.