cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
E-020 Safety and Efficacy of the Pipeline Embolization Device in 100 Small Intracranial Aneurysms

Objective Flow diverters are increasingly used for treatment of intracranial aneurysms. In most series, the PED was used for the treatment of large, giant, complex, and fusiform aneurysms. Little is known about the use of the PED in small aneurysms. The purpose of this study was to assess the safety and efficacy of the PED in small aneurysms (≤ 7 mm). Methods A total of 100 consecutive patients with small aneurysms (≤ 7 mm) were treated with the PED at our institution between May 2011 and September 2013. Data on procedural safety and efficacy was retrospectively collected. Results Mean aneurysm size was 5.2 ± 1.5 mm. Seven patients had sustained a subarachnoid haemorrhage. All except 5 aneurysms (95%) arose from the anterior circulation. The number of PEDs used was 1.2 per aneurysm. Symptomatic procedure-related complications occurred in 3 (3%) patients: 1 distal parenchymal haemorrhage managed conservatively and 2 ischemic events. At the latest follow-up (mean, 6.1 months), 52 (71%) aneurysms were completely occluded (100%), 10 (14%) were near-completely occluded (≥90%), and 11 (15%) were incompletely occluded ( Conclusion In this study, treatment of small aneurysms with the PED was associated with low complication rates and high aneurysm occlusion rates. These findings suggest that the PED is a safe and effective alternative to conventional endovascular techniques for small aneurysms. Randomised trials with long-term follow up are necessary to determine the optimal treatment that leads to the highest rate of obliteration and best clinical outcomes. Disclosures N. Chalouhi: None. M. Zanaty: None. A. Whiting: None. S. Yang: None. S. Tjoumakaris: None. D. Hasan: None. R. Starke: None. S. Hann: None. C. Hammer: None. D. Kung: None. R. Rosenwasser: None. P. Jabbour: None.
Applying Violentization: From Theory to Praxis

A holistic, agentive, and progressive violent crime control policy derived from the theory of violentization will be presented. The theory is based on three main ideas: (1) violent dominative encou...
Investigation of efficient simulation methods for finite large X-band arrays in HFSS

This paper investigates different simulation methods in HFSS for periodic arrays. Due to extensive computation times and memory requirements of explicitly simulating a large finite array, both HFSS's finite array domain decomposition method (DDM) and an infinite array simulation are studied as alternatives to reduce total simulation time. For these tests, a helix antenna operating between 8GHz and 8.4GHz is used as a unit cell. The single-element simulation is used to impedance-match the helix antenna before being used as the unit cell for the arrays. The time and accuracy of the explicit finite, finite DDM, and infinite array simulations are compared and the advantages and disadvantages of each method are studied.
Unilateral Ocular Manifestations of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada Disease.

Purpose: To describe a case of unilateral Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada (VKH) disease and associated multimodal imaging.Methods: Retrospective case report.Results: A 50-year-old Hispanic male presented with...
B Cells Protect T Cell-deficient mice from Cryptococcal Brain Invasion.

In this issue of Virulence, Dufaud et al1 utilize a Rag1-deficient murine model and adoptive transfers of B-cells or IgM-containing serum to directly examine the role of B-cells in host defense aga...
Sociodemographic variations in the linkage between emotion regulation and peer victimization

ABSTRACTSociodemographic variables may have important implications for understanding the role of global and discrete-level emotion regulation ability in the prediction of elementary school children’s peer victimization. We tested this hypothesis in a sample of 109 elementary school children from economically and racially diverse backgrounds. There was a positive relation between sadness regulation and overt victimization for children in early elementary grades, but not for children in later grades. In addition, there was a positive relation between sadness regulation and relational victimization for boys and a negative association between the two variables for girls. Girls were rated higher than boys on global emotion regulation ability. In addition, economically disadvantaged children reported more relational victimization than their more affluent peers. Affluent children also received higher ratings on global emotion regulation as well as sadness regulation. Anger regulation was also positively associat...
Economic Characterization of Reciprocal Isoperimetric Control Problems

Fundamental identities between the optimal solution functions and optimal value functions for reciprocal pairs of isoperimetric control problems are established in a simple, direct, and economically intuitive fashion. The relationships between the derivatives of the aforementioned functions, the objects of interest in qualitative economic analysis, are shown to follow as a corollary to the identities. The theorem and corollary are applied to the nonrenewable resource extracting model of the firm, where an economic interpretation of them is given, and where new and original comparative dynamics results are derived in a general fashion, without the aid of a phase diagram or specific functional forms.
A bivalent compound targeting CCR5 and the mu opioid receptor treats inflammatory arthritis pain in mice without inducing pharmacologic tolerance

Pain accompanies rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic inflammatory conditions and is difficult to manage. Although opioids provide potent analgesia, chronic opioid use can cause tolerance and addiction. Recent studies have demonstrated functional interactions between chemokine and opioid receptor signaling pathways. Reported heterodimerization of chemokine and opioid receptors led our group to develop bivalent compounds that bind both types of receptors, with the goal of targeting opioids to sites of inflammation. MCC22 is a novel bivalent compound containing a CCR5 antagonist and mu opioid receptor (MOR) agonist pharmacophores linked through a 22-atom spacer. We evaluated the efficacy of MCC22 in the K/B.g7 T-cell receptor transgenic mouse model of spontaneous inflammatory arthritis. MCC22 or morphine was administered intraperitoneally at varying doses to arthritic K/B.g7 mice or nonarthritic control mice. Mechanical pain hypersensitivity was measured each day before and after drug administration, using the electronic von Frey test. The potency of MCC22 relative to that of morphine was calculated. Functional readouts of pain included grip strength and nesting behavior. A separate dosing regimen was used to determine whether the drugs induced pharmacologic tolerance. MCC22 provided ~ 3000-fold more potent analgesia than morphine in this model. Daily treatment with MCC22 also led to a cumulative analgesic effect, reducing the daily baseline pain level. MCC22 produced no observable analgesic effect in nonarthritic control mice. Importantly, repeated administration of MCC22 did not induce pharmacologic tolerance, whereas a similar regimen of morphine did. Both grip strength and nesting behaviors improved among arthritic mice treated with MCC22. Ankle thickness and arthritis scores were not affected by MCC22. The analgesic effect of MCC22 was abolished in K/B.g7 mice genetically lacking CCR5, demonstrating the receptor specificity of the antagonist pharmacophore. MCC22 is a novel bivalent ligand that targets CCR5 and MOR. Our findings demonstrate that MCC22 provides highly potent analgesia and improved functional outcomes in a model of inflammatory arthritis, without inducing typical opioid tolerance. These findings suggest that MCC22 or similar compounds could be used to treat the pain associated with inflammatory arthritis and related conditions, while minimizing the risks typically associated with chronic opioid use.
Cost and Optimization in Government: An Introduction to Cost Accounting, Operations Management, and Quality Control, Second Edition

The careful management of costs and operations are two of the most essential elements of operating any successful organization, public or private. While the private sector is driven by profit-maximizing incentives to keep costs to a minimum, the public sector’s mission and goals are guided by a different set of objectives: to provide a wide range of essential goods and services to maintain social order, improve public health, revitalize the economy, and, most importantly, to improve the quality of life for its citizens. Although the objectives are different, it is just as important for public decision makers to make the best use of available resources by keeping the cost of operation to a minimum. This book demonstrates that with a careful emphasis on cost accounting, operations management, and quality control, all organizations and governments can increase efficiency, improve performance, and prepare to weather hard times. This book is divided into three parts: Part I offers thorough coverage of cost fundamentals, with an emphasis on basic cost concepts, cost behavior, cost analysis, cost accounting, and cost control. Part II examines optimization in costs and operations in government including traditional or classical optimization with applications in inventory management and queuing, followed by mathematical programming and network analysis. Finally, Part III explores special topics in cost and optimization, in particular those related to games and decisions, productivity measurement, and quality control. Simple, accessible language and explanations are integrated throughout, and examples have been drawn from government so that readers can easily relate to them. Cost and Optimization in Government is required reading for practicing public managers and students of public administration in need of a clear, concise guide to maximizing public resource efficiency.
The Liver-Overview

The structure of the liver and its cellular components is discussed in relationship to its various functions in the body. It is now considered to be an exocrine gland, a center for intermediary metabolism, a depository for trace metals and fat-soluble vitamins, a center for host defense and an excretory organ. Injury to the liver frequently results in body-wide dysfunctions and manifestations.
Interval decline in hemoglobin A is associated with annual clinical event rate in sickle cell anemia patients receiving maintenance apheresis RBC exchange.

BACKGROUND Apheresis red blood cell (RBC) exchange (RCE) is a standard intervention for patients with sickle cell anemia (SCA) who have had previous thromboembolic stroke or intractable chronic pain. Replacing sickling cells with those containing hemoglobin A (HbA) minimizes microvascular pathophysiology that produces clinical crises. Limited data exist regarding the interval changes in HbA between transfusions. We sought to describe the HbA decrement between RCE procedures and its relationship to clinical status. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS SCA patients (all hemoglobin SS disease) treated with maintenance RCE (n = 21) over a 15-month period at two neighboring institutions were retrospectively reviewed. Time-normalized daily HbA decrement was calculated to reflect loss of transfused RBCs, and annual events of either emergency department or hospital admissions for SCA complications were noted. Associations between HbA decrement and laboratory measures were calculated using mixed linear regression models and unpaired t test was used to compare HbA decrement between high and low event rate groups. RESULTS A total of 31 events were recorded, and mean HbA decrement per day was 0.77 ± 0.16%. The mean interval between RCEs was 36 ± 12 days. Patients with more annual events exhibited a significantly greater daily HbA decrement (p = 0.007). No significant association between RBC unit age and HbA decrement or annual event rate was observed. CONCLUSIONS Patients exhibiting greater daily HbA decrement were more likely to have multiple emergency department visits or admissions for sickling crises. Modulating HbA decrement may merit study as an intermediate metric for interventions to improve outcomes in hemoglobin SS disease.
Appendix to Calcium Exchange in the Heart

45Ca exchange was monitored by the scintillation-disk flow cell technique developed in the laboratories at UCLA, It depends upon the growth of a cellular monolayer on one surface of each of two disks composed of polystyrene combined with scintillator material (Bicron Corp., Newbury, Ohia, USA). The disks are 45 mm in diameter and 1 mm thick and are designed to form a portion of each side of the flow cell chamber illustrated in Figure 1.
Imitation of Human Motion by Low Degree-of-Freedom Simulated Robots and Human Preference for Mappings Driven by Spinal, Arm, and Leg Activity

Robots cannot exactly replicate human motion, especially for low degree-of-freedom (DOF) robots, but perceptual imitation has been accomplished. Nevertheless, the multiple mappings between human and robot bodies continue to present questions around which aspect of human motion robots should preserve. In this vein, this paper presents a methodology for mapping human motion capture data to the motion of a low-DOF simulated robot; further, empirical experiments conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk illuminate human preference across several such mappings. Users preferred motion capture driven robot motion over artificially generated robot motion, suggesting imitation was successfully accomplished by the proposed mappings. Moreover, one mapping, relating to the leaning of the spine, was preferred over arm- and leg-based mappings by a significant subgroup of respondents who were both loyal to the mapping—across multiple stimuli—and more engaged in the survey than other respondents. These results re-confirm the ability for simple robots to imitate human behavior and indicate that monitoring human spinal activity may be especially useful in this pursuit. Parallel work in psychology and human behavior analysis suggests that successful imitation of the motion of human counterparts is a necessary activity for robots to integrate in human-facing environments.
Beyond Parental Control: Designing Adolescent Online Safety Apps Using Value Sensitive Design:

Parental control applications are designed to help parents monitor their teens and protect them from online risks. Generally, parents are considered the primary stakeholders for these apps; therefo...
Enhanced recovery and early extubation after pediatric cardiac surgery using single-dose intravenous methadone.

Background/Aims: Methadone may offer advantages in facilitating early extubation after cardiac surgery, but very few data are available in the pediatric population. Setting/Design: Community tertiary children's hospital, retrospective case series. Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of all pediatric cardiac surgical patients for whom early extubation was intended. A multimodal analgesic regimen was used for all patients, consisting of methadone (0.2–0.3 mg/kg), ketamine (0.5 mg/kg plus 0.25 mg/kg/h), lidocaine (1 mg/kg plus 1.5 mg/kg/h), acetaminophen (15 mg/kg), and parasternal ropivacaine (0.5 mL/kg of 0.2%). Outcome variables were collected with descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 24 children [median = 7 (interquartile range = 3.75–13.75) years old, 23.7 (14.8–53.4) kg] were included in the study; 22 (92%) had procedures performed on bypass and 11 (46%) involved a reentry sternotomy. Methadone dosing was 0.26 (0.23–0.29) mg/kg. None of the children required intraoperative supplemental opioids; 23 (96%) were extubated in the operating room. The first paCO2 on pediatric intensive care unit admission was 51 (45–58) mmHg. Time to first supplemental opioid administration was 5.1 (3.5–9.5) h. Cumulative total supplemental opioids (in intravenous morphine equivalents) at 24 and 72 h were 0.2 (0.09–0.32) and 0.42 (0.27–0.68) mg/kg. One child required postoperative bilevel positive airway pressure support, but none required reintubation. None had pruritus; three (13%) experienced nausea. Conclusion: A methadone-based multimodal regimen facilitated early extubation without appreciable adverse events. Further investigations are needed to confirm efficacy of this regimen and to assess whether the excellent safety profile seen here holds in the hands of multiple providers caring for a larger, more heterogeneous population.
Medical Management of Atherosclerotic Carotid Disease

Modern medical therapies have substantially decreased the risk of cardiac and cerebral vascular events due to atherosclerosis, and these approaches largely apply to patients with atherosclerotic disease of the carotid artery. There is strong evidence for risk reduction in these patients via use of antihypertensives, statins, and in most cases antithrombotic medication of some sort. Lower levels of evidence support risk reduction with interventions such as lowering HgA1c in diabetics, tobacco cessation, exercise, diet and weight loss. Internal carotid artery dissection or webs represent less common situations where best antithrombotic or interventional therapies are still not clear.
Shareholder Value Effects of the Volkswagen Emissions Scandal on the Automotive Ecosystem

This study provides empirical evidence on the effect of the September 2015 Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal on the stock prices of publicly traded firms in the global automotive ecosystem. We focus on both the supply chain partners of VW—tier‐1 suppliers; tier‐2 suppliers; and business customers—and three groups of firms that are not VW supply chain partners—other motor vehicle manufacturers; parts manufacturers not identified as VW suppliers; and wholesalers, retailers, and rental agencies not identified as VW customers. We find that tier‐1 suppliers of direct material to VW suffered a mean stock price reaction of ‒2.69% in the week following the scandal, but this effect varied by region. European suppliers were the most impacted with a mean stock price reaction of ‒5.52%. Suppliers with larger revenue dependence on VW experienced greater negative stock price reactions, as did suppliers of components for engines and/or emissions systems. Non‐VW parts manufacturers experienced a positive effect. We find a mean stock price reaction of ‒5.28% to VW’s European customers, but no significant effects for non‐VW customers. European motor vehicle manufacturers experienced a mean stock price reaction of ‒7.60%. Our results suggest that firms should not just focus on selecting and monitoring responsible suppliers but also apply some of the same principles to developing responsible customers. Our work also has implications for industry groups, regulators, and legal systems, entities that have the resources and capabilities to effectively monitor large firms to reduce illegal or irresponsible behavior such as the VW scandal.
The sun behind the clouds: Tibet’s struggle for freedom (2010)

It was a Chinese face that seemed most familiar to me. Dressed in the green uniform of PLA and holding a black and cold pole, the expressionless soldiers are beating the Tibetan protesters with his...
Combination immunotherapy strategies for glioblastoma.

Despite recent advances in treatment for a number of cancers with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), immunotherapy has had limited efficacy in glioblastoma (GBM). The recent multi-centered CheckMate 143 trial in first time recurrent GBM and the Checkmate 498 trial in newly diagnosed unmethylated GBM showed that antibodies against programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) failed to improve overall survival in patients with GBM. Recent preclinical and clinical studies have explored combining ICB with several other therapies including additional ICB against alternative checkpoint molecules, activation of costimulatory checkpoint molecules such as 4-1BB, radiation-induced tumor cell lysis and immunogenic recruitment, local chemotherapy, neoadjuvant ICB therapy, and myeloid cell reactivation. We have reviewed the literature on ICB seminal to the progression of several preclinical studies and clinical trials in order to provide a compendium of the current state of combination immunotherapy for GBM. For ongoing clinical trials without associated publications, we searched clinicaltrials.gov for ongoing studies using the keywords, “GBM” and “glioblastoma”, as well as names of checkpoint molecules. Recent trends from clinical trials demonstrate that despite a variety of different combination strategies involving ICB, GBM remains largely elusive to current immunotherapies. There is a discordance of survival outcomes between GBM pre-clinical models and clinical trials, likely due to the heterogeneity of GBM in patients as well as other adaptive immune mechanisms not otherwise represented in murine models. However, in clinical studies, neoadjuvant ICB in GBM was found to diversify the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire and increase chemokine mRNA transcripts when comparing pre- and post- surgical time points. Moreover, an increase in peripheral and tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) clonotypes were also observed when comparing adjuvant and neoadjuvant cohorts. Despite the lack of clinical survival benefit, immune modulation was observed in multiple different combination strategies for GBM in both preclinical and clinical studies, indicating that ICB combination therapy results in a significant immunological impact on the tumor microenvironment.
Rethinking Dating Apps as Sexual Consent Apps: A New Use Case for AI-Mediated Communication

This paper reports a participatory design study about how dating apps could be designed to mediate sexual consent exchange and ultimately serve as scalable sexual violence prevention solutions. Participants (n=17) were dating app users identifying as LGBTQIA+ or women (demographics at disproportionate risk of sexual violence). Participants envisioned dating apps encouraging safer consent exchange practices by normalizing discussions around consent and sexual boundaries online, before meeting face-to-face with potential sex partners. The design ideas generated by the participants, which we coded as Consent Communication Progression, involved the dating app messaging interface using AI-driven conversation prompts. Such prompts would gradually progress messaging conversations towards topics of consent and sexual boundaries with an algorithm that tailors the prompts to specific users. Participants applied a consent lens when imagining human-AI interaction, in which conversation prompts would only be posted in the interface if the user first consented to the particular conversation occurring. Implications for future work are discussed.
Tips and Tricks for Augmenting Rotator Cuff Repair With a Bio-inductive Collagen Implant

Abstract The contemporary literature suggests that a primary feature of recurrence of rotator cuff tear after arthroscopic repair is failure of tendon healing, which can occur for multiple reasons, including compromised tissue quality. Recently, the use of augmentation implants, grafts, or scaffolds has emerged as a strategy to address the issue of deficient rotator cuff tissue. A resorbable bio-inductive collagen implant (REGENETEN; Smith & Nephew, Andover, MA) has been shown to increase tendon thickness when applied in rotator cuff repair. This article presents an experienced surgeon’s tips for implanting this device. In addition, we review the current literature about this bio-inductive implant.
Cultivating Pedagogy for Transformative Learning: A Decade of Undergraduate Agroecology Education

Existing scholarship on agroecology and food systems education within U.S. colleges and universities has focused primarily on preparing students to be professionals working in agrifood systems. Developing students’ skills and competencies, though vitally important, may not suffice for supporting transformative learning. Transformative learning shifts students’ perceptions and awareness and informs future actions, constituting a potential avenue for leveraging education to support transformations towards more socially just and ecologically viable agrifood systems. It is unclear, however, what pedagogies and educational practices enable transformative learning. This paper explores the integration of multiple pedagogical innovations within an advanced agroecology course taught at the University of Vermont. Over a decade, the teaching team has made iterative adjustments to course content and pedagogies with the goal of catalyzing action toward transforming agrifood systems. In this paper, we evaluate our pedagogical approach, asking: (1) How well do course content and pedagogy align with our definition of transformative agroecology as transdisciplinary, participatory, action-oriented, and political? (2) To what extent does our approach enable transformative agroecological learning, and how is that identified? We present our course evaluation as a case study comprising qualitative analyses of course syllabi, student comments on University-administered course evaluations, and most significant change (MSC) reflections. MSC reflections proved to be a valuable method for identifying and assessing transformative learning, remedying the limitations of standard university evaluations. Through curricular review, we found that substantial changes to course content and evaluative assignments between 2010 and 2020 align with a transformative approach to agroecology. This is validated in students’ MSC reflections, which provide evidence of transformative learning. In sharing evaluative results, processes, and insights, we aim to contribute to a broader movement of scholar-educators committed to iteratively and collaboratively developing transformative pedagogies within agroecology and sustainable food systems education. We contend that reflexive practice among educators is necessary to leverage education for transforming agrifood systems.
A network-failure-tolerant message-passing system for terascale clusters

The Los Alamos Message Passing Interface (LA-MPI) is an end-to-end network-failure-tolerant message-passing system designed for terascale clusters. LAMPI is a standard-compliant implementation of MPI designed to tolerate network-related failures including I/O bus errors, network card errors, and wire-transmission errors. This paper details the distinguishing features of LA-MPI, including support for concurrent use of multiple types of network interface, and reliable message transmission utilizing multiple network paths and routes between a given source and destination. In addition, performance measurements on production-grade platforms are presented.
"Revenue Management" Effects Related to Financial Flows Generated by Climate Policy

This paper discusses possible macroeconomic implications for low-income countries of increased revenue inflows that may follow from implementing certain global greenhouse gas mitigation policies. Such revenue sources include revenue from emissions offset mechanisms, direct investments, and financial transfers that form parts of possible future mitigation treaties. In the short run such revenue will come mainly from offset markets and donor-sponsored programs, with some additional financial inflows due to foreign direct investments. In the longer run, comprehensive global cap-and-trade or carbon tax schemes could provide a potentially much larger revenue flow to many low-income countries. The author argues that the macroeconomic implications of such flows are manageable in the short run, but the larger revenues resulting from global emissions schemes could overwhelm this capacity and lead to a number of potential macroeconomic management problems.
Identifying dynamic sequential plans

We address the problem of identifying dynamic sequential plans in the framework of causal Bayesian networks, and show that the problem is reduced to identifying causal effects, for which there are complete identification algorithms available in the literature.
Multi-level Governance and Natural Resource Management: The Challenges of Complexity, Diversity, and Uncertainty

Most human-environment interactions with regard to any natural resource occur on multiple scales. Furthermore, the “human” aspect of humanenvironment interactions always involves multiple communities of interest and identity, and the “environment” aspect always involves multiple dimensions, uses, and values of any natural resource. These facts pose a significant challenge in the design of institutions to aid in the sustainable management of those humanenvironment interactions. Literature addressing that challenge spreads across several disciplines, including resource economics, ecology, law, and political science. Any quest for the “right” scale of resource management institutions may end up being unsuccessful, but this does not mean there is no difference among institutional alternatives. Some arrangements offer more favorable conditions than others for information collection, deliberation, learning, and adaptation. This chapter provides arguments in support of the conclusion that polycentric arrangements operating (albeit imperfectly) in a number of settings improve human beings’ prospects for handling the challenges of complexity, diversity, and uncertainty and, therefore, enhance the possibilities for human societies to organize and maintain more nearly sustainable management of natural resources.
The Rose Theorem

Law resists theorems. We have hypotheses, typologies, heuristics, and conundrums. But, until now, only one plausible theorem - and that we borrowed from economics. Could there be a second, the Rose Theorem? Any theorem must generalize, be falsifiable, and have predictive power. Law's theorems, however, seem to require three additional qualities: they emerge from tales of ordinary stuff; are named for, not by, their creators; and have no single authoritative form. For example, Ronald Coase wrote of ranchers and farmers. He has always shied away from the Theorem project. When later scholars formalized his parable, they created multiple and inconsistent versions. Likewise, Carol Rose writes rich narratives of maypoles and foxes, rivers and roman roads. She offers a theory of human motivation and predictions about our behavior. And we may ask, though she might not, whether the rich alluvial mud of her scholarship crystallizes into a Rose Theorem.
The (Lack of) Enforcement of Prosecutor Disclosure Rules

Criminal defense lawyers and academics have long complained of failures by prosecutors to honor their constitutional and ethical obligations to disclose exculpatory information. In recent years, such prosecutorial failures have gained the attention of a broad audience. The advent of DNA evidence has revealed and continues to reveal wrongful convictions around the country. These exonerations and the investigations that accompanied them have shown that failures by prosecutors and police to disclose exculpatory information have repeatedly contributed to wrongful convictions. In 2007, a national spotlight shone on North Carolina prosecutor Michael Nifong’s failure to reveal that DNA testing exonerated players charged in the Duke Lacrosse team case. In 2009, the national press gave front page treatment to another prosecutorial failure to disclose exculpatory information when Judge Emmet G. Sullivan dismissed the public corruption case against Alaska Senator Ted Stevens due to Department of Justice prosecutors’ failure to make required disclosures. In addition to dismissing the charges, Judge Sullivan appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the prosecutors’ disclosure violations. In a front page story in The New York Times, Neil Lewis described Judge Sullivan as delivering “a broad warning about what he said was a ‘troubling
Effectiveness of Antitrust Sanctions on Modern International Cartels

This paper assesses the antitrust fines and private penalties imposed on the participants of 260 international cartels discovered during 1990–2005, using four indicators of enforcement effectiveness. First, the United States is almost always the first to investigate and sanction international cartels, and its investigations are about seven times faster than EU probes. Second, US investigations were more likely to be kept confidential than those in Europe, but the gap nearly disappeared since 2000. Third, median government antitrust fines average less than 10% of affected commerce, but rises to about 35% in the case of multi-continental conspiracies. Civil settlements in jurisdictions where they are permitted are typically 6 to 12% of sales. Canadian and US fines and settlements imposed higher penalties than other jurisdictions. Fourth, fines on cartels that operated in Europe averaged a bit more than half of their estimated overcharges; those prosecuted only in North America paid civil and criminal sanctions of roughly single damages; and global cartels prosecuted in both jurisdictions typically paid less than single damages.
Čerenkov radiation in crystalline matter

The quantum theory of \ifmmode \check{C}\else \v{C}\fi{}erenkov radiation caused by a Dirac particle in a crystalline medium, taking into account the interaction of the electron with the crystal as well as with the radiation, is presented. The radiation is treated in the context of phenomenological quantum electrodynamics. The results include effects due to the discreteness of the crystal as well as other quantum effects. The formulation is general and applies to nonisotropic media (biaxial, uniaxial) as well as to isotropic media. Photon polarization as well as spin effects are indicated. The intensity of radiation is modified by a density of states which takes account of the "umklapp" processes.
The Child Rights Convention and International Criminal Justice

This article examines interrelations between the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, and the revival of international criminal justice that began just a few years later. Particular attention is paid to the work of the International Criminal Court as it concerns children affected by armed conflict and similar violence.
To do or to have, now or later? The preferred consumption profiles of material and experiential purchases

Extending previous research on the hedonic benefits of spending money on doing rather than having, this paper investigates when people prefer to consume experiential and material purchases. We contend that the preferred timing of consumption tends to be more immediate for things (like clothing and gadgets) than for experiences (like vacations and meals out). First, we examine whether consumers exhibit a stronger preference to delay consumption of experiential purchases compared to material goods. When asked to make choices about their optimal consumption times, people exhibit a relative preference to have now and do later. In the next set of studies, we found that this difference in preferred consumption led participants to opt for a lesser material item now over a superior item later, but to wait for a superior experiential purchase rather than settle for a lesser experience now. This tendency is due to the fact that consumers derive more utility from waiting for experiences than from waiting for possessions. Finally, we provide evidence that these preferences affect people's real-world decisions about when to consume.
Heuristic Search and Receding-Horizon Planning in Complex Spacecraft Orbit Domains.

Spacecraft missions to small celestial bodies face sensitive, strongly non-Keplerian dynamics that motivate the employment of automated sampling-based trajectory planning. However, the scarcity of onboard computing resources necessitates careful formulation of heuristics for efficiently searching the reachable sets, which exhibit complex and finely-detailed structure. We examine a global search heuristic that combines aspects of simulated annealing and hill-climbing to locate sparse regions of the planning domain that simultaneously satisfy numerous geometric and timing constraints associated with remote sensing objectives for points of interest on the central body surface. Subsequently, we demonstrate the use of a receding-horizon implementation of this maneuver-planning strategy to produce mission profiles that fulfill sets of such goals.
Increased alpha band activity indexes inhibitory competition across a border during figure assignment.

Abstract Figure–ground assignment is thought to entail inhibitory competition between potential objects on opposite sides of a shared border; the winner is perceived as the figure, and the loser as the shapeless ground. Computational models and response time measures support this understanding but to date no online measure of inhibitory competition during figure–ground assignment has been reported. The current study assays electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha power as a measure of inhibitory competition during figure–ground assignment. Activity in the EEG alpha band has been linked to functional inhibition in the brain, and it has been proposed that increased alpha power reflects increased inhibition. In 2 experiments participants viewed silhouettes designed so that the insides would be perceived as figures. Real-world silhouettes depicted namable objects. Novel silhouettes depicted novel objects on the insides of their borders, but varied in the amount of hypothesized cross-border competition for figural status: In “ Low-Competition ” silhouettes, the borders suggested novel objects on the outside as well as on the inside. In “ High-Competition ” silhouettes the borders suggested portions of real-world objects on the outside; these compete with the figural properties favoring the inside as figure. Participants accurately categorized both types of novel silhouettes as “novel” objects and were unaware of the real world objects suggested on the outside of the High-Competition silhouettes. In both experiments, we observed more alpha power while participants viewed High- rather than Low-Competition novel silhouettes. These are the first results to show via an online index of neural activity that figure assignment entails inhibitory competition.
On weak topology for optimal control of switched nonlinear systems

Optimal control of switched systems is challenging in general due to the discrete nature of the switching control input. One of the most well-known approaches is the embedding based method which addresses this challenge by solving a relaxed optimization problem with only continuous inputs and then projecting the relaxed solution back to obtain a solution to the original problem. In this paper, we present a unified topology based framework for analyzing and designing various embedding based switched optimal control algorithms. The proposed framework views the embedding based approaches from a novel topological perspective as a change of topology over the optimization space. A general procedure of constructing different switched optimal control algorithms with guaranteed convergence to a stationary point is described. Numerical examples are also provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.
A systematic approach to privacy enforcement and policy compliance checking in enterprises

Privacy management is important for enterprises that handle personal data: they must deal with privacy laws and people’s expectations. Currently much is done by means of manual processes, which make them difficult and expensive to comply. Key enterprises’ requirements include: automation, simplification, cost reduction and leveraging of current identity management solutions. This paper describes a suite of privacy technologies that have been developed by HP Labs, in an integrated way, to help enterprises to automate the management and enforcement of privacy policies (including privacy obligations) and the process of checking that such policies and legislation are indeed complied with. Working prototypes have been implemented to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach. In particular, as a proof-of-concept, the enforcement of privacy policies and obligations has been integrated with HP identity management solutions. Part of this technology is currently under productisation. Technical details are provided along with a description of our next steps.
Disparate coping strategies for gendered effects of drought: A call for re‐examination of gender roles and harmful traditions in Central Tanzania

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to facilitate an understanding of influence of gender roles in drought so as to come with relevant recommendation aimed at bettering the lives of men, women and female children.Design/methodology/approach – Data have been collected via participant observation, interviews and collection of unpublished primary and secondary data generated by case studies conducted by the author. After which, content analysis was employed for its potentiality as a means of systematically identifying, classifying and analyzing information relevant to this study.Findings – It is argued in this study that the survival of the community, in Central Tanzania, is questionable because effects of drought have reached intolerable levels and strategies adopted aren't that helpful. More specifically, socially assigned gender roles, position women and female children at the most disadvantageous position as the main victims of the disaster. Accordingly, gender roles have to be changed, if the effects...
An analysis of the retail and lifecycle cost of battery-powered electric vehicles

Regulators, policy analysts, automobile manufacturers, environmental groups, and others are debating the merits of policies regarding the development and use of battery-powered electric vehicles (BPEVs). At the crux of this debate is lifecycle cost: the annualized initial vehicle cost, plus annual operating and maintenance costs, plus battery replacement costs. To address this issue of cost, we have developed a detailed model of the performance, energy use, manufacturing costs, retail costs, and lifecycle cost of electric vehicles and comparable gasoline internal-combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). This effort is an improvement over most previous studies of electric vehicle costs because instead of assuming important parameter values for such variables as vehicle efficiency and battery costs, we model these values in detail. We find that in order for electric vehicles to be cost-competitive with gasoline ICEVs, batteries must have a lower manufacturing cost, and a longer life, than the best lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride batteries we modeled. We believe that it is most important to reduce the battery manufacturing cost to $100/kWh or less, attain a cycle life of 1200 or more and a calendar life of 12 years or more, and aim for a specific energy of around 100 Wh/kg.
Do Fans Want Close Contests? A Test of the Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis in the National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association claims to sell entertainment. Part of that entertainment is close, competitive contests with uncertain outcomes. However, hometown fans want the home team to win. Hence, the optimal probability that the home team wins a game, from the perspective of maximizing demand, lays somewhere between 0.5 and 1.0. Using data from individual games for the 2001-02 season, this optimal probability was estimated to be approximately 0.66. Fans want their home team to have about twice the chance to win a game as the visiting team.
Intergenerational Transmission of Risk Preferences and Entrepreneurship

We develop a model of the intergenerational transmission of risk preferences and discuss how different types of risk in the economic environment affect risk preferences and entrepreneurship.
An empirical analysis on the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles: The case of natural gas vehicles

The adoption of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) has been regarded as one of the most important strategies to address the issues of energy dependence, air quality, and, more recently, climate change. Despite decades of effort, we still face daunting challenges to promote wider acceptance of AFVs by the general public. More empirical analyses are needed to understand the technology adoption process associated with different market structures, the effectiveness of regulations and incentives, and the density of infrastructure adequate to reach sustainable commercial application. This paper compares the adoption of natural gas vehicles (NGVs) in eight countries: Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Italy, New Zealand, Pakistan, and the US. It examines the major policies aimed at promoting the use of NGVs, instruments for implementing those policies and targeting likely stakeholders, and a range of factors that influence the adoption of NGVs. The findings in this paper should be applicable to other AFVs.
"Curation Micro-services: A Pipeline Metaphor for Repositories"

The effective long-term curation of digital content requires expert analysis, policy setting, and decision making, and a robust technical infrastructure that can effect and enforce curation policies and implement appropriate curation activities. Since the number, size, and diversity of content under curation management will undoubtedly continue to grow over time, and the state of curation understanding and best practices relative to that content will undergo a similar constant evolution, one of the overarching design goals of a sustainable curation infrastructure is flexibility. In order to provide the necessary flexibility of deployment and configuration in the face of potentially disruptive changes in technology, institutional mission, and user expectation, a useful design metaphor is provided by the Unix pipeline, in which complex behavior is an emergent property of the coordinated action of a number of simple independent components. The decomposition of repository function into a highly granular and orthogonal set of independent but interoperable micro-services is consistent with the principles of prudent engineering practice. Since each micro-service is small and self-contained, they are individually more robust and collectively easier to implement and maintain. By being freely interoperable in various strategic combinations, any number of micro-services-based repositories can be easily constructed to meet specific administrative or technical needs. Importantly, since these repositories are purposefully built from policy neutral and protocol and platform independent components to provide the function minimally necessary for a specific context, they are not constrained to conform to an infrastructural monoculture of prepackaged repository solutions. The University of California Curation Center has developed an open source micro-services infrastructure that is being used to manage the diverse digital collections of the ten campus University system and a number of non-university content partners. This paper provides a review of the conceptual design and technical implementation of this micro-services environment, a case study of initial deployment, and a look at ongoing micro-services developments.
Analog Models for Flood Control Systems

Technique of simulation of flood control systems; similarity relationships for long period flood waves derived; simulation of channel sections with regard to nonlinear properties of stage-discharge relation and stage-storage relation; time history of stage or discharge at stations displayed simultaneously on oscilloscope screen; inclusion of reservoirs in analog.
The market for interfirm asset sales:Partial sell-offs and total liquidations

Abstract We investigate the valuation consequences of voluntary proposals to sell part or all of a corporation's assets. For partial sell-offs, successful sellers and buyers reap statistically significant abnormal returns of 1.66% and 0.83%, respectively. Unsuccessful sellers realize gains at the bid announcement of 1.41% that are lost at the offer termination. In contrast, proposals to liquidate the firm are associated with significant average abnormal returns of 12.24%. We interpret these findings as evidence that asset sales are associated with the movement of resources to higher-valued uses rather than as evidence of market mispricing before the divestiture announcements.