cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Afterword to Gender, Labour, War and Empire

History is a field that has had an ambivalent relationship to theory and/or methodological consciousness; historically, historians’ claims to operate “scientifically” have more often meant rigorous empirical investigation than conceptual or theoretical innovations or contributions.1 Indeed, even within the field of “social science history”, which took off in the 1970s in both North America and Europe, and included monumental studies of the family, labour, urban life, local and micro-studies of rural life and slavery, among other topics, with few exceptions, “social science” signified data mining and statistical analysis rather than the organization of findings according to theoretical or conceptual frameworks.2 At the same time, within the emerging field of social history, often heavily influenced by Marxist theory, historians turned their attention to the history of under-represented groups, notably the working class, chronicling the process of class formation, organization and labour conflicts. These were in themselves tremendously important contributions that in some cases transformed understandings of the field and opened up new avenues of investigation, but they tended to assume rather than make problems for investigating the very categories of analysis that underpinned the studies themselves: categories such as class, gender, race and sexuality.
Skin Irritation during Video-EEG Monitoring

ABSTRACTObjectives. Video-EEG (VEEG) monitoring, indicated to characterize and diagnose seizures, is recorded over several days with electrodes glued to the patient’s scalp. Our investigation was designed to determine the incidence of electrode-related skin irritation during VEEG in the epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) and implement a series of interventions to reduce the incidence of moderate to severe irritation.Methods. Between May 2012 and March 2015, EMU patients were assessed for skin lesions before electrode placement and at discharge. Prospectively gathered demographic data included: age, gender, race/ethnicity, length of monitoring (LOM), skin prep medium (SPM) used, self-reported skin sensitivity, history of skin diseases, and skin products used on the day of admission. When present, electrode-related skin irritation was graded as mild, moderate, or severe. Data were collected before any intervention (baseline-group) and thereafter with each intervention: standardization (single SPM, raising aware...
Clinical Decision Making: A Framework for Predicting Rx Response

Over seventy percent of Americans take at least one form of prescription medication, with twenty percent taking more than five. The numbers emphasize how important it is for clinicians to understand the effects of the medication and whether these medications are effective. In this paper we propose a data driven framework to predict the effectiveness of medication on a patient, specifically in the case of diabetes. Our dataset contains claims data from 1.5 million patients. A heuristic was established to evaluate the "effectiveness" of Metformin using a set of three criteria. Decision trees and random forests were used to create prediction models on the training data and select features. The model was able to correctly predict whether a patient responded well to the medication with approximately 80% accuracy and an F1-measure of approximately 90%.
Voltage stability margin estimation for a load area using a three-bus equivalent

This paper describes a new method for estimating the power transfer limits on tie lines of a load area represented using a three-bus equivalent recently proposed. This new method uses companion matrix eigenvalues to solve a sextic equation about the maximum active power transfer against voltage instability and is able to handle more general load increase scenarios. The proposed method is compared with a previously proposed partial derivative calculation based method using an artificial three-bus system to demonstrate its better accuracy and is also tested on the Northeast Power Coordinating Council 140-bus power system for calculating the power transfer limits of three tie lines of the Connecticut Load Center.
Predictors of Donor Heart Utilization for Transplantation in United States

Background Optimum use of donor organs can increase the reach of the transplantation therapy to more patients on waiting list. The heart transplantation (HTx) has remained stagnant in United States over the past decade at approximately 2,500 HTx annually. With the use of the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) deceased donor database (DCD) we aimed to evaluate donor factors predicting donor heart utilization. Methods UNOS DCD was queried from 2005 to 2014 to identify total number of donors who had at least one of their organs donated. We then generated a multivariate logistic regression model using various demographic and clinical donor factors to predict donor heart use for HTx. Donor hearts not recovered due to consent or family issues or recovered for nontransplantation reasons were excluded from the analysis. Results During the study period there were 80,782 donors of which 23,606 (29%) were used for HTx, and 38,877 transplants (48%) were not used after obtaining consent because of poor organ function (37%), donor medical history (13%), and organ refused by all programs (5%). Of all, 22,791 donors with complete data were used for logistic regression (13,389 HTx, 9,402 no-HTx) which showed significant predictors of donor heart use for HTx. From this model we assigned probability of donor heart use and identified 3,070 donors with HTx-eligible unused hearts for reasons of poor organ function (28%), organ refused by all programs (15%), and recipient not located (9%). Conclusions An objective system based on donor factors can predict donor heart use for HTx and may help increase availability of hearts for transplantation from existing donor pool.
Adipose Tissue Macrophages in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Prevalence, Disease-Related Indicators, and Associations With Cardiometabolic Risk Factors.

Objective Adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) are a potent source of inflammatory cytokines, with profound effects on adipose tissue function, yet their potential role in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) pathobiology is largely unstudied. Methods Periumbilical subcutaneous adipose tissue was obtained from 36 RA patients and 22 non-RA controls frequency matched on demographics and body mass index. Samples were stained for the macrophage marker CD68, and the average proportions of ATMs, crown-like structures (periadipocyte aggregates of 3 or more ATMs), and fibrosis were compared between groups. Results The adjusted proportion of ATMs among all nucleated cells was 76% higher in RA than in non-RA samples (37.7 versus 21.3%, respectively; P < 0.001), and the adjusted average number of crown-like structures was more than 1.5-fold higher in the RA group than in controls (0.58 versus 0.23 crown-like structure/high-power field, respectively; P = 0.001). ATMs were significantly more abundant in early RA and in those with anti–cyclic citrullinated peptide seropositivity. Users of methotrexate, leflunomide, and tumor necrosis factor inhibitors had a significantly lower proportion of ATMs compared with nonusers. Crown-like structures were significantly higher in patients with rheumatoid factor seropositivity and in those with C-reactive protein levels ≥10 mg/liter, and significantly lower among those treated with statins. Linear ATMs were significantly associated with whole-body insulin resistance, but not with serum lipids. Conclusions ATMs and crown-like structures were more abundant in RA patients and were associated with systemic inflammation, autoimmunity, and whole-body insulin resistance, suggesting possible contributions to the RA disease process. Lower levels of ATMs and crown-like structures associated with specific RA treatments suggest that adipose tissue inflammation may be ameliorated by immunomodulation.
Particle damage sources for fused silica optics and their mitigation on high energy laser systems

High energy laser systems are ultimately limited by laser-induced damage to their critical components. This is especially true of damage to critical fused silica optics, which grows rapidly upon exposure to additional laser pulses. Much progress has been made in eliminating damage precursors in as-processed fused silica optics (the advanced mitigation process, AMP3), and very high damage resistance has been demonstrated in laboratory studies. However, the full potential of these improvements has not yet been realized in actual laser systems. In this work, we explore the importance of additional damage sources-in particular, particle contamination-for fused silica optics fielded in a high-performance laser environment, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser system. We demonstrate that the most dangerous sources of particle contamination in a system-level environment are laser-driven particle sources. In the specific case of the NIF laser, we have identified the two important particle sources which account for nearly all the damage observed on AMP3 optics during full laser operation and present mitigations for these particle sources. Finally, with the elimination of these laser-driven particle sources, we demonstrate essentially damage free operation of AMP3 fused silica for ten large optics (a total of 12,000 cm2 of beam area) for shots from 8.6 J/cm2 to 9.5 J/cm2 of 351 nm light (3 ns Gaussian pulse shapes). Potentially many other pulsed high energy laser systems have similar particle sources, and given the insight provided by this study, their identification and elimination should be possible. The mitigations demonstrated here are currently being employed for all large UV silica optics on the National Ignition Facility.
General Many-Body Systems

The problem of how to visualize and sometimes solve a general many-body system is considered. The ideas are established in the context of very simple small systems, a Hubbard model and a coupled electron-phonon model. These models are also solved to good approximation in the thermodynamic limit, although the Hubbard model is restricted to a small number of holes added to the Mott insulating state. Response functions are also considered.
Portal Vein Embolization in the Treatment of Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Optimal Approach and Current Controversies

Colorectal carcinoma metastatic to the liver is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Many therapies targeting liver metastasis have been associated with prolonged life and palliation, but few are more effective than surgical resection. Preoperative portal vein embolization (PVE) can facilitate contralateral hepatic lobe hypertrophy, and allow for subsequent surgical resection of metastatic disease in patients whose postoperative residual liver volume is considered marginal or too small to support proper liver function. A thorough preprocedural workup is necessary, including proper multidisciplinary patient selection, imaging, and liver volume measurements. PVE can be performed with multiple approaches and techniques, each with advantages and disadvantages. Both older and newer surgical alternatives exist, including portal vein ligation and the associating liver partition and portal vein ligation in staged hepatectomy strategy. The variability in embolization techniques and surgical alternatives in the treatment of patients with potentially resectable metastatic colorectal cancer in the liver naturally lends itself to controversy. We aim to discuss the workup, pathophysiology, technical details, and outcomes of PVE, as well as surgical alternatives and current controversies.
Management of retrobulbar hematoma

Retrobulbar hemorrhage is regarded as one of the most feared conditions in otolaryngology—its onset can be rapid and can result in irreversible blindness. While a rare occurrence, the otolaryngologist should be compulsive about recognizing this entity, as he or she may be faced with managing this condition either as a consultant, or as one of his or her personal surgical complications. Regardless, prompt recognition and swift action can prevent catastrophic visual loss. This article presents a stepwise discussion of the surgical management of retrobulbar hematoma. Specifically, we discuss lateral canthotomy, cantholysis, and endoscopic orbital decompression.
The Microbiology of Perchlorate Reduction and its Bioremediative Application

The field of microbial perchlorate reduction has clearly advanced significantly in a very short period from a poorly understood metabolism to a burgeoning scientific field of discovery. As outlined above, there is now a much greater appreciation of the microbiology involved and the application of the knowledge to the successful treatment of contaminated environments. Overall, the future is promising even though research in this field is still in its infancy. Nothing is known of the evolutionary root of this metabolism. From a biogeochemical perspective, a better understanding of how perchlorate is formed in the natural environment and what geochemical conditions are required for its formation might give some insight into plotting the metabolism against a realistic evolutionary timeline. From a microbial perspective, it will be important to look for this metabolism in more extreme environments such as hypersaline or hyperthermophilic environments to obtain DPRB isolates across a broader phylogeny to establish a broad-base molecular chronometer. With the development of this field comes a better understanding of the ideal electron donors available and the individual factors which truly control the activity of the these organisms in-situ allowing for the design of more effective and robust enhanced in situ bioremediation technologies.
Development of one-equation transition/turbulence models

This paper reports on the development of a unified one-equation model for the prediction of transitional and turbulent flows. An eddy viscosity--transport equation for nonturbulent fluctuation growth based on that proposed by Warren and Hassan is combined with the Spalart-Allmaras one-equation model for turbulent fluctuation growth. Blending of the two equations is accomplished through a multidimensional intermittency function based on the work of Dhawan and Narasimha. The model predicts both the onset and extent of transition. Low-speed test cases include transitional flow over a flat plate, a single element airfoil, and a multi-element airfoil in landing configuration. High-speed test cases include transitional Mach 3.5 flow over a 5{degree} cone and Mach 6 flow over a flared-cone configuration. Results are compared with experimental data, and the grid-dependence of selected predictions is analyzed.
Response rates and pathologic complete response by breast cancer molecular subtype following neoadjuvant chemotherapy

This is the largest study to date evaluating response rates and pathologic complete response (pCR) and predictors thereof, based on molecular subtype, in women with breast cancer having undergone neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NC). The National Cancer Database was queried for women with cT1-4N1-3M0 breast cancer having received NC. Patients were divided into four subtypes: luminal A, luminal B, Her2, or triple negative (TN). Multivariable logistic regression ascertained factors associated with developing pCR. Kaplan–Meier analysis evaluated overall survival (OS) between patients by degree of response to NC when stratifying patients by subtype. Of a total of 13,939 women, 322 (2%) were luminal A, 5941 (43%) luminal B, 2274 (16%) Her2, and 5402 (39%) TN. Overall, 19% of all patients achieved pCR, the lowest in luminal A (0.3%) and the highest in Her2 (38.7%). Molecular subtype was an independent predictor of both pCR and OS in this population. Clinical downstaging was associated with improved survival, mostly in women with luminal B, Her2, and TN subtypes. Subgroup analysis of the pCR population demonstrated 5-year OS in the luminal B, Her2, and TN cohorts of 93.0, 94.2, and 90.6%, respectively (Her2 vs. TN, p = 0.016). Assessing nearly 14,000 women from a contemporary United States database, this is the largest known study examining the relationship between response to NC and molecular subtype. Women with luminal A disease are the least likely to undergo pCR, with the highest rates in Her2 disease. Degree of response is associated with OS, especially in luminal B, Her2, and TN patients. Despite the comparatively higher likelihood of achieving pCR in TN cases, this subgroup may still experience a survival detriment, which has implications for an ongoing national randomized trial.
Prediction of shear strength of reinforced concrete beams using displacement control finite element analysis

Abstract This research resulted in the development of a new method for performing displacement control analysis of distributed loads to obtain the ultimate shear strength of structural components. A framework, consisting of several sub-frames, was designed to convert the single displacement applied at the top of the framework to equivalent uniformly-distributed forces applied to the beam. The shear capacity of beams under a concentrated load at mid-span was compared with the shear capacity of a uniform load for four different a / d ratios (3, 4, 5, and 7). The results indicated that the strain in the longitudinal rebar, which is dependent upon the loading condition, strongly impacts the shear strength of a critical section of structural components. The shear strength of the critical section of the R.C. beams studied in this research had uniformly distributed loads that were, on average, 76% greater than the shear strength of the same beam with a concentrated load at mid-span. The shear strength prediction of the AASHTO specification as well as ACI318-14 code were evaluated for beams with shear behavioral mode. A parametric study of 24 RC beams was conducted, and the results indicated that AASHTO’s prediction for strain in longitudinal rebar differs about 19%, on average, from the results of the finite element method (FEM). For prediction of the β factor, however, the difference is about 61%. The ACI318-14’s formulation for the concrete shear strength (Vc) averages 59% higher than the FEM results for the studied beams.
High-Tech Industry

High-tech industry refers to the sectors characterized by innovative or complex technology and knowledge-intensive labor force. Research on the high-tech industries was driven by the powerful globalization dynamic since the 1970s in which labor-intensive industries shifted to less-developed regions while high-tech industries experienced rapid growth in the industrialized regions. Another force in geography is the disciplinary search for new location models or considerations beyond traditional transportation costs. Geographers have found that high-tech industry offers a fertile empirical ground to generate and test new theories of innovation, spatial agglomeration, and industrial organization under the globalized and post-Fordism contexts. Different theoretical approaches have developed to advance our understanding of the role of human resources, spatial clustering, interfirm networks, regional institutions, and the state in innovation and sustained regional competitiveness. High-tech industry also attracts attention from public policy makers in both developing and developed countries, each hoping these industries become engines for regional revitalization and growth. The studies of high-tech industry in geography, while productive, tend to be biased toward developed countries, even though some newly industrialized countries have shown considerable interest in or promise of technological catch-up. These studies also have the risk of overgeneralizing certain spatial dynamics over very different industrial sectors.
Nutrient and other environmental controls of harmful cyanobacterial blooms along the freshwater-marine continuum.

Nutrient and hydrologic conditions strongly influence harmful planktonic and benthic cyanobacterial bloom (CHAB) dynamics in aquatic ecosystems ranging from streams and lakes to coastal ecosystems. Urbanization, agricultural and industrial development have led to increased nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) discharge, which affect CHAB potentials of receiving waters. The amounts, proportions and chemical composition of N and P sources can influence the composition, magnitude and duration of blooms. This, in turn, has ramifications for food web dynamics (toxic or inedible CHABs), nutrient and oxygen cycling and nutrient budgets. Some CHABs are capable of N2 fixation, a process that can influence N availability and budgets. Certain invasive N2 fixing taxa (e.g., Cylindrospermopsis, Lyngbya) also effectively compete for fixed N during spring, N–enriched runoff periods, while they use N2 fixation to supplant their N needs during N–deplete summer months. Control of these taxa is strongly dependent on P supply. However, additional factors, such as molar N:P supply ratios, organic matter availability, light attenuation, freshwater discharge, flushing rates (residence time) and water column stability play interactive roles in determining CHAB composition (i.e. N2 fixing vs. non–N2 fixing taxa) and biomass. Bloom potentials of nutrient–impacted waters are sensitive to water residence (or flushing) time, temperatures (preference for >15 °C), vertical mixing and turbidity. These physical forcing features can control absolute growth rates of bloom taxa. Human activities may affect “bottom up” physical–chemical modulators either directly, by controlling hydrologic, nutrient, sediment and toxic discharges, or indirectly, by influencing climate. Control and management of cyanobacterial and other phytoplankton blooms invariably includes nutrient input constraints, most often focused on N and/or P. While single nutrient input constraints may be effective in some water bodies, dual N and P input reductions are usually required for effective long–term control and management of blooms. In some systems where hydrologic manipulations (i.e., plentiful water supplies) are possible, reducing the water residence time by flushing and artificial mixing (along with nutrient input constraints) can be effective alternatives. Blooms that are not readily consumed and transferred up the food web will form a relatively large proportion of sedimented organic matter. This, in turn, will exacerbate sediment oxygen demand, and enhance the potential for oxygen depletion and release of nutrients back to the water column. This scenario is particularly problematic in long–residence time (i.e., months) systems, where blooms may exert a strong positive feedback on future events. Implications of these scenarios and the confounding issues of climatic (hydrologic) variability, including droughts, tropical storms, hurricanes and floods, will be discussed in the context of developing effective CHAB control strategies along the freshwater–marine continuum
Optimal Variable Speed Limit Control at a Lane Drop Bottleneck: Genetic Algorithm Approach

AbstractThis paper develops a genetic algorithm (GA) approach to solving the variable speed limit (VSL) control problem at a lane drop bottleneck. A multiobjective nonlinear integer model is formul...
Do Explicit Estimates of Angular Declination Become Ungrounded in the Presence of a Ground Plane

In a series of seven experiments (total N = 220), it is shown that explicit angular declination judgments are influenced by the presence of a ground plane in the background. This is of theoretical ...
A rare case of adult incomplete Shone complex

To present a rare case of adult incomplete Shone complex with challenges in treatment and the role of multimodality imaging in its diagnosis. Shone complex is a rare congenital heart disease that comprises multilevel obstruction of the left side of the heart and includes supramitral membrane,
Mapping the Annual Flow of Steel in the United States

A detailed understanding of material flows is needed to target increased material efficiency and circular economy. In this article, the U.S. steel flow is modeled as a series of nodes representing processes and products. An easily updatable nonlinear least squares optimization is used to reconcile the inconsistencies across 293 collated data records on flows through and between the nodes. The data come from an integrated analysis that includes top-down estimates of steel flow from trade bodies and government statistical agencies, bottom-up estimates of the steel embedded in products based on production statistics and bills of materials, and the mass of imports and exports based on international money flow. A weighting methodology is used to consistently assign confidence scores to the data, and the optimization is used to achieve mass balance and minimize the sum of the squares of the weighted residuals. The results indicate that yield improvement efforts should focus on sheet metal forming in the car industry, which accounts for nearly half of all generated fabrication scrap. The quantity of end-of-life scrap exported and land-filled is greater than the quantity of steel products imported. Increased domestic recycling of end-of-life scrap might displace around a third of these imports.
Analysis of positive radial solutions for singular superlinear p-Laplacian systems on the exterior of a ball

Abstract In this paper, we study some well-posedness properties of a positive radial solution pair ( u 1 , u 2 ) to a singular boundary value problem in the form: − Δ p u i = λ K i ( | x | ) f i ( u j ) in R N ∖ B r 0 , a i ∂ u i ∂ n + c i ( λ , u j , u i ) u i = 0 on ∂ B r 0 , u i → 0 as | x | → ∞ , where i , j ∈ { 1 , 2 } , i ≠ j , Δ p stands for the singular\degenerate p -Laplacian Δ p w ≔ div ( | ∇ w | p − 2 ∇ w ) with 1 p N , λ > 0 , a i ≥ 0 , r 0 > 0 , K i ∈ C ( r 0 , ∞ ) , ( 0 , ∞ ) , and c i ∈ C ( 0 , ∞ ) × [ 0 , ∞ ) × [ 0 , ∞ ) , ( 0 , ∞ ) . Here the functions f i ∈ C ( 0 , ∞ ) , R , i = 1 , 2 satisfy a combined p -superlinear growth at ∞ and possibly have singularities at 0. We establish an existence result for the case λ ≈ 0 , multiplicity results of positive radial solutions for certain ranges of λ , and nonexistence results of a positive radial solution for the case λ ≫ 1 .
Using Universal Design Principles in a Fundamentals Course to Promote Student Transition to Nursing Education.

ABSTRACT The transition to "thinking like a nurse" can present challenges to contemporary student nurses. Nurse educators are called to provide meaningful learning experiences to students with diverse learning needs and promote critical thinking application. Multiple stakeholders encourage nursing faculty to innovate their teaching practices and reflect on the process to promote the life-long learning necessary in professional nursing. Universal design for instruction uses multiple pedagogies, resources, and technologies to create accessible learning environments for all students. This article highlights the evolution of a case exemplar course design in a fundamentals nursing course that utilizes universal design for instruction principles in nursing education.
Dietary Fat and Male Sex Increase Histopathological Changes in a Mouse Model of Oral Cancer

OBJECTIVE To compare the effects of dietary fat and sex on murine oral squamous cell carcinoma pathology. MATERIALS AND METHODS Male and female C57Bl/6 mice (36/sex) received a low-fat (10 kcal%) or high-fat (60 kcal%) diet. Water (control), vehicle, or 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide in vehicle (50 μg/ml) was provided for 17 weeks followed by six additional weeks of water. Oral lesion development was recorded weekly. Histopathologic changes in tongues were examined, and T cells (CD3+), macrophages (CD68+), and neutrophils (Ly6+) were quantified. RESULTS All 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide-treated mice developed oral tumors. High-fat diet exacerbated pathology, demonstrated by an increased final tumor burden (10.9 ± 4.5 vs. 7.9 ± 2.5, mm/mouse, p < .05; high-fat diet vs. low-fat diet, respectively), and a greater histopathology score. When dietary groups were combined, 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide-treated males displayed higher histopathology scores than females (4.2 ± 0.3 vs. 3.6 ± 0.2, respectively, p < .05). Lymphoid cell infiltration was greater in the 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide mouse tongues than controls: T cells (14.0 vs. 0.96 cells/mm2 ), macrophages (3.6 vs. 1.8 cells/mm2 ), and neutrophils (12.0 vs. 0.38 cells/mm2 ). CONCLUSION High-fat diet and male sex increased the pathology of 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide-induced oral cancer. Elevated lymphoid cell infiltration contributed to disease pathology.
Failure Modes of Variational Autoencoders and Their Effects on Downstream Tasks

Variational Auto-encoders (VAEs) are deep generative latent variable models that are widely used for a number of downstream tasks. While it has been demonstrated that VAE training can suffer from a number of pathologies, existing literature lacks characterizations of exactly when these pathologies occur and how they impact down-stream task performance. In this paper we concretely characterize conditions under which VAE training exhibits pathologies and connect these failure modes to undesirable effects on specific downstream tasks, such as learning compressed and disentangled representations, adversarial robustness and semi-supervised learning.
Presumptuous Preemption: How 'Plain-Meaning' Trumped Congressional Intent in Engine Manufacturers Association v. South Coast Air Quality Management District

After discovering that diesel exhaust generated by mobile sources caused 70% of the airborne cancer risk in California's South Coast Air Basin, the South Coast Air Quality Management District promulgated a set of rules designed to reduce the output of these toxic emissions. The rules imposed purchase restrictions on certain fleet owners that prevented them from purchasing a diesel powered vehicle if a clean-fueled alternative vehicle was commercially available. In Engine Manufacturers Ass'n v. South Coast Air Quality Management District, the Supreme Court held that such purchase restrictions were expressly preempted by the Clean Air Act. In contrast with the Court's traditional insistence that congressional intent is the critical inquiry in preemption cases, the majority based its decision solely on what it considered to be the plain-meaning of the text of the statute and abandoned the long-standing presumption against preemption. This Note scrutinizes the reasoning of the Court's opinion and finds its holding unsupported by either the text or the history of the Clean Air Act. It argues not just that the Court erred in finding the terms of the statute unambiguous, but that the plain-meaning approach to statutory interpretation, which presupposes a degree of verbal precision and stability our language has not attained, has no proper place in preemption analyses. Finally, as the decision has important implications for the future of federal preemption and the continued viability of local control, especially in the context of environmental law, this Note attempts to predict the circumstances under which the Court will fail to apply the presumption against preemption in the future.
The renormalization group and quantum edge states

Abstract The role of edge states in phenomena like the quantum Hall effect is well known, and the basic physics has a wide field-theoretic interest. In this paper we introduce a new model exhibiting quantum Hall-like features. We show how the choice of boundary conditions for a one-particle Schrodinger equation can give rise to states localized at the edge of the system. We consider both the example of a free particle and the more involved example of a particle in a magnetic field. In each case, edge states arise from a non-trivial scaling limit involving the boundary condition, and chirality of the boundary condition plays an essential role. Second quantization of these quantum mechanical systems leads to a multi-particle ground state carrying a persistent current at the edge. We show that the theory quantized with this vacuum displays an “anomaly” at the edge which is the mark of a quantized Hall conductivity in the presence of an external magnetic field. These models therefore possess characteristics which make them indistinguishable from the quantum Hall effect at macroscopic distances. We also offer interpretations for the physics of such boundary conditions which may have a bearing on the nature of the excitations in these models.
Developing a Decision Aid to Facilitate Informed Decision Making About Invasive Mechanical Ventilation and Lung Transplantation Among Adults With Cystic Fibrosis: Usability Testing.

Background Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-limiting genetic disease that causes chronic lung infections. We developed an internet-based decision aid (DA) to help patients with CF make better informed decisions regarding treatments and advance care planning. We built the DA around two major treatment decisions: whether to have a lung transplant and whether to agree to invasive mechanical ventilation (intubation). Objective This study aims to conduct usability testing of the InformedChoices CF DA among key stakeholder groups. Methods We performed a patient needs assessment using think-aloud usability testing with patients with CF, their surrogates, and CF clinicians. Think-aloud participants provided feedback while navigating the DA, and after viewing, they answered surveys. Transcripts from the think-aloud sessions and survey results were categorized into common, generalizable themes and optimizations for improving content, comprehension, and navigation. We assessed the ease of use of the DA (System Usability Scale) and also assessed the participants' perceptions regarding the overall tone, with an emphasis on emotional reactions to the DA content, level of detail, and usefulness of the information for making decisions about either intubation or lung transplantation, including how well they understood the information and were able to apply it to their own decision-making process. We also assessed the DA's ease of navigation, esthetics, and whether participants were able to complete a series of usability tasks (eg, locating specific information in the DA or using the interactive survival estimates calculator) to ensure that the website was easy to navigate during the clinic-based advance care planning discussions. Results A total of 12 participants from 3 sites were enrolled from March 9 to August 30, 2018, for the usability testing: 5 CF clinicians (mean age 48.2, SD 12.0 years), 5 adults with CF, and 2 family and surrogate caregivers of people with CF (mean age of CF adults and family and surrogate caregivers 38.8, SD 10.8 years). Among the 12 participants, the average System Usability Scale score for the DA was 88.33 (excellent). Think-aloud analysis identified 3 themes: functionality, visibility and navigation, and content and usefulness. Areas for improvement included reducing repetition, enhancing comprehension, and changing the flow. Several changes to improve the content and usefulness of the DA were recommended, including adding information about alternatives to childbearing, such as adoption and surrogacy. On the basis of survey responses, we found that the navigation of the site was easy for clinicians, patients, and surrogates who participated in usability testing. Conclusions Usability testing revealed areas of potential improvement. Testing also yielded positive feedback, suggesting the DA's future success. Integrating changes before implementation should improve the DA's comprehension, navigation, and usefulness and lead to greater adoption.
PLH approximations of homeomorphisms, for polyhedral 3-cells

Theorem 1. Let K be a polyhedral 3-cell in R 3, let h be a homeomorphism K →R 3, and let e be a positive number. Then there is a PLH f: K →R 3 such that f is an e-approximation of h.
Use of hybrid discrete cellular models for identification of macroscopic nutrient loss in reaction–diffusion models of tissues

Macroscopic models accounting for cellular effects in natural or engineered tissues may involve unknown constitutive terms that are highly dependent on interactions at the scale of individual cells. Hybrid discrete models, which represent cells individually, were used to develop and apply techniques for modeling diffusive nutrient transport and cellular uptake to identify a nonlinear nutrient loss term in a macroscopic reaction-diffusion model of the system. Flexible and robust numerical methods were used, based on discontinuous Galerkin finite elements in space and a Crank-Nicolson temporal discretization. Scales were bridged via averaging operations over a complete set of subdomains yielding data for identification of a macroscopic nutrient loss term that was accurately captured via a fifth-order polynomial. Accuracy of the identified macroscopic model was demonstrated by direct, quantitative comparisons of the tissue and cellular scale models in terms of three error norms computed on a mesoscale mesh.
Transitions between mild, moderate and severe asthma states and their determinants: A logistic regression approach

Abstract Rationale To estimate transition probabilities between mild, moderate and severe asthma states based on asthma drug-use and identify determinants of these transition probabilities. Methods Retrospective data were used to identify all patients in the three major asthma states based on therapy as recommended by the NHLBI guidelines. Monthly transition probabilities between the three asthma states were then calculated based on ER visits, medication step up or down, rescue medication use and hospitalizations. A logistic regression was formulated that calculated the odd ratio of transitions between asthma states as function of predetermined exacerbation/non-exacerbation variables. Results Calculated odd ratios showed that transitions between asthma states were significantly affected by seasonality with worse exacerbations in winter and spring months. Transitions also responded significantly to the type of treating physician (PCP, Allergist, or Pulmonologist), age, gender, allergic rhinitis status, short acting beta2-agonist, anti-histamine, Immunotherapy and anti-acid use as well as to preceding upper respiratory infection, and history of intubation. Conclusions Monthly transitions between asthma states calculated from retrospective data were shown to significantly respond to well known clinical practice parameters.
Damning Dictum: The Default Duty Debate in Delaware

Bizarrely, in 2013, even the most sophisticated business lawyer could not answer a seemingly simple question: whether, in the absence of an express agreement to the contrary, the manager of a Delaware limited liability company (LLC) owes traditional fiduciary duties to its members as a default matter? This was not always the case. For years, this question was settled — settled at least in the Delaware Court of Chancery. But in November 2012, the Delaware Supreme Court cast doubt on a long line of chancery court precedent in Gatz Properties v. Auriga Capital. Given the broad freedom of contract available under LLC law, it may be that default duties do not much matter. And, in any case, the uncertainty created by Gatz has now been resolved by recent legislation. Consequently, the lasting impact of Gatz is not on the substantive legal question. Rather, the lasting impact of Gatz is on Delaware law’s reputation for certainty as well as the use of dictum, an established Delaware judicial practice that has been vital to the state’s success in attracting corporate, and now LLC, charters.
Effects of indoor rattle sounds on annoyance caused by sonic booms

To expand national air transportation capabilities, NASA's Commercial Supersonic Technology Project is working to make supersonic flight practical for commercial passengers. As an aid in designing and certifying quiet supersonic aircraft, a noise metric is sought that will correspond to indoor annoyance caused by sonic booms, including the effects of indoor rattle sounds. This study examines how well several common aircraft noise metrics predict indoor annoyance based on the indoor and outdoor sound fields. The results suggest notional community annoyance models that include the effects of indoor rattle sounds.
Frequency Characteristics of High Speed Power Distribution Grids

The variation of inductance with frequency in high performance power distribution grids is discussed in this paper. The impedance characteristics of the power grid need to be well understood for the design of efficient and robust high performance power distribution grids. The physical mechanisms underlying the dependence of inductance on frequency are discussed. The variation of inductance with frequency in three types of power grids is analyzed in terms of these mechanisms. The inductance of power distribution grids decreases with signal frequency. The decrease in inductance in non-interdigitated grids is primarily due to current redistribution in multiple forward and return current paths. In interdigitated grids, the variation of inductance with frequency is fairly small, typically less than 10% because both proximity and multi-path current redistribution effects are minimal. In paired grids, the relative decrease in inductance with frequency is larger as compared to interdigitated grids. This behavior is due to significant proximity effects. The smaller the separation between the power and ground lines and the wider the lines, the more significant proximity effects become and the greater the relative decrease in inductance with frequency.
Ethnic and Generational Differences in the Relations between Social Support and Academic Achievement across the High School Years

Changes in adolescents' reports of social support from parents and friends were examined across the four years of high school in order to examine the extent to which support is associated with academic achievement. Results from 541 adolescents from diverse ethnic and immigrant generational backgrounds suggest that changes in encouragement from both parents and friends within individual adolescents are associated with concurrent changes in GPA. Between-person analyses indicate that adolescents who report higher levels of encouragement in ninth grade are more likely to enroll in courses and receive grades that make them eligible to enroll in California's public university system. Both GPA and eligibility, in turn, were associated with higher rates of enrollment in a college or university two years after high school. Many of these findings varied according to ethnicity and immigrant generation, reinforcing the importance of understanding the extent to which adolescents from diverse backgrounds have access to the information and support that is necessary to take advantage of the post-secondary educational system.
A new zero-current-switching constant switching frequency boost converter

The authors present a new boost topology which can be operated in constant switching frequency and zero-current-switching. In addition, the voltage stresses on the active switches are as low as the traditional boost pulse width modulated (PWM) converter. The control curves are derived through the normalized state-plane trajectory. The design procedure is given through a specific example. Simulation waveforms are provided to verify the analytical results. >
Continuous ketamine infusion for one- lung anaesthesia

The mechanism which normally affects distribution of blood flow through unventilated areas of the lung is hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction; this acts to divert the blood to well ventilated alveoli, resulting in a better ratio of ventilation to perfusion. Several reports have focused attention on the reduction or abolition of this reflex in the unventilated lung by most of the volatile anaesthetic agents used in clinical practice. This response was not abolished by the intravenous anaesthetic agents. One hundred and ten patients undergoing elective pulmonary resection were studied to evaluate the effect of a continuous infusion of ketamine during one-lung anaesthesia, by observing the changes in PaO2 as a reflection of shunt. Ketamine was chosen as the intravenous agent for its positive inotropic and chronotropic action. Additionally, by providing both analgesia and hypnosis, we were able to administer inspired oxygen concentrations of 50-100 per cent without concern that the patient might have recall for events during operation. We have demonstrated that in all cases a PaO2 in excess of 9.31 kPa (70 torr) was achieved with ketamine and FIO2 1.0 as well as an increase in shunt fraction from 25.9 per cent (FIO2 0.5) to 36.0 per cent (FIO2 1.0). We feel that ketamine provides a satisfactory alternative to the volatile agents for one-lung anaesthesia in patients where relative hypoxaemia might be unacceptable during operation.
Occupational Mobility and Nativity-Ethnicity in Indianapolis, 1850–60

Rates and patterns of occupational mobility in Indianapolis during the 1850s are analyzed using data from manuscript federal census schedules. Between 1850 and 1860, nearly half the working males who remained in the city were mobile, most of them within the nonmanual or manual categories. Analysis by age cohorts revealed that the young were more likely to be upwardly mobile and less likely to be downwardly mobile than older cohorts of workers. This differential mobility was almost totally a result of the different origin distributions of the cohorts. An analysis of nativity-ethnicity indicated that immigrant males occupied favorable positions in the occupational hierarchy in 1850, which led to considerable upward mobility. Once structural conditions were taken into account, however, differences between the mobility rates of native-born and foreign-born were small, with the native-born somewhat more likely to cross the manual-nonmanual boundary. Basic findings from this study are compared with those from studies of Boston, Philadelphia, and Houston. The question of the historical fluidity of occupational stratification in the United States has long been debated in the literature (see, e.g., Duncan; Themstrom, c). Horatio Alger stories have extolled nineteenth-century America as a land of opportunity, offering avenues of social mobility, rags to riches, to hard-working young men, native-born and immigrant alike.' In retrospect, however, the facticity of such celebrations has become suspect, as evidence on accessibility to higher levels of the occupational hierarchy has slowly accumulated from certain geographic regions of the nineteenth-century urban population (e.g., Blumin, c; Pessen; Thernstrom, b, c). The most accurate means for estimating what opportunities for advancement did exist is to reconstruct the occupational careers of individuals and to examine various characteristics that helped or hindered
Diels-Alder reactions of perfluorobicyclo[2.2.0]hex-1(4)-ene with aromatics.

The title perfluoroalkene cycloadds to a variety of aromatic hydrocarbons, including benzene. It is the first alkene to yield a Diels−Alder adduct with benzene and is thus among the most potent dienophiles known.
Proactive adjustments of response strategies in the stop-signal paradigm

In the stop-signal paradigm, fast responses are harder to inhibit than slow responses, so subjects must balance speed on the go task with successful stopping in the stop task. In theory, subjects achieve this balance by adjusting response thresholds for the go task, making proactive adjustments in response to instructions that indicate that relevant stop signals are likely to occur. We report five experiments that tested this theoretical claim, presenting cues that indicated whether or not stop signals were relevant for the next few trials. Subjects made proactive response-strategy adjustments in each experiment: diffusion-model fits showed that response threshold increased when subjects expected stop signals to occur, slowing go responses and increasing accuracy. Furthermore, our results show that subjects can make proactive response-strategy adjustments on a trial-by-trial basis, suggesting a flexible cognitive system that can proactively adjust itself in changing environments.