cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Prevention of Retinal Vessel Changes Associated With Diabetic Retinopathy in Galactose-Fed Dogs by Aldose Reductase Inhibitors

• Vascular changes associated with early diabetic retinopathy that include the selective degeneration of pericytes, the formation of microaneurysms and acellular capillaries, and vessel dilation have been experimentally investigated in age-and sex-matched beagle dogs fed a 30% galactose diet and treated with or without the aldose reductase inhibitors sorbinil and/or M79175. Eyes from dogs in each group were periodically enucleated during a 36-month period and their retinal capillaries were examined as trypsin-digested flat preparations. These studies reveal that the destruction of retinal pericytes to form pericyte ghosts is the earliest observable retinal vessel change occurring after 19 to 21 months of galactose feeding. By 24 months, both an irregular distribution of endothelial cell nuclei near pericyte ghosts and the presence of acellular capillaries containing neither endothelial cells nor pericytes can be observed. This was followed by the histologic appearance of microaneurysms after 27 months and the funduscopic appearance of intraretinal hemorrhages after 33 months. Varicose enlargements of capillaries were also observed in the trypsin-digested preparations from dogs fed galactose for 33 to 36 months. All of these changes are linked to the initial aldose reductase-associated destruction of pericytes. The onset and progression of these retinal changes were retarded in a dose-dependent manner with aldose reductase inhibitors.
Western Soldiers and the Protection of Local Civilians in UN Peacekeeping Operations: Is a Nationalist Orientation in the Armed Forces Hindering Our Preparedness to Fight?

Mandates for UN peacekeeping operations in Africa have become more robust since the delivery of the Brahimi Report in 2000. Contrary to before, soldiers are now unmistakably expected to use force to protect local civilians in a number of UN peacekeeping missions in Africa. While this expectation of force may be celebrated, the question rises whether peacekeeping soldiers can meet the expectation. Are they ready to kill and risk their lives to protect local civilians? This question is especially pertinent to Western armed forces, which have contributed little to post-millennium UN peace operations in Africa but are explicitly called upon by the UN administration to contribute to the robust peacekeeping missions. This article discusses the question of moral and psychological preparedness in light of the possible tension between the nationalist orientation in Western armed forces and the cosmopolitan demands of UN peacekeeping operations in Africa.
Hail in an Axisymmetric Cloud Model

Abstract Hail development was studied in a two-dimensional, time-dependent, axisymmetric cloud model with detailed microphysics. A strong relationship between the dynamics and the microphysics of the model appears to govern hail formation through three different stages. When the cloud is developing, ice crystals which are nucleated on ice nuclei near the cloud top are carried down along the cloud boundary by downdrafts and are reintroduced into the major updraft region by inflow near the cloud base. When riming of relatively large recycled ice crystals occurs, graupel is formed. The graupel falls along the cloud boundary and the downdraft is intensified. Below the melting level, graupel pellets melt and large drops break up. The resulting small drops are carried into major updraft areas and grow larger by collection processes. When the updraft in the cloud becomes weaker, because of the accumulation of precipitation elements and the propagation of downward momentum from cloud boundary to cloud center, gra...
RNA structure replaces the need for U2AF2 in splicing

RNA secondary structure plays an integral role in catalytic, ribosomal, small nuclear, micro, and transfer RNAs. Discovering a prevalent role for secondary structure in pre-mRNAs has proven more elusive. By utilizing a variety of computational and biochemical approaches, we present evidence for a class of nuclear introns that relies upon secondary structure for correct splicing. These introns are defined by simple repeat expansions of complementary AC and GT dimers that co-occur at opposite boundaries of an intron to form a bridging structure that enforces correct splice site pairing. Remarkably, this class of introns does not require U2AF2, a core component of the spliceosome, for its processing. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that this mechanism was present in the ancestral vertebrate lineage prior to the divergence of tetrapods from teleosts. While largely lost from land dwelling vertebrates, this class of introns is found in 10% of all zebrafish genes.
The Mental Status Examination in the Age of the Internet

The Internet has grown increasingly relevant in the practice of forensic psychiatry. To a psychiatrist conducting a forensic evaluation, the evaluee9s Internet use can be relevant in nearly all aspects of the analysis. An evaluee9s Internet presence may help to confirm, corroborate, refute, or elaborate on the psychiatrist9s general impression of the person. Questions about the individual9s choice of screen names, activities, images, and phrases can be valuable conversational tools to increase candor and self-disclosure, even among less cooperative evaluees. Difficulties in mood or affect regulation, problems with thought process or content, and impaired impulse control may be apparent in the evaluee9s behavior in various Internet forums—for example, hostile or provocative behavior in social forums or excessive use of gaming or shopping websites. Discussions about the evaluee9s behavior on the Internet can help the psychiatrist to assess for impaired insight and judgment. Perceptual disturbances, such as derealization and depersonalization, may be related to an evaluee9s overidentification with the virtual world to the neglect of real-life needs and responsibilities. Furthermore, digital evidence can be especially useful in assessments of impairment, credibility, and dangerousness or risk, particularly when the evaluee is uncooperative or unreliable in the face-to-face psychiatric examination. This discussion will provide illustrative examples and suggestions for questions and topics the forensic psychiatrist may find helpful in conducting a thorough evaluation in this new age of the Internet.
Approximation and Interpolation on Spheres

The purpose of this lecture at the NATO Advanced Studies Institute was purely expository. I tried to acquaint the audience with the very recent progress that has been made in the approximation of functions defined on spheres. For practical purposes, the sphere of greatest interest would appear to be S2, since it serves as a (flawed) model of the Earth’s surface. There is every reason to believe that the new approximation methods now being developed will be found useful in geological exploration and meteorological modelling, to name just two areas of application.
Endogenous firing patterns of murine spiral ganglion neurons.

Mo, Zun-Li and Robin L. Davis. Endogenous firing patterns of murine spiral ganglion neurons. J. Neurophysiol. 77: 1294–1305, 1997. Current-clamp recordings with the use of the whole cell configurat...
Abstract B93: Understanding cancer screening service utilization by Somali men in Minnesota

Background: There is a growing recognition of the role of men in reproductive health of women, and the benefits of including men in public health programs addressing women9s health. Involvement of men has important implications especially within the context that men act as social gatekeepers and as powerful family members who enforce cultural practices, often to the detriment of women9s health. However, there is a dearth of information about the role of men in promoting cancer prevention especially within immigrant communities. Objective(s): The main objective of this qualitative study was to explore the potential role of Somali immigrant men in healthcare decisions that may involve promoting breast and cervical cancer screening in their communities. The secondary objective was to explore knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about cancer prevention while examining factors associated with barriers and proposed solutions to increase cancer screening in this underserved community. Methods: We formed a community-academic partnership and used a community based participatory research (CBPR) approach to conduct 20 key informant Interviews and 10 focus groups with Somali men. The Key Informant Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed verbatim and analyzed QSR Nvivo 10. Data were coded to identify main themes. Results: Three quarters of the participants were 45 years and older with 85% (17) of them were married, and 55% (12) having attained a high school education or higher; 35% (7) of the participants had no healthcare insurance; 55% (11) attained high school graduate or higher level of education; 75% (15) of the participants have lived in Minnesota for more than 5 years. We identified three major themes; (i) Faith influencing the attitudes and beliefs towards cancer screening. (ii) The changing roles of men in a society that is known to be patriarchal. (iii) The migration effect on screening. Conclusions: Given the low utilization of cancer screening services and the widening cancer screening disparity gap in the minority communities, involvement of men and religious leaders in cancer screening efforts for Somali communities is worth exploring for future interventions. With the diverse cultural and health seeking behaviors in immigrant communities, cancer screening programs must adapt to increase cancer screening rates. Citation Format: Barrett P. Sewali, Rebekah Pratt, Ekland Abdiwahab, Kathleen T. Call, Kolawole S. Okuyemi. Understanding cancer screening service utilization by Somali men in Minnesota. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Sixth AACR Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities; Dec 6–9, 2013; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B93. doi:10.1158/1538-7755.DISP13-B93
Period-1 Motions in a Two-Degree-of-Freedom Nonlinear Oscillator With Periodic Excitation

In this paper, analytical solutions for period-1 motions in a periodically forced, two-degrees-of-freedom system with a nonlinear spring are developed. The stability and bifurcation of the periodic motions are completed by the eigenvalue analysis. Both symmetric and asymmetric periodic motions are found in the system. Analytical solutions of both stable and unstable period-1 are presented. Finally, numerical simulations of stable and unstable motions in the two degrees of freedom systems are presented. The harmonic amplitude spectrums show the harmonic effects on periodic motions, and the corresponding accuracy of approximate analytical solutions can be observed.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
A Sociopsychological Explanation for Why Marketing Channel Members Relinquish Control

The authors examine the conditions that encourage channel members to relinquish control willingly and purposefully to others. They use an attribution theory perspective to predict when channel memb...
Preparation and Vulcanization of Unsaturated Acrylic Elastomers

Abstract Ethyl acrylate was copolymerized with small proportions of eleven dienes, eleven polyolefinic esters, and six polyolefinic ethers in an attempt to prepare olefin-containing acrylic elastomers that would vulcanize readily, yielding products having improved rubbery characteristics. In general, the resulting copolymers were insoluble in organic solvents, presumably because of cross-linkage. Acrylonitrile and dodecanethiol appeared beneficial in the copolymerization of ethyl acrylate with polyolefinic esters, but of questionable value in the diene polymerizations. The best vulcanizates from the standpoint of tensile strength and elongation were obtained from an ethyl acrylate-acrylonitrile-vinyl ether copolymer. Some preparations of this copolymer, however, had a tendency to pit and bubble during vulcanization. Isoprene, piperylene, and 2,3-dimethylbutadiene were more suitable for preparing vulcanizable ethyl acrylate copolymers than the other dienes studied; their vulcanizates had moderately high te...
Intensification of Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Cellulose Using High-Frequency Ultrasound: An Investigation of the Effects of Process Parameters on Glucose Yield

Enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose has been studied using a novel multifrequency ultrasonic reactor. The optimum experimental conditions resulted in the percent glucose yield of 41.4% after 5 h using Avicel microcrystalline cellulose and cellulase + cellobiase enzymes at 50 °C and pH 5.2. It was found that the effect of ultrasound is mainly physical in nature and increased mass transfer because of increased surface area resulting from cellulose fragmentation in the presence of ultrasound was responsible for the observed increase in the glucose yield. The best cellulose hydrolysis was observed at 611 kHz and 104 W. Up to 70% glucose yield was obtained with prolonged time (40–50 h). The effects of ultrasound and enzyme on the surface and structure of the cellulose were studied using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and X-ray diffraction (XRD).
Mutant circadian period as a marker of suprachiasmatic nucleus function.

Fetal suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) tissue transplanted into the third ventricle of hamsters bearing complete SCN lesions restores the circadian locomotor rhythm with a period that depends exclusively on the genetically determined period of the tissue donor. If the host is only partially lesioned and thus retains rhythmicity with its own genetically determined period, an implant from an animal of a different genotype can induce a second rhythm with a period determined by the donor genotype. Both rhythms can be present simultaneously in the record of such a "temporal chimera," interacting only superficially (i.e., not at the level of the pacemaker). Our data support the interpretation that under such circumstances the graft is able to capture part of the locomotor output of the circadian system, but does not make functional connections with the host SCN pacemaking system.
Substance Abuse Treatment Patients in Housing Programs Respond to Contingency Management Interventions

Use of homeless and transitional housing (e.g., recovery homes) programs can be associated with success in substance abuse treatment, perhaps because many of these programs encourage or mandate sobriety. In this study, we examined whether contingency management (CM) protocols that use tangible incentives for submission of drug-free specimens or other specific behaviors are effective for treatment-seeking substance abusers whose behavior may also be shaped by housing programs. Of 355 participants in randomized trials of CM, 56 (16%) reported using transitional housing during the 12-week treatment period. Main and interaction effects of housing status and treatment condition were evaluated for the primary substance abuse treatment outcomes: a) longest duration of abstinence from alcohol, cocaine, and opioids, b) percentage of samples submitted that were negative for these substances, and c) treatment retention. After controlling for demographic and clinical characteristics, those who accessed housing programs submitted a higher percentage of negative samples (75%) compared to those who did not access housing programs (67%). Housing status groups did not differ in terms of longest duration of abstinence (accessed housing: M = 3.1 weeks, SE = 0.6; did not access housing: M = 3.9 weeks, SE = 0.3) or retention in substance abuse treatment (accessed housing: M = 6.4 weeks, SE = 0.6; did not access housing: M = 6.6 weeks, SE = 0.3). Regardless of housing status, CM was associated with longer durations of abstinence and treatment retention. No interactive effects of housing and treatment condition were observed (p > .05). Results suggest that those who accessed housing programs during substance abuse treatment benefit from CM to a comparable degree as their peers who did not use such programs. These effects suggest that CM remains appropriate for those accessing housing in community-based programs.
Defining Creativity: Don't We Also Need to Define What Is Not Creative?

I argue that any attempt to define creative ideas cannot fully succeed without also defining uncreative ideas. This argument begins by defining three parameters that characterize a potentially creative thought: the idea's initial probability (p), the final utility (u), and the creator's prior knowledge of that utility (v). The three parameters then lead to a three-criterion multiplicative definition of personal creativity, namely, c = (1 − p)u(1 − v), where the first factor indicates originality and the third factor surprise. Although creativity can only maximize as originality, utility, and surprise all approach unity, the same definition indicates that there are seven different ways that creativity can minimize. These alternatives were identified as (a) routine, reproductive, or habitual ideas, (b) fortuitous response bias, (c) irrational perseveration, (d) problem finding, (e) rational suppression, (f) irrational suppression, and (g) blissful ignorance. If the third parameter v is omitted, then the number of creative and noncreative outcomes reduces to just four, making creativity indistinguishable from irrational suppression. The alternative outcomes are then illustrated using the classic two-string problem. Besides providing a more finely differentiated conception of creativity failures, the definition has critical implications regarding the processes and procedures required to generate highly creative ideas.
Lifetime Cocaine and Opiate Use and Chronic Kidney Disease

Background: More than 50% of American adolescents and adults report having used illicit drugs in their lifetime. We examined the association of lifetime opiate an
Mobile urinalysis for maternal screening: Frugal medical screening solution and patient database to aid in prenatal healthcare for expecting mothers in the developing world

Pregnant women in the developing world are often denied the level of healthcare that is needed to prepare them for successful deliveries. Often this inequality of service is due to high costs of medical care, the remote location of patients, and the infrequency of medical visits. We have created a mobile application and added a secure light box that will allow a low-cost implementation of urinalysis tests for these women. These tests can help in detecting warning signs for common health risks early in the pregnancy. Our application uses the camera from a mobile device to digitize the colors within the urinalysis test strip. It then compares the colors obtained with baseline colors to identify chemical levels in the urine. The application's interface displays the test results and keeps track of each patient's test history. Through detection of certain chemical levels at an earlier time, there is a higher chance for intervention and, therefore, for successful pregnancies. By decentralizing access to preventative healthcare, this solution has the potential to increase the rate of successful pregnancies among women from traditionally underserved communities.
Reachability analysis using proximity based automata

Abstract This paper introduces proximity based automata (PBA) to perform reachability analysis for discrete-time, continuous-state systems. The notion of proximity of states in the continuous valued state space is used to evaluate the response of the system efficiently. A PBA is constructed using ellipsoidal techniques and tools for solving optimization problems constrained by linear matrix inequalities. Several empirical studies demonstrate how trade-offs between conservativeness and computational complexity can be exploited by varying parameters in the procedure for constructing the PBA.
Shared Care of Childhood Cancer Survivors: A Telemedicine Feasibility Study.

Purpose: With an increasing number of childhood cancer survivors (CCSs), determining the best model of survivorship transition care is becoming a growing priority. Shared care between pediatric oncology and adult primary care is often necessary, making survivorship a time of transition, but effective standard models are lacking. We sought to provide a more integrated approach to transition using telemedicine. Methods: Recruited primary care provider/CCS dyads were instructed to log-in to a password-protected virtual meeting room using telemedicine equipment at the time or a regularly scheduled office visit. Dyads were joined by a pediatric survivorship clinic team member who conducted the telemedicine portion of the transition visit, which consisted of the review of an individualized treatment summary and care plan. Postquestionnaires were developed to evaluate key points such as fund of knowledge, satisfaction with the visit, and effectiveness of this electronic tool. Results: There were 19 transition vi...
Optimizing the size of a V2G parking deck in a microgrid

Abstract Microgrids are usually powered partially and sometimes fully by small scale distributed generators, renewable energy resources and batteries. The batteries of the electric vehicles (EVs) in a parking deck can also be used as a power source of the microgrids. However, unlike fixed batteries, the storage capacity of a parking deck depends on the number of installed V2G (vehicle to grid) stations and the number of available EVs. In this paper, we propose a mathematical model that aims to determine the optimal number of V2G stations in a microgrid parking deck by minimizing the total cost of investment and operation. The EVs in the parking deck are discharged to shift energy purchases from high-price to low-price hours and vice versa. The uncertainty of the demand and the EVs arrivals and departures and the intermittency of the renewable resources are taken into account. We develop a methodology to compute the operation cost of the system using Benders’ decomposition and search for the optimal number of V2G stations using the Nelder-Mead heuristic algorithm. Numerical experiments are conducted on a 14-bus microgrid test system for a planning horizon of five years. We also assess the effects of uncertainties, EVs battery size, chargers’ rated capacity, EVs arrivals and departure rates, dispatch constraints and interest rate on the determined number of V2G station and the discounted payback period. The experimental results show that investing in the V2G technology can reduce the long-term cost of electricity supply for the microgrid.
The Ultrawideband Software-Defined Microwave Radiometer: Instrument Description and Initial Campaign Results

The ultrawideband software-defined microwave radiometer is a 500–2000-MHz radiometer developed to probe temperatures inside ice sheets. Given the instrument’s operation outside of protected portions of the spectrum, radio frequency interference (RFI) is a significant concern, and the instrument is designed to facilitate RFI detection and filtering. This paper analyzes the design and operation of the radiometer, the accuracy and stability of the brightness temperatures it produces, and the RFI analyses of the results acquired in its debut flight over northern Canada and Greenland in September 2016.
Soft Leadership and Engaged Leadership

The purpose of this chapter is to explore soft leadership to engage employees effectively. It explains engaged leadership and connects with soft leadership. It offers innovative tools and techniques to ensure employee engagement. It outlines the reasons for employee disengagement and enlightens the advantages of employee engagement for both employees and organizations. It unfolds several research findings on employee engagement and illustrates with the examples of global companies including Cummins, DHL Express, Southwest Airlines, Google, and Virgin. It calls for active involvement of senior leaders and CEOs to ensure employee engagement effectively. It advises CEOs to evolve as chief engagement officers. It implores both employers and employees to take ownership of their roles and responsibilities to achieve organizational excellence and effectiveness. It emphasizes the philosophy of “employee first, customer second, and shareholder third.” It concludes that employee engagement is a two-way street.
Monetary Myopia: An Examination of Institutional Response to Revenue From Monetary Sanctions for Misdemeanors:

Monetary sanctions (fines, fees, surcharges, etc.) are codified in municipal, state, and federal statutes and create an incentive for jurisdictions to shift from using them for punishment to using ...
Metabolomics Analysis of Human Vitreous in Diabetic Retinopathy and Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment.

The vitreous humor is a highly aqueous eye fluid interfacing with the retina and lens and providing shape. Its molecular composition provides a readout for the eye’s physiological status. Changes in cellular metabolism underlie vitreoretinal pathologies, but despite routine surgical collection of vitreous, only limited reports of metabolism in the vitreous of human patients have been described. Vitreous samples from patients with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (n = 25) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (n = 9) were profiled along with control human vitreous samples (n = 8) by untargeted mass-spectrometry-based metabolomics. Profound changes were observed in diabetic retinopathy vitreous, including altered glucose metabolism and activation of the pentose phosphate pathway, which provides reducing equivalents to counter oxidative stress. In addition, purine metabolism was altered in diabetic retinopathy, with decreased xanthine and elevated levels of related purines (inosine, hypoxanthine, urate, al...
Economic Development of Origin-countries, Life-stage at Immigration, and Length of Residence Effects on Psychological Distress:

This article reexamines the healthy immigrant effect in mental health—as measured by psychological distress—by incorporating the modifying roles of the level of economic development of origin-count...
Challenges in Charting the Course of Romantic Relationships in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

The emergence of research on romantic relationships in adolescence and in emerging adulthood raises the question of how these relationships are similar/different across the two developmental periods. Giordano and colleagues (Chap. 9) provide useful information on this question. This commentary elaborates on the two contexts that inform their work, the prevalence of cohabitation, and casual sex. It is argued that contemporary romantic relationships lack the clear, universal progression of previous generations and data are provided to show that many contemporary relationships begin with a physical encounter or hook up. Several challenges in understanding romantic relationship development are also discussed. These include the need for dyadic research, the use of appropriate analytic tools to deal with interdependence in the data, and attention to the issue of measurement invariance to show that measures are functioning in the same way for males and females and across people in different phases of development.
The Accuracy of Genomic Prediction between Environments and Populations for Soft Wheat Traits

Triticeae Coordinated Agricultural Project of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture [2011-68002-30029]
Job Autonomy and Safety Climate: Examining Associations in the Mining Industry

pertain to an organization's prioritization of safety relative to other concerns, such as productivity or quality control (Naveh, Katz-Navon & Stern, 2011; Zohar, 2000). Relating to what organizations may prioritize, safety climate also entails the kind of behaviors that are expected, supported and rewarded (Schneider, 1990). Characteristics of safety climate can impact workers' own safety values, which, in turn, influence their behaviors (Naveh, et al., 2011). Further, a positive safety climate has been linked to less burnout and fewer errors, near-hits and incidents that result in lost time from work (Christian, Bradley, Wallace, et al., 2009; Nahr-gang, Morgesun & Hofmann, 2011). In this sense, not only has safety climate been identified as a potential leading indicator of incident occurrence, but also evidence exists that a positive safety climate might strengthen the impact of job factors (e.g., job autonomy, supervisor support, coworker support) on workers' proactive behavior (Bronkhorst, 2015), although these factors are not well understood (Parker, Axtell & Turner, 2001). To that end, this article examines what role job autonomy, in particular, may have in forming workers' perceptions and subsequent OSH performance on the job. The authors begin by defining autonomy in the workplace to provide a consistent platform for studying the term.
Orthogonal equipartitions

Consider two absolutely continuous probability measures in the plane. A subdivision of the plane into k>=2 regions is equitable if every region has weight 1/k in each measure. We show that, for any two probability measures in the plane and any integer k>=2, there exists an equitable subdivision of the plane into k regions using at most k-1 horizontal segments and at most k-1 vertical segments. We also prove the existence of orthogonal equipartitions for point measures and present an efficient algorithm for computing an orthogonal equipartition.
Rotationally Resolved Photoelectron Spectra from Vibrationally Autoionizing Rydberg States of NO

The usual starting point for modeling bound electronic states in molecules is the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. The approximation rests on the assumption that the electrons in a bound state move appreciably faster than the nuclei. Thus the electrons experience a field arising from the “frozen“ positions of the nuclei at any given instant, and the nuclei experience a field from an effective electron density equal to the time averaged positions of the electrons.
Multipolar topological field theories: Bridging higher order topological insulators and fractons

The concepts of multipolar insulators and multipole symmetries have hinted at tantalizing connections between the disparate fields of higher-order topological insulators and fracton phases. Here, the authors show that these connections are not superficial, but instead arise from a unified field theory description of the topological response of these systems to external fields, similar to the quantized Hall conductance of Chern insulators, and the quantized axion magnetoelectric polarizability in 3D topological insulators. These response theories are built from the recently introduced higher-rank tensor gauge potentials, and can be interpreted, in some scenarios, as the topological response to ordinary electric and magnetic field gradients.
Rethinking the School Closure Research: School Closure as Spatial Injustice:

Recent mass closings of schools have rocked cities across the United States. Though these urban closures—and widespread community protests—have made headlines, rural schools have also long experien...
Machine learning based design space exploration for hybrid main-memory design

We develop a machine learning (ML) based design space exploration (DSE) method that builds predictive models for various responses of a hybrid main-memory system. To overcome the challenges associated with latency, capacity, and power of memory systems in future extreme-scale machines, the hybrid memory architectures are being considered in which novel non-volatile memory (NVM) systems augment the traditional DRAM. However, way before their actual design and implementation, these emerging hybrid memory systems need to be simulated and analyzed to fully understand their capabilities and limitations. As the conventional architectural-level memory simulators require significant amounts of computational costs and time, we propose to utilize ML techniques for developing various memory-response models that can instantly provide a predicted response corresponding to any new memory configuration. Specifically, in this work, we apply four supervised ML techniques to build regression models for memory latency, bandwidth, power, and total read/write responses. The training and validation data for the ML methods are generated using NVMain memory simulator for DRAM, NVM, and their hybrid combinations. We demonstrate the results of the ML based memory-DSE method in terms of the learning curve characteristics for hyperparameter tuning and the statistical error analyses of the designed predictive models.
Retrospective Outcome Data for Transitional Care Management in the Hematologic Malignant Patient Population

Introduction In 2016, providers within an Academic Medical Center's Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) program recognized preventable readmissions related to missed opportunities in the hospital discharge process. In an effort to address discharge deficiencies and reduce readmissions, Transitional Care Management (TCM) was developed and implemented by BMT Transplant Coordinators in 2017. Methods Hospital discharge reports are generated in the electronic medical record (EMR). Communication within the EMR is sent to the clinical teams the business day following discharge with instruction to initiate a telephone encounter. The clinical team completes a telephone encounter in the EMR and documents review of discharge summary, medications, follow-up appointments, pertinent clinical trial review (if applicable), and symptoms following discharge. Results Retrospective analysis of readmission rates for patients with hematologic malignancies for the period of January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2018, show a decline in readmission rates since implementation of TCM. (30 day- 2016 25.11% vs 2018 23.89%, 14 day 18.14% vs 2018 16.39%, 7 day 2016-13.5% vs 2018 9.6%) Retrospective analysis of TCM completion by BMT coordinators for the period of January 1, 2017 through August 31, 2019, reveal a drastic improvement. Compliance of TCM documentation and completion averaged 88% in 2017, and 85% in 2018. Since utilization of EMR generated telephone encounter notification, 98% completion of the TCM process has been documented. Conclusion TCM has improved quality of care for patients with hematologic malignancies. BMT 30-day, 14-day and 7-day readmission rates have improved since TCM. Utilization of the transplant center's upgraded EMR improved functionality and increased compliance of the TCM documentation process.
Designing Online Mediation: Does “Just Add Tech” Undermine Mediation’s Ownmost Aim?

Abstract The norms of dispute resolution began their development alongside human communication, literally thousands of years before the internet. Mediation emerged as a social system possessed of culture-specific norms and rules that express themselves to this day, in how this mediation operates as a profoundly human system of meaning. This article asks whether these thoroughly time-tested and -refined norms specific to mediation will port over, relatively intact, into virtual space. To be sure, the answer will be seen in how designers build and implement the virtual spaces and attendant automation technology. To do that optimally, however, designers first must identify, understand and respect the values, ethics and purpose embedded in these inter-generational norms.
Potential Factors to Enhance Students' STEM College Learning and Career Orientation

In this study, we highlight the importance of high school students having a college-attending and career-ready mindset in STEM fields. With this purpose, we adopted a stepwise multiple regression analysis to determine which variables are significant predictors of students’ STEM college learning and career orientation. The participants were 1105 high school students from nine randomly selected high schools across greater Houston Texas. 42% of the variance on STEM college learning and career orientation as an outcome variable can be explained by six predictor variables: (a) parental involvement; (b) STEM related activities engagement; (c) academic experience; (d) teacher effective pedagogy; (e) technology/facilities; and (f) self-esteem. The results indicate that when students received support from teachers and parents, they could develop more positive attitudes towards future post-education and career pathways in STEM fields.
Highly Conductive Sb-SnO2 Nanocrystals Synthesized by Dual Nonthermal Plasmas.

Nonthermal plasma synthesis of transparent conducting oxide nanocrystals can offer advantages, for example, ligand-free surfaces, over traditionally used colloidal synthesis methods. When it comes ...
Comparing dopamine release, uptake, and D2 autoreceptor function across the ventromedial to dorsolateral striatum in adolescent and adult male and female rats

Adolescence is characterized by changes in behavior, such as increases in sensation seeking and risk taking, and increased vulnerability to developing a range of psychiatric disorders, including substance abuse disorders (SUD) and mood disorders. The mesolimbic dopamine system plays an essential role in mediating these behaviors and disorders. Therefore, it is imperative to understand how the dopamine system and its regulation are changing during this period of development. Here, we used ex vivo fast scan cyclic voltammetry to compare stimulated dopamine release and its local circuitry regulation between early adolescent and adult male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. We found that, compared to adults, adolescent males have decreased stimulated dopamine release in the NAc core, while adolescent females have increased dopamine release in the NAc shell, NAc core, and DMS. We also found sex- and region-specific differences in other dopamine dynamics, including maximal dopamine uptake (Vmax), release across a range of stimulation frequencies, and autoreceptor regulation of dopamine release. Better understanding how the dopamine system develops during adolescence will be imperative for understanding what mediates adolescent vulnerability to developing psychiatric disorders and how disruptions during this period of reorganization could alter behaviors and vulnerability into adulthood.
Hardware Design and Demonstration of a 100kW, 99% Efficiency Dual Active Half Bridge Converter Based on 1700V SiC Power MOSFET

High efficiency, high density and galvanically isolated power converters are attractive for numerous medium voltage high power applications. This paper presents a 1.5kVdc, 100kW bidirectional Dual Active Half Bridge (DAHB) using newly developed 1.7kV SiC MOSFET modules. The DAHB achieved an efficiency of 98.6% at full load of 100kW and a maximum of 99% at 45kW, operating as an isolated DC/DC converter. The converter also achieved an efficiency of 97.8% operating as an isolated DC/AC inverter. An optimized PCB-based busbar design has significantly reduced the voltage overshoot across the device, making the design suitable for 1500Vdc input application such as 1500V PV inverters. Typical partial discharge inception voltage (PDIV) of the optimized PCB busbar is 1.7kVpeak with total charge <10pC. The power density of the DAHB converter is 1.8MVA/m3 which is much higher than traditional two-stage industry products. The DAHB converter can be used as a building block for a 4.16kV/1MVA utility scale PV systems with input parallel and output series configuration.
Game-Theoretic Framework for Cooperative Relaying in Cognitive Radio Networks

We propose a novel Stackelberg game-theoretic framework to jointly manage spectrum resources and coordinate secondary users in a cognitive radio network with decode-and-forward cooperative relaying capability to extend coverage. The primary users (PUs) and secondary users (SUs) are mapped into leader-follower pairs in which the SUs purchase spectrum resources from their corresponding PU leaders. An optimal SU transmit strategy incorporating cooperative relaying is derived, and a hybrid scheduling algorithm incorporating both direct transmission and relay transmission is proposed. Experimental results show that the proposed Stackelberg game framework can achieve significantly better system performance with cooperative relaying compared to an SU direct transmission scheme.
ACTIVA: realistic single-cell RNA-seq generation with automatic cell-type identification using introspective variational autoencoders

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) technologies allow for measurements of gene expression at a single-cell resolution. This provides researchers with a tremendous advantage for detecting heterogeneity, delineating cellular maps, or identifying rare subpopulations. However, a critical challenge remains: the low number of single-cell observations due to limitations by cost or rarity of the subpopulation. This absence of sufficient data may cause inaccuracy or irreproducibility of downstream analysis. In this work, we present ACTIVA (Automated Cell-Type-informed Introspective Variational Autoencoder): a novel framework for generating realistic synthetic data using a single-stream adversarial variational autoencoder conditioned with cell-type information. We train and evaluate ACTIVA, and competing models, on multiple public scRNAseq datasets. Under the same conditions, ACTIVA trains up to 17 times faster than the GAN-based state-of-the-art model, scGAN (2.2 hours compared to 39.5 hours on Brain Small) while performing better or comparable in our quantitative and qualitative evaluations. We show that augmenting rare-populations with ACTIVA significantly increases the classification accuracy of the rare population (more than 45 % improvement in our rarest test case). Data generation and augmentation with ACTIVA can enhance scRNAseq pipelines and analysis, such as benchmarking new algorithms, studying the accuracy of classifiers, and detecting marker genes. ACTIVA will facilitate the analysis of smaller datasets, potentially reducing the number of patients and animals necessary in initial studies.
Yes but: developing a critical stance toward evidence

Agreement has become widespread that students’ peer-to-peer argumentation should play a central role in science classrooms. Coordinating evidence with claims lies at the heart of a skilled argument...
Spatial and Ontogenetic Patterns in the Trophic Ecology of Juvenile Bull Sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) From the Northwest Gulf of Mexico

A combination of stomach content and stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N, and δ34S) analyses were used to characterize and examine spatiotemporal and ontogenetic trends in the feeding ecology of juvenile bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) captured in estuaries throughout the northwestern Gulf of Mexico between 2013 and 2016. Shark diets were dominated by fish prey taxa (>98% index of relative importance [%IRI]), and of those identified to the family level, two families comprised greater than 50% IRI, Mugilidae (mullets: ~32%), Sciaenidae (drums & croakers: 27%). Clupeidae (herrings: 14%) and Ariidae (sea catfishes: 15%) also contributed substantially to the diet of juvenile sharks, though consumption of Ariidae increased as consumption of Clupeidae decreased in juvenile sharks larger than 893 mm FL (Fork Length; ~1 year old). Values of δ15N increased significantly with shark size, indicating a shift towards larger or higher trophic level prey with increasing shark size. Latitudinal and temporal trends in δ13C and δ34S suggest isotopic variation occurred in correspondence with shifts in primary producer assemblages and environmental drivers of sampled estuaries. These results highlight the importance of teleost prey resources along the freshwater-marine continuum in the diet of juvenile bull sharks, as well as the utility of natural tracers in tracking ontogenetic trends in feeding ecology.
Pain intensity trajectories among veterans seeking mental health treatment: Association with mental health symptoms and suicidal thoughts and behaviors

Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to identify classes of pain intensity trajectories among veterans reporting suicidal ideation with no prior mental health treatment experience. We were interested in also assessing factors associated with the pain trajectory classes. Methods A total 747 participants completed measures of pain, depression, suicide ideation and behaviors, insomnia, substance use, and PTSD. Follow-up assessments were completed at 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-months post-baseline. Growth mixture modeling was conducted, and pain trajectories were modeled from baseline to month 12. Results Three classes were identified: mild pain intensity that increased over time to severe pain intensity (Increasing-Severe; n = 9), low pain intensity that decreased over time (Mild-Decreasing; n = 172), and moderate pain intensity that remained relatively stable over time (Moderate-Stable; n = 566). The Moderate-Stable trajectory had more severe PTSD symptoms, more frequent depression symptoms, and more severe insomnia. The odds of endorsing suicide ideation at month 12 were significantly higher in the Moderate-Stable trajectory compared to the Mild-Decreasing trajectory. Conclusions This was the first study to assess classes of pain intensity trajectories among individuals who were treatment naive for mental health issues. The findings suggest that a moderate stable trajectory of pain intensity over the course of 12 months is common and associated with a more severe clinical profile, including suicide ideation. This study underscores the importance of addressing pain intensity among individuals seeking mental health treatment, particularly for those with pain intensity that is moderate and stable over time.
Suspects of Genocide Should Be Extradited or Prosecuted

There is an international duty to prosecute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. This duty is recognized in international treaties and in customary international law. In order to uphold the international commitment of “never again” every country has to prosecute fugitives of such crimes on their territories or extradite them to countries willing to prosecute them, otherwise they would be in violation of international law.
Effects of strain, disorder, and Coulomb screening on free-carrier mobility in doped cadmium oxide

The interplay of stress, disorder, and Coulomb screening dictating the mobility of doped cadmium oxide (CdO) is examined using Raman spectroscopy to identify the mechanisms driving dopant incorporation and scattering within this emerging infrared optical material. Specifically, multi-wavelength Raman and UV-vis spectroscopies are combined with electrical Hall measurements on a series of yttrium (X = Y) and indium (X = In) doped X:CdO thin-films. Hall measurements confirm n-type doping and establish carrier concentrations and mobilities. Spectral fitting along the low-frequency Raman combination bands, especially the TA+TO(X) mode, reveals that the evolution of strain and disorder within the lattice as a function of dopant concentration is strongly correlated with mobility. Coupling between the electronic and lattice environments was examined through analysis of first- and second-order longitudinal–optical phonon–plasmon coupled modes that monotonically decrease in energy and asymmetrically broaden with increasing dopant concentration. By fitting these trends to an impurity-induced Frohlich model for the Raman scattering intensity, exciton–phonon and exciton–impurity coupling factors are quantified. These coupling factors indicate a continual decrease in the amount of ionized impurity scattering with increasing dopant concentration and are not as well correlated with mobility. This shows that lattice strain and disorder are the primary determining factors for mobility in donor-doped CdO. In aggregate, the study confirms previously postulated defect equilibrium arguments for dopant incorporation in CdO while at the same time identifying paths for its further refinement.