cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The role of royalty rates in determining monitoring costs of restaurant franchise contracts: an agency theory perspective.

Abstract The purpose of this research is to examine determinants of royalty rates in restaurant franchising from a monitoring costs perspective utilizing agency theory. The primary hypothesis of the study is that agency costs associated with monitoring franchisees are inversely related to royalty rates levied by the franchisor. Agency problems specifically related to monitoring costs of franchise contracts are identified. An empirical model for monitoring costs in relation to royalty rates is developed to test a series of hypotheses. Empirical evidence largely supports the primary hypothesis that when the franchisor perceives monitoring activities are difficult and/or costly, the franchisor tends to lower royalty rates to induce the franchisee's efforts.
Tilting at windmills: a cynical assemblage of the crises of knowledge

The essay offers one piece of a larger conjunctural analysis, in an effort to contribute to a better story of the contemporary organic crisis. It considers three elements of the complexity of the ‘...
An Institutional Perspective on Higher Education Policy: The Case of Academic Quality Assurance

An important theoretical development in the social sciences is the re-emerging interest in institutions.2 Conceptual definitions of institutions vary by discipline, but there is increasing convergence on the notion of institutions as those rules, norms of behavior, and their enforcement characteristics, which shape human interaction (North, 1990), This very broad definition of institutions is helpful in clarifying that an institution is not the equivalent of an organization. Formal organizations such as business corporations or nonprofit entities can be understood as institutions because they also structure human interaction. But human behavior within formal organizations is also affected by the more basic institutional framework of a society such as the legal context of antitrust and liability laws, the nature of market competition, as well as prevailing social beliefs such as the tradition of academic tenure. Governments may thereby attempt to reform a class of organizations not only by regulating them directly, but also by altering the institutional framework within which they operate.
Variation in bowel and bladder continence across US spina bifida programs: A descriptive study.

Purpose Continence is low in individuals with spina bifida, but published prevalence varies markedly across studies. The objective of this study was to examine bladder and bowel continence among patients served by multidisciplinary clinics participating in the National Spina Bifida Patient Registry and to examine whether variation in prevalence exists across clinics. Methods Data were obtained from patients 5 years and older from March 2009 to December 2012. Data were gathered at clinic visits using standardized definitions. Results Data from 3252 individuals were included. Only 40.8% of participants were continent of urine; 43% were continent of stool. Bladder and bowel continence differed by spina bifida type, with those with myelomeningocele having significantly lower reported prevalence of continence than those with other forms of spina bifida. Bladder and bowel continence varied across registry sites. Adjustment based on demographic and condition-specific variables did not make substantive differences in prevalence observed. Conclusion Less than half of spina bifida patients served in multidisciplinary clinics report bladder or bowel continence. Variability in prevalence was observed across clinics. Further research is needed to examine if clinic-specific variables (e.g., types of providers, types of interventions used) account for the observed variation.
Renal and Biliary Lithotripsy Using a Medstone 1050 Lithotripter

With FDA approval in 1988 of biliary lithotripsy trials in the United States, the manufacturers of lithotripters have sought to produce a multipurpose lithotripter that will perform successfully both renal and biliary lithotripsy. From August 1988 to February 1989 (7 months) the Medstone 1050 lithotripter was used to perform renal lithotripsy on 388 patients and biliary lithotripsy on 40 patients. There was a 7% retreatment rate in the 388 patients having renal lithotripsy and a 2% secondary endoscopic or percutaneous procedures post-lithotripsy. At two month follow-up 73% were stone free, and 14% had fragments smaller than 4 mm.
Dietary Assessment of Patients Who Form Kidney Stones

1. Assessment of a patient’s habitual dietary pattern and intake of specific foods and beverages is important in identifying whether diet is contributory to stone formation. Registered dietitian nutritionists are experts at obtaining patients’ diet histories and generating assessments of their habitual intake. 2. The 24-h urine analysis and the stone composition report, part of the usual metabolic work-up of patients with urinary tract stones, are not surrogates for dietary assessment as food-derived compounds that may appear in urine or renal calculi are subject to multiple metabolic processes after ingestion, during circulation, and prior to excretion. 3. If diet is not contributing to stone formation, or if a patient is already eating according to a dietary recommendation aimed at controlling a specific stone risk factor, then the assessment of the patient’s diet will reveal this. 4. The results of dietary assessment for stone prevention will guide the development of a nutrition intervention, i.e., specific dietary changes, if any are warranted. 5. Dietary changes should be implemented according to the available evidence for the role of diet in stone prevention and targeted to a specific dietary risk factor(s). Strategies to accomplish the changes are tailored to each patient based on his/her nutritional needs; the presence of other medical conditions requiring integration of dietary recommendations; use of medications with nutrient interactions; food knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes; lifestyle; and other patient-specific factors.
Designing Ethical Trials of Germline Gene Editing

With gene-editing technology advancing rapidly, it is important to consider the ethical issues it raises for research, including those related to intergenerational monitoring — long-term follow-up monitoring of not just trial participants, but also their descendants.
Evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model for Simulating Winter Ozone Formation in the Uinta Basin.

The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) models were used to simulate a 10 day high-ozone episode observed during the 2013 Uinta Basin Winter Ozone Study (UBWOS). The baseline model had a large negative bias when compared to ozone (O3) and volatile organic compound (VOC) measurements across the basin. Contrary to other wintertime Uinta Basin studies, predicted nitrogen oxides (NO x ) were typically low compared to measurements. Increases to oil and gas VOC emissions resulted in O3 predictions closer to observations, and nighttime O3 improved when reducing the deposition velocity for all chemical species. Vertical structures of these pollutants were similar to observations on multiple days. However, the predicted surface layer VOC mixing ratios were generally found to be underestimated during the day and overestimated at night. While temperature profiles compared well to observations, WRF was found to have a warm temperature bias and too low nighttime mixing heights. Analyses of more realistic snow heat capacity in WRF to account for the warm bias and vertical mixing resulted in improved temperature profiles, although the improved temperature profiles seldom resulted in improved O3 profiles. While additional work is needed to investigate meteorological impacts, results suggest that the uncertainty in the oil and gas emissions contributes more to the underestimation of O3. Further, model adjustments based on a single site may not be suitable across all sites within the basin.
Daniel Call’s Schocker: German Knittelvers in the late twentieth century

The word “Knittelvers” has been used since the eighteenth century to describe four-stress rhyming couplets which seem to be rather simply and awkwardly constructed, and whose content is frequently comical, course, vulgar or obscene. Today German Knittelvers is perhaps best known from the works of Goethe and Schiller, as well as other late eighteenth and early nineteenth century writers. Well-known examples occur together with other verse forms in Goethe’s Faust and Schiller’s Wallensteins Lager , as well as in ballads and occasional poems by both poets. While literary critics have shown considerable interest in Knittelvers written from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, there has been almost no discussion of the further use and development of this verse form from the nineteenth century to the present, despite the fact that it continues to appear in both humorous and serious works by many contemporary German writers. This article focuses on an example of dramatic Knittelvers in a late twentieth century play, namely Daniel Call’s comedy Schocker , a modern parody of Goethe’s Faust . Among other things, Call’s play, as well as other examples of Knittelvers in works by twentieth and early twenty-first century poets, demonstrates that while this verse form has undergone some changes and variations, it still retains metrical characteristics which have remained constant since the fifteenth century. Today these four-stress couplets continue to function as a means of depicting comic, mock-heroic and tragicomic situations by means of parody, farce and burlesque satire.
Rethink data dissemination in opportunistic mobile networks with mutually exclusive requirement

Abstract With the increase of mobile devices, opportunistic mobile networks become a promising technique for disseminating data in a local area. However, existing works focus on the single data dissemination and fail to consider the practical applications where there are multiple data under different topics. Multiple data dissemination shows the potential applications in many scenarios, e.g., product coupon distribution. In this paper, we focus on budget-constrained multiple data dissemination services. A mobile user may be interested in data under different topics, but receiving data for any topic is enough due to user experiences and participation constraints. This is the mutually exclusive delivery requirement in many scenarios. In light of the different amounts of data and the different popularity levels of data in each topic, deciding which data should be forwarded to mobile users becomes an important problem. This paper aims to design an efficient data dissemination scheme that minimizes the maximum dissemination delay while incurring a small communication overhead for the aforementioned scenario. In this paper, we discuss three different scenarios according to different knowledge. We start with the data dissemination with network topology, and a corresponding optimal solution is proposed. Later, we consider the probability estimation with k-hop information, and lastly propose a distributed data forwarding algorithm, which considers the amount of data in different topics, the mobile users’ interest, and their data forwarding abilities, respectively. The real trace-driven experiments show that the proposed scheme achieves a good performance.
Examining spatial relationships between crashes and the built environment: A geographically weighted regression approach

Abstract A better understanding of the relationships between vehicle crashes and the built environment is an important step in improving crash prediction and providing sound policy recommendations that could reduce the occurrence or severity of crashes. Global statistical models are widely used to explore the relationships between vehicle crashes and the built environment, but these models do not incorporate a spatial component and are unable to deal with the issues of spatial autocorrelation and spatial non-stationarity. Our research utilizes a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model to explore the relationships between crashes and the built environment in the context of the Detroit region in Michigan. We find that the relationships between the built environment and crashes are spatially non-stationary: both the strength and the direction of their relationships differ over space. Our study also identifies several built environment variables, such as commercial use percentage, local road mileage percentage, and intersection density, that have relatively stable relationships with crashes. Our research demonstrates the feasibility and value of using spatial models in traffic, transportation, and land use research.
Project Risk Impact on Software Development Team Performance

Project teams are formed to control the technical challenges and risks in system development. This paper examines the relationship between the various risks of system development and project team p...
Scanning Interferometric Apertureless Microscopy at 10 Angstrom Resoultion

Near-field scanning microscopy at microwave frequencies (1) and its extension to the visible region (NSOM)(2, 3) at around 50 nm resolution has attracted much attention (4–7). Recently, a Scanning Interferometric Apertureless Microscope (SIAM) was introduced (8, 9, 14) where the scattered electric field variation due to a vibrating and scanning probe tip in close proximity to a sample surface is measured by encoding it as a modulation in the phase of one arm of an interferometer. Here, we review the SIAM technique and present images of various samples at a resolution of 1 nm - almost two orders of magnitude superior to other NSQM’s. A basic theory based on coupled dipoles is put forward and compared with experiments. It shows that the contrast mechanisms are fundamentally different to those in regular near-field optical microscopes due to a unique dipole-dipole mechanism. Furthermore, the theory predicts the ability to measure complex susceptibility down to the atomic level.
Anomalous exponents in strong turbulence

Abstract To characterize fluctuations in a turbulent flow, one usually studies different moments of velocity increments and dissipation rate, ( v ( x + r ) − v ( x ) ) n ¯ ∝ r ζ n and E n ¯ ∝ R e d n , respectively. In high Reynolds number flows, the moments of different orders cannot be simply related to each other which is the signature of anomalous scaling, one of the most puzzling features of turbulent flows. High-order moments are related to extreme, rare events and our ability to quantitatively describe them is crucially important for meteorology, heat, mass transfer and other applications. In this work we present a solution to this problem in the particular case of the Navier–Stokes equations driven by a random force. A novel aspect of this work is that, unlike previous efforts which aimed at seeking solutions around the infinite Reynolds number limit, we concentrate on the vicinity of transitional Reynolds numbers R e t r where the first emergence of anomalous scaling is observed out of a low- R e Gaussian background. The obtained closed expressions for anomalous scaling exponents ζ n and d n , which depend on the transition Reynolds number, agree well with experimental and numerical data in the literature and, when n ≫ 1 , d n ≈ 0 . 19 n ln ( n ) . The theory yields the energy spectrum E ( k ) ∝ k − ζ 2 − 1 with ζ 2 ≈ 0 . 699 , different from the outcome of Kolmogorov’s theory. It is also argued that fluctuations of dissipation rate and those of the transition point itself are responsible for both, deviation from Gaussian statistics and multiscaling of velocity field.
Shielding calculations for 230-MeV protons using the LAHET code system

Shielding related calculations were performed for 230-MeV protons incident upon a stopping-length iron target using the LAHET code system (LCS). Secondary neutrons and photons, produced by proton interactions with the target nuclei, were transported through a spherical concrete shield in which absorbed dose and dose equivalent tallies were produced and attenuation parameters deduced. Comparing calculated results with measurements performed with a similar target, beam, and shielding geometry, the dose equivalent production term is double the measured value. The LCS overestimates measured attenuation values at 0, 22, and 45 deg while correctly predicting the attenuation length at 90 deg. Comparison of LCS results with HETC calculations and analytical methods indicates that LCS better estimates the attenuation length and dose equivalent production.
Searching for inherited causes for schizophrenia: has progress been made?

This book currently outlines the conclusions drawn subsequent to the 5thconvening of investigators on “Search for the Causes of Schizophrenia”. In all previous such volumes, the prevailing views on genetic causes have been reviewed. In the first, published in 1987, Kringlen concluded that “schizophrenia involves the interaction of biological and environmental factors. However, neither genetically nor environmentally oriented research has yet been able to identify the etiological factors that are necessary and/or sufficient for the disorder… but are the genes necessary?”. In that same year McGuffin and colleagues remained perplexed over which clinical sets of symptoms are inherited and thus valid phenotypes for further genetic studies, and Baron provided cautious optimism to his conclusion that because mathematical genetic modeling confirms the heritable component for schizophrenia, new technology provided by the gene marker strategy will be the way to make progress. In 1991, I too was optimistic in my review of the field and concluded that the “reverse genetics” approach could be applied to studies of families with schizophrenia without knowledge of what a gene for this disorder would be doing, and without a prior working hypothesis (DeLisi and Lovett 1991). In fact, during this period excitement had already been generated by several linkages to regions of the genome being reported for schizophrenia and affective psychoses without ever identifying a clear responsible gene or its mechanism (reviewed in DeLisi et al. 2000).
Permanent installation of wireless structural monitoring systems in infrastructure systems

Abstract: Over the last several decades, wireless sensing technologies have arisen as an inexpensive and robust method of data collection, used in a variety of structural monitoring applications for various types of infrastructure systems. In comparison with their natural counterparts (i.e., cabled monitoring systems), wireless monitoring systems offer low-cost and low-power communication between a large number of sensing devices. However, successful implementation of such technologies is highly dependent on several factors, such as constant power supply, reliable communication, and dependable data collection strategies. These can often be challenging to achieve in real-world applications, due to harsh environmental conditions and overall limitations of the current technology. While numerous studies have effectively overcome such challenges in a variety of infrastructure systems, bridges have had numerous successful deployments of wireless sensor networks. As such, this chapter focuses on four particular cases that demonstrate successful long-term deployment of wireless sensor networks on bridges for structural monitoring purposes.
New Urban Worlds: Inhabiting Dissonant Times

The irrevocable process of global urban shift is primarily driven by Asia and Africa. Between 2015 and 2040, the urban population in Asia and Africa are projected to increase by 1.69 billion – whic...
A comparative evaluation of hybrid error correction methods for error-prone long reads

Third-generation sequencing technologies have advanced the progress of the biological research by generating reads that are substantially longer than second-generation sequencing technologies. However, their notorious high error rate impedes straightforward data analysis and limits their application. A handful of error correction methods for these error-prone long reads have been developed to date. The output data quality is very important for downstream analysis, whereas computing resources could limit the utility of some computing-intense tools. There is a lack of standardized assessments for these long-read error-correction methods. Here, we present a comparative performance assessment of ten state-of-the-art error-correction methods for long reads. We established a common set of benchmarks for performance assessment, including sensitivity, accuracy, output rate, alignment rate, output read length, run time, and memory usage, as well as the effects of error correction on two downstream applications of long reads: de novo assembly and resolving haplotype sequences. Taking into account all of these metrics, we provide a suggestive guideline for method choice based on available data size, computing resources, and individual research goals.
The Effects of Sintering Conditions on Selective Inhibition Sintering Process for Bronze

Abstract Selective inhibition sintering (SIS) process is a relatively new additive manufacturing technology that builds parts on a layer-by-layer basis. This new process has been of high interest i...
Arrest and Trait Aggression Correlates of Emergency Department Use.

This study examined the associations between arrest and incarceration, trait aggression, and emergency department (ED) use. Data were collected from 525 clients who visited the Center for Behaviora...
Emerging disparities in community resilience to drought hazard in south-central United States

Abstract In search of new insights into the dynamics of hazard resilience, this study assessed the temporal changes of community resilience to the drought hazard in the south-central U.S. The study hypothesized that over time counties with more affluent socioeconomic conditions and more diverse agriculture would improve their resilience while counties with poorer socioeconomic conditions and heavy reliance on agriculture decreased their resilience, thus widening the regional disparities in community resilience to the drought hazard. The study applied the Resilience Inference Measurement (RIM) framework to measure the resilience levels of the 503 counties of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Using data of Year 2000, the RIM model selected 10 variables as resilience predictors with a 67.9% classification accuracy and assigned a resilience level to each county. The variables selected in the RIM model are related to the economic performance in the agricultural sector, socioeconomic well-being, and health. The derived discriminant functions from the RIM model were then used to estimate the resilience levels in 2005, 2010, and 2015. Over the 15-year period, 262 counties across the study area improved their resilience, whereas 48 counties, mostly in the Texas High Plains, experienced a decrease in their resilience level. The results support the hypothesis and suggest a widening gap in resilience levels among counties. These results increase our understanding of the complex process underlying communities’ response to the drought impacts.
La oralidad cuenta con otro clásico

Imaginacion y oficio. Conversaciones con seis poetas colombianos. Piedad Bonnett Velez. Editorial Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, 2003, 217 pags.
Low-Power, Multimodal Laser Micromachining of Materials for Applications in sub-5 µm Shadow Masks and sub-10 µm Interdigitated Electrodes (IDEs) Fabrication

Laser micromachining is a direct write microfabrication technology that has several advantages over traditional micro/nanofabrication techniques. In this paper, we present a comprehensive characterization of a QuikLaze 50ST2 multimodal laser micromachining tool by determining the ablation characteristics of six (6) different materials and demonstrating two applications. Both the thermodynamic theoretical and experimental ablation characteristics of stainless steel (SS) and aluminum are examined at 1064 nm, silicon and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) at 532 nm, and Kapton® and polyethylene terephthalate at 355 nm. We found that the experimental data aligned well with the theoretical analysis. Additionally, two applications of this multimodal laser micromachining technology are demonstrated: shadow masking down to approximately 1.5 µm feature sizes and interdigitated electrode (IDE) fabrication down to 7 µm electrode gap width.
A reconstructive algorithm of oncologic defects of the upper trunk and shoulder girdle: Factors predicting complexity and outcomes.

BACKGROUND Locally advanced malignancies of the upper torso and shoulder girdle (UT-SG) necessitate extensive resection and complex reconstruction. Due to the infrequent nature of these operations, a global reconstructive algorithm has not been defined. METHODS A retrospective review of all patients who received reconstructive surgery following malignant tumor extirpation in the UT-SG from 2008 to 2018 at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Factors predicting the need for flap reconstruction and risk for postoperative complications were evaluated. RESULTS In total, 252 procedures met inclusion criteria. The most common pathology was sarcoma (76%) and 52% were primary tumors. The median defect area was 112 cm2 (range 4-1350 cm2 ). Reconstructive techniques included pedicled flaps (46%), local tissue rearrangement (38%), and free flaps (16%). On univariate analysis, the probability of needing a free flap increased 39% when the defect size increased by 100 cm2 . The strongest independent predictors of requiring a free flap were major vessel exposure (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 4.92, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.36-17.84, P = .015) and major peripheral nerve exposure (adjusted OR = 3.2, 95% CI, 1.1-9.2, P = .031). CONCLUSION Despite the aggressive nature of their malignancies, patients requiring an UT-SG resection demonstrate high survival rates and therefore demand a durable reconstruction. Exposed critical structures and defect size were predictive of free tissue transfer.
Effects of two-way referral care of patients with type 2 diabetes in urban community in Shanghai

Objectives To evaluate the effect of two-way referral care in the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes in urban community in Shanghai. Methods Two local primary care hospitals(Grade A) in Yangpu District in Shanghai were selected as the research points, and 265 patients with type 2 diabetes involved in two-way referral care were selected using random number table, and investigated changes of their metabolic index and feeling before and after two-way referral care.And 301 diabetic patients did not participate in two-way referral care were selected randomly as control group from the same 2 hospitals at the same time, and investigated the changes in glucose control and other metabolic indexes.Baseline data were comparable between the two groups. Data between groups were compared using independent samples t test. Results After referral treatment, the differences in fasting blood glucose(FBG), postprandial blood glucose(PBG), glycated hemoglobin A1c(HbA1c), systolic blood pressure(SBP), diastolic blood pressure(DBP), total cholesterol(TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglyceride(TG) between the two groups were significant (t=4.584, 9.721, 6.291, 5.246, 5.179, 2.976, 2.894, 7.358, 3.114, all P<0.05). Referral group were superior to the non-referral group.The FBG decreased in 72.1% of the patients in non-referral group and it was lower than that in referral group(81.5%). And FBG increased in 23.6% of the patients in non-referral group and it was higher than that in referral group(17.4%). Referral patients felt better to the two-way Referral Mode. Conclusion Two-way referral do benefit to diabetes patients, improve metabolism index of blood glucose, blood fat and blood pressure of patients, there are some details need to be further perfected in operation process of the referral system. Key words: Diabetes mellitus; Two-way referral; Urban
Barriers for Foreign-Born Students in Elite Post-Secondary Education in the United States

Foreign-born students complete college at a lower rate when compared to native-born students. It is essential to examine both the known and latent barriers that prevent foreign-born students from successfully completing the first four years of college. The purpose of this study is to assess the applicability of Bourdieuian notions of capital in explaining the discrepancy in educational attainment between foreign-born and native born students. The data is from the 1999 National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen (n=3176), a survey designed to test various theoretical explanations for minority underachievement in higher education. Stepwise regressions were used to determine the individual impact of nativity, race, cultural capital, and economic capital to graduating within four years. In the unadjusted model, nativity was moderately associated with four-year graduation (β=0.760; p=0.053). However in the fully adjusted model, I found that race was more important than nativity status when predicting the odds of graduating, with African American students having a significantly lower odds of graduating in four years (β=0.576; p=0.000), than white students. Gender and economic capital were also significantly associated with 4-year graduation rates, with men less likely to graduate than women (β=0.733; p=0.000). And individuals in the highest income category (over $75,000/year) were more likely to graduate in four years than those in the making less than 19,999 per year (β=1.645; p=0.028). Parental disciplinary style was also a significant (p=0.000) correlate with four year graduation rates. Future studies should repeat these inquiries in a dataset that includes less selective institutions. BARRIERS FOR FOREIGN-BORN STUDENTS IN ELITE POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE US 3
Endogenous Endophthalmitis in an Urban University Setting: Characteristics, Treatment, and Outcomes:

Purpose:This work describes the characteristics, treatment, and outcomes of endogenous endophthalmitis (EE) cases over 13 years at a tertiary care hospital.Methods:This retrospective case series in...
Multivariate Analysis of Fecal Metabolites from Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Gastrointestinal Symptoms before and after Microbiota Transfer Therapy

Fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) holds significant promise for patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. Prior work has demonstrated that plasma metabolite profiles of children with ASD become more similar to those of their typically developing (TD) peers following this treatment. This work measures the concentration of 669 biochemical compounds in feces of a cohort of 18 ASD and 20 TD children using ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy. Subsequent measurements were taken from the ASD cohort over the course of 10-week Microbiota Transfer Therapy (MTT) and 8 weeks after completion of this treatment. Univariate and multivariate statistical analysis techniques were used to characterize differences in metabolites before, during, and after treatment. Using Fisher Discriminant Analysis (FDA), it was possible to attain multivariate metabolite models capable of achieving a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 95% after cross-validation. Observations made following MTT indicate that the fecal metabolite profiles become more like those of the TD cohort. There was an 82–88% decrease in the median difference of the ASD and TD group for the panel metabolites, and among the top fifty most discriminating individual metabolites, 96% report more comparable values following treatment. Thus, these findings are similar, although less pronounced, as those determined using plasma metabolites.
The use of non-target high-resolution mass spectrometry screening to detect the presence of antibiotic residues in urban streams of Greensboro North Carolina

Antibiotic pollution in aquatic systems is a concern for human and environmental health. The concern is largely due to the global occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. From 2017 to 2018 in the NC Piedmont, 15 ion masses associated with antibiotics were detected in rural streams and groundwater. Four of these masses were confirmed to be antibiotics through target analysis (sulfamethoxazole, sulfamerazine, erythromycin, danofloxacin). Concentrations of antibiotics were as high as 1.8 μg/L. As a follow-up, antibiotic residues in urban streams sites in Greensboro, NC, USA, were investigated. Urban streams are heavily influenced by the dense populations surrounding them. In the fall, winter, and spring seasons, surface water was collected from eight sites along two urban streams. Sampling was conducted at streams sites above and below municipal hospitals and wastewater treatment facilities in the study area. At the conclusion of the survey, nine ion masses associated with antibiotics used in both human and veterinary medicine were detected from surface water collected. Three of the four antibiotics targeted in rural stream samples were detected and confirmed in urban stream samples (sulfamerazine, danofloxacin, and erythromycin). Detection frequencies of the three antibiotics ranged from 0 to 46%. Concentrations of each target antibiotic was as followed: SMX (0 to <10 ng/L), SMR (0 to <11 ng/L), DAN (0 to <20 ng/L), and ETM (0 to <15 ng/L). Each target antibiotic concentration was below our methods quantification limits. Our risk assessment analysis showed that the target antibiotics posed no risk to fish, daphnia, and green algae within this region of NC (RQ < 0.1). Compared to rural streams in this region of NC, antibiotic pollution is less prevalent in urban streams. The differences between urban and rural streams may be driven by the varying land use and suggest more research should be dedicated to monitoring these contaminants in rural areas of the United States.
Making Equity the Priority

In 2016, public health leaders from the US Department of Health and Human Services began highlighting a concept called Public Health 3.0.1 Their idea was that the modern age of public health (Public Health 1.0) began around the dawn of the 20th century when scientists significantly advanced understanding of infectious diseases and developed vaccines and antibiotics to address them. The second wave-Public Health 2.0-was kicked off by the Institute of Medicine's 1988 report The Future of Public Health.2 Following that report, we saw the expansion of governmental agencies to coordinate and manage the public's health, organizations that have played a critical part in the response to COVID-19. Public Health 3.0 recognized that although individual behaviors drive health status, the physical and social determinants of those behaviors (neighborhood safety, education, availability of reliable transportation, quality of housing, and more) drive those behaviors.
The First Thing We Do

There is currently a concerted effort to dumb down America. In the midst of this, the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar recently agreed to propose that tenure for law professors be eliminated as a requirement for accreditation of law schools. This article analyzes the arguments for and against tenure in legal academia, and concludes that the main proposed justifications for eliminating tenure are highly questionable, at best. A lawyer is more than a legal technocrat. Lawyers are policy makers and public defenders. They are prosecutors and activists. And the development of a critical and independent mind is no more important in any area of human action than in the law. There is a concerted effort to turn law schools into automaton production lines. Practice-ready, skills-oriented legal education (quite meritorious in itself) has become code for the manufacture of attorneys capable only of following their corporate clients’ instructions to the tee. The goal of this concerted effort is not a truly practice-ready and skilled attorney. The endgame is a mindless legal machine. That is not what a legal education is about. The survival of critical thought is at stake. This is not just about law professors. This is but one salvo in a much larger war against independent minds.
The Future of the Church as a Primary Health Place

ABSTRACT There is a critical need for change in America's Health System, and religious organizations can facilitate not only the redefining of what health is but also the shaping of what the primary health services of the future should look like, function as, and be. The vision presented here is that the local parish or some extension of it be seen by the average citizen as a primary health place. The model proposed is that faith based living in community become the core health concept, defining what it means to be human and healthy become the core teaching, and that healing such that no illness need dominate become the goal. Within that context, health information, education, prayer, care, and support for most chronic illness, lifestyle change, and end of life concerns would begin at one's community of faith and only within that context to specially trained persons. This health system will compliment the sophisticated and complex acute medical care system that now exists.
An Iron Catalyst: Virginia’s Roadside Historical Markers and the Shaping of a Historical Consciousness

..2 Introduction...3 Chapter I: A Historiographical Examination of Virginia’s Historical Marker Program...9 1) A Beckoning Subject: The Inadequacies of Existing Studies on Historical Markers 9 2) Markers in Virginia History 15 3) Historical Markers and their Relation to Memory 19 4) Skeptics of Memory 21 5) Historiographical Interpretations of Collective Memory 24 Chapter II: The Formation and Implementation of Virginia’s Historical Marker Program...31 1) Markers in the Context of 1920s America 31 2) The Commission on Conservation and Development 33 3) The Genesis of Virginia’s Historical Marker Program 37 4) An Idea Put into Action: The Formation of the Division of History and Archeology 39 5) Bringing History to the Public: The Praxis of Eckenrode’s Plan 46 6) From Luddite to Public Historian: The Peregrinations of Col. Bryan Conrad 49 Chapter III: The Dotted Landscape: Formulating a Lasting Definition of Virginia’s Historical Topography...58 1) The Confederate Ghosts and “Unreconstructed Rebels” of Upperville, Virginia 60 2) Vandalism, Disrespect, and the Creation of Permissible Behavior Toward Historical Markers.........64 3) Winning the Methodological Conflicts: How Eckenrode and the Division Reigned Supreme 67 4) Defining New Duties for Owners of Historic Properties 72 5) The Surging Popularity and the Acceptance of the Division’s Marker Program and its Methods 76 Chapter IV: A Model for Success: The Division of Archeology and History’s Lasting Impact on Public Commemoration and Historical Memory...82 1) Promotion, Popularity, Emulation: The Significance of Virginia’s 1929 Advertising Campaign......82 2) Inquiries and Emulation Outside of the Commonwealth: The Exportation of Virginia’s Historical Marker Program 93 3) Selling History to Virginians: Historical Markers as a Local Advertising Platform 96 4) A Key to the Commission’s Success: The Establishment of the Division of Archeology and History as an Independent State Bureau 103 Conclusion: Eckenrode’s Enduring Legacy and His Deserved Place on the Pantheon of Public Historians...113 1) Future Studies 117
N‐Version Programming

N-version programming is a software structuring technique designed to permit software to be fault-tolerant, i.e., able to operate and provide correct outputs despite the presence of faults. N-version programming is a software analogy of the N-modular redundancy technique used in fault-tolerant hardware. The reason for attempting to make software fault-tolerant is to try to increase software reliability for applications where the cost of failure is high. Despite substantial efforts aimed at fault avoidance and fault elimination during development, faults tend to remain in operational software. If the effects of such faults could be tolerated at execution time, the observed reliability of the software would be increased. N-version programming has been applied primarily in the aerospace industry. In the simplest form of N-version programming, “N” implementations i.e., N-versions of an application are developed separately. In operation, these N versions are executed in parallel and their outputs compared. Each version in an N-version system is a complete implementation of the specification developed separately from the N−1 versions. By developing versions separately, it is assumed that they will be based on designs that are different, a property called design diversity. Although the basic technique is quite simple, there are a number of issues that must be kept in mind when deciding whether to use N-version programming and how to implement it there issued are discussed. Keywords: software structuring; faults; design diversity; reliability; issues
Variable Relaxation Solve for Nonlinear Thermal Conduction

Efficient and robust nonlinear solvers, based on Variable Relaxation, is developed to solve nonlinear anisotropic thermal conduction arising from fusion plasma simulations. By adding first and/or second order time derivatives to the system, this type of methods advances corresponding time-dependent nonlinear systems to steady state, which is the solution to be sought. In this process, only the stiffness matrix itself is involved so that the numerical complexity and errors can be greatly reduced. In fact, this work is an extension of implementing efficient linear solvers for fusion simulation on Cray X1E. Two schemes are derived in this work, first and second order Variable Relaxations. Four factors are observed to be critical for efficiency and preservation of solution's symmetric structure arising from periodic boundary condition: mesh scales, initialization, variable time step, and nonlinear stiffness matrix computation. First finer mesh scale should be taken in strong transport direction; Next the system is carefully initialized by the solution with linear conductivity; Third, time step and relaxation factor are vertex-based varied and optimized at each time step; Finally, the nonlinear stiffness matrix is updated by just scaling corresponding linear one with the vector generated from nonlinear thermal conductivity.
THE CONTRADICTORY MESSAGES OF REHNQUIST-ROBERTS ERA SPEECH LAW: LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR SOME

The Supreme Court in the Rehnquist-Roberts era has been characterized as pro-free speech, based in part on the Court’s protection of money as a form of speech in the campaign finance context. Parsing the tangle of free speech decisions for themes and patterns, this essay highlights inconsistencies in the Court’s decisions on basic free speech issues, such as the strict-scrutiny invalidation of limits on the quantity of speech only in the area of campaign finances. Looking beyond the familiar First Amendment rhetoric of self-expression, empowerment of the people, and triumphal American democracy, the essay reveals stark differences between the Court’s treatment of modes of speech available to people of ordinary means, and modes available to corporations and the wealthy. The Court’s curtailment of rights related to the former, and expansion of rights related to the latter, skews, corrupts, and undermines the democratic process.
A comparative study of cooperative localization techniques for sensor networks

This paper focuses on the cooperative localization problem in sensor networks where the objective is to estimate the sensor positions. Communications among the sensors can reduce the need for global observations (e.g. GPS data), and render the estimation distributed. However, these problems usually involve nonlinear models and non-Gaussian distributions. Two techniques are studied and compared to address nonlinearity and non-Gaussianity: the feedback particle filter (FPF) [16] and the nonparametric belief propagation (NBP) [11]. FPF introduces a novel feedback and innovation structure, and the computations can be approximately localized. On the other hand, NBP reformulates localization as an inference problem on spatio-temporal graphical models and implements a distributed sample-based message-passing scheme. Comparisons between FPF and NBP are provided regarding their structure, computational cost and accuracy, and are supported by numerical simulations.
Questions and Answers About the Financial Crisis - Prepared for the U.S. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

All bond prices plummeted (spreads rose) during the financial crisis, not just the prices of subprime related bonds. These price declines were due to a banking panic in which institutional investors and firms refused to renew sale and repurchase agreements (repo) - short‐term, collateralized, agreements that the Fed rightly used to count as money. Collateral for repo was, to a large extent, securitized bonds. Firms were forced to sell assets as a result of the banking panic, reducing bond prices and creating losses. There is nothing mysterious or irrational about the panic. There were genuine fears about the locations of subprime risk concentrations among counterparties. This banking system (the “shadow” or “parallel” banking system) ‐ repo based on securitization ‐ is a genuine banking system, as large as the traditional, regulated and banking system. It is of critical importance to the economy because it is the funding basis for the traditional banking system. Without it, traditional banks will not lend and credit, which is essential for job creation, will not be created.
A Case of Refractory Hashimoto’s Encephalopathy Demonstrating Improvement with Plasmapheresis (P5.227)

Objective: To describe an unusual case of Hashimoto’s encephalopathy (HE) associated with significant imaging findings that responded to plasmapheresis. Background: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis was first described by Hakaru Hashimoto in 1912 but it was Lord Brain who first noted the association between thyroiditis and an unusual encephalopathy in 1966 that he called Hashimoto’s encephalopathy. As it appears unlikely that thyroid disease has a direct role in causing this disorder, many prefer the term “steroid-responsive encephalopathy associated with autoimmune thyroiditis” because of the disorder’s responsiveness to corticosteroids. HE can present with multiple neurologic manifestations, and its diagnosis requires the presence of anti-thyroid antibodies and the exclusion of other etiologies. While its progressive form is often well-recognized, patients with a waxing and waning course may provide diagnostic difficulty. Treatment with corticosteroids has been well-documented, but the benefit of immune-related therapies such as plasmapheresis has not been solidified. Design/Methods: A 74-year-old female presented with waxing and waning signs and symptoms as well as significant fluctuations in neuroimaging findings that initially caused uncertainty regarding her diagnosis. Results: After undergoing several largely negative tests including two brain biopsies, high levels of serum anti-thyroid antibodies as well as her symptoms and their initial responsiveness to corticosteroids helped solidify her diagnosis as HE. However, due to refractory symptoms and signs, this patient required plasmapheresis; we demonstrate clinical, serological, and radiological improvement with this yet unconfirmed therapy. Conclusion: HE can present with multiple neurologic manifestations and its progressive form is often well-recognized. However, physicians should be alert to the diagnostic possibility of HE in patients with relapsing-remitting symptoms and imaging that may be initially suggestive of other diagnoses, particularly because of its treatable nature. We also provide additional evidence of the likely efficacy of plasmapheresis in this condition, which raises questions about the appropriateness of the term “steroid-responsive encephalopathy”. Disclosure: Dr. Nelson has nothing to disclose. Dr. Jassam has nothing to disclose. Dr. Taylor has received research support from Novocure and Northwest Biotheraputics.