cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
MVSC-Bench: A Tool to Benchmark Classification Methods for Multivariate Spatiotemporal Data

Applications focusing on analysis of multivariate spatiotemporal series (MVS) have proliferated over the past decade. Researchers in a wide array of domains ranging from action recognition to sports analytics have come forward with novel methods to classify this type of data, but well-defined benchmarks for comparative evaluation of the MVS classification methods are non-existent. We present MVSC-Bench, to target this gap.
On the Effectiveness of Visible Watermarks

Visible watermarking is a widely-used technique for marking and protecting copyrights of many millions of images on the web, yet it suffers from an inherent security flaw&#x2014;watermarks are typically added in a consistent manner to many images. We show that this consistency allows to automatically estimate the watermark and recover the original images with high accuracy. Specifically, we present a generalized multi-image matting algorithm that takes a watermarked image collection as input and automatically estimates the foreground (watermark), its alpha matte, and the background (original) images. Since such an attack relies on the consistency of watermarks across image collection, we explore and evaluate how it is affected by various types of inconsistencies in the watermark embedding that could potentially be used to make watermarking more secured. We demonstrate the algorithm on stock imagery available on the web, and provide extensive quantitative analysis on synthetic watermarked data. A key takeaway message of this paper is that visible watermarks should be designed to not only be robust against removal from a single image, but to be more resistant to mass-scale removal from image collections as well.
Scalable fabric tactile sensor arrays for soft bodies

Soft robots have the potential to transform the way robots interact with their environment. This is due to their low inertia and inherent ability to more safely interact with the world without damaging themselves or the people around them. However, existing sensing for soft robots has at least partially limited their ability to control interactions with their environment. Tactile sensors could enable soft robots to sense interaction, but most tactile sensors are made from rigid substrates and are not well suited to applications for soft robots which can deform. In addition, the benefit of being able to cheaply manufacture soft robots may be lost if the tactile sensors that cover them are expensive and their resolution does not scale well for manufacturability. This paper discusses the development of a method to make affordable, high-resolution, tactile sensor arrays (manufactured in rows and columns) that can be used for sensorizing soft robots and other soft bodies. However, the construction results in a sensor array that exhibits significant amounts of cross-talk when two taxels in the same row are compressed. Using the same fabric-based tactile sensor array construction design, two different methods for cross-talk compensation are presented. The first uses a mathematical model to calculate a change in resistance of each taxel directly. The second method introduces additional simple circuit components that enable us to isolate each taxel electrically and relate voltage to force directly. Fabric sensor arrays are demonstrated for two different soft-bodied applications: an inflatable single link robot and a human wrist.
The Paradox of Partnership: Amnesty International, Responsible Advocacy, and NGO Accountability

This paper will explore questions raised by the controversy between Amnesty International and the former Director of their Gender Unit, Gita Sahgal, specifically those that relate to human rights lawyers’ obligations to their clients and other stakeholders. It will look to literature about how to best make NGOs more accountable, with a focus on the recent push to define and elucidate an understanding of “responsible advocacy.” It will seek to apply some of the core insights from the NGO accountability debate to human rights lawyering, concluding with suggested principles that could help to expand our understanding of the ethical and professional obligations that human rights lawyers may owe their “clients” and other stakeholders.
Behavioral and Social Dimensions of Pain in Rheumatic Disease

A large number of behavioral and social factors may influence the health status of patients with rheumatic disease (Bradley, 1997). Although investigators have focused primarily on these factors among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), behavioral and social variables are important in all rheumatic conditions and disorders of the musculoskeletal system.
Set-based user interaction

This work demonstrates specific ways that the design of computer user interfaces can influence how individuals structure the problem solving process. In particular, an observational study of expert users of an image manipulation application indicates that current user interfaces make it difficult to explore sets of alternatives in parallel, despite this being a common problem solving practice. As a consequence, individuals tend to engage in highly linear problem solving processes. To address this problem, this work introduces the concept of a set-based interface, or an interface that facilitates the generation, manipulation, evaluation, and management of sets of alternative solutions. The concepts of a set-based interface are demonstrated in two tools, Side Views and Parallel Pies, both designed for use in the domain of image manipulation. Side Views automatically generates sets of previews for one or more commands and their parameters, enabling side-by-side comparison of alternatives. Parallel Pies streamlines the process of “forking,” or the act of creating new, stand-alone alternatives, and provides a visualization to evaluate results. Two controlled laboratory studies and a third think-aloud study reveal that these tools lead to users more broadly exploring the solution space and developing more optimal solutions for some types of tasks. These studies also show that the ability to broadly explore can initially be overused, adversely affecting solution quality if not enough time is spent maturing a single solution instance. This enthusiastic use of exploration tools is especially notable because such features are entirely optional to developing a solution. As such, these results suggest the need to further research ways user interfaces can support individuals in rapidly generating sets of alternative solutions. To support future research in this direction, this work contributes a set of metrics for quantifying breadth and depth of exploration; backtracking; and dead-ends in the problem solving process. A visualization called a process diagram aids in communicating these concepts.
Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinsonism

Age-related conditions, in particular neurologic conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, are increasingly common. Alzheimer's disease is associated with decline in cognitive and motor function, including parkinsonism. Identification of risk factors for these conditions and a better understanding of their shared etiopathogenesis will lead to improved treatments, prevention, and a positive impact on public health.
Anesthesia and postoperative pain control following spine surgery

Abstract The focus of this manuscript will be to discuss the evidence supporting the various modalities, routes of administration, and timing of analgesic medication in the setting of spine surgery. We outline the evidence supporting multi-modal analgesia and describe strategies to optimize pain control while limiting opioid use. We discuss the importance of pre-emptive analgesia, optimal intraoperative pain regimens and non-opioid alternatives that may be used to help treat post-operative pain. The role of regional anesthesia as an adjunct to oral medications is also discussed.
Decellularized Swine Dental Pulp Tissue for Regenerative Root Canal Therapy

In the current theme of dental pulp regeneration, biological and synthetic scaffolds are becoming a potential therapy for pulp revitalization. The goal is to provide a suitable environment for cell...
Self-Formed, Mixed-Conducting, Triple-Phase Membrane for Efficient CO2/O2 Capture from Flue Gas and in Situ Dry-Oxy Methane Reforming

We report here a high-temperature, low-cost, mixed-conducting, triple-phase membrane for high-flux and selective CO2/O2 capture and in situ conversion of methane into syngas via dry-oxy methane ref...
Factors predicting clinical outcome of induction hypomethylating agents in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

7037Background: Hypomethylating agents (HMA) are increasingly being utilized for upfront therapy of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in older adults. These individuals often have multiple comorbidities...
Sequencing Therapy for Elderly Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Patients in the Era of Novel Therapies: An Overview of Randomized Clinical Trials

Background: For most of the elderly or unfit CLL patients, treatment algorithms focus on achievement of clinical response, relief of symptoms and prolongation of life expectancy. Comorbidities, frailty and reduced functional status in elderly patients make some of the standard treatments intolerable and less efficacious. However, recent advancements in understanding of CLL biology, approval of target agents including novel monoclonal antibodies and kinase inhibitors have expanded the horizons for treatment of CLL in elderly. Methods: We conducted a literature search on PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and ClinicalTrials.gov which was completed on July 1, 2018. To assess the CLL treatment protocols in the elderly population, we included data from phase II and phase III clinical trials from the last decade (Jan 2008 to Jan 2018). Results: From a total of 1259 studies, we selected 34 studies (n=3122) after inclusion criteria were met. The patients included are from the age group of ≥65 years with the mean age of 68.8 years. Male to female ratio was 3:2. On comparison of different parameters to look for the drug or regimen efficacy, we found that ibrutinib is very effective and tolerable in older (aged ≥65 years) treatment-naive (TN) as well as relapsed refractory patients (RR), with overall response rate (ORR) of 91% for combined group in one study when compared to ofatumumab. When used in combination with ublituximab, the ORR peaked to 80% as compared to ibrutinib alone in patients with high risk cytogenetics (ORR=47%, p Conclusion: The rapid clinical development of novel therapy agents has changed the prognosis for CLL patients. Ibrutinib is considered as a standard option and an up front therapy for high risk CLL patients especially who are elderly and have del 17p, despite its significant toxicity profile in very elderly patients (80 years and above) where multiple deaths were reported. Future prospects include ibrutinib combinations with frontline chemo-immunotherapy (CIT) and other novel agents for TN and RR del 17p negative patients . Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Cerebellar Lobulus Simplex and Crus I Differentially Represent Phase and Phase Difference of Prefrontal Cortical and Hippocampal Oscillations.

Summary The cerebellum has long been implicated in tasks involving precise temporal control, especially in the coordination of movements. Here we asked whether the cerebellum represents temporal aspects of oscillatory neuronal activity, measured as instantaneous phase and difference between instantaneous phases of oscillations in two cerebral cortical areas involved in cognitive function. We simultaneously recorded Purkinje cell (PC) single-unit spike activity in cerebellar lobulus simplex (LS) and Crus I and local field potential (LFP) activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and dorsal hippocampus CA1 region (dCA1). Purkinje cells in cerebellar LS and Crus I differentially represented specific phases and phase differences of mPFC and dCA1 LFP oscillations in a frequency-specific manner, suggesting a site- and frequency-specific cerebellar representation of temporal aspects of neuronal oscillations in non-motor cerebral cortical areas. These findings suggest that cerebellar interactions with cerebral cortical areas involved in cognitive functions might involve temporal coordination of neuronal oscillations.
Exploring Perceptions of the Transition From Health Science Practitioner to Academic

Transitioning from a clinical practitioner to a clinical faculty member in higher education can be a difficult process for many health care professionals. Clinically, health care professionals have...
The magnet effect of fire on herbivores affects plant community structure in a forested system

Abstract Fire plays an important role in plant community structure in many terrestrial ecosystems. However, most studies assume responses of plant communities to fire are primarily generated by direct effects. That is, studies often assume the net effects of fire on plant communities are primarily driven by fire consuming existing plant biomass, resetting succession, and stimulating new seed germination. Far less attention has been paid to indirect effects of fire on plant communities as mediated by food web interactions. Here we demonstrated in a series of experiments in a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) forest that the net effects of fire on plant community heterogeneity are indirectly mediated through changes in herbivore behavior. First, we demonstrated that fire causes a magnet effect for herbivores resulting in a 3-fold strengthening of herbivore use. Then in another experiment using a replicated before-after control-impact design with four treatments, we demonstrated that combining fire and herbivory has a non-additive positive effect on plant community heterogeneity. The shifts in the plant community were sustained post-fire through the plant dormancy period. These results highlight the need to conserve the fire-herbivory interaction rather than either force independently.
Tuning Flexoelectric Effect in Polymer Electrolyte Membranes via Cation Selection for Potential Energy Harvesting Applications

With increasing energy demands associated with portable electronics, routes to capture dissipated energy associated with everyday actions (energy harvesting) can be a key component in an integrated...
Patient motivational dialogue: A novel approach to improve hand hygiene through patient empowerment in ambulatory care

A novel patient empowerment strategy called Patient Motivational Dialogue purposed to improve hand hygiene compliance is described. Two barriers to sustainability of patients asking health care providers (HCP) to clean their hands were noted in this study: (1) the HCP responding negatively to the patient asking, and (2) the patient misunderstanding that wearing gloves does not replace hand hygiene. Both barriers may be addressed through education of HCP and of consumer.
Election Outcomes with Pervasive Media Bias

Are voters rational agents? I use Italy as a laboratory to investigate if and to which extent a pervasive ideological bias in media outlets affects the behavior of voters many years after its inception. I exploit a natural experiment: idiosyncratic variation of deadlines to switch from analogic to digital TV signals for Italian households across the 2010 Regional elections. Digital transmission allows for many more channels to be aired than analogic TV. Moving to digital TV helps viewers who are not Bayesian to filter out the Berlusconi bias in Italian TV through three channels: (i) exposition to more varied information sources; (ii) selection of new entertainment programs instead of biased news programs; (iii) incapacitation to be exposed for those who do not go digital by the deadline. My results are consistent with limitation of Berlusconi bias exposure reducing votes for Berlusconi candidate by 2 to 5.5 percentage points. Also, they imply that 24 percent of those who where less exposed to Berlusconi bias were dissuaded from voting for his candidate. I show that the effect is not driven by demographic or economic observables, and discuss several alternative explanations.
Charitable giving to college athletics: the role of brand communities in choosing how much to give

The literature on charitable contributions to higher education focuses overwhelmingly on why donors give. This study aims to understand the monetary choice of a contribution, specifically what fact...
A Sustainable 3D-printed casing for Hydro-System Automation Sensing Units

Modern irrigation systems can be equipped with an assortment of automated sensors and actuators which measure the status of crops, water tanks, and various other components and automatically operate valves and pumps to ensure the distribution of adequate water to all parts of the system. In the [IEEE 9th Annual Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC), 659-665, (2019)] we discussed the design and implementation of low cost, small factor, and sustainable Sensing Units (SUs) which use ultrasonic sensors to measure the available space in a water tank and communicate the water levels to the Actuating Unit (AU) they are assigned to so that the AU can operate the valves and/or pumps necessary to send the exact amount of water needed to restore the water tanks' designated levels. There we discussed the design of the SUs which utilized an off the shelf junction box as its casing and indicated that a next step is to 3D-Print a water proofed, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly custom encasement for the SUs. This paper is to report the achievement of that goal and to provide the exact details of our design. We have made intricate design choices in order to achieve waterproofing, simplification of the assembly of the SUs and of the installation of the SUs on location, and the reduction of raw material used to construct the SU capsules. Furthermore, our design is self contained; as most of it's components are capable of interlocking for assembly without screws. However, we have added screw holes and even 3D-printed perfectly toleranced screws and nuts for added protection.
Beyond Her Own Boundaries: A Portrait of Creative Work

course that integrated visual art, writing, and expressive movement. In the beginning of the semester, this elementary education major had little interest or experience in the arts. Over the semester, however, she moved from being resistant and fearful of art to being willing to take emotional and artistic risks and to generate her own artistic ideas. Using the student's reflective writing and artwork, I construct a narrative portrait of the development of her creative thinking as she engaged in photomontage and masked performance assignments. Interactionist creativity theories informed instruction and data analysis; themes of evolution, construction, connection, interaction, and reflection are
Membrane Interactions of Cy3 and Cy5 Fluorophores and Their Effects on Membrane-Protein Dynamics

Organic fluorophores, such as Cy3 and Cy5, have been widely used as chemical labels to probe the structure and dynamics of membrane proteins. Although a number of previous studies have reported on the possibility of some of the water-soluble fluorophores to interact with lipid bilayers, detailed fluorophore-lipid interactions and, more importantly, the potential effect of such interactions on the natural dynamics of the labeled membrane proteins have not been well studied. We have performed a large set of all-atom molecular dynamics simulations employing the highly mobile membrane mimetic model to describe spontaneous partitioning of the fluorophores into lipid bilayers with different lipid compositions. Spontaneous membrane partitioning of Cy3 and Cy5 fluorophores captured in these simulations proceeds in two steps. Electrostatic interaction between the fluorophores and the lipid headgroups facilitates the initial, fast membrane association of the fluorophores, followed by slow insertion of hydrophobic moieties into the lipid bilayer core. After the conversion of the resulting membrane-bound systems to full-membrane representations, biased-exchange umbrella sampling simulations are performed for free energy calculations, revealing a higher energy barrier for partitioning into negatively charged (phosphatidylserine or phosphatidylcholine) membranes than purely zwitterionic (phosphatidylcholine or phosphatidylethanolamine) ones. Furthermore, the potential effect of fluorophore-lipid interactions on membrane proteins has been examined by covalently linking Cy5 to single- and multipass transmembrane helical proteins. Equilibrium simulations show strong position-dependent effects of Cy5-tagging on the structure and natural dynamics of membrane proteins. Interactions between the tagged protein and Cy5 were also observed. Our results suggest that fluorophore-lipid interactions can affect the structure and dynamics of membrane proteins to various extents, especially in systems with higher structural flexibility.
Considerations for the Optimal Timing, Duration, Frequency, and Length of an Intermittent Fasting Regimen for Health Improvement.

Newer, better approaches to weight loss continue to spark the interest of vast numbers of people, especially in Western nations, as they search out solutions to increasingly elevated rates of obesity, the health consequences of that obesity, and the often unspoken but financially prescient cosmetic implications of obesity that drive the billion-dollar weight loss and diet control industry [...]
Is Endogenous Total Loanable Funds a Better Modifier Than Total Loanable Funds

This chapter examines whether only endogenous growth in loanable funds is a better measure of the extent to which crowd out can be offset than total loanable funds, which includes the Federal Reserve part. For investment, only the endogenous part seemed significant from 1960–2007. Only after the start of quantitative easing in 2008 did FR securities purchases also seem to make a difference. Growth in the endogenous part seemed to have little effect on consumption, suggesting banks channel most loanable funds growth into business, not consumer, lending.
Low-temperature nucleation anomaly in silicate glasses shown to be artifact in a 5BaO·8SiO2 glass.

For over 40 years, measurements of the nucleation rates in a large number of silicate glasses have indicated a breakdown in the Classical Nucleation Theory at temperatures below that of the peak nucleation rate. The data show that instead of steadily decreasing with decreasing temperature, the work of critical cluster formation enters a plateau and even starts to increase. Many explanations have been offered to explain this anomaly, but none have provided a satisfactory answer. We present an experimental approach to demonstrate explicitly for the example of a 5BaO ∙ 8SiO2 glass that the anomaly is not a real phenomenon, but instead an artifact arising from an insufficient heating time at low temperatures. Heating times much longer than previously used at a temperature 50 K below the peak nucleation rate temperature give results that are consistent with the predictions of the Classical Nucleation Theory. These results raise the question of whether the claimed anomaly is also an artifact in other glasses. The breakdown of classical nucleation theory at low temperatures for silicate glasses has been a puzzle for decades. Here, Xia et al. show with a long-term experiment for the specific case of a barium-silicate glass that this anomaly is in fact an artifact arising from insufficient heating time.
R7 photoreceptor axon targeting depends on the relative levels of lost and found expression in R7 and its synaptic partners

New nerve cells in a developing organism face a difficult challenge: finding the right partners to connect with in order to form the complex neural networks characteristic of a fully formed brain. Each cell encounters many potential matches but it chooses to connect to only a few, partly based on the proteins that decorate the surface of both cells. Still, too many cell types exist for each to have its own unique protein label, suggesting that nerve cells may also use the amount of each protein to identify suitable partners. Douthit, Hairston et al. explored this possibility in developing fruit flies, focusing on how R7 photoreceptor cells – present in the eye to detect UV light – connect to nerve cells in a specific brain layer. It is easy to spot when the process goes awry, as the incorrect connections will be in a different layer. Experiments allowed Douthit, Hairston et al. to identify a protein baptized ‘Lost and found’ – ‘Loaf’ for short – which R7 photoreceptors use to find their partners. Removing Loaf from the photoreceptors prevented them from connecting with their normal partners. Surprisingly though, removing Loaf from both the eye and the brain solved this problem – the cells, once again, formed the right connections. This suggests that R7 photoreceptors identify their partners by looking for cells that have less Loaf than they do: removing Loaf only from the photoreceptors disrupts this balance, leaving the cells unable to find their match. Another unexpected discovery was that Loaf is not present on the surface of cells, but instead occupies internal structures involved in protein transport. It may therefore work indirectly by controlling the movement of proteins to the cell surface. These findings provide a new way of thinking about how nerve cells connect. In the future, this may help to understand the origins of conditions in which the brain is wired differently, such as schizophrenia and autism.
A generative model of galactic dust emission using variational autoencoders

Emission from the interstellar medium can be a significant contaminant of measurements of the intensity and polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). For planning CMB observations, and for optimizing foreground-cleaning algorithms, a description of the statistical properties of such emission can be helpful. Here we examine a machine learning approach to inferring the statistical properties of dust from either observational data or physics-based simulations. In particular, we apply a type of neural network called a Variational Auto Encoder (VAE) to maps of the intensity of emission from interstellar dust as inferred from Planck sky maps and demonstrate its ability to a) simulate new samples with similar summary statistics as the training set, b) provide fits to emission maps withheld from the training set, and c) produce constrained realizations. We find VAEs are easier to train than another popular architecture: that of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), and are better-suited for use in Bayesian inference.
Is Disentanglement enough? On Latent Representations for Controllable Music Generation.

Improving controllability or the ability to manipulate one or more attributes of the generated data has become a topic of interest in the context of deep generative models of music. Recent attempts in this direction have relied on learning disentangled representations from data such that the underlying factors of variation are well separated. In this paper, we focus on the relationship between disentanglement and controllability by conducting a systematic study using different supervised disentanglement learning algorithms based on the Variational Auto-Encoder (VAE) architecture. Our experiments show that a high degree of disentanglement can be achieved by using different forms of supervision to train a strong discriminative encoder. However, in the absence of a strong generative decoder, disentanglement does not necessarily imply controllability. The structure of the latent space with respect to the VAE-decoder plays an important role in boosting the ability of a generative model to manipulate different attributes. To this end, we also propose methods and metrics to help evaluate the quality of a latent space with respect to the afforded degree of controllability.
On the Appropriate Measure to Estimate Hyperbolic Discounting Rate (K) using the Method of Least Squares

The estimation of the rate at which value declines with delay requires identifying the correct discounting model, applying the appropriate parameter estimation method, and choosing the dependent measure from which parameters are estimated. The simplest adequate discounting model is the hyperbolic model; the simplest method to estimate its sole free parameter, K, is the method of least squares. Estimates of K based on relative subjective values (RSV), although typical, are not necessarily more reliable than those obtained through other measures. We consider an alternative measure termed immediacy premium (IP): the ratio of value lost over value preserved due to outcome delay. According to hyperbolic discounting, IP is a linear function of delay. As a result, estimates of K obtained from IP circumvent the divergence between individual and aggregate estimates obtained with the RSV method. Moreover, published data suggests that estimates of K based on RSV and IP differ systematically in humans and in pigeons. Regardless of the dependent measure adopted, estimates of K obtained from nonhuman animals, but not from humans, yield residuals that conform with error-distribution assumptions of the method of least squares. Although residuals obtained using the IP method in human data diverged more from normality than those obtained using the RSV method, the sequential dependence over delays of the former was weaker than that of the latter. We therefore recommend adopting both RSV and IP when estimating hyperbolic K using the method of least squares, resorting to more elaborate estimation methods when inferences drawn from these estimates are inconsistent.
The Value Added of Advanced Imaging in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex Pathology.

Purpose Pathology of the triangular fibrocartilage complex is a prevalent cause of ulnar-sided wrist pain that presents a diagnostic challenge. We hypothesized that a history and physical examination (H&P) would be more cost-effective alone or with diagnostic injection than with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or magnetic resonance arthrogram (MRA) in the diagnosis and treatment of a symptomatic triangular fibrocartilage complex abnormality. Methods A simple-chain decision analysis model was constructed to assess simulated subjects with ulnar-sided wrist pain and normal radiographs using several diagnostic algorithms: H&P alone, H&P + injection, H&P with delayed advanced imaging (MRI or MRA), and H&P + injection with delayed advanced imaging (MRI or MRA). Three years after diagnosis, effectiveness was calculated in Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand–adjusted life years. Costs were extracted from a commercial insurance database using US dollars. A probabilistic sensitivity analysis with 10,000 second-order trials with sampling of parameter distributions was performed. One-way and 2-way sensitivity analyses were performed. Results All strategies had similar mean effectiveness between 2.228 and 2.232 Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand–adjusted life years, with mean costs ranging from $5,584 (H&P alone) to $5,980 (H&P, injection, and MRA). History and physical examination alone or with injection were the most cost-effective strategies. History and physical examination alone was the most preferred diagnostic strategy, though H&P + injection and H&P with delayed MRA were preferred with adjustments in willingness-to-pay and parameter inputs. As willingness-to-pay increased considerably (>$65,000 per Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand–adjusted life year), inclusion of MRA became the most favorable strategy. Conclusions Advanced imaging adds costs and provides minimal increases in effectiveness in the diagnosis and treatment of a symptomatic triangular fibrocartilage complex abnormality. The most cost-effective strategy is H&P, with or without diagnostic injection. Magnetic resonance arthrogram may be favored in situations with a high willingness-to-pay or poor examination characteristics. Type of study/level of evidence Economic/Decision Analysis IV.
Fungicide Seed Treatment Improves Performance of Single-Drop Whole and Cut Seed Potatoes

Seed potatoes in North America are predominantly cut and treated with a fungicide seed potato treatment before planting. Though seed potatoes that have been cut and fungicide-treated have been shown to perform as well or better than single drop seed (whole tubers in the range of 43–85 g) without fungicide seed treatment, no comparisons were made with single-drop seed that had been treated with a fungicide seed treatment. Here we present results from field experiments conducted in Bingham County, Idaho over ten consecutive years (2008–2017) using potato cultivar ‘Russet Burbank’ where both cut and single drop seed were first inoculated with isolates of Fusarium spp. and then treated with a fungicide seed treatment containing both fludioxonil and mancozeb. Single-drop seed outperformed cut seed with respect to emergence, vigor, and Fusarium seed decay, yield of large tubers, and total yield. However, the fungicide seed treatment offered a larger measure of improvement in terms of Fusarium seed decay and Rhizoctonia stem canker. The boost in yield of US No. 1 grade tubers for single drop seed (1.09 t/ha) was smaller than the increase due to an application of a commercial formulation of a mancozeb plus fludioxonil fungicide seed potato treatment (2.34 t/ha). Thus, the most important factor to consider, regardless of seed type, is use of a fungicide seed treatment.
The role of parents in adolescent obesity treatment: Results of the TEENS+ randomized clinical pilot trial.

Background The optimal role for involving parents in adolescent obesity treatment is unknown. Objective To demonstrate that two parent approaches within adolescent obesity treatment are distinct, as evidenced by differential parent outcomes, and determine the preliminary efficacy of each approach on adolescent weight loss. Methods Adolescent/parent dyads (N = 82; mean adolescent age = 13.7 ± 1.2 years) participated in TEENS+, a 4-month behavioural weight loss treatment. Participants were randomized to: (1) TEENS+parents as coaches (PAC; parent skills training), or (2) TEENS+parent weight loss (PWL; adult behavioural weight loss). Assessments occurred at 0, 4 (post-treatment), and 7-months. Within- and between-group repeated measures general linear mixed models examined change in parent weight (∆kg; primary outcome); parenting, feeding, weight control strategies, home environment, and adolescent body mass index (∆BMI; secondary outcomes). Results PWL parents had greater 4-month weight losses (∆kg0-4m = -5.14 ± 4.87 kg) compared to PAC (-2.07 ± 3.89 kg; between-group p Conclusion Parent treatments were distinct in implementation and both yielded significant 4-month adolescent weight loss. Differential weight patterns were observed during maintenance, favouring PAC, warranting further exploration.
Effective and Efficient Predictive Density Queries for Indoor Moving Objects

Density queries are defined as querying the dense regions that include more than a certain number of moving objects. Previous research studies mainly focus on how to answer the snap-shot density queries over historical trajectories. However, the real applications usually tend to predict whether a region is a dense region. Especially in indoor environments, such predictive density queries are valuable for high-level analysis but face tremendous challenges. In this paper, by leveraging the Markov correlations, we effectively predict the future locations of moving objects and conduct the density queries accordingly. In particular, we present an optimized framework which contains three phases to tackle this problem. First, we design an index structure based on the transition matrix to facilitate the search process. Second, we propose the space and probability pruning techniques to improve the query efficiency significantly. Finally, we apply an accurate method and an approximate sampling method to verify whether each unpruned region is a dense region. Extensive experiments on real datasets demonstrate that the proposed solutions can outperform the baseline algorithm by up to \(2\) orders of magnitudes in running time.
Automatic Top-Down Role Engineering Framework Using Natural Language Processing Techniques

A challenging problem in managing large networks is the complexity of security administration. Role Based Access Control RBAC is the most well-known access control model in diverse enterprises of all sizes because of its ease of administration as well as economic benefits it provides. Deploying such system requires identifying a complete set of roles which are correct and efficient. This process, called role engineering, has been identified as one of the most expensive tasks in migrating to RBAC. Numerous bottom-up, top-down, and hybrid role mining approaches have been proposed due to increased interest in role engineering in recent years. In this paper, we propose a new top-down role engineering approach and take the first step towards extracting access control policies from unrestricted natural language requirements documents. Most organizations have high-level requirement specifications that include a set of access control policies which describes allowable operations for the system. It is very time consuming, labor-intensive, and error-prone to manually sift through these natural language documents to identify and extract access control policies. We propose to use natural language processing techniques, more specifically Semantic Role Labeling SRL to automatically extract access control policies from these documents, define roles, and build an RBAC system. By successfully applying semantic role labeling to identify predicate-argument structure, and using a set of predefined rules on the extracted arguments, we were able correctly identify access control policies with a precision of 79%, recall of 88%, and $$ F_{1} $$ score of 82%.
Site-directed mutagenesis of a portion of the extracellular domain of the rat thyrotropin receptor important in autoimmune thyroid disease and nonhomologous with gonadotropin receptors. Relationship of functional and immunogenic domains.

Residues 287 to 404 of the rat thyrotropin (TSH) receptor exhibit little homology to gonadotropin receptors. A large segment of this region, residues 303-382, has no determinants important for TSH to bind or elevate cAMP levels nor for the activity of thyroid-stimulating autoantibodies (TSAbs) from the sera of Graves' patients, i.e. deletions, substitutions, or mutations in this segment do not result in a loss of any of these activities in transfected Cos-7 cells. Critical residues for these activities do, however, flank both sides of this segment. Of particular interest, deletion or mutation of residues 299-301 and 387-395 results in a marked decrease in high affinity TSH binding but preserves the ability of a TSAb to increase cAMP levels. Tyrosine 385 is also of particular interest since its mutation to phenylalanine, alanine, threonine, or glutamine results in a receptor with a 20-fold decrease in the ability of TSH to bind or increase cAMP levels, but one whose TSAb activity is, once again, preserved. Because one activity is preserved, we can conclude that (a) the receptor must be fully integrated within the membrane of the cell without malfolding, (b) these sequences represent determinants involved in the high affinity TSH binding site, and (c) separate determinants exist for high affinity TSH binding and TSAb activity, consistent with the existence of autoantibodies in Graves' sera which inhibit TSH binding (TBIAbs) or which increase cAMP levels (TSAbs). Additionally, we show that a 16-mer peptide (residues 352-367), which reacts with the sera of greater than 80% of patients with Graves' disease, can induce the formation of antibodies to a peptide with no sequence homology, residues 377-397. This peptide flanks the region, residues 303-382, with no determinants important for TSH receptor binding or activity. As noted above, it contains residues involved in the high affinity TSH binding site but whose deletion or mutation has no effect on TSAb activity, i.e. residues which would appear to be required at an epitope important for TBIAb but not TSAb antibody activity.
Proceedings of the Twelfth International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology

The Twelfth International Symposium on Space Terahertz Technology was held February 14-16, 2001 in San Diego, California, USA. This symposium was jointly sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. The symposium featured sixty nine presentations covering a wide variety of technical topics relevant to Terahertz Technology. The presentations can be divided into five broad technology areas: Hot Electron Bolometers, superconductor insulator superconductor (SIS) technology, local oscillator (LO) technology, Antennas and Measurements, and Direct Detectors. The symposium provides scientists, engineers, and researchers working in the terahertz technology and science fields to engineers their work and exchange ideas with colleagues.
Different projections of the central amygdaloid nucleus mediate autonomic and behavioral correlates of conditioned fear

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether lesions of areas projected to by the central amygdaloid nucleus (ACE) would disrupt the classical conditioning of autonomic and/or behavioral emotional responses. The areas studied included 3 projection targets of the ACE: the lateral hypothalamic area (LH), midbrain central gray (CG) region, and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). Lesions were made either electrolytically or by microinjection of ibotenic acid, which destroys local neurons without interrupting fibers of passage. Two weeks later, the animals were classically conditioned by pairing an acoustic stimulus with footshock. The next day, conditioned changes in autonomic activity (increases in arterial pressure) and emotional behavior ("freezing," or the arrest of somatomotor activity) evoked by the acoustic conditioned stimulus (CS) were measured during extinction trials. Electrolytic and ibotenic acid lesions of the LH interfered with the conditioned arterial pressure response, but did not affect conditioned freezing. Electrolytic lesions of the rostral CG disrupted conditioned freezing but not conditioned changes in arterial pressure. Ibotenic acid injected into the rostral CG reduced neither the arterial pressure nor the freezing response. Injection of ibotenic acid in the caudal CG, like electrolytic lesions of the rostral CG, disrupted the freezing, but not the arterial pressure response. Injection of ibotenic acid into the BNST had no effect on either response. These data demonstrate that neurons in the LH are involved in the autonomic, but not the behavioral, conditioned response pathway, whereas neurons in the caudal CG are involved in the behavioral, but not the autonomic, pathway. Different efferent projections of the central amygdala thus appear to mediate the behavioral and autonomic concomitants of conditioned fear.
Much ado about marijuana

As an emergency physician who spent 14 years in general practice in a rural area with lots of drug abuse, I am shocked at the ignorance of CMAJ 's editors concerning the health effects of marijuana use.[1][1] To say that the effects of this substance are “mostly irrelevant” to the users is at
Sequence Patterns of Firms' Acquisition and Alliance Behaviour and their Performance Implications

Studying repetitive acquisition and alliance behaviours from a temporal perspective, we conceptualize a taxonomy of sequence patterns. Our approach defines sequences as the set of acquisition and alliances a firm initiates each year over its life-course. Using optimal matching techniques and clustering analysis, we empirically identify seven different sequence patterns and demonstrate that firm and performance attributes differ across these sequences and depending on the contingent effect of a firm's stage of development. We discuss the implications of our taxonomy and findings for our understanding of the temporal management of alliance portfolios and acquisition programmes.
The Impossibility of Cynthia Hopkins: Or, Can Autobiographical Musical Performance Save the Space Program?

Against the background of a highly charged political year—a landmark election in the U.S., another in Iran, and worldwide economic depression, to name a few events—a programmatic and ideological split within NASA may as well exist, well, in a vacuum in space. But a brief piece in the May 23, 2009 Washington Post discusses the simple yet significant dilemma: is money better spent on maintenance or invention. At the center of the debate is the nineteenyear-old Hubble telescope, now in need of a shuttle to make adjustments and repairs. Hubble team leader David Leckrone stirred up quite a bit of controversy, with strong words against his employer, saying, “It just makes me want to cry to think that this is the end of it. [ . . . ] There is no person out there, there is no leadership out there, there is no vision out there to pick up the baton that we’re about to hand off and carry it forward.” NASA, it seems, is at a flash point where it must decide whether to continually reinvent its missions and objectives at the risk of forsaking past achievements, or to slow down and pay better attention to the past, nurture it, and help it survive. All of this rhetoric comes at a vital time, when space exploration has all but fallen out of public and international spotlights. NASA is struggling for visibility and, by extension, survival.
Surveillance transbronchial lung biopsies: Implication for survival after lung transplantation

Abstract Objectives: We wished to determine whether early rejection after lung transplantation as assessed by surveillance transbronchial biopsy predicts for survival. Methods: Between 1990 and 1997, 96 consecutive patients had lung transplantation: 89 had a minimum 1-month follow-up. For 71 consecutive patients we have 1-year follow-up and for 69 patients we have the results of the first 3 biopsies. Cytomegalovirus status, bronchiolitis obliterans prevalence, and use of total lymphoid irradiation are noted. Biopsies were done at 1 week and 1, 3, and 6 months. Standard immunosuppression consisted of induction antilymphocyte globulin and high-dose methylprednisolone induction for 1 week and standard maintenance triple therapy. Acute rejection treatment was with pulse methylprednisolone. Bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome was treated with total lymphoid irradiation and a change to tacrolimus and mycophenolate. Blinded grading using International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation classification was done retrospectively. Results: Survival at 1 month and 1, 2, and 3 years for the 96-patient cohort with 1-year follow-up was 93%, 74%, 62%, and 56%. Survival was not significantly different for subsets with rejection on any combination of the first 3 biopsies (1/3, 2/3, 3/3) or absence of rejection on the first 3 biopsies. Ninety-one positive biopsy results were graded. Eighteen of 71 patients had one or more moderate or severe rejection episodes without survival difference relative to the others. There was no statistically significant association between acute rejection on the first 3 surveillance biopsy results and bronchiolitis obliterans. Conclusions: Intensive induction and maintenance immunotherapy with surveillance transbronchial biopsies and aggressive treatment of acute rejection is associated with a survival similar to that of patients without early acute rejection. This regimen appears to uncouple the association between early acute rejection and bronchiolitis obliterans. Further study may elucidate this mechanism. (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2000;119:27-38)