cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Phase II trial of gemcitabine plus cisplatin in non-small cell lung cancer: A Hoosier Oncology Group Study

Although non-small cell lung cancer accounts for a majority of lung cancer cases in the United States, overall response rates of only 20% have been obtained with cisplatin-based therapy. However, new agents such as the nucleoside analog gemcitabine have demonstrated single-agent response rates of approximately 20%. The synergistic growth inhibition of several tumor cell lines seen in vitro with cisplatin and gemcitabine has led to clinical trials incorporating this drug combination. Recent phase I trials revealed that administration of gemcitabine 1,000 mg/m2 weekly x 3, with cisplatin 100 mg/m2 on day 15, every 28 days, was well tolerated. This regimen was used in the present Hoosier Oncology Group phase II trial of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, except that cisplatin was administered on day 1. Five patients had stage IIIB and 25 had stage IV disease, with a mean Karnofsky performance status of 90. Toxicity observed was primarily hematologic, notably, granulocytopenia and thrombocytopenia. Responses were seen in 10 of 27 patients, for an overall response rate of 37%. Median overall survival was 8.4 months; it was 10.2 months for patients with stage IV disease. These favorable results and manageable side effects suggest that future trials incorporating gemcitabine and cisplatin are indicated.
Ranging and processing satellite (RAPSAT)

The following features of RAPSAT are described: performance requirements, operations, onboard processor architecture, and power and spectrum requirements. The proposed RAPSAT would provide surveillance and data link services for aviation. A feasibility study conducted over the past year shows the system can serve 50000 peak instantaneous users with a total aircraft-to-satellite bandwidth of 4.5 MHz. The results reflect realistic message sizes and frequencies, plus the projected geographic distribution of air traffic in the year 2010. The system offers both automatic dependent surveillance and cooperative independent surveillance services. It uses two or more geostationary satellites, a cross link for coordination between the satellites, and an onboard processor for each satellite. By carefully scheduling discrete polls to aircraft, the system prevents garbling of aircraft replies at the satellite receive antenna and thus achieves higher spectral efficiency than previously proposed satellite-based surveillance systems. >
Leading by Example: Modeling Global Public Service Excellence

I am truly honored to assume the presidency of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), and I thank you for entrusting me with this responsibility. Being selected by my peers for this position is incredibly humbling. The ranks of prior NASPAA presidents include so many individuals whom I hold in high regard, people who are true giants in terms of their scholarship and stature in the profession, and in terms of the contributions they made to shaping NASPAA over the years. I want to begin by thanking Fran Berry for her leadership as president during the past year, and Jeff Raffel for his role as immediate past president. Together these two individuals have set the bar high for the level of engagement and commitment as well as the work accomplished during their respective tenures. They have also been a delight to work with as part of the Executive Committee. I also want to extend my thanks to Rex Facer for agreeing to serve as chair of the Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation (COPRA) in what will be the first year of full-scale implementation of the competency-based standards, and to Susan Gooden for her foresight in articulating the need for the Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) initiative and for developing a specific proposal for a NASPAA-led response. I also want to acknowledge and express appreciation to all of the NASPAA staff. I consider myself particularly fortunate to have had the opportunity to work closely with Laurel McFarland, Crystal Calarusse, and Stacy Drudy; I look forward to continuing working with them and also to working with the rest of the staff in the coming year. And, without mentioning names, I want to thank all those people who have—over the years—mentored me, provided me with opportunities, trusted in me, and worked alongside me in support of NASPAA's mission. NASPAA is an association dedicated to goals and values that are personally and professionally central to me, and I am excited to have this opportunity to lead the Association in the coming year as it continues to redefine how best to enhance the quality of public affairs education in a changing world. I would like
Ernst Jünger y el instante de crisis

La nocion de instante (el momento presente, el ahora) es una de las principales categorias para analizar la experiencia del tiempo en la modernidad. Por su vinculo con el fenomeno de “lo repentino”, el instante se revela como un concepto privilegiado para explorar las experiencias de crisis y ruptura historica. El autor aleman Ernst Junger (1895-1998) ofrece en su produccion literaria de los anos de la Republica de Weimar —las memorias de su experiencia en la Primera Guerra Mundial, sus escritos literarios y sus ensayos de analisis politico y cultural— una las encarnaciones mas reveladoras de la nocion de temporalidad instantanea. En la obra de Junger, el concepto de instante arroja luz, en particular, sobre el fenomeno de la transformacion de la experiencia y la percepcion en las nuevas condiciones de la sociedad urbana e industrial
Hong-Ou-Mandel interference in the frequency domain

We demonstrate the first observation of Hong-Ou-Mandel interference between two energy correlated single photons of different frequencies with a visibility of 0.68, using Bragg-scattering four wave mixing as the active frequency-domain beamsplitter.
Client-side reconstruction of composite mementos using serviceworker

We use the ServiceWorker (SW) API to intercept HTTP requests for embedded resources and reconstruct Composite Mementos without the need for conventional URL rewriting typically performed by web archives. URL rewriting is a problem for archival replay systems, especially for URLs constructed by JavaScript, that frequently results in incorrect URI references. By intercepting requests on the client using SW, we are able to strategically reroute instead of rewrite. Our implementation moves rewriting to clients, saving servers' computing resources and allowing servers to return responses more quickly. In our experiments, retrieving the original instead of rewritten pages from the archive resulted in a one- third reduction in time overhead and a one-fifth reduction in data overhead. Our system, reconstructive.js, prevents the live web from leaking into Composite Mementos while being easy to distribute and maintain.
Nitrogen dioxide exposure in school classrooms of inner-city children with asthma.

Background Ambient and home exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) causes asthma symptoms and decreased lung function in children with asthma. Little is known about the health effects of school classroom pollution exposure. Objective We aimed to determine the effect of indoor classroom NO 2 on lung function and symptoms in inner-city school children with asthma. Methods Children enrolled in the School Inner-City Asthma Study were followed for 1 academic year. Subjects performed spirometry and had fraction of exhaled nitric oxide values measured twice during the school year at school. Classroom NO 2 was collected by means of passive sampling for 1-week periods twice per year, coinciding with lung function testing. Generalized estimating equation models assessed lung function and symptom relationships with the temporally nearest classroom NO 2 level. Results The mean NO 2 value was 11.1 ppb (range, 4.3-29.7 ppb). In total, exposure data were available for 296 subjects, 188 of whom had complete spirometric data. At greater than a threshold of 8 ppb of NO 2 and after adjusting for race and season (spirometry standardized by age, height, and sex), NO 2 levels were associated highly with airflow obstruction, such that each 10-ppb increase in NO 2 level was associated with a 5% decrease in FEV 1 /forced vital capacity ratio (β = −0.05; 95% CI, −0.08 to −0.02; P = .01). Percent predicted forced expiratory flow between the 25th and 75th percentile of forced vital capacity was also inversely associated with higher NO 2 exposure (β = −22.8; 95% CI, −36.0 to −9.7; P = .01). There was no significant association of NO 2 levels with percent predicted FEV 1 , fraction of exhaled nitric oxide, or asthma symptoms. Additionally, there was no effect modification of atopy on lung function or symptom outcomes. Conclusion In children with asthma, indoor classroom NO 2 levels can be associated with increased airflow obstruction.
Impacts of the Human Gut Microbiome on Therapeutics.

The human microbiome contains a vast source of genetic and biochemical variation, and its impacts on therapeutic responses are just beginning to be understood. This expanded understanding is especially important because the human microbiome differs far more among different people than does the human genome, and it is also dramatically easier to change. Here, we describe some of the major factors driving differences in the human microbiome among individuals and populations. We then describe some of the many ways in which gut microbes modify the action of specific chemotherapeutic agents, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and cardiac glycosides, and outline the potential of fecal microbiota transplant as a therapeutic. Intriguingly, microbes also alter how hosts respond to therapeutic agents through various pathways acting at distal sites. Finally, we discuss some of the computational and practical issues surrounding use of the microbiome to stratify individuals for drug response, and we envisi...
Urine reference intervals for human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) isoforms by immunoextraction–tandem mass spectrometry to detect hCG use

Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) stimulates testosterone production by the testicles and can normalize suppressed testosterone concentrations in males following prolonged anabolic steroid use. Because of the potential for abuse by males, hCG is on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of prohibited substances. The majority of WADA-accredited laboratories measure urinary hCG using an automated immunoassay. Only immunoassays that recognize the intact alpha and beta heterodimer of hCG (intact hCG) should be used to measure urinary hCG for doping control purposes since intact hCG is the only biologically active molecule. WADA further requires that confirmation testing is performed using an intact hCG immunoassay that is different from the one used in the initial testing procedure or by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). In this study we measured the concentration of intact hCG, free β-subunit (hCGβ) and β-subunit core fragment (hCGβcf) in 570, 275, and 256 male urine samples, respectively, by an immunoextraction LC-MS/MS method. Mean concentrations of intact hCG, hCGβ and hCGβcf were 0.04 IU/L, 0.47 pmol/L and 0.16 pmol/L, respectively. The upper reference limits (97.5th percentile) for intact hCG, hCGβ and hCGβcf were 0.21 IU/L, 0.40 pmol/L, and 1.86 pmol/L, respectively. Based on these data, we recommend a threshold of 1.0 IU/L for intact hCG (false positive rate of <1 in 10 000) for detecting male athletes that dope with hCG.
Disjunctive Program Synthesis: A Robust Approach to Programming by Example

Programming by example (PBE) systems allow end users to easily create programs by providing a few input-output examples to specify their intended task. The system attempts to generate a program in a domain specific language (DSL) that satisfies the given examples. However, a key challenge faced by existing PBE techniques is to ensure the robustness of the programs that are synthesized from a small number of examples, as these programs often fail when applied to new inputs. This is because there can be many possible programs satisfying a small number of examples, and the PBE system has to somehow rank between these candidates and choose the correct one without any further information from the user. In this work we present a different approach to PBE in which the system avoids making a ranking decision at the synthesis stage, by instead synthesizing a disjunctive program that includes the many top-ranked programs as possible alternatives and selects between these different choices upon execution on a new input. This delayed choice brings the important benefit of comparing the possible outputs produced by the different disjuncts on a given input at execution time. We present a generic framework for synthesizing such disjunctive programs in arbitrary DSLs, and describe two concrete implementations of disjunctive synthesis in the practical domains of data extraction from plain text and HTML documents. We present an evaluation showing the significant increase in robustness achieved with our disjunctive approach, as illustrated by an increase from 59% to 93% of tasks for which correct programs can be learnt from a single example.
How much protein can the body use in a single meal for muscle-building? Implications for daily protein distribution.

Controversy exists about the maximum amount of protein that can be utilized for lean tissue-building purposes in a single meal for those involved in regimented resistance training. It has been proposed that muscle protein synthesis is maximized in young adults with an intake of ~ 20–25 g of a high-quality protein; anything above this amount is believed to be oxidized for energy or transaminated to form urea and other organic acids. However, these findings are specific to the provision of fast-digesting proteins without the addition of other macronutrients. Consumption of slower-acting protein sources, particularly when consumed in combination with other macronutrients, would delay absorption and thus conceivably enhance the utilization of the constituent amino acids. The purpose of this paper was twofold: 1) to objectively review the literature in an effort to determine an upper anabolic threshold for per-meal protein intake; 2) draw relevant conclusions based on the current data so as to elucidate guidelines for per-meal daily protein distribution to optimize lean tissue accretion. Both acute and long-term studies on the topic were evaluated and their findings placed into context with respect to per-meal utilization of protein and the associated implications to distribution of protein feedings across the course of a day. The preponderance of data indicate that while consumption of higher protein doses (> 20 g) results in greater AA oxidation, this is not the fate for all the additional ingested AAs as some are utilized for tissue-building purposes. Based on the current evidence, we conclude that to maximize anabolism one should consume protein at a target intake of 0.4 g/kg/meal across a minimum of four meals in order to reach a minimum of 1.6 g/kg/day. Using the upper daily intake of 2.2 g/kg/day reported in the literature spread out over the same four meals would necessitate a maximum of 0.55 g/kg/meal.
Abstract 16740: Clinical Judgement Alone Challenges Evidence Based Clinical Predictive Rules When Diagnosing Cardiogenic Syncope

Clinicians vary in their ability to classify patients presenting with syncope into cardiogenic or high risk and vasovagal or low risk categories. Several clinical prediction rules (CPRs) have been developed to assist clinicians in the decision to admit patients who present with syncope or discharge them home from the Emergency Department (ED). We hypothesized that CJ is better at predicting cardiac etiology of syncope and short term adverse outcomes than CPRs (OESIL and EGSYS). Between January 2012 and August 2012 and January 2013 to August 2013 we reviewed all adult patients that presented to the ED with chief complaint of syncope. Syncope was defined by the presence of transient loss of consciousness with spontaneous return to baseline. Patients were interviewed in the ED and followed up via a phone 10 days after the visit for the presence of adverse outcomes. Both CPRs were applied to each one of the subjects. For CJ, we considered patients admitted to telemetry as high risk for adverse event and cardiac syncope and patients discharged from the ED as low risk. 645 patients were screened, 135 met inclusion criteria and 3 were lost to follow up. The remaining 132 subjects were enrolled in the study. The OESIL score had a sensitivity 80 % specificity 40% PPV 24% and NPV 90% for adverse outcomes and a sensitivity 91 % specificity 40% PPV 13% and NPV 98% for cardiac etiology. EGSYS had a sensitivity 32%, specificity 73%, PPV 21% and NPV 82% for adverse outcome and a sensitivity 67%, specificity 53%, PPV 13% and NPV 94% for cardiac etiology. CJ had a sensitivity of 96%, specificity of 25%, PPV 23% and NPV 96 for adverse outcome and sensitivity of 91%, specificity of 32%, PPV 12% and NPV 97 for cardiac etiology. In conclusion, the results suggest that none of the studied CPR offers sufficient accuracy to be used as sole instrument to risk stratify patients presenting with syncope to the ED. However, In comparison with CJ the OESIL score shows a better specificity while maintaining similar sensitivity to predict cardiogenic syncope. It would have decreased the number of admissions to telemetry by 6% without a difference in the number of missed events. Regarding adverse outcomes neither of the CPR offers an improved predictive ability as compared with CJ.
Test-first design pedagogy in introductory Java programming

Java is used in many introductory CS courses (including the AP CS course). This tutorial introduces the Java tester library that supports the test-first design pedagogy in Java from the beginning. Test-first design forces students to reason about the planned methods, to think about their behavior and the expected outcomes before designing the method bodies. Professional programmers have commented on the positive aspects of this approach: smaller methods, decreased stress, better code, higher confidence in the code correctness.
Ethical issues involved in dialysis for the elderly.

Decisions to treat in all disease states or not to treat imposes a total approach for rationale judgements in patient care. Ethical issues to dialyze an old person, to initiate chemotherapy in a nonagenarian, or to withdraw treatment all can impact on the physiologic changes with age, the underlying pathophysiology of end stage renal disease (ESRD) and either enhance pharmacodynamic events or cause them to cease by withdrawing treatment. The following discussion is an attempt to document the critical interplay between nephrologist and geriatrician, patient and next of kin in clinical decision-making involving the ethic of dialysis in the elderly.
Residual Stresses and Stress Relieving in Uranium Alloys

The kinetics of thermal stress relieving of uranium - 2.3 wt.% niobium, uranium - 2.0 wt.% molybdenum, and uranium - 0.75 wt.% titanium are reported and discussed. Two temperature regimes of stress relieving are observed. In the low temperature regime (T < 300°C) the process appears to be controlled by an athermal microplasticity mechanism which can be completely suppressed by prior age hardening. In the high temperature regime (300°C < T < 550°C) the process appears to be controlled by a classical diffusional creep mechanism which is strongly dependent on temperature and time. Stress relieving is accelerated in cases where it occurs simultaneously with age hardening.
Numerical and experimental investigation of steel structural component of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge

Publisher Summary The cyclic testing of large-size steel shear links for the new San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (SFOBB) revealed brittle fracture. A parametric study, aimed to reduce the local strain demand in highly restrained area, was performed with the use of a general-purpose nonlinear finite element analysis program. The analysis results lead to improved welding details, which were shown by subsequent testing to be effective for preventing brittle fracture. A same program was used to perform correlation study for the compression test of orthotropic steel deck. By introducing the initial geometric imperfection to the model, the analysis tool was able to predict the maximum strength and the buckling mode well.
Antecedents of Emotional Health Status Among the Elderly

As the conveners and participants of the NATO Symposium on Aging and Technological Advances are all well aware, technological advances are a two-edged sword for whoever wields it. From the perspective of older people themselves, many specific technological advances occasion both benefits and liabilities depending upon the criterion. As others have noted, for example, the mechanization of the workplace has enabled us to produce more goods and services with decreasing levels of physical fitness.
Effects of soundtrack music on the video game experience

ABSTRACTAesthetic elements such as soundtrack music have been neglected in game entertainment research. Based on previous work in games research and the psychology of film soundtracks (Cohen, 2001)...
The Successive Nature of City Parks: Making and Remaking Unequal access over Time:

This study examines the historical establishment and shifting residential access to city parks over time. It begins by engaging and extending a theory of urbanization as socioenvironmental successi...
Mamardashvili on film: cinema as a metaphor for consciousness

Philosopher Merab Mamardashvili (1930–1990) had multiple connections to the Soviet film industry, including the years he spent lecturing to cinema students in Moscow, and yet his work in this area has thus far been neglected by scholars of philosophy and cinema alike. In this article, I consider Mamardashvili’s most sustained remarks on film, including his use of the metaphor of the movie theatre and his commentary in The Aesthetics of Thinking (Estetika myshleniia) on Vadim Abdrashitov and Aleksandr Mindadze’s The Train Stopped (Ostanovilsia poezd, 1982). Mamardashvili used film as a metaphor for consciousness and described how film constructs an extended, empirical and psychological reality, a new space and time originating in itself, and which, if only for a couple hours, offers the experience of a “different regime of life than the one to which we are accustomed”.
Development and evaluation of a Lewis acid–base tutorial for use in postsecondary organic chemistry courses

A well-developed understanding of the Lewis acid–base model is highly important for the understanding of organic chemistry. As such, students should receive instruction and be assessed on use of th...
Number of trials necessary to achieve performance stability in a reaching kinematics movement analysis game

Abstract Study Design A cross-sectional design was used. Introduction Motion analysis is commonly used to analyze reaching movements of individuals, but how many trials are necessary to provide stable data? Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study was to determine the number of trials necessary to obtain stable kinematic variables during reaching movements in a virtual environment. Methods Thirty children (10.39 ± 1.68 years) and 20 adults (26.55 ± 3.12 years) participated. All participants interacted with a virtual reality evaluation game called Super Pop VR to collect their reaching kinematics. The players were instructed to pop several sets of virtual bubbles at a self-selected pace and their upper-body coordinates were recorded and reaching kinematics were computed. Two methods (sequential averaging techniques, SAT, and intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC) were carried out to assess performance stability of each kinematic variable. Results For the SAT method, children exhibited 3.11 to 5.96 trial range to achieve stability in the dominant hand and 2.7 to 5.96 trial range in the nondominant hand, whereas adults exhibited 2.65 to 6.16 trial range in the dominant hand and 3.40 to 6.05 range in the nondominant hand. For the ICC method, to reach the “excellent” value of ICC, children’s dominant hand required 4.20 trials and their nondominant hand required 2.5 trials, whereas adults’ dominant hand required 3.00 trials and their nondominant hand required 2.80 trials. Discussion and Conclusions Our findings supported the importance of determining the minimum number of trials required to obtain stable movements regardless of how familiar the movement seems to participants or how sensitive the apparatus is.
Differential Effects of 'Resurrecting' Cap Pseudoproteases during Clostridioides difficile Spore Germination

Abstract Clostridioides difficile is a spore-forming bacterial pathogen that is the leading cause of hospital-acquired gastroenteritis. C. difficile infections begin when its spore form germinates in the vertebrate gut upon sensing bile acids. These germinants induce a proteolytic signaling cascade controlled by three members of the subtilisin-like serine protease family, CspA, CspB, and CspC. Notably, even though CspC and CspA are both pseudoproteases, they are nevertheless required to sense germinants and activate the protease, CspB. Thus, CspC and CspA are part of a growing list of pseudoenzymes that play important roles in regulating cellular processes. However, despite their importance, the structural properties of pseudoenzymes that allow them to function as regulators remain poorly understood. Our recently determined crystal structure of CspC revealed that its degenerate site residues align closely with the catalytic triad of CspB, so in this study we tested whether the ancestral protease activity of the CspC and CspA pseudoproteases could be “resurrected.” Restoring the catalytic triad to these pseudoproteases failed to resurrect their protease activity, although the mutations differentially affected the stability and function of these pseudoproteases. Degenerate site mutations destabilized CspC and impaired spore germination without impacting CspA stability or function. Thus, our results surprisingly reveal that the presence of a catalytic triad does not necessarily predict protease activity. Since close homologs of C. difficile CspA occasionally carry an intact catalytic triad, our results imply that bioinformatics predictions of enzyme activity may overlook pseudoenzymes in some cases.
Assessment of Tubal Patency

Tubal infertility affects 25–30% of couples presenting with infertility. Assessment of the fallopian tubes plays a major role in determining a woman’s fertility potential. There are many diagnostic tools utilized including laboratory tests, office procedures, and outpatient surgical procedures. A diagnostic test should be cost-effective and minimally invasive while maintaining high diagnostic accuracy and a low-risk profile. The gold standard for tubal assessment is laparoscopy with chromopertubation; however, it is not a perfect test. Less invasive procedures should be considered first and, if abnormal or if clinically indicated, proceed to laparoscopy.
Assessment of differential item functioning across English and Spanish versions of the Orofacial Esthetic Scale.

OBJECTIVES To investigate differential item functioning across the Spanish and English versions of the Orofacial Esthetic Scale (OES). METHODS OES data were collected from a consecutive sample of a total of 622 adult dental patients (311 English- and 311 Spanish-speaking adults) from HealthPartners dental clinics in Minnesota. We inspected boundary characteristic curves (BCCs) based on item response theory (IRT) in English speakers and Spanish speakers to examine differential item functioning (DIF). Using the Samejima's graded response model, we used the item response theory log-likelihood ratio (IRTLR) approach to test whether DIF was statistically significant. RESULTS Inspection of the BCCs did not reveal substantial differences in item difficulty and discrimination between English speakers and Spanish speakers. When IRTLR tests were performed for the seven OES items, no item was flagged with significant DIF after P-values were adjusted for multiple comparisons. CONCLUSIONS Pooling of Orofacial Esthetic Scale (OES) data from English and Spanish-speaking dental patients for analysis and interpretation is supported by the absence of differential item functioning (DIF) across the two language groups.
The Lens Redshift and Group Environment for HE 0435-1223

The redshift of the galaxy lensing HE 0435-1223 is 0.4546 +/- 0.0002, based on observations obtained with the Low Dispersion Survey Spectrograph 2 (LDSS2) on the Magellan Consortium's 6.5 m Clay telescope. HST/ACS observations of the system also reveal a spiral-rich group of 10 galaxies within 40" of the elliptical lensing galaxy. The redshifts for two of these galaxies were measured to be in the foreground (at z=0.419) with respect to the lens, thus at least some of the nearby galaxies are not part of the same physical group as the lensing galaxy. Mass models of the system (assuming same-plane deflectors) that take the local group environment into account do better at explaining the observed emission-line flux ratios (which are presumably unaffected by microlensing) than single halo models, but the match is still not perfect. In particular, component A (a minimum of the light travel time) is observed to be 0.20 mag brighter than predicted and component C (also a minimum image) is observed to be 0.16 mag fainter than predicted. Mass models for the system predict an A-D time delay of either 15.8 or 17.6 days (Ho = 72 km/s/Mpc) depending on the details of the local galaxy environment.
Presence of hepatitis E virus in commercially available pork products.

Abstract An increasing number of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infections in industrialized countries have been foodborne and linked to the consumption of undercooked pork products. To date, data on the prevalence of HEV in pork products sold in the United States is limited and no standard processing method exists for the detection of HEV in foods. In order to develop a processing method for the detection of HEV in pork products, ground pork and pork liver were selected for method development. Murine norovirus (MNV) was used as a process control. A filtration step prior to RNA detection was shown to reduce the level of PCR inhibitors in ground pork and an additional ultracentrifugation process was successful in removing PCR inhibitors in pork liver. MNV RNA was detected in ground pork and liver samples inoculated with 4.7 log10 PFU/g and 3.0 log10 PFU/g, respectively. Using the developed method for viral RNA detection in ground pork and pork liver, 20 packages of ground pork (six 1 g sub-samples per package) and 14 pork livers (four 1 g sub-samples per liver) were screened for the presence of HEV RNA. Fifteen out of 119 (12.6%) ground pork samples tested positive for HEV RNA and 13 out of 20 packages (65%) contained at least one positive sample. Twenty-five of 56 (45%) of pork liver samples were positive for HEV RNA and 6 of 14 livers (43%) had all sub-samples test positive for HEV RNA. Overall, the results indicate ground pork and pig liver as a potential source of HEV.
Spatiotemporal dynamics of water sources in a mountain river basin inferred through δ2H and δ18O of water.

In mountainous river basins of the Pacific Northwest, climate models predict that winter warming will result in increased precipitation falling as rain and decreased snowpack. A detailed understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of water sources across river networks will help illuminate climate change impacts on river flow regimes. Because the stable isotopic composition of precipitation varies geographically, variation in surface water isotope ratios indicates the volume‐weighted integration of upstream source water. We measured the stable isotope ratios of surface water samples collected in the Snoqualmie River basin in western Washington over June and September 2017 and the 2018 water year. We used ordinary least squares regression and geostatistical Spatial Stream Network models to relate surface water isotope ratios to mean watershed elevation (MWE) across seasons. Geologic and discharge data was integrated with water isotopes to create a conceptual model of streamflow generation for the Snoqualmie River. We found that surface water stable isotope ratios were lowest in the spring and highest in the dry, Mediterranean summer, but related strongly to MWE throughout the year. Low isotope ratios in spring reflect the input of snowmelt into high elevation tributaries. High summer isotope ratios suggest that groundwater is sourced from low elevation areas and recharged by winter precipitation. Overall, our results suggest that baseflow in the Snoqualmie River may be relatively resilient to predicted warming and subsequent changes to snowpack in the Pacific Northwest.
A Multi-Agent Model of Misspecified Learning with Overconfidence

Overconfidence has been extensively documented in psychology and economics. This paper studies the long-term interaction between two overconfident agents who learn about common payoff-relevant fundamentals, such as the quality of a joint project or their working environment, and choose how much effort to exert. Overconfidence causes agents to underestimate the fundamental to justify their worse-than-expected performance. We show that in many settings, agents create informational externalities for each other. When informational externalities are positive, the agents’ learning processes are mutually-reinforcing: when one agent best responds to his own overconfidence, the other agent underestimates the fundamental more severely and takes a more extreme action, generating a positive feedback loop. The opposite pattern, mutually-limiting learning, arises when informational externalities are negative. Additionally, overconfidence can lead to Pareto improvement in welfare as it corrects the inefficiencies that arise in public good provision problems. This contrasts with the analogous single-agent environment, in which there is no scope for informational externalities, and overconfidence can only decrease welfare. Finally, we prove that under certain conditions, agents’ beliefs and effort choices converge to a steady state that is a Berk-Nash equilibrium.
The Level Reer Model in the External Balance Assessment (EBA) Methodology

This paper offers an empirical model of the drivers of the level of the Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) that is now part of the IMF's methodology for the assessment of external positions, including exchange rates. It constructs a measure of the level of the REER and it offers a panel regression that considers a large number of cross-sectional and time varying factors, guided by the extensive literature. Its main contribution is to enhance our understanding of the cross-sectional determinants of the level of the REER, while taking into account the time-series drivers. The framework accounts for the much larger cross-sectional variation of the level REER, and can better explain the time series variation of level REER when these are based on GDP-deflators rather than on consumer price indices. The latter suggest there may be merits to broadening the assessments to include such measures, although further analysis is required.
Machine Learning in LiDAR 3D point clouds.

LiDAR point clouds contain measurements of complicated natural scenes and can be used to update digital elevation models, glacial monitoring, detecting faults and measuring uplift detecting, forest inventory, detect shoreline and beach volume changes, landslide risk analysis, habitat mapping, and urban development, among others. A very important application is the classification of the 3D cloud into elementary classes. For example, it can be used to differentiate between vegetation, man-made structures, and water. Our goal is to present a preliminary comparison study for the classification of 3D point cloud LiDAR data that includes several types of feature engineering. In particular, we demonstrate that providing context by augmenting each point in the LiDAR point cloud with information about its neighboring points can improve the performance of downstream learning algorithms. We also experiment with several dimension reduction strategies, ranging from Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to neural network-based auto-encoders, and demonstrate how they affect classification performance in LiDAR point clouds. For instance, we observe that combining feature engineering with a dimension reduction a method such as PCA, there is an improvement in the accuracy of the classification with respect to doing a straightforward classification with the raw data.
The bursa of Fabricius and immunoglobulin synthesis.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the Bursa of Fabricius and immunoglobulin synthesis. It emphasizes on bursa morphology, bursa kinetics, and bursa regulation of immunoglobulin production synthesis. Scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscopy have revealed two distinct types of epithelial cells covering the plicae of the bursa. The chapter explains how epithelial cells involved in bursa ontogeny, specifically the development of bursal lymphocytes. Information from experiments concerning lymphocyte turnover within the bursal compartment would allow one to measure the subtle influences of the environment and exogenous chemicals on the production of B cells. It is suggested that the bursa of the chick embryo or neonate be utilized as the effector tissue in a biological assay for potential factors influencing B-cell maturation. The partial reconstitution of antibody production of BSX birds by injection of bursal extracts, or the implantation of Millipore filters containing bursal segments has suggested the existence of a soluble bursal factor (SBF) capable of effecting cell transformation or amplification of a small population of preexisting immunocompetent cells.
Feedback Control Design Using the Distributed Model

This chapter presents the feedback control design of an isolated ramp metering problem where we use the distributed model of the ramp system that has been developed till now. We show the stability properties of the closed-loop system that is obtained by the application of the feedback control law on the ramp system. We verify the effectiveness of the feedback control law by running some simulation experiments using the designed feedback control law on the isolated ramp system.
Sorption J-T refrigeration utilizing manganese nitride chemisorption

The equilibrium pressures and compositions have been measured for a system of finely powdered manganese nitride (MnxNy, with x and y variable) and nitrogen gas at 650, 700, 800, and 850°C for various nitrogen loadings. Pressures ranged from less than 0.02 MPa at 650°C to 6.38 MPa at 850°C. Analysis of the test results has shown that under certain conditions MnxNy could potentially be used in a triple regenerative sorption compressor refrigeration system, but the potential power savings are small compared to the increased complexity and reliability problems associated with very high temperature (>950°C) pressurized systems.
Dominant Discourse, Educational Research, and the Hegemony of Test Scores: If You Only Have a Hammer, Every Problem Looks Like a Nail

Abstract Observation of the rapidly changing conversation in school improvement prompted an analysis of public discourse and the creation of a framework for understanding forces both influencing and reinforced by its creation. In this paper, we explicate the interactive processes of normalizing, simplifying and conflating ideas about educational practices, using test score results as a convenient tool. Examination of peer-reviewed articles that focused on “test scores” in the educational research literature since the inception of the federal No Child Left Behind initiative through the lens of the discourse provided substantial confirmation of the use of test scores in service of these three processes. The findings of the current study suggest a need for educational researchers (especially those examining structural, instructional, and social programs in schools) to re-examine the purpose and nature of their investigations, not only for the science behind their conclusions, but for the rationale behind framing their investigations in the context of standardized testing. This analysis of the intertwined paths of policy and research may lead to strategies for academics to contribute to the halting of a dangerous and growing trend.
An integrative review of communication between parents and nurses of hospitalized technology-dependent children

Background With advances in health care, the population of children who are technology-dependent is increasing and, therefore, the need for nurses to understand how best to engage in communication with the parents of these children is critical. Shared communication between the parents of hospitalized technology-dependent children and their nurses is essential to provide optimal care for the child. The components and behaviors of the parent-nurse communication process that improve mutual understanding of optimal care for the child had not previously been examined. Research Question Among parents of hospitalized technology-dependent children and their nurses, what communication behaviors, components, concepts, or processes improve mutual understanding of optimal care for the child? Methods An integrative review of both qualitative and quantitative studies was conducted. Key words including communication, hospitalized, nurse, parent, pediatric, and technology-dependent were used to search databases such as Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health and Medline for years 2000–2014. The data regarding the process of parent-nurse communication were extracted as they related to the mutual understanding of optimal care for the child. The data were grouped into themes and compared across studies, designs, populations, and settings. Results Six articles were identified that provided information regarding the processes of shared communication among the parents of hospitalized technology-dependent children and their nurses. Providing clear information, involving parents in care decisions, trust and respect for each other's expertise, caring attitudes, advocacy, and role negotiation were all found to be important factors in shared parent-nurse communication. Linking Evidence to Action The results of this integrative review inform our understanding of the parent-nurse communication process. The findings provide nurses with an understanding of strategies to better engage in respectful, engaging, and intentional communication with parents of hospitalized technology-dependent children and improve patient outcomes.
Quantifying dental biofilm growth using cross-polarization optical coherence tomography.

Aims: Quantifying the ex vivo growth of complex multispecies dental biofilms using cross-polarization 1310-nm optical coherence tomography (CP-OCT) system was investigated. Methods and Results: Bacterial microcosms, which were derived from plaque samples of paediatric subjects, were incubated in a biofilm reactor system containing discs of different dental materials for 72 h with daily sucrose pulsing (5×). CP-OCT analysis of biofilm mass was validated with crystal violet (CV) assays at various growth stages of these complex biofilms. CP-OCT was able to filter out the back-reflected signals of water layers in the hydrated biofilm and allowed for direct biofilm quantification. The overall depth-resolved scattering intensity of the biofilm showed very strong positive correlation with CV assay quantification (Spearman’s ρ = 0·92) during the growth phase of the biofilm. Conclusion: CP-OCT was able to quantify the mass of the biofilm by measuring the overall depth-resolved scattering of the biofilm. Significance and Impact of the Study: CP-OCT has the ability to nondestructively monitor biofilm growth and elucidate the growth characteristics of these microcosms on different dental material compositions.
Electron spin detection in the frequency domain under the interrupted Oscillating Cantilever-driven Adiabatic Reversal (iOSCAR) Protocol

Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM) is an emergent technology for measuring spin-induced attonewton forces using a micromachined cantilever. In the interrupted Oscillating Cantilever-driven Adiabatic Reversal (iOSCAR) method, small ensembles of electron spins are manipulated by an external radio frequency (RF) magnetic field to produce small periodic deviations in the resonant frequency of the cantilever. These deviations can be detected by frequency demodulation, followed by conventional amplitude or energy detection. In this paper, we develop optimal detectors for several signal models that have been hypothesized for measurements induced by iOSCAR spin manipulation. We show that two simple variants of the energy detector--the filtered energy detector and a hybrid filtered energy/amplitude/energy detector--are approximately asymptotically optimal for the Discrete-Time (D-T) random telegraph signal model assuming White Gaussian Noise (WGN). For the D-T random walk signal model, the filtered energy detector performs close to the optimal Likelihood Ratio Test (LRT) when the transition probabilities are symmetric.
Private Prisons, Public Functions, and the Meaning Punishment

As the prison population in the United States soars, states and the federal government have come to rely increasingly on private prisons. In 2007, private detention facilities housed more than seven percent of incarcerated adults in federal and state prisons. The primary impetus for the private-prison boom of the 1980s was the belief that for-profit corporations could deliver correctional services more efficiently than could the state. One recent study found that private prisons may reduce the cost of housing inmates by as much as fifteen percent.Some critics have questioned the validity of these findings; others contend that if private prisons achieve any cost savings, they come at the expense of inmate well-being. That is, in order to turn a profit, private prison operators skimp on personnel training and staffing; offer only minimal educational programming and vocational training; and save space by housing inmates in cramped quarters. In addition, public accountability for prison conditions is undermined to the extent that public officials must rely on reports of abuse and mistreatment from within the private prisons themselves. Finally, the profit motive creates perverse incentives to extend inmate sentences and promote criminal justice policies that yield more and longer prison sentences regardless of whether they are in the public interest.While these important policy considerations may be reason enough to worry about the proliferation of private prisons around the world, this paper defends the position that an even more basic consideration concerns the nature and justification of legitimate punishment. In a liberal democratic polity, punishment is an inherently public function. It is inflicted for public wrongs in the name of the people themselves. Outsourcing punishment to nonpublic agents thus represents the abdication of a core state responsibility. Moreover, because retributive considerations dominate the public’s conception of criminal justice, punishment is meaningful not primarily as a means to an end. Rather, punishment constitutes justice. Delegation through privatization attenuates the meaning of punishment – for punisher and punished alike – treating justice as a mere commodity. To be sure, state-run prisons routinely rely on private providers for food service, waste management, and even medical care. But these services are commodities that have practical rather than social significance; what matters is that they are competently provided, not the identity of the provider. Central to punishment, however, is the relationship between punisher and punished, for it transforms otherwise socially objectionable conduct – such as the deprivation of liberty – into a legitimate instrument of social control. Accordingly, the institution of punishment must be, and must be seen to be, the work of public agents.