cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Accountability for Collective Wrongdoing: Citizen Responsibility and the Reactive Attitudes: Blaming Americans for War Crimes in Iraq

This chapter takes seriously the notion that individuals may bear responsibility for the transgressions of their group even where they do not bear the hallmarks of individual culpability. More specifically, I shall contend that citizenship itself can ground responsibility for the crimes of one’s nation-state. I seek to locate and interrogate the grounds upon which we may, in the first instance, hold group members responsible for a transgression of their group. The focus here is then on responsibility assigned directly to members, and not derivative of the responsibility of the group. The account of citizen responsibility that I advance differs from an individualist account insofar as it severs moral and causal responsibility: I argue that the citizen may bear moral responsibility even though she did not participate in, facilitate, or even tolerate the abuses committed in her midst. The account also severs the notions of guilt and blameworthiness: I argue that the citizen may be an appropriate object of blame (and hence appropriately subject to resentment and indignation) even though she need not conceive of herself as guilty. Finally, I suggest that this fracturing of the traditional troika of guilt, resentment, and indignation has implications for the way we think about moral responsibility more generally. I begin by articulating an account of the relationship between the citizen and her nation-state that grounds the citizen’s responsibility for a transgression of her nation-state independent of the extent of her participation in that transgression. I do not anticipate, however, that that account will induce guilt in every American who encounters it. The resistance to guilt is itself interesting and, in the second Part of the paper, I seek to investigate its source. To that end, I undertake an exploration of the moral psychology of guilt and resentment, especially as these emotions pertain to understandings of responsibility for war crimes among members of the perpetrator and victim populations. I end by gesturing to the ways in which the account challenges accepted truths about moral responsibility and its relationship to the reactive attitudes.
A fresh pair of eyes on prospective memory monitoring

Remembering to complete one's future intentions is termed prospective memory. We employed a new eyetracking paradigm to concretely observe the impact of environmental cues on strategic monitoring within a visual prospective memory task. Participants worked on a continuous living-count task comprising images, while simultaneously being asked to respond to a prospective memory target when it appeared. Importantly, the prospective memory target appeared in a different area of the participant's visual field than did the continuous task, which is consistent with prospective memory in many real-world situations, and further allows for a clear index of strategic monitoring processes. Subtle cues in the form of semantically related images were embedded in the continuous task to prompt monitoring for the prospective memory target. Overt strategic monitoring was operationalized as the number of times participants fixated on the designated target area, and cue-driven monitoring was defined by the number of fixations on the prospective memory target region directly after fixating on a related cue. Overt strategic monitoring for the prospective memory target was directly observed for participants in the prospective memory condition, and cue-driven monitoring was also observed in these participants, since they were more likely to initiate monitoring immediately after fixating on a semantically related cue, relative to an unrelated cue. This psychophysiological approach afforded precise measurement of the strategic monitoring process and revealed how contextual cues in the environment interact with the cognitive mechanisms supporting prospective memory.
The Gulfstream G650 Flight Test Accident: Lessons Learned

In April 2011, a Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation G650 crashed during takeoff from Roswell International Air Center Airport, Roswell, New Mexico. The flight was being operated by Gulfstream as part of its G650 developmental field performance flight test program. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the airplane’s angle-of-attack (α) exceeded the stall α in ground effect, resulting in a loss of roll control, the contact of the right wing with the ground, and the departure of the airplane off the right side of the runway. The stall occurred at an α that was below both Gulfstream’s predicted in-groundeffect stall α, and the α threshold for the activation of the stick-shaker stall warning. This paper describes the analysis of recorded data and physical evidence conducted by the NTSB, and simulator and computational fluid dynamics studies conducted by Gulfstream, used to support the NTSB’s conclusions. The paper also describes how the flight test data collected by Gulfstream during previous takeoffs of the G650 (including two previous uncommanded roll events) were sufficient to quantify the changes in lift due to ground-effect. Finally, the paper describes the development of erroneously low takeoff safety speed (V2) targets, and their effects on the accident flight.
Robust controllers for the Middeck Active Control Experiment using Popov controller synthesis

Recent work in robust control with real parameter uncertainties has focused on absolute stability and its connections to real mu theory. In particular, the research has investigated the Popov stability criterion and its associated Lur'e-Postnikov Liapunov functions. State space representations of this Popov stability analysis tests are included in an H2 design formulation to provide a powerful technique for robust controller synthesis. This synthesis approach uses a state space optimization procedure to design controllers that minimize an overbound of an H2 cost functional and satisfy stability analysis tests based on the Popov multiplier. The controller and stability multiplier coefficients are optimized simultaneously, which avoids the iteration and curve-fitting procedures required by the D-K algorithm of mu synthesis. While previous work has demonstrated this synthesis approach on benchmark control problems, the purpose of this paper is to use Popov controller synthesis to design robust compensators for the Middeck Active Control Experiment (MACE).
Preoperative Epoxy Embolization Facilitates the Safe and Effective Resection of Venous Malformations in the Hand and Forearm

Background: The standard of care for treatment of low-flow venous malformations (VMs) is percutaneous sclerotherapy. These lesions are seldom surgically resected, especially if the malformation is in an anatomically difficult location. Percutaneous sclerotherapy is safe and effective. However, the drawbacks to sclerotherapy are the need for repeated treatments and risks of skin ulceration, deep venous thrombosis, scarring/contractures, and nerve damage. Surgical resection can be difficult because of intraoperative bleeding, intraoperative lesional decompression, and difficulty in localization. Methods: We describe our initial experience with 11 patients who underwent surgical resection of VMs located in the hand and forearm after preembolization of 27 total sites using n-butyl-cyanoacrylate or ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer. Results: Of the 11 patients treated, 5 had focal VMs, 3 had multifocal VMs, and 3 had diffuse VMs throughout the affected extremity. Four of the 5 patients with focal VMs were follo...
Survival and Growth Characteristics of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella typhimurium on Stainless Steel and Buna-N Rubber

Microorganisms harbored on food-contact surfaces are part of a complex ecosystem. The interactions of temperature, relative humidity (RH), soil and surface on the survival of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella typhimurium were studied. Survival and growth were monitored at 25°C and 6°C and 32.5% RH and 75.5% RH. Survival in phosphate-buffered saline and dilute pasteurized whole milk on both stainless steel and buna-n was highest at 6°C and 75.5% RH. Both organisms were recoverable on the two surfaces after 10 days storage at 6°C and 75.5% RH. Survival of L. monocytogenes and S. typhimurium at 25°C and 75.5% RH was increased in dilute pasteurized whole milk on stainless steel, but not on buna-n. Organisms grew in pasteurized whole milk on stainless steel at 25°C and 75.5% RH, but failed to grow on buna-n. At 25°C and 75.5% RH, S. typhimurium was not recoverable on buna-n after 10 days in whole milk; however, L. monocytogenes remained close to initial levels. The survival and growth of both organisms in raw milk soil was similar to that in pasteurized whole milk soil. Buna-n was not bacteriostatic towards all organisms, as the total viable count in raw milk increased by more than a factor of 10 after 1 day storage at 25°C and 75.5% RH. Unlike other soils tested, survival of S. typhimurium at in conditions and L. monocytogenes at 25°C and both RHs in whey was higher on buna-n than on stainless steel. At 6°C and both RHs, L. monocytogenes levels remained constant on both surfaces in whey. The bacteriostatic effect of buna-n was not affected significantly by exposure to 20 cycles of a simulated clean-in-place (CIP) process.
Demonstration of megapixel LWIR superlattice focal plane array

The closely lattice-matched material system of InAs, GaSb, and AlSb, commonly referred to as the 6.1A material system, has emerged as a fertile ground for the development of new solid-state devices. The flexibility of the system in simultaneously permitting type-I, type-II staggered, and type-II broken-gap band alignments has been the basis for many novel high-performance heterostructure devices in recent years, including the GaSb/InAs type-II superlattice (SL) infrared (IR) detectors. The antimonides based type-II SLs have a great potential in realizing high performance large format highly uniform IR focal plane arrays (FPAs) at lower cost due to the availability of large area epi-ready GaSb substrates and relatively easy III–V materials growth and processing technology compared to its II–VI counterpart. The research in this area has seen rapid progress and many research groups have demonstrated type-II SL detectors and IR FPAs [1].
Quadratic Integrate-and-Fire (QIF) and Theta Neurons

As noted at the end of the preceding chapter, subthreshold voltage traces of neurons often have an inflection point; see, for instance, Figs. 5.2 and 5.4. Voltage traces of the LIF neuron (Fig. 7.4) don’t have this feature. However, we can modify the LIF neuron to introduce an inflection point, as follows:
Outcomes of advanced HL with ABVD: The University of Pennsylvania experience.

e18529 Background: Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL) is considered a curable malignancy with standard therapy using the doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD) regimen. Even with standard t...
The Role of Light and Age in Determining Melatonin Production in the Pineal Gland

Roughly two decades ago it was discovered that the photo-periodic environment to which animals are exposed determines the structure (Quay, 1956) and metabolism (Quay, 1963; Wurtman et al., 1963) of the mammalian pineal gland. Shortly thereafter, it was uncovered that the ability of the pineal to influence the reproductive system also depended on the photoperiod (Czyba et al., 1964; Hoffman and Reiter, 1965). This series of experiments provided not only an impetus for research on the pineal gland but also a renewed interest in the impact of light and darkness on the organism. In the intervening years the enthusiasm was translated into investigations that have definitively shown that the daily light:dark cycle provides the primary regulatory influence on the pineal gland. When the role of the photoperiod is discussed relative to the pineal, typically, indoleamine synthesis is considered (Cardinali, 1981) along with the hormonal effects of the pineal gland on the neuroendocrine-reproductive axis (Reiter, 1980). It is the purpose of the present survey to summarize the influence of light and darkness on indole metabolism within the pineal gland. Additionally, the resume will consider age of the organism as a factor in determining pineal melatonin production.
A Highly Efficient FFT Using Shared-Memory Multiplexing

The Fast Fourier transform (FFT) is a bandwidth-limited algorithm. To alleviate the bandwidth requirement, shared memory is commonly used to accommodate intermediate data. However, given the limited capacity of shared memory in state-of-art GPUs, the intensive shared-memory usage of FFT reduces the number of thread blocks/workgroups that can run concurrently on a streaming multiprocessor/compute unit. In this work, we present our solution, called shared-memory multiplexing, to make more effective use of shared memory. Shared-memory multiplexing is built on a key observation that allocated shared memory is not utilized throughput the lifetime of a thread block/workgroup. We propose our pure software approaches to enable multiple thread blocks to time-multiplex shared memory so as to increase the number of concurrent thread blocks/workgroups on each streaming multiprocessor/compute unit. The improved thread-level parallelism introduces significant performance gains for FFT. On an NVIDIA GTX 480 GPU, our FFT kernel outperforms the NVIDIA library CUFFT V4.0 by 21 % for a 1 k-point FFT with a batch size of 2,048. On an NVIDIA Tesla K20c GPU, our FFT kernel outperforms the NVIDIA library CUFFT V5.0 by 58 % for the same inputs.
A High-Performance and Scalable Hardware Architecture for Isogeny-Based Cryptography

In this work, we present a high-performance and scalable architecture for isogeny-based cryptosystems. In particular, we use the architecture in a fast, constant-time FPGA implementation of the quantum-resistant supersingular isogeny Diffie-Hellman (SIDH) key exchange protocol. On a Virtex-7 FPGA, we show that our architecture is scalable by implementing at 83, 124, 168, and 252-bit quantum security levels. This is the first SIDH implementation at close to the 256-bit quantum security level to appear in literature. Further, our implementation completes the SIDH protocol 2 times faster than performance-optimized software implementations and 1.34 times faster than the previous best FPGA implementation, both running a similar set of formulas. Our implementation employs inversion-free projective isogeny formulas. By replicating multipliers and utilizing an efficient scheduling methodology, we can heavily parallelize quadratic extension field arithmetic and the isogeny evaluation stage of the large-degree isogeny computation. For a constant-time implementation of 124-bit quantum security SIDH on a Virtex-7 FPGA, we generate ephemeral public keys in 8.0 and 8.6 ms and generate the shared secret key in 7.1 and 7.9 ms for Alice and Bob, respectively. Finally, we show that this architecture could also be used to efficiently generate undeniable and digital signatures based on supersingular isogenies.
Magnetic properties and photovoltaic applications of ZnO:Mn nanocrystals

Abstract A simple and large-scale synthetic method of Mn doped ZnO (ZnO:Mn) was developed in this work. ZnO:Mn nanocrystals with hexagonal structure were prepared by thermal decomposition of zinc acetate and manganese acetate in the presence of oleylamine and oleic acid with different temperatures, ligand ratios, and Mn doping concentrations. The particle size (47–375 nm) and morphology (hexagonal nanopyramid, hexagonal nanodisk and irregular nanospheres) of ZnO:Mn nanocrystals can be controlled by the ratio of capping ligand, reaction temperature, reaction time and Mn doping concentration. The corresponding optical and magnetic properties were systemically studied and compared. All samples were found to be paramagnetic with antiferromagnetic (AFM) exchange interactions between the Mn moments in the ZnO lattice, which can be affected by the reaction conditions. The quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) were fabricated based on ZnO:Mn nanocrystals and CdS quantum dots, and the device performance affected by Mn doping concentration was also studied and compared.
A new probe for detecting zinc-bound carbonic anhydrase in cell lysates and cells

We report the synthesis and application of a small molecule probe for carbonic anhydrase (CA) to track holo-CA in cell lysates and live-cell models of zinc dyshomeostasis. The probe displays a 12-fold increase in fluorescence upon binding to bovine CA and also responds to human CA isoforms.
Cascading Auto-oxidative Biproline Guanylations Form Optically Active Dispacamide Dimers and Permit an Eight-Step Synthesis of (-)-Ageliferin.

A nickel catalyzed synthesis of isomeric 3,3′-biproline esters is described. When those materials are doubly acylated with the acid chloride of pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid, they become susceptible to auto-oxidation in the presence of guanidine. Through proper staging of reaction conditions, it is possible to initiate two consecutive oxidative guanylations prior to in situ cycloisomerization to afford spirocyclic bis-glycocyamidines. This unique outcome reflects a cascade of no fewer than 10 reactions occurring sequentially in one flask. The chemistry provides rapid access to advanced intermediates useful for the preparation of complex, optically active pyrrole/imidazole alkaloids.
Lost in translation: The 3'-UTR of IGF1R as an ancient long noncoding RNA.

Background and objectives The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling system is a major arena of intragenomic conflict over embryonic growth between imprinted genes of maternal and paternal origin and the IGF type 1 receptor (IGF1R) promotes proliferation of many human cancers. The 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of the mouse Igf1r mRNA is targeted by miR-675-3p derived from the imprinted H19 long noncoding RNA. We undertook a comparative sequence analysis of vertebrate IGF1R 3'-UTRs to determine the evolutionary history of miR-675 target sequences and to identify conserved features that are likely to be involved in post-transcriptional regulation of IGF1R translation. Methodology Sequences of IGF1R 3'-UTRs were obtained from public databases and analyzed using publicly available algorithms. Results A very long 3'-UTR is a conserved feature of vertebrate IGF1R mRNAs. We found that some ancient microRNAs, such as let-7 and mir-182, have predicted binding sites that are conserved between cartilaginous fish and mammals. One very conserved region is targeted by multiple, maternally expressed imprinted microRNAs that appear to have evolved more recently than the targeted sequences. Conclusions and implications The conserved structures we identify in the IGF1R 3'-UTR are strong candidates for regulating cell proliferation during development and carcinogenesis. These conserved structures are now targeted by multiple imprinted microRNAs. These observations emphasize the central importance of IGF signaling pathways in the mediation of intragenomic conflicts over embryonic growth and identify possible targets for therapeutic interventions in cancer.
Methods of Projecting Future Changes in Extremes

This chapter examines some selected methods of projecting changes in extreme weather and climate statistics. Indices of extreme temperature and precipitation provide measures of moderately rare weather events that are straightforward to calculate. Drought indices provide measures of both agricultural and hydrological drought that are especially suitable for constructing multi-model ensemble projections of future change. Extreme value statistical theories are surveyed and provide methodologies for projecting the changes in frequency and severity of very rare temperature and precipitation events.
Perception of Inspiratory Resistive Loads in Asthmatic Children with Attention Deficit Disorder

Magnitude estimation (ME) of inspiratory resistive (R) loads has been studied in asthmatic children. Some children have been reported to be unable to perform the perception task. One reason some children may be unable to perform the ME task is Attention Defi cit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The aim of this study was to determine if asthmatic patients with ADD/ADHD have a perceptual and/or attention deficit in the ME of graded inspiratory R loads. Methods: Asthmatic children aged 11–18 years were classified into ADD/ADHD and asthma control groups. Perception of extrinsic loads was assessed by handgrip ME of inspiratory R loads. A methacholine challenge was performed and the PC20 for each subject determined. Results: There was no significant difference between asthma control and ADD/ADHD groups in the group mean for the slope of ME-R load slopes. The ADD/ADHD subjects had significantly greater variability in ME of R loads. Conclusions: Asthmatic children with ADD/ADHD do not have an impaired perception of extrinsic respiratory loads but do have difficulty attending to the perceptual task. Difficulties in their asthma management may be due to their attention deficit and not their symptom perception.
Diamond Deposition and Characterization

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of the properties, fabrication, and application of diamond in its role as a wide bandgap material. Diamond has experienced a surge in interest from the industrial and scientific communities, based largely on the promise of developing chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes for a wide range of previously unattainable applications. Diamond is a semi-insulating material possessing a bandgap with a minimum value of 5.45 eV. Like silicon, it is an indirect bandgap material with the minimum of the conduction band offset from the maximum of the valence band. The exact nature of the electron affinity characteristics of diamond is sensitive to both crystallographic orientation and surface impurity termination. Diamond typically shows a hydrogen termination layer at its surface, and may also form a high degree of oxygen termination, depending on the process environment. Optically, diamond is transmitting over a very wide spectral range. It exhibits a near-ultraviolet (bandgap) cut-off at 226.5 nm and transmits into the far infrared. Depending on the impurity characteristics of the material, there may be several near-IR absorption peaks in the spectral region of 2–12 μm. Chemical vapor deposition of diamond represents a radical departure from the standard high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) process. Diamond CVD covers a broad range of possible system pressures, from the millitorr range up to atmospheric pressure, and substrate temperatures, reportedly as low as 200°C to greater than 1000°C. One of the most fundamental of all possible film modifications is polishing for the reduction of surface roughness and etching for the production of specific structures. Polycrystalline diamond films tend to produce surfaces with high roughness that is unsuitable for many applications. Because of diamond's extreme hardness, conventional mechanical polishing can be very slow. Standard chemical etching of diamond is also problematic because of diamond's relatively high chemical inertness.
Novel Contexts of Computer Simulation

In this review paper we illustrate the application of standard simulation methods in statistical physics in two novel contexts. The first deals with the extraction of a dynamic relaxation time from a biased sampling Monte Carlo computation on equilibrium data. The specific example reviews a previously published Rouse model polymer chain dynamics derived from the Kramers potential with and without excluded volume interaction. The second deals with the approximate representation of continuous functions of many variables of physical interest in information retrieval or condensed matter/statistical physics in terms of continuous functions of one variable. The arguments of the latter can be stored once and for all in a computer memory.
Metabolism Drives Carcinogenesis and Maintenance of Pancreatic Tumors

In this issue of Cancer Discovery, Carrer and colleagues find that early events in pancreatic tumorigenesis are driven by altered acetyl-CoA metabolism, where targeting this axis in established cancer models impairs tumor growth. This work provides new insights into the roles of acetyl-CoA in pancreatic cancer and underscores the value of studying early events in carcinogenesis to yield new treatment strategies.See related article by Carrer et al., p. 416.
A multi-temporal spectral library approach for mapping vegetation species across spatial and temporal phenological gradients

Abstract Variability in spectral reflectance due to spatial and temporal gradients in vegetation phenology presents issues for accurate vegetation classification. Phenological variability through space and over time can result in misclassification when spectra from non-representative areas or times are used as training data. Vegetation classification at the species level could benefit from introducing phenological information to spectral libraries, but utilization of this information across multiple dates of imagery will require new approaches to building spectral libraries and to classification. This paper explores an automated method for selecting a single multi-temporal spectral library that can be used to classify vegetation species across multiple dates within an image time series. Iterative Endmember Selection (IES) was used to select spectra from Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data acquired on five dates in the same year. IES selected spectra to maximize species classification accuracy (as measured by Kappa) within a multi-temporal spectral library that included spectra from all image dates. The resulting multi-temporal endmember library was applied using Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) to classify vegetation species and land cover across all five images. Results indicate that multi-temporal, seasonally-mixed spectral libraries achieved similar overall classification accuracy compared to single-date libraries, and in some cases, resulted in improved classification accuracy. Several species had increased Producer's or User's accuracy using a multi-temporal library, while others had reduced accuracy compared to same-date classifications. The image dates of endmembers used to map species in each image were examined to determine if this information could improve our understanding of phenological spectral differences for specific species. Multi-temporal endmember libraries could provide a means for mapping species in data where phenology, climatic variability, or spatial gradients are not known in advance or may not be easily accounted for by endmembers from a single date. New missions, such as the proposed Hysperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) mission, will provide greatly improved access to multi-temporal spectral datasets and new opportunities for mapping vegetation spectral variability on regional-to-global scales.
Impact of Pulmonary Hypertension on Survival Following Device Closure of Atrial Septal Defects.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH), defined as mean pulmonary arterial pressure ≥25 mm Hg, may be a complication of a secundum atrial septal defect (ASD). This study sought to evaluate the impact of PH at time of ASD device closure on patient survival. A prospectively collected database of ASD closures was utilized. Patients were stratified by age above and below the cohort median (48 years). Survival was analyzed by preprocedural PH status, age cohort, and echocardiographic resolution of PH at 3 months postdevice closure. PH was present in 48 of 228 patients (21.1%) and was more common in the older cohort (31.3% vs 10.6%, p 48 years (p < 0.01). Patients with preprocedural PH and RVSP ≥40 mm Hg at 3-month follow-up continued to have an increased risk of mortality (p <0.01), whereas those with resolution of PH had similar survival to those without PH at time of closure. In conclusion, PH is common in adults with unrepaired ASDs and appears unrelated to defect size. PH in older adults and its persistence closure are strong predictors of a worsened clinical outcome. These patients may benefit from additional risk assessment and advanced medical therapies to mitigate this risk.
The welfare gains from a refusal to deal

A vertically integrated provider (VIP) initially has a duty to deal with a rival at unregulated upstream and downstream prices. The duty to deal is subsequently terminated which enables the VIP to ...
Retinal artery occlusion followed by contralateral amaurosis fugax in association with eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Churg-Strauss syndrome)

Abstract Purpose To describe two cases of retinal artery occlusion followed by contralateral amaurosis fugax associated with eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA, formerly known as Churg-Strauss syndrome). Observations Case 1 is a 57 year-old male who presented with transient vision loss in the right eye two weeks after a cilioretinal artery occlusion in the left eye. Evaluation eventually led to a diagnosis of EGPA. The patient was treated with high-dose steroids followed by systemic immunomodulatory therapy. Vision in the right eye recovered to 20/20 with no further episodes of vision loss. Case 2 is a 55 year-old male with a known diagnosis of EGPA who presented with transient vision loss in the right eye four weeks after a central retinal artery occlusion of the left eye. This patient also successfully recovered vision in the right eye after treatment with high-dose steroids following a change in his systemic immunomodulatory therapy. Conclusions and Importance While ANCA-vasculitides are an uncommon cause of retinal artery occlusion and amaurosis fugax, it is important that they remain in the differential diagnosis, as good visual outcomes can be achieved with prompt initiation of appropriate therapies.
Socioeconomic Status and Current Cigarette Smoking Status: Immigrants' Diminished Returns.

Introduction: Although socioeconomic status (SES) resources influence population and individual health behaviors, socially marginalized groups gain significantly less health from their SES indicators, such as education and income, compared to the socially privileged groups. This pattern is called marginalization-related diminished returns (MDRs). However, most of the MDRs literature is derived from studies that have defined marginalization based on race and ethnicity. As a result, more research is needed on MDRs due to immigration. To extend what is known about MDRs due to immigration, the current study compared a national sample of immigrants and non-immigrants for the effects of education and income on current cigarette smoking of adults in the United States. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. The 2015 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) enrolled 14,149 individuals who were either immigrants (n=1977; 14.0%) or non-immigrants (n=12,166; 86.0%). The independent variables (IV) were education and income that were treated as categorical variables. The dependent variable was current cigarette smoking. Age, gender, race, ethnicity, marital status, employment, and region were confounders. Immigration was the moderator. Logistic regression was used for data analysis. Results: High education and income were associated with lower odds of current cigarette smoking. However, immigration showed significant statistical interactions with both education and income. These interactions were suggestive of smaller protective effects of high education and income on current cigarette smoking for immigrant than non-immigrant adults. Conclusion: In line with the MDRs, the effects of education and income on tobacco use is weaker for immigrant than non-immigrant adults.
Investigating apparent misalignment of predator-prey dynamics: Great Lakes lake trout and sea lampreys

Abstract Interpreting ecological dynamics is challenging when observed patterns are not aligned with presumed models. Investigating possible sources of uncertainty is critical to understand the underlying system and ultimately inform management decisions. In this study, we used simulation to investigate the hypothesis that observed inconsistencies in Great Lakes lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) and sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) predator-prey dynamics were caused by measurement error in the abundance and predation metrics. When lake trout abundances increase and sea lamprey abundances decrease, predation rates are expected to decline (and vice versa). Occasionally predation rates do not change as expected, leading to an inconsistency in expected predator-prey dynamics. We used a Type II functional response model to align lake trout relative abundance, adult sea lamprey abundance, and sea lamprey marking rates of lake trout in each Great Lake. Then we added measurement error to each of the simulated metrics to see how it contributed to observed inconsistencies in the marking rates. The simulated inconsistency rate was far less than the observed inconsistency rate in Lakes Superior and Erie, indicating that measurement error was not primarily responsible for the misalignment of metrics, contrary to our hypothesis. Rather than ignoring these inconsistencies as unfortunate consequences of imperfect assessments, we recommend that future inconsistencies be scrutinized for possible mechanistic explanations. We suspect that predator-prey dynamics are being influenced by spatially structured within-lake components and the presence of alternative hosts, neither of which were accounted for in the functional response model we used.
Detection Strategies for Measuring Rotation with the Rotational Doppler Effect

We report sensitivity differences for two established techniques for measuring rotational Doppler shifts from randomly distributed scatterers. The phase sensitivity of heterodyne detection can measure targets with high scatterer density whereas the fringe method cannot.
On the Edge of Empire: Baluchistan (1889–1892)

Chapter 5, “On the Edge of Empire (1889–1892),” looks at White’s three-and-half year stint in Baluchistan. It examines White’s conduct of the Zhob Valley expedition in 1890 which extended British control over the region, and his close working relationship with Robert Sandeman, the British agent in the region who attempted to rule through existing traditional institutions while securing the alliance of the local people. It also considers White’s thoughts on the Pashtun tribes of the North-West Frontier.
Energy-Efficient Hybrid Spintronic-Straintronic Nonvolatile Reconfigurable Equality Bit Comparator

We propose and analyze a “spintronic/straintronic” reconfigurable equality bit comparator implemented with a nanowire spin valve whose two contacts are two-phase multiferroic nanomagnets and posses...
Rebel command and control, time, and rebel group splits

Fractious splits of rebel groups debilitate the military capacity of these organizations which increases their vulnerability to anti-rebel operations. Despite the risks of disunity and the battlefi...
Employee Tournaments: One Size Does Not Fit All

Suppose a manager wants to increase employee productivity by holding a tournament. Should there be a single long tournament or a series of short and repeated tournaments? Well, it depends. It’s important to first assess whether employees are of similar ability levels or varied ability levels. If employees have relatively similar ability, it is less important whether a manager holds a single long tournament or a series of short and repeated tournaments than if employees have relatively varied abilities. If employees have relatively different ability levels, employee productivity is generally greater with a series of short and repeated tournaments. If the manager is unsure about the similarity of ability levels, it is better to have short and more frequent tournaments than a single long tournament. This article discusses the tournament design issues managers should consider when planning a tournament to optimize the results.
Development, Implementation, and Outcomes of a Serious Illness Care Community of Practice.

Abstract Context Communities of Practice (CoP) can help geographically separated individuals who share a joint enterprise, mutual engagement, and a repertoire of tools to gain, maintain, and implement new skills, including serious illness communication. Objectives To investigate the health system uptake, implementation and outcomes of the Serious Illness Community of Practice (SICoP). Methods Participants included members of the online SICoP, including participants from all 50 states in the United States and 44 countries, interested in implementation of the Serious Illness Care Program. Yearly surveys asked members about their program's composition, completed trainings, number of serious illness conversations, and utilization of the online SICoP tools and resources. Results Over four years, membership in the SICoP increased from 429 to 1,912, with an estimated 17,785 clinicians trained and 38,945 serious illness conversations conducted. Members have continued to utilize and modify the SICoP resources. Conclusions Utilizing a CoP has contributed to improving the health care system implementation and process outcomes of serious illness communication training. Key Message This article describes the implementation and health system outcomes of a Community of Practice developed to support serious illness communication. The results indicate that the membership of the community grew and that the community supported growth in the number of trained clinicians and the number of serious illness conversations conducted.
Frequency Domain Methods for the Analysis of Multifrequency Eddy Current Data

Eddy current techniques for nondestructive testing play a significant role in a variety of industries for evaluating the integrity of products. Any nondestructive testing system consists of five major functions as shown in Fig. 1. The test object to be examined is energized by an excitation transducer. The response of the energy-specimen interaction is picked up by a receiving transducer. The received signal is then processed and analyzed for defect characterization or Inversion. The ultimate goal of an NDT system is the inverse problem of determining the defect profiles in the test object, given the measurements from the receiving transducer. The defect characterization scheme is generally based on the solution of the partial differential equations governing the energy-test specimen interaction. As seen in Fig. 1 one of the primary steps involved in the inverse problem solution is that of signal conditioning. Pre-processing of signals is essential in certain situations in order to extract the true defect signal from the measured data. This paper describes the signal conditioning aspect of the inverse problem in the context of steam generator tube inspection using eddy current method.
Development of charge in low-conductivity liquids flowing past surfaces: Engineering predictions from the theory developed for tube flow

Abstract A theory, developed earlier by the authors, which describes charge generation in the turbulent flow of low-conductivity (hydrocarbon) liquids in tubes, is recapitulated. The theory is extended, by use of well known correlations of turbulent mass transfer, into a form which may be easily tested experimentally, and from which engineering predictions may be made. The charging current is shown to be a universal function of a dimensionless group—four times the square of the tube radius divided by the product of the kinematic viscosity of the hydrocarbon, its relaxation time and the seven-fourths power of the Reynolds number—which turns out to be related to the ratio of the laminar subzone thickness to the diffuse double-layer thickness in the liquid. For small enough values of this group the current can be predicted by the theory; for larger values of the group the theory is unable to predict the current. The highest value of the dimensionless group where the theory can predict the current must be obtained experimentally.
Augmented reality in a learning paradigm for flight aerospace maintenance training

The application of augmented reality (AR), as a new mixed reality world that is comprised of real and virtual elements, provides a humanly intuitive means of interacting with computer-based systems. The media form presented by AR is complementary to human cognitive processes. Literature on the subject reveals a large body of knowledge on virtual reality and its effect on aviation related training and learning, but little research has been conducted to investigate the effects that AR-based training has on recall and retention for aerospace maintenance workers and pilots. Evidence suggests AR has a considerable effect on recall by establishing to-be-recalled items in a highly memorable framework. Using AR to develop augmented scenes in a highly memorable framework can complement human information processing, and such a complement can reveal itself in training efficiency applicable to a wide variety of flight and maintenance tasks. The state of aerospace maintenance and pilot training can be advanced with AR because of the technology's unique characteristics of merging synthetic and real objects in unified, spatially integrated scenes. Continuing research in the field of AR applications for training is necessary because of the potential for increased learning performance, and significant decreases in training time. This research determined that AR-based learning effects long term memory by reducing the amount of information forgotten after a seven-day intervening time between an immediate-recall test and long-term-retention-recall test. Further research is necessary to isolate human variability associated with cognition, learning, and application of AR-based technologies as a training and learning paradigm for the aerospace industry.
Thermal reactions of coordination compounds: Part II. Chlorobromobis(ethylenediamine)- and dibromobis(ethylenediamine)- cobalt (III) complexes

Abstract The thermal solid—solid and gas—solid reactions of cis - and trans -[Co(en) 2 -(H 2 O) 2 ](NO 3 ) 3 , cis - and trans -[Co(en) 2 (H 2 O) 2 ]Br 3 ·2H 2 O, cis -[Co(en) 2 (H 2 O)Br]Br 2 ·H 2 O, cis -[Co(en) 2 (H 2 O)Cl]Br 2 ·H 2 O, cis -[Co(en) 2 ClBr]NO 3 , and cis -[Co(en) 2 Br 2 ]-NO 3 with various ammonium salts and HCl and HNO 3 , were investigated by various thermal techniques. All of the reactions yielded the trans isomeric products. The various reaction temperatures and reaction intervals were determined for the mixtures. An overall mechanism for the “ trans-preferred ” reactions is described.
Analog VLSI circuits for primitive sensory attention

Circuitry that performs primitive attention tasks is presented. With the addition of feedback to a winner-take-all circuit we are able to mediate the selection of a single location within a sensory array through the use of hysteresis. >
Investment Protection Law and Systemic Integration of Treaty and Custom

The creation of contemporary treaty-based structure of investment law may be traced to earlier skepticism about the adequacy or appropriateness of protection provided by customary investment law. The relationship of the results of recent efforts of law-making with customary rules is different both in nature and in clarity. The experience of the last decade permits testing theoretical assumptions about systemic integration against the benchmark of existing practice. The issue is addressed in two steps, first formulating an analytical perspective and then applying it to three case studies. First of all, VCLT Article 31(3)(c) may bring ‘relevant’ customary law into the interpretative process, suggesting either a narrow or broad reading of relevance. Express or implicit reliance or exclusion of custom, subsequent practice by States, the historical perspective of law-making, and theory of State responsibility are helpful in identifying the ‘relevance’ of custom. Secondly, the descriptive and prescriptive implications of systemic integration are demonstrated on the basis of three case studies. First of all, diplomatic protection is sometimes treated as relevant for investor-State arbitration. The benchmark for the relevance has been provided by the distinction between direct and derivative investor’s rights, but the permissibility of concurrence of investor-State and State-State proceedings may suggest a better perspective. Secondly, primary investment obligations in treaty and customary law often run in parallel. In these cases, rules are prima facie relevant, and the degree of permissible reliance therefore needs to be drawn in a different manner by engaging in another simultaneous interpretative exercise. Thirdly, cases dealing with treaty rules on non-precluded-measures and customary rules of necessity regarding the Argentinean crisis highlight inter-temporal challenges. Overall, the State practice and case law of the last decade highlight particular considerations and criteria that are useful in formulating the interpretative framework for dealing with customary investment law.
Implementing a cloud backed scalable note-taking application with encrypted offline storage and cross platform replication

The act of taking notes is second nature to most people in the business and academic world where note-taking can play a variety of important roles such as aiding memory recall of events, idea capture, problem solving or visualization of complex systems and concepts through the use of diagrams or sketches. Whilst the traditional paper based form of note-taking is sufficient in most cases and actually superior in others to digital note-taking, the digital form does have some compelling advantages including the ability to search through notes, back them up, have ubiquitous access to them and augment them with captured digital media. Implementing these digital enhancements presents a challenge especially when combined with a requirement to provide a highly secure storage environment to protect confidential notes. In this paper we describe an architecture that provides these features whilst maintaining a high level of scalability and security through the use of cloud based services.
Flattening fixed-angle chains is strongly NP-hard

Planar configurations of fixed-angle chains and trees are well studied in polymer science and molecular biology. We prove that it is strongly NP-hard to decide whether a polygonal chain with fixed edge lengths and angles has a planar configuration without crossings. In particular, flattening is NP-hard when all the edge lengths are equal, whereas a previous (weak) NP-hardness proof used lengths that differ in size by an exponential factor. Our NP-hardness result also holds for (nonequilateral) chains with angles in the range [60° - e, 180°], whereas flattening is known to be always possible (and hence polynomially solvable) for equilateral chains with angles in the range (60°, 150°) and for general chains with angles in the range [90°, 180°]. We also show that the flattening problem is strongly NP-hard for equilateral fixed-angle trees, even when every angle is either 90° or 180°. Finally, we show that strong NP-hardness carries over to the previously studied problems of computing the minimum or maximum span (distance between endpoints) among non-crossing planar configurations.