cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Demonstration of a Ka-band airborne wideband global SATCOM terminal

Since 2007, MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL) has supported the Family of Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) Increment 2 program, recently renamed to the High Data Rate Airborne Terminal (HDR-AT). The primary effort of MIT LL focused on the development of a high data rate (HDR) waveform capable of supporting ∼300 Mbps airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (AISR) data links from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to a mobile ground station over the WGS block II satellite. To demonstrate the waveform maturity and applicability to this environment, MIT LL developed and tested a Ka-band airborne test terminal (KATT) to demonstrate the HDR waveform from the airborne terminal. The KATT features a custom high-power feed, a 250 Watt traveling wave tube amplifier (TWTA), a low noise block downconverter (LNB), and a custom tracking and pointing suite. MIT LL used the KATT to transmit both the commercial and HDR DVB-S2 waveforms from their Boeing 707 “Paul Revere” test aircraft to a custom Ka-band ground terminal at MIT LL, and vice-versa.
Vitamins E and C for the treatment of NASH: duplication of results but lack of demonstration of efficacy.

Vitamins E and C for the treatment of NASH: duplication of results but lack of demonstration of efficacy
Diverse speed response properties of motion sensitive neurons in the fly’s optic lobe

Speed and acceleration are fundamental components of visual motion that animals can use to interpret the world. Behavioral studies have established that insects discriminate speed largely independently of contrast and spatial frequency, and physiological recordings suggest that a subset of premotor descending neurons is in this sense speed-selective. Neural substrates and mechanisms of speed selectivity in insects, however, are unknown. Using blow flies Phaenicia sericata, intracellular recordings and dye-fills were obtained from medulla and lobula complex neurons which, though not necessarily speed-selective themselves, are positioned to participate in circuits that produce speed-selectivity in descending neurons. Stimulation with sinusoidally varied grating motion (0–200°/s) provided a range of instantaneous velocities and accelerations. The resulting speed response profiles are indicative of four distinct speed ranges, supporting the hypothesis that the spatiotemporal tuning of mid-level neurons contains sufficient diversity to account for the emergence of speed selectivity at the descending neuron level. This type of mechanism has been proposed to explain speed discrimination in both insects and mammals, but has seemed less likely for insects due to possible constraints on small brains. Two additional recordings are suggestive of acceleration-selectivity, a potentially useful visual capability that is of uncertain functional significance for arthropods.
Outcome of Donor Cats After Unilateral Nephrectomy as Part of a Clinical Kidney Transplant Program

Objective To compare 1) complications between 2 ureteral harvest techniques (ureteral papilla harvest [UPH] and ureteral transection [UT]); 2) to investigate the prevalence of kidney failure in a population of kidney donors; and 3) to evaluate owner satisfaction with commercially sourced cats adopted after kidney donation. Study Design Retrospective case series. Animals Cats (n = 72) that had unilateral nephrectomy for kidney donation. Methods Medical records were reviewed and information on short- and long-term complications and evidence of kidney failure was recorded. Clients were interviewed by telephone to ascertain their satisfaction with the adopted donor cats as pets. Results Seventy-two cats had unilateral nephrectomy. Forty-two owners were able to be contacted for survey data. Twenty-eight cats had complete medical records including serum BUN, creatinine, and urine specific gravity. For these 28 cats, mean age at nephrectomy was 1.9 years (median, 1.1 years; range, 0.5–9.3 years) and mean age at follow-up was 6.8 years (median, 5.1 years; range, 1.0–18.7 years). There was no difference in major or minor complication rates between UPH and UT techniques. Kidney failure occurred in 17.8% of cats. All owners were satisfied with the adopted donor cats, which were obtained from commercial facilities. Conclusions UPH is a safe technique in cats being used for kidney donation. Commercially sourced cats make suitable pets after kidney donation. The prevalence of kidney failure in the donor population appears to be higher than that in the general population, but definitive conclusions cannot be made based on this study. Further, prospective study is needed to identify the true prevalence of kidney failure in cats after unilateral nephrectomy.
Geographical variation of human gut microbial composition

Although we know there is considerable variation in gut microbial composition within host species, little is known about how this variation is shaped and why such variation exists. In humans, obesity is associated with the relative abundance of two dominant bacterial phyla: an increase in the proportion of Firmicutes and a decrease in the proportion of Bacteroidetes. As there is evidence that humans have adapted to colder climates by increasing their body mass (e.g. Bergmann's rule), we tested whether Firmicutes increase and Bacteroidetes decrease with latitude, using 1020 healthy individuals drawn from 23 populations and six published studies. We found a positive correlation between Firmicutes and latitude and a negative correlation between Bacteroidetes and latitude. The overall pattern appears robust to sex, age and bacterial detection methods. Comparisons between African Americans and native Africans and between European Americans and native Europeans suggest no evidence of host genotype explaining the observed patterns. The variation of gut microbial composition described here is consistent with the pattern expected by Bergmann's rule. This surprising link between large-scale geography and human gut microbial composition merits further investigation.
Biological activity associated with noncoplanar polychlorinated biphenyls after microbial dechlorination of Aroclor 1242® and Aroclor 1254®

Bioremediation of polychlorinated hiphenyls (PCBs) by anaerobic microhial dechlorination occurring naturally in the subsurface and in engineered systems results in mixtures of lower-chlorinated, primarily ortho-substituted biphenyls. The purpose of this study was to determine whether this process of bacterial dechlorination results in a mixture that differs in biological activity from that of the parent PCB mixture. Two biological assays sensitive to the action of ortho-substituted PCBs were employed: insulin release by RINm5F cells, and superoxide anion (O 2 ) production by rat neutrophils. The PCB mixtures Aroclor 1242® and Aroclor 1254® were incubated for nine months with microbes from PCB-contaminated sites (Silver Lake, MA, USA or River Raisin, MI USA) and the products of dechlorination were then extracted. Exposure of RINm5F cells to dechlorinated Aroclor 1242 or 1254 product mixtures caused an increase in insulin release similar to the hormone release from cells exposed to non-dechlorinated Aroclors. When tested alone, several of the major products identified in the dechlorination mixture (i.e., 2,2',4,4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl, 2,2',4-trichlorobiphenyl [TCB], 2,3',4-TCB, 2,3',5-TCB, and 2,2'-dichlorobiphenyl) caused an increase in insulin release. In studies using neutrophils isolated from rat peritoneum, the amount of O 2 produced on exposure to product mixtures resulting from dechlorination of Aroclor 1242 was not different from the amount produced in nondechlorinated controls. The product mixture resulting from Aroclor 1254 dechlorination by organisms from River Raisin increased generation of O 2 relative to the parent Aroclor. Taken together, these results suggest that anaerobic dechlorination of Aroclor mixtures of PCBs does not reduce the biological activities associated with lightly chlorinated and ortho-substituted PCBs. This observation has implications for the usefulness of PCB bioremediation efforts that involve only anaerobic dechlorination.
Hunger-dependent and sex-specific antipredator behaviour of larvae of a size-dimorphic mosquito

1. Modification of behaviours in the presence of predators or predation cues is widespread among animals. The costs of a behavioural change in the presence of predators or predation cues depend on fitness effects of lost feeding opportunities and, especially when organisms are sexually dimorphic in size or timing of maturation, these costs are expected to differ between the sexes. 2. Larval Aedes triseriatus (Say) (Diptera: Culicidae) were used to test the hypothesis that behavioural responses of the sexes to predation cues have been selected differently due to different energy demands. 3. Even in the absence of water-borne predation cues, hungry females (the larger sex) spent more time browsing than did males, indicating a difference in energy needs. 4. In the presence of predation cues, well-fed larvae of both sexes reduced their activity more than did hungry larvae, and males shifted away from high-risk behaviours to a greater degree than did females, providing the first evidence of sex-specific antipredator behaviour in foraging mosquito larvae. 5. Because sexual size dimorphism is common across taxa, and energetic demands are probably correlated with size dimorphism, this research demonstrates the importance of investigating sex-specific behaviour and behavioural responses to enemies, and cautions against generalising results between sexes.
The relationship between treatment settings and diagnostic attributions of depression among African Americans.

Abstract Objective To explore the relationship between treatment setting characteristics and diagnostic attributions of depression among community-dwelling African Americans. Methods Data come from the National Survey of American Life, a nationally representative sample of African Americans and Caribbean Blacks. Major Depression (MD) was assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Inventory. Participants were categorized into four diagnostic groups: never MD, MD never attributed to physical health problems (i.e., affective depression), MD sometimes attributed to physical health problems (i.e., complicated depression), and MD always attributed to physical health problems (i.e., physical depression). Multinomial regression was used for assessment. Results Among 441 participants, 66.4% were classified as affective depression, 17.8% as complicated depression and 15.8% as physical depression. Seeking treatment from a mental health professional was associated with increased likelihood of being in the complicated depression group [adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 5.52; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.28–13.36]. Seeking treatment from a family doctor was associated with physical depression (AOR: 2.93; 95% CI: 1.18–7.26). Seeking care from three or more different health care providers was associated with complicated depression (AOR: 1.99; 95% CI: 1.17–3.40). Conclusion Results suggest that encounters with health care providers influence the diagnostic attribution of depression in a systematic manner.
Exposing data-level parallelism in sequential image processing algorithms

As new computer architectures are developed to exploit large-scale data-level parallelism, techniques are needed to retarget legacy sequential code to these platforms. Sequential programming languages force programmers to include sequential artifacts in their code, particularly with respect to how the source code expresses data references (generally assuming a linear address space). In contrast, data-parallel programs apply many operations in parallel to elements in two-dimensional data sets, and a given data parallel operation can access other spatially local elements along either dimension. Of key importance in exposing data parallelism is determining these two-dimensional data dependencies among elements of a matrix. This paper presents a reverse engineering technique for identifying such dependencies in sequential image processing code, using pattern matching on an attributed dataflow representation of the program. The technique is applied to common image filtering algorithms. The technique is validated by retargeting to a Matlab program and matching the results against those of the original source.
Computergestützte Bürokommunikation: Exodus aus dem industriellen Zeitalter

Versucht man, die Impulse der neuen Technologien zu messen, ergeben sich fur einen Markt- oder Meinungsforscher verschiedene Probleme: 1. Es gibt nur auserordentlich wenig Menschen, die uber Wissen uber diese neuen Technologien verfugen oder gar Erfahrung in deren Anwendung haben. 2. Die Technologie selbst entwickelt sich so auserordentlich schnell, das wir die bestehenden Anwendungen als Zwischenlosungen be-trachten mussen. 3. Es findet kein freier Informationsaustausch uber die aktuellen Entwicklungen dieser Technologie statt. Wir haben also nicht einmal volle Kenntnis davon, was bereits entwickelt ist.
Architectural Review Boards and Their Impact on Property Price and Time-on-Market

This paper investigates the impact of privately-administered architectural review boards on property price and marketing time and, thus, their financial efficacy. Additionally, the paper demonstrat...
Clinical social work: Past, present and future, challenges and dilemmas

(1980). Clinical social work: Past, present and future, challenges and dilemmas. Smith College Studies in Social Work: Vol. 50, No. 3, pp. 193-202.
Isolation and characterization of Xenopus ATM (X-ATM): expression, localization, and complex formation during oogenesis and early development.

ATM, the gene product mutated in Ataxia Telangiectasia (A-T) encodes a 350-kDa protein involved in the regulation of several cellular responses to DNA breaks. We used a degenerate PCR-based strategy to isolate a partial clone of X-ATM, the Xenopus homologue of human ATM. Sequence analysis and confirmed that the clone was most closely related to human ATM. Xenopus ATM protein (X-ATM) is 85% identical to human ATM within the kinase domain and 71% identical over the carboxyl-terminal half of the protein. Polyclonal antibodies raised against recombinant X-ATM are highly specific for the ATM protein and recognize a single polypeptide of 370-kDa in oocytes, embryos, egg extracts and a Xenopus cell line. We found that X-ATM was expressed maternally in eggs and as early as stage II pre-vitellogenic oocytes, and the protein and mRNA were present at relatively constant levels throughout development. Subcellular fractionation showed that the protein was nuclear in both the female and male germlines. The level of X-ATM protein did not change throughout the meiotic divisions or the synchronous mitotic cycles of cleavage stage embryos. In addition, we did not observe any change in the level or mobility of X-ATM protein following γ-irradiation of embryos. Finally, we also demonstrated that X-ATM was present in a high molecular weight complex of approximately 500 kDa containing the X-ATM protein and other, as yet unidentified component(s).
Pioners and All: The Beginnings of Shakespeare Film

It was bright in London on that day toward the close of the nineteenth century—or at least there were bright intervals. In the early morning the sun sparkled on the silver Thames, and as one strolled north along the Victoria Embankment from Westminster Bridge, Wordsworth's sonnet came to mind. Farther north still, as the river turned more and more to the east above Charing Cross it was pleasant to wander in the gardens. This was historic ground. At the foot of Buckingham Street was the seventeenth century Water Gate of York House and then the region known as the Adelphi, built by the brothers Adam. It had once been the site of Durham House, the home of the fourteenth century Bishop of Durham, and later of Lady Jane Grey and of Sir Walter Raleigh. Adelphi Terrace, looking on the Thames, had been inspired by Robert Adam's visit to the palace of Diocletian at Spalato though remodeling had now altered its original design. Robert and James Adam had resided at No. 4; Thomas Hardy had worked at No. 8; the Savage Club occupied Nos. 6 and 7. There were dramatic associations too. David Garrick had lived and died at No. 5; Richard D'Oyly Carte was in the Adam residence; and Bernard Shaw had recently moved into No. 10.
Orthopaedic trauma education: how many to train and how to pay for it?

SUMMARY Fellowship training has become an expected extension of residency. The OTA has led the way in orthopaedics with a carefully orchestrated process, which has evolved to meet the needs of the growing interest in postgraduate orthopaedic trauma fellowships. The OTA developed the Center for Orthopaedic Trauma Advancement in a time when industry support of fellowships was declining. With the growth in fellowship programs to meet the growth of fellowship applicants, quality control has become an issue. Given that every fellowship experience is unique and the lack of regulatory control for non-Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education programs, the OTA has initiated its own accreditation process. The purpose of this article is to discuss current trends in orthopaedic trauma fellowship education regarding how many fellows should be trained, how to adequately pay for this training, and how the current dilemmas in fellowship training could be avoided. These issues are vital to understand in the context of health policy issues surrounding orthopaedic trauma.
Phosphatidylinositol turnover in mitogen-activated lymphocytes. Suppression by low-density lipoproteins

Low-density (LD) lipoproteins inhibit phytohaemagglutinin-enhanced turnover of phosphatidylinositol in human peripheral lymphocytes. Turnover was assessed by 32P incorporation into phospholipids and by loss of 32P from [32P]phosphatidylinositol. Inhibition of lipid turnover by LD lipoproteins is not the result of a change in the amount of phytohaemagglutinin required for maximum cellular response. Neither phytohaemagglutinin nor LD lipoproteins influence 32P incorporation into phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine during the first 60min after mitogenic challenge. The extent of inhibition of phosphatidylinositol turnover by LD lipoproteins depends on the concentration of LD lipoproteins present in the incubation medium: 50% of maximum inhibition occurs at a low-density-lipoprotein protein concentration of 33μg/ml and maximum inhibition occurs at low-density-lipoprotein protein concentrations above 100μg/ml. Phytohaemagglutinin stimulates 32P incorporation into phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylinositol phosphate and phosphatidylinositol bisphosphate. However, LD lipoproteins abolish 32P incorporation into phosphatidylinositol without affecting incorporation into phosphatidylinositol phosphate and phosphatidylinositol bisphosphate. The ability of LD lipoproteins to inhibit phytohaemagglutinin-induced phosphatidylinositol turnover is mimicked by EGTA. Furthermore, inhibition of LD lipoproteins by phytohaemagglutinin-induced 32P incorporation into phosphatidylinositol correlates directly with inhibition by LD lipoproteins of Ca2+ accumulation. These results suggest that Ca2+ accumulation and turnover of phosphatidylinositol are coupled responses in lymphocytes challenged by mitogens. The step in phosphatidylinositol metabolism that is sensitive to LD lipoproteins and, by inference, that is coupled to Ca2+ accumulation is release of [32P]phosphoinositol from phosphatidylinositol.
From care of the poor to the great confinement: an exploration of hospital accounting in France

ABSTRACTThis study examines hospital accounting practices in France during the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries in order to illustrate differences between the role and mission of the Hotel-Dieu and the Hopital General. The Hotel-Dieu originated during the medieval period as a place of refuge for the sick and the poor, whereas the Hopital General was created during the seventeenth century as a way of resolving problems associated with a growing population of beggars and vagrants in French cities. The accounting records of the Hotel-Dieu appear to follow the charge-and-discharge system of accounting similar to that employed by ecclesiastical and governmental institutions of the same time period. Although the accounts of the Hopital General also followed the charge-and-discharge system, those accounts appear to have been prepared with the direct authority of a Treasurer operating under a Board of Commissioners appointed by the King, thus indicating a greater emphasis on internal control. The similarit...
The epistemology of a rule-based expert system: a framework for explanation

Production rules are a popular representation for encoding heuristic knowledge in programs for scientific and medical problem solving. However, experience with one of these programs, MYCIN, indicates that the representation has serious limitations: people other than the original rule authors find it difficult to modify the rule set, and the rules are unsuitable for use in other settings, such as for application to teaching. These paroblems are rooted in fundamental limitations in MYCIN''s original rule representation: the view that expert knowledge can be encoded as a uniform, weakly-structured set of if/then associations is found to be wanting. To illustrate these problems, this paper examines MYCIN''s rujles from the perspective of a teacher trying to justify them and to convey a problem-solving approach. We discover that individual rules play different roles, have different kinds of justifications, and are constructed using different rationales for the ordering and choice of premise clauses. This design knowledge, consisting of structural and strategic concepts which lie outside the representation, is shown to be procedurally embedded in the rules. Moreover, because the data/hypothesis associations are themselves a proceduralized form of underlying disease models, they can only be supported by appealing to this deeper level of knowledge. Making explicit this structural, strategic and support knowledge enhances the ability to understand and modify the system.
Impact of Fellow Versus Resident Assistance on Outcomes Following Pancreatoduodenectomy.

Participation by surgical trainees in complex procedures is key to their development as future practicing surgeons. The impact of surgical fellows versus general surgery resident assistance on outcomes in pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) has not been well studied. The purpose of this study was to determine differences in patient outcomes based on level of surgical trainee. Consecutive cases of PD (n = 254) were reviewed at a single high-volume institution over a 2-year period (July 2013–June 2015). Thirty-day outcomes were monitored through the American College of Surgeon’s National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) and Quality In-Training Initiative. Patient outcomes were compared between PD assisted by general surgery residents versus hepatopancreatobiliary fellows. The hepatopancreatobiliary surgery fellows and general surgery residents participated in 109 and 145 PDs, respectively. The incidence of each individual postoperative complication (renal, infectious, pancreatectomy-specific, and cardiopulmonary), total morbidity, mortality, and failure to rescue were the same between groups. Patient operative outcomes were the same between fellow- and resident-assisted PD. These results suggest that hepatopancreatobiliary surgery fellows and general surgery residents should be offered the same opportunities to participate in complex general surgery procedures.
Stoichiometric and Catalytic Oxidation by a Binuclear Cu(I) Dioxygen Macrocyclic Complex Derived from Pyridine-2,6-Dicarboxaldehyde and Bisdien

The 2+2 condensation of pyridine-2,6-dicarbo×aldehyde with BISDIEN produces a macrocyclic tetra Schiff base with a 24-membered ring in good yield. The macrocycle reacted with two equivalents of Cu(CH3CN)4PF6 to form a binuclear Cu(l) complex. The latter complex reacted with one equivalent of dioxygen to produce a complex which is believed to contain a µ-peroxo group bridging the metal centers. The half-life of this dioxygen complex was found to be about 100 minutes at 25 °C. The dioxygen complex was found to oxidize the substrates 2,6-dimethoxyphenol, 2,6-ditertiarybutylphenol, hydroquinone, tertiary-butylhydroquinone, 3,5-ditertiarybutylcatechol, 4-tertiarybutylcatechol, 4-methylcatechol, and 3,4-dimethyl-aniline. All of the redox reactions are catalytic, except for those of the last three substrates, with from three to five turnovers. The cycling of these catalytic reactions require that the binuclear Cu(ll) complex formed in the initial (two-electron) substrate oxidation also be an active oxidant of the same substrate. The binuclear Cu(ll) complex of the tetra Schiff base ligand was also synthesized and used as an oxidant for the substrates listed above. Only the substrates that were catalytically oxidized were also oxidized by the binuclear Cu(ll) macrocyclic complexes. The substrates that were not catalytically oxidized were not oxidized at measurable rates by the Cu(ll) complex. Comparison of the initial rate constants for oxidations by the binuclear Cu(l) dioxygen complex and for the binuclear Cu(ll) macrocyclic tetra Schiff base complex show that for the substrates examined, the Cu(l) dioxygen complex exhibits a significantly higher rate than does the Cu(ll) complex.
Literature, Innovation, and Buddhist Philosophy: Shabkar’s Nine Emanated Scriptures

This article is about the Tibetan Buddhist poet-saint Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol’s (1781–1851) nine “emanated scriptures” (Tibetan, sprul pa’i glegs bam ). Described by Shabkar as being “unprecedented,” the “emanated scripture” is the single largest genre represented in his Collected Works . In this article, I examine the significance of the emanated scripture using a literary perspective that remains cognizant of the texts’ original religio-cultural background. After considering the Buddhist philosophical context in which Shabkar understood his nine emanated scriptures, I demonstrate how an analysis of simile, intertextuality, textual structure, and style: (1) illuminates facets of the texts that may have otherwise remained unnoticed in traditional Buddhist contexts, (2) modifies the prevalent notion in Buddhist and Tibetan studies that traditional Tibetan society did not value newness, and (3) represents an important step towards understanding Shabkar’s written legacy and the relationship between religion and literature in comparative religious contexts.
Trade Openness and Life Expectancy Nexus in Less-Developed Countries

The welfare effect of trade on growth is widely studied. However, only a few studies focus on the effects of trade on health. This paper investigates the long-run relationship between international trade and population health, as measured by life expectancy, in 25 less-developed countries (LDCs). Annual data spanning over 1965 to 2013 and panel data techniques that are robust to endogeniety issues and cross-sectional dependence are employed. This study draws two main conclusions: (a) international trade and life expectancy have a positive long-run relationship; and (b) the causal relationship is bi-directional. Implying that trade might be both the cause and the consequence of population health. Consequently, LDCs should adopt policies that promote trade and quality of life, simultaneously.
Composition and verification of student-oriented courses

In the last few years, the popularity of online degrees has dramatically increased. In current online degrees, the school specifies the courses required to obtain a degree. For each course, the instructor specifies the course elements including teaching method and assessments. But different students have different capabilities and constraints. Most institutions provide the same courses. A student should be able to select the course that best matches his capabilities and constraints as long as it satisfies the required course outcomes. To achieve this goal, we propose the use of service-oriented architecture (SOA). We introduce an extended service-oriented architecture and an extended service definition, which will enable the specification and provision of student-oriented courses. We also propose a formal composition approach. To formally verify the result of the composition, we have also introduced a formal verification approach using the model checking tool UPPAAL.
Detecting Virtualization Specific Vulnerabilities in Cloud Computing Environment

As the enabling technology, virtualization plays an important role in cloud computing by providing the capability of running multiple operating systems and applications on top of the same underlying hardware. Early detection of vulnerability in virtualization is vital for virtualization performance and to protect against attacks that may lead to information leak or virtual machine(VM) escape. While current bug finding tools can detect common flaws in software implementation, many of the virtualization vulnerabilities are unique to cloud platform and can hardly be addressed by existing techniques. The discovery of these vulnerabilities often requires specific domain knowledge and a significant amount of manual effort. In this paper, we conducted analyses of known vulnerabilities disclosed in recent years in different virtualization platforms, studied the differences between vulnerabilities in virtualization and traditional software vulnerabilities and categorized them into different groups. Based on the analyses, we propose to detect these vulnerabilities by extending symbolic execution techniques and designed a detection framework for virtualization platforms which can detect bugs in virtualization implementations.
The convergence of public and nonprofit values: A research agenda for the intersectoral study of representative bureaucracy

Public administration scholarship has yielded important insights about the extent to which government bureaucracies function as representative institutions. While evidence suggests women and minorities fare better in obtaining higher level positions within government versus the private sector, much less is known about the career trajectories in the third sector. The rise of nonprofit employment has been attributed to widespread government contracting, resulting in a model of government-nonprofit relationships described as complementary and mutually beneficial. Since both are “public-serving,” government and nonprofits share many values. Representative bureaucracy represents one such common value. This article explores the capacity of nonprofit organizations in furthering the aims of representative bureaucracy, and proposes a research agenda for the comparative study of public and nonprofit employment
CloudDB: Components for exploring shared data with MIT app inventor

Data sharing through Cloud technology is one of the most powerful new computer science concepts of the past few decades. As such, developing powerful and easy-to-use tools for incremental learning and application of shared data concepts is an important endeavor. My work focuses on using MIT App Inventor, a popular blocks-based mobile application development tool for teaching computational thinking to young students, to make shared data technology understandable and usable by anyone without the need for extensive computer science training. I present the ongoing development of CloudDB, a set of coding blocks for MIT App Inventor that allows users to store, retrieve, and share various types of data in tag-value pairs on a Redis server for their mobile applications.
Machine-Specific Magnetic Resonance Imaging Quality Control Procedures for Stereotactic Radiosurgery Treatment Planning

Purpose Magnetic resonance (MR) images are necessary for accurate contouring of intracranial targets, determination of gross target volume and evaluation of organs at risk during stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatment planning procedures. Many centers use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) simulators or regular diagnostic MRI machines for SRS treatment planning; while both types of machine require two stages of quality control (QC), both machine- and patient-specific, before use for SRS, no accepted guidelines for such QC currently exist. This article describes appropriate machine-specific QC procedures for SRS applications. Methods and materials We describe the adaptation of American College of Radiology (ACR)-recommended QC tests using an ACR MRI phantom for SRS treatment planning. In addition, commercial Quasar MRID3D and Quasar GRID3D phantoms were used to evaluate the effects of static magnetic field (B0) inhomogeneity, gradient nonlinearity, and a Leksell G frame (SRS frame) and its accessories on geometrical distortion in MR images. Results QC procedures found in-plane distortions (Maximum = 3.5 mm, Mean = 0.91 mm, Standard deviation = 0.67 mm, >2.5 mm (%) = 2) in X-direction (Maximum = 2.51 mm, Mean = 0.52 mm, Standard deviation = 0.39 mm, > 2.5 mm (%) = 0) and in Y-direction (Maximum = 13. 1 mm , Mean = 2.38 mm, Standard deviation = 2.45 mm, > 2.5 mm (%) = 34) in Z-direction and < 1 mm distortion at a head-sized region of interest. MR images acquired using a Leksell G frame and localization devices showed a mean absolute deviation of 2.3 mm from isocenter. The results of modified ACR tests were all within recommended limits, and baseline measurements have been defined for regular weekly QC tests. Conclusions With appropriate QC procedures in place, it is possible to routinely obtain clinically useful MR images suitable for SRS treatment planning purposes. MRI examination for SRS planning can benefit from the improved localization and planning possible with the superior image quality and soft tissue contrast achieved under optimal conditions.
Anatomical feature-guided mutual information registration of multimodal prostate MRI

Radiological imaging of prostate is becoming more popular among researchers and clinicians in searching for diseases, primarily cancer. Scans might be acquired at different times, with patient movement between scans, or with different equipment, resulting in multiple datasets that need to be registered. For this issue, we introduce a registration method using anatomical feature-guided mutual information. Prostate scans of the same patient taken in three different orientations are first aligned for the accurate detection of anatomical features in 3D. Then, our pipeline allows for multiple modalities registration through the use of anatomical features, such as the interior urethra of prostate and gland utricle, in a bijective way. The novelty of this approach is the application of anatomical features as the pre-specified corresponding landmarks for prostate registration. We evaluate the registration results through both artificial and clinical datasets. Registration accuracy is evaluated by performing statistical analysis of local intensity differences or spatial differences of anatomical landmarks between various MR datasets. Evaluation results demonstrate that our method statistics-significantly improves the quality of registration (compared to the non-feature guided registration). Although this strategy is tested for MRI-guided brachytherapy, the preliminary results from our experiments suggest that it can be also applied to other settings such as transrectal ultrasound-guided or CT-guided therapy, where the integration of preoperative MRI may have a significant impact upon treatment planning and guidance.
Assessment of Faculty in Teacher Education Programs

There are numerous approaches to faculty evaluation. This chapter presents relevant research findings, references to instruments, and specific criteria and methods for evaluating teaching, research, and service.
Specific reduction of carboxyl groups in peptides and proteins by diborane

1. The reaction of several peptides and proteins with diborane was studied under different conditions to determine those most suitable for the specific reduction of carboxyl groups. 2. In the reaction of model peptides and the cyclic peptides bacitracin and tyrocidin, reduction at 0° was entirely specific for the carboxyl groups without affecting the peptide bonds. Acid amide residues were not reduced. Some tripeptides showed anomalous results in that the C-terminal residue was quite resistant to reduction. 3. Specific reduction of carboxyl groups was achieved in each of the following proteins: human serum albumin, egg albumin, adult human haemoglobin, sperm-whale apomyoglobin, horse heart cytochrome c and egg-white lysozyme. The C-terminal amino acid was usually reduced. 4. Conditions for specific reduction of all available carboxyl groups are not easily found and may vary from one substance to another. Specific reduction of a limited number of available carboxyl groups may be generally accomplished by reactions at −10°. 5. It is suggested that this chemical modification, which has the advantage of permanence, may be useful in studying the role of carboxyl groups in the conformation of proteins and in the biological properties of peptides and proteins.
Liquidity uncertainty and Bitcoin’s market microstructure

Abstract This paper provides a novel measure of liquidity uncertainty for Bitcoin using bid–ask spread data from Bitfinex − one of the largest and most liquid Bitcoin exchanges. This measure can be used to analyze liquidity developments in Bitcoin exchanges or to gauge the immediacy associated with buying or selling Bitcoin. It then proceeds to identify what aspects of Bitcoin’s market microstructure can explain the time series behavior of this liquidity uncertainty. The estimation results are based on a Markov regime-switching model that captures episodes of high and low liquidity uncertainty for Bitcoin over the period from October 2013 to March 2018.
Modeling the Human-Robot Trust Phenomenon: A Conceptual Framework based on Risk

This article presents a conceptual framework for human-robot trust which uses computational representations inspired by game theory to represent a definition of trust, derived from social psychology. This conceptual framework generates several testable hypotheses related to human-robot trust. This article examines these hypotheses and a series of experiments we have conducted which both provide support for and also conflict with our framework for trust. We also discuss the methodological challenges associated with investigating trust. The article concludes with a description of the important areas for future research on the topic of human-robot trust.
Economic Incentives for Patient Safety Improvement: An Analysis of Hospital Adverse Event Costs and Where They Fall

Patient safety advocates argue that the high costs of medical errors and adverse events create a financial incentive for hospitals to invest in technologies and systems improvements that will reduce preventable medical injuries. However, if hospitals themselves do not actually incur much of these costs, their incentives for safety improvement may be inadequate. To determine the amounts that hospitals incur in medical-injury-related expenses and the amounts they externalize to other payers, we analyzed previously collected data on 465 adverse events derived from medical record reviews of 12,514 patients discharged from 24 acute care hospitals in Utah and Colorado hospitals. We calculated the total societal costs of adverse events and negligent adverse events, the injury-related costs absorbed by hospitals, and the costs that were externalized to other payers. On average, for every patient treated, the sampled hospitals generated injury-related total costs of $4,434 and negligent-injury-related costs of $3,811 in 1992 dollars. Total costs varied substantially across hospitals, from $40 to nearly $15,000 per admission. A very high proportion (91%) of the total costs of hospital adverse events was borne by parties other than the hospital. On average, hospitals externalized injury-related costs in the amount of $4,252 per admission ($3,673 per admission for negligent injuries). In order to give hospitals strong incentives for safety improvement, legal reforms or market or policy interventions may be required to address the problem of externalization of injury costs.
Recruiting Adolescents from Medicaid Enrollment Files into a Neighborhood Oral Health Study.

Introduction:Strategies are needed to improve recruitment of low-income adolescents into oral health studies.Objectives:In this study, we assessed the feasibility of recruiting Medicaid-enrolled ad...
Colonisation of finfish substrate inhabited by black soldier fly larvae by blow flies, bacteria, and fungi

Black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens (L.) (Diptera: Stratiomyidae) can be used for recycling a wide variety of organic wastes. However, these wastes are also suitable for colonisation by pest fly s...
Clinicopathological correlation of radiologic measurement of post-therapy tumor size and tumor volume for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Abstract Objectives Tumor size measurement is critical for accurate tumor staging in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, accurate tumor size measurement is challenging in patients who received neoadjuvant therapy before resection, due to treatment-induced fibrosis and tumor invasion beyond the grossly identified tumor area. In this study, we evaluated the correlation between the tumor size and tumor volume measured on post-therapy computed tomography (CT) scans and the pathological measurement. Also, we investigated the correlation between these measurements and clinicopathological parameters and survival. Materials and methods Retrospectively, we evaluated 343 patients with PDAC who received neoadjuvant therapy, followed by pancreaticoduodenectomy and had pre-operative pancreatic protocol CT imaging. We measured the longest tumor diameter (RadL) and the radiological tumor volume (RadV) on the post-therapy CT scan, then we categorized RadL into four radiologic tumor stages (RTS) based on the current AJCC staging (8th edition) protocol and RadV based on the median. Pearson correlation or Spearman’s coefficient (δ), T-test and ANOVA was used to test the correlation between the radiological and pathological measurement. Chi-square analysis was used to test the correlation with the tumor pathological response, lymph-node metastasis and margin status and Kaplan-Meier and Cox-proportional hazard for survival analysis. P-value Results As a continuous variable, RadL showed a positive linear correlation with the post-therapy pathologic tumor size in the overall patient population (Pearson correlation coefficient: 0.72, P Conclusion Although RadL tends to understage ypT in PDAC patients who had no radiologically detectable tumor or small tumors (RTS0 or RTS1), radiologic measurement of post-therapy tumor size may be used as a marker for the pathologic tumor staging and tumor response to neoadjuvant therapy.
Simulation of Fluid-Structure Interaction in Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Circulatory Support Systems

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a vital mechanical circulatory support modality capable of restoring perfusion for the patient in circulatory failure. Despite increasing adoption of ECMO, there is incomplete understanding of its effects on systemic hemodynamics and how the vasculature responds to varying levels of continuous retrograde perfusion. To gain further insight into the complex ECMO:failing heart circulation, computational fluid dynamics simulations focused on perfusion distribution and hemodynamic flow patterns were conducted using a patient-derived aorta geometry. Three case scenarios were simulated: (1) healthy control; (2) 90% ECMO-derived perfusion to model profound heart failure; and, (3) 50% ECMO-derived perfusion to model the recovering heart. Fluid-structure interface simulations were performed to quantify systemic pressure and vascular deformation throughout the aorta over the cardiac cycle. ECMO support alters pressure distribution while decreasing shear stress. Insights derived from computational modeling may lead to better understanding of ECMO support and improved patient outcomes.
Cognitive Digital Twin for Manufacturing Systems

A digital twin is the virtual replica of a physical system. Digital twins are useful because they provide models and data for design, production, operation, diagnostics, and autonomy of machines and products. Hence, the digital twin has been projected as the key enabler of the Visions of Industry 4.0. The digital twin concept has become increasingly sophisticated and capable over time, enabled by many technologies. In this paper, we propose the cognitive digital twin as the next stage of advancement of a digital twin that will help realize the vision of Industry 4.0. Cognition, which is inspired by advancements in cognitive science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, will enable a digital twin to achieve some critical elements of cognition, e.g., attention (selective focusing), perception (forming useful representations of data), memory (encoding and retrieval of information and knowledge), etc. Our main thesis is that cognitive digital twins will allow enterprises to creatively, effectively, and efficiently exploit implicit knowledge drawn from the experience of existing manufacturing systems and enable the transfer of higher performance decisions and control and improve the performance across the enterprise (at scale). Finally, we present open questions and challenges to realize these capabilities in a digital twin.
Radiation-sparing reduced-intensity unrelated umbilical cord blood transplantation for rare hematological disorders in children.

Graft failure is a major pitfall of unrelated umbilical cord blood transplantation (CBT) in children with rare hematological disorders other than acute leukemia, such as acquired and inherited bone marrow failure, myelodysplastic syndrome, juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, and chronic myeloid leukemia. We developed a less-toxic conditioning regimen for CBT that achieves a higher rate of complete donor chimerism, and retrospectively compared it against two other conditioning regimens for CBT performed at our single institution. The engraftment rate with complete donor chimerism was 100% and 5-year event-free survival (5y-EFS) was 90.9% in patients using our latest regimen (n = 11) of reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) containing fludarabine (Flu) 180 mg/m2, melphalan (MEL) 210 mg/m2, and low-dose rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin (LD-rATG) 2.5 mg/kg without irradiation (regimen C). Outcomes were better than in patients (n = 10) treated with previous regimens involving irradiation (5y-EFS 30.0%, p = 0.004): regimen A, consisting of myeloablative conditioning containing cyclophosphamide (CY) and total body irradiation (TBI) with 8-12 Gy, or regimen B, consisting of RIC with Flu, CY, horse ATG, and thoracoabdominal irradiation (TAI) with 6 Gy. In conclusion, Flu/MEL/LD-rATG (regimen C) without TBI/TAI may be preferable as RIC for unrelated CBT in children with rare hematological disorders.