cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Epidemiology of firearm and other noise exposures in the United States

Objective Identify contemporary noise exposures and hearing protection use among adults. Study Design Cross-sectional analysis of national health survey. Methods Adult respondents in the 2014 National Health Interview Series hearing survey module were analyzed. Potentially harmful exposures to occupational and recreational noises in the past 12 months were extracted and quantified. Patterns of hearing protection use also were analyzed. Results Among 239.7 million adults, “loud” and “very loud” occupational noise exposures were reported by 5.3% and 21.7%, respectively. Of those exposed to “loud” or “very loud” sounds at work, only 18.7% and 43.6%, respectively, always used hearing protection. A total of 38.2% (1.9 million) of those with “very loud” occupational exposures never used hearing protection. Frequent (> 10/year) “loud” and “very loud” recreational noise exposures were reported by 13.9% and 21.1%, respectively, most commonly to lawn mowers (72.6% and 55.2%, respectively). When exposed to recreational “loud/very loud” noise, only 11.4% always used hearing protection, whereas 62.3% (6.3 million) never used any protection. Lifetime exposure to firearm noise was reported by 36.6% of adults, 11.5% of whom had used firearms in the prior 12 months. Of those, only 58.5% always used hearing protection, whereas 21.4% (7.4 million) never used hearing protection. Conclusion Substantial noise exposures with potentially serious long-term hearing health consequences frequently are occurring in occupational and recreational settings, and with the use of firearms. Only a minority of those exposed consistently are using hearing protection. Healthcare providers should actively identify and encourage the use of hearing protection with those patients at risk. Level of Evidence 4. Laryngoscope, 127:E340–E346, 2017
SDN-Based Traffic Aware Placement of NFV Middleboxes

Network function virtualization (NFV) enables flexible deployment of middleboxes as virtual machines running on general hardware. Since different middleboxes may change the volume of processed traffic in different ways, improper deployment of NFV middleboxes will result in hot spots and congestion. In this paper, we study the traffic changing effects of middleboxes, and propose software-defined networking based middlebox placement solutions to achieve optimal load balancing. We formulate the traffic aware middlebox placement (TAMP) problem as a graph optimization problem with the objective to minimize the maximum link load ratio. First, we solve the TAMP problem when the flow paths are predetermined, such as the case in a tree. For a single flow, we propose the least-first-greatest-last (LFGL) rule and prove its optimality; for multiple flows, we first show the NP-hardness of the problem, and then propose an efficient heuristic. Next, for the general TAMP problem without predetermined flow paths, we prove that it is NP-hard even for a single flow, and propose the LFGL based MinMax routing algorithm by integrating LFGL with MinMax routing. We use a joint emulation and simulation approach to evaluate the proposed solutions, and present extensive experimental and simulation results to demonstrate the effectiveness of our design.
Safety of inhaled corticosteroids in the treatment of persistent asthma.

Objective: Inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) are the most effective medications available for patients with persistent asthma of all severities and currently are recommended as the preferred asthma controller therapy by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Nevertheless, lingering concerns about potential adverse systemic effects of ICSs contribute to their underuse. This review discusses the safety of ICSs with respect to potential systemic effects of most concern to physicians and patients. Methods: Articles reporting on the safety of ICSs in children and adults with persistent asthma were identified from the Medline database from January 1966 through December 2003, reference lists of review articles and international respiratory meetings. Results: Ocular effects of ICSs and ICS effects on bone mineral density and adrenal function are minimal in patients maintained on recommended ICS doses. One-year growth studies in children have shown decreased growth velocity with ICSs, but long-term studies with inhaled budesonide and beclomethasone show no effect on final adult height, suggesting that these effects are transient. In addition, extensive data from the Swedish Medical Birth Registry show no increased risk of adverse perinatal outcomes when inhaled budesonide is administered to pregnant women with asthma. Conclusions: ICSs have minimal systemic effects in most patients when taken at recommended doses. The benefits of ICS therapy clearly outweigh the risks of uncontrolled asthma, and ICSs should be prescribed routinely as first-line therapy for children and adults with persistent disease.
Multirate Vibration Attenuation Beyond Nyquist Frequency with Performance, Stability and Robustness Analysis

Abstract In digital/sampled-data motion control systems, the system outputs are only available at certain rates. This sets a great challenge to high-precision motion control systems that subject to high-frequency disturbances, since the feedback regulator cannot directly observe the inter-sample outputs. To handle such situations, a robust multirate control approach is proposed in this paper to enhance disturbance attenuation at high frequencies, including those, under certain conditions, near and beyond the Nyquist Frequency. First, based on the Youla parameterization of all stabilizing controllers, an add-on compensator based on multirate observer is constructed using the a priori nominal model of the disturbance dynamics. Then robust design of a proper Q filter is formulated via the theory of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) robust control, which guarantees the closed-loop stability in the presence of norm-bounded model uncertainties. Effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by simulations on a hard disk drive (HDD) benchmark problem, where the inter-sample position errors are approximately recovered and high-frequency disturbance is greatly attenuated with guaranteed closed-loop stability.
Returns from Concentration Camps

The article is concentrated on the Czech post-war literature, especially on the Czech treatment of the theme regarding returns from concentration camps in the novels written in the second half of 20th century and in contemporary literature. The presented novels, thematizing the mentioned topic, are viewed as representations of those days discourses shaped by the “course of history”. Therefore, the article follows variation of the theme as well as the modification of heros in connection with the transformation of discourses, and tries to describe the reasons of the changing.
Acoustic cues to linguistic profiling? Machine learning of phonetic features of African American English

Listeners can readily differentiate words spoken in an African American English (AAE) dialect from a Standard American English (SAE) dialect, even in absence of distinctive morphosyntactic features. However, it is still unclear what acoustic-phonetic cues listeners utilize to rapidly distinguish AAE from SAE. This study investigates the informativeness of various acoustic-phonetic cues to the characterization of AAE dialect. V and VC sequences (with C = /n/, /m/, /l/, /r/) from speech of 7 female speakers (4 SAE and 3 AAE), recorded during sociolinguistic interviews, were randomly selected and acoustically analyzed, controlling for coarticulatory context. Acoustic cues of F1, F2, F3, F4 formant trajectories, formant bandwidth, pitch variation, duration, intensity, and voice quality measures (e.g., harmonic-to-noise ratio, jitter, shimmer, and spectral slope) were measured in these segments to identify the extent of their contribution to separating AAE and SAE. The results from machine learning modeling of acoustic cues demonstrate that speech within an AAE dialect entails distinct acoustic characteristics and voice quality compared to SAE speech. These separate acoustic patterns between AAE and SAE dialect indicate the need for including dialect-specific acoustic cues both in automatic speech recognition applications and clinical assessments of speech-language disorders.
Understanding Design Vulnerabilities in the Physical Environment Relating to Patient Fall Patterns in a Psychiatric Hospital: Seven Years of Sentinel Events.

BACKGROUND: The influence of the physical environment on patient falls has not been fully explored in psychiatric units, despite this patient population’s vulnerability and the critical role of the physical environment in patient safety. AIMS: The research objective is to describe the spatial and temporal pattern of falls occurrences and their location in relation to the levels of safety continuum model. METHOD: This article presents an exploratory case study design. Seven years of retrospective data on patient falls, yielding 818 sentinel events, in an 81-bed psychiatric hospital in the United States were collected and analyzed. Data focused on extrinsic factors for falls, emphasizing the physical environment. Through a content analysis of the sentinel event narratives, recorded by the hospital staff, this study explored patient falls related to location and elements of the physical environment. RESULTS: The analysis revealed that 15% of recorded falls were attributed to some aspect of or element within ...
Regulation and Properties of the Coated Vesicle Proton Pump

Vacuolar acidification plays a crucial role in a number of basic cellular processes in eukaryotic cells (for review see Forgac, 1989). Thus, following receptor-mediated endocytosis, exposure of ligand-receptor complexes to a low pH within the endosomal compartment activates ligand-receptor dissociation, thus allowing receptor-recycling to occur. Receptor-recycling in turn controls the rate of uptake into cells of macromolecules such as LDL, transferrin and asialoglycoprotein. Receptor-recycling is also crucial in controlling the sensitivity of cells to hormones and growth factors, such as insulin and EGF. Exposure to a low pH within endosomes is also responsible for entry of the cytotoxic portions of many envelope viruses and toxins into cells. In addition to its role in the endocytic pathway, vacuolar acidification is crucial for the correct intracellular targeting of newly synthesized lysosomal enzymes from the Golgi to lysosomes, for the processing and degradation of macromolecules in secretory and digestive organelles, and for coupled transport processes in various vacuolar compartments.
Condorcet's Paradox with Three Candidates

Condorcet formally developed the notion of cyclical majorities over two centuries ago (Condorcet, 1785), and Peter Fishburn introduced me to that phenomenon in 1971. When Peter first described the idea behind Condorcet’s Paradox during a course in Social Choice Theory at Pennsylvania State University, my response was that the phenomenon simply could not happen. When he reproduced the classic example of its existence with three voters and three candidates, my immediate response was that this phenomenon certainly could not be very likely to ever be observed in realistic situations. Peter quickly suggested that I should work on developing some estimates of the probability that the paradox might occur, and very soon afterward that pursuit began. We completed many co-authored papers on related topics over the following years, but it is only after more than 30 years of effort that I feel a good answer can be given to the challenge that Peter presented in that classroom in 1971. The following essay can be viewed as a long overdue course project report, and we can finally see a theoretical model that clearly explains why observations of Condorcet’s Paradox are so rare in elections on a small number of candidates.
Cutting propagation and container production of 'Flora Sun' beach sunflower.

Abstract Helianthus debilis Nutt. ssp. debilis ‘Flora Sun’, ‘Flora Sun’ beach sunflower, is a native, herbaceous perennial that should be propagated by cuttings to maintain its genetic and phenotypic fidelity. Stem cuttings were treated with a quick dip of a potassium salt of 1H-indole-3-butyric acid (K-IBA) solution at 0, 250, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, or 3000 mg/liter (ppm) and rooted under intermittent mist. The root systems of six of twelve cuttings were harvested 17 and 21 days after treatment. The remaining six cuttings were transplanted in a soilless substrate to determine the effects of K-IBA on establishment in containers. Treatment of stem cuttings with K-IBA increased the number of roots and root fresh weight when cuttings were rooted under summer greenhouse conditions, but K-IBA did not provide any substantial short-term benefits in survival or growth of rooted cuttings after they were transplanted into plastic containers.
The U.S. Constitution (Wildenthal annotated edition 2020)

This posting constitutes an annotated edition of the Constitution of the United States of America, as proposed by the 1787 Convention, ratified in 1788, and effective in 1789, together with the amendments ratified since that time. This edition may be of most use to law students, but may also be of interest to law professors, other scholars, and the general public. Extensive annotations, which may be of particular interest, are provided by Professor Wildenthal to the Reconstruction Amendments (1865-70) (13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments) at pages 16-21, to the 25th Amendment (1967) at pages 25-27, and to the 27th Amendment (1992) at pages 28-29. Please cite as: Wildenthal, U.S. Constitution (annotated ed. 2020).
Anti-IL17 therapies for psoriasis.

Introduction: Interleukin-17 (IL-17) is a proinflammatory cytokine considered to play a significant role in the immunopathogenesis of plaque psoriasis. As a result, focus in clinical trials has und...
Traumatic Orthopaedic Injury Is Not an Independent Risk Factor for High Postdischarge Opioid Consumption.

Introduction The purpose of this study was to quantify how opioid use in patients with traumatic injury compared with opioid use in patients undergoing elective arthroplasty. Methods In a retrospective review, 235 adult trauma patients treated surgically for fracture were compared with 98 patients undergoing elective total hip or knee arthroplasty. Inpatient, discharge, and postdischarge opioid use were recorded in oral morphine equivalents (OMEs). Results There were no differences between trauma and elective arthroplasty patients for inpatient opioid use (OME/day: 70.2 vs. 67.3; P = 0.53), discharge prescription (OME: 542 vs. 594; P = 0.13), or postdischarge opioid use (OME: 986 vs. 1,147; P = 0.29). Postdischarge opioid use was positively correlated with Caucasian race, intensive care unit admission, baseline alcohol or opioid use, and higher discharge prescriptions (P < 0.0001; adjusted R2 = 0.127). Discharge prescription amount was the most significant predictor. Discussion Traumatic injury is not a predictor of high post-discharge opioid use. Demographic, social, and physician prescribing behaviors contribute to higher postdischarge opioid consumption.
Emerging Role of SOX Proteins in Breast Cancer Development and Maintenance

The SOX genes encode a family of more than 20 transcription factors that are critical regulators of embryogenesis and developmental processes and, when aberrantly expressed, have been shown to contribute to tumor development and progression in both an oncogenic and tumor suppressive role. Increasing evidence demonstrates that the SOX proteins play essential roles in multiple cellular processes that mediate or contribute to oncogenic transformation and tumor progression. In the context of breast cancer, SOX proteins function both as oncogenes and tumor suppressors and have been shown to be associated with tumor stage and grade and poor prognosis. Experimental evidence demonstrates that a subset of SOX proteins regulate critical aspects of breast cancer biology including cancer stemness and multiple signaling pathways leading to altered cell proliferation, survival, and tumor development; EMT, cell migration and metastasis; as well as other tumor associated characteristics. This review will summarize the role of SOX family members as important mediators of tumorigenesis in breast cancer, with an emphasis on the triple negative or basal-like subtype of breast cancer, as well as examine the therapeutic potential of these genes and their downstream targets.
A case of gastrointestinal histoplasmosis with esophageal involvement

Histoplasmosis is a common infection endemic to the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys caused by the inhalation of Histoplasma capsulatum spores from contaminated soil. Most infections are asymptomatic; however, patients with impaired cellular immunity (HIV infection, hematologic malignancy, solid organ transplant, hematopoietic stem cell transplant or TNF-⍺ inhibitor use) are at risk for disseminated disease. Disseminated histoplasmosis commonly affects the lungs, liver, spleen, bone marrow and gastrointestinal tract. Esophageal involvement is rare and usually due to extrinsic compression from affected mediastinal/hilar lymph nodes. Herein, we report a case of disseminated histoplasmosis in an AIDs patient involving the esophagus, without evidence of mediastinal involvement.
Introduction to Synthetic Aperture Radar

SAR is first and foremost a radar mode that allows creation of images or maps. Each pixel in a SAR image is a measure of radar energy reflected from that location in the target scene. All the usual advantages of radar apply; penetration of weather, dust, smoke, etc. Images are formed taking advantage of coherent processing of radar echoes from multiple pulses, or over extended observation intervals.
Unpredictable maternal behavior is associated with a blunted infant cortisol response.

Author(s): Norona-Zhou, Amanda N; Morgan, Alyssa; Glynn, Laura M; Sandman, Curt A; Baram, Tallie Z; Stern, Hal S; Davis, Elysia Poggi | Abstract: BackgroundDysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is associated with poor physical and mental health. Early-life adversity may dysregulate cortisol response to subsequent stress. This study examines the association between patterns of maternal behavior and infant stress response to a challenge. Specifically, we test whether infant exposure to unpredictable maternal sensory signals is related to the cortisol response to a painful stressor.MethodParticipants were 102 mothers and their children enrolled in a longitudinal study. Patterns of maternal sensory signals were evaluated at 6 and 12nmonths during a 10-min mother-infant play episode. Entropy rate was calculated as a quantitative measure of the degree of unpredictability of maternal sensory signals (visual, auditory, and tactile) exhibited during the play episode. Infant saliva samples were collected for cortisol analysis before and after inoculation at 12nmonths.ResultsUnpredictable patterns of maternal sensory signals were associated with a blunted infant cortisol response to a painful stressor. This relation persisted after evaluation of covariates including maternal sensitivity and maternal psychological distress.ConclusionsThis study provides evidence that unpredictable patterns of maternal sensory signals are one process through which caregiving affects the function of infant stress response systems.
Natural history of the oldest known females with mucopolysaccharidosis type IVA (Morquio A syndrome)

Mucopolysaccharidosis Type IVA (MPS IVA), also known as Morquio A syndrome, is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder that results from variants in the GALNS gene that encodes the enzyme galactosamine-6-sulfate sulfatase. This syndrome has systemic manifestations including, but not limited to, musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, rheumatologic, neurologic, dental, ophthalmologic, and otologic. This condition is usually detected within the first few years of life with an average life expectancy of 25.3 ± 17.43 years. We report the natural history of two of the oldest known females with MPS IVA, who were each clinically diagnosed at 4 years of age and who are now 74 and 70 years of age, respectively. They are both affected by pathogenic variants c.319G>A (p.Ala107Thr) and c.824 T>C (p.Leu275Pro) in the GALNS gene.
Historical Thinking with Avatars in an Undergraduate Course on Early Christianity

History simulations have been shown to promote student learning in classrooms throughout higher education. In an undergraduate course on the New Testament and early Christianity, we sought to foster student learning by having students participate in history simulations that involved the use of fictitious personas known as avatars. In this paper we describe the avatar activities in these simulations, and we examine the effects of our simulations on students’ abilities in “historical thinking”: that is, engaging in the interpretive practices that historians use to reconstruct the past. We argue that our avatar simulations helped our students build upon, refine, and deepen their abilities in historical thinking in small but perceptible ways. We end by noting the extent to which our findings align with research on the use of history simulations and by identifying ways to develop our project moving forward.
Increased Tibiofemoral Rotation with Increasing Severity of Patellar Instability in the Pediatric Population

Objectives:Tibiofemoral rotation (TFR), specifically external tibial rotation, has been recently identified as a potential contributing factor to patellar instability. However, no previous studies ...
Facing new fears during the COVID-19 pandemic: The State of America's mental health.

Abstract Objective COVID-19 is rearranging our society with fear and worry about the novel coronavirus impacting the mental health of Americans. The current study examines the intersection of COVID-19 fear, worries and perceived threat with social vulnerabilities and mental health consequences, namely anxiety and depressive symptomatology. Methods Using an online platform, a national sample (n = 10, 368) of U.S. adults was surveyed during the week of March 23, 2020. The sample was post-strata weighted to ensure adequate representation of the U.S. population based on population estimates for gender, race/ethnicity, income, age, and geography. Results Fear and worry are not distributed equally across the country; rather they are concentrated in places where the largest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is found. Additionally, data highlight significant differences in the subjective perception of distress across groups with varying social vulnerabilities. Women, Hispanics, Asians, families with children under 18, and foreign-born respondents reported higher levels of subjective fear and worry compared to their counterparts. Finally, even after controlling for social vulnerability, subjective assessments of distress were positive, and significantly related to anxiety and depressive symptomatology; prior mental health research from China and Europe confirm what others have begun to document in the United States. Conclusions This preliminary work provides practitioners with a glimpse of what lies ahead, which individuals and communities may be the most vulnerable, and what types of strategic interventions might help to address a wide range of mental health consequences for Americans in the months and years ahead.
Effect of Diabetes Control on Rates of Structural and Functional Loss in Patients with Glaucoma.

Purpose To investigate the association between levels of diabetes mellitus (DM) control and rates of visual field and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) loss over time in glaucoma. Design Retrospective cohort study. Participants A total of 351 eyes of 222 patients with type 2 DM with concomitant primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) or suspected glaucoma extracted from the Duke Glaucoma Registry. Methods All patients had at least 2 reliable standard automated perimetry (SAP) tests, 2 spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT) tests, and 2 glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) measures over time with a minimum follow-up of 6 months. Values of HbA1c were summarized for each patient as mean, peak, and fluctuation across time. Multivariable linear mixed models were used to estimate the effect of HbA1c on rates of change in SAP mean deviation (MD) and OCT RNFL thickness loss over time while adjusting for various confounding factors. Main Outcome Measures Rates of change in MD and RNFL thickness over time. Results Subjects had a mean baseline age of 62.5 ± 10.2 years and follow-up time of 6.9 ± 5.1 years. Subjects had an average of 4.8 SAP tests (range, 2–28), 3.6 SD-OCT tests (range, 2–10), and 8.3 HbA1c tests (range, 2–21). Average HbA1c mean was 7.1% ± 1.1% (range, 5.4–11.7), peak HbA1c over time was 8.1% ± 2% (range, 5.5–15.6), and HbA1c fluctuation was 0.6% ± 0.6% (range, 0–4.4). Mean rate of SAP MD change was −0.09 ± 0.20 decibel/year (median −0.06 decibel/year; interquartile range −0.15 to 0.01 decibel/year), and mean rate of RNFL change was −0.83 ± 0.51 μm/year (median −0.76 μm/year; interquartile range −1.06 to 0.56 μm/year). After adjustment for confounding factors, mean, peak, and fluctuation in HbA1c levels were not significantly associated with rates of MD change over time (P = 0.994, P = 0.689, P = 0.920, respectively), nor were rates of change in RNFL loss over time (P = 0.805, P = 0.575, P = 0.770). Conclusions We did not find a significant association between diabetes control, as measured by levels of HbA1c, and rates of visual field or RNFL loss over time in individuals with glaucoma or suspected glaucoma.
Tan Zi Xi, Yodogawa Technique, and Cai Lun: Exploring Paper, Pollution, and Environmental Advocacy

As an elementary art educator, I direct an art program that focuses on a particular culture from a different part of the world each year that serves as the inspiration for our annual student art sh...
The school principal and the development of social capital in primary schools: the formative years

Focusing on primary school principals’ espoused strategies for developing social capital over their early years in the principal’s office, we show that investing in social capital was a core challe...
Computational Approach in Drug Development for Obesity

Currently, obesity is a major menacing global health problem and the leading cause of mortality among men and women. The incidence of obesity and overweight has been escalating. Malaysian statistics showed that there was a great increase in the past two decades. The increase is attributed to a lack of awareness of obesity and its risk-related diseases. Currently, the available treatments such as drugs and surgery have not produced significant results to overcome the obesity problem. Therefore, the development of a novel therapeutic approach to obesity remains one of the most challenging medical problems. Phyto-compounds have been identified as a class of promising anti-obesity agents with fewer or no side effects in humans. Substrate-based drug design (SBDD) is an effective computational biology method to find the anti-obesity drug. Thus, the new target protein is constructed using Swiss model and molecular dynamics simulated. Then, it was validated by PROCHECK, ERRAT, WHATCHECK, WHATIF, PROSA, Verify 3D, Pro-Q, GROMOS and ANOLEA. The active sites of the target protein are obtained using Q-site Finder or Active site prediction server. After that, molecular docking is performed to determine the binding affinity between the target protein and plant compounds. The best docking score is determined based on the lowest binding energy (kcal/mol) and the highest number of hydrogen bonds in their interaction. Finally, the stability target protein complex compound is assessed by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation tools. Therefore, the phyto-compound structure-based drug discovery may be potential as an anti-obesity agent.
Fun and Engaging Pre-CS1 Programming Languages

The CSforALL movement to bring computational thinking to K-12 has been a boon for practitioners and language developers. This panel features three educators passionate about a particular lan- guage that has been successful with K-12 audiences. Each will demonstrate their language, describe what makes it unique, and share some of the fun and engaging projects students have created.
A Review of Home Range Sizes of Four Raptor Species of Regional Conservation Concern

Knowledge of the home range size (HRS) of species is critical for their effective management and conservation. We systematically searched the open literature for information on HRS for Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), Prairie Falcon (Falco mexicanus), and Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo regalis). We found 24 articles with HRS estimates and accompanying methodology and demographic information on sampled individuals. Most studies focused on Bald Eagles, followed by Golden Eagles, Prairie Falcons, and Ferruginous Hawks. HRS estimates for the Golden Eagle were the largest and had the greatest associated variance (m = 8797 km2; 95% CI, 0–47,284 km2). Estimates for Bald Eagle HRS were smaller, with a mean of 2215 km2 (95% CI, 0–12,472 km2). Prairie Falcon and Ferruginous Hawk HRS estimates were much smaller, with means of 156 km2 (95% CI, 0–415.22 km2) and 22 km2 (95% CI, 0–96.88 km2), respectively. HRS estimates varied substantially across period (breeding/nonbreeding), sex, age class, fix type, and estimation method for all species, and this finding points to the importance of accounting for the context of these estimates. The information can be used to inform other efforts to characterize the spatial use of these 4 raptors.
How to Measure Cyber-Resilience of a System With Autonomous Agents: Approaches and Challenges

Researchers developed approaches to assess the performance of cyber-physical systems, their exposure to various types of threats, and the ability of cybersecurity components and systems to withstand disruptions. System resilience, defined as an ability to absorb, recover from, and adapt to cyber-attacks, has been studied less, and the situation is further complicated by the increased number of autonomous agents, i.e., hardware and software, which act on its own without human intervention. These agents can increase or decrease system resilience depending on their design and critical functions. Systems enabled with autonomous agents have the potential to respond to cyber-attacks with speed and scale that are unachievable with purely human defenders, but the mere presence of autonomous agents in the system adds vulnerabilities and can reduce resilience. Most assessment approaches have limitations with respect to measuring cyber-resilience, especially in systems with autonomous agents enabled with artificial intelligence. In this article, we provide an overview of several approaches related to the assessment of cybersecurity and the practical challenges in applying such approaches to measure cyber-resilience of systems with autonomous agents. We propose directions for research and practice on the development of effective cyber-resilience measures .
The presence of colon polyps is associated with specific plasma oxylipids in obese men

Oxylipid, oxygenated fatty acid (FA), changes are associated with increased inflammation, inflammation-induced colon carcinomas, and colon tumor survival. Therefore, oxylipid changes may be indicat...
Grey Predictor Reference Model For Assisting Particle Swarm Optimization for Wind Turbine Control

This paper proposes an approach of forming the average performance by Grey Modeling, and use an average performance as reference model for performing evolutionary computation with error type control performance index. The idea of the approach is to construct the reference model based on the performance of unknown systems when users apply evolutionary computation to fine-tune the control systems with error type performance index. We apply this approach to particle swarm optimization for searching the optimal gains of baseline PI controller of wind turbines operating at the certain set point in Region 3. In the numerical simulation part, the corresponding results demonstrate the effectiveness of Grey Modeling.
Public-key registration

A procedure is described for securely initializing cryptographic variables in a large number of network terminals. Each terminal has a cryptographic facility which performs all necessary cryptographic functions. A key distribution center is established, and a public and secret key pair is generated for the key distribution center. Each terminal in the network is provided with a terminal identification known to the key distribution center. The terminal identification and the public key of the key distribution center are stored in the cryptographic facility of each terminal. A terminal initializer is designated for each terminal, and the terminal initializer is notified of two expiration times for the purpose of registering the terminal's cryptovariable with the key distribution center. The cryptovariable is generated by the terminal using its cryptographic facility. Prior to the first expirations time, a registration request is prepared and transmitted to the key distribution center. The registration request includes the terminal identification and the cryptovariable. When the key distribution center receives this request, the cryptovariable is temporarily registered and that fact is acknowledged to the requesting terminal. After the expiration of the second time, the registration is complete. Provisions are also made for invalidating a terminal identification if more than one registration is attempted for a given terminal identification or an intended registration was not made in time.
When Lying Does Not Pay: How Experts Detect Insurance Fraud

A growing literature has focused on understanding how to detect and deter unethical consumer behavior. In this work, we focus on a particularly important type of unethical consumer behavior, consumer insurance fraud, and we analyze a unique dataset to understand how experts investigate suspicious claims. Two separate but related literatures inform the process of investigating suspicious insurance claims. The first literature is grounded in field research and emphasizes the importance of secondary sources. The second literature is grounded in laboratory studies that emphasize the importance of interpersonal interactions. Here we draw upon both literatures to consider the importance of claimant interviews within the context of many investigative actions and the potential for claimants to avoid interviews. In an empirical study using qualitative and quantitative data from auto insurance claim investigations, we analyze investigative chronologies conducted by skilled experts. In doing so, we find that even when investigators can access information from a variety of sources such as witnesses, databases, and physical evidence, claimant interviews are the most important step in determining whether or not claims are denied or paid. Furthermore, we identify interpersonal avoidance as an important signal of unethical claimant behavior. Our findings inform deception detection theory and practice. We identify implications for deception detection in business, particularly for consumer unethical behavior and insurance fraud investigations.
A Comparison of the Resistance of Human and Horse Ferrihemoglobin to Acid Denaturation

Abstract Many of the stability characteristics of horse ferrihemoglobin (Hb+) in acid solutions, such as pH dependence and susceptibility to stabilization by iron ligands, are shared by human ferrihemoglobin, but striking differences between the two proteins exist. The most noticeable is the much greater rate of denaturation of the human protein at all pH values. Other differences include a shift to higher pH in the equilibrium between native and acid-denatured forms, differences in the temperature at which the temperature effect on the equilibrium-pH curve reverses, a complete absence in human Hb+ of the dependence of regeneration rate on extent of denaturation that is found with horse Hb+, and a related failure of the regeneration kinetics of human Hb+ to follow the inhibited regeneration model developed for horse Hb+. pH-stat experiments, and rapid flow titration curves of both native and denatured forms, indicate that human Hb+ has about four more masked groups (presumably imidazoles) than horse Hb+, although both proteins contain the same number of histidine residues. Although regeneration as measured by reappearance of the Soret band occurs readily, there is very little remasking of the liberated groups unless a stabilizing ligand (cyanide) is present; even then recovery is far from complete. It has been observed with both proteins that the band at 370 mµ, characteristic of denatured oxidized heme-protein complexes, disappears much more rapidly during regeneration than the Soret band, characteristic of native protein, reappears. The discrepancy is more marked with human than with horse Hb+.
Involvement of Threonine Deaminase in Repression of the Isoleucine-Valine and Leucine Pathways in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

l-Threonine deaminase (l-threonine dehydratase [deaminating], EC 4.2.2.16) has been shown to be involved in the regulation of three of the enzymes of isoleucine-valine biosynthesis in yeast. Mutations affecting the affinity of the enzyme for isoleucine also affected the repression of acetohydroxyacid synthase, dihydroxyacid dehydrase, and reductoisomerase. The data indicate that isoleucine must be bound for effective repression of these enzymes to take place. In a strain with a nonsense mutation midway in liv 1, the gene for threonine deaminase, starvation for isoleucine or valine did not lead to derepression of the three enzymes; starvation for leucine did. The effect of the nonsense mutation is recessive; it is tentatively concluded, therefore, that intact threonine deaminase is required for derepression by two of the effectors for multivalent repression, but not by the third. A model is presented which proposes that a regulatory species of leu tRNA(leu) is the key intermediate for repression and that threonine deaminase is a positive element, regulating the available pool of charged leu tRNA by binding it.
Evaluation of the Premier EHEC assay for detection of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of Shiga toxins (Premier EHEC assay; Meridian Diagnostics, Inc.) was compared to conventional sorbitol-MacConkey culture for the recovery of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli. A total of 74 enteric pathogens, including 8 E. coli O157:H7 isolates, were recovered from 974 stool specimens. Two of these specimens were not tested by Premier assaying due to insufficient sample and are not considered in the data analysis. The Premier EHEC assay detected the 6 evaluable specimens which were culture positive for E. coli O157:H7 and identified an additional 10 specimens as containing Shiga toxin. Seven isolates were recovered from these 10 specimens by an immunoblot assay and were confirmed as toxin producers by a cytotoxin assay. Of these seven, four isolates were serotype O157:H7, one was O26:NM, one was O6:H-, and one was O untypeable:H untypeable. Three specimens contained Shiga toxin by both EHEC immunoassaying and cytotoxin testing; however, no cytotoxin-producing E. coli could be recovered. The sorbitol-MacConkey method had a sensitivity and a specificity of 60 and 100%, respectively, while the Premier EHEC assay had a sensitivity and a specificity of 100 and 99.7%, respectively, for E. coli O157:H7 only. The Premier EHEC assay also detected an additional 20% Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) that were non-O157:H7. Thus, the Premier EHEC assay is a sensitive and specific method for the detection of all STEC isolates. Routine use would improve the detection of E. coli O157:H7 and allow for determination of the true incidence of STEC other than O157:H7. The presence of blood in the stool and/or the ages of the patients were poor predictors of the presence of STEC. Criteria need to be determined which would allow for the cost-effective incorporation of this assay into the routine screen for enteric pathogens in high-risk individuals, especially children.
Resolution of large and small differences in gene expression using models for the Bayesian analysis of gene expression levels and spotted DNA microarrays.

Background: The detection of small yet statistically significant differences in gene expression in spotted DNA microarray studies is an ongoing challenge. Meeting this challenge requires careful examination of the performance of a range of statistical models, as well as empirical examination of the effect of replication on the power to resolve these differences. Results: New models are derived and software is developed for the analysis of microarray ratio data. These models incorporate multiplicative small error terms, and error standard deviations that are proportional to expression level. The fastest and most powerful method incorporates additive small error terms and error standard deviations proportional to expression level. Data from four studies are profiled for the degree to which they reveal statistically significant differences in gene expression. The gene expression level at which there is an empirical 50% probability of a significant call is presented as a summary statistic for the power to detect small differences in gene expression. Conclusions: Understanding the resolution of difference in gene expression that is detectable as significant is a vital component of experimental design and evaluation. These small differences in gene expression level are readily detected with a Bayesian analysis of gene expression level that has additive error terms and constrains samples to have a common error coefficient of variation. The power to detect small differences in a study may then be determined by logistic regression.
Recursion in Generative Grammar

The term recursion has been used in generative grammar to describe two separate but related phenomena, one concerning the internal structure of linguistic expressions and the other, the computational mechanisms that generate this internal structure. From an internalist perspective, the latter is primary, while the former is apparently of secondary importance. This becomes clear when we consider the history of modern generative grammar, in particular the rationale behind the reduction of transformational grammar (i.e., phrase structure rules and transformations) to the single operation Merge. The recursive structure-building character of Merge accounts for the unbounded character of human language, involving a discrete infinity of interpretable expressions. To the extent that Merge is the sole structure-building operation in a grammar, it is a prime candidate for what is unique about language and languages. The criticisms of this proposal generally fail to make the appropriate distinction between the grammar in the mind of a speaker, a computational system and a lexicon (i.e., an I-language), and the set of linguistic expressions generated by the grammar. Given that former determines the properties of the latter, we also need to consider the role of the lexicon in this discussion of recursion.
Cyclin in fission yeast

Genetic studies of the fission yeast cell cycle have identified the cdc2 gene as a critical regulator of M phase (Nurse and Thuriaux, 1980). The gene encodes a protein kinase (Simanis and Nurse, 1986) that is homologous to the product of the CDC28 cell cycle "start" gene of budding yeast (Beach et al., 1982). More recently it has become apparent that all eukaryotes including man have a similar protein kinase (Draetta et al., 1987; Lee and Nurse, 1987). Recent evidence suggests that the Xenopus homolog of the cdc2 product is a component of maturation promoting factor (MPF; Dunphy et al., 1988; Gautier et al., 1988), an activity that is capable of driving interphase nuclei into a mitotic state both in vivo and in vitro and that oscillates during the mitotic cell cycle (Gerhart et al., 1984; Newport and Kirschner, 1984).
Nonlinear models for fastened structural connections

Abstract Fasteners are complicated structural assemblies, the full stress analysis of which requires the consideration of a three-dimensional problem involving friction, contact, nonlinear material properties and other factors, such as mode of installation, etc. A number of idealizing decisions are necessary in order to make the problem tractable by numerical methods. This generally means that the problem has to be reduced to a two-dimensional one. The objectives are to compute (a) the forces acting on individual fasteners and (b) the critical combinations of stresses or strains in the neighborhood of the most heavily loaded fasteners. An efficient and convenient approach is presented for modeling the transfer of forces in fastener groups. The interaction between the fastener and the two-dimensional elastic body is modeled by normal displacements imposed on distributed springs. Friction is treated by the addition of external tractions in an iterative process. Each fastener is represented by a nonlinear relation between the transferred force and the relative displacements. This relation may be obtained from a detailed three-dimensional analysis or from tests. Approximate solutions are obtained by means of the p -version of the finite element method. After condensing out the linear degrees of freedom, the nonlinear equations are solved using the Powell hybrid method. The accuracy of the method is verified through tight quality control of the numerical approximation errors and comparisons with experimental results.
A Sense of Place in Museum Public Programming: Three Case Studies

AbstractWhile place-based education has its roots in the school system, ideas and techniques of the theory are easily adaptable to the museum community. This article showcases the efforts of three museums to apply place-based learning to their programs and exhibits. Innovative approaches to museum learning have enabled the Pratt Museum in Homer, Alaska, the Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle, Washington, and the College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum in Price, Utah to better engage museum audiences within the walls of the museum as well as in the greater community. Through application of place-based learning, these museums have found a new voice and power to fulfill the missions of their institutions.
The somnolent metabolic rate (SMR) as an aid in the differential diagnosis of thyroid dysfunction.

DESPITE advances which have been made in our understanding of the essential nature of thyroid disease, the differential diagnosis of varying functional states often remains difficult. Much of the confusion has arisen because few objective methods have been developed to determine actual thyroid activity. In general, thorough and thoughtful clinical investigation remains a significant factor in arriving at a diagnosis. Nevertheless, the serum cholesterol, the basal metabolic rate, the serum protein-bound iodine, as well as radioactive iodine uptake studies all have been accepted as valuable adjuncts in determining the clinical diagnosis. In our hands the blood cholesterol has not shown sufficiently consistent change to be of any real help in indicating thyroid dysfunction. Although an elevated basal metabolic rate suggests overactivity of the thyroid gland and, more commonly, a lowered rate indicates diminished activity, it is recognized that the BMR may be affected by other factors in the presence of norma...
Fatigue Loads on the Foundation due to Turbine Rotor Eccentricity

This paper is concerned with the effect of rotor eccentricity on the turbine behavior and the shaft deflection which affect the load on the foundation and on the turbine bearings. An analytical technique for determining the housing motion and foundation forces for a rotating machine having a prescribed mass center eccentricity distribution is developed and discussed.