cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Conceptualizing Livelihood Strategies in African Cities: Planning and Development Implications of Multiple Livelihood Strategies

The usefulness of the informal sector and the survival strategies approaches for understanding African urban economies has been undermined by the transformations in urban livelihood strategies brought about by the continent's economic crises and neoliberal economic reform policies. Contemporary livelihood strategies in many African cities involve participation in multiple economic activities, usually in both the formal and informal sectors. This paper proposes the “multiple modes of livelihood” (MML) approach as a framework for capturing this emerging livelihood strategy and presents evidence to show the magnitude of the strategy and the kind of activities undertaken. Development and planning implications of this strategy include the following: i) planning theories must reflect the changing livelihood in African cities; ii) the different geographies of such activities within and between urban areas, the proliferation of home-based enterprises in the middle- and professional-class neighborhoods, the emerge...
Parent Reports of Behavioral and Emotional Problems among Children in Kenya, Thailand, and the United States

The behavioral and emotional problems children develop may differ from one cultural context to another. We explored this possibility, comparing 11-15-year-old Embu children in Kenya, Thai children, African-American children, and Caucasian-American children. Standardized parent reports on 118 problems revealed 62 significant (p Language: en
The Allocation of Federal Money to House Committee Members: Distributive Theory and Policy Jurisdictions

Empirical tests of congressional organization theories have generally focused on the prerequisites for committee power (e.g., committee composition and rule-based institutional power) rather than on the policy implications of this alleged power. Although policy scholars have long studied the allocation patterns of federal outlays, congressional scholars have heretofore generally provided—but not systematically tested—hypotheses regarding the disproportionate allocation of policy benefits to committee members. This analysis presents a critical, but tractable, test of the policy expectations of distributive theory across two House committees with varying jurisdictional dimensionality. Based on 1980s federal outlays to districts in agriculture, education, and labor programs, the evidence indicates that committees differ in regard to the level of allocational benefits they can confer upon themselves and that this difference is likely related to jurisdictional characteristics. In addition, the results indicate...
Incremental Commit Groups for Non-Atomic Trace Processing

We introduce techniques to support efficient non-atomic execution of very long traces on a new binary translation based, /spl times/86-64 compatible VLIW microprocessor. Incrementally committed long traces significantly reduce wasted computations on exception induced rollbacks by retaining the correctly committed parts of traces. We divide each scheduled trace into multiple commit groups; groups are committed to the architectural state after all instructions within and prior to each group complete without exceptions. Architectural state updates are only visible after future commit points are deferred using a simple hardware commit buffer. We employ a commit depth predictor to predict how many groups a trace will complete, thereby eliminating pipeline flushes on repeated rollbacks. Unlike atomic traces, we allow instructions to be freely scheduled across commit points throughout the trace to maximize ILP. Commit groups are formed after scheduling, allowing the commit points terminating each group to be inserted more optimally. Commit groups promote significantly faster convergence on optimized traces, since we salvage partially executed traces and splice the working parts together into new optimized traces. We use detailed models to demonstrate how commit groups substantially improve performance (on average, over 1.5/spl times/ on SPEC 2000) relative to atomic traces.
PROFESSORS' ATTITUDES TOWARD THE VIETNAM WAR

Are college professors really radicals and leftists as shown by their Vietnam War attitudes? To what extent are they interested in and informed about the war? How do their attitudes compare with those of the public at large? And why do they have the opinions they do? This paper gives the surprising results of a sample survey of professors in seventeen colleges in the Boston area. David Armor is Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social Relations, Harvard University. His associates in this study are graduate students at Harvard University.
Comparative genomics of Drosophila and human core promoters

Background The core promoter region plays a critical role in the regulation of eukaryotic gene expression. We have determined the non-random distribution of DNA sequences relative to the transcriptional start site in Drosophila melanogaster promoters to identify sequences that may be biologically significant. We compare these results with those obtained for human promoters.
Reconstructing Patterns of Information Diffusion from Incomplete Observations

Motivated by the spread of on-line information in general and on-line petitions in particular, recent research has raised the following combinatorial estimation problem. There is a tree T that we cannot observe directly (representing the structure along which the information has spread), and certain nodes randomly decide to make their copy of the information public. In the case of a petition, the list of names on each public copy of the petition also reveals a path leading back to the root of the tree. What can we conclude about the properties of the tree we observe from these revealed paths, and can we use the structure of the observed tree to estimate the size of the full unobserved tree T? Here we provide the first algorithm for this size estimation task, together with provable guarantees on its performance. We also establish structural properties of the observed tree, providing the first rigorous explanation for some of the unusual structural phenomena present in the spread of real chain-letter petitions on the Internet.
Seizure Disorder as a Risk Factor for Gastroesophageal Reflux in Children with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities

The proportion of children with severe neurodevelopmental disabilities, in whom symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux develop after gastrostomy placement, has not been well studied. The medical records of children who received a gastrostomy tube (with or without a simultaneous antireflux procedure) at our institution between 1987 and 1997 were reviewed to identify neurologically related diagnoses at the time of the gastrostomy, diagnostic tests ordered to detect reflux, and dates and reasons for re-admissions within 2 years of discharge. Of 102 patients studied, 37 received a gastrostomy tube alone. Complete follow-up data were available for 30 of these patients, 7 of whom (23%) required subsequent antireflux surgery within 2 years. Patients with a seizure disorder had greater than a 4-fold risk of re-admission for this operation compared with other patients (57% [4/7] vs. 13% [3/23]; P=0.03). In a child with severe neurodevelopmental disability, the existence of a seizure disorder at the time of a gastrostomy operation increases the risk of subsequently requiring an antireflux procedure by a factor of 4.
Beyond Watson and Crick: Programming DNA self-assembly for nanofabrication

The specificity of Watson-Crick base-pairing allows great control over the design and synthesis of artificial DNA nanostructures. Periodic one-dimensional (1D) tubes, 2D lattices, and 3D crystals are easily created from “DNA tiles” with spacings of 10–20 nanometers. “DNA origami” allows the folding of long DNA strands into arbitrary shapes and patterns up to about 100 nanometers in size with five nanometer features. This suggests that DNA self-assembly might be used for sublithographic fabrication of devices or even circuits. There are, however, a number of challenges. For example, compared to the inorganic materials used as semiconductors, DNA has poor electronic properties and must be augmented by other materials. Such challenges must be solved before DNA self-assembly can be used in a complete process for nanofabrication. We will present partial solutions to a few of them.
Pharmacoresistant epilepsy: From pathogenesis to current and emerging therapies

Almost one-third of people with epilepsy continue to have seizures despite appropriate antiepileptic drug treatment, placing them at considerable risk of cognitive and psychosocial dysfunction and death. We recommend early referral to an epilepsy center when seizures are difficult to control.
Cyclic codes over Z 4 of oddly even length

This paper classifies all cyclic codes over Z4 of length 2n,n odd. Descriptions are given in terms of discrete Fourier transforms, generator polynomials, parity check matrices, and the concatenated (a + b|b) construction. Some results about the minimum Lee weights of these codes and self-dual codes are also included.
p53 Mutation in Adenocarcinoma Arising in Retrorectal Cyst Hamartoma (Tailgut Cyst) Report of 2 Cases—An Immunohistochemistry/Immunoperoxidase Study

Retrorectal cyst hamartoma (RCH) is a rare benign cystic lesion located in the retrorectal space. Malignancy arising in such lesions is very uncommon. In this study, 2 cases of mucinous adenocarcinoma arising in RCH are presented. In one case, dysplastic epithelium lined the cyst wall, surrounding the area of carcinoma and suggesting a dysplasia-carcinoma progression in RCH. Adenocarcinoma and the dysplastic epithelium were strongly positive for p53 and Ki-67 and showed negative staining for p21 by immunohistochemistry. These findings are suggestive of a mutation in the p53 gene in the adenocarcinoma and in dysplastic epithelium lining the cysts, similar to the dysplasia-carcinoma sequence described for the development of colonic adenocarcinoma.
Lung Transplantation Is Increasingly Common Among Patients With Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis

Background The prevalence of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP) in U.S. coal miners has increased, and severe presentations are increasingly common.
Cooperation, Trust, and Justice

The complexity and pervasiveness of human cooperation make it both species typical for humans and unique among animals. Although the scale and intricacy of cooperation vary greatly across time and culture, it is central to human life, making cooperation an important evolutionary topic. In evolutionary theory, cooperation is defined as interactions in which two or more organisms provide benefits for each other (West et al., 2011). These exchanges may or may not be simultaneous, and the benefits can be the same (food for food) or different (food for information). Those who successfully exchange benefits (e.g., food sharing, information sharing, a division of labor) obtain significant fitness advantages (Cosmides & Tooby, 1992).
Equilibrium, Structure of Interests and Leadership: Adenauer's Survival as Chancellor1

In studies comparing the Bonn Republic with the Weimar Republic, few aspects of the former have received more attention from political scientists than its extraordinary political stability. Contrary to all expectations in the immediate postwar era, and under the same leadership, Germany's second try at parliamentary democracy has already outlasted the Nazi millennium and will soon have exceeded—successfully—the life span of its ill-fated democratic predecessor, the Weimar Republic. Interpretations abound which attribute the political stamina of the Bonn government to the economic prosperity of Western Germany, its Allied tutelage, its firm Western-oriented course, or its disenchantment with political extremism of either variety. Of particular interest to political scientists, however, are the theories which identify the political stability of the Bonn Republic with the “reign” of Konrad Adenauer from the beginning to this day.
Evaluation of Seepage, Internal Erosion, and Remedial Alternatives for East Branch Dam, Elk County, Pennsylvania

East Branch Dam is a Pittsburgh District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) dam that nearly failed in 1957, several years after construction. The dam is a zoned embankment that is 56 m (184 ft) high and 526 m (1,725 ft) long. Its primary purpose is flood control. Following the observation of muddy water flowing from a rock drain at the downstream toe of the dam, soon after construction, emergency drilling through the embankment exposed a void that demanded lowering the pool and subsequent grouting. Localized grouting was accomplished to treat the void but did not involve a comprehensive repair of the dam. The 1957 near failure of East Branch Dam represents an excellent case history that provides dam designers and operators today insight into the mechanisms of internal erosion within an embankment dam, and it underscores the need to quickly take all necessary actions to protect the public. Since the 1957 emergency, the project has performed satisfactorily and has been closely monitored with a network of piezometers, weirs, and alignment-settlement pins. Even though evidence of further internal erosion has not reappeared, the fundamental conditions that caused the original problem were not corrected by the 1957 emergency repairs. Recently, the dam was evaluated under the COE Screening Portfolio Risk Assessment (SPRA) program. In light of the 1957 incident, conditions of active seepage, and high phreatic pressures within the embankment, the SPRA program assigned East Branch a Dam Safety Action Classification (DSAC) rating of II, generally indicating that failure could begin during normal operations or be initiated as the consequence of an event. A potential failure mode analysis (PFMA) was conducted in 2008 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) as requested and participated in by the Pittsburgh District. The PMFA identified the potential for re-initiation of internal erosion at or near the cavity repair as the highest risk failure mode and a primary threat to public safety. Given these findings, the Pittsburgh District implemented a set of non-structural interim risk reduction measures (IRRM) in February 2008, including lowering of the pool to reduce risk of failure by an estimated 60 percent. The interim measures will allow the dam to operate safely until the COE determines the appropriate long-term remedy to address the structural deficiencies of East Branch Dam. In 2009, a joint COE–USBR PFMA was undertaken using procedures from both agencies. Current dam safety efforts involve reassessing potential failure modes, preparing a Dam Safety Modification Report, evaluating various remedial alternatives, and recommending a long-range repair plan for East Branch Dam. This paper examines the history of the dam, investigations performed, potential failure modes examined, and the range of remedial alternatives being considered.
On Velázquez and the Liberal Arts

Among all of Velazquez's works, certainly the extraordinary picture now known as Las Meninas represents the artist's most personal statement about himself. The inclusion in it of his own portrait—the single secure example of a self-image in his entire production—would alone support the claim. The physical location of the depicted scene also projects a personal realm. Although perhaps not understandable as the artist's studio in a strict sense, the room shown nonetheless certainly refers to the palace interior in which Velazquez lived and worked (Fig. 1).1 Velazquez portrays himself in the act of painting; he stands behind a group of figures who are ranged around the Infanta Margarita, youngest daughter of Philip IV and first offspring of his second queen, Mariana of Austria (Fig. 2). The huge canvas on which Velazquez apparently works, angled at the left of the space and only incompletely visible, is turned away from the spectator. The subject of the painting in progress on its surface therefore remains u...
WiFi Localization Experiments with an Unmanned Aircraft System

This paper presents an approach for localizing 802.11 WiFi sources using an unmanned aircraft system (UAS). An estimation algorithm is presented based on the unscented Kalman lter (UKF). The geographic position of emitting WiFi sources is estimated using the source MAC address for target identi cation and received signal strength indication (RSSI) measurements for geo-localization. Several di erent types of WiFi sources are examined. It is shown that accurate localization can be accomplished for certain antenna types. Results from experiments are presented to assess the performance of the algorithms.
C 12 ( p , p n ) C 11 Cross Section at 28 Gev

The ${\mathrm{C}}^{12}(p, pn){\mathrm{C}}^{11}$ cross section has been measured in the 28-Gev diffraction scattered proton beam of the Brookhaven AGS. Proton fluxes were determined using nuclear emulsions and the ${\mathrm{C}}^{11}$ activity induced in plastic scintillators was measured by internal scintillation counting. The cross section at 28 Gev is 25.9\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.2 mb, not significantly different from the values at 2 and 3 Gev.
Development of Generic Vehicles for Fleet-Level Analysis of Noise and Emissions Tradeoffs

A fleet-level analysis of technology impacts on environmental metrics via generic vehicle design is proposed. Vehicles are grouped into “vehicle classes” distinguished by the vehicle-level environmental metrics, which include fuel burn (as a surrogate of CO2 emissions), NOx emissions, and SEL noise contours. These groupings are compared against traditional seat class groupings. Target metrics are established for a subset of 94 airports by designing a series of tests of sequentially increasing complexity, with ideal generic vehicle designs minimizing the error distributions across these airports when vehicle-level performance is aggregated to fleet-levels. Latin hypercube design of experiments are employed to explore the Environmental Design Space (EDS), and Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis (SMAA) is used to evaluate potential generic vehicle designs against each other and identify the best designs for simultaneously matching aggregate fuel burn, NOx emissions, and DNL contours. In general, the average generic vehicles provide greater accuracy for each of these metrics across across the 94 airports for a representative six weeks of operations at these airports derived from various sources such as the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), as compared to the traditional approach of choosing a representative vehicle per class. The average generic vehicle approach works well for both vehicle-class and seat-class groupings, but the former leads to slightly tighter error distributions for all of the metrics.
Effect of Passage of Time on Reactions to Help and Harm

Reactions of 91 female Ss to being either helped or harmed were assessed over a period of 1 wk. Results showed that reactions to help and harm were significantly different and that there was no dissipation of these reactions over time.
Women’s Transnational Networks

This chapter analyzes Chinese women scientists’ and engineers’ strategies for establishing and utilizing their transnational networks in advancing their research, collaborations, and careers. This interpretation is delineated in the broader context of the global science and engineering space and the transnational science and engineering knowledge communities. Furthermore, a microcosm of Asian immigrant scientists, those who have moved to Silicon Valley, is analyzed and compared to the community of Chinese women studied in this book project.
Liraglutide Prevents Microvascular Insulin Resistance and Preserves Muscle Capillary Density in High Fat Diet Fed Rats

Muscle microvasculature critically regulates endothelial exchange surface area to facilitate transendothelial delivery of insulin, nutrients, and oxygen to myocytes. Insulin resistance blunts insulin-mediated microvascular recruitment and decreases muscle capillary density; both contribute to lower microvascular blood volume. Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and its analogs are able to dilate blood vessels and stimulate endothelial cell proliferation. In this study, we aim to determine the effects of sustained stimulation of the GLP-1 receptors on insulin-mediated capillary recruitment and metabolic insulin responses, small arterial endothelial function, and muscle capillary density. Rats were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 4 wk with or without simultaneous administration of liraglutide and subjected to a euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp for 120 min after an overnight fast. Insulin-mediated muscle microvascular recruitment and muscle oxygenation were determined before and during insulin infusion. Muscle capillary density was determined and distal saphenous artery used for determination of endothelial function and insulin-mediated vasodilation. HFD induced muscle microvascular insulin resistance and small arterial vessel endothelial dysfunction and decreased muscle capillary density. Simultaneous treatment of HFD-fed rats with liraglutide prevented all of these changes and improved insulin-stimulated glucose disposal. These were associated with a significantly increased AMPK phosphorylation and the expressions of VEGF and its receptors. We conclude that GLP-1 receptor agonists may exert their salutary glycemic effect via improving microvascular insulin sensitivity and muscle capillary density during the development of insulin resistance, and early use of GLP-1 receptor agonists may attenuate metabolic insulin resistance as well as prevent cardiovascular complications of diabetes.
Capuchins recognize familiar faces

Although growing neural evidence suggests that human and nonhuman primates share a similar face-processing mechanism, evidence from behavioural research has been mixed. If primates share a similar face-processing system, one would expect to observe similar behavioural effects in both human and nonhuman primates. A particularly robust effect observed in humans is the familiarity effect; humans are better able to recognize familiar as opposed to unfamiliar individuals. Here, we used a matching-to-sample paradigm to examine capuchin monkeys' ability to discriminate conspecific faces across three degrees of familiarity: individuals living in one's own social group (‘in-group’), individuals living in one's neighbouring group (‘out-group’) and completely unfamiliar individuals (‘unfamiliar’). We hypothesized that if capuchins utilize their knowledge of familiar individuals to help them discriminate photos of conspecific faces, then performance on the recognition task would increase with the familiarity of the individual. Capuchins were better able to individuate familiar in-group members and familiar out-group members compared to unfamiliar individuals, suggesting that familiarity affects capuchins' ability to discriminate conspecific faces, as it does that of humans and apes. However, there was no significant difference between in-group members and out-group members, suggesting that the concept of ‘familiarity’ may extend to individuals living in neighbouring groups that one interacts with regularly. This would be a fitness advantage for social species, like capuchins, which compete with neighbouring groups over access to food and mates. It may be an advantage for males in particular as they emigrate to neighbouring groups when they reach maturity.
Instrumentation and control system design for the Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility, Los Alamos National Laboratory

The instrumentation and control system (ICS) of the Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility (WETF), a facility for processing tritium for various applications and experiments at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, is described. The ICS integrates all of the WETF process subsystems into a single cohesive unit. The hardware and software of the ICS provide a broad range of functions for the WETF operation, all of which must be performed under stringent safety requirements, and all of which must have a relatively high level of availability, efficiency of operations, and modifiability. The ICS features automatic computerized control for all of the WETF subsystems and permits computer manual control with appropriate software interlocks for process reliability and efficiency. It incorporates distributed intelligence to perform the data acquisition and process control functions and provides a centralized control room with color graphics monitors for the man-machine interface. >
Design techniques of eNVM-enabled neuromorphic computing systems

The recently emerged research on “neuromorphic computing”, which stands for hardware acceleration of brain-inspired computing, has become one of the most active research areas in computer engineering. In this invited paper, we start with a background introduction of neuromorphic computing, followed by some examples of hardware acceleration schemes of learning and neural network algorithms on emerging nonvolatile memory (eNVM)-based neuromorphic computing engine. At the end, we share our prospects on the future technology challenges and advances of neuromorphic computing.
Timely News and Notes for Primary Care Providers From the American Diabetes Association

### Increased Risks of Infections in Diabetes According to Carey et al. ( Diabetes Care , doi.org/cjxp), individuals with diabetes, and especially those with type 1 diabetes, likely carry a substantially increased risk for infections in comparison to the general public. The authors say that the risk of infection attributable to diabetes likely represents a considerable burden for both patients and health care systems. They call for research to explore education and management strategies to reduce poor outcomes and point out that diabetes-related infection rates are only likely to go up as diabetes rates increase and the population ages. Notable for its large size, the study tracked infection rates and infection-related hospitalizations and mortality in just over 100,000 individuals with diabetes and just over 200,000 matched control individuals without diabetes in England between 2008 and 2015. The researchers then compared rates between individuals with and without diabetes and also between individuals with type 1 versus type 2 diabetes versus control individuals. Notably, they also adjusted the findings for a range of confounding factors such as smoking, BMI, and age—something that previous studies have not consistently accounted for. Compared to those without diabetes, patients with diabetes had higher rates of infections and hospitalization due to infection. Rate disparities were consistently greater in those with type 1 diabetes than in those with type 2 diabetes compared to control subjects. Bone and joint infections, sepsis, and cellulitis showed the largest disparities between individuals with type 2 diabetes and control subjects, whereas, for those with type 1 diabetes, bone and joint infections, sepsis, and endocarditis showed the greatest disparities versus control subjects. Adjusting for factors such as smoking, age, sex, BMI, and deprivation reportedly did not substantially change the outcomes. “People with diabetes, particularly type 1 diabetes, are at increased risk of serious infection, representing an important population burden,” the authors concluded. …
Structure Transformation and Cerium-Substituted Optical Response across the Carbonitridosilicate Solid Solution (LaδY1-δ)2Si4N6C (δ = 0-0.5).

Following an investigation proving La2Si4N6C crystallizes in a monoclinic space group, isostructural to Y2Si4N6C, the reportedly hexagonal (La0.5Y0.5)2Si4N6C was reinvestigated to examine the apparent crystal structure change across the solid solution. Initially, calculating the electronic structure and phonon density of states of (La0.5Y0.5)2Si4N6C in the P63mc space group revealed an imaginary phonon mode, which is indicative of a structural instability. Displacing the atoms along the pathway of the imaginary vibration led to a previously unreported space group for carbonitridosilicates, trigonal P31c. The assignment of the trigonal space group was subsequently confirmed by synthesizing (La0.5Y0.5)2Si4N6C using high-temperature, solid state synthesis and analyzing the crystal structure with high-resolution synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction. Preparing the solid solution, (LaδY1−δ)1.98Ce0.02Si4N6C (δ = 0–0.5), showed that the crystal structure changes from the monoclinic to the trigonal space group at ...
Auto-Gopher-II – A wireline rotary-hammer ultrasonic drill that operates autonomously

An important challenge of exploring the solar system is the ability to penetrate at great depths the subsurface of planetary bodies for sample collection. The requirements of the drilling system are minimal mass, volume and energy consumption. To address this challenge, a deep drill, called the Auto-Gopher II, is currently being developed as a joint effort between JPL’s NDEAA laboratory and Honeybee Robotics Corp. The Auto-Gopher II is a wireline rotaryhammer drill that combines breaking formations by hammering using a piezoelectric actuator and removing the cuttings by rotating a fluted bit. The hammering is produced by the Ultrasonic/Sonic Drill/Corer (USDC) mechanism that has been developed by the JPL team as an adaptable tool for many drilling and coring applications. The USDC uses an intermediate free-flying mass to convert high frequency vibrations of a piezoelectric transducer horn tip into sonic hammering of the drill bit. The USDC concept was used in a previous task to develop an Ultrasonic/Sonic Ice Gopher and then integrated into a rotary hammer device to develop the Auto-Gopher-I. The lessons learned from these developments are being integrated into the development of the Auto-Gopher-II, an autonomous deep wireline drill with integrated cuttings and sample management and drive electronics. In this paper the latest development will be reviewed including the piezoelectric actuator, cuttings removal and retention flutes and drive electronics.
Robust Structural System Design Using A System Reliability-Based Design Optimization Method

The need for designing a high-reliability robust structural system has been increasing recently due to the demand for greater quality and reliability. This robust structural system design must satisfy the performance/cost/weight objective as well as the system reliability constraint, which is used to account for uncertainty existing in different failure models, loading conditions, and material properties. These uncertainties are modeled as random variables with proper distribution types, means, and standard deviations. For design variables which have uncertain bounds, random means are defined. To expedite the robust design process, approximate reliability constraints are used in the design optimization search process. The proposed system reliability-based design optimization method will be used to solve two demonstration examples,and the results will be compared with conventional design optimization methods.
High-order gain in a beam driven dielectric resonator

Cerenkov FELs have Primarily Operated on the Fundamental Guided Mode of the Dielectric Waveguide. Higher-Order Generation would Allow Short Wavelength Emission in a Relatively Large-Scale Resonator. We Find That Gain on Higher-Order Modes can be Significant in a Planar CFEL.
Distinct Functional Microcircuits in the Nucleus Accumbens Underlying Goal-Directed Decision-Making

Abstract The nucleus accumbens (NAc) receives convergent information from subcortical (limbic) and cortical (prefrontal) brain regions and projects to motor-related structures, making it ideally situated to guide goal-directed behaviors. Here, we discuss how its two primary subregions (core and shell) play distinct and complimentary roles in motivation, learning, and goal-directed decision-making behaviors. We review literature indicating that the shell plays a stronger role in the processing of hedonic/motivational value, while the core appears to play a comparatively larger role in learning and action. Critically, these distinct contributions reflect differential involvement in more complex forms of decision-making (e.g., flexible behavior, delay discounting). We also consider how drugs of abuse, particularly psychostimulants, alter these processes. Finally, we discuss how NAc afferents may modulate aspects of core and shell signaling and influence its distinct functional microcircuitry, ultimately guiding goal-directed decision-making behaviors.
Utilizing Learning Analytics in Small Institutions: A Study of Performance of Adult Learners in Online Classes

Understanding what learning analytics can and cannot do is extremely important for small, tuition-driven colleges and universities with limited resources and smaller datasets. Online learning has become an appealing course delivery format for students, especially adult students who balance studies with work. For the university, offering online courses provides an opportunity for the recruitment and retention of adult students. To understand how adult students perform in online courses, the researchers studied archival data from 547 online undergraduate course registrants from a 2-year period. The dataset was mined to determine trends and patterns of student success, as determined by the final grade earned in the online courses. The analysis revealed that adult students have higher failure rates and lower average grades as compared to traditional students, particularly in accelerated 7-week format courses. In addition, students had lower success rates in foundational core curriculum courses, which are the basis of learning key content and competencies. The results of the study suggest that student success issues can be identified with analyzing even small datasets. The results may inform college leaders about potential issues as well as new ways to help students achieve.
“The Study of Religion” and “Religious Studies”: To What are We Entitled and to Whom are We Obliged?

Here I offer thoughts on what the recent history of the academic study of religion might reveal about its current state, and why we need to continually renew attention to our collective, and ideally, contested, vision for the academy. I frame this reflection in relation to two scholars of religion, Donald Wiebe and Michel Desjardins, who in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries shaped the Canadian and American academic conversation about this field of study. I approach their work in this area not as discrete faits accompli, but as examples of iterative self-construction in the history of the field. Attention should continually be paid to what kind of religious studies we do, and what we study when we study religion; part of that account is of the we, specifically of our relationality, in our entitlements and obligations.1 I am increasingly persuaded that the key nexus of focus for our attention is not (or is no longer) primarily in the question of the humanistic versus the social-scientific study of religion. Thinking through what we do over against what we think we ought to be doing will involve a less oppositional, more relational accounting of and accounting for who we think we are and what we think we owe one another.
Medical Management of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

The goal of medical management for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is to improve lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) of affected patients. Therapy is generally focused on mitigating the dynamic or static components of BPH pathophysiology. Alpha-adrenergic receptor blockers (alpha-blockers) are the most common first-line medication for BPH and function by inhibiting dynamic prostatic smooth muscle contraction to prevent bladder outlet obstruction. The medications in this class are equally effective and well tolerated, but medication side effects of hypotension, dizziness, and retrograde ejaculation determine specific medication selection for treatment. Androgen manipulation via 5 alpha-reductase inhibitors alleviates static components of LUTS by decreasing prostate size. This medication class can potentiate sexual side effects but has been shown to be extremely effective in conjunction with alpha-blockers. Phosphodiesterase inhibitors have demonstrated efficacy in treating men with BPH and coexisting erectile dysfunction, but their mechanism of improving LUTS is unclear. Anticholinergic and beta-3-agonist medications are indicated for patients with overactive bladder symptoms in the setting of BPH due to their ability to reduce detrusor spasms and increase bladder relaxation.
Differences in Caregiver Reports of the Quality of Hospice Care Across Settings

Objectives To examine variation in reported experiences with hospice care by setting. Design Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Hospice (CAHPS®) Survey data from 2016 were analyzed. Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to examine differences in measure scores by setting of care (home, nursing home [NH], hospital, freestanding hospice inpatient unit [IPU], and assisted living facility [ALF]). Setting A total of 2636 US hospices. Participants A total of 311 635 primary caregivers of patients who died in hospice. Measurements Outcomes were seven hospice quality measures, including five composite measures that assess aspects of hospice care important to patients and families, including hospice team communication, timeliness of care, treating family member with respect, symptom management, and emotional and spiritual support, and two global measures of the overall rating of the hospice and willingness to recommend it to friends and family. Analyses were adjusted for mode of survey administration and differences in case-mix between hospices. Results Caregivers of decedents who received hospice care in a NH reported significantly worse experiences than caregivers of those in the home for all measures. ALF scores were also significantly lower than home for all measures, except providing emotional and spiritual support. Differences in NH and ALF settings compared to home were particularly large for hospice team communication (ranging from -11 to -12 on a 0-100 scale) and getting help for symptoms (ranging from -7 to -10). Consistently across all care settings, hospice team communication, treating family member with respect, and providing emotional and spiritual support were most strongly associated with overall rating of care. Conclusions Important opportunities exist to improve quality of hospice care in NHs and ALFs. Quality improvement and regulatory interventions targeting the NH and ALF settings are needed to ensure that all hospice decedents and their family receive high-quality, patient- and family-centered hospice care. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:1218-1225, 2020.
Nuclear Medicine Imaging Techniques of the Gastrointestinal System

Gastrointestinal scintigraphy takes advantage of the physiologic basis of radionuclide imaging and makes effective use of its quantitative potential. This chapter discusses the importance and clinical use of older, tried, and true scintigraphic studies of the gastrointestinal system, as well as newer techniques that are increasing in clinical importance. They are discussed not in the more common aboral order, from mouth to rectum, but according to a logical progression. All topics will be covered, beginning with solid gastric emptying, then liquid gastric emptying, gastric accommodation, small and large bowel intestinal transit, esophageal transit, gastroesophageal reflux, gastrointestinal bleeding, and the Meckel’s scan.
Link-Signature-Based Discriminatory Channel Estimation (LS-DCE) for Physical Layer Security in Stationary and Mobile OFDM Transceivers

In this work, we propose a physical layer security (PLS) scheme for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) based transceivers, termed link-signature-based discriminatory channel estimation (LS-DCE). The proposed scheme exploits the space-time uniqueness of the channel responses (i.e. link-signatures) at different transceiver pairs to facilitate a reliable signal reception at legitimate receivers, while equivocating reception at non-legitimate adversaries. While most PLS studies focus on transmitted data to provide such an equivocation, LS-DCE focuses on channel estimations. Since the quality of estimates impacts the overall performance, LS-DCE facilitates distinctive detection error probabilities by enforcing a poor channel estimation at non-legitimate receivers as compared to legitimate ones. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, analytical, simulated, and experimental evaluations are performed. First, a theoretical analysis is established in terms of the probability of bit error (PBE) at the legitimate and non-legitimate receivers. Then, indoor/outdoor stochastic and deterministic channel models are adopted using correlated Nakagami-m simulation model and software-defined radio (SDR) testbed, respectively. With $-10\,{\rm dB}$ signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), it is found that a spatial correlation $\leq 0.1$ between the legitimate and non-legitimate channels results in an average PBE of 0.48, 0.48, and 0.49 for BPSK, QPSK, and 16-QAM, respectively, at the non-legitimate receiver; and 0.45, 0.46, and 0.48 with $\text{50}\,{\rm dB}$ SNR.
Viral Immunity and Vaccines in Hematologic Malignancies: Implications for COVID-19

Patients with hematologic malignancies have increased susceptibility to viral infections and suboptimal immunologic responses to current vaccines due to both disease-associated and therapy-related immune dysfunction. These considerations may impact the efficacy of emerging COVID-19 vaccines in this patient population as well and warrant the need to systematically study natural and vaccine-induced virus-specific immunity in these patients.
Rational material design of mixed-valent high-Tc superconductors

We design, from first-principles calculations, a novel family of thallium halide-based compounds as candidates for new high-temperature superconductors, whose superconductivity is mediated by the recently proposed mechanism of non-local correlation-enhanced strong electron-phonon coupling. Two prototype compounds namely CsTlF3 and CsTlCl3 are studied with various hole doping levels and volumes. The critical superconducting temperatures (Tc's) are predicted to be about 30 K and 20 K with ~0.35/f.u. hole doping and require only modest pressures (~10 and ~2 GPa), respectively. Our procedure of designing this class of superconductors is quite general and can be used to search for other "other high-temperature superconductors".
Swipe Right for… My Therapist? Ethical Considerations for Therapists Using Dating Apps

There is a lack of research on the experiences of mental health professionals using dating applications as well as the clinical and ethical implications that may follow. Previous studies have found that clinicians are utilizing dating profiles and are discovering or being discovered by their clients. Despite this current engagement, there are no specific guidelines to help clinicians ethically navigate dating applications. In response, this work explores the existing literature on dating applications, clinicians’ encounters with dating applications, and how the ethical considerations of boundaries, self-disclosure, and self-presentation may inform the use of dating applications. Throughout, the authors highlight these ethical concerns and provide suggestions for mental health professionals who are utilizing these platforms and for those who may be considering creating a dating profile.
Nonprescription Stimulant Use at a Public University: Students’ Motives, Experiences, and Guilt:

We examined the use of nonmedical prescription stimulants (NPSs) among students (N = 1,208) at a large public university in southeastern United States. After students who had been prescribed stimul...
The role of soils in learning and inspiration, physical and psychological experiences, and in supporting identities.

This paper reviews the literature on soil and nature's contributions to people (NCP) around learning and inspiration, physical and psychological experiences, and supporting identities, revealing a ...
Atmospheric Pressure Ionization Mass Spectrometry

The atmospheric pressure ionization (API) techniques serve to transform neutral analytes into ionic species that may then be analyzed by mass spectrometry (MS). Ionization takes place under ambient pressure (∼1 atm), and formed ions are subsequently directed into the low-pressure regions of the mass spectrometer for mass analysis. The API techniques have offered notable successes in enabling ionization of nonvolatile compounds contained in solution that are not amenable to “classical” mass spectrometric ionization techniques such as electron ionization and conventional chemical ionization. Under favorable API conditions, neutral analytes may be converted to ionic forms in extremely high efficiencies approaching 100%. Fundamental aspects and applications of the two most widely used API techniques, atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) and electrospray ionization (ESI), are discussed at length in this article.
On the Political Insularity of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors

Appointments to the Federal Reserve board of governors are to seats with 14 year terms. Terms are staggered to expire every other year. But because governors typically have short tenures, the 14 year term limit puts no meaningful limitation on presidential appointments. This fact is commonly overlooked in introductions to the workings of the Federal Reserve.
Improved use of fisheries resources: Alleviating malnutrition in Southern Africa

Abstract The author reviews the potential for improved use of fisheries resources in nine southern African countries. These countries have serious problems of malnutrition and the author concludes that fisheries resources could make a substantially greater contribution to nutrition. Supply, processing and distribution of fisheries products are reviewed, and the benefits of improved kapenta and aquaculture production are discussed.
Nitroprusside-induced hemodynamic alterations in normotensive and hypertensive pregnant sheep

It has been suggested that sodium nitroprusside, a potent vasodilator, be used in the management of an acute hypertensive crisis during pregnancy. The present study was designed to evaluate the hemodynamic effects of this agent in the same group of chronically instrumented, unanesthetized pregnant sheep during two experimental periods: (a) normotension with intact kidneys, and (b) one-kidney hypertension. The results demonstrate that (1) nitroprusside is a potent vasodilator which lowers mean arterial pressure; (2) nitroprusside-induced tachycardia was greater in the hypertensive animal; (3) uterine blood flow decreased with the development of hypertension; (4) the hypertensive-induced reduction in uterine blood flow was increased by the infusion of nitroprusside.
The Purpose of Purpose Analysis

To get right to the point:' (1) Professor Alexander first wonders how I can urge a smoking-out conception of strict scrutiny while still supporting affirmative action programs that would fail strict scrutiny. "If [such programs] failed strict scrutiny, ... does that not demonstrate that they were unconstitutionally motivated?"2 The answer is no-no more than a speed limit's inability to survive strict scrutiny proves that it was unconstitutionally motivated. Nearly all laws would fail strict scrutiny. That is why strict scrutiny must be an exceptional test, triggered only when there are powerful grounds for suspecting an impermissible purpose.' (2) Professor Alexander's second question is, "What legislative purposes are unconstitutional?"4 He seems to want a complete list; if so, I cannot satisfy his request. My aim was to show that equal protection jurisprudence must confront this difficult question. I do say, on the basis of the Fourteenth Amendment's paradigm cases, that state action is unconstitutional if it purposefully imposes an inferior caste status on any group. Professor Alexander suggests that this principle would be confounded by a statute banning blacks from "high social positions" if the lawmakers had been sincere utilitarians, motivated solely by concern over white pain at black success.5 This objection mistakenly supposes that an illegitimate purpose is somehow