cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A 3-D CPU-FPGA-DRAM Hybrid Architecture for Low-Power Computation

The power budget is expected to limit the portion of the chip that we can power ON at the upcoming technology nodes. This problem, known as the utilization wall or dark silicon, is becoming increasingly serious. With the introduction of 3-D integrated circuits (ICs), it is likely to become more severe. Thus, how to take advantage of the extra transistors, made available by Moore’s law and the onset of 3-D ICs, within the power budget poses a significant challenge to system designers. To address this challenge, we propose a 3-D hybrid architecture consisting of a CPU layer with multiple cores, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) layer, and a DRAM layer. The architecture is designed for low power without sacrificing performance. The FPGA layer is capable of supporting a large number of accelerators. It is placed adjacent to the CPU layer, with a communication mechanism that allows it to access CPU data caches directly. This enables fast switches between these two layers. This architecture reduces the power and energy significantly, at better or similar performance. This then alleviates the dark silicon problem by letting us power ON more components to achieve higher performance. We evaluate the proposed architecture through a new framework we have developed. Relative to the out-of-order CPU, the accelerators on the FPGA layer can reduce function-level power by $6.9\times $ and energy-delay product (EDP) by $7.2\times $ , and application-level power by $1.9\times $ and EDP by $2.2\times $ , while delivering similar performance. For the entire system, this translates to a 47.5% power reduction relative to a baseline system that consists of a CPU layer and a DRAM layer. This also translates to a 72.9% power reduction relative to an alternative system that consists of a CPU layer, an L3 cache layer, and a DRAM layer.
Olfactory Receptor Database (ORDB): A Resource for Sharing and Analyzing Published and Unpublished Data

An olfactory receptor database (ORDB) is being developed to facilitate analysis of this large gene family. ORDB currently contains over 400 olfactory receptor sequences and related information, and is available via the World Wide Web. We plan to incorporate functional data, structural models, spatial localization and other categories of information, toward an integrated model of olfactory receptor function.
Localization of Free Fatty Acids Taken Up by Human Platelets

Human platelets take up and metabolize long-chain free fatty acids (FFA). Experiments in which platelets were loaded with 14C-palmitate, homogenized, and then fractionated indicated large amounts of membrane-bound FFA. In other studies, platelet membrane fractions took up FFA from incubation media containing albumin-bound FFA. These findings suggested that a large portion of the platelet FFA uptake might be associated with the platelet surface. Radioautography with electron microscopy using 3H-palmitate-labeled platelets provided additional evidence that much of the newly incorporated FFA was associated with the platelet surface.
A gene transfer system establishes interleukin-6 neither promotes nor suppresses renal injury

Conflicting reports claim that circulating interleukin (IL)-6 promotes or suppresses renal disease. Although autoimmune MRL-lpr mice have an increase in serum IL-6, and kidneys can produce IL-6, the relevance of systemic and local exposure remains undefined. To investigate the impact of IL-6 on kidney disease, we constructed a gene transfer approach to deliver sustained, stable IL-6 into the kidney and circulation. We infused syngeneic genetically modified tubular epithelial cells (IL-6-TEC) under the renal capsule of autoimmune and nonautoimmune mice. IL-6-TEC did not incite renal injury in any strain. Furthermore, serum IL-6 levels, which were increased three- to fivefold by IL-6-TEC, did not alter the contralateral kidney. Therefore, neither local nor systemic exposure to IL-6 promoted renal injury. As opposed to IL-6, we previously established that granulocyte macrophage (GM)-colony-stimulating factor (CSF) initiates renal injury in autoimmune mice. To determine whether IL-6 could suppress GM-CSF-incited damage, we infused GM-CSF-TEC TEC along with IL-6-TEC. Local production of IL-6 into the kidney did not alter the tempo or severity of GM-CSF-induced injury. Thus neither local nor systemic delivery of IL-6 promotes or suppresses kidney disease.
Self-powered sensing and time-stamping of rare events using CMOS Fowler-Nordheim tunneling timers

This paper explores the use of continuous-time Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling for implementing self-powered CMOS sensors that can be used to simultaneously measure and time-stamp occurrences of rare signal events. At the core of the proposed design is a floating-gate device where the FN based electron tunneling is induced through the thin gate-oxide and the control gate is used to couple the signal that is being measured and time-stamped. The signal then modulates the shape of the FN tunneling barrier which is captured by the tunneling rate of electrons being stored on the floating-gate. Thus the sensor continuously operates without the need for any external powering and the data from the sensor can be retrieved to reconstruct the occurrence of events offline. The proof-of-concept has been validated using prototypes fabricated in a standard 0.5-μm CMOS process and the measurement results show that less than 100 fJ of sensing energy is required for event recording and time-stamping.
A Tablet-Based Approach to Facilitate the Viewing of Classroom Lecture by Low Vision Students

In this paper we describe a tablet-based system that is designed to help students with partial sight access math and science lecture material in and out of the classroom. The instructor writes material on the whiteboard, that has a Mimio Capture bar affixed magnetically as well as sleeves for the markers. The lecture material is sent as written strokes that the iOS app displays for the student in real-time. Students can adjust the size and contrast of the material, as well as write notes on the lecture itself for later viewing. The access to lecture provided by the system provides students the ability to follow an active lecture and take more ownership over learning through note taking.
Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Myelodysplastic Syndromes: Where Are We Going With This?

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) comprise aheterogeneousgroupofclonalhematopoietic stem-cell disorders that result in varying degrees of cytopenia and risk of transformation intoacute leukemia.Allogeneichematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is the only known curative therapy for this disease. Before August 2010, most patients with MDS in the United States were not considered for allogeneic HCT because they were older than 65 years of age and Medicare had never declared allogeneic HCT a covered benefit for its patient population. OnAugust 4, 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released its Decision Memo for Allogeneic Hematopoietic StemCell Transplantation (HSCT) for Myelodysplastic Syndrome. This memo states: “Allogeneic HSCT for MDS is covered by Medicare only for beneficiaries with MDS participating in an approved clinicalstudythatmeets thecriteriabelow...” Since that decision was made, the number of allografts performed in the United States for MDS has nearly tripled. Thus the review by Bhatt and Steensma is particularly timely, and the authors should be commended on their thoroughness and for a balanced discussion. In the next few paragraphs, I will underscore the most important points from their review as well as areas that require further discussion.
Internal Motivation, Instrumental Motivation, and Eudaimonia

There is a long history of thought and research in the social sciences that views human beings as engaged in entirely instrumental activities in pursuit of goals that typically give them pleasure, and presumably, happiness. This view can be contrasted with Aristotle’s “eudaimonic” view that real happiness comes from the pursuit and achievement of excellence, with excellence understood as achieving a telos specific to and appropriate to each activity. In this chapter, we argue for Aristotle’s view in distinguishing instrumental from internal motives. The pursuit of consequences that bear an intimate relation to the activities themselves (internal motives), while often not pleasurable, yields lasting effects on well-being that instrumental consequences typically do not. We discuss both laboratory research and field studies, including a longitudinal study of West Point cadets, in support of our arguments. We suggest that the often-made distinction between “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” motivation fails to capture adequately the complexity of the relations between the things people do and their reasons for doing them.
Dynamic Prediction of Renal Failure Using Longitudinal Biomarkers in a Cohort Study of Chronic Kidney Disease.

In longitudinal studies, prognostic biomarkers are often measured longitudinally. It is of both scientific and clinical interest to predict the risk of clinical events, such as disease progression or death, using these longitudinal biomarkers as well as other time-dependent and time-independent information about the patient. The prediction is dynamic in the sense that it can be made at any time during the follow-up, adapting to the changing at-risk population and incorporating the most recent longitudinal data. One approach is to build a joint model of longitudinal predictor variables and time to the clinical event, and draw predictions from the posterior distribution of the time to event conditional on longitudinal history. Another approach is to use the landmark model, which is a system of prediction models that evolve with the follow-up time. We review the pros and cons of the two approaches and present a general analytical framework using the landmark approach. The proposed framework allows the measurement times of longitudinal data to be irregularly spaced and differ between subjects. We propose a unified kernel weighting approach for estimating the model parameters, calculating the predicted probabilities, and evaluating the prediction accuracy through double time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves. We illustrate the proposed analytical framework using the African American study of kidney disease and hypertension to develop a landmark model for dynamic prediction of end-stage renal diseases or death among patients with chronic kidney disease.
Effects of Oil Contamination on Cotton Quality: Methods of Analysis and Characterization of Contaminants:

Oil contamination of cotton is a recurring problem that adversely affects cotton quality. Processing problems occur in carding through spinning, and both yarn strength and appearance are lowered. P...
Spike-based phylogenetically defined clades within the Alphacoronavirus 1 species

Taxonomic classification for the Coronaviridae can be challenging, due to the wide host tropism and highly variable genome of the viruses in this Family. Within the Alphacoronavirus genus, there is a single species Alphacoronavirus 1 that encompasses several biologically distinct viruses of distinct animal species. Here, we carried out phylogenetic analysis of members of the Alphacoronavirus genus, focusing on the viral spike gene, which is a primary driver of viral tropism and pathogenesis. We identify two distinct clades (A and B) within the Alphacoronavirus 1 species. Alphacoronavirus 1 clade A encompasses serotype I FCoV and CCoV, and Alphacoronavirus 1 clade B, encompasses serotype II FCoV and CCoV and TGEV-like viruses. We propose this clade designation, along with the newly proposed Alphacoronavirus 2 species, as an improved way to classify the diverse Alphacoronavirus genus.
Temperature Influences on Salmonella Infections across the Continental United States

Salmonella spp. are one of the most common causes of gastrointestinal illness in humans. Elevated temperatures increase Salmonella spp.'s growth rate and likelihood that the food consumer will develop a severe illness. Climate and Salmonella associations have only been reported for a few U.S. states. This study investigated associations between temperature and reported human Salmonella infections from 2006 to 2014. The study analyzed state-level relationships across the contiguous United States. States voluntarily report weekly human Salmonella cases to the Nationally Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. Representative weather conditions were created by population weighting temperature from the North American Land Data Assimilation System. Time series analysis using generalized additive models associated temperature against Salmonella infections while controlling for temporal patterns and the size of the population at risk. The study also investigated temperature and Salmonella infection transmission ...
Should we consider individual behavior differences in applied wildlife conservation studies

Abstract Individually distinctive behavioral traits, or personalities, contribute to population-level processes and ecological interactions important in applied wildlife conservation research. Inter-individual variation in behavioral traits (personality) and correlation among behavioral traits (behavioral syndromes), can influence empirical estimates of population size and structure, models of resource selection and population dynamics, harvest and control in wildlife and fisheries populations, population response to disturbance and novel environments, and the success of reintroductions. Despite the important role that personality and behavioral syndromes play in the ecology and dynamics of wildlife populations, a disconnect between basic and applied research realms continues. While the concept of animal personalities and their role in ecology and evolution is increasingly embraced in the animal behavior, ecology, and evolutionary biology literature, it is less represented in applied wildlife management and conservation literature. We identify 10 research foci, often considered the domain of applied wildlife management and conservation, summarize examples of how these research domains may be influenced by personality and behavioral syndromes, and outline potential implications. We suggest that a focus on individuals in wildlife conservation study can bridge the gap between basic and applied research and incorporate knowledge from both realms towards more effective management, conservation, and recovery of populations.
Effects of phosphorus fertility on competition between lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and spiny amaranth (Amaranthus spinosus).

Field studies were conducted to detennine the influence of phosphorus (P) fertility and method of application (banded versus broadcast) on the competitive interaction of lettuce and spiny amaranth. Weed density significantly affected lettuce head weight and spiny amaranth shoot biomass after 5 wk of interference. Weed density and duration of interference had little or no effect on P content of lettuce tissue. Duration of interference did affect P concentration of spiny amaranth; however, weed density did not. Spiny amaranth competition reduced lettuce yield, but P was not the limiting factor. Duration of interference and method of P application interactively affected lettuce head weight; however, only duration of interference affected spiny amaranth biomass. Seven wk of interference caused a decrease in lettuce head weight of 20, 8, and 24% when P was broadcast, banded, or not applied, respectively. Banding of P reduced the negative impact of spiny amaranth on lettuce. Although method of P application influenced the interaction between lettuce and spiny amaranth, interspecific competition between the two species probably was not due to competition for P but some other factor. Nomenclature: Lettuce, Lactuca sativa L., 'Southbay,' spiny amaranth,Amaranthus spinosus L. #3 AMASP. Additional index words: Intraspecific competition, interspecific competition, weed/crop interference, AMASP.
Population-based trends and risk factors of early- and late-onset preeclampsia in Taiwan 2001–2014

Preeclampsia, a multisystem disorder in pregnancies complicates with maternal and fetal morbidity. Early- and late-onset preeclampsia, defined as preeclampsia developed before and after 34 weeks of gestation, respectively. The early-onset disease was less prevalent but associated with poorer outcomes. Moreover, the risk factors between early -and late- onset preeclampsia could be differed owing to the varied pathophysiology. In the study, we evaluated the incidences, trends, and risk factors of early- and late- onset preeclampsia in Taiwan. This retrospective population-based cohort study included all ≧20 weeks singleton pregnancies resulting in live-born babies or stillbirths in Taiwan between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2014 (n = 2,884,347). The data was collected electronically in Taiwanese Birth Register and National Health Insurance Research Database. The incidences and trends of early- and late-onset preeclampsia were assessed through Joinpoint analysis. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors of both diseases. The age-adjusted overall preeclampsia rate was slightly increased from 1.1%(95%confidence interval [CI], 1.1–1.2) in 2001 to 1.3% (95%CI, 1.2–1.3) in 2012 with average annual percentage change (AAPC) 0.1%/year (95%CI, 0–0.2%). However, the incidence was remarkably increased from 1.3% (95%CI, 1.3–1.4) in 2012 to 1.7% (95%CI, 1.6–1.8) in 2014 with AAPC 1.3%/year (95%CI,0.3–2.5). Over the study period, the incidence trend in late-onset preeclampsia was steadily increasing from 0.7% (95%CI, 0.6–0.7) in 2001 to 0.9% (95%CI, 0.8–0.9) in 2014 with AAPC 0.2%/year (95%CI, 0.2–0.3) but in early-onset preeclampsia was predominantly increase from 0.5% (95%CI, 0.4–0.5) in 2012 to 0.8% (95%CI, 0.8–0.9) in 2014 with AAPC 2.3%/year (95%CI, 0.8–4.0). Advanced maternal age, primiparity, stroke, diabetes mellitus, chronic hypertension, and hyperthyroidism were risk factors of preeclampsia. Comparing early- and late-onset diseases, chronic hypertension (ratio of relative risk [RRR], 1.71; 95%CI, 1.55–1.88) and older age (RRR, 1.41; 95%CI 1.29–1.54) were more strongly associated with early-onset disease, whereas primiparity (RRR 0.71, 95%CI, 0.68–0.75) had stronger association with late-onset preeclampsia. The incidences of overall, and early- and late-onset preeclampsia were increasing in Taiwan from 2001 to 2014, predominantly for early-onset disease. Pregnant women with older age and chronic hypertension had significantly higher risk of early-onset preeclampsia.
A pilot neurodevelopmental study of Seychellois children following in utero exposure to methylmercury from a maternal fish diet.

It is not known if fetal neurodevelopmental damage occurs in humans at the low-level methylmercury exposure achieved by eating fish. To address this question, a cohort of 804 children in the Republic of Seychelles was identified who had fetal methylmercury exposure from a maternal diet high in oceanic fish. Mercury was determined by measuring the maternal total hair mercury during pregnancy, a standard index ofmethylmercury exposure. The median fetal mercury exposure was 6.6 ppm. Children were evaluated once between 5 to 109 weeks of age. Testing included the revised Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST-R) and a neurological examination. The association between maternal hair mercury levels and developmental outcome was evaluated by multiple logistic regression analysis. Covariates for the child included gender, birth weight, one and five-minute Apgar score, age at testing, and medical problems, and, for the mother, age, tobacco and alcohol consumption during pregnancy, and medical problems. An association between fetal mercury exposure and development was found when DDST-R scores of questionable andabnormal were combined, a procedure usedbyprevious investigators. These results should be viewed with caution since the association disappeared when DDST-R scores of questionable were treated in the standard manner as passes.
Signal Transduction Pathways Regulating Switching, Mating and Biofilm Formation in Candida albicans and Related Species

The developmental programs of Candida albicans are complex and intertwined. They include hypha formation, white-opaque switching, mating and biofilm formation. Here, the regulation of the latter three programs are considered. White-opaque switching is repressed by the a1-α2 corepressors complex produced in a/α but not a/a or α/α cells, and regulated in the latter by WOR1, a master regulator of switching. Mating of opaque cells is regulated by pheromone induction of a MAP kinase pathway targeting the transcription factor Cph1. Biofilm formation by a/a and α/α cells is regulated by the same pheromone-induced MAP kinase pathway, but targets a different transcription factor, Tec1. And biofilm formation by a/α cells is regulated by the Ras1/cAMP pathway, the same pathway regulating hypha formation, but targets an additional transcription factor, Bcr1. Specific overlaps suggest quite interesting scenarios for the evolution of these pathways, most notably that for a/a and α/α biofilm formation.
HL7 Structured Product Labeling - electronic prescribing information for provider order entry decision support

Prescribing errors are an important cause of adverse events, and lack of knowledge of the drug is a root cause for prescribing errors. The FDA is issuing new regulations that will make the drug labels much more useful not only to physicians, but also to computerized order entry systems that support physicians to practice safe prescribing. For this purpose, FDA works with HL7 to create the Structured Product Label (SPL) standard that includes a document format as well as a drug knowledge representation, this poster introduces the basic concepts of SPL.
The Health Circumstances of Homeless Women in the United States

Women have become the fastest growing segment of the homeless population in the United States, yet very little is known about their sociodemographic profile, health status, use of health services, ...
Metal-metal interactions in metalloporphyrins, metalloproteins and metalloenzymes

Recent years have seen the identification of multimetal active sites in a considerable number of proteinsand enzyms. In some of these, the metal ions interact with each other through a ligand bridge with substantial modification of their properties. They act in concert, often binding or reducing dioxygen in a multi-electron process. Although the mechanistic implications of the metal-metal interactions are most important, the evidene for the interactions usually come from magnetic and spectroscopic studies. Five systems have been selectred in order to review the methodology and results found in this area. The oxo and nitrido bridged hemin dimers are very well binuclear bridged iron and copper active sites and show strong antiferromagnetic properties. Laccase and cytochrome oxidase are multi-copper and iron containing enzymes which reduce dioxygen and are much studied but less understood than the others.
The Secularization of Guilt

In 1923 Freud published the “case history” of Christoph Haizmann, a painter living in the seventeenth century who had become possessed of the Devil and then been granted a miraculous cure through prayer to the Virgin Mary. This paper of Freud’s, though brief, is nevertheless full of the clinical detail that has been so informative in psychiatry. The case account also illustrates very clearly the difference between Freud’s clinical descriptions and his theoretical formulations. Let us spend a few moments with Christoph Haizmann’s story, since it contains so many of Freud’s insights as well as so many of the psychological problems that remain today.
High-Stakes Testing Case Study: A Latent Variable Approach for Assessing Measurement and Prediction Invariance

The existence of differences in prediction systems involving test scores across demographic groups continues to be a thorny and unresolved scientific, professional, and societal concern. Our case study uses a two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimator to jointly assess measurement invariance and prediction invariance in high-stakes testing. So, we examined differences across groups based on latent as opposed to observed scores with data for 176 colleges and universities from The College Board. Results showed that evidence regarding measurement invariance was rejected for the SAT mathematics (SAT-M) subtest at the 0.01 level for 74.5% and 29.9% of cohorts for Black versus White and Hispanic versus White comparisons, respectively. Also, on average, Black students with the same standing on a common factor had observed SAT-M scores that were nearly a third of a standard deviation lower than for comparable Whites. We also found evidence that group differences in SAT-M measurement intercepts may partly explain the well-known finding of observed differences in prediction intercepts. Additionally, results provided evidence that nearly a quarter of the statistically significant observed intercept differences were not statistically significant at the 0.05 level once predictor measurement error was accounted for using the 2SLS procedure. Our joint measurement and prediction invariance approach based on latent scores opens the door to a new high-stakes testing research agenda whose goal is to not simply assess whether observed group-based differences exist and the size and direction of such differences. Rather, the goal of this research agenda is to assess the causal chain starting with underlying theoretical mechanisms (e.g., contextual factors, differences in latent predictor scores) that affect the size and direction of any observed differences.
“Clickable” Metal-Oxide Nanomaterials Surface-Engineered by Gas-Phase Covalent Functionalization with Prop-2-ynoic Acid

The surface properties of metal-oxide nanomaterials (MONMs) can be tuned by reacting them with a variety of organic compounds. Reactions of the oxides with functionalized carboxylic (R–COOH) or phosphonic acids (R–PO(OH)2) and various approaches utilizing silylation (such as with R–Si(X)3, where the X could be Cl or −OCH3) are often used to deliver the target modifier R to the oxide surface. However, the liquid-phase reactions between metal oxides and these agents often cause agglomeration or multilayer growth, morphology change, or surface etching. In this paper, we report a novel approach that circumvents all of these problems. The proposed two-step functionalization approach utilizes exposure of the oxide materials to prop-2-ynoic acid (HC≡C–COOH, propiolic acid) in the gas phase as a first step. The second step can then utilize the created C≡C for post-modification that introduces any predesigned functionality to the surface via “click” chemistry with azides (R–N3). Gas-phase exposure of prop-2-ynoic ...
Space Syntax: A Network-Based Configurational Approach to Studying Urban Morphology

In this chapter, I describe space syntax, a recent configurational approach to urban morphological studies that shows some conceptual similarities to the network analysis of structural sociology. First, I describe the basic concepts, methods, and measures of this configurational approach, focusing on the axial and segment map analyses—the two most commonly used methods of space syntax related to urban morphological studies. After this, I describe some of the recent mathematical developments of space syntax methods and measures. These mathematical developments include various normalization techniques for integration and choice—the two most important measures of space syntax; various clarifications on the relationships between the metric, geometric, and topological measures of axial and segment maps; various universal properties including scaling laws observed in axial and segment maps; various ways to reduce and/or eliminate the effects of boundary on space syntax measures; various ways to take into account the shape as well as the 3D of the built environment within space syntax; and, finally, various ways to integrate space syntax with GIS. Following mathematical developments, I describe various applications of space syntax methods and measures in urban morphological studies. Here, I discuss how space syntax methods and measures have been applied to describe the syntactic types and cores, and the whole and the parts relationships of spatial configurations; the processes of spatial production and reproduction of social relations, functions, and knowledge; the generative functions of spatial configurations; the relationships between spatial configurations and social capital; and the experiential aspects of urban morphological history. I conclude the chapter by highlighting the fact urban morphological studies, though an important part of the space syntax corpus, are only one of many areas of research where space syntax methods and measures have been applied in recent years.
JQF: coverage-guided property-based testing in Java

We present JQF, a platform for performing coverage-guided fuzz testing in Java. JQF is designed both for practitioners, who wish to find bugs in Java programs, as well as for researchers, who wish to implement new fuzzing algorithms. Practitioners write QuickCheck-style test methods that take inputs as formal parameters. JQF instruments the test program's bytecode and continuously executes tests using inputs that are generated in a coverage-guided fuzzing loop. JQF's input-generation mechanism is extensible. Researchers can implement custom fuzzing algorithms by extending JQF's Guidance interface. A Guidance instance responds to code coverage events generated during the execution of a test case, such as function calls and conditional jumps, and provides the next input. We describe several guidances that currently ship with JQF, such as: semantic fuzzing with Zest, binary fuzzing with AFL, and complexity fuzzing with PerfFuzz. JQF is a mature tool that is open-source and publicly available. At the time of writing, JQF has been successful in discovering 42 previously unknown bugs in widely used open-source software such as OpenJDK, Apache Commons, and the Google Closure Compiler.
The Impact of Citizen Environmental Science in the United States

An increasingly sophisticated public, rapid changes in monitoring technology, the ability to process large volumes of data, and social media are increasing the capacity for members of the public and advocacy groups to gather, interpret, and exchange environmental data. This development has the potential to alter the government-centric approach to environmental governance; however, citizen science has had a mixed record in influencing government decisions and actions. This Article reviews the rapid changes that are going on in the field of citizen science and examines what makes citizen science initiatives impactful, as well as the barriers to greater impact. It reports on 10 case studies, and evaluates these to provide findings about the state of citizen science and recommendations on what might be done to increase its influence on environmental decisionmaking.
The Syntax of Adverbials

After explicit phrase structure rules were abandoned in government–binding theory, some account of the distribution of adverbials became necessary. This review surveys two current theories. The fir...
Research advances in regulating mechanisms of mammalian ovarian folliculogenesis

Ovary, the female gonad in mammals, is a heterogeneous organ consisting of oocytes and various types of somatic cells. The functions of ovary is not only governing the health of individual female by regulating endocrine status, but also determining the production of mature oocytes which allow the continuation of species. As the fundamental unit of female reproduction, ovarian follicle consists of germline oocyte and follicle somatic cells, and the folliculogenesis is an accurate and orderly process of internal coordination and external regulation in mammals. The gonadotropin-dependent stage of follicle development, from early antral follicle to ovulation, directly regulates the reproductive cycles of the female, has been extensively investigated. Recently, increased lines of evidence show that the fine tuned early folliculogenesis plays a pivotal role in the maintenance of female reproductive lifespan. Further exploration of the mechanism of follicular development could lead to a more comprehensive understanding about how females maintain their proper reproductive lifespan in mammals, which may provide the possibility to design new therapeutic approaches against female reproductive ageing in future. With the advances of technologies and methods, especially the widespread application of genetically modified animals and novel microscopic technology, the research on regulating mechanisms of in vivo follicular development, especially the early stage development of follicles, has made great progress. In this review, we summarized the regulating mechanisms of in vivo folliculogenesis around the key developmental events under physiological conditions, with a focus on the research progress of the early development of follicles in recent years.
Role of the Japanese Pharmacopoeia in the Quality Assurance of Biologics

Biologics listed in the Japanese Pharmacopoeia (JP) include drugs in which the active pharmaceutical ingredient is a peptide, protein, or polysaccharide. Biologics were previously manufactured by purification from biological sources, however, most recently developed products are manufactured using biotechnology such as genetic recombination and cell culture technologies. The JP provides useful information to ensure the quality of such products in the form of monographs, general test, and general information. A recent topic related to biologics is the adoption of general test 〈6.17〉 "Insoluble Particulate Matter Test for Protein Injections". Test 〈6.17〉 enables the determination of insoluble particulate matter using the light obscuration method with smaller sample volumes and indicates points to consider in handling protein samples. In addition, the draft general information "Basic Concept of Quality Assurance of Biotechnology Products (Biopharmaceuticals)" has been released for public consultation and will be listed in the 18th edition of the JP. In this review, the contents of JP monographs, general chapters, and general information on biologics are introduced, and future perspectives on the role of the JP for ensuring the quality of biologics are discussed.
Shaping the Future of Veterans' Health Care.

Shaping the Future of Veterans’ Health Care Members of the U.S. military are at risk for a range of combat-related injuries and hazardous exposures, and some chronic health problems can arise years...
Exploratory Noise Governs Both Flexibility and Spontaneous Errors and Is Regulated by Cocaine

In many cognitive processes, lapses (spontaneous errors) are attributed to nuisance processes like sensorimotor noise or disengagement. However, some lapses could also be caused by exploratory noise: behavioral randomness that facilitates learning in changing environments. If so, strategic processes would need only up-regulate (rather than generate) exploration to adapt to a changing environment. This view predicts that lapse rates should be correlated with flexibility because they share a common cause. We report that when macaques performed a set-shifting task, lapse rates were negatively correlated with perseverative error frequency. Furthermore, chronic exposure to cocaine, which impairs cognitive flexibility, increased perseverative errors, but, surprisingly, improved overall performance by reducing lapse rates. We reconcile these results with a model in which cocaine decreased exploration by deepening attractor basins corresponding to rules. These results support the idea that exploratory noise contributes to lapses, meaning that it affects rule-based decision-making even when it has no strategic value.
SlabGAN: a method for generating efficient 3D anisotropic medical volumes using generative adversarial networks

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) have proven useful for several medical imaging tasks, including image reconstruction and stochastic object model generation. Thus far, most of the work with GANs has been constrained to twodimensional images. Considering that medical imaging data are often inherently three-dimensional (3D), a 3D GAN would be a more principled way to synthesize realistic volumes. Training a 3D GAN is both computationally and memory intensive. However, prior work has not considered the anisotropic nature of many medical imaging systems. In this paper, the SlabGAN is proposed to reduce the inefficiencies associated with training a 3D GAN. The SlabGAN uses the progressive GAN architecture extended to 3D, but removes the requirement of the three dimensions being equal sizes. This permits the generation of anisotropic 3D volumes with large x and y dimensions. The SlabGAN is trained on MRI brain images from the fastMRI dataset to generate images of dimension 256×256×16. The x and y dimensions of these images are comparable to previously published results while requiring significantly fewer computational resources to generate. The trained SlabGAN is applicable to tasks such as 3D medical image reconstruction and thin-slice MR super resolution.
Einstein Meets Turing: The Computability of Nonlocal Games

Quantum entanglement – the phenomenon where distant particles can be correlated in ways that cannot be explained by classical physics – has mystified scientists since the1930s, when quantum theory was beginning to emerge. Investigation into fundamental questions about quantum entanglement has continually propelled seismic shifts in our understanding of nature. Examples include Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen’s famous 1935 paper about the incompleteness of quantum mechanics, and John Bell’s refutation of EPR’s argument, 29 years later, via an experiment to demonstrate the non-classicality of quantum entanglement.
Serve or skip: the power of rejection in online bottleneck matching

We consider the online matching problem, where n server-vertices lie in a metric space and n request-vertices that arrive over time each must immediately be permanently assigned to a server-vertex. We focus on the egalitarian bottleneck objective, where the goal is to minimize the maximum distance between any request and its server. It has been shown that while there are effective algorithms for the utilitarian objective (minimizing total cost) in the resource augmentation setting where the offline adversary has half the resources, these are not effective for the egalitarian objective. Thus, we propose a new Serve-or-Skip (SoS) bicriteria analysis model, where the online algorithm may reject or skip up to a specified number of requests, and propose two greedy algorithms: GriNN(t) and $${{\textsc {Grin}}^*(t)}$$GRINź(t). We show that the SoS model of resource augmentation analysis can essentially simulate the doubled-server-capacity model, and then examine the performance of GriNN(t) and $${\textsc {Grin}^*(t)}$$GRINź(t).
Depletion of Foxp3+ T Cells Abrogates Tolerance of Skin and Heart Allografts in Murine Mixed Chimeras Without the Loss of Mixed Chimerism

The relative contribution of central and peripheral mechanisms to the generation and maintenance of allograft tolerance is of considerable interest. Here, we present new evidence that regulatory T cells (Foxp3+) maintain skin and heart allograft tolerance in mixed hematopoietic chimeric mice. Transient depletion of both donor- and recipient-derived Foxp3+ cells was necessary and sufficient to induce decisive rejection of long-accepted skin and heart allografts. In contrast, stable hematopoietic chimerism remained, and there was no detectable induction of donor-specific reactivity to hematopoietic cells. Foxp3+ cell depletion did not result in the rejection of skin grafts of only MHC-disparate donors (B6.C-H2d/bByJ), indicating that MHC antigens were not the target in the graft. We conclude that two different mechanisms of tolerance are present in mixed chimeras. Hematopoietic chimerism, resistant to Foxp3+ depletion, is probably due to deletional tolerance to MHC antigens, as supported by previous studies. In contrast, regulatory tolerance mechanisms involving Foxp3+ cells are required to control reactivity against non-MHC antigens not present on hematopoietic lineages.
Foreword to Annual Reports of the President, Thomas M. Cooley Law School, 1979-1991

When Thomas E. Brennan, founder and president of Thomas M. Cooley Law School, decided to publish his first decade of annual reports, I was invited to write the Foreword. Through the reports one can relive the 1980’s at Cooley, from a remembrance of things past (Collegiate Oratory Contests, Cooley Lawyers Credit Union), to new developments (air conditioning, the Law Review), never-ending sagas (ABA inspection conflicts, building renovations), and periodic highs and lows (in esteem, student enrollment, and bar pass rates). Collectively the presidential reports provide the closest thing to an autobiography of the school’s formative years.
Somatic evolution of antibody specificity: setting the clock forward.

A recent paper in Nature sheds welcome light on the mechanism of somatic hypermutation by documenting the participation of double-strand DNA breaks.
Chip-rate adaptive two-stage receiver for scrambled multirate CDMA downlink

In this paper we propose an adaptive two-stage receiver for a scrambled multirate DS-CDMA downlink transmitted via synchronous orthogonal short codes and subjected to time- and frequency-selective multipath fading. The first stage of our two-stage receiver (P. Schniter et al., Nov. 2002) consists of adaptive FIR equalization generating tentative hard decisions. The decisions are fed-forward to the second stage for further processing via adaptive decision-feedforward equalization (DFFE) or adaptive inter-chip interference cancellation (ICIC). (The ICIC receiver was introduced in (A. Margetts et al., Oct. 2003)). Here we detail the adaptive DFFE and ICIC structures, which are based on low-complexity decision-directed LMS. For further complexity reduction, the ICIC performs maximal ratio combining of only the ICIC branches corresponding to the largest channel taps. Since ICIC removes both pre- and post-cursor interference, it outperforms the DFFE.
Automating transformations from floating-point to fixed-point for implementing digital signal processing algorithms

Many digital signal processing and communication algorithms are first simulated using floating-point arithmetic and later transformed into fixed-point arithmetic to reduce implementation complexity. This transformation process may take more than 50% of the design time for complex designs. In addition, wordlengths in fixed-point designs may be altered at later stages in the design cycle. Different choices of wordlengths lead to different tradeoffs between signal quality and implementation complexity. In this dissertation, I propose two methods for characterizing the tradeoffs between signal quality and implementation complexity during the transformation of digital system designs to fixed-point arithmetic and variables. The first method, a gradient-based search for single-objective optimization with sensitivity information, scales linearly with the number of variables, but can become trapped in local optima. Based on wordlength design case studies for a wireless communication demodulator, adding sensitivity information reduces the search time by a factor of four and yields a design with 30% lower implementation costs. The second method, a genetic algorithm for multi-objective optimization, provides a Pareto optimal front that evolves towards the optimal tradeoff curve for signal quality vs. implementation complexity. This second method can be used to fully characterize the design space. I propose to use wordlength reduction methods of signed right shift and truncation to reduce power consumption in a given hardware architecture. For each method, I derive the expected values of the number of gates that switch during multiplication of the inputs. I apply the signed right shift method and the truncation method to a 16-bit radix-4 modified Booth multiplier and a 16-bit Wallace multiplier. The truncation method with 8-bit operands reduces the power consumption by 56% in the Wallace multiplier and 31% in the Booth multiplier. The signed right shift method shows a 25% power reduction in the Booth multiplier, but no power reduction in the Wallace multiplier. Finally, this dissertation describes a method to automate design assistance for transformation from floating-point to fixed-point data types. Floating-point programs are converted to fixed-point programs by a code generator. Then, the proposed wordlength search algorithms offer designers the freedom to determine data wordlengths to optimize the tradeoffs between signal quality and implementation complexity.
A Proximal Promoter Domain Containing a Homeodomain-Binding Core Motif Interacts with Multiple Transcription Factors, Including HoxA5 and Phox2 Proteins, and Critically Regulates Cell Type-Specific Transcription of the Human Norepinephrine Transporter Gene

Expression of the norepinephrine transporter (NET), which mediates the reuptake of norepinephrine into presynaptic nerve terminals, is restricted to noradrenergic (NA) neurons. We have demonstrated previously that the 9.0 kb upstream sequences and the first intron residing in the 5′ untranslated area are critical for high-level and NA cell-specific transcription. Here, using transient transfection assays, we show that 4.0 kb of the 5′ upstream sequences contains sufficient genetic information to drive reporter gene expression in an NA cell type-specific manner. Three functional domains appear to be potentially important for the regulation of human NET ( hNET ) gene transcription: an upstream enhancer region at −4.0 to −3.1 kb, a proximal domain at −133 to −75 bp, and a middle silencer region between these two domains. DNase I footprinting analysis of the proximal promoter region shows that a subdomain at −128 to −80 bp is protected in a cell-specific manner. We provide evidence that multiple protein factors interact with the proximal promoter domain to critically regulate the transcriptional activity of the hNET gene. In the middle of this proximal subdomain resides a homeodomain (HD)-binding core motif, which interacts with HD factors, including Phox2a and HoxA5, in an NA-specific manner. Cotransfection analyses suggest that HoxA5 and Phox2a may transactivate the hNET gene promoter. Together with previous studies indicating direct activation of dopamine β-hydroxylase transcription by Phox2a/2b, the present results support a model whereby Phox2 proteins may coordinately regulate the phenotypic specification of NA neurons by activating both NA biosynthetic and reuptake genes.
Predicting induction motor performance using a unit circle

This paper describes a graphical method that may be used to predict the performance characteristics of an induction machine operating over a wide range of running conditions. Given the element values of the model to be analyzed and no load speed, then knowing only the magnitude of the phase current or the rotational speed of a machine, one can readily determine other operating characteristics with minimal computational complexity.