cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Role of Carbon Trading in Environment Conservation

The situation of world climate is getting worse day by day, the climatologist, the geologist and researchers from related fields have been giving us warning on climate change for the past few years. According to their prediction, the earth will face a barrage of atmospheric disturbances like earthquakes, cyclones, inundations and epidemics as the climate shifts from a mild phase to a warn phase – popularly known as 'Global Warming'. The root of the problem is Greenhouse Gases (GHGs). It is the established fact that developed countries of the world generate majority of GHG emissions. A viable plan to systematically reduce the emission of GHGs, without changing our present life style is 'Carbon Trading'. This paper is an attempt to define the role of carbon trading in environment conservation.
Legitimacy of Private Governance: Private Food Safety Standards in the United States

Private food safety certification has become de facto mandatory as a condition of supply contracts with many large food retailers throughout the world. Scholarly literature on this form of private governance has focused primarily on its impact on international food trade or on the incentives that drive retailers to demand that suppliers comply with private standards, which include preserving brand name reputation or avoiding legal liability. Most importantly, the majority of literature focuses on the popularity of private standards in the EU and shares the assumption that retailers’ recognition of private food safety certification is the driving force behind their legitimacy. Though this may be largely true of private governance over food safety today, the importance of supplier incentives for regulatory compliance are strongly implied by the history of private food standards in the United States. This paper examines the current incentive structure that exists in private governance of food safety and compares it to the historical development of private food standards in the United States through a mini-case study of the development of AIB International, a private food safety standards developer operating in the United States. The role that private standards filled for U.S. food suppliers fifty years ago may still be intact but new food laws and changing market conditions have given rise to a new role for private food safety schemes. Based on the historical development of private food standards set in the context of important legislation and events in food safety; scholarly literature on the topic; and information about industry perspective gathered from trade publications and comments on the federal register; the author concludes that the different needs that are met by private food safety audit schemes cannot be satisfied from a single audit.
Glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis

Glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis is the leading cause of medication-induced osteoporosis. The fracture incidence after 1 yr of glucocorticoid therapy has been found to be 17% and observational studies suggest that fractures eventually occurin 30 to 50% of chronic glucocorticoid-treated patients. An increased risk of fracture develops within as quickly as 3 mo, and with doses of prednisone as low as 2.5 mg daily. Despite effective methods of prevention and treatment, only 50% of chronic glucocoriticoid-treated patients undergo any evaluation for osteoporosis and less than one in four receives treatment. This article addresses the various issues the clinician faces in managing patients receiving chronic glucocorticoids. It begins and ends with a case perspective. Evidence-based information is used to outline the current best strategy for the prevention and treatment of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis.
Investigation on Overweight,Obesity and Depression among Middle School Students in Nanjing

Objective: To investigate the current situation of overweight and obesity and its association with depression among middle school students in Nanjing.Methods: All 7,161 eligible participants were included in the analysis.Depressive symptoms were measured by using the 27-item Children's Depression Inventory(CDI).The overweight and obesity were defined based on the age-and gender-specific BMI cut-off points of the Chinese children and adolescent separate criteria.Results:The prevalence of overweight and obesity of boys(9.6%,3.9%) were significantly higher than those in girls(5.4%,2.3%).The total prevalence of depression in the sample students was 14.8%,the boys' prevalence of depression(16.4%) was higher than that of girls(13.0%).After multi-factor adjustment,the overweight and obesity group,respectively,had odds ratios(OR) of 1.371(95%CI = 1.025,1.834) and 1.488(95%CI =1.030,2.149) for likelihood of depression,as compared with the normal-weight group.Conclusion: Overweight and obesity might be associated with depressive symptoms among middle school students.We should pay more attention to body weight status of adolescents to make them in good physical and mental health.
Tracking with ranked signals

We present a novel graphical model approach for a problem not previously considered in the machine learning literature: that of tracking with ranked signals. The problem consists of tracking a single target given observations about the target that consist of ranked continuous signals, from unlabeled sources in a cluttered environment. We introduce appropriate factors to handle the imposed ordering assumption, and also incorporate various systematic errors that can arise in this problem, particularly clutter or noise signals as well as missing signals. We show that inference in the obtained graphical model can be simplified by adding bipartite structures with appropriate factors. We apply a hybrid approach consisting of belief propagation and particle filtering in this mixed graphical model for inference and validate the approach on simulated data. We were motivated to formalize and study this problem by a key task in Oceanography, that of tracking the motion of RAFOS ocean floats, using range measurements sent from a set of fixed beacons, but where the identities of the beacons corresponding to the measurements are not known. However, unlike the usual tracking problem in artificial intelligence, there is an implicit ranking assumption among signal arrival times. Our experiments show that the proposed graphical model approach allows us to effectively leverage the problem constraints and improve tracking accuracy over baseline tracking methods yielding results similar to the ground truth hand-labeled data.
Need for information. Interventions for practice.

Information is an important need of families of critically ill patients. Meeting this need requires a multidisciplinary approach and an environment that values the delivery of humanistic care. Critical care nurses require special skills in assessment, planning, intervention, and evaluation to effectively meet the information needs of families. Research is available to guide nurses in meeting the family’s need for information.
Hemodialysis Vascular Access: Rising Costs as a Surrogate Marker for Patency and Function of Arteriovenous Fistulas

Background Establishment and maintenance of vascular access for hemodialysis is life-sustaining for patients needing renal-replacement therapy. Arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) are the preferred type of access, but the costs associated with creation and maintenance are poorly characterized, especially with respect to patient characteristics. Methods A prospectively maintained registry has been established at The Mount Sinai Hospital for patients undergoing access procedures since 2007. We studied 163 patients undergoing successfully placed and cannulated AVFs as their first permanent ipsilateral access and for whom 3-year follow-up was available, including 18 patients with failed contralateral AVFs. Records were analyzed for institutional inpatient and outpatient procedures related to access maturation, imaging, catheter-related procedures, and revisions. We determined hospital costs for 3 AVF locations, assessing the contribution of various factors to variation in costs and patency. Results The median first-year cost of patent AVFs was $8,662, with $4,754 attributable to initial creation. For fistulas remaining patent for at least 3 years, median cumulative 36-month costs were $11,639, with $1,343 attributable to imaging and $10,478 to creation and interventions. Fistulas with patent lifetimes of 19–30 months (3.7%) had median cumulative costs of $26,035. Those with patent lifetimes of 6 months or shorter (6.7%) had median cumulative costs of $17,526. Right-sided fistulas were associated with 41% higher 1-year costs and 38% higher 3-year costs when compared with left-sided fistulas. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) status and prior history of complex contralateral access were also associated with higher 1-year and 3-year costs. Conclusions Hemodialysis access maintenance contributes significantly to the healthcare burden of renal disease. Our data suggest that particular patient characteristics factor into patency and costs. Short-term mounting costs associated with AVF maintenance may portend poor long-term patency. Rising healthcare costs cannot be easily controlled without understanding the clinical factors driving them.
Pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine responses to a 164-km road cycle ride in a hot environment.

The purpose of this study was to examine the circulating cytokine response to a recreational 164-km road cycling event in a high ambient temperature and to determine if this response was affected by self-paced exercise time to completion. Thirty-five men and five women were divided into tertiles based on time to complete the cycling event: slowest (SLOW), moderate (MOD), and fastest (FAST) finishers. Plasma samples were obtained 1–2 h before (PRE) and immediately after (IP) the event. A high-sensitivity multiplex assay kit was used to determine the concentration of plasma anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, IL-13) and pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-12, GM-CSF, IFN-γ, and TNF-α). The concentration of plasma IL-10 increased significantly (p < 0.05) in FAST and MOD groups and had no change in the SLOW group in response to a 164-km cycling event in the hot environment. Other cytokine responses were not influenced by the Time to completion. Pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-2, GM-CSF, and TNF-α decreased; whereas, IL-6 and IL-8 increased from PRE to IP. Additionally, anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4 and IL-13 decreased. Completion of a 164-km cycling event induced substantial changes in circulating pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine concentrations. Time to completion appears to have a greater influence on the systemic IL-10 response than the environmental condition; however, it is possible that a threshold for absolute intensity must be reached for environmental conditions to affect the IL-10 response to exercise. Thus, cyclists from the FAST/MOD groups appear more likely to experience an acute transient immune suppression than cyclists from the SLOW group.
Degrees of Freedom of Wireless Networks - What a Difference Delay Makes

We explore the impact of propagation delay on the degrees of freedom of wireless interference networks. For K > 2 user interference channel we show through an example that propagation delays can increase the degrees of freedom by up to a factor of K/2. We provide an example of node placement for a 4 user interference network such that the propagation delays for line-of-sight communication allow perfect interference alignment. We show that even if nodes are randomly placed, one can almost surely achieve sufficient interference alignment to approach the upperbound on the degrees of freedom by choosing the basic symbol duration small enough. An analogy with deterministic channel models is pointed out as an interesting mechanism to translate propagation delay based interference alignment schemes to delay-free Gaussian channel models.
Precise Noninvasive ECG Mapping Derived Localization of the Origin of an Epicardial Ventricular Tachycardia

Invasive electrophysiological study with subsequent radiofrequency ablation is the most common therapeutic approach for the management of idiopathic ventricular tachycardias (VTs). Different algorithms based on the standard 12-lead ECG have been described for localizing the origin of ventricular arrhythmias. The standard surface ECG has limitations of spatial resolution, whereas an electrophysiological study, requiring invasive access, does not provide global activation patterns and cannot easily track changing arrhythmia patterns. Invasive mapping remains, however, the gold standard of spatial localization. See Editor's Perspective by Asirvatham and Stevenson A novel approach for diagnosing the source of ventricular arrhythmias was demonstrated in recent years. This method, noninvasive electrocardiographic imaging, is based on the numeric reconstruction of epicardial electrograms (based on epicardial potentials) derived from computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging–based thoracic imaging and multichannel body surface EGG recording. This case study demonstrates the feasibility of a novel noninvasive epicardial and endocardial electrophysiology system (NEEES) for the diagnosis of an epicardially originating idiopathic VT. We present here the case of a 61-year-old female patient who was referred to our center for the investigation of symptomatic sustained VT. The 12-lead surface ECG showed a monomorphic VT with a QRS duration of 120 ms, a left superior axis, a right bundle branch morphology, and an early septal transition in the precordial leads suggesting a posteroseptal origin (Figure 1). No detectable anomalies were found on transthoracic echocardiographic examination. Figure 1. Twelve-lead surface ECG of the clinical ventricular tachycardia. ### Noninvasive Electrocardiographic Imaging Findings She then underwent a noninvasive electrocardiographic imaging study (NEEES system Amycard 01C electrophysiology [EP] laboratory; EP Solutions SA, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland) followed by an invasive electrophysiological and ablation procedure. Two-hundred twenty-four body surface mapping electrodes were applied on the patient’s torso and connected to a multichannel ECG amplifier (EP Solutions SA). ECG recording was performed during 30 minutes, and 10 to 15 …
Application of campus instructional support: two case studies

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how instructional support is a critical tool to promote the use of technology in research and teaching. A Campus-Wide Collaborative Model of Technological Instructional Support (CCMTIS) is presented that incorporates: integration of technology across campus; technical assistance; allocation of funding for technical assistance; support of faculty teaching style; and teaching that enhances learning through the use of technology. Design/methodology/approach The approach presents two case studies, one a large state research university, and the other a small liberal arts college. Findings Four overlapping themes emerge across the two case studies that demonstrate how: technology can connect classroom learning to career considerations and opportunities; develop writing and communication skills; promote career development through access to job search skills; and encourage professional development among faculty and staff. Research limitations/implications The limitations are that only two specific campus environments are examined. That these are differing environments, however, have implications for the model’s application to diverse campus settings. Practical implications A practical application is that the study demonstrates how the CCMTIS model can be applied to both classroom and campus. This has implications for other universities that may seek to replicate the model on their own campuses. Social implications The social implications indicate how learning occurs through an instructional support model that promotes collaboration. At the same time, ethical considerations related to instructional support are presented. Originality/value The manuscript reflects original work based on case studies that reflect the authors’ experiences.
Interference separation for UWB radar signals from entropy-driven robust PCA

In this paper, we present a simple algorithm for robust separation and extraction of radio-frequency interference (RFI) components from raw ultra-wideband (UWB) radar signals using entropy-driven robust principal component analysis (E-RPCA). Interference sources here pose critical challenges for UWB systems since RFI might have significant bandwidth and/or power. Moreover, RFI signals are difficult to predict and model due to their nonstationary nature. Our proposed framework involves modeling RFI as a low-rank component while treating SAR signals as sparse outliers. We rely on an entropy-minimization cost function formulation to improve the discriminative power of RPCA to perform blind clustering in the noise-source separation process: a low-rank subspace capturing RFI components and a sparse subspace capturing SAR signals as impulsive outliers. The proposed method can be implemented as a denoising preprocessing stage for raw radar signals prior to image formation and other follow-up tasks such as target detection and classification. Finally, we demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of our proposed framework via extensive recovery results from simulated data sets as well as real data collected by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) UWB synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system.
Group IVB metallocene polyesters containing camphoric acid and preliminary cancer cell activity

AbstractPolyesters were formed from the reaction of the salt of camphoric acid and Group IVB metallocene dichlorides employing the interfacial polycondensation process. The polyesters were formed in good yields with moderate chain lengths. FTIR shows bands characteristic of the presence of both reactants with new bands characteristic of the formation of the M-O and M-O(CO) linkage present. The polymers largely exist in a bridging geometry of the carbonyl-groups about the metal atom. NMR shows the presence of bands derived from both reactants. MALDI MS shows ion fragments to three units for the polymers with isotopic abundances characteristic of the presence of metal atoms in the ion fragment clusters. All of the polymers exhibit good ability to inhibit all of the tested cancer cell lines but the zironocene and hafnocene polymers exhibit especially good inhibition of the tested cancer cell lines that included two pancreatic cancer cell lines. They represent a potential new group of anticancer drugs.Polyest...
Sunk-Cost Fallacy and Seller Behavior in the Housing Market

We use a unique feature of California's property tax system to empirically identify the effect of selling homeowners' past property tax payments on their choice of listing price. Although past property taxes are sunk costs, we find that they have a significant positive effect on the sellers' choice of listing price, which is inconsistent with rational models of decision making. This effect is stronger when sellers expect to sell at a loss relative to their purchase price, for high-valued properties, and in zip codes with lower housing transaction volumes. Interestingly, the sunk-cost effect is also stronger for sellers with higher mortgage debt, especially when they expect to incur a loss on the sale. Overall, our results suggest that the sunk-cost fallacy affects seller behavior in the housing market.
Courseware Quality: Do Development and Design Procedures Make a Difference?

ABSTRACT Development and design procedures employed by publishers of excellent courseware were compared with those employed by other publishers, then both sets of procedures were compared with prescriptive models. The major difference between the two groups was in predominant development strategy.
Cultural Convergence: Interest Convergence Theory Meets the Cultural Defense?

Much has been written about the so-called cultural defense or, more accurately, the proffer of cultural evidence by a criminal defendant seeking to mitigate a charge or sentence. Many scholars support the admission of cultural evidence, but argue it should be limited to cases where such evidence is used to negate the mens rea element of the charged offense. Others feel that the admission of cultural evidence violates the principle of equal protection and favors immigrant and minority defendants over American defendants, and therefore the practice should be sharply circumscribed. Recently, a few legal scholars have issued calls for recognition of an official cultural defense. In Cultural Convergence, Professor Lee neither defends nor criticizes the practice of using culture in the criminal courtroom. Rather, she seeks to illuminate why some uses of culture in the criminal courtroom seem to be more successful than others. Generally speaking, immigrants and minority defendants who seek to proffer cultural evidence in their defense are not successful. Either the judge deems the evidence irrelevant or the jury is not persuaded that the defendant's cultural background should be grounds for leniency. An extensive review of the cultural defense literature, however, suggests that immigrant and minority defendants who successfully introduce cultural evidence in their defense have one thing in common. The cultural norms underlying their claims are either similar to or complement American cultural norms, including retrograde, e.g., racist and sexist, norms. Borrowing from Derrick Bell's interest convergence theory, Lee argues that cultural convergence is one way to explain these results. Cultural convergence is the idea that the cultural defense claims of minority and immigrant defendants are more likely to receive accommodation when there is convergence between the cultural norms relied upon by the immigrant or minority defendant and American cultural norms. This article proceeds in three parts. Part I provides the reader with an overview of the major legal issues surrounding the use of cultural evidence in the criminal courtroom. Part II provides a comprehensive taxonomy of the ways Derrick Bell's interest convergence theory has been applied by legal scholars. Part III demonstrates how Lee's theory of cultural convergence can help explain many of the successful uses of culture in the criminal courtroom.
Price and agency effects on charitable giving behavior

Abstract Charitable giving challenges our understanding of human behavior; it benefits others yet is guided by personal preferences. This study uses online experiments to test how donors respond to circumstantial conditions in donative behavior. We vary two factors, the amount of agency and the price of giving, to test how these factors affect charitable giving behavior. Experiment 1 demonstrated that a simple choice set enhancing perceived agency increased donations by increasing participation rates, but not the average donation amount. Experiment 2 used a text entry mechanism to demonstrate that a higher level of agency leads to even higher donations. Both experiments demonstrated that price incentives strongly affect the average donation amounts, and in some cases participation rates.
Detecting Hardware Trojans Inserted by Untrusted Foundry Using Physical Inspection and Advanced Image Processing

Hardware Trojans are malicious changes to the design of integrated circuits (ICs) at different stages of the design and fabrication process. Different approaches have been developed to detect Trojans namely non-destructive and destructive testing. However, none of the previously developed methods can be used to detect all types of Trojans as they suffer from a number of disadvantages such as low speed of detection, low accuracy, low confidence level, and poor coverage of Trojan types. Majority of the hardware Trojans implemented in an IC will leave a footprint at the active layer. In this paper, we propose a new technique based on rapid backside SEM imaging and advanced computer vision algorithms to detect any subtle changes at the active region of transistors that can show the existence of a hardware Trojan. Here, we are only concerned with untrusted foundry problem, where it is assumed the attacker has access to a golden layout/image of the IC. This is a common threat model for those organizations that fully design their IC but need access to untrusted foundry for fabrication. SEM image from a backside thinned golden IC is compared with a low-quality SEM image of an IC under authentication (IUA). We perform image processing to both golden IC and IUA images to remove noise. We have developed a computer vision-based framework to detect hardware Trojans based on their structural similarity. The results demonstrate that our technique is quite effective at detecting Trojans and significantly faster than full chip reverse engineering. One of the major advantages of our technique is that it does not rely on the functionality of the circuit, rather the real physical structure to detect malicious changes performed by the untrusted foundry.
Application of machine learning techniques in investigating the relationship between neuroimaging dataset measured by functional near infra-red spectroscopy and behavioral dataset in a moral judgment task

Coupling behavioral information with functional neuroimaging data sets promises to provide comprehensive insight into many medical data analyses. Analyzing the relationship of data sets of such diverse natures across multiple subjects requires special considerations. This enables a much more robust characterization of different data sets. Here, we investigate the relation between psychopathic traits quantified by the Psychopathic Personality Inventory- Revised [PPI-R]; (behavioral data set) and brain functional activities captured by functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS; neuroimaging data set). Particularly, we wanted to determine the psychopathic core traits most correlated with brain functional activation in personal (emotionally salient) and impersonal (more logical than emotional) moral judgment (MJ) decision-making. Our aim was to fill the gap in neuroimaging research between psychopathic traits and neuroimaging data during moral decision making using fNIRS. Applying Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) on brain functional activity recording from 30 healthy subjects and their psychopathic traits revealed coldheartedness and carefree non-planfulness to be highly correlated with prefrontal activation during personal (emotionally salient) MJ, while Machiavellian egocentricity, rebellious nonconformity, coldheartedness, and carefree non-planfulness were the core traits that exhibited the same dynamics as prefrontal activity during impersonal (more logical) MJ. Furthermore, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and left lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) were the prefrontal regions most positively correlated with psychopathic traits during personal MJ, and the right vmPFC and right lateral PFC were most correlated with impersonal MJ decision-making.
Oregon Firsts: First in the Nation Landmark Legislation

Oregon’s pioneering spirit extends to many areas of legislation. Vote-by-mail, refunds for empty bottles, physician-assisted dying and a comprehensive land use program are just some of the areas in which Oregon was the first in the nation to create landmark legislation. Fourteen such laws are compiled here, with brief histories for each law. The period covered is from 1919 through the 2009 legislative session.
Sonic injustice: Disparate residential exposures to transport noise from road and aviation sources in the continental United States

Abstract Noise from road and air traffic is known to harm human health, reduce mobility and accessibility, undermine community well-being, precipitate socio-environmental conflict, and depress land values. However, there have been surprisingly few studies of social inequities in noise exposure in the United States (US). This is the first US national-level study of social inequities in residential noise exposure from transport sources. We integrated data on the socio-demographic characteristics of census tracts in the continental US (n = 70,780) with the most advanced spatial estimates of road and aviation transport noise available. Using bivariate correlations and multivariate generalized estimating equations that account for geographic clustering and effects of other relevant variables, we tested for social disparities in road and aviation noise exposure across US census tracts. Noise from road vs. aviation transport sources was not highly correlated, yet results revealed a clear, convergent pattern of higher road and aviation noise exposures for census tracts characterized by lower socioeconomic status (i.e., higher deprivation and proportion renter occupancy) and greater proportions of Hispanic, black, Asian, Pacific Islander, and middle/working-aged residents. Overall, findings indicate that American neighborhoods with high concentrations of racial/ethnic minority and economically deprived residents bear the brunt of transport noise exposures. Given this study's scope and findings, policy actions to reduce social disparities in transport noise exposures nationwide are warranted.
Neurodevelopmental Outcomes Associated with Prefrontal Cortical Deoxygenation in Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Relationships between neurodevelopmental functioning and hemodynamic changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were contrasted between children with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and children who differed relative to their history of PAE and the presence of other neurodevelopmental impairment. For all groups, deoxygenated hemoglobin (HBR) levels in the medial PFC area were negatively related to externalizing problems and levels in the medial and right lateral PFC were positively related to errors on a cognitive inhibition task. Hemodynamic changes in the medial and right lateral PFC of children with PAE demonstrated stronger relationships to aspects of executive functioning relative to contrast groups.
Adaptation and Validation of the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique for Nurse Anesthesia Graduate Students

Abstract Background Endsley's Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) is accepted as a valid and reliable situation awareness (SA) measurement tool in event-driven domains, including health care specialties. This study validated an adapted SAGAT to quantify anesthesia providers' SA in a simulation. Method Using exploratory sequential mixed methods, SAGAT items were adapted and validated using qualitative techniques and further validated by quantitative approaches. The study used 2 samples of CRNA, nurse anesthesia educators. Results Content analysis of identified and validated SA requirements elicited SAGAT items, with the final item list demonstrating I-CVIs of 0.83 to 1.0 and S-CVI/Ave of 0.92. Conclusion(s) An anesthesia providers' competence is directly related to clinical decision making and thus SA, necessitating the importance of its measurement.
Chapter 10 – How To Design Usable Systems

Publisher Summary This chapter summarizes a process of system design that, if followed, helps a person create usable computer systems for people—systems that are easy to learn, easy to use, contain the right functions, and are liked. There are four key points in this usability design process: early focus on users; empirical measurement; iterative design; and integrated design, where all aspects of usability evolve together from the start. This chapter reviews 20-30 informal methods to carry out these four points. Many of the methods can be used without extensive training in human factors. This chapter also summarizes how system design process is used to develop a new comprehensive software development system, called ITS. ITS was created to make it easier for developers to carry out this design process particularly incremental, iterative design. As a part of iteratively developing ITS, ITS was used to build serious applications, particularly multimedia ones, used by thousands and millions of users. This chapter describes these case studies, with emphasis upon the human factors methods used and the iterative, incremental approach.
Development and preliminary testing of a technology-enhanced intervention to improve energy intake regulation in children

Abstract Interventions designed to improve children's self-regulation of energy intake have yielded mixed results. We tested the efficacy of a technology-enhanced intervention designed to teach children to eat in response to internal hunger and fullness cues. Thirty-two children (mean age 4.9 ± 0.8 y) completed this within-subjects, pre-post design study that took place across 10 laboratory sessions, each scheduled approximately 1 week apart. The intervention was conducted across weeks 4–7 in small groups focused on teaching children how food travels through the body and how to respond to hunger and fullness signals. Children's short-term energy compensation, a measure of intake regulation, was collected at baseline and follow-up using a preloading protocol. Twenty-five minutes prior to receiving a standardized test meal, children consumed a low-energy (3 kcal) or high-energy (150 kcal) preload beverage, presented in random order at baseline and follow-up. Knowledge of intervention concepts was also assessed at baseline and follow-up. Linear mixed models were used to examine changes in short-term energy compensation and knowledge from baseline to follow-up. Knowledge related to the intervention improved from baseline to follow-up (3.5 ± 0.3 to 7.0 ± 0.3 correct responses out of a possible 10; P
Targeting Public Trust Suits

The California public trust doctrine empowers private individuals and interest groups to protect the public trust and to enforce state laws that protect the public trust. California has long led the development of the doctrine in the United States, becoming the first state to allow citizen suits to protect the public trust in 1971. A number of other states have followed California’s lead, resulting in a significant expansion in environmental standing. This broadened standing seems to be settled law. In contrast, two California Court of Appeal decisions create some uncertainty about appropriate defendants in public trust lawsuits. These decisions counsel some caution as private parties pick their targets for public trust litigation.
What Drives Innovation? Lessons from COVID-19 R&D

To examine the drivers of innovation, this paper studies the global RD (2) the RD (3) the aggregate short-term elasticity of science and innovation can be very large, as demonstrated by aggregate flow of clinical trials increasing by 38% in 2020, with limited crowding out of trials for non-COVID diseases; and (4) public institutions and government-led incentives were a key driver of the COVID-19 R&D effort—with public research institutions accounting for 70 percent of all COVID-19 clinical trials globally and being 10 percentage points more likely to conduct a COVID-19 trial relative to private firms. Overall, while economists are naturally in favor of market size as a driving force for innovation (i.e.“if the market size is sufficiently large then innovation will happen”), our work suggests that scaling up global innovation may require a broader perspective on the drivers of innovation—including early-stage incentives, non-monetary incentives, and public institutions.
Secondary Frequency Regulation Strategy of Virtual Synchronization Technology Based Microgrid Considering the Integrated Benefit

Based on the virtual synchronous machine technology, this paper proposes a secondary frequency regulation strategy for microgrid, which considers the generation costs of supply side VSGs and the benefits of load side VSGs respectively. The proposed strategy aiming at the integrated benefit of secondary frequency regulation for virtual synchronized microgrid is realized over sparse communication among adjacent controllers of supply side, load side VSGs and storage VSGs. To realize the optimal frequency regulation considering the integrated operation cost, the optimal power reference values of virtual synchronverters are calculated by distributed algorithm. A virtual synchronized microgrid model is built on MATLAB/Simulink platform. The effectiveness of the proposed frequency regulation strategy are verified by simulation analysis.
Myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms-unclassifiable with isolated isochromosome 17q represents a distinct clinico-biologic subset: a multi-institutional collaborative study from the Bone Marrow Pathology Group.

Classification of myeloid neoplasms with isolated isochromosome i(17q) [17p deletion with inherent monoallelic TP53 loss plus 17q duplication] is controversial. Most cases fall within the WHO unclassifiable myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms (MDS/MPN-U) category. The uniformly dismal outcomes warrant better understanding of this entity. We undertook a multi-institutional retrospective study of 92 adult MDS/MPN-U cases from eight institutions. Twenty-nine (32%) patients had isolated i(17q) [MDS/MPN-i(17q)]. Compared to MDS/MPN without i(17q), MDS/MPN-i(17q) patients were significantly younger, had lower platelet and absolute neutrophil counts, and higher frequency of splenomegaly and circulating blasts. MDS/MPN-i(17q) cases showed frequent bilobed neutrophils (75% vs. 23%; P = 0.03), hypolobated megakaryocytes (62% vs. 20%; P = 0.06), and a higher frequency of SETBP1 (69% vs. 5%; P = 0.002) and SRSF2 (63% vs. 5%; P = 0.006) mutations that were frequently co-existent (44% vs. 0%; P = 0.01). TP53 mutations were rare. The mutation profile of MDS/MPN-U-i(17q) was similar to other myeloid neoplasms with i(17q) including atypical chronic myeloid leukemia, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasm with ring sideroblasts and thrombocytosis, myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia, with frequent concomitant SETBP1/SRSF2 mutations observed across all the diagnostic entities. Over a median follow-up of 52 months, patients with MDS/MPN-i(17q) showed a shorter median overall survival (11 vs. 28 months; P < 0.001). The presence of i(17q) retained independent poor prognostic value in multivariable Cox-regression analysis [HR 3.686 (1.17-11.6); P = 0.026] along with splenomegaly. We suggest that MDS/MPN-i(17q) warrants recognition as a distinct subtype within the MDS/MPN-U category based on its unique clinico-biologic features and uniformly poor prognosis.
Incidence of R Factors Associated with Aeromonas Hydrophila Complex Isolated from Aquarium fish

A series of studies to determine the occurrence of R factors, imparting resistancy to tetracycline, associated with Aeromonas hydrophila isolates from Southeast Asia and South American aquarium fish were made. Resulting data indicate infection rates of 25.5% and 1.2%, respectively. Additional studies in fish outlet shops show a direct relationship between prophylactic use of tetracycline and the presence of R factors carriage by the Aeromonas hydrophila isolated from aquaria.
A Self-Consistent Model for the Broad-band Spectrum of Sgr A East at the Galactic Center

Sgr A East is a very prominent elongated shell structure surrounding (though off-centered from) the Galactic nucleus. Its energetics (~4x10^52 ergs), based on the power required to carve out the radio synchrotron remnant within the surrounding dense molecular cloud, appear to be extreme compared to the total energy (~10^51 ergs) released in a typical supernova (SN) explosion. Yet it shares several characteristics in common with SN remnants (SNRs), the most significant of which is the ~0.1-10 GeV gamma-ray spectrum measured by EGRET, if we associate the Galactic center source 2EGJ1746-2852 with this nonthermal shell. We here show that the highest-energy component in Sgr A East's spectrum, like that of SNRs, can be fitted with the gamma-rays produced in neutral pion decays. Further, we demonstrate in a self-consistent manner that the leptons released in the associated charged pion decays produce an e+e- distribution that can mimic a power-law with index ~3, like that inferred from the VLA data for this source. These relativistic electrons and positrons also radiate by bremsstrahlung, and inverse Compton scattering with the intense IR and UV fields from the nucleus. We show that the overall emissivity calculated in this way may account for Sgr A East's broadband spectrum ranging from GHz frequencies all the way to TeV energies, where Whipple has thus far set an upper limit to the flux corresponding to a 2.5-sigma signal above the noise.
Floodplain Rehabilitation as a Hedge against Hydroclimatic Uncertainty in a Migration Corridor of Threatened Steelhead

A strategy for recovering endangered species during climate change is to restore ecosystem processes that moderate effects of climate shifts. In mid-latitudes, storm patterns may shift their intensity, duration, and frequency. These shifts threaten flooding in human communities and reduce migration windows (conditions suitable for migration after a storm) for fish. Rehabilitation of historic floodplains can in principle reduce these threats via transient storage of storm water, but no one has quantified the benefit of floodplain rehabilitation for migrating fish, a widespread biota with conservation and economic value. We used simple models to quantify migration opportunity for a threatened migratory fish, steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss), in an episodic rain-fed river system, the Pajaro River in central California. We combined flow models, bioenergetic models, and existing climate projections to estimate the sensitivity of migration windows to altered storm patterns under alternate scenarios of floodplain rehabilitation. Generally, migration opportunities were insensitive to warming, weakly sensitive to duration or intensity of storms, and proportionately sensitive to frequency of storms. The rehabilitation strategy expanded migration windows by 16-28% regardless of climate outcomes. Warmer conditions raised the energy cost of migrating, but not enough to matter biologically. Novel findings were that fewer storms appeared to pose a bigger threat to migrating steelhead than warmer or smaller storms and that floodplain rehabilitation lessened the risk from fewer or smaller storms across all plausible hydroclimatic outcomes. It follows that statistical downscaling methods may mischaracterize risk, depending on how they resolve overall precipitation shifts into changes of storm frequency as opposed to storm size. Moreover, anticipating effects of climate shifts that are irreducibly uncertain (here, rainfall) may be more important than anticipating effects of relatively predictable changes such as warming. This highlights a need to credibly identify strategies of ecosystem rehabilitation that are robust to uncertainty. Rehabilitacion de Planicies Inundables como Cerco contra la Incertidumbre Hidroclimatica en un Corredor Migratorio de Oncorhynchus mykiss, Especie Amenazada.
The Comparative Political Economy of Childcare: Japan, U.S., and Europe

Imperfections in the childcare market results in sub-optimal levels and quality of communal care for children. As a result, many women in industrialized democracies are opting out of motherhood. This project proposes to investigate the reasons behind those market deficiencies, as well as the political process for rectifying them. This project combines a large-n statistical analysis with in-depth process tracing in several countries: Japan, the U.S., Sweden, and Germany.
The Boundary-Integral Formulation and Multiple-Reflection Expansion for the Vacuum Energy of Quantum Graphs

Vacuum energy and other spectral functions of Laplace-type differential operators have been studied approximately by classical-path constructions and more fundamentally by boundary integral equations. As the first step in a program of elucidating the connections between these approaches and improving the resulting calculations, I show here how the known solutions for Kirchhoff quantum graphs emerge in a boundary-integral formulation.
Fluorogenic Small Molecules Requiring Reaction with a Specific Protein to Create a Fluorescent Conjugate for Biological Imaging–What we Know and What we Need to Learn

We seek fluorogenic small molecules that generate a fluorescent conjugate signal if and only if they react with a given protein-of-interest (i.e., small molecules for which noncovalent binding to the protein-of-interest is insufficient to generate fluorescence). Consequently, it is the new chemical entity afforded by the generally irreversible reaction between the small molecule and the protein-of-interest that enables the energy of an electron occupying the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the chromophore to be given off as a photon instead of being dissipated by nonradiative mechanisms in complex biological environments. This category of fluorogenic small molecules is created by starting with environmentally sensitive fluorophores that are modified by an essential functional group that efficiently quenches the fluorescence until a chemoselective reaction between that functional group and the protein-of-interest occurs, yielding the fluorescent conjugate. Fluorogenic small molecules are envisioned to be useful for a wide variety of applications, including live cell imaging without the requirement for washing steps and pulse-chase kinetic analyses of protein synthesis, trafficking, degradation, etc. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 101: 484–495, 2014.
Wavelength dependence of the Brillouin spectral width of boron doped germanosilicate optical fibers.

Boron co-doped germanosilicate fibers are investigated via the Brillouin light scattering technique using two wavelengths, 1534nm and 1064nm. Several fibers are investigated, including four drawn from the same preform but at different draw temperatures. The Stokes’ shifts and the Brillouin spectral widths are found to increase with increasing fiber draw temperature. A frequency-squared law has adequately described the wavelength dependence of the Brillouin spectral width of conventional Ge-doped fibers. However, it is found that unlike conventional Ge-doped fibers these fibers do not follow the frequency-squared law. This is explained through a frequency-dependent dynamic viscosity that modifies this law.
Modeling Copolymerization of Styrene and Acrylic Acid via the Free-Radical Retrograde-Precipitation Polymerization (FRRPP) Process

The free-radical retrograde-precipitation polymerization (or FRRPP) process is a free-radical-based chain polymerization process that occurs above a lower critical solution temperature (LCST). The unique features of FRRPP have been exploited for the synthesis of novel amphiphilic materials under industrially practicable conditions. In the work described here, the copolymerization of styrene and acrylic acid via FRRPP is modeled and simulated to derive greater understanding behind the polymerization mechanism. The penultimate model is used to calculate the reactivity ratios. These reactivity ratios are used to calculate conversion, composition, and molecular weight distributions using the mole balance equations for the different species in the system and the Achilias Kiparissides model for the calculation of reaction rate coefficients. The results suggest that precipitation and the resulting phase separation and change in diffusivities have a strong impact on the polymerization kinetics. The penultimate mo...