cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
John Warwick Montgomery's contributions to religious freedom advocacy : congratulations

On 18 October of this year, Professor Dr John Warwick Montgomery will celebrate his 80th birthday. This seems incredible not only to him but also to all who know him, since he continues to carry on his academic and legal activities unabated. Just take as an example the annual International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism and Human Rights, in Strasbourg, France, of which he serves as director and teaches at least two courses (www.apologeticsacademy.eu).
Microalgal productivity, community composition, and pelagic food web dynamics in a subtropical, turbid salt marsh isolated from freshwater inflow

Carbon entering the food web originating from microalgal productivity may be as important to salt marsh consumers as carbon originating from vascular plant production. The objective of this study was to further our understanding of the role played by microalgae in salt marshes. We focused on microalgal productivity, community dynamics, and pelagic food web linkages. Across three consecutive springs (2001–2003), we sampled the upper Nueces Delta in southeast Texas, United States; a shallow, turbid system of ponds and elevated vegetated areas stressed by low freshwater inflow and salinities ranging from brackish (11) to hypersaline (300). Despite high turbidity and low external nutrient loadings, microalgal productivity was on the order of that reported for vascular plants. Primary productivity in surface waters ranged from 0 to 2.02 g C m−2 d−1 and was usually higher than primary productivity associated with the benthos, which ranged from 0 to 1.14 g C m−2 d−1. This was likely due to high amounts of wind-driven resuspended sediment limiting production at greater depths. Most of the water column microalgal biovolume seemed to originate from the benthos and was comprised mostly of pennate diatoms. But true phytoplankton taxa were also observed, which included cryptomonads, chlorophyhtes dinoflagellates, and cyanobacteria. Succession from r-selected to K-selected taxa with the progression of spring, a common phenomena in aquatic systems, was not observed. Codominance by both potentially edible and less edible taxa was found. This was likely due to decreased grazing pressure on r-selected taxa as salinity conditions became unfavorable for grazers. In addition to a decoupled food web, reduced primary and net productivity, community respiration, and microalgal and zooplankton population densities were all observed at extreme salinities. Our findings suggest that a more accurate paradigm of salt marsh functioning within the landscape must account for microalgal productivity as well as production by vascular plants. Because the value of microalgal productivity to higher trophic levels is taxa specific, the factors that govern microalgal community structure and dynamics must also be accounted for. In the case for the Nueces Delta, these factors included wind mixing and increasing salinities.
Effect of Desoxycorticosterone Acetate upon Blood Sugar and Electrolytes of Adrenalectomized Rats

ConclusionsThe injection of adequate amounts of desoxycorticosterone acetate into fasted adrenalectomized rats does prevent the drop in concentration of blood sugar found in untreated adrenalectomized rats. The amount required to maintain the blood sugar is greater than that necessary to maintain normal concentrations of serum electrolytes and non-protein nitrogen.
Co-transport of gold nanospheres with single-walled carbon nanotubes in saturated porous media

Abstract Porous media transport of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) is typically assessed in a controlled single-particulate environment. Presence of a secondary particle (either natural or engineered) in the natural environment though likely, is rarely taken into consideration in assessing ENMs' transport behavior. This study systematically assesses the effect of a secondary ENM (i.e., pluronic acid modified single-walled carbon nanotubes, PA-SWNTs) on a primary particle (i.e., gold nanospheres, AuNSs) transport through saturated porous media under a wide range of aquatic conditions (1–100 mM NaCl). AuNS hetero-dispersions (i.e., with PA-SWNTs) are transported through saturated sand columns, and the transport behavior is compared to AuNS-only homo-dispersion cases, which display classical ionic strength-dependent behavior. AuNS hetero-dispersion, however, is highly mobile with little to no ionic strength-dependent effects. This study also assesses the role of pre-coating of the collectors with PA-SWNTs on AuNSs' mobility, thereby elucidating the role played by the order of introduction of the secondary particles. Pre-existence of the secondary particles in the porous media shows enhanced filtration of primary AuNSs. However, the presence of natural organic matter (NOM) slightly increases AuNS mobility through PA-SWNT coated sand at 10 mM ionic strength. The study results demonstrate that the presence and order of addition of the secondary particles strongly influence primary particles' mobility. Thus ENMs can demonstrate facilitated transport or enhanced removal, depending on the presence of the secondary particulate matter and background solution chemistry.
Rebel Diplomacy in Civil War

In the midst of civil war, rebel groups often expend significant resources opening offices in foreign capitals, meeting with heads of state, expanding their overseas networks, appealing to international organizations, and contacting foreign media. Existing scholarship has generally neglected international diplomacy as an aspect of violent rebellion, focusing instead on rebel efforts at domestic organization. A systematic documentation of rebel diplomacy in post–1950 civil wars using new quantitative and qualitative data shows that rebel diplomacy is commonplace and that many groups demonstrate as much concern for overseas political campaigns as they do for domestic and local mobilization. Diplomacy, furthermore, is not a weapon of the militarily weak, but a tactical choice for rebel groups seeking political capital within an international system that places formidable barriers to entry on nonstate entities. An original analysis of the diplomacy of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola in the Angolan civil war using archival sources further demonstrates why rebels may become active diplomats in one phase of a conflict but eschew diplomacy in another. More broadly, the international relations of rebel groups promise to be an important new research agenda in understanding violent politics.
The Effect of a Secondary Cognitive Task on Lower Extremity Biomechanics during Landing

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a cognitive task on jump-landing biomechanics and performance. Methods: 26 recreational athletes participated in the study. Participants jumped forward off of a 30cm box a distance equal to one half of their body height, then immediately performed a countermovement jump. This movement was performed in a control condition, while counting backwards by intervals of 1, and by intervals of 7. Initial knee flexion, knee range of motion, peak vertical ground reaction force (PVGRF), stance time, and jump height were calculated. Results: There were statistically significant differences in initial knee flexion (p = 0.0004), PVGRF (p = 0.031), and stance time (0.038) between the control and counting by 1 condition. There were also significant differences in knee range of motion (p = 0.049, p = 0.012) and jump height (p = 0.001, p = 0.0002) between the control and both the 1 and 7 conditions. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the addition of a cognitive task did alter both landing biomechanics and performance. These results have implications for developing new ACL injury screening procedures to more realistically imitate a sport environment.
Supply Chain Coordination with Retailers' Sales-effort Competition

In this paper we study the coordination problem of a supply chain,while the supply chain consists of one supplier and multiple retailers.Retailers compete with each other through sales-effort and making order decisions.First,we study the equilibrium when the retailers compete with each other through sales-effort and are offered with a buy-back contract.Then,we obtain an appropriate contract to coordinate the supply chain.We demonstrate that when a retailer's demand can be affected by the salesefforts from all the retailers,there exists at least one sales-effort equilibrium.Moreover,when the saleseffort is not unique,we find that the equlibria constitute a sublattice.In addition,we find a sufficient condition to ensure the existence of a unique equilibrium and design a buy-back contract with sales-effort cost sharing to coordinate such supply chain.
Meta-analysis reveals ammonia-oxidizing bacteria respond more strongly to nitrogen addition than ammonia-oxidizing archaea

Shifts in microbial communities driven by anthropogenic nitrogen (N) addition have broad-scale ecological consequences. However, responses of microbial groups to exogenous N supply vary considerably across studies, hindering efforts to predict community changes. We used meta-analytical techniques to explore how amoA gene abundances of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) respond to N addition, and found that N addition increased AOA and AOB abundances by an average of 27% and 326%, respectively. Responses of AOB varied by study type, ecosystem, fertilizer type, and soil pH, and were strongest in unmanaged wildland soils and soils fertilized with inorganic N sources. Increases in nitrification potential with N addition significantly correlated with only AOB. Our analyses suggest that elevated N supply enhances soil nitrification potential by increasing AOB populations, and that this effect may be most pronounced in unmanaged wildland soils.
Open chromatin reveals the functional maize genome

Cellular processes mediated through nuclear DNA must contend with chromatin. Chromatin structural assays can efficiently integrate information across diverse regulatory elements, revealing the functional noncoding genome. In this study, we use a differential nuclease sensitivity assay based on micrococcal nuclease (MNase) digestion to discover open chromatin regions in the maize genome. We find that maize MNase-hypersensitive (MNase HS) regions localize around active genes and within recombination hotspots, focusing biased gene conversion at their flanks. Although MNase HS regions map to less than 1% of the genome, they consistently explain a remarkably large amount (∼40%) of heritable phenotypic variance in diverse complex traits. MNase HS regions are therefore on par with coding sequences as annotations that demarcate the functional parts of the maize genome. These results imply that less than 3% of the maize genome (coding and MNase HS regions) may give rise to the overwhelming majority of phenotypic variation, greatly narrowing the scope of the functional genome.
VECTOR EXCITATION HOMOMORPHIC VOCODER

The use of analysis-by-synthesis in determining the excitation signal has significantly advanced the state of the art in LPC vocoders [1,2]. The same principle has been adopted to obtain the excitation signal in the homomorphic vocoder, i.e., an exhaustive search procedure is used to determine the excitation by minimizing a perceptually weighted difference between the original speech and the output of the vocoder synthesizer [3]. This new homomorphic vocoder, called the vector excitation homomorphic vocoder, is a promising low bit rate vocoder, with performance that is far superior to that of a pitch-excited homomorphic vocoder [4] and fully comparable to that of vector-excited LPC vocoders such as code-excited or self-excited vocoders at a bit rate of 4800 bps.
Sparingly Solvating Electrolytes for High Energy Density Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Moving to lighter and less expensive battery chemistries compared to contemporary lithium-ion requires the control of energy storage mechanisms based on chemical transformations rather than intercalation. Lithium–sulfur (Li/S) has tremendous theoretical specific energy, but contemporary approaches to control this solution-mediated, precipitation–dissolution chemistry require large excesses of electrolyte to fully solubilize the polysulfide intermediates. Achieving reversible electrochemistry under lean electrolyte operation is the most promising path for Li/S to move beyond niche applications to potentially transformational performance. An emerging Li/S research area is the use of sparingly solvating electrolytes and the creation of design rules for discovering new electrolyte systems that fundamentally decouple electrolyte volume from sulfur and polysulfide reaction mechanism. This Perspective presents an outlook for sparingly solvating electrolytes as a key path forward for long-lived, high energy densi...
Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of 1,9-diheteroarylnona-1,3,6,8-tetraen-5-ones as a new class of anti-prostate cancer agents

In search of more effective chemotherapeutics for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer and inspired by curcumin analogues, twenty five (1E,3E,6E,8E)-1,9-diarylnona-1,3,6,8-tetraen-5-ones bearing two identical terminal heteroaromatic rings have been successfully synthesized through Wittig reaction followed by Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reaction. Twenty-three of them are new compounds. The WST-1 cell proliferation assay was employed to assess their anti-proliferative effects toward both androgen-sensitive and androgen-insensitive human prostate cancer cell lines. Eighteen out of twenty-five synthesized compounds possess significantly improved potency as compared with curcumin. The optimal compound, 78, is 14- to 23-fold more potent than curcumin in inhibiting prostate cancer cell proliferation. It can be concluded from our data that 1,9-diarylnona-1,3,6,8-tetraen-5-one can serve as a new potential scaffold for the development of anti-prostate cancer agents and that pyridine-4-yls and quinolin-4-yl act as optimal heteroaromatic rings for the enhanced potency of this scaffold. Two of the most potent compounds, 68 and 75, effectively suppress PC-3 cell proliferation by activating cell apoptosis and by arresting cell cycle in the G0/G1 phase.
Successful Therapy of Cold Agglutinin Disease Utilizing Rituximab

Abstract 5271 Cold agglutinin disease is an autoimmune hemolytic anemia mediated by cold reactive autoantibodies triggering a complement mediated hemolysis. This condition, when not associated with infection, is characterized by clonal proliferation of CD20+ B cells that produce monoclonal IgM cold agglutinins. Conventional therapies for primary cold agglutinin disease (CAD) are ineffective, but case reports suggest that rituximab, an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, may be effective. In this retrospective single institution study, we evaluated the use of rituximab therapy in 6 patients (pts) [1 male, 5 female; median age 70 years (range 62 – 89)]. Three pts had primary CAD, 2 pts had mixed CAD and warm AIHA, and 2 pts had CAD in the setting of CLL. Five pts had received steroid therapy, 2 pts IVIG, 1 pt azathioprine, and 5 pts PRBC transfusion (2–10 units). Five received induction therapy with rituximab 375 mg/m2 IV weekly for four weeks and 1 for seven weeks. Four patients received maintenance rituximab 375 mg/m2 IV every two months (4+ to 12 cycles). All responded to therapy with a median rise in hemoglobin of 1.8 g/dl at 2 months from initiation of induction with further improvement over time (figure 1). Re-induction was performed in 2 pts; both had an initial one year duration of response and both responded following re-treatment. Median duration of response is 3+ yrs (range 1–8+ yrs); the 8+ yr response was in pt 2 who received only induction therapy. Two pts have completed two years of maintenance therapy and remain in remission at 4 months and 2 years post, respectively. Cold agglutinin titers decreased by 4 fold in 2 patients, 1 fold in 1 pt and remained stable in 1. Despite the improvement in hgb in all pts, laboratory evidence of low grade hemolysis persisted in 4 pts. All pts were able to be tapered off steroids and all remain transfusion free. No unexpected adverse events were noted. Rituximab appears to be a well tolerated and effective therapy for cold agglutinin disease. The need for and length of maintenance therapy remains to be determined. Download : Download high-res image (26KB) Download : Download full-size image Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
A short survey of quantum computing

Quantum computing is closely related to 3-dimensional topological quantum field theory through its approach in topological quantum computation. The following are notes based on lectures given by the author at the Mathematics Department of George Washington University. The idea is to give a brief introduction and survey of a few basic facts of quantum computing to an audience of non-experts interested in taking a quick look at some of the most important concepts of quantum computing. The author is a topologist with strong interest in the general ideas of quantum computing. The notes touch on how quantum topology enters the field but emphasizes the general ideas of quantum computing in the first place.
Ndfip1 restricts Th17 cell potency by limiting lineage stability and proinflammatory cytokine production

While Th17 cells can protect against colonization by pathogenic organisms, they also have the potential to become pathogenic and promote autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Mechanisms that control their pathogenic potential remain poorly understood. Here we show that Ndfip1, a co-activator of the E3 ubiquitin ligase Itch, restricts the frequency and pathogenicity of Th17 cells. Mice lacking Ndfip1 have increased numbers of Th17 cells, and this increase is cell intrinsic. We found that Ndfip1 restricts production of the proinflammatory cytokines in Th17 cells. Increased cytokine production correlated with reduced degradation and accumulation of RORγT. When transferred in vivo, Th17 cells lacking Ndfip1 were more likely to maintain their ability to make IL-17, were more potent proinflammatory cytokine producers, and were powerful inducers of colitis. Together our data support an essential role for Ndfip1 in degrading RORγT and suppressing Th17 lineage stability, proinflammatory cytokine production, and pathogenicity.
Characterization of Drug-Related Problems Occurring in Patients Receiving Outpatient Antimicrobial Therapy:

Background:Despite the numerous benefits of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT), appreciable risks of drug-related problems (DRPs) exist. No studies to date comprehensively assess DR...
The Healthy Aging Research Network: Modeling Collaboration for Community Impact

As the first Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Prevention Research Centers Program thematic network, the Healthy Aging Research Network was established to better understand the determinants of healthy aging within older adult populations, identify interventions that promote healthy aging, and assist in translating research into sustainable community-based programs throughout the nation. To achieve these goals requires concerted efforts of a collaborative network of academic, community, and public health organizational partnerships. For the 2001-2014 Prevention Research Center funding cycles, the Healthy Aging Research Network conducted prevention research and promoted the wide use of practices known to foster optimal health. Organized around components necessary for successful collaborations (i.e., governance and infrastructure, shaping focus, community involvement, and evaluation and improvement), this commentary highlights exemplars that demonstrate the Healthy Aging Research Network's unique contributions to the field. The Healthy Aging Research Network's collaboration provided a means to collectively build capacity for practice and policy, reduce fragmentation and duplication in health promotion and aging research efforts, maximize the efficient use of existing resources and generate additional resources, and ultimately, create synergies for advancing the healthy aging agenda. This collaborative model was built upon a backbone organization (coordinating center); setting of common agendas and mutually reinforcing activities; and continuous communications. Given its successes, the Healthy Aging Research Network model could be used to create new and evaluate existing thematic networks to guide the translation of research into policy and practice.
Brand Medications and Medicare Part D: How Eye Care Providers' Prescribing Patterns Influence Costs

Purpose To quantify costs of eye care providers' Medicare Part D prescribing patterns for ophthalmic medications and to estimate the potential savings of generic or therapeutic drug substitutions and price negotiation. Design Retrospective cross-sectional study. Participants Eye care providers prescribing medications through Medicare Part D in 2013. Methods Medicare Part D 2013 prescriber public use file and summary file were used to calculate medication costs by physician specialty and drug. Savings from generic or therapeutic drug substitutions were estimated for brand drugs. The potential savings from price negotiation was estimated using drug prices negotiated by the United States Veterans Administration (USVA). Main Outcome Measures Total cost of brand and generic medications prescribed by eye care providers. Results Eye care providers accounted for $2.4 billion in total Medicare part D prescription drug costs and generated the highest percentage of brand name medication claims compared with all other providers. Brand medications accounted for a significantly higher proportion of monthly supplies by volume, and therefore, also by total cost for eye care providers compared with all other providers (38% vs. 23% by volume, P P Conclusions Eye care providers prescribe more brand medications by volume than any other provider group. Efforts to reduce prescription expenditures by eye care providers should focus on increasing the use of generic medications, primarily through therapeutic substitutions. Policy changes enabling Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices could decrease costs to Medicare.
From biomedical imaging to urban data mining: Theory of signal representations

This paper presents the author's personal path through the signal representations of the past three decades, from the early days and excitement that surrounded the advent of wavelets and associated multiresolution representations, to the present day foray into graph signal processing and data mining. It is a tribute to Dr. John Cozzens of the NSF and his vision and support for the development of the field.
Non-DNA Methods for Biological Signatures

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the methods that can determine chemical or structural features of biological agent particles that are signatures of particular methods of growth and post-growth processing (often referred to as “weaponization”). The detection of these signatures in a sample of a bio-weapon (BW) agent can aid the attribution by indicating: (1) the level of sophistication of the producer, (2) the access to particular types of agent weaponization information, (3) the likelihood that the material could be or has been produced at a significant scale, (4) and by providing essential sample matching data for ascertaining a putative relationship with other samples obtained in other venues. An example of the use of biologicals in forensic science is DNA, amplied by the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique, legally admissible in courtas evidence. DNA evidence is successfully used in the court to convict or clear people of crimes because each person's DNA is unique. High-resolution techniques are being applied to investigations; such as Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) is used for taking high-resolution images under hydrated conditions; this avoids any artifacts associated with the critical point drying process that is required under normal Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) operations. ESEM is also equipped with Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) microanalysis and Backscatter capabilities. SEM is a standard “workhorse” technique for characterizing particulate samples, found in many laboratories worldwide. It provides excellent imaging of the surfaces of agent particles and other material in a sample, and is used for identifying likely agent particles for analysis by other instruments. When combined with EDX, the elemental composition of the material in the imaged region can be determined. These techniques continue to signature libraries of correlations between analyses and growth and processing conditions of growth, it will be necessary to develop an information system which combines types of data to determine unique signatures.
Bison Ecology In The Northern Plains And A Reconstruction Of Bison Patterns For The North Dakota Region

In this paper two models of bison ecology for the Northern Plains are critically appraised for potential use in the North Dakota region. On the basis of ecological studies of modern bison and histo...
Description of human AAA by cytokine and immune cell aberrations compared to risk-factor matched controls.

Abstract Background The pathogenesis driving the formation of abdominal aortic aneurysms continues to be poorly understood. Therefore, we systemically define the cytokine and circulating immune cell environment observed in human abdominal aortic aneurysm compared with risk-factor matched controls. Methods From 2015 to 2017, a total of 274 patients donated blood to the Indiana University Center for Aortic Disease. Absolute concentrations of circulating cytokines were determined, using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays while the expression of circulating immune cell phenotypes were assayed via flow cytometric analysis. Results Human abdominal aortic aneurysm is characterized by a significant depletion of the antigen-specific, CD4+ Tr1 regulatory lymphocyte that corresponds to an upregulation of the antigen-specific, inflammatory Th17 cell. We found no differences in the incidence of Treg, B10, and myeloid-derived suppressor regulatory cells. Similarly, no disparities were noted in the following inflammatory cytokines: IL-1β, C-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor α, interferon γ, and IL-23. However, significant upregulation of the inflammatory cytokines osteopontin, IL-6, and IL-17 were noted. Additionally, no changes were observed in the regulatory cytokines IL-2, IL-4, IL-13, TNF-stimulated gene 6 protein, and prostaglandin E2, but we did observe a significant decrease in the essential regulatory cytokine IL-10. Conclusion In this investigation, we systematically characterize the abdominal aortic aneurysm–immune environment and present preliminary evidence that faulty immune regulation may also contribute to aneurysm formation and growth.
Medication Administration By Family Members of Dependent Elders In Shared Care Arrangements

Twenty-three long-term care family caregivers whose care-recipients were enrolled in adult day care programs participated in face-to-face, semistructured interviews designed to learn more about their medication administration experiences. Two distinct styles of decision making were identified: self-directed and physician-directed. To help them with their medication administration responsibility, both groups used primary (physicians, pharmacists, or both) and secondary sources of information (the internet, information hotlines, nurses, more experienced caregivers, and family members with health backgrounds). Self-directed caregivers, who were significantly younger than the physician-directed caregivers, were twice as likely to report use of secondary sources of information to manage their medication administration tasks. Secondary sources of information appear to be important for the development of a caregiver's maturation and critical thinking skills over the long term and need more attention from formal providers in shared care relationships with family caregivers.
STATISTICAL COMBINATION OF EXTREME LOADS

As most loads on buildings and structures are stochastic in nature, an analytical method for studying load combination is presented in which the loads are treated as random processes. Factors considered include load occurrence rate, intensity variation, duration of each occurrence, and simultaneous occurrence of different loads. The probability distribution of the maximum combined load effect over a given time interval is derived and the distribution parameters as functions of the first two moments and the occurrence rate of individual loads are also obtained in close form. Numerical examples are given and the results are compared satisfactorily with Monte-Carlo simulation. The reduction factors for load combination as given in current building codes are examined and their inadequacy pointed out.
Reductive Geoodular Spaces

9.1. Definition. A partial injection ϕ: M →M is said to be a partial automorphism of a left odular space M = 〈M, L, (ωt)t∈ℝ〉 if ϕ L(x, a, y) = L(ϕx, ϕa, ϕy),ϕωt(x, y) = ωt (ϕx, ϕy) (whenever the left and right sides make sense). We say that ϕ is a local (global) automorphism of a Cr, k-smooth left odular space M if ϕ is a partial automorphism of M which is a local (global) Cr-diffeomorphism. the definition in the case of a left diodular space is analogous
An efficient framework for the inelastic performance assessment of structural systems subject to stochastic wind loads

Abstract The modeling and estimation of the inelastic response of wind excited structures is attracting growing interest with the introduction of performance-based wind engineering. While frameworks based on direct integration have been widely adopted in earthquake engineering for estimating inelastic responses, the significantly longer duration of typical windstorms, as compared to seismic events, makes this approach extremely computationally challenging in the case of wind excited systems. This is especially true in the case of modern performance-based wind engineering frameworks, which are based on probabilistic metrics estimated through simulation and therefore repeated evaluation of the system. This paper addresses this challenge through the development of a simulation framework based on dynamic shakedown theory. In particular, an efficient path-following algorithm is proposed for estimating not only the shakedown multipliers, but also the plastic strains and deformations associated with occurrence of the state of shakedown. The efficiency with which this information can be estimated for any given wind load time history enables the development of a simulation-based framework, driven by general stochastic wind load models, for the estimation of the system-level inelastic performance of the structure. The validity and practicality of the proposed framework is illustrated on a large-scale case study.
Lemming Population Dynamics

Lemmings with their wild population cycles seem similar to Voles in the previous chapter. However there are clearly two types of Lemmings. Type 1 reproduces rapidly and migrates in response to overcrowding. Type 2 has a lower reproductive capacity but is less sensitive to high population densities. We model both interacting types. Can the population cycles of Lemmings be simulated accurately? In this chapter, we attend to this question.
Convergence and Conflation in Online Copyright

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) is showing its age. Enacted in 1998, the DMCA succeeded in its initial goal of bringing clarity to wildly inconsistent judicial standards for online copyright infringement. But as time has passed, the Act has been overtaken—not by developments in technology, but by developments in copyright’s case law. Those cases are no longer as divergent as they were in the last millennium. Instead, over time the judicial standards and the statutory standards have converged, to the point where the differences between them are few. The statute whose ascendance was once central to the governance of copyright online is therefore now diminished in importance. At first glance, this development seems unproblematic. After all, uniformity was the DMCA’s goal, and convergence gets us closer to it. But a deeper look reveals that convergence has significantly changed the cost/benefit calculus for those whom the Act governs. The benefits of complying with the Act’s regulatory requirements have decreased, because convergence means that one can ignore the statute and rely solely on the case law. And the costs of complying have increased, because convergence has paradoxically given rise to a new, troubling phenomenon: the mixing and matching of statutory and judicial standards in unpredictable and counterproductive ways, which create new, unintended forms of copyright liability and immunity. In short, convergence has led to conflation, which means that the best course for today’s online community is to steer clear of the DMCA altogether.
Ideal timing of early cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis: An ACS-NSQIP review.

Abstract Background Current guidelines fail to specify optimal timing of early cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis. We hypothesized delaying operation past hospital day (HD) 2 would result in increased 30-day morbidity and mortality. Methods The ACS-NSQIP database was queried from 2012 to 2015 for all cholecystectomies for acute cholecystitis from HD 1-7. Results Delay in cholecystectomy to HD 3-7 was observed in 30% of patients with acute cholecystitis. Patients undergoing operation on HD 3-7 were older with higher rates of comorbidities (median 58yrs; 66%) than HD 1 (48yrs; 51%) or HD 2 (51yrs, p Conclusions Acute cholecystitis should be treated with an urgent operation within 2 days of admission due to increased morbidity and mortality when delayed past HD 2.
Virtual reality during pediatric vascular access: A pragmatic, prospective randomized, controlled trial

Background Vascular access is a minor procedure that is associated with reported pain and fear in pediatric patients, often resulting in procedural incompliance. Virtual reality has been shown to be effective in adult populations for reducing pain and anxiety in various medical settings, although large studies are lacking in pediatrics. Aims The primary aim was to determine whether pain would be reduced in pediatric patients using virtual reality undergoing vascular access. The four secondary aims measured patient fear, procedural compliance, satisfaction, and adverse events. Methods A prospective, randomized, controlled trial was completed at a pediatric hospital, enrolling children 7-18 years old undergoing vascular access in a variety of clinical settings, randomized to virtual reality or standard of care. Pain scores were measured using a numeric pain faces scale. The secondary outcomes of patient fear, procedural compliance, satisfaction, and adverse events were measured with the Child Fear Scale, modified Induction Compliance Checklist, and satisfaction surveys, respectively. Chi-squared, t tests, and regression models were used to analyze the results. Results The analysis included 106 patients in the virtual reality group and 114 in the control. There were no significant differences in postprocedure pain (VR group estimated 0.11 points lower, 95% confidence interval: 0.50 points lower to 0.28 points greater, P = .59), postprocedure fear (VR group estimated 0.05 points lower, 95% confidence interval: 0.23 points lower to 0.13 points greater), or compliance (adjusted odds ratio 2.31, 95% confidence interval: 0.96-5.56). Children in the virtual reality group were satisfied with the intervention. There were no adverse events. Conclusion This study demonstrates no reduction in pain while using Virtual reality (VR) across a heterogeneous pediatric inpatient population undergoing vascular access.
Christians, Muslims and Mary: A History: by Rita George-Tvrtković, New York, Paulist Press, 2018, 272 pp., $27.95 (paperback), ISBN-10: 0809153289

Scholarly attention has recently been paid to the idea of Abraham as an interfaith figure, such as in Jon Levenson's Inheriting Abraham (2012) and Carol Bakhos's The Family of Abraham (2014). Now R...
Prothrombin Time, Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time, and Fibrinogen Reference Intervals for Inbred Strain 13/N Guinea Pigs ( Cavia porcellus) and Validation of Low Volume Sample Analysis

Inbred strain 13/N guinea pigs are used as small animal models for the study of hemorrhagic fever viruses. Coagulation abnormalities, including prolonged clotting times and bleeding, are characteristic of hemorrhagic fever in humans; patients often meet criteria for disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). Comprehensively evaluating coagulation function is critical in model development and studies of viral pathogenesis and therapeutic efficacy. Here, using the VetScan VSpro veterinary point-of-care platform, we developed reference intervals in both juvenile and adult strain 13/N guinea pigs for three coagulation parameters: prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and fibrinogen. In addition, for situations or species with limited availability of blood for clinical analysis, we investigated the validity of a modified collection approach for low-volume (0.1 mL) blood sample analysis of PT and aPTT.
Disease-modifying treatment of chemical threat agent-induced acute lung injury

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a highly morbid lung pathology induced by exposure to chemical warfare agents, including vesicants, phosgene, chlorine, and ricin. In this review, we describe the pathology associated with the development of ARDS in humans and experimental models of acute lung injury following animal exposure to these high-priority threat agents. Potential future approaches to disease-modifying treatment used in preclinical animal studies, including antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, biologics, and mesenchymal stem cells, are also described. As respiratory pathologies, including ARDS, are the major cause of morbidity and mortality following exposure to chemical threat agents, understanding mechanisms of disease pathogenesis is key to the development of efficacious therapeutics beyond the primary intervention principle, which remains mechanical ventilation.
WillowTree: Project Driven with a Product Mindset

WillowTree began as a small digital products company in 2007. By 2020, it had more than 500 full-time team members operating out of offices in four locations, and it had launched hundreds of digital products, including mobile apps, websites, voice assistants, and TV experiences. But also in 2020, WillowTree was facing the most significant challenge in its 12 years of corporate existence—a global pandemic.By analyzing how WillowTree blends project and product management, students will gain insights into how a digital products services company integrates a product mindset within contract-based projects, and get the opportunity to brainstorm how WillowTree can further adapt to provide a unique value proposition during the pandemic and beyond. Excerpt UVA-S-0338 Oct. 2, 2020 WillowTree: Project Driven with a Product Mindset Introduction WillowTree began as a small digital products start-up company based in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2007. By 2020, WillowTree's more than 500 full-time team members had launched hundreds of digital products, including mobile apps, websites, voice assistants, and TV experiences. As WillowTree's website stated: We are driven by a simple goal: amaze our clients by delivering high quality digital products that solve their business needs, and ensuring our projects run smoothly, strategically and predictably. We not only create great products, we help our clients answer the strategic questions around what to build, and in what order. . . .
LncRNA DLEU2 regulates Sirtuins and mitochondrial respiratory chain complex IV: a novel pathway in obesity and DOHaD

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dysregulated in cancer but are mostly unknown for roles in metabolic regulation. Sirtuins, an epigenetic modulator class, regulate metabolic pathways. However, how sirtuins are regulated via lncRNA is unknown. In our findings, DLEU2, a lncRNA involved in primarily blood cancers, and sirtuins were both significantly decreased in the livers of high-fat high-fructose diet (HFD-HF) fed male mouse offspring (F1) whose mothers (F0) were either fed chow diet or HFD-HF during reproductive and pregnancy windows. Confirming this connection, upon silencing DLEU2, transcription levels of SIRT1 through 6 and translational levels of SIRT1, 3, 5, and 6 were significantly downregulated. Knockdown of DLEU2 also significantly decreased the protein level of cytochrome-c oxidase (complex IV, MTCO1) without altering other mitochondrial complexes, leading to increased reactive oxygen species production. Interestingly, in F1 livers, the protein level of MTCO1 was also significantly decreased under an HFD-HF diet or even under chow diet if the mother was exposed to HFD-HF. Our findings therefore reveal for the first time that a lncRNA can regulate sirtuins and a specific mitochondrial complex, furthermore suggesting a potential role of DLEU2 in metabolic disorders over one or more generations. HIGHLIGHTSMaternal diet can modulate hepatic lncRNA DLEU2 and its downstream regulators in offspring DLEU2 is required for specific sirtuin regulation and mitochondrial respiration chain complex IV expression Offspring liver depleted of DLEU2 show decreased mitochondrial respiration chain complex IV and specific sirtuins at transcriptional and translational levels
Boundary integral formulation of the standard eigenvalue problem for the 2-D Helmholtz equation

Abstract In this paper, a boundary integral formulation is presented for obtaining the standard eigenvalue problem for the two-dimensional (2-D) Helmholtz equation. The formulation is derived by using the series expansions of zero-order Bessel functions for the fundamental solution to the Helmholtz equation. The proposed approach leads to a series of new fundamental functions which are independent of the wave number k of the Helmholtz equation. The coefficient matrix of the resulting homogeneous system of boundary element equations is of the form of a polynomial matrix in k which allows a much faster search for the eigenvalues by scanning k over an interval of interest or the standard eigenvalue problem to be formulated for directly solving for the eigenvalues without resort to iterative methods. The proposed technique was used to solve some known problems with available analytical solutions: 2-D domains with circular and rectangular geometries under Dirichlet and/or Neumann boundary conditions. The outcomes demonstrate that the proposed approach is computationally efficient and highly accurate.
The Limits of Federal Judicial Power over the State: The Eleventh Amendment and Pennhurst II

and absolute requirement, the discretionary exercise of pendent jurisdiction may serve all of these goals. The exercise of pendent jurisdiction is, as the Court correctly points out, 374 decided with reference to the principles of state immunity on each issue. Those principles of state sovereign immunity ought not, however, amount to an absolute, unconditional bar. Decided with reference to whether the state did extend its immunity to cover the official's actions, and whether the state may so extend its immunity, the discretionary exercise of pendent jurisdiction may avoid unnecessary constitutional decisions, and serve the goals of efficiency and fairness to litigants.
Cooperation of decision-theoretic agents in the context of multi-agent systems

Multi-agent based solutions to problems, whether they are software agents or physical robots, are attractive because they are robust and scalable. Fundamental aspects of designing multi-agent systems involve modeling the intelligence of the agents and modeling their interactions. The intelligences of agents modeled here are encoded in Bayesian representations of their world. The agents interact only by observing others and moving in such a way so as to probabilistically maximize their internalized goal or utility. Using this multi-agent framework, a three agent herding is explored.
Design fatigue curves based on small crack growth and crack closure

TThe propagation behavior of short cracks cannot be studied by linear elastic methods because of the large plastic region near the crack tip, as well as a break down in correlation of the stress intensity factor with the fatigue crack growth rates. The proposed fatigue design approach incorporates a distance parameter in conjunction with linear elastic fracture mechanics and effectively integrates long and short crack growth test data. This distance parameter is a material constant, which allows for the effects of (a) large-scale plasticity, (b) crack closure, and (c) fatigue crack threshold. Furthermore, this parameter successfully predicts fatigue crack growth behavior of short cracks. The practical application of this method is for studying fatigue crack initiation in pressure vessels and is based on the concept that initiation occurs only when the material ahead of the crack tip is damaged enough by cyclic straining. In this paper, the initiation and growth of small cracks have been investigated along with consideration for crack closure. These results provide the design fatigue curves for some typical structural materials and lead to realistic estimates of fatigue lives for materials used in pressure vessels. The techniques outlined in this paper are equally applicable to materials used in aerospace and automotive industries.
Paneth cells in Barrett's esophagus

Abstract Paneth cells were identified in esophageal biopsies from 4 patients with Barrett's epithelium of the specialized columnar type. These cells were identical to human intestinal Paneth cells by light microscopy, electron microscopy, and histochemical staining reactions. Retrospective review of biopsies from 8 additional cases with esophageal specialized columnar epithelium yielded 2 further cases with Paneth cells. The presence of Paneth cells, along with goblet cells, suggests that specialized columnar type epithelium in the esophagus may be a form of highly differentiated intestinalization.
A study of syllabic stress in some English words as produced by deaf and normally hearing speakers.

The aim of this investigation was to compare the syllable stress production of deaf and normally hearing speakers. Ten orally-trained deaf speakers and forty normally hearing speakers recorded six pairs of bisyllabic words which were either nouns or verb-adjectives depending upon the placement of primary stress. Syllabic differences in intensity, duration, and fundamental frequency were measured. In addition, a panel of expert listeners made judgments on which syllable had been given primary stress. Most (81%) of the words spoken by the hearing subjects were correctly judged , regarding the placement of primary stress, while relatively few (20%) of the words spoken by the deaf were judged correctly. Usually, greater intensity, longer duration, and higher fundamental frequency characterized the correctly identified primary syllable stress produced by both the hearing and the deaf subjects. However, in some instances all three acoustic cues were not necessary for the correct recognition of primary stress. H...