cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Relationship between vertical facial patterns and dental arch form in class II malocclusion

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between dental arch form and the vertical facial pattern determined by the angle between the mandibular plane and the anterior cranial base (Sella-nasion/mandibular plane angle (SN-MP)) in skeletal class II untreated patients. A sample of 73 Caucasians patients with untreated skeletal class II in permanent dentition was divided into three groups according to the values of the angle SN-MP. An evaluation of the arch form was performed by angular and linear relation values on each patient. Regression analysis was used to determine the statistical significance of the relationships between SN-MP angle and dental arch form. The differences among the three groups were analyzed for significance using a variance analysis. A decrease of the upper arch transversal diameters in high SN-MP angle patients and an increase in low angle SN-MP ones (P < 0.05) were shown. Result analysis showed a change in upper arch shape, with a smaller intercanine width in patients with high SN-MP angle and a greater one in low angle patients. As SN-MP angle increased, the upper arch form tended to be narrower. No statistically significant difference in mandibular arch form among the three groups was found, except the angle value related to incisors position. The results showed the association between the upper dental arch form and the vertical facial pattern. On the contrary, the lower arch form was not related to the mandibular divergence.
Robust diagnosis and fault-tolerant control of uncertain distributed processes with limited measurements

This work develops a robust fault detection and isolation (FDI) and fault-tolerant control (FTC) structure for distributed processes modeled by nonlinear parabolic PDEs with control constraints, time-varying uncertain variables and a finite number of output measurements with limited accuracy. To facilitate the controller synthesis and fault diagnosis tasks, a finite-dimensional system that approximates the dominant dynamic modes of the PDE is initially derived and transformed to a form where each dominant mode is excited directly by only one actuator. A robustly stabilizing bounded output feedback controller is then designed for each dominant mode. The controller synthesis procedure facilitates the derivation of (1) an explicit characterization of the fault-free behavior of each mode in terms of a time-varying bound on the dissipation rate of the corresponding Lyapunov function which accounts for the uncertainty and measurement errors, and (2) an explicit characterization of the robust stability region where constraint satisfaction and robustness with respect to uncertainty and measurement errors are guaranteed. Using the fault-free Lyapunov dissipation bounds as thresholds for FDI, the detection and isolation of faults in a given actuator is accomplished by monitoring the evolution of the dominant modes within the corresponding stability region and declaring a fault when the threshold is exceeded. Robustness of the FDI scheme to measurement errors is ensured by confining the FDI region to an appropriate subset of the stability region, and enlarging the FDI thresholds appropriately. It is shown that these safeguards can be tuned by appropriate selection of the sensor configuration. Finally, the implementation of the FTC architecture on the infinite-dimensional system is discussed and the proposed methodology is demonstrated using a diffusion-reaction process example.
Isolation and Cloning of Four Subunits of a Fission Yeast TFIIIC Complex That Includes an Ortholog of the Human Regulatory Protein TFIIICβ

Eukaryotic tRNA genes are controlled by proximal and downstream elements that direct transcription by RNA polymerase (pol) III. Transcription factors (TFs) that reside near the initiation site are related in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and humans, while those that reside at or downstream of the B box share no recognizable sequence relatedness. Human TFIIICbeta is a transcriptional regulator that exhibits no homology to S. cerevisiae sequences on its own. We cloned an essential Schizosaccharomyces pombe gene that encodes a protein, Sfc6p, with homology to the S. cerevisiae TFIIIC subunit, TFC6p, that extends to human TFIIICbeta. We also isolated and cloned S. pombe homologs of three other TFIIIC subunits, Sfc3p, Sfc4p, and Sfc1p, the latter two of which are conserved from S. cerevisiae to humans, while the former shares homology with the S. cerevisiae B box-binding homolog only. Sfc6p is a component of a sequence-specific DNA-binding complex that also contains the B box-binding homolog, Sfc3p. Immunoprecipitation of Sfc3p further revealed that Sfc1p, Sfc3p, Sfc4p, and Sfc6p are associated in vivo and that the isolated Sfc3p complex is active for pol III-mediated transcription of a S. pombe tRNA gene in vitro. These results establish a link between the downstream pol III TFs in yeast and humans.
Thin-oxide damage from gate charging during plasma processing

The plasma-induced charge damage to small gate gate MOS capacitors is investigated by using 'antenna' structures. After an O/sub 2/ plasma step the interface state density increases with increasing antenna area and varies by two orders of magnitude. A hole trapping-induced breakdown mechanism during plasma charging is supported by experimental evidence which includes annealing and polarity effects for charge to breakdown and tunneling currents. In addition, oxide susceptibility is shown to depend on oxide growth conditions and is predictable by negative bias-temperature aging. >
Permeability Measurements of Amorphous Coatings Prepared with Fine Magnetic Particles

Amorphous or granular magnetic coatings formed with magnetic particles have high resistivities, which are desirable to reduce the eddy current t losses greatly. However, since magnetic particles are separated from one another, the permeabilities of magnetic coatings tend to be low, and obtaining accurate permeability spectra can be not so trivial. The measured relative permeability of FeSiB coating at 30 MHz was 21.5, while the expected value based on 4piMs and Hk values was 5.4. The modifications in calibration procedure allow more accurate measurement of permeability of magnetic films with intermediate or low permeability and hence enable the permeameter to cover the wider range of the permeability values.
Multimerization of Solution-State Proteins by Anionic Porphyrins

Protein-protein interactions and formation of multi-subunit protein complexes remain among the most challenging areas of modern Biophysics. Recently, surface binding and interactions of anionic porphyins with cationic proteins gained a lot of attention as relevant models for protein surface molecular recognition and photoinitiated electron transfer. However, interpretation of data in nearly all reports explicitly or implicitly assumed interaction of porphyrin with monodisperse proteins in solutions. Here, using small-angle X-ray scattering with solution phase samples, we demonstrate that horse heart cytochrome (cyt) c, triheme cytochrome c7 PpcA from Geobacter sulfurreducens, and hen egg lysozyme multimerize in the presence of several water-soluble porphyrins. Multimerization of cyt c induced by tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin showed a pH dependence with a stronger apparent binding affinity under alkaline conditions and was weakened in the presence of a high salt concentration. Ferric-cyt c formed complexes larger than those formed by ferro-cyt c. Free base TPPS and FeTPPS facilitated formation of complexes larger than those of ZnTPPS. A number of carboxylated porphyrins induced multimer formation as well. No increase in protein aggregation state for cationic proteins was observed in the presence of cationic porphyrins or sulfonated anthraquinone. All-atom molecular dynamics simulations of cyt c and PpcA with free base TPPS corroborated X-ray scattering results and revealed a mechanism by which the tetrasubstituted charged porphyrins serve as bridging ligands nucleating multimerization of the complementarily charged protein. The final aggregation products suggest that multimerization involves a combination of electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions. The results demonstrate an overlooked complexity in the design of multifunctional ligands for protein surface recognition.
Polar heterostructure for multifunction devices: theoretical studies

We examine the potential of devices based on heterostructures made from highly polar materials and semiconductors. Our calculations show that such functional devices have superior sensor properties and transistor properties. The basis device examined is based on the use of a thin oxide with high piezoelectric coefficients or pyroelectric coefficients under the gate region. Channel charge and current are controlled by gate voltage, temperature, or stress. We examine the performance of three classes of heterostructures that form the basis of important semiconductor technologies: 1) Si-SiO/sub 2/-BaTiO/sub 3/ heterostructure junctions that would be an important breakthrough for silicon sensor technology; 2) GaN-AlN-BaTiO/sub 3/ heterostructure junctions that would be important especially in high temperature sensor application; and 3) GaAs-AlGaAs-BaTiO/sub 3/ heterostructure field effect transistors. The calculations show that with a very thin polar material layer we can have a highly sensitive sensor and transistor. For optimum performance, the polar material (piezoelectric or pyroelectric) layer thickness should be /spl sim/30 /spl Aring/.
Augmentation as affixation in Athabaskan languages

Athabaskan languages display a remarkable cross-language similarity, yet at the same time the languages of this family differ from each other in restricted ways. This unity and variety provide a useful laboratory for phonological and morphological research. In this paper, we suggest that a certain case of unity which has been analysed as phonologically and morphologically motivated requires a purely morphological analysis.The case in question is the well-known verbal disyllabic minimality requirement, which has been variously analysed as satisfaction of a disyllabic verb template (Slave; Rice 1990), satisfaction of a monosyllabic prefix-based portmanteau ‘stem’ (Navajo; McDonough 1990, 1996) or the result of stray consonant syllabification in the Minimal Word domain in verbs (Ahtna; Causley 1994). However, when data from other languages of the family are brought into the picture, a different, family-wide analysis suggests itself.
Quinol-Glutathione Conjugate-induced Mutation Spectra in the supF Gene Replicated in Human AD293 Cells and Bacterial MBL50 Cells

Hydroquinone is a nephrocarcinogen in rats but generally tests negative in standard mutagenicity assays. However, 2,3,5- tris -(glutathion- S -yl)hydroquinone, a potent nephrotoxic metabolite of hydroquinone, and 2-bromo- bis -(glutathion- S -yl)hydroquinone, another cytotoxic quinol-glutathione (GSH) conjugate, cause extensive single strand breaks in DNA in a manner that is dependent on the formation of reactive oxygen species. We, therefore, investigated whether quinol-GSH conjugates have the potential to behave as genotoxicants. The shuttle vector pSP189, containing the supF gene, was treated with 2,3,5- tris -(glutathion- S -yl)hydroquinone and replicated in both human AD293 cells and Escherichia coli MBL50 cells. The mutation frequency increased 4.6- and 2.6-fold in human AD293 and bacterial MBL50 cells, respectively. Base substitutions were the major type of mutations, and they occurred predominantly at G:C sites in both cell types. A high frequency of deletions (30%), including 10-bp deletions, were observed in AD293-replicated plasmids. The most common types of mutations in AD293 cells were G:C to A:T transitions (33.8%) and G:C to T:A (29.4%) and G:C to C:G (19.1%) transversions. In MBL50 cells, the major mutations were G:C to T:A (33.8%) and G:C to C:G (31.3%) transversions and G:C to A:T transitions (27.5%). The mutation spectra were similar to those reported for ·OH-induced mutations, suggesting that ·OH generated from polyphenolic-GSH conjugates not only plays a role in cytotoxicity but also provides a basis for their mutagenicity and carcinogenicity.
Reduction of vibration-induced artifacts in synthetic-aperture-radar imagery using the fractional fourier transform

In synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of objects exhibiting low-level vibrations are accompanied by localized artifacts, or ghost targets, caused by the micro-Doppler present in the returned SAR signals. Conventional Fourier-transform-based SAR processing techniques are not fit to remove ghosting effects prior to image formation due to the non-stationary nature of the returned signals from vibrating objects. Recently, a method based on the discrete fractional Fourier transform (DFrFT) has been developed for estimating the instantaneous vibration accelerations and vibrating frequencies from returned SAR signals. Here, a novel image de-ghosting algorithm for vibrating targets in SAR imagery is proposed by employing the DFrFT-based vibration-estimation algorithm. The proposed de-ghosting method is applied to SAR data collected by the Lynx SAR system. Experimental results show a substantial reduction in ghosting caused by a 1.5-cm amplitude, 0.8-Hz vibration present in a test target.
Securing space communication systems against reactive cognitive jammer

In this paper, we propose an anti-jamming game for space communication systems where a cognitive jammer reactively senses channels using energy detection and jams the channel using "detect and jam" strategy while the legitimate transmitter-receiver pair uses a joint frequency hopping and power/rate adaptation approach to avoid the impact of the jamming. Jamming and anti-jamming process between legitimate satellite link and a jammer is formulated as a zero-sum game. The proposed game takes into account of the signal propagation delay, detection performance (signal detection and jamming start time) of a jammer, received jamming power from the jammer, and hopping and jamming costs. Performance of the proposed approach is evaluated with the help of simulations and the proposed approach outperforms other existing methods.
The Spray Deposition of Transition Metal Nitride Thin Films Using Alcohol Based Precursor Solutions

A new alcohol solution based approach has been developed for preparing transition metal nitride thin films and coatings. In this technique, the metal of interest is dissolved as a chloride in acetonitrile, then chelated with triethanolamine to form a highly viscous solution which settles out of the solvent phase. The acetonitrile is then evaporated off and the remaining thick liquid precursor is easily diluted with water or methanol, yielding a semi-viscous liquid which can be used directly to coat various substrates. When heat treated under the appropriate conditions in ammonia, the precursor coating transforms to yield the corresponding nitride. This approach is currently being considered for preparing nitride-based thin film electrical components and has been successfully used thus far to spray deposit TaN and NbN nitride films onto silicon substrates. Results of the preliminary study on these two nitride films are discussed in this paper.
Transient disablement in the physically active with musculoskeletal injuries, part I: a descriptive model.

Abstract Context: Disablement theory has been characterized as the sequence of events that occurs after an injury, but little research has been conducted to establish how disablement is experienced...
Of Course and Courses

(1954). Of Course and Courses. The American Mathematical Monthly: Vol. 61, No. 3, pp. 151-157.
Uricase, Guanase, and Xanthine Oxidase from the Fat Body of the Cockroach, Leucophaea Maderae

Uricase was isolated from homogenates of the fat body of the nymph and adult cockroach, Leucophaea maderae, by the method of Praetorius (1949). Its activity is of the first-order with an average Michaelis constant of 1.7 × 105 moles per liter at a pH of 9.2. Guanase was isolated from the fat body by the method of Kalckar (1947) and its activity measured spectrophotometrically. Xanthine oxidase was found in homogenates of the nymph and adult cockroach. Nymphal homogenates demonstrated a higher ability to oxidize the oxypurines than those of the adult. Homogenates of both stages were more active with hypoxanthine than with xanthine as the substrate.
A Meta-Synthesis of Qualitative Findings About Dance/Movement Therapy for Individuals With Trauma

The therapeutic potential of using dance/movement therapy is being increasingly recognized. Preliminary interdisciplinary research findings suggest engaging the body in trauma treatment might reduce the length of treatment by addressing the connections among thoughts, feelings, neurobiology, and somatic responses in the survivor. Unfortunately, empirical research investigating its effectiveness as a psychotherapeutic intervention has been limited due to the lack of a clear manual for mental health care practitioners. The present study aims to synthesize findings from the existing qualitative literature in a qualitative meta-synthesis. Our findings will contribute to the development of a body-oriented intervention for mental health care practitioners to use for trauma.
Geographically weighted regression and multicollinearity: dispelling the myth

Geographically weighted regression (GWR) extends the familiar regression framework by estimating a set of parameters for any number of locations within a study area, rather than producing a single parameter estimate for each relationship specified in the model. Recent literature has suggested that GWR is highly susceptible to the effects of multicollinearity between explanatory variables and has proposed a series of local measures of multicollinearity as an indicator of potential problems. In this paper, we employ a controlled simulation to demonstrate that GWR is in fact very robust to the effects of multicollinearity. Consequently, the contention that GWR is highly susceptible to multicollinearity issues needs rethinking.
Prioritization of Process Improvement Using Risk Evaluation in the Manufacturing of Biologics

This paper considers how a biologics manufacturer took the lagging data expressed in nonconformance data to build a system of analysis towards prioritizing improvements in terms of risk management to facilitate meeting the challenges of a consent decree.
Capital Structure Theory: a Current Perspective

Finance scholars' approach to capital-structure issues reflects a progression of thought over time. This note provides an overview of the current state of capital-structure theory. One perspective on capital-structure choice is to view it as posing trade-offs among five elements: (1) the tax benefits of financing, (2) the explicit costs of financial distress, (3) the agency costs of debt (including an array of indirect costs linked to financial distress), (4) the agency costs of equity, and (5) the signaling effect of security issuance. The first two elements reflect the "modern, traditional" balancing theory of capital structure. The third and fourth build on agency theory and imperfect information and emphasize the individual incentives of decision makers. The fifth element recognizes that the very act of issuing a security can convey new information to investors when there is imperfect information. While newer theories provide a rich array of insights into aspects of financial policy beyond how much debt the firm should undertake, the downside is that at present there is no overarching synthesis of these theories. As a result, practical application requires careful identification of how these particular theories are relevant to the business, the markets, and the situation at hand. This note is well suited to an advanced corporate-finance course after students have been exposed to the basic theory.
Chasing red herrings: Memory of distractors causes fixation in creative problem solving.

Two experiments tested the red herring retrieval hypothesis, which states that fixation in creative problem solving is worse when memory for red herrings (i.e., inappropriate or incorrect solutions) is strengthened. In Experiment 1, when associations between Remote Associates Test (RAT) problem words (e.g., COTTAGE, SWISS, CAKE) and related red herring words (e.g., hut, chocolate, icing) were strengthened via repetition, an encoding variable, fixation was found to increase. In Experiment 2, when associations were formed between RAT problem contexts and red herrings, then subsequent reinstatement of problem contexts during RAT problem solving trials (as compared with showing new contexts) also worsened fixation effects. Our results add to the increasing body of research that connects memory with creative problem solving, and they suggest possible ways for overcoming fixation effects.
MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION IN HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS WITH CANCER

Patients with cancer have an elevated risk for arterial thromboembolism but the patterns of intervention in patients with cancer experiencing a myocardial infarction are unknown. Using the 2012 National Inpatient Survey (NIS) we identified 164,076 hospitalizations involving patients ≥ 18 years
Standardized Down-Looking Ground-Penetrating Radar (DLGPR) data collections

Down-looking ground penetrating radar (DLGPR) has been used extensively for buried target detection. Performance of a DLGPR is typically measured by calculating the probability of detection (PD) and the false alarm rate (FAR) against a target set in a particular soil type. Variability in target sets, including target construction, size, layout, and burial depth, make comparing performance of a DLGPR across test sites and soil compositions a challenge. This paper describes a recent effort to collect data against a standardized set of target types, layouts, and depths. The goal of this effort is to have data sets collected in a uniform manner at various test sites in Australia and Canada for more meaningful comparisons of DLGPR performance in a range of soil types. The data is to be used to improve algorithms for the automatic detection of targets. This paper will describe test planning and execution, and discuss high-level DLGPR results and ongoing analyses from the Australian data collection.
Metaphor and the automatic mind

When people produce or understand verbal metaphors, and metaphoric gestures, do they do so automatically or with conscious deliberation? Metaphor scholars widely recognize that the answer to this question depends on several factors, including the specific kind of metaphor that was produced or understood. But many scholars assume that the automatic use of metaphor involves the simple retrieval of its figurative meaning, without having to draw any cross-domain mappings. We argue that automaticity in behavior, such as when using verbal metaphors, actually involves many complex embodied and conceptual processes, even if these may operate quickly and without conscious attention. This article reviews the evidence for this claim, and considers other attempts to explore automaticity in metaphoric experiences, such as in 20th-century automatic writing practices. Our argument provides another set of reasons, from cognitive science research, to reject simplistic assumptions that automatic metaphor behavior is necessarily different in kind from more conscious metaphor use and understanding.
Some Problems of Reification in Existential Psychiatry: Conceptual and Practical Considerations

The problems connected with unintentional reification of the concept of alienation within sociology have been addressed by Israel, Feuer, Gouldner and McDermott. Feuer (1963), in a thoughtful analysis of the use of the concept, is led to the conclusion that while alienation (as a condition) is ubiquitous, attempts by sociologists to operationalize its various meanings have been largely unsuccessful. He adds that the preoccupation with the subject in sociology and other fields carries along an implicit presupposition — namely that the cultural., social., and economic systems which have produced widespread alienation are accepted as givens. Therefore, much of the research (and rhetoric) regarding alienation is directed at the identification and alleviation of symptoms, rather than at the basic sickness (in Feuer’s terms, the disease of Technicism and the need for ‘basic economic reconstruction’). He asks this interesting question: ‘Is “alienation”, however, a useful concept for analysis of these modes of human unhappi-ness and frustration? Is it more than a dramatic metaphor which for reasons peculiar to intellectuals’ experience has become their favorite root-metaphor for perceiving the social universe? Is it less, however, a tool for understanding than a projection of the psychology of intellectuals disenchanted with themselves?’ (Feuer, 1963, p. 138).
Geologic History, Hydrology, and Current Public Policy: The Case of Radionuclides and Water Quality in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale Region

The natural gas industry is a boon to the economy of the United States and will continue to expand in the following decades. Hydraulic fracturing (fracking), however, produces much waste and it must be determined how to dispose of unwanted byproducts of natural gas drilling, such as produced wastewater, solid scale, and oil. Radionuclides such as uranium were deposited in the Marcellus Shale millions of years ago and are now being returned to the surface in produced water from fracking. The presence of radionuclides creates a policy conflict between laws that protect public health and the economics of disposing of produced water. This case study will help readers understand how geologic history, hydrology, and present policy are intricately related in Pennsylvania. It will address possible methods for handling wastewater—storage, reuse, treatment, injection wells, and transport—and the degree to which state and federal policies protect drinking water from produced water. In addition, the Radium Girls factory case from California helps readers consider how the mode of exposure matters for the effects of human contact with radionuclides. Students of environmental policy will be better able to understand the linkages between policy and the physical sciences.
Breaking free: The implications of a polygamous background for adult education

Background and aimsMormon polygamy is sensationalized in mass media and practicing polygamists are portrayed as villains or victims, but little attention is paid to the women who leave polygamous s...
Long-Term Outcomes after Macular Hole Surgery.

Purpose To evaluate the structural and visual outcomes after pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) for idiopathic full-thickness macular hole (MH) with at least 5 years of follow-up information. Design Retrospective case series. Participants Patients with idiopathic MH who had at least 5 years of follow-up information after PPV. Methods Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was recorded preoperatively and, when available, at 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 10 years after surgery. Reestablishment of the postoperative integrity of the ellipsoid zone (EZ) and the external limiting membrane (ELM) and presence of cystoid spaces were evaluated using spectral-domain (SD) OCT. Main Outcome Measures Postoperative BCVA and its correlation with different SD OCT parameters. Results Eighty-seven eyes of 80 patients with a mean age at surgery of 68.9±7.03 years were included. The mean postoperative follow-up was 9.6±4.3 years (median, 9 years; range, 5–22 years). The mean preoperative BCVA was 0.20±0.14 (range, 0.03–0.66). Postoperative BCVA was improved at all time points compared with preoperative BCVA (P Conclusions Visual acuity improvement after MH surgery continued during the first 3 years after PPV and was maintained thereafter in a substantial fraction of patients, and final BCVA correlated with better preoperative BCVA and better postoperative OCT parameters.
Blue Ocean Shift: Evidence-Based Practice in the Professional Development of Teachers

With the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in the United States, teachers have been given new responsibilities tied to supporting student scholastic and behavioral needs. The recent implementation of ESSA has left educators with minimal professional development support options to acquire skills to support students under this Act. To meet the diverse professional needs of teachers, it is necessary to look toward new cost-effective methods for professional development that stretch beyond in-person trainings, and that will prepare teachers to support the scholastic and behavioral needs of all learners. The authors propose incorporating the Blue Ocean Shift (BOS) strategy to identify alternative methods for teacher development. BOS comes from the business setting and is a strategy used in market development. The authors apply BOS to education through exposing its applicability as an assessment process. This assessment process can support the identification and development of online teaching tools for supporting multi-tiered systems of supports (MTSS) coaches in their training of teachers for school improvement efforts. The authors analyze the current professional development options provided to teachers and evaluate the use of BOS to determine innovative practices that MTSS coaches can implement to develop teacher skills and promote student learning.
Electron Tunneling and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Studies of the Superconducting Properties of Nitrogen-Doped Niobium Resonator Cavities

We use scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS), and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to investigate the effect of nitrogen doping on the surface electronic and chemical structures of cutouts from superconducting $\mathrm{Nb}$ radio-frequency cavities. The goal of this work is to get insights into the fundamental physics and materials mechanisms behind the striking decrease of the surface resistance with the radio-frequency magnetic field, which has been observed on $N$-doped $\mathrm{Nb}$ cavities. Our XPS measurements reveal significantly more oxidized $\mathrm{Nb}$ $3d$ states and a thinner metallic suboxide layer on the $N$-doped $\mathrm{Nb}$ surfaces, which is also confirmed by tunneling spectroscopy measurements. In turn, tunneling measurements performed on native surfaces as well as on $\mathrm{Ar}$-ion sputtered surfaces allow us to separate the effect of $N$ doping on the surface-oxide layer from that on the density of states in the bulk. Analysis of our tunneling spectra in the framework of a model of a proximity-coupled normal layer at the surface [A. Gurevich and T. Kubo, Phys. Rev. B 96, 184515 (2017)] is consistent with the hypothesis that $N$-doping ameliorates lateral inhomogeneities of superconducting properties on the surface and shrinks the metallic suboxide layer. For the $\mathrm{Ar}$ sputtered surfaces, we also find evidence that $N$ doping changes the contact resistance between the metallic suboxide and the bulk niobium toward an optimum value corresponding to a minimum surface resistance. The totality of our experimental data suggests that the $N$ doping provides an effective tuning of the density of states in such a way that it can result in a decrease of the surface resistance with the radio-frequency field, as predicted by calculations of the nonlinear low-frequency electromagnetic response of dirty superconductors. Furthermore, STM imaging of vortex cores shows a slightly reduced average superconducting gap and a shorter coherence length in the $N$-doped $\mathrm{Nb}$ samples as compared to typically prepared $\mathrm{Nb}$ samples, indicating a stronger impurity scattering caused by nitrogen doping in a moderately disordered material.
Surviving a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

Being named in a medical malpractice case is one of the most stressful events in a physician's career. This article reviews the legal system and the medical malpractice process. It details the steps a physician experiences during a medical malpractice case, from being served to the deposition and then to trial and appeals if the physician loses. This article also reviews necessary steps to take in order to proactively participate in one's own defense.
Visible light photoredox-catalyzed hydrothiolation of enamides and enecarbamates

Abstract An efficient visible light photoredox-catalyzed, Markovnikov selective, hydrothiolation reaction of enamides and enecarbamates is presented. This protocol is mild and operationally simple. This process provides access to N,S-acetal products from available thiols and a variety of enamides and enecarbamates.
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Takeover Performance During Conditionally Automated Driving.

ObjectiveThe aim of this paper was to synthesize the experimental research on factors that affect takeover performance during conditionally automated driving.BackgroundFor conditionally automated d...
Point Pattern Estimators for Multi-Beam Lidar Scans

In this work, point pattern estimators are used to analyze the distribution of measurements from a multi-beam Lidar on a pitching platform. Multi-beam Lidars have high resolution in the horizontal plane, but poor vertical resolution. Placing the Lidar on a pitching base improves this resolution, but causes the distribution of measurements to be highly irregular. In this work, these measurement distributions are treated as point patterns and three estimators are used to quantity how measurements are spaced, which has implications in robotic detection of objects using Lidar sensors. These estimators are used to demonstrate how a pitching trajectory for the platform can be chosen to improve multiple performance criteria, such as increasing the likelihood of detection of an object, or adjusting how closely measurements should be spaced.
Number of opioid overdoses and depression as a predictor of suicidal thoughts.

Abstract Background Opioid use disorders are associated with increased risk of suicide thoughts, attempts, and death. We explored key variables from two theories of the development of suicidal thoughts and attempts (the interpersonal and three-step theories of suicide) to understand possible mechanisms underlying the association between opioid use and suicide risk. We hypothesized that interpersonal connections, variables reflecting psychological and physical pain, and variables that reduce fear of death (prior overdoses and risk-taking behaviors) would be associated with increased risk of thoughts of suicide. Methods Participants (N = 141) were opioid users recruited from an epicenter of the opioid crisis in Philadelphia using a mobile research center and completed an interview to assess substance use, depression, medical comorbidities, and suicidal thoughts among other variables. Results Univariate analyses showed that prior history of overdose, diagnosis of depression, older age, homelessness, and interpersonal connection were each associated with increased likelihood of endorsing thoughts of death/suicide. Multivariable analyses revealed prior history of overdose and depression were the variables most strongly associated with risk for thoughts of suicide. Conclusions Consistent with two theories of the development of suicidal thoughts and attempts, exposure to variables that reduce fear of death (e.g., overdoses) were associated with suicidal thoughts. In contrast, other risk-taking behaviors, medical comorbidities, and substance use were not key predictors of suicidal thoughts in this sample. Implications for targeted risk assessment among clinicians are discussed.
Efficient Reachability Set Generation and Storage Using Decision Diagrams

We present a new technique for the generation and storage of the reachability set of a Petri net. Our approach is inspired by previous work on Binary and Multi-valued Decision Diagrams but exploits a concept of locality for the effect of a transition's firing to vastly improve algorithmic performance. The result is a data structure and a set of manipulation routines that can be used to generate and store enormous sets extremely efficiently in terms of both memory and execution time.
Supporting science teacher thinking through curriculum materials

Teachers need high quality materials to support their work with students and promote teacher learning from classrooms beyond what would normally be the case. Such teacher educative materials would be designed to explicitly enhance teacher thinking in relationship to students and science in classroom contexts. Designing materials specifically for teacher learning, however, is an intriguing yet largely untested idea. In this study, one 7th grade teacher used five inquiry science units with varying amounts and types of educative features over a two year period. Written pre and post lesson teacher reflections, informal interviews, and daily classroom videotape were collected. Analysis focused on aspects of inquiry teaching that are challenging for teachers to learn and illustrate pedagogical content knowledge. Comparisons overtime and between lessons with different types and amounts of educative support in the materials were made. Analysis identified characteristics of materials that guide teacher thinking and support inquiry science teaching.
Applications of the Entity-Relationship Model

Database design is a very difficult problem. Recently, the Entity-Relationship Model has been found very useful in helping the database designer to identify the information needs of users, and to design logical data structures in databases. In this paper, an application of the Entity-Relationship Model to the design of an order entry database is presented. Applications of the Entity-Relationship Model to other areas (such as DBMS design, data semantics, and distributed databases) are also briefly discussed.
Truth Be Told: How College Students Evaluate and Use Information in the Digital Age

A report about college students and their information-seeking strategies and research difficulties, including findings from 8,353 survey respondents from college students on 25 campuses distributed across the U.S. in spring of 2010, as part of Project Information Literacy. Respondents reported taking little at face value and were frequent evaluators of Web and library sources used for course work, and to a lesser extent, of Web content for personal use. Most respondents turned to friends and family when asking for help with evaluating information for personal use and instructors when evaluating information for course research. Respondents reported using a repertoire of research techniques — mostly for writing papers — for completing one research assignment to the next, though few respondents reported using Web 2.0 applications for collaborating on assignments. Even though most respondents considered themselves adept at finding and evaluating information, especially when it was retrieved from the Web, students reported difficulties getting started with research assignments and determining the nature and scope of what was required of them. Overall, the findings suggest students use an information-seeking and research strategy driven by efficiency and predictability for managing and controlling all of the information available to them on college campuses, though conducting comprehensive research and learning something new is important to most, along with passing the course and the grade received. Recommendations are included for how campus-wide stakeholders — faculty, librarians, and higher education administrators — can work together to help inform pedagogies for a new century.
Structural fluctuations in aspartate transcarbamylase. Succinimide quenching and fluorescence depolarization of tryptophan and tyrosine residues.

Abstract The effects of binding of various effector ligands on the dynamics of aspartate transcarbamylase (ATCase, c 6 r 6 ) and on its regulatory (r 2 ) and catalytic (c 3 ) subunits were characterized by examining succinimide quenching of the intrinsic fluorescence, and by measurement of the lifetime-resolved anisotropies. The lifetimes of the tryptophan residues in c 3 and c 6 r 6 are about 1.7 ns while those of tyrosine residues in r 2 are 2.7 ns. These lifetimes are not significantly altered by the binding of various substrates, substrate analogs and nucleotides. The effects of ligand binding on the accessibility of both tyrosine and tryptophan residues to the quencher are modest in all cases, though the changes are in the same direction as seen using other physicochemical techniques such as hydrogen exchange (M. Lennick and N.M. Allewell, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 78 (1981) 6759). The tryptophan residues in both c 3 and c 6 r 6 are immobilized whereas the tyrosine residues of r 2 have some motional freedom. Ligands have no effect on the immobilized tryplophan residues in c 3 and c 6 r 6 , while binding of nucleotides to r 2 results in a small decrease in the motional freedom of the tyrosine residues. These results suggest that the protein matrix around the aromatic arnino acids in r 2 , c 3 and c 6 r 6 is rather rigid and that local effects of ligands on the dynamics of these residues, and that of the surrounding protein matrix, are minor. They are in general agreement with the results of the crystal structure determination (R.B. Honzatko et al., J. Mol. Biol. 160 (1982) 219).
Decoupled parallel recursive Newton-Euler algorithm for inverse dynamics

An efficient parallel implementation of the robot inverse dynamics based on the recursive Newton-Euler formulation is considered. The algorithm basically partitions the computations related to a manipulator link among separate processors, resulting in a parallel architecture in which the number of processors equals the number of degrees of freedom of the manipulator. This has considerably low inherent parallelism if the forward propagation of velocities and accelerations and the backward propagation of forces and torques are synchronized. Therefore, in order to maximize the parallelism, the synchronization is completely removed, leaving each processor on the most recent values of the propagated variables. Since the mathematical approach for error analysis is too complex and the simulation approach is incomplete and unreliable, the algorithm is investigated on a real, multiprocessor machine, KUMARAN. A series of experiments with the model of the PUMA 560 manipulator and randomly generated inputs has shown surprisingly small errors. Some improvements of the algorithm which do not impair the time efficiency but provide further reduction of the approximation error are presented. >
Natural Killer Activity of Human Lymphocytes Against Colon Cancer Cells

Abstract A human colon cancer cell line, HCT-8, is shown to be an appropriate target cell for study of natural killer (NK) activity in man. In parallel experiments, effector cell characteristics for NK and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) were found to be vested in a single lymphocyte subpopulation, which bore receptors for the Fc fragment of IgG, but lacked other surface receptors. The effector cell failed to adhere to glass and was inactivated by exposure to 3500 rod x-irradiation. Cells forming rosettes with SRBC and cells bearing receptors for complement were inactive in both systems. A wide distribution of NK activity was noted among individuals that correlated with the distribution of effector cell activity in ADCC (r = 0.8). Preincubation of NK effector cells with antibody-coated ADCC target cells markedly reduced NK activity. Neuraminidase treatment of effector cells led to increased NK and diminished ADCC, while trypsin treatment led to reduced NK activity and showed no effect on ADCC. Thus, NK and ADCC effector cells are highly overlapping if not identical populations, but different structures on the cell membrane may mediate the two activities.
Race and sex disparities in long-term survival of oral and oropharyngeal cancer in the United States.

To investigate the effect of race and sex on long-term survival of oral and oropharyngeal cancer. The Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database was queried for adult oral and oropharyngeal cancer patients with at least 25-year follow-up. Kaplan–Meier survival curves and cox proportional hazards model were used to identify differences. Of the 22,162 patients identified, 70.3 % were males. Only 8.9 % were alive at 25 years post-diagnosis. Black males show the poorest overall and disease-specific survival rates (p < 0.001). After controlling for covariates, Blacks had a 40 % higher hazard of mortality compared with Whites (HR 1.40, 95 % CI 1.35–1.46), while females had a 9 % reduction in mortality risk (HR 0.91, 95 % CI 0.88–0.94). Overall and disease-specific survival is poor for oral and oropharyngeal cancer patients, and Black men fare worst. This illustrates the need for long-term cancer survival plans incorporating disparity effects in overall cancer outcomes.
How many steps are enough to avoid severe physical inactivity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

While prognostically valuable, physical activity monitoring is not routinely performed for patients with COPD. We aimed to determine the number of daily steps associated with severe physical inactivity (physical activity level <1.40) in this population. We found that a daily step value <4580 is associated with severe physical inactivity. Our results are of significant value for clinicians counselling patients with COPD to help avoid the morbidity of severe physical inactivity.
Isolation of a germ-tube-forming revertant from Candida albicans B311V6.

We describe and partially characterize the isolation of a germ-tube-positive revertant from Candida albicans B311V6. This revertant has all of the properties of a germ-tube-forming strain of C. albicans except that it appears to have a nutrition defect. Images
Village Empowerment: Service-learning with Continuity

Since 1998, as part of the Village Empowerment Program, a total of 119 students/volunteers from University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) and several other universities in engineering and other fields have traveled twice a year to the same network of villages in Peru. Students in service-learning projects in more than 25 different courses have designed and helped install over 80 systems, most running on renewable energy, in 44 villages and towns in the Andes Mountains of Peru for medical clinics, schools, and town halls. The villages in general have no grid electricity, one pay telephone (or none) per village, no space heating, houses made of adobe, and elevations up to 3600 m (11,500 ft.). The indigenous Quechua, or Inca, people in the villages survive on subsistence agriculture. The systems power transceiver radios, lights, computers, vaccine refrigerators, and other medical equipment in clinics as well as laptop computers and lights in schools, mostly utilizing solar energy. Water supply and purification systems for whole towns have been added as well as micro hydro and biogas. To help make all these systems sustainable, we return every six months to the same two networks of villages. We are also helping to start microenterprises of aquaculture, of manufacturing and renting solar lanterns and LED headlamps, of biodigesters, and of developing and manufacturing solar water purification bottles coated with a photo catalyst with a dye indicator. The program has transformed the lives not only of many of the villagers but also of the students and volunteers. Some of the students have changed their life-long professional goals as a result. Many medical personnel have told us repeatedly that our radios have saved many lives. The long term vision is to have a whole university partner with networks of villages to address the many community needs and the learning needs of students in many disciplines in a sustainable way. There is a danger in the apparent popularity in students participating in service projects in developing countries involving “one-shot” designs and installations in which there is no sustained involvement for training, maintenance, and replacement. The importance of continual training of local personnel, of periodic maintenance and adjustment, of learning and redesigning from operating experience cannot be overemphasized.